July 6, 2020

#Agency 14: Content Paralysis: What It Is & How to Avoid It w/ Xenia Muntean

In this featured episode, Sharon Toerek chats with Xenia Muntean, Co-Founder and CEO of Planable.

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Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:09.269 Hey everyone, logan with sweet fish here. As you may already know, 2 00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:14.109 we've had the HASHTAG agency series running for a while now here on bb growth. 3 00:00:14.830 --> 00:00:18.710 Over the next several weeks you'll be able to listen in to select episodes 4 00:00:19.030 --> 00:00:24.620 of the Innovative Agency, hosted by Sharon Tork as she leads conversations with agency 5 00:00:24.660 --> 00:00:28.940 leaders about how their teams are staying on the cutting edge of marketing trends, 6 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:33.380 how they're adapting their businesses to meet new challenges and a whole lot more. 7 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:40.130 All right, let's get into the episode. Welcome everybody back to another episode 8 00:00:40.329 --> 00:00:44.250 of the Innovative Agency. Great to be with you here again. Today it's 9 00:00:44.250 --> 00:00:51.039 share and Tork and as we cruise towards the calendar end of two thousand and 10 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:56.000 nineteen, as I sit here, I definitely have content marketing on my mind 11 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:00.240 because I know we are, certainly at my firm, working on our year 12 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:03.280 end business planning for two thousand and twenty, and that includes marketing planning and, 13 00:01:04.590 --> 00:01:08.590 as I'm sure all of you are experiencing for your agencies or for your 14 00:01:08.709 --> 00:01:14.790 clients, content marketing is a huge part of of that planning, at least 15 00:01:14.829 --> 00:01:18.900 for most of us, and so where are we with content marketing as we 16 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:22.500 cruise into two thousand and twenty? I know it just to having attended content 17 00:01:22.579 --> 00:01:27.500 marketing world in Cleveland a few months ago. Her a lot of different points 18 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:34.730 of view about content saturation, about how to be smart about curating content, 19 00:01:36.409 --> 00:01:40.170 how to avoid overwhelming your audience, all that stuff, and so I am 20 00:01:40.290 --> 00:01:46.769 thrilled today to welcome and ask Fort to our conversation, welcoming xenia mount into 21 00:01:47.049 --> 00:01:49.879 the podcast. Senia, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank 22 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:53.120 you so much as well for inviting me, and I'm hyped to do this. 23 00:01:55.280 --> 00:02:00.319 I'm looking forward to the conversation as well and I'm really hope, I'm 24 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:04.790 really hoping that we tell as much of your story as possible today, because 25 00:02:04.909 --> 00:02:07.750 I think that agency owners are going to be inspired by what you're doing over 26 00:02:07.870 --> 00:02:12.430 at planable, which is your company right now. But first let's talk a 27 00:02:12.469 --> 00:02:15.860 little bit about how you how you formed your company and what your path has 28 00:02:15.939 --> 00:02:21.819 been up until founding plannable just a couple years ago. Right. Yeah, 29 00:02:21.939 --> 00:02:28.219 yeah, so we started plantable about three years ago and before that, all 30 00:02:28.699 --> 00:02:32.210 you know where three founders behind plannable. All of us have worked in the 31 00:02:32.289 --> 00:02:39.969 agency world, and I'm myself have started a digital marketing agency before plannable and 32 00:02:40.129 --> 00:02:45.159 I was doing mostly social media marketing work, but also content for branding work 33 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:51.120 for clients. And one of the issues that I had with with my agency 34 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:54.960 was that I felt the way I was working internally, but also externally with 35 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:01.949 client and was very, very messy, very complex, very bit outdated. 36 00:03:02.509 --> 00:03:07.590 You know, some millennial I grew up with easy to use APPS and then 37 00:03:08.030 --> 00:03:13.699 with my work I had to use, you know, Microsoft Office and Excel 38 00:03:13.819 --> 00:03:19.860 files and just always spend time on email. So I felt like the work 39 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:24.580 around work, the workaround content, was very fragmented and a lot of time 40 00:03:24.699 --> 00:03:30.250 was wasted on just tedious task that could have been automated or streamlined in a 41 00:03:30.289 --> 00:03:34.610 way. We were spending, you know, time planning content in this cell 42 00:03:34.729 --> 00:03:40.129 files that were being sent around internally before you representing them to the client and 43 00:03:40.330 --> 00:03:46.000 that, you know it cell file was being sent around between designers, culture 44 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:50.000 writers, account managers and so on, and then, when approved internally, 45 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:53.879 was sent to the client, and I felt that that was just so terrible 46 00:03:53.960 --> 00:04:00.349 real working, because the excel file is not a visual environment to showcase work 47 00:04:00.710 --> 00:04:08.430 and you're building innovative, gorgeous visual assets, but you surecating them in an 48 00:04:08.469 --> 00:04:12.419 excel file or in a deck, and I feel like that was not just 49 00:04:12.740 --> 00:04:15.339 the best way to communicate my work to clients and to get you a very 50 00:04:15.420 --> 00:04:18.980 constructive feedback from them. So like I was just wasting a lot of time 51 00:04:19.100 --> 00:04:25.170 building those decks, formatting those those spreadshets and just trying to centralize the feedback 52 00:04:25.209 --> 00:04:30.170 that I was getting on on email and in chats on the phone from clients. 53 00:04:30.769 --> 00:04:33.490 So I felt that that was a very frustrating way of working for me 54 00:04:33.970 --> 00:04:38.449 back in my agency days and I was trying to find a solution to just 55 00:04:38.569 --> 00:04:42.199 streamline this entire work. So I had with my team and with my clients 56 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:45.839 and when, you know, when I didn't find anything that fits into what 57 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:50.639 I envisioned, that you know when I started building plannable together with with Michael 58 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:58.509 Founders, and now we're helping both agencies, but also internal and House Marketing 59 00:04:58.589 --> 00:05:02.750 Department to be more organized and more productive and more efficient and the way they 60 00:05:02.829 --> 00:05:09.019 work as a team on content. Well, I love your story for a 61 00:05:09.100 --> 00:05:15.339 number of reasons. If any of my listeners know me at all, they 62 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:21.129 know that I always love to showcase experiences and agencies who have innovative solutions. 63 00:05:21.209 --> 00:05:27.850 Two things have by productizing those solutions, turning their intellectual cap but all either 64 00:05:27.930 --> 00:05:31.769 something that they've developed to serve a client in a particular way or something that 65 00:05:31.850 --> 00:05:35.839 they've developed to make their own work easier, and they actually turn it into 66 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:41.079 a solution that can help a lot of people. That's always very exciting to 67 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:44.720 me self. Congratulations on that. You're an example of an agency owner who 68 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:47.680 did that and you kind of double down on it because you're not running an 69 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:51.629 agency anymore. Correct you've found a Plana male and that's your full time effort 70 00:05:53.029 --> 00:05:59.110 now. Yeah, thank you first of all, and yes, I I 71 00:05:59.269 --> 00:06:03.500 I close my agency. I decided to go all in one, plantable and 72 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:09.300 fully, you know, work on this new company and it's been three years 73 00:06:09.339 --> 00:06:13.779 since we've been building it and I do not recombate it, I'll need one 74 00:06:13.860 --> 00:06:18.129 single moment. I've ever regraded, started Gig and just moving away from the 75 00:06:18.170 --> 00:06:24.889 agency life. I feel like building a tech company shits me so much better. 76 00:06:25.089 --> 00:06:30.329 I love the fact that I have direct access to my to my client 77 00:06:30.569 --> 00:06:36.319 and I can see how that impact their businesses and how the product just scales 78 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:41.240 across their own organizations but across, you know, different clients. So I 79 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:46.199 just love building a product. I feel like that's just the best experience I've 80 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:49.029 ever hand in my career so far. That's great. Well, I always 81 00:06:49.069 --> 00:06:54.430 love highlighting stories like that. So that's a great entrepreneurship story and it's a 82 00:06:54.509 --> 00:07:00.660 great example of an agency taking it's an oattional capital and turning in into something 83 00:07:00.819 --> 00:07:04.300 that can is sustainable on its own. Well, let's recom a content marketing 84 00:07:04.579 --> 00:07:09.139 itself as a discipline, because I'm sure you have some strong points of view, 85 00:07:09.579 --> 00:07:13.980 having been a content marketer before you found a plannable and now seeing content 86 00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:18.209 marketing done in real time as your clients use your product. One of the 87 00:07:18.329 --> 00:07:28.250 things I hear from a agencies is that it is really hard to curate or 88 00:07:28.850 --> 00:07:32.759 or commit their clients to curate the right kinds of content and to keep it 89 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:39.160 focused, and therefore there's there's no shortage of content, even good content, 90 00:07:39.879 --> 00:07:45.670 but the clients are always putting pressure on them for Roi because maybe it's not 91 00:07:45.829 --> 00:07:49.310 the right content or the right blend of content. So what's your point of 92 00:07:49.310 --> 00:07:54.670 view on where we are right now with how effective content marketing is? And 93 00:07:55.629 --> 00:08:00.379 and how we're doing it. Well, are badly. I think it's you 94 00:08:00.500 --> 00:08:05.939 know, everyone's talking about content marketing nowadays, but looking at all of the 95 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:15.129 other segment of marketing in general, content, content marketing itself, this quite 96 00:08:15.209 --> 00:08:20.610 in you marketing makes it's a new it's a new part of the entire marketing 97 00:08:22.490 --> 00:08:26.889 world. So I think it's normal for for clients to still, you know, 98 00:08:26.050 --> 00:08:33.039 be skeptical because a new and new initiative and new and new project for 99 00:08:33.159 --> 00:08:39.360 most of them. So I understand, you know, their skepticism and want 100 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:41.470 why? They you know, want to see a bit more result in this 101 00:08:41.549 --> 00:08:46.950 industry and so on. Also because it's just so new. I mean it's 102 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:48.470 not really new, but if you look at the entire history of our thing, 103 00:08:48.629 --> 00:08:52.429 it is very, very, very new. So if you look at 104 00:08:52.789 --> 00:08:56.700 the history of contum marketing, you know a few years ago, a couple 105 00:08:56.740 --> 00:09:01.340 of years ago, marketers, very few marketers, knew how to measure the 106 00:09:01.500 --> 00:09:05.740 results of their content marketing. It was really hard even with you know, 107 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:11.730 even if you look at the subcategory of contum eorketing, social media marketing, 108 00:09:11.570 --> 00:09:16.330 you know, a few years ago we were measuring, you the results and 109 00:09:16.450 --> 00:09:20.730 the impact of your social media marking effort by how many likes your page had. 110 00:09:22.210 --> 00:09:24.799 And in the meanwhile, you know, we've learned that that's not necessarily 111 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:30.799 the best metric to measure your success. So things are changing and we're learning 112 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:33.919 more and more about what content marketing should be about, and now I think 113 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:41.669 it's just a better we have more knowledge to actually say what's working and what's 114 00:09:41.669 --> 00:09:46.149 not and how to measure and how you set up your your processes and how 115 00:09:46.190 --> 00:09:50.669 should you shit set up your analytics. So I think today and two thousand 116 00:09:50.669 --> 00:09:52.700 and nineteen, engineend of two thousand and nineteen, or just in a better 117 00:09:52.820 --> 00:09:58.539 place as marketers to know what success should look like for a marketing campaign. 118 00:09:58.820 --> 00:10:03.539 So I think you know this and you can see that in how marketing budgets 119 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:09.250 are spent. You know, I think a year ago, from from the 120 00:10:09.570 --> 00:10:15.169 reports that I've read, a year ago, content represented, you know, 121 00:10:15.370 --> 00:10:20.799 a fifth of the entire marketing budget and now it's approaching a Hulf of marketing 122 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:26.440 budgets. I think that's just a huge, huge difference and it just really 123 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:33.840 showcases how big content is becoming and how how much more marketers, agencies and 124 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:39.870 brands at the same time or trusting this new direction of marketings. That I 125 00:10:39.990 --> 00:10:43.190 think that's that's great. I think that it's just becoming so much more important 126 00:10:43.389 --> 00:10:50.700 for us and I just I'm cheering this new change. Well, you have 127 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:54.820 a point of view, though, about it with respects to I guess it's 128 00:10:54.059 --> 00:10:58.580 I would say it's with respect to collaboration, or maybe maybe it's with respect 129 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:03.539 to just the volume of content world supposed to but you have a point of 130 00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:09.250 view that you call content paralysis, and tell tell everybody a little bit more 131 00:11:09.330 --> 00:11:13.250 about what you mean by sort of an epidemic of content paralysis and how that 132 00:11:13.289 --> 00:11:18.919 affects the work that marketers do. Yeah, definitely. So, I think 133 00:11:18.039 --> 00:11:22.879 you know, with this new huge rise and content marketing, that has come 134 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:28.120 with a lot of complexities. So it's definitely created a lot of opportunities for 135 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:35.070 brands to express themselves in new ways, to reach consumers and in new and 136 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:39.470 more meaningful ways, but it's also it has also come with a lot of 137 00:11:41.710 --> 00:11:46.269 complexity, and that complexity comes from the fact that the just so much, 138 00:11:46.429 --> 00:11:50.779 so, so many more people involved in this content and in content marketing teams. 139 00:11:52.299 --> 00:11:56.220 So the headcount has grown, working budgets have grown as as I mentioned 140 00:11:56.299 --> 00:12:01.409 before, but our processes and the way we work didn't adapt to this new 141 00:12:01.730 --> 00:12:09.370 direction of marketing because it has grown exponentially. It has risen so fast that 142 00:12:09.769 --> 00:12:15.490 we haven't been able to build specific operations and specific processes around, you know, 143 00:12:15.690 --> 00:12:20.159 working with content. So that means that way, to just adapted traditional 144 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.039 ways of working in this engineering tools, it's engineering systems and probably the engineering 145 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:31.990 mentality that we've had overall with marketing. We haven't built anything native for the 146 00:12:31.149 --> 00:12:35.710 content marketing work. So that generated a few problems. You know, the 147 00:12:35.830 --> 00:12:41.710 fact that we're working with juneeric tools which, as you know, parad chiefs 148 00:12:41.750 --> 00:12:46.580 and email, the fact that we're organizing our content engineering clote systems like drive 149 00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:52.460 and and drawbox and other, you know, cloud hosting tools, all those 150 00:12:52.860 --> 00:12:58.730 tools have not been built with what content marketing in mind. Their geneeric tools. 151 00:12:58.129 --> 00:13:01.210 That you can, you know, you can make them work for your 152 00:13:01.250 --> 00:13:05.889 use case, but it's hard work and in the end you you know, 153 00:13:05.970 --> 00:13:11.330 a lot of time is being wasted on just making them work for your for 154 00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:13.879 your own workflow, for your own team, for your going Zation, and 155 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:18.000 you know a lot of time is still you're still going to spend on constantly 156 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:24.039 tweaking them so that it fits into what you need and all those, you 157 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:28.750 know, problems when you're putting them all together create this content palsies. And 158 00:13:28.190 --> 00:13:33.350 what I what I mean by content paralysis the fact that your processes and your 159 00:13:33.389 --> 00:13:39.110 operations haven't been built to reflect this new age marketing and they're going to slow 160 00:13:39.230 --> 00:13:41.779 you down in the end. So you're not going to be able to produce 161 00:13:41.820 --> 00:13:45.539 as much content as you need, either as an agency for your clients either 162 00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:48.179 as a brand for your own consumers. You just going to you're not going 163 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:52.620 to be able to move as fast as you need because you have that you 164 00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:58.129 haven't built the proper workflow for this specific part of the entire marketing. Next, 165 00:13:58.409 --> 00:14:03.529 so you're not going to be able to actually cover the entire demand of 166 00:14:03.690 --> 00:14:07.610 content because you haven't made the nod, that you haven't really a pot through 167 00:14:09.210 --> 00:14:13.799 of how how destructure, how should you organize, what should be the operations 168 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:16.799 around content production? So I think that's, you know, that's what we 169 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:20.720 call content paralysis and sure it's a very dramatic term, but even if you 170 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:24.070 look at some of the reports out there in the industry, like the forster 171 00:14:24.269 --> 00:14:28.629 one, you know you're going to see that by two thousand and twenty and 172 00:14:28.710 --> 00:14:31.629 twenty s approaching, so it's already here. I think that report was a 173 00:14:31.710 --> 00:14:35.789 bit was a bit old, but they were saying something like by two thousand 174 00:14:35.789 --> 00:14:39.700 and twenty, content is going to become marketers because bottle depth, because it 175 00:14:39.740 --> 00:14:43.580 takes a lot of the effort and rescourses to build content. If you don't 176 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:48.620 have a very productive and very efficient way of doing that, they're not going 177 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:50.860 to be both to scale. So you're going to you're going to tagnate and 178 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:54.850 you're going to experience, you know this termal hard process. Yeah, well, 179 00:14:54.889 --> 00:15:01.210 I wonder too. I mean I think even I think it's certainly is 180 00:15:01.370 --> 00:15:07.129 time intent of intensive to create the content, but even curating the content that 181 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:13.519 you want to showcase to your brand's customers is very time intensive and, and 182 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:18.720 I feel like this based upon what agency clients tell me and what I just 183 00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:26.470 read and the industry press. I feel like all the workflow that surrounds content 184 00:15:26.750 --> 00:15:31.149 itself plus or combined with the dynamic nature of all the tools that we use, 185 00:15:31.190 --> 00:15:35.029 right, because there's always going to be a new platform, right. 186 00:15:35.070 --> 00:15:37.899 I mean yesterday it was tick Tock, tomorrow it's going to be. Who 187 00:15:37.899 --> 00:15:41.779 knows what? We just want to know what's what's the next hot thing is, 188 00:15:41.899 --> 00:15:45.620 yeah, and expand wagon might be. So between those two things, 189 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:50.929 right, just the abundance of content and then the abundance of platforms or our 190 00:15:50.210 --> 00:15:54.250 tactics. Where's the time for strategy, right? I mean that's what this 191 00:15:54.330 --> 00:16:00.409 all needs to be, starting with wor's time to really think hard about the 192 00:16:00.570 --> 00:16:03.929 why or the strategy of why you're doing what you're doing, because at the 193 00:16:03.970 --> 00:16:07.080 end of the day, your content strategy should be about something. Right, 194 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:11.799 either you're trying to write, push it, push it, cause forward, 195 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:15.320 or you're trying to sell widgit, or you're trying you're trying to do something. 196 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:19.470 But if all of our resources are jammed up in the production end of 197 00:16:19.629 --> 00:16:23.750 things, are we really spending enough time to take a step back and breathe 198 00:16:23.750 --> 00:16:30.110 and determine whether or not this fits with our strategy overall, for for our 199 00:16:30.190 --> 00:16:33.179 brand? And I think because of that it's really hard to prove our Oli 200 00:16:33.500 --> 00:16:37.539 or it's getting easier now. I mean, like you said, the metrics 201 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:41.059 are getting easier to understand or or we have a better sense of what the 202 00:16:41.059 --> 00:16:45.019 right ones are now, and we did ten years ago, but for me 203 00:16:45.139 --> 00:16:49.169 it just feels like there's not enough time to breathe and ask the strategic questions 204 00:16:49.370 --> 00:16:56.129 before the workflow starts. I one hundred percent agree. I think it's absolutely 205 00:16:56.169 --> 00:17:00.799 vital for you is either an agency or a business. It's just absolutely vital 206 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:07.279 to set aside the time for just deep thinking. I think that's the extremely 207 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:11.119 important that I'm trying to do. That then my in my own business right, 208 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:18.029 because just the day to day work usually keeps you hostage well a week. 209 00:17:18.470 --> 00:17:22.069 So if you don't block time for, you know, strategy, for 210 00:17:22.309 --> 00:17:26.630 thinking about the bigger stuff, it's never going to happen. And that kind 211 00:17:26.670 --> 00:17:30.859 of fits into the vision of planable and what we're trying to do because we, 212 00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:36.259 you know, we feel like a lot of time is being spent on 213 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:38.500 this, you know, day to day's stuff, on this, you know 214 00:17:38.660 --> 00:17:45.170 work about work stuff, and you know, we don't want agencies. Agency 215 00:17:45.210 --> 00:17:49.690 people are probably the most burned out people in the marketing world and I think 216 00:17:51.450 --> 00:17:55.569 something that we want to eat some of that pain by trying to at least 217 00:17:55.609 --> 00:18:00.200 reduce that work about work, to just reduce all those tasks, all those 218 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:04.279 mechanical tasks that can be automated by software like plannable, so that you have 219 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:08.519 the more time to think about strategy, to be more creative, to get 220 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:14.869 inspired, to just dip think about important stuff, and I think that's extremely 221 00:18:14.910 --> 00:18:18.470 important, because it's also very important to think about those things early on, 222 00:18:19.349 --> 00:18:22.910 to think about those processes and how how can you be more productive as a 223 00:18:22.950 --> 00:18:27.660 content marketer, because if you don't do those stuff, you know it's going 224 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:32.579 to be harder and harder to change that the more your team grows, the 225 00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:37.220 more your organization grows. It's extremely important to do that early on because that's 226 00:18:37.259 --> 00:18:41.809 going to help you and time, gain more time to think about strategy and 227 00:18:41.849 --> 00:18:47.490 all those useful things that you share mention. Well, yeah, I think 228 00:18:47.529 --> 00:18:52.009 it's a great point. So I wonder if, for the benefit of the 229 00:18:52.049 --> 00:18:56.640 agency owners and leaders who might be listening this today, you have the you're 230 00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:02.039 sitting in a unique seat of somebody who not only ran an agency who turned 231 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:06.599 out a lot of content marketing for its clients, to now running to have 232 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:11.230 and created a technology platform to help agencies and brands do just that. So 233 00:19:11.509 --> 00:19:15.109 I'm expecting that you probably have a point of view. are a few tips 234 00:19:15.309 --> 00:19:23.150 for agencies and how to collaborate successfully with their clients about their content, marketing 235 00:19:23.299 --> 00:19:30.660 campaigns. So many sort of thoughts. They're about success and what makes I 236 00:19:30.859 --> 00:19:33.380 know you created a tool to make it easier, but what are some of 237 00:19:33.420 --> 00:19:38.450 the other things that you notice working with teams that you know cross over from 238 00:19:38.450 --> 00:19:42.609 the agency to the brand? That makes it easier to be successful here, 239 00:19:44.450 --> 00:19:48.170 I think it's very important how you establish the relationship with your clients very early 240 00:19:48.369 --> 00:19:52.759 on, if you make things extremely, extremely clear and you make like, 241 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:57.519 you know, a set of rules basically on how you can indicate what your 242 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:02.640 processes are going to be, if you math at all very early in the 243 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:06.720 beginning. I think that's going to set up the expectations of the clients. 244 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:10.309 It's just going to make things easier to communicate. So I think if you 245 00:20:10.910 --> 00:20:12.549 if you manage that early on, if you make a plan on how you 246 00:20:12.990 --> 00:20:17.190 US an agency and the clients are going to communicate on the project from the 247 00:20:17.230 --> 00:20:21.779 campaign, if you just, you know, not out everything, if you 248 00:20:21.900 --> 00:20:25.220 think it through, I think that's really helps. That's one tactic for sure. 249 00:20:25.859 --> 00:20:30.220 But then for me, you know, personally back in my agency days, 250 00:20:30.299 --> 00:20:33.140 but also looking at some of our customers, I think involving the client 251 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:38.650 and during the creation process, during the production process, not just, you 252 00:20:38.730 --> 00:20:41.970 know, showing the results, the the content in the end, but also 253 00:20:42.089 --> 00:20:47.529 getting them involved with early on helps us well because it might help with, 254 00:20:47.769 --> 00:20:52.400 you know, spotting, you know, mistakes and the direction that you're taking 255 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:56.200 with the content, figuring out it. That's a good start, that's a 256 00:20:56.240 --> 00:21:00.119 good direction with where you want to take the content very early on and not, 257 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:02.920 you know, just do the content, finish it and then throw it 258 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.150 away because you know, there wasn't a understanding it on, you know, 259 00:21:06.230 --> 00:21:11.549 the brief and the peach. So I think it's involving the client, making 260 00:21:11.670 --> 00:21:15.630 the work as transparent as possible to the client and, you know, having 261 00:21:15.710 --> 00:21:21.460 iterations together with the client very early on in the process of producing the content. 262 00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:26.700 I think that helps a lot with communication this entire you know, transparency 263 00:21:26.180 --> 00:21:30.339 and, you know, having like very genuine communication with them. Those two 264 00:21:30.380 --> 00:21:37.210 things are extremely important and just aligning yourself with what the with what the business 265 00:21:37.809 --> 00:21:41.930 needs, with what the client needs, where they are, their expectation, 266 00:21:41.170 --> 00:21:45.849 whether they're trying to achieve with that, with that content, to just fully 267 00:21:45.930 --> 00:21:51.319 fully sinking with the client, aligning yourself with them. I think those, 268 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:55.039 you know, building this type of alignment, building this type of coordination, 269 00:21:55.559 --> 00:22:02.029 but also this type of quality and transparency into your relationship or the client very 270 00:22:02.109 --> 00:22:07.190 early on. I think thinking to go through those principles and just building this 271 00:22:07.349 --> 00:22:11.630 type of framework is especial that. I think, you know, the agencies 272 00:22:11.670 --> 00:22:18.140 that I've seen doing this, there's a smaller chance of misunderstanding happening down the 273 00:22:18.180 --> 00:22:22.740 road. That's completely makes sense to me, and I also think it's healthy 274 00:22:23.819 --> 00:22:30.609 to have a conversation up front about which specific metrics might be meaningful for the 275 00:22:30.730 --> 00:22:34.809 campaigns that you're going to be because not every metric is going to be appropriate 276 00:22:36.009 --> 00:22:41.930 for every type of strategy or campaign and sometimes, sometimes perhaps the metrics she 277 00:22:41.049 --> 00:22:47.000 thought were going to be relevant unit adjusting thing. Yeah, yeah, you 278 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:49.359 have to adjuster thinking of what they are and, and, to your point, 279 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:53.319 being transparent about that. I think makes a lot of sense right. 280 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:57.589 Well, yeah, I have really enjoyed talking with using you and sharing your 281 00:22:57.670 --> 00:23:00.950 story. I love how you took a problem and turn it into a solution 282 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:06.869 and I think that the agency folks listening to this today are going to learn 283 00:23:06.869 --> 00:23:11.230 a lot about content marketing in general, but about how to be more successful 284 00:23:11.269 --> 00:23:15.140 about it as well. So thank you so much for sharing your time and 285 00:23:15.220 --> 00:23:19.180 your wisdom. If folks want to reach out and learn more about you and 286 00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:23.579 about plannable, where's the best place for them to get information? Yeah, 287 00:23:23.660 --> 00:23:30.849 definitely so. Our website is plannable dot Ioh and you can find me on 288 00:23:30.930 --> 00:23:33.210 Linkedin. I spent quite a lot of a lot of my time there. 289 00:23:33.769 --> 00:23:37.410 And Yeah, than me and I would love to chat with anyone and the 290 00:23:37.730 --> 00:23:42.680 agency world and try and thank you so much for doing this episode with me. 291 00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:48.960 I'm mixed heightened to save live. I'm excited to I appreciate you spending 292 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:52.559 time with us today. So see you on team. Thank you for joining 293 00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:56.470 us on the innovative agency today and we will talk with you all on the 294 00:23:56.549 --> 00:24:00.789 next episode. Thanks for joining us today. We really hope you enjoyed this 295 00:24:02.029 --> 00:24:07.789 episode in the Hashtag Agency series from the innovative agency. To hear more episodes 296 00:24:07.829 --> 00:24:11.460 along these lines, check out the innovative agency in Apple Podcast, your favorite 297 00:24:11.500 --> 00:24:15.579 podcast player or the links right in the show notes for this episode. As 298 00:24:15.619 --> 00:24:22.339 always, thank you so much for listening. Is the decisionmaker for your product 299 00:24:22.339 --> 00:24:26.250 or service a BEDB MARKETER? Are you looking to reach those buyers through the 300 00:24:26.289 --> 00:24:33.130 medium of podcasting. Consider becoming a cohost of BB growth. This show is 301 00:24:33.250 --> 00:24:37.970 consistently ranked as a top one hundred podcast in the marketing category of Apple Podcasts, 302 00:24:37.210 --> 00:24:41.240 and the show gets more than a hundred and thirtyzero downloads each month. 303 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:45.319 We've already done the work of building the audience, so you can focus on 304 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:52.200 delivering incredible content to our listeners. If you're interested, email logan at sweetish 305 00:24:52.240 --> Mediacom.