Stop trying to fix your content—fix your processes instead

Between 1978-1981, Bill Walsh took the San Francisco 49ers from the worst team in the NFL to Super Bowl champions. This unprecedented turnaround sparked curiosity about Walsh’s coaching philosophy, which he dubbed the “Standard of Performance.”

While other coaches relied on pep talks, natural talent, and in-game adjustments to win, Walsh zoomed out and standardized every facet of the game: How to dress for practice. How to hold the ball. How to minimize injuries.

If the players upheld these standards, the score at the end of the game “would take care of itself”—and it did.

Even if you’ve never watched football, it’s easy to see how Walsh’s philosophy translates into the world of business, especially content marketing.

CMOs, editorial leads, and writers love to fixate on content itself: fixing typos, tweaking titles, incorporating keywords. But a lot of this energy is misplaced. Content marketing folks need to take a page from Bill Walsh’s playbook (literally) and focus on the process behind the content. 

Then, the output takes care of itself.

I remember working with a lucrative SaaS company whose “process” boiled down to emailing writers a few bullet points, which we were then supposed to turn into 1,500-word, search-optimized, compulsively readable articles. Every time the CMO gave his feedback, the Google Doc looked like a war zone: countless line edits, meandering comments, random links. 

These last-minute overhauls were like trying to improve a meal after it’s already been plated. Sure, a pinch of salt might help. But if you want meaningful, sustainable improvements you have to rethink the process of how that dish is prepared in the first place.

Content gets exponentially better when you shift your focus from the final product to the underlying systems:

• How will you ideate topics?

• How far ahead will you plan your editorial calendar, and who’s keeping tabs on it?

• What kinds of sources will you use for research, and what kinds will you ignore?

• Who’s responsible for sourcing and interviewing subject matter experts?

• How will you distribute your articles (besides hitting “publish”)?

As you can see, there’s plenty to consider beyond “let’s tweak the intro and move this paragraph down.”

When articles suck, writers take the bulk of the blame. But the more I spend time planning, creating, and editing content, I’m convinced that >90% of flaws can be traced back to the company’s/agency’s processes (or lack thereof).

Garbage in, garbage out.

You can spend all day sourcing the “best” writers and editing their articles until your hands cramp. But it’s always going to be an uphill battle until you create your own Standard of Performance.