It is commonly taught that ideas are worthless and it’s really the execution that is king. The notion that ideas are worthless has been drilled into many of us. What we’ve learned over the last several years is that’s entirely wrong. Ideas are everything, here’s why.
Now, there is some truth behind “execution that is king,” especially when it comes to taking the first steps of doing the work behind a concept. A lot of people get frozen in fear that they can’t execute so all they do is think. That’s the valid idea behind supporting execution, but—
When it comes to content, it is in fact the ideas that matter the most.
If you as a strategist understand your audience, you’re able to take cultural insights and signals about what they care about and how they best engage and develop ideas that matter to them, that is 100x more important than the actual execution of the content itself.
There are probably some designers who will be upset about this, but it’s true for a couple of reasons.
#1 — Poor quality has a huge following
There are myriads of creators whose content really isn’t that great but they have a super-engaged audience or very large audience because the audience is more interested in the thought, strategy, or insight the creator has to share than the technical execution of the content itself.
#2 — Execution has become commoditized
Our head of growth has been in a ton of debates and arguments with designers and executioners over the years who want to make every little thing correct and, while we appreciate that about them, it’s just not the focus.
Execution is not what matters when you’re creating content on the internet. What matters—especially the way our economy has shifted—is that the execution is done quickly, efficiently, and on the right ideas or topics that matter to the audience.
#3 — A ton of companies exist to transform ideas
If you know what matters to your audience and record a very short snippet about a topic, then somebody else can create a high-quality asset for you. Upwork, Fiverr, 99designs, Ceemoh each was built for this exact purpose: to develop the ideas in a marketer’s head.
Even if they can’t create an excellent piece of content, they can find someone else to make that content for them. There are tons of resources that can take your idea and turn it into high-quality content.
#4 — You can’t effectively steal an idea
You can’t take from someone else’s brain. Sure, you can steal someone’s idea, but you need to be able to have that idea in your brain and understand why it matters.
If you just steal an idea word for word, it’s not going to work because you’re not talking to your audience about the things that matter to them. You’re talking to somebody else’s audience about the things that matter to them. You need to be able to apply an idea to your own audience.
The next time you’re overwhelmed by the thought that you have to create a bunch of assets, take a breath, explain the ideas as simply as you can, and then use the resources at your disposal—Upwork, Fiverr, 99designs, Ceemoh—to turn those ideas into something that’s high-quality.