How Much Do You
Open Your Kimono?
Does "Thought Leadership"
Cannibalize Your Ability to
Monetize What You Know?
Jay Baer and Joe Pulizzi
@jaybaer @juntajoe

Thought Leadership
OH YEAH!

Thought Leadership
A Goal of Content
Marketing Strategy

Why Does It Matter?
Elise Bauer
The recognition from the outside world that
the company deeply understands its business,
the needs of its customers, and the broader
marketplace in which it operates.

Tying Content to Revenue
The 6 Stages of
Opening the Kimono

1. Closed Kimono
 No Online Thought Leadership

MarketFace
 Enterprise customer experience
consulting
 Since 2001
 Clients include:
 Virgin America
 OfficeMax
 Skechers
 Toyota

MarketFace
 No online thought leadership
 Case studies not for public distribution

MarketFace
 Significant repeat and WOM business
 Vertical-focused, easier to drive WOM
 Small company, time constraints
 Highly customized process

MarketFace
 Questions whether his target audience
(C-Suite) consumes content online
(writing a book at present)
If you can’t do it well, is content a
net positive for your brand?
- Michael Roberts – President

1. Closed Kimono
 No Online Thought Leadership
PRO
 Zero time investment
 Focus on detailed, long-form, custom
content
CON
 Limited exposure in Search
 Reduced ability to build online influence

2. What Happens in Vegas
 Thought Leadership on Distributed
Micro Platforms
 LinkedIn and Facebook Groups
 Twitter Curation
 Blog Comments

Lisa Loeffler
 Founder, Genuine Media Co.
 Social media strategy and advice
 Since 2008
 Clients include:
 Valerie Fitzgerald Group
 E-storm Intl (Puma, Gucci, Volcom)
 Collegiate Licensing Company

Lisa Loeffler
 Limited long-form thought leadership
 1 post/month on e-storm blog
 Active in Twitter (content curation)
 Participant in industry surveys/studies
 Active presence in Facebook groups
dedicated to social marketing
 Many Empire Avenue connections
 Prefers the 1:1 nature of micro thought
leadership and interactions

Lisa Loeffler
 Built hundreds of relationships on EA
 Met her new business partner on that
platform in June, 2011

Lisa Loeffler
 The Poll Taker
 Free, real-time, platform-agnostic polling
platform

Lisa Loeffler
 Believe thought leadership is derived
from long-term engagement more so
than content creation
To be considered a leader in any
field one must build and gain
trust within their communities
- Lisa Loeffler – Founder

2. What Happens in Vegas
 Distributed Micro Thought Leadership
 LinkedIn Answers
 Twitter News Distribution
 Blog Comments
PRO
 Original content not required
 Can become trusted community
resource
CON
 No ability to drive to lead source
 Limited search engine potential

2. What Happens in Vegas
AUDIENCE VOTE
 Is this a comfortable level of
openness for you and your
company?
YES NO

3. Quid Pro Quo
 Selling Thought Leadership
 E-Books
 How-To Packages
 eNewsletter Subscriber Packages

Bob Bly
 Bob Bly – Leading direct marketing
copywriter and informational product
guru.

Bob Bly
 Selling Thought Leadership
• Step 1: Free eNewsletter builds your
list to market to.

Bob Bly
 Selling Thought Leadership
• Step 1: ROI Calculator provides opt-in
signups.

Bob Bly
 Selling Thought Leadership
• Step 1: Free eNewsletter and ROI
Calculator builds your list to market to.
• Step 2: Sample reports provide some
sharing – promotion of newsletter and
more free reports (email address)

Bob Bly
 Selling Thought Leadership
• Step 1: Free eNewsletter and ROI
Calculator builds your list to market to.
• Step 2: Sample reports provide some
sharing – promotion of newsletter and
more free reports (email address)
• Step 3: Paid offers (money-back
guarantee), marketed through email
and sample reports

Bob Bly
 The How
• Free reports are compilations of
already published reports.
• Key combination of volume (number
of pages), quality AND packaging.
• Free information talks of the
possibilities…paid information goes
into all the details.

Bob Bly
 Six-Figure Email List
 Free premium reports led to increase of
conversions by 25%.
 Enewsletter conversions doubled AFTER
free reports were added.
If your free information is best of breed,
subscribers will assume your paid
information is best of breed. If free
information is bad, they’ll never want your
paid stuff.
- Bob Bly

3. Quid Pro Quo
 Selling Thought Leadership
 E-Books
 How-Tos/Tutorials
PRO
 Recurring revenue
 Passive income
CON
 Can be difficult to upgrade to fully paid
services
 Must test exhaustively

3. Quid Pro Quo
AUDIENCE VOTE
 Is this a comfortable level of
openness for you and your
company?
YES NO

4. Give Me Your Number
 Lead-Gated Thought Leadership
 Place content behind
mandatory lead generation
forms, etc.

ExactTarget
 Interactive marketing SAAS company
 One of the world s largest email service
providers
 Customers include:
 Groupon
 Nike
 Microsoft

ExactTarget
 Multiple content initiatives
 Subscriber, Fans, Followers Research
 Blog
 Forrester White Papers
 Field Guides
 Letters to the C-Suite
 Email Newsletters
 Enterprise-wide analysis of role of content in
leads and sales process, including client
renewals

ExactTarget
 Content creation is decentralized
 Different areas of the company create
content to serve their purposes
(often lead generation)

ExactTarget
 10-part research series
 Tens of thousands of downloads
 Hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct
sales
 Millions of dollars in indirect sales

ExactTarget
 More content and more use for lead
nurturing, not just lead generation
We will become more journalistic,
empowering more people within
the company to create content.
- Jeff Rohrs – Vice President of Marketing

4. Give Me Your Number
 Lead-Gated Thought Leadership
 Place content behind mandatory
lead generation forms, etc.
PRO
 River of leads for sales team
 Trackable
CON
 No control over lead quality
 Reduces consumption rate
 Lack of shareability

4. Give Me Your Number
AUDIENCE VOTE
 Is this a comfortable level of
openness for you and your
company?
YES NO

5. Peek-a-Boo
 Giving Away What You Know But
Not the Process
 Heavy blogging
 Presentations
 Video Demonstrations

Openview Venture Partners
 Leading value-add venture capitalist
organization
 Invests $5 to $15 million in technology
companies between $2 and $20 million.
 Investments include:
– Zmags
– Balihoo
– Central Desktop
– Monetate

Openview Venture Partners
 Started with an employee blog and now
has 90% employee participation.
 Full audio and video studio.
 Employs a full-time journalist to
coordinate activities.

Openview Venture Partners
 Integrates blog into full tech-startup
resource site called Openview Labs.
 Over 1,000 podcasts, videos and articles.
 Multiple pieces distributed per day via
blog and social media.

Openview Venture Partners
 Results
 Over 8,500 email subscribers in 18
months…25% open rate.
 Significantly shortened sales cycle.
 Closed deals directly from online
content.
A year ago, no one knew who we were. Now,
when we speak with CEOs, we find that they’ve
already heard of us and they get what we’re
about.
Scott Maxwell, CEO, Openview Venture Partners

5. Peek-a-Boo
 Giving Away What You Know But
Not the Process
PRO
 Heavy awareness
 SEO and PR benefits
CON
 Tons of effort required
 Devalues each piece of content?

5. Peek-a-Boo
AUDIENCE VOTE
 Is this a comfortable level of
openness for you and your
company?
YES NO

6. The Full Monty
 Giving It All Away
 Creating Content That is Outside Your
Core Category

Eloqua
 Marketing automation software company
 Leaders in lead generation and nurturing
 Clients include:
 Sony
 Dow Jones
 Johnson & Johnson

Eloqua
 Exceptionally broad and comprehensive
content program
 Team includes in-house journalists
 Very robust digital dandelion program,
with content residing at Eloqua.com and
many other places online
 No lead gates for offsite content
 Sends content to current leads and
customers as exclusive sneak peek

A
Form
is
the
Eloqua Enemy
of
Spread
 Huge Slideshare program
 Millions in revenue from Grande Guides
 Lead form is AFTER the content

Eloqua
 Substantial content created outside core
business focus
 Initially, significant internal opposition

98,259
Eloqua Slideshare
Views
 New content helps others become
content marketers, creating leads that
need automation (virtuous circle)

Eloqua
We focus content on the 85% of
people that don’t know us, rather
than the 15% who do.
18 months ago, we were behind. We
had to get noticed by showing
more skin.
- Joe Chernov – Vice President of Content

6. The Full Monty
 Giving It All Away
 Creating Content That is Outside Your
Core Category
PRO
 No barrier to customer
 Can go David & Goliath
CON
 Requires serious effort
 Allows others to steal
 Diverts attention from core attributes

6. The Full Monty
AUDIENCE VOTE
 Is this a comfortable level of
openness for you and your
company?
YES NO

Deciding Which is Right
1. Closed Kimono
2. What Happens in Vegas
3. Quid Pro Quo
4. Give Me Your Number
5. Peek-a-Boo!
6. The Full Monty

Testing Scenario
 One piece of thought leadership content
 Multiple ways to treat it
1
6 2
Thought
Leadership
Content
5 3
4

4 Types of Content Metrics
Consumption Sharing
Metrics Metrics
Lead
Sales
Generation
Metrics
Metrics

Your Testing Plan
 Available Now:
Only
$19.95

Your Testing Plan
 Available Now:
bit.ly/openkimono

Thanks to All Participants!
 Marketface.com  Exacttarget.com/sff
 Genuinemediaco.com  Labs.OpenViewPartners.com
 Bly.com  Eloqua.com

Questions?
@juntajoe @jaybaer