Content Marketing Tips and Tricks

Content Marketing
create content that converts
Stop selling, start helping.
Sandy Hawke | sandybeachSF@gmail.com | 510-501-4107

Buyer-Centric
Content Marketing
Connects to your Brand
Engage in meaningful ways
(educate vs. promote)
Helps Get
Their Job Done
Pain drives the purchase
Right Formats
& Channels
Go where they are
Uses Their
Words
Drives SEO
Strategy
How to Build Content
that Connects

Remember. You’re not selling your product.
You’re solving their problem.

CONTENT MARKETING PROCESS
IT’S A CYCLE
KNOW YOUR
BUYER01 DEVELOP
USER
PERSONAS
02 CREATE
CONTENT03 DISTRIBUTE &
MEASURE04
Surveys, Market
Analysis, Customer
Interviews, Internal
Interviews
Segment the Market,
Identify key roles,
Document pains,
context, etc.
Based on Messaging
Map (Context, Person,
Pain, Preferred Content,
etc.)
Use Multiple Channels,
Measure Performance,
and Adjust. Repeat.

Content Attracts Visitors
The right buyer (prospect) comes to your
website
Content Accelerates Sales
Successful content will accelerate the sales cycle so
once direct contact is made, the conversations are much
more interesting, and the opportunity more qualified.
Content Needs Collaboration
The best content can’t be made in a vacuum. Constant
feedback between sales and marketing is essential.
Content Attracts Conversion
The goal is to convert from visitor to contact,
good content can do that.
Content Nurtures Customers
As they get answers to questions quickly,
customers are engaged.
Content Calendar
Scheduling content on an editorial
calendar keeps everyone in the loop,
and establishes cohesion and
consistency.
THE IDEAL CONTENT LIFECYCLE

Create and activate.
You can’t have one without the other.

Knowledge
Creation
Experience
Creation
Utility
Creation
Community
Activation
Source: Forrester Research, Ryan Skinner, April 2015
Four Big Valuable Content Plays:
How I Can Help You Deliver

Knowledge
Creation
Experience
Creation
Utility
Creation
Community
Activation
Source: Forrester Research, Ryan Skinner, April 2015.
Free Tools,
Sample Code,
APIs (GitHub)
ROI Tools
(website)

Knowledge
Creation
Experience
Creation
Utility
Creation
Community
Activation
“How to” Webinars/eBooks
Training Guides
Educational blogs,
infographics, surveys
Free Tools,
Sample Code,
APIs (GitHub)
ROI Tools
(website)

Knowledge
Creation
Experience
Creation
Utility
Creation
Community
Activation
Product Demos & Trials
User Groups
Testimonial videos
Training Guides
Educational blogs,
Free Tools,
Sample Code,
APIs (GitHub)
ROI Tools
(website)

Knowledge
Creation
Experience
Creation
Utility
Creation
Community
Activation
Product Demos & Trials
User Groups
Testimonial videos
Training Guides
Educational blogs,
*Need to go where
buyer already is.
User-Generated
content**
(curated & shared by us)
LinkedIn Groups*
Twitter
(tweet chats)
YouTube
Free Tools,
Sample Code,
APIs (GitHub)
ROI Tools
(website)

Know your buyer. What they think, need, and how to
best connect with them.

*SAMPLE* User Persona Content Needs –
What Content & When
User
Persona
Awareness
(need, research, prioritize
criteria)
Consideration
(research, compare, and
justify)
Decision
(select,
purchase)
Collaboration
(evangelize)
Don, IT Ops
(technical buyer)
Community or industry analyst
reco, webinar, video, “how to”
blog, article, best practices e-
books
Product review, FAQs, white
papers, demo, webinar, ROI
analysis, sample code, APIs
POC,
Evaluator’s
Guide,
Checklists
Training content (give or
receive), use cases (to
inspire upsell), KB articles
Joe, VP of IT
(business buyer)
Business press coverage,
industry analyst reco, peer
survey results
Product review, ROI
analysis, customer
references, case studies
POC ROI case studies,
testimonials (producer vs.
consumer)
Brian, Guru
(industry analyst)
Community recommendation or
inquiry, blog, article
Product review, demo,
customer references, case
studies
N/A –
recommend, not
buy is goal
Guest blogs
Steve, Sys
Admin
(community
manager)
Community recommendation,
blog, article
Product review, FAQs, white
papers, demo, webinar, ROI
analysis, sample code, APIs
N/A,
recommend, not
buy is goal
Guest blogs

*SAMPLE* User Persona Context Analysis –
Pain & Solution Messaging
User Persona Current Pain How they
experience that
pain (specific
examples)
How they View a
Solution to that
Pain
What they need to
believe and
experience in our
solution
Don, IT Ops
/ DevOps
(technical buyer)
Too many workloads to
manage, takes too long to
keep track
Customer examples? What are DevOps
teams doing now?
Don needs to believe
that now is the time to
implement centralized
mgmt.
Joe, VP of IT
(business buyer)
Disorganized and
uncertain audit process;
lack of compliance visibility
Customer examples?
Brian, Guru
(industry analyst)
N/A
Steve, Sys Admin
(community manager)
N/A

TESTIMONIALS
What my clients are saying
“Sandy knows what a
sales organization
needs to be successful.
And she consistently
delivers that.”
“
“Sandy turns
the complex
into the
compelling.”
“Sandy is one of the
top 1% of professionals
I have encountered. A
dynamic speaker, a
true thought leader and
a stellar marketer.”

WAYS I CAN HELP YOUR TEAM
Content Development
Create compelling content that can be repurposed
across channels – social, web, email, and more
Short-Term Staff Augmentation
Save money by jump starting results - hire senior
marketing professional on short-term basis
Sales Enablement
Develop and deliver sales pitch training, sales tools,
and other ways to accelerate the sales cycle
Consulting and Guidance
Provide expertise on marketing strategy, market
segmentation, messaging and positioning

PRODUCT MARKETING SERVICE SCENARIOS
NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH –
“OUR SMALL PRODUCT TEAM NEEDS
ASSISTANCE WITH OUR UPCOMING
RELEASE.”
NEW WEBSITE, UPCOMING
CONFERENCE –
“HELP! WE NEED TO WRITE A LOT
OF CONTENT IN A SHORT PERIOD OF
TIME.”
PRODUCT REVIEWS
/ ANALYST BRIEFINGS –
“AN UPDATED PITCH FROM A FRESH
VOICE WILL GIVE US AN EDGE.”
UNFILLED PMM DIRECTOR
POSITION –
“WE CAN KEEP THE SHIP
MOVING WHILE WE SEARCH
FOR THE PERFECT PERSON.”

DELIVERABLE SAMPLES
WEBCASTSVIDEOSWEB COPY
(E-BOOKS,
BLOGS)
WHITE PAPERS

DELIVERABLE SAMPLES
(the URLs)
WEBCASTSVIDEOSWEB COPY
(E-BOOKS,
BLOGS)
WHITE PAPERS
http://www.ten-
inc.com/presentations/Tanium-
Emerging-Threat-Defense.pdf
https://www.alienvault.com/resou
rce-center/ebook/insider-guide-
to-incident-response
https://www.alienvault.com/resou
rce-center/ebook/how-to-build-a-
security-operations-center
https://vimeo.com/60399350
https://www.alienvault.com/resourc
e-center/webcasts/pci-dss-v3-how-
to-adapt-your-compliance-strategy

WHO I AM
What I Offer
Former cyber security geek turned marketer with a
passion for positive change.
My talents lie in “listening to understand”, finding ways to
connect with users and their stories, and showcasing
those stories to drive a measurable impact.
SANDY HAWKE
Marketing Shaman / Storyteller
sandybeachSF@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/sandybeachSF
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/sandy
-hawke/0/347/930
WHAT I BRING
15+ years of experience in simplicity and storytelling across multiple roles: customer
service, consulting, technical sales, product marketing, and content marketing. I
also bring an energetic and enthusiastic approach to team-building, problem-solving
and creative collaboration.

Extra Slides

Recipe for Product Marketing Success
First, determine priority user personas, and segment based on impact to
sales cycle. Second, develop the full context for each user persona
(what their current pain is, how they experience that pain,
how they view a solution to that pain, and what they need
to believe and experience our solution as the solution).
Once you can smell the sweetness of team consensus in the air,
identify the type of content our buyer will need to help them solve
real-world problems with our technology, sprinkled with some
education on how they can also increase their skill set at the
same time. Create that content.
Spread broadly, and
evenly over every stage
of the buyer’s journey,
as well as every channel
available, and measure its
effectiveness.
Adjust as necessary. Repeat.

Stop Selling, Start Helping:
Top 3 Keys to Success
• Look at everything the way your buyer would.
–Customer questions turn into content. A well-written FAQ list will
accelerate a buying cycle we didn’t even know was spun up yet*.
• Entertain while educating (“enter-trainment”).
–If they’re entertained, they’ll pay attention, and they might just
share it too!
• The best content comes from your customers.
–We need to give them a forum, and then collect, curate, and share
(and make it easy for them to share too).
*According to Kapost, 67% of the buyer’s journey takes place online and 57% of that journey occurs before speaking to sales.

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