Eleven Essentials for Communicators is a presentation I gave at the Communivate PR Bootcamp for Startups (sponsored by Innovate Calgary and Startup Calgary). Too fun! So many smart people. But ... yes ... marketing and communication in the age of the internet IS like herding cats.

1. ELEVEN ESSENTIALS
FOR COMMUNICATORS
Stephen King
President, Stephdokin.com
CEO, TCELab.com
EIR, AcceleratorYYC
@stephdokin
www.stephdokin.com
© 2014 Stephdokin Inc. All rights reserved. Duplication or distribution is encouraged, with proper attribution.
#communivate
@innovatecalgary

2. I am not THAT Stephen King
I’m this one

3. 30 years of “Shipping Bits”

4. Stephen-On-A-Page
I’ve driven over $500M in revenue and participated in
over 50 product and program launches / lifecycles; a
combination of executive branding/marketing +
technical know-how + roll-up-yer-sleeves.
1988-2007:
Since 2008:
Co-Founder
Education: BCS
Bachelor of Computer Science
CFP
Certified Financial Planner
Customer-Centric
Digital Brand
Excellence
Founder

5. 1
Essential
• It’s very noisy out
there; people are
quick to dismiss your
message / brand
• Once you understand
it’s hard, it becomes
easier
• A lifelong journey of
listening, learning,
observing and
participating in
communication
Communicators know
it’s hard to communicate.

6. 2
Essential
Communicator
s know who
they are talking
to.
• “Are you talking to me?”
Understand your customer!
• Define personas
• 10 Persona Tips for Agile
Product
Managementhttp://www.romanpichle
r.com/blog/10-persona-tips-agile-product-
management/
• Hubspot Buyer Persona
Template
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33
491/Everything-Marketers-Need-to-Research-
Create-Detailed-Buyer-Personas-
Template.aspx

7. 3
Essential
Communicators know the
difference between benefits
and features.
1. Benefits talk about the customer.
Features talk about you / your product / your service / your event.
2. Benefits include an ROI. Features do not. Vitamin or a Pain Pill?
3. Features are reasons to believe that the benefits promised are true.
4. Inspire, don’t tell. Benefits should create strong emotions: “Spinach is full of
iron” is a feature. “Spinach lets you kick Bluto’s ass” is a benefit.

8. 4
Essential
Communicators tell stories.

9. 5
Essential
Communicators
are concise.
It’s harder to write less words.
Be clever.

10. 6
Essential
1 Google
Maps
2 Photos
3 Google Small
Business Tools
4 AdWords
5 Google Places
6 Youtube
7 Organic (SEO)
8 Google+
Communicators
live in Google’s
world.

11. 6
Essential
• Pagerank is complicated and
the formula is kept secret by
Google
• Use Pagerank tools like
Woorank, SEMRush, Google
webmaster tools
• Be a Google Analytics expert
• NEVER stop learning
or optimizing
In Google
We Trust

13. 7
Essential
Communicators
understand technology.
#CMTO : Chief Marketing Technology Officer

14. Learn the Language of
the Internet: HTML
HTML =
“Hypertext Markup Language”
Try some coding yourself at
http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?
filename=tryhtml_basic -- it’s not that
hard. Just strange if you’ve never done it.
7
Essential

15. 8
Essential
Communicators realize that a
picture is worth 2,000 words.
3) Dec 31, 2013
2) 1 picture, Aug 31, 2013
1) Apr 24, 2013 no sign of
Advanced Measurements in Google
search or images for “Data Van”.
In top 4
pictures
(so it also
appears
on page 1
search
results)
Organic
search
listing on
bottom of
page 1
• The web is
visual: pictures
are for both
people AND
Google
• Use <Alt txt=“”>
tags and self-
explanatory file
names
• Don’t know your
PNGs from your
PDFs? Learn!
• Adobe
Photoshop skills
or similar
essential

16. 9
Essential
Communicators
repeat themselves.
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/double-
your-social-media-traffic/
http://www.herwitzassociates.com/seve
n-ways-to-repeat-your-message-and-
get-noticed

17. 10
Essential
Communicators know
it’s not a sprint.
Reach Quality Consistency Frequency

18. 11
Essential
Create apps for Blackberry and Android using
only XML … in about a week. See slides 21 & 22.
AwarenessInterestTrafficEngage
eCommerce Website Traffic
Unique Visitors / Sessions
Engage Visitors w 2+
pageviews
Started Trial / Cart /
Submitted Lead
Engaged
in Trial or w
Sales Team
Clients
OldSchool
Marketing
DM, TV,
Mags
Partners &
Channels
Trade
Shows,
Seminars
Outbound
Marketing
Press
Releases
Client &
Prospect
eNews
PPC:
AdWords,
LinkedIn,
Banners
Inbound
Marketing
Editorial;
blogs,
FAQs,
video, RT
Search
Engine
Optimize
SEO
Social
Media
(Reach,
Freq,Q,C)
Trial /
Prospect
Rate %
Close
Rate %
Website
Conversion %
Bounce
Rate %
Traffic
Rate %
Lead
Rate %
© 2009-2014 Stephdokin.com
ARPU $% Churn
ProspectLeadUser
1 Acquire New
Clients
2 Retain Existing
Clients
3 Increase $$$ per
Client
Communicators LOVE data.
Channel
Metrics

19. Stephen King
stephen@stephdokin.com
@stephdokin
www.stephdokin.com
Thoughts?
Communicate or Die.