Mark Hillary presentation to Edelman UK team in March 2016. Focused on summarising the CEO (Content Marketing) book.

1. Content and the CEO
Mark Hillary – Carnaby - @markhillary
Edelman – March 2016

2. • British – based in São Paulo, Brazil
•Former CIO – global banking tech head
• Wrote 15 books on tech/globalisation
• First UK govt blogger, London Olympics 2012
blogger, UN blogging advisor (also book for UN)
• Short-listed UK business blogger of the year
twice, won once
• Ghost-writer for politicians, diplomats, CEOs –
various companies from USA to Asia
Who am I?

3. Look Back First
• Before we talk about anything today, think of
this … this is bigger than technology alone
• The iPhone was only invented in 2007
• Social networks only went mainstream in
2008/09
• All human communication is changing – look
at the MWC16 last week for examples
• Now how do you convince corporate
executives of this? How do customers Learn
about their company today?

4. A 2015 book by me
focused on executives,
blogging, and content
marketing… plus I am
presently completing a
book about how LinkedIn
is transforming sales
What is this about?

5. • First it’s important to look at the media
landscape
• Blogging was once niche or just for diarists
• Now blogging is journalism
• Look at how popular titles get clicks …
Mashable, Independent, Buzzfeed all use
great headlines and questioning articles – the
style of blogs has pervaded the media
Blogging becomes Content

6. • The way we get news has changed from
reading specific journals or broadcast channels
to aggregators… Reddit, Twitter etc
• This democratises the path from creator to
reader – if you have an interesting view it can
cut through
• Often branded journals will use content from
blogs or social media sites (how many stories
have you read about an Instagram post?)
• Ryan Holiday “Trust me, I’m lying” - book
Finding News Has Changed

7. • There is an opportunity for brands to use
content in various ways
• Create your own podcast, create your own
journal, publish a regular CEO blog,
publish blogs by sales executives
• Strategy depends on desired outcome –
generally sales or branding
Content Marketing

8. • LinkedIn is possibly the most important tool
available to sales teams today
• LinkedIn Pulse blogging platform allows sales
execs to create content demonstrating their
expertise – not hard selling
• Great articles bubble up and become
featured by LinkedIn in the community
• Even those not featured augment your profile
– write something relevant before a big
meeting because you know your client will
check LinkedIn to see who they are meeting
Sales

9. • LinkedIn can be used as the central point
as all new content there flows to the
network of the CEO
• Content can be repurposed for trade
journals, business journals
• PR and analyst teams can actively monitor
key journalists/analysts and alert them to
blog comment by the CEO
CEO

10. • Content works best when removed from
the process of sales – independent
• Example I worked on was a company who
wanted to be seen as a leading player
offering contact centres in central America
• Created an online magazine focused on
this subject, hired an editor plus staff,
created a popular journal and stayed
arms-length
Branding

11. • Obviously the ‘best’ depends on your business,
B2B or B2C, company ethos or style, and
customers
• However, it’s worth exploring multiple channels
and in many cases you can get the client to help –
if it does not take too much time
• For instance, a CEO that can be convinced to use
Instagram when travelling is worth a lot – photos
from on the road can be worked up into blogs and
internal reports
What’s the best channel?

12. • Nobody outside of the media business really cares
about number of followers, impressions, retweets
etc.
• Think about the end goal … is it to elevate the
brand in the public mind or to directly generate
sales? Measure what matters, not social KPIs
• Sales team only cares if their blogs gets meetings
with prospects (and then hopefully actual sales)
• Content can be very useful at creating
intermediate links – reaching to those who
influence the actual customers (journos/analysts)
Value and success

13. • Scope creep – client keeps adding just one more
Twitter account to your workload
• Execs too busy – nobody ever signs off on content
• Hubris – CEO assumes the world is waiting for his
or her message
• Bureaucracy – comms team needs to check every
comma in every tweet
• Technophobia – the online CEO doesn’t even know
how to install apps
• No commitment – they want to do something, but
have no budget or budget too small to be effective
What Can Go Wrong?

14. • Get the expected achievements on the
table from the start – not measurements
of social activity, business achievements
• Get the senior team to buy in
• Communicate with the team that interacts
most with the customers
• Agree a realistic time to ramp up
Keys to making it work

15. Corporate silos are blending. Marketing, sales, PR, advertising, customer
service etc… anything that interacts with customers needs to be
coordinated. What has changed?
• How we source and curate news
• How we find a new partner
• How we transfer money or seek loans
• How we engage politically
• How we get educated
• How we find a new job
In just the past decade, almost every human interaction has been
changed in some way… this really affects how company services are
found – all the rules have changed in recent years (look at fintech!)
Summary

16. • The customer journey used to be want a product –
go to a store – buy product – call customer service if
there is a problem
• Now it’s so much more complex and loyalty to a
brand comes from engagement and this requires
content and some kind of ongoing engagement
strategy
• Customers who become really engaged can become
advocates and fans – they will buy regardless of price
(Apple, Nike), but brands that fail to engage will really
struggle in this new communications environment
Customer Journey

17. mail@markhillary.com
@markhillary
markhillary.com
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