There's a massive difference between content marketing and thought leadership. We explore the difference and show you how to produce thought leadership, the content that actually drives the buying process.
Content Marketing and Thought LeadershipMark Lewis
Customers are increasingly serving them selves in the purchasing cycle. Content Marketing can help put your offerings on the radar and increase your lead generation. Here's few tips to how to get started.
Conventional wisdom says that social media isn't appropriate for B2B marketing. Conventional wisdom is wrong.
B2B companies were actually some of the first to adopt social media tools broadly and to discover the benefits of rich, ongoing customer conversations. B2B social media doesn't have the glamour and sex-appeal of big consumer campaigns like the Old Spice man, but Web 2.0 technologies are already firmly entrenched in firms ranging from commodities exchanges to high-tech vendors to sellers of construction supplies.
This presentation was delivered to the attendees of Godfrey's FWD:B2B conference on November 7th, 2013
Therese Jerrard, a gifted sales trainer at Deluxe Corp, gives a presentation that has great value for Small Business Sales – regardless of your comfort with selling or your type of business.
Why Marketing should care about EntertainmentWAKSTER Limited
Everyone’s competing for the attention of new and existing customer. Content marketing is now one of the most important tactics in a marketers’ mix but research shows that the biggest challenges content marketers consistently face are producing enough content, and producing the kind of content that engages their targets. The entertainment industry has been consistently creating and delivering engaging content for hundreds of years – what can we learn from them?
6 Steps to Deliver Personalized Shopping ExperiencesPimcore
Personalization has attained a certain criticality in retail, where current and future business scenarios are virtually unimaginable without it. Experiences that are more refined and tailormade in nature, not just for existing customers but for new visitors with the help of advanced capabilities and real time behavioural data have gained tremendous significance.
This infographic tries to cull out some key steps in establishing a connection with customers and making it more personalized for them.
Content Marketing and Thought LeadershipMark Lewis
Customers are increasingly serving them selves in the purchasing cycle. Content Marketing can help put your offerings on the radar and increase your lead generation. Here's few tips to how to get started.
Conventional wisdom says that social media isn't appropriate for B2B marketing. Conventional wisdom is wrong.
B2B companies were actually some of the first to adopt social media tools broadly and to discover the benefits of rich, ongoing customer conversations. B2B social media doesn't have the glamour and sex-appeal of big consumer campaigns like the Old Spice man, but Web 2.0 technologies are already firmly entrenched in firms ranging from commodities exchanges to high-tech vendors to sellers of construction supplies.
This presentation was delivered to the attendees of Godfrey's FWD:B2B conference on November 7th, 2013
Therese Jerrard, a gifted sales trainer at Deluxe Corp, gives a presentation that has great value for Small Business Sales – regardless of your comfort with selling or your type of business.
Why Marketing should care about EntertainmentWAKSTER Limited
Everyone’s competing for the attention of new and existing customer. Content marketing is now one of the most important tactics in a marketers’ mix but research shows that the biggest challenges content marketers consistently face are producing enough content, and producing the kind of content that engages their targets. The entertainment industry has been consistently creating and delivering engaging content for hundreds of years – what can we learn from them?
6 Steps to Deliver Personalized Shopping ExperiencesPimcore
Personalization has attained a certain criticality in retail, where current and future business scenarios are virtually unimaginable without it. Experiences that are more refined and tailormade in nature, not just for existing customers but for new visitors with the help of advanced capabilities and real time behavioural data have gained tremendous significance.
This infographic tries to cull out some key steps in establishing a connection with customers and making it more personalized for them.
Conversion Blunders eTailers Should Avoid at all Costs - Webinar SlidesHubSpot
The end goal of an ecommerce website is to drive increasing number of transactions. However, around 97% of visitors that come to your website are not ready to place a order yet. It is extremely important to successfully convert those visitors to customers.
Are popular security symbols really worth the money? Should your item pages have standard left-hand navigation? What's the fastest way to boost conversion rates 20%? In this webinar, jointly conducted by HubSpot and Conversions on Demand, we'll share practical answers to these questions and many more:
- Why you should focus on improving conversion rates
- Top 10 easy-to-fix conversion killing blunders
- What is conversion testing, and how to do it right
Extreme Customer Insight: Mastering the Marketing Secret WeaponApril Dunford
We know that understanding customers is the key to better marketing but we don't always get in front of customers as much as we should. Here's how to make customer interaction a habit, what questions to ask and how you can use what you've learned to improve everything (not just your marketing).
Jumpstart: The Guide To Growing A Startup With Inbound MarketingHubSpot
Jumpstart your startup with inbound marketing. A simple guide for entrepreneurs that want to grow their business using SEO, blogging and social media. From the makers of the original #CultureCode deck
Social mediastorytellings neierfinalsrbcStacy Neier
Social Media Story Telling. Presented for Loyola Limited's First Annual Student Run Business Conference, February 7-9, 2014.
With acknowledgement to Jamie Shuttleworth, Emanuel Rosen, and Paul M. Rand. Many thanks also to MarketingProfs.
Visit Loyola Limited via http://loyolalimited.com/
My Sum up of the Google B2B event on 29th Jan 2015
B2B Marketing is changing. Is your business ready?
B2B@Google will bring together B2B experts and your peers to inspire you to ignite change in your organization.
Gave a talk at StartCon about the future of Growth. I touch on viral marketing / referral marketing, fake news and social media, and marketplaces. Finally, the slides go through future technology platforms and how things might evolve there.
Salt Lake Comic Con: Driving Engagement Through Video MarketingSTRYDE
Created and presented by Bryan Brandenburg
Bryan Brandenburg, CMO and Co-founder of Salt Lake Comic Con, shares his strategy for bringing brands to the forefront using social media and video marketing. Presentation originally given at Inbound Marketing SLC: Content Marketing Focus on August 6, 2015.
Branding- The Importance of Branding in a Digital World (Richard Meads speaki...Blue Digital
Richard's presentation touches upon the importance of brand when trying to succeed online. He covered all aspects of brand including how it works alongside marketing and what you should be doing to differentiate yourselves amongst your competitors.
Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. One can use different digital & social tools to engage the customer more during the sales process. So after all it's about understanding the customer better, instead of pushing your message with force. Welcome to 21st century selling.
5 Easy Steps To Make Money in the Digital Food Marketplace by Homer "Homerun"...Homer Nievera
5 Easy Steps To Make Money in the Digital Food Marketplace. The presentation talks about tips and tricks to make your food business revenue driven through digital marketing techniques.
Thought leadership: winning the battle for attention in B2B technology marketingDamo Consulting Inc.
Thought leadership is the fastest growing spend category in content marketing today. Here are some best practices to get the most out of your investments in thought leadership marketing.
Thought leadership and content marketing: how to build a newsroomFINN
http://finnpr.com - The benefits of content marketing, inbound marketing and thought leadership are clear. High quality content is a proven way to increase the reputation of a company, generate leads or drive sales.
It can help establish organization leaders as visionaries in their industry, to increase their influence and it can help your organization to make its point to key stakeholders like politicians, regulators and customers.
Almost any reputational or marketing goal can be (at least partly) achieved through the creation of smart, timely content. Also, content marketing and thought leadership are great for SEO.
Guest blogs and op-eds that we have co-created with experts and leaders have been published in international media like Forbes, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, Inc, Tech.eu, The Next Web, CFO.com and others. Not only are a few of these domains in the top 1000 most visited web properties in the world, they are also reputable sources that can give your SEO a nice kick.
If you’re reading this, however, we will assume that you don’t need to be convinced of the benefits of thought leadership, content marketing or inbound marketing.
You are interested in starting a program yourself, but you just don’t know how to do it. That’s what this presentation is for: to show you exactly how you can set up a robust collaboration between a writer, a thought leader (CEO or expert) and the corporate communication department.
Conversion Blunders eTailers Should Avoid at all Costs - Webinar SlidesHubSpot
The end goal of an ecommerce website is to drive increasing number of transactions. However, around 97% of visitors that come to your website are not ready to place a order yet. It is extremely important to successfully convert those visitors to customers.
Are popular security symbols really worth the money? Should your item pages have standard left-hand navigation? What's the fastest way to boost conversion rates 20%? In this webinar, jointly conducted by HubSpot and Conversions on Demand, we'll share practical answers to these questions and many more:
- Why you should focus on improving conversion rates
- Top 10 easy-to-fix conversion killing blunders
- What is conversion testing, and how to do it right
Extreme Customer Insight: Mastering the Marketing Secret WeaponApril Dunford
We know that understanding customers is the key to better marketing but we don't always get in front of customers as much as we should. Here's how to make customer interaction a habit, what questions to ask and how you can use what you've learned to improve everything (not just your marketing).
Jumpstart: The Guide To Growing A Startup With Inbound MarketingHubSpot
Jumpstart your startup with inbound marketing. A simple guide for entrepreneurs that want to grow their business using SEO, blogging and social media. From the makers of the original #CultureCode deck
Social mediastorytellings neierfinalsrbcStacy Neier
Social Media Story Telling. Presented for Loyola Limited's First Annual Student Run Business Conference, February 7-9, 2014.
With acknowledgement to Jamie Shuttleworth, Emanuel Rosen, and Paul M. Rand. Many thanks also to MarketingProfs.
Visit Loyola Limited via http://loyolalimited.com/
My Sum up of the Google B2B event on 29th Jan 2015
B2B Marketing is changing. Is your business ready?
B2B@Google will bring together B2B experts and your peers to inspire you to ignite change in your organization.
Gave a talk at StartCon about the future of Growth. I touch on viral marketing / referral marketing, fake news and social media, and marketplaces. Finally, the slides go through future technology platforms and how things might evolve there.
Salt Lake Comic Con: Driving Engagement Through Video MarketingSTRYDE
Created and presented by Bryan Brandenburg
Bryan Brandenburg, CMO and Co-founder of Salt Lake Comic Con, shares his strategy for bringing brands to the forefront using social media and video marketing. Presentation originally given at Inbound Marketing SLC: Content Marketing Focus on August 6, 2015.
Branding- The Importance of Branding in a Digital World (Richard Meads speaki...Blue Digital
Richard's presentation touches upon the importance of brand when trying to succeed online. He covered all aspects of brand including how it works alongside marketing and what you should be doing to differentiate yourselves amongst your competitors.
Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. One can use different digital & social tools to engage the customer more during the sales process. So after all it's about understanding the customer better, instead of pushing your message with force. Welcome to 21st century selling.
5 Easy Steps To Make Money in the Digital Food Marketplace by Homer "Homerun"...Homer Nievera
5 Easy Steps To Make Money in the Digital Food Marketplace. The presentation talks about tips and tricks to make your food business revenue driven through digital marketing techniques.
Thought leadership: winning the battle for attention in B2B technology marketingDamo Consulting Inc.
Thought leadership is the fastest growing spend category in content marketing today. Here are some best practices to get the most out of your investments in thought leadership marketing.
Thought leadership and content marketing: how to build a newsroomFINN
http://finnpr.com - The benefits of content marketing, inbound marketing and thought leadership are clear. High quality content is a proven way to increase the reputation of a company, generate leads or drive sales.
It can help establish organization leaders as visionaries in their industry, to increase their influence and it can help your organization to make its point to key stakeholders like politicians, regulators and customers.
Almost any reputational or marketing goal can be (at least partly) achieved through the creation of smart, timely content. Also, content marketing and thought leadership are great for SEO.
Guest blogs and op-eds that we have co-created with experts and leaders have been published in international media like Forbes, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, Inc, Tech.eu, The Next Web, CFO.com and others. Not only are a few of these domains in the top 1000 most visited web properties in the world, they are also reputable sources that can give your SEO a nice kick.
If you’re reading this, however, we will assume that you don’t need to be convinced of the benefits of thought leadership, content marketing or inbound marketing.
You are interested in starting a program yourself, but you just don’t know how to do it. That’s what this presentation is for: to show you exactly how you can set up a robust collaboration between a writer, a thought leader (CEO or expert) and the corporate communication department.
Edelman & LinkedIn: How Thought Leadership Impacts B2B Demand GenerationEdelman
Edelman and LinkedIn have collaborated on a new research study of more than 1,300 business decision makers and C-suite executives that explores how thought leadership influences their own behaviors throughout the B2B purchase process.
Learn more here: http://www.edelman.com/b2b-thought-leadership
On October 31 and November 1, 2017, Google, Twitter and Facebook sent their general counsels to testify before House and Senate intelligence committees to answer questions about the role their platforms played in the dissemination of Russian-instigated disinformation designed to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In the days immediately after the hearings, Edelman fielded a flash poll among the U.S. general population. The survey examined the various definitions people have for fake news, the role people believe social platforms play in disseminating fake news, and whether the social platforms require more oversight and regulation.
#ThinkContent Tour London: IBM, Philips, NewsCredNewsCred
Andrew Grill, Global Managing Partner, IBM Social Consulting
Eva Barrett, Global Head of Brand Marketing Communications, Philips
Shafqat Islam, CEO and cofounder, NewsCred
Alex Cheeseman, Head of International Strategy, NewsCred
This is the full slidedeck of our Smartees Workshop on Co-Creative Innovation, hosted in London on Thursday 26 March 2015. The presentation elaborates on how to involve your consumers (or co-creators) in all stages of your innovation process,all of this illustrated with different client cases and followed by an interactive workshop session.
30 min guide: Discover the ZEN of B2B marketingAnders Lindgren
The formula is as powerful as it is simple. To reach and captivate your most likely buyers in our new digital service economy, simply be more precise and more human in your communication.
HUBERT GREALISH - Next MBA 2hrs LECTURE - CONSCIOUS MARKETERS AND BRAND LEADE...HubertGrealish
This was a two hour lecture to students of the famed NEXT MBA program worldwide, delivered alongside marketing industry legend Philip Kotler.
Excellent feedback received and follow on dialogue with the student participants, whom remain in contact.
NEXT MBA is world leading with teachesr including Seth Godin, Philip Kotler and more.
NEXT MBA makes world-class education affordable all around the Globe.
NEXT MBA provides practical and professional knowledge in Leadership, Digital Marketing, and Technology-related fields by highly qualified experts via live lessons online.
https://nextmba.com/
This is the full presentation of the introduction to young advertising students from the Belgian Advertising School to the world of market research (6 October, 2014). Presentation by Hakim Zemni, Katia Pallini & Tom De Ruyck.
Brand Box 5 - How To Say It - The Marketer's Ultimate ToolkitAshton Bishop
http://www.stepchangemarketing.com/
In this Slideshare presentation:
1. Brand Box 5 - How to say it 2. Actions from Insights 3. How to say it 4. Ogilvy on Advertising 5. Reason and Emotion 6. Cialdini's tools of influence 7. Advertising 8. Uses of advertising 9. Advertising: Broad definitions 10. The advertising cycle 11. The advertising cycle cont... 12. Neuromarketing 13. The typical major league baseball pitch 14. Decision making 15. Major league baseball pitch cont... 16. The new model for decision making 17. Why do we need somatic markers 18. When is one faculty used over the other 19. How does this sell things 20. Classic media theory 21. Neuromedia theory 22. Example: Share of mind case study 23. A couple of examples 24. A couple of examples cont... 25. Direct response 26. Styles of direct response marketing 27. Direct Response 28. Direct Response Implementation 29. The BOSCH Formula 30. The 5 step (POWER) copywriting process 31. Single Mindedness 32. Defining great communication 33. Essence of Communication 34. Ideas vs. Information 35. What makes a great idea 36. Example: Papa John's pizza 37. Example: Copenhagen Zoo 38. Example: Belgium Cancer foundation 39. Example: Australian Red Cross 40. Example: BBC World 41. Example: Seeing eye dogs Australia 42. Example: Global Coalition for Peace 43. Example: Panasonic 44. Example: Summerville 45. Example: Karate Bushido 46. Example: Heinz 47. Example: Jobs in town 48. Example: Colgate 49: Example: Yoga center 50. Keeping it simple 51. Assessing Ads 52. Assessing communication 53. AIDA(S) 54. Tools for driving great advertising 55. The 3 part brief 56. The 9 questions 57. Testimonials 58. Power of testimonials 59.
How to prepare for a more efficient content marketing 2014? Vendemore, the leader in targeted digital B2B marketing and Feverpitch, not an agency - but a lead factory. A pragmatic one stop-shop for content marketing, invited Vendemore customers to a workshop on Content Marketing. This is the presentation that kick-started the workshop.
“The (M)admen of the 50 s were the first User Experience designers”Bunnyfoot
The talk covers:
evidence based design,
function over form,
measuring effectiveness,
persuasive design,
emotional design.
Find out how some of the leading lights of the Madison Avenue admen era were practicing and delivering positive, persuasive and profitable customer interactions decades before digital – most of the wisdom is still relevant today.
a new copy testing research tool for measuring advertising effectiveness. A fresh approach to advertising research and communications testing by MM-Eye
On Tuesday, August 11 2015 we held a great inbound marketing event.
We had two presentations.
#1 Buyer Personas - What are they and why are they important? from Leah Hoyland from HubSpot
#2 Utilize Email To Generate and Nurture Leads/Potential Customers by Darren Faber w/ Foxtail Marketing
A few of my top-of-mind takeaways from this year's Planningness event. Be sure to check out my original piece for more context and details: bit.ly/1sbEu6n
Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?Cut-the-SaaS
Discover the transformative power of AI in content creation with our presentation, "Is AI-Generated Content the Future of Content Creation?" by Puran Parsani, CEO & Editor of Cut-The-SaaS. Learn how AI-generated content is revolutionizing marketing, publishing, education, healthcare, and finance by offering unprecedented efficiency, creativity, and scalability.
Understanding
AI-Generated Content:
AI-generated content includes text, images, videos, and audio produced by AI without direct human involvement. This technology leverages large datasets to create contextually relevant and coherent material, streamlining content production.
Key Benefits:
Content Creation: Rapidly generate high-quality content for blogs, articles, and social media.
Brainstorming: AI simulates conversations to inspire creative ideas.
Research Assistance: Efficiently summarize and research information.
Market Insights:
The content marketing industry is projected to grow to $17.6 billion by 2032, with AI-generated content expected to dominate over 55% of the market.
Case Study: CNET’s AI Content Controversy:
CNET’s use of AI for news articles led to public scrutiny due to factual inaccuracies, highlighting the need for transparency and human oversight.
Benefits Across Industries:
Marketing: Personalize content at scale and optimize engagement with predictive analytics.
Publishing: Automate content creation for faster publication cycles.
Education: Efficiently generate educational materials.
Healthcare: Create accurate content for patients and professionals.
Finance: Produce timely financial content for decision-making.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations:
Transparency: Disclose AI use to maintain trust.
Bias: Address potential AI biases with diverse datasets.
SEO: Ensure AI content meets SEO standards.
Quality: Maintain high standards to prevent misinformation.
Conclusion:
AI-generated content offers significant benefits in efficiency, personalization, and scalability. However, ethical considerations and quality assurance are crucial for responsible use. Explore the future of content creation with us and see how AI is transforming various industries.
Connect with Us:
Follow Cut-The-SaaS on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Medium. Visit cut-the-saas.com for more insights and resources.
A.I. (artificial intelligence) platforms are popping up all the time, and many of them can and should be used to help grow your brand, increase your sales and decrease your marketing costs.In this presentation:We will review some of the best AI platforms that are available for you to use.We will interact with some of the platforms in real-time, so attendees can see how they work.We will also look at some current brands that are using AI to help them create marketing messages, saving them time and money in the process. Lastly, we will discuss the pros and cons of using AI in marketing & branding and have a lively conversation that includes comments from the audience.
Key Takeaways:
Attendees will learn about LLM platforms, like ChatGPT, and how they work, with preset examples and real time interactions with the platform. Attendees will learn about other AI platforms that are creating graphic design elements at the push of a button...pre-set examples and real-time interactions.Attendees will discuss the pros & cons of AI in marketing + branding and share their perspectives with one another. Attendees will learn about the cost savings and the time savings associated with using AI, should they choose to.
The What, Why & How of 3D and AR in Digital CommercePushON Ltd
Vladimir Mulhem has over 20 years of experience in commercialising cutting edge creative technology across construction, marketing and retail.
Previously the founder and Tech and Innovation Director of Creative Content Works working with the likes of Next, John Lewis and JD Sport, he now helps retailers, brands and agencies solve challenges of applying the emerging technologies 3D, AR, VR and Gen AI to real-world problems.
In this webinar, Vladimir will be covering the following topics:
Applications of 3D and AR in Digital Commerce,
Benefits of 3D and AR,
Tools to create, manage and publish 3D and AR in Digital Commerce.
Come learn how YOU can Animate and Illuminate the World with Generative AI's Explosive Power. Come sit in the driver's seat and learn to harness this great technology.
10 Video Ideas Any Business Can Make RIGHT NOW!
You'll never draw a blank again on what kind of video to make for your business. Go beyond the basic categories and truly reimagine a brand new advanced way to brainstorm video content creation. During this masterclass you'll be challenged to think creatively and outside of the box and view your videos through lenses you may have never thought of previously. It's guaranteed that you'll leave with more than 10 video ideas, but I like to under-promise and over-deliver. Don't miss this session.
Key Takeaways:
How to use the Video Matrix
How to use additional "Lenses"
Where to source original video ideas
Videos are more engaging, more memorable, and more popular than any other type of content out there. That’s why it’s estimated that 82% of consumer traffic will come from videos by 2025.
And with videos evolving from landscape to portrait and experts promoting shorter clips, one thing remains constant – our brains LOVE videos.
So is there science behind what makes people absolutely irresistible on camera?
The answer: definitely yes.
In this jam-packed session with Stephanie Garcia, you’ll get your hands on a steal-worthy guide that uncovers the art and science to being irresistible on camera. From body language to words that convert, she’ll show you how to captivate on command so that viewers are excited and ready to take action.
AI-Powered Personalization: Principles, Use Cases, and Its Impact on CROVWO
In today’s era of AI, personalization is more than just a trend—it’s a fundamental strategy that unlocks numerous opportunities.
When done effectively, personalization builds trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among your users—key factors for business success. However, relying solely on AI capabilities isn’t enough. You need to anchor your approach in solid principles, understand your users’ context, and master the art of persuasion.
Join us as Sarjak Patel and Naitry Saggu from 3rd Eye Consulting unveil a transformative framework. This approach seamlessly integrates your unique context, consumer insights, and conversion goals, paving the way for unparalleled success in personalization.
5 big bets to drive growth in 2024 without one additional marketing dollar AND how to adapt to the biggest shifting eCommerce trend- AI.
1) Romance Your Customers - Retention
2) ‘Alternative’ Lead Gen - Advocacy
3) The Beautiful Basics - Conversion Rate Optimization
4) Land that Bottom Line - Profitability
5) Roll the Dice - New Business Models
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
Digital Commerce Lecture for Advanced Digital & Social Media Strategy at UCLA...Valters Lauzums
E-commerce in 2024 is characterized by a dynamic blend of opportunities and significant challenges. Supply chain disruptions and inventory shortages are critical issues, leading to increased shipping delays and rising costs, which impact timely delivery and squeeze profit margins. Efficient logistics management is essential, yet it is often hampered by these external factors. Payment processing, while needing to ensure security and user convenience, grapples with preventing fraud and integrating diverse payment methods, adding another layer of complexity. Furthermore, fulfillment operations require a streamlined approach to handle volume spikes and maintain accuracy in order picking, packing, and shipping, all while meeting customers' heightened expectations for faster delivery times.
Amid these operational challenges, customer data has emerged as an important strategy. By focusing on personalization and enhancing customer experience from historical behavior, businesses can deliver improved website and brand experienced, better product recommendations, optimal promotions, and content to meet individual preferences. Better data analytics can also help in effectively creating marketing campaigns, improving customer retention, and driving product development and inventory management.
Innovative formats such as social commerce and live shopping are beginning to impact the digital commerce landscape, offering new ways to engage with customers and drive sales, and may provide opportunity for brands that have been priced out or seen a downturn with post-pandemic shopping behavior. Social commerce integrates shopping experiences directly into social media platforms, tapping into the massive user bases of these networks to increase reach and engagement. Live shopping, on the other hand, combines entertainment and real-time interaction, providing a dynamic platform for showcasing products and encouraging immediate purchases. These innovations not only enhance customer engagement but also provide valuable data for businesses to refine their strategies and deliver superior shopping experiences.
The e-commerce sector is evolving rapidly, and businesses that effectively manage operational challenges and implement innovative strategies are best positioned for long-term success.
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
Everyone knows the power of stories, but when asked to come up with them, we struggle. Either we second guess ourselves as to the story's relevance, or we just come up blank and can't think of any. Unlocking Everyday Narratives: The Power of Storytelling in Marketing will teach you how to recognize stories in the moment and to recall forgotten moments that your audience needs to hear.
Key Takeaways:
Understand Why Personal Stories Connect Better
How To Remember Forgotten Stories
How To Use Customer Experiences As Stories For Your Brand
Top 3 Ways to Align Sales and Marketing Teams for Rapid GrowthDemandbase
In this session, Demandbase’s Stephanie Quinn, Sr. Director of Integrated and Digital Marketing, Devin Rosenberg, Director of Sales, and Kevin Rooney, Senior Director of Sales Development will share how sales and marketing shapes their day-to-day and what key areas are needed for true alignment.
The session includes a brief history of the evolution of search before diving into the roles technology, content, and links play in developing a powerful SEO strategy in a world of Generative AI and social search. Discover how to optimize for TikTok searches, Google's Gemini, and Search Generative Experience while developing a powerful arsenal of tools and templates to help maximize the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
Understand how search engines work
Be able to find out where your users search
Know what is required for each discipline of SEO
Feel confident creating an SEO Plan
Confidently measure SEO performance
Core Web Vitals SEO Workshop - improve your performance [pdf]Peter Mead
Core Web Vitals to improve your website performance for better SEO results with CWV.
CWV Topics include:
- Understanding the latest Core Web Vitals including the significance of LCP, INP and CLS + their impact on SEO
- Optimisation techniques from our experts on how to improve your CWV on platforms like WordPress and WP Engine
- The impact of user experience and SEO
13. In fact, it’s so hard that I only found one or two definitions
that I actually liked…
A thought leader is someone who looks at the present
and sets a better course for the future that compels
others to follow.
- Shel Israel
14. But, like most things, it’s easier to understand and practice
when you break it down into chunks
22. Map to the different stages of the buying cycle
Top types of information sought in each stage of the IT
decision-making process
Engage Nurture Acquire
Product / solution demo / software trial
Best practices, how-tos, checklists
IT industry news / strategy info
Diagnostics or assessment tools
Or more aptly, how content marketing is like the matrix.
I know that sounds outlandish, but stay with me.
Like Neo, we, too, have a choice between the red pill and the blue pill.
Here is what I mean by that.
We are looking at Google Trends for in, blue, ‘Content Marketing’ and, in red, ‘Thought Leadership’, over the last eight years.
You can see that at one point, they were virtually identical and they are now growing further apart and that trend is forecasted to continue.
And what I am here to suggest is this: the graph shows that we are talking about the wrong thing.
What drives actual business decisions in the B2B and, increasingly in the B2C space, is original content that offers IOU > Inspirational, Original, Useful.
Curated, syndicated, or derivative content does not of those things.
But increasingly that is what drives that blue line up and to the right.
Genuine thought leadership makes a difference and we’re not spending enough time there.
++++++++++++++++++++
HERE IS WHAT WE’RE TALKIN
CONTENT MARKETING DOES NOT INFLUENCE DECISIONS
WHAT DOES INFLUENCE DECISIONS
NOT ENOUGH CONVERSATION ABOUT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, WHICH IS WHERE WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Dan Slagen from Hubspot realizes that just producing derivative, ‘me-too’ content simply does not cut it.
It is commoditized.
It is a race to the bottom.
What does cut it and, as we’ll see later from Hubspot, is IOU > Insightful, Original, and Useful content that makes your better at what you do / want to do.
The data bears this out as well:
¾ of the buyers choose the vendor that adds value and helps them create their buying vision. You can’t do that by curating other people’s content, by sharing other people’s vision. You need your own perspective, spparoach and vision.
That’s what buyers want because that creates trust and that’s what they are buying.
That’s why thought leadership matters.
+++++++++++++++
And that that’s what buyers want: original ideas that add value as they scope a vision for a better future.
If the data shows us that thought leadership, founded on delivering Insightful, Original, Useful perspective to buyers is what works, why don’t more brands take ‘red pills’?
It takes a brave marketer to advocate and invest in the long-term.
It is extremely difficult to do that when your company is structured to serve the public markets.
This leads to a focus on short-term campaigns and not long-term health.
The reality is that a real thought leadership program takes 1-2 years to build, not 1-2 posts.
It takes a brave marketer.
In addition to short-term thinking, most brands are still not comfortable producing thought leadership because that comes from a place of empathy and brands come from a place of apathy.
They don’t know their customers and, often, they don’t care.
They need to move units for quarterly earnings and that looks a lot like the above.
Brands should start by writing stories, how-tos, and webinars that answer client challenges:
What are their audiences problems?
What are their aspirations?
What is their vision for the future and how can you help them to get there?
Most brands simply do not know the answers to these questions.
The final piece is that organizations are organized to produce harmony and Hippo.
They are not generally organized around understanding the customer and producing compelling products that solve customer needs.
As a result, ideas that require, patience, bravery, and empathy get wittled down in the process.
Thought leadership is really hard. I think we get that by now, but let’s shift gears and talk about how we can start producing thought leadership: the content that really matters.
Let’s start by defining what ‘Thought Leadership’ is, which is actually surprisingly difficult.
There are many articles on how to become a thought leader, most of them crap, but few that distill the idea down into a digestable definition.
I like the simplicity and action in this one from Shel Israel.
We think about thought leadership in three ways:
Industry Thought Leadership (owning a point of view on the news, industry, and future)
Product Thought Leadership (producing how-tos, best practices, strategy guides)
Organizational Thought leadership (sharing company values and building your talent brand)
If you can do any 1 of these 3, you are a superstar, if you can do all 3 of these you are, to use an overrated term, ‘world-class’
Let’s take a little poll and see how many of you think your brands are doing this. Put both hands in the air and
0 fingers means you’re not doing it at all.
10 fingers means you’re doing all three.
Interesting mix of responses – would love to talk to some of you after this session about what you’re seeing work and not work.
Let’s dig deeper and look at some of the best practitioners in the space.
One example that I like is a16z.
In my opinion, nobody produces more thought leadership about the future of technology and how that is changing our world than a16z.
Marc Andreesen, in particular, paints a compelling vision of the future and explains how we can there together (through the companies that they fund, of course).
He is famous for his statement ‘software is eating the world’, which is captured in the below quotation and probably best seen by us in the example of Uber. What started out as a way to hail a taxi, is now a technology platform that is changing logistics globally.
He’s tremendously compelling and a magnet for the best entrepreneurs.
On the product leadership front, Hubspot is a tremendous example.
They are changing marketing from outbound – think Piccadilly Circus – to inbound marketing, which says that the best way to attract customers and turn them into evangelists is to produce compelling and personalized content that makes them better marketers.
Contrast this approach with marketers that only want to talk about themselves. This is empathy-led marketing.
The final type of thought leadership, is perhaps the newest.
It deals with what we call talent brand: a way to share with the world your company culture through vision, mission, values as you try to persuade talent to come build your business.
Perhaps the best known example is Netflix and it’s document on culture and the type of people they want to hire to disrupt an industry and unbundle media.
It’s a tremendous document that Sheryl Sandberg calls one of the most important documents to come out of Silicon Valley.
Talent is the #1 issue for most brands, so this becomes a way to attract, retain, and reward your talent.
Also, what did they just move into? Original content.
Now that we’ve defined thought leadership, discussed its chunks, and looked at who is doing it well, let’s get tactical.
There is a whole separate conversation about strategy, but we’re not going to talk about that in detail right now:
- Securing senior support
Defining your company position on thought leadership
Aligning to business goals
I hate when I leave conversations without something tangible and immediate, so instead, we are going to talk tactics and how to produce thought leadership.
This is what we see marketers asking for in our meetings.
I am going to show you how we do it at LinkedIn.
Given thought leadership needs to be insightful, original, and useful, we pick maximum one ‘red pill’ per quarter and focus on that.
It is always a topic where we feel we can add value and we offer our opinion and also partner with other experts to arrive at a holistic view.
This quarter we picked the Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to Thought Leadership, which whether you knew it or not, is what we’ve been discussing.
It is our own original content.
We then think about how to use that single, meaty, piece of content to fuel a considerable part of the content marketing that we do that quarter.
We, of course, also curate content, but our marketing mix includes significant parts original thought leadership. We then, slice that content, dice that content, and make turkey curry out of that content, in order to make it work on all strategic channels for us.
We make sure the context is right for each channel and we make sure we have enough fresh content for each channel.
This makes sure that you are thinking through your personas and understanding what people want at each stage of the decision making process.
Empathy-led marketing.
Reach
Nurture
Acquire
Distribute and track using marketing automation software, so we know if you’ve already read awareness material, we can graduate you on to the nurture materials and so on.
This makes sure that we are offering a personalized marketing experience for everybody that we engage.
That personalization ensures relevance, which drives impact.
We need
Qualitative:
- Keep track of relationships developed with other industry leaders, potential customers. They will translate, in the long-run, into revenue.
- Do surveys on corporate reputation and ensure that you are developing a reputation as a trusted advisor. This moves to upstream in the conversation and makes you more strategic and valuable.
Quantitative:
You will see revenue signs, in time.
At the start, you will see, and think Hubspot here:
Better inbound enquiries
Faster sales cycles
Higher lifetime customer value