Creating an effective content marketing strategy requires identifying your core messaging and target personas, mapping your message to each persona, organizing content by distribution method, incorporating different voices (corporate, subject matter expert, personal), keeping content topical and relevant to current events, and most importantly, being authentic in your messaging. The goal of content marketing is to establish yourself as a trusted subject matter expert by providing valuable, educational content to your target audience.

1. Standing Out from the Crowd
with Digital Marketing
Christian Buckley
CollabTalk LLC

2. Christian Buckley
Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC
Microsoft Regional Director & MVP
cbuck@collabtalk.com
www.buckleyplanet.com
@buckleyplanet

3. Whether building your company brand,
launching a new product or service, or
extending your personal brand as an
expert and thought-leader, modern digital
marketing can be complex and confusing.
People need an actionable game plan for
their content and social strategies.
“
“

4. Marketing has become increasingly complex, and
models in use 10 years are no longer effective.
In the digital age, effective marketing must be
social, authentic, and consistent, engage with key
influencers, build customer good-will, and help
develop brand advocacy.

5. Buying ad space in magazines is out. Paying for
banner ads on leading websites, or even paid
search results, are showing decreasing returns.
Email marketing suffers from "trust issues" with
end users. Whether its due to consumer fatigue
(we've worn people down), or audience maturity
(they've gotten smarter), traditional marketing
just doesn't work the way it used to.
Which is not to say that there is not value in these
old marketing methods -- just that you need to
reset your expectations about what you can
achieve, and develop some new strategies to
generate leads and build trust with your
prospective customers.

6. When author and marketing guru
Seth Godin published his book
‘Permission Marketing‘ back in 2001,
the traditional methods of marketing
were being fundamentally
transformed by the maturity of
the internet and advanced email
marketing techniques.

7. “Permission marketing is the privilege
(not the right) of delivering anticipated,
personal and relevant messages to
people who actually want to get them.”
— Seth Godin

8. “Because the purpose of business
is to create and keep a customer, the
business enterprise has two—and only
two—basic functions: marketing and
innovation. Marketing and innovation
produce results; all the rest are costs.
Marketing is the distinguishing, unique
function of the business.”
Peter Drucker

9. The number one failure of organizations with
marketing has nothing to do with technology.

10. Mistake #1:
Focusing too much on brand

12. A common mistake is thinking that your
corporate branding – your logo, tagline,
and chosen color palette – constitutes
your brand.
More than any design elements, it is you,
your company culture, and the reputation
of your front-line employees that define
your brand and level of influence.
Your
Logo

13. https://www.fastcompany.com/
28905/brand-called-you

14. “Regardless of age, regardless
of position, regardless of the
business we happen to be in, all
of us need to understand the
importance of branding. We are
CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc.
To be in business today, our most
important job is to be head
marketer for the brand called You.
It’s that simple — and that hard.
And that inescapable.”
Tom Peters

15. Mistake #2:
Relying too much on metrics

16. “We have a deep-seated
desire to quantify the world
around us so that we can
understand it and control it.
But the world isn’t behaving.
We must consider the
possibility that if we can’t
measure something, it might
be the very most important
aspect of the problem.”
It is compellingly seductive to
try to predict the future as
though it were a quantifiable
extrapolation of the past. Doing
otherwise lays us open to
critique and ridicule. People are
far more likely to subscribe to
our view of the future (next
quarter’s sales) if we can
quantify what we are saying.
Hence the need for more data
and information. But this can be
an addictive toxin: More
information merely creates the
demand for more information.”
“The notion that ‘if you can’t
measure it, it doesn’t count’ is
flatly false. You can manage
through fear and intimidation,
role modeling, love, random
eccentricities, or mantras.
None of those require
measurement. We’re so in love
with quantitative ideology that
we’ve quite forgotten what it
was supposed to measure in
the first place.”

17. “Many executives have a love affair with
spreadsheets. I am not one of them. In
fact, I encourage my team to approach
spreadsheets with a healthy dose of
skepticism, and I caution everyone else to
do the same. Spreadsheets are no doubt
very useful tools, but too many executives
view them as the be-all and end-all for
their planning. They manage from the
spreadsheet, viewing it as an oracle,
rather than as the map that it actually is.
Ron Shaich, Panera Bread

18. Mistake #3:
Standing still when you
should be moving

19. ▪ Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a
product with just enough features to
gather validated learning about the
product and its continued development.
▪ Modern organizations are (or try to be)
agile, opting for iterative development
and “scrums”, with increasing emphasis
put on change management and
governance best practices

20. “Management’s job is to
optimize the whole system.”
W. Edwards Deming

21. One of the biggest mistakes in any product or
software development effort is spending too
much time on the details of the first iteration,
often referred to as analysis paralysis.
The key to rapid prototype development is to
not try to do too much at the beginning of your
project – instead, follow an iterative model and
move forward.
There is always time later in the process to add
detail to your requirements.

22. Mistake #4:
Failing to have a plan

23. ▪ Message
▪ Delivery
▪ Volume
= Strategy
= Influence
= Amplification

24. What is your target market?
▪ What is your Total Applicable (or Available) Market?
▪ What is your Served Available Market?
▪ What is your geographic reach?
▪ What are your primary channels of distribution
within that reach?
▪ Who are your key partners for sales and marketing
within those channels?
▪ What will it cost for you to capture 10 to 20
percent of that market?

25. Building Social Capital

27. http://www.traackr.com/faces-of-influence
Patterns of influence
can shift and change
due to organizational
structures, available
tools, and roles.

28. ▪ Most companies do not understand who the influencers
are within their customer communities, and how to
tailor their messages to those influencers.
▪ Even more elusive than a strategy for external
influencers is a plan for internal influencers, and yet
these people are often the eyes and the hands for an
organization.
▪ Just because something is difficult to measure does not
mean that it does not have value.
▪ Whether you have someone dedicated to building out
your corporate brand, like an evangelist, or you take the
time to ensure each customer interaction provides the
right branding message, the secret is to at least try to
measure the outcomes of influence.

29. Influence can gain early attention, but long-term success can
also be gained through consistency of message and activity
https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-would-ashton-do-and-does-it-matter

30. Build a Champion Program (Office 365 Team) http://bit.ly/2roTeZS

31. Build Tip #1:
Be authentic

32. Be authentic
http://www.authenticbrandindex.com/

33. Build Tip #2:
Develop trust

34. Consider & Buy
Companies overemphasize
this phase, allocating more
resources to awareness
through traditional
advertising and encouraging
purchase with “retail”
promotions
Evaluate & Advocate
This phase has increasingly
become relevant. Marketing
investments that help
consumers navigate the
evaluation process and then
spread positive word of
mouth are as important as
building awareness and
driving purchase
Trust
If a consumer’s bond with
a brand is strong enough,
they may repurchase without
cycling through the earlier
decision-journey stages, and
influence others in this same
decision
The Consumer Decision-Journey

35. Build Tip #3:
Be an evangelist

37. Build Tip #4:
Be a broker between networks

40. http://observer.com/2015/08/the-no-1-predictor-of-career-success-according-to-network-science/

41. http://observer.com/2015/08/the-no-1-predictor-of-career-success-according-to-network-science/

42. http://observer.com/2015/08/the-no-1-predictor-of-career-success-according-to-network-science/

43. A key insight from network science is the power of brokering, the act of moving
information from one group to another. Burt explains, “What a broker does is make
a sticky information market more fluid. Great ideas will never move if we wait for
them to be spoken in the same language.”
Network brokers (i.e. – connectors) have three advantages:
• Breadth. They pull their information from diverse clusters.
• Timing. While they may not be the first to hear information, they are first to
introduce information to another cluster.
• Translation. They develop skills in translating one group’s knowledge into
another’s insight.
Combined these three advantages give an individual an overall vision advantage to
see, create, and take advantage of opportunities.
In an article by Forbes contributor Michael Simmons
(Why Being the Most Connected is a Vanity Metric),
he shares some further insights from Ron Burt:

46. Build Tip #5:
Constantly refresh your network

48. Finding Value by Providing Value

49. A Balanced Approach
▪ Personal Value
▪ Business Value
▪ Community Value

50. Building a Social Capital “Engine”
1. Love what you do
2. Give your time
3. Be honest about what you know and don’t know
4. Create great content
5. Become an advocate for your local community
6. Provide product and platform feedback
7. Keep competition in check
8. Get creative
9. Recognize others
10. Constantly expand your knowledge

51. Next Steps

52. Building a brand is hard.
You need to be authentic. You need
to be consistent. You need to be have
a message and be passionate about
what you’re doing. And you need to
be there, week after week, month
after month, year after year.
That’s how you build the trust.
Showing up is 95% of it.

53. Creating a Content Marketing strategy
Content marketing has replaced traditional marketing. Companies with blogs
generate 67% more leads per month on average than non-blogging firms.
(Social Media B2B)
What is content marketing, exactly? Providing relevant, timely, and authentic
content to consumers, allowing you to build trust and spread good will.
Traditional marketing provides limited results, but content marketing can be
your key to establishing yourself or your company as “the” subject matter
experts in your space, and help you to get your key messaging out to your
target customers. In fact, 61% of consumer say they feel better about a company
that provides custom content, and are more likely to buy from that company
(Custom Content Council).

54. Your content marketing strategy should be
▪ Consistent
▪ Verbose
▪ Strategic

55. Strategy Tip #1:
Identify your core messaging

56. You must be clear on what you want to achieve:
▪ Improved branding
▪ Thought-leadership
▪ Partnerships and alliances
▪ Product or service feedback
▪ Competitive intelligence
▪ Corporate strategy
▪ Community development
▪ Internal cultural improvements

57. Take Note:
▪ Creating marketing copy is not the same as developing authentic, valued content.
▪ In the former, you're writing text to fit your marketing message. In the latter, you're
developing content with the goal of helping your prospective customers -- without strong
(read: obvious) marketing messaging.
▪ It has more to do with providing education, and demonstrating your knowledge and
expertise. As your reputation (and social influence) grows, you can then leverage your
leadership position to open doors, engage with the community, and talk about your products
and services.

58. Strategy Tip #2:
Identify your target personas

59. Identify your target customer personas
Every company has a target customer or customer. Give them names. Define job titles, their
unique problem statement, and understand why this ideal customer is in need of your solution.
If you understand who you are trying to sell to, you'll have a better idea of the types of content
this person needs to
1) understand the problem space (or to help them recognize that there is even a problem),
2) understand what is needed to solve the problem, and
3) understand how your company can solve the problem.

60. Strategy Tip #3:
Map your message to each persona

61. Map your message to each persona
This can be a difficult step, but once you get the ball rolling, it'll get easier. Start by compiling a
list of every possible topic you would like your customer to understand: key product use cases,
the visible gaps in the out-of-the-box platform, industry best practices. As you think about the
products and services you believe this person needs, get granular about how you would define
this need, and your solution.
If you are a SharePoint ISV delivering analytics tools, you might include topics like:
▪ Building no-code dashboards in SharePoint
▪ Out-of-the-box SharePoint reporting options
▪ Best practices for automating reporting
▪ Leading 3rd party analytics solutions for SharePoint
▪ Real-world examples of building KPIs into SharePoint reporting
▪ Changes in OOTB analytics from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013

62. Map your message to each persona
As you begin to outline the topics that will become the base of your content strategy, continue
to break them down into simple topics.
Your goal should not be long, complex white papers, but short, insightful blog posts and feature
articles. Look to your initial posts for feedback from customers and partners, and use that data
to further expand your list.
And its also important to watch for trends within your industry -- and from your competitors --
and identify the keywords and themes that seem to be resonating with customers, adding them
into your own content strategy.

63. Strategy Tip #4:
Organize by distribution method

64. Refine your outline, organize by distribution method
▪ Not surprisingly, the refining of your outline is an ongoing effort.
▪ Which topics are appropriate for your company blog, or which ones should be polished and
submitted to industry journals?
▪ Keep things organized in One Note by publishing source, shuffling each article idea under the
tab which best matches the tone of the story, allowing you to flag new content ideas up
front, and tailor each post for the audience of that site or magazine.
For example, I might write a strongly-opinionated post about social collaboration that is
appropriate for my company blog, but write a similar, expanded article for CMSWire that
includes a more neutral standpoint and other industry perspectives. I might then create a
much more personal view, sharing specific stories from a recent event and a conversation
with a business partner, on my personal blog. Three posts on a similar topic for three
different sources, but all demonstrating my thought leadership on the topic.

65. Strategy Tip #5:
Divide your messages by voice

66. Incorporate corporate, SME, and personal voices
It is important to vary your voice in your content marketing strategy:
▪ Sometimes your content should be more formal, coming from a "corporate" perspective.
This might be content that talks about a specific position, or that mentions your products
and services -- albeit in as neutral fashion as possible. The tone tends to be factual and
straight-forward.
▪ Sometimes your content should utilize your 'subject matter expert' or SME voice, focusing
on education and a more granular view of your topic. People want perspectives and
opinion, and they want personality, but most of all they want to know that you have
mastery of your subject.
▪ Some of your content should inject your own personality into your writing, personalizing
your stories with actual interactions and humor to let your readers know that you are a
real person, and not just a marketing content machine.

67. Strategy Tip #6:
Keep your messaging topical

68. Keep it topical
▪ Part of my daily routine is to read through the latest industry journals and scan various
online news sources for anything relevant to my content marketing strategy, and to quickly
amend my day's plans to include whatever story is going to interest my readers. It's a bit like
being a journalist, I suppose: you want to both educate and entertain.
▪ The more you can keep your topics relevant to the news of the day, the better you will
position yourself and your content in the eyes of your prospective customers.

69. Strategy Tip #7:
Be authentic

70. Another great image from Kathy
Sierra at Creating Passionate Users
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passio
nate_users/2006/09/why_duh_isnt.html

71. Be authentic
▪ At the end of the day, the best way to guarantee marketing
success is to provide the best products and services, and then be
open and honest with the community and prospective
customers about what you can and cannot do for them.
▪ My advice: be authentic in your marketing and in your content.
Share what you know -- but don't be afraid to use your content
development as an opportunity to learn more yourself, exploring
new topics and strengthening your own understanding of your
subject matter.
▪ Prospective customers (and you better believe your competition)
can see right through inauthenticity. Ultimately, content
marketing is not about the quick win (although that will
occasionally happen) but about the long-game, so be consistent
and focus on providing value.

72. The “Secret Sauce”
▪ The secret sauce is making sure you are truly taking care of your customers.
▪ How are you tracking your progress, and your customer’s happiness quotient?
▪ How are you measuring their feedback, and your improvement?
▪ From a Deming perspective, are you achieving results you expect with your
customers? Are you producing results you did not expect? Do you need to reset your
goals, continue to measure as-is, or stop?
▪ From a Kathy Sierra perspective, are you asking the obvious "duh" questions, such as:
What is not working? What IS working, and can we do more of that?
My point here: we need to approach our customers with a goal in mind, and
measurements of success defined, but we also can’t lose sight of the common sense
things. Having the data is great, but sometimes its as simple as recognizing that its
either working or not working, and then acting on it.

73. Strategy Tip #8:
Don’t just sit there – move forward

74. “One of the biggest mistakes in any product
or software development effort is spending
too much time on the details of the first
iteration, often referred to as analysis
paralysis. The key to rapid prototype
development is to not try to do too much
at the beginning of your project – instead,
follow an iterative model and move
forward. There is always time later in the
process to add detail to your requirements.”
W. Edwards Deming

75. A modern update on ‘The Brand Called You’
▪ Understand your unique value proposition
▪ Be able to tell your story
▪ Leverage your influence
▪ Defend your brand
▪ Embrace change

76. Final Thoughts

77. Baseline Marketing Activities
▪ an email marketing campaign
▪ a website
▪ a blog
▪ regular webinars to highlight your products or services
▪ a brand strategy
▪ a channel strategy
▪ conference sponsorships
▪ a PR agency
▪ a social presence

78. Above-the-Line Marketing Activities
▪ Thought-leadership
▪ Community building
▪ Advocacy
▪ Innovation
▪ Trust
▪ Passion
▪ Originality
▪ Authenticity
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140419004807-6221-above-the-line-marketing/

79. Potentially useful digital marketing tools
▪ Google Analytics / KissMetrics
▪ Maya / Website Grader / DareBoost / SEOptimer
▪ AdWords Performance Grader
▪ Buffer / Hootsuite / Tweetdeck
▪ Mailchimp / Campaign Monitor / Constant Contact
▪ HubSpot / ActiveCampaign / Marketo
▪ Lead Forensics (forecast ROI)
▪ Traackr / Yotpo (influencer and customer tracking)
▪ Exclaimer / WiseStamp
▪ Email marketing ROI calculator
▪ Essential Digital Marketing Tools (infographic)
https://blog.markgrowth.com/

80. Resources
▪ Mapping Out your Market Potential
https://bit.ly/2Ia376R
▪ Ignore that Pie in the Sky https://bit.ly/2jlKG0P
▪ The Defendable Swag https://bit.ly/2w3GPyA
▪ Create an Adoption Plan (FastTrack)
http://bit.ly/2qG5D84
▪ Build a Champion Program (Office 365 Team)
http://bit.ly/2roTeZS
▪ The Power of Employee Engagement
(buckleyPLANET) http://bit.ly/2obc44K
▪ Leveraging Permission Marketing for Internal
Comms (LinkedIn) http://bit.ly/2qG5VLY
▪ The Science Behind ‘Working Like a Network’
https://bit.ly/236GgKM
▪ Above the Line Marketing (LinkedIn)
https://bit.ly/2w67sD6

81. For more on this topic,
be sure to download
the ebook (no form)
bit.ly/TapIntoSocial

82. Christian Buckley
cbuck@collabtalk.com
@buckleyplanet
Thank you very much!

83. cbuck@collabtalk.com +1 425-246-2823 www.CollabTalk.com
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