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October 2009, Issue 68 |
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Featured Article "Attack Your Ecosystem" for Content Creation Q&A from How to Cure the Content Headache, originally broadcast October 14, 2009. In a live panel discussion earlier this month, experts from Bulldog Solutions, Frost & Sullivan and NetLine discussed the nuts and bolts of content creation, including where to find it, how to repurpose it and when to kill it. Read the Q&A with two additional questions not answered during the live event. View the on-demand Webinar.
Question:  Amy Bills, Director of Field Marketing (Moderator): How can you effectively and efficiently find sources of content when you don't have time to create it yourself?
Responses:  Naylor Gray, Director of Global Marketing, Frost & Sullivan: I think before you know where to get content from you need to know who your audience is. Better understanding your audience will really tell you a lot about what kind of content you need.
A good example of this would be if you're appealing to marketing managers or marketing directors, any kind of content you can communicate through a Webinar will probably work as long as you're addressing their challenges. But when you're moving up the food chain, up to a CMO or C-title level, those people don't really attend Webinars anymore. So it's all about understanding your audience.  Rob Solomon, CEO, Bulldog Solutions: We are the poster child for how you attack your ecosystem. If you look at all the programs we produce—live and on-demand, textual, video—then you've seen our customers, you've seen our vendors, you've seen our channel partners and business partners, and you've even seen some of our competitors. Thought leadership is thought leadership. There's never a hard-sell or even a soft-sell going on. Our experience has been that people like to be recognized as being experts.
Amy, you are responsible for lining up most of our speakers. I don't think many people say no when asked? Question: Amy Bills: Agreed. Tapping into your own ecosystem is a big deal. People do like to have their expertise displayed and to be able to have the opportunity to build their own personal brand. In fact, I'll use this to segue into another similar question. Can you talk about strategies to motivate the generation of content that must come from busy staff such as lawyers, engineers and other subject matter experts? Responses: Rob Solomon: I think that most organizations have a few evangelists. I know that creating content is really, really hard. It requires a crazy amount of people and money to do it right. But the people here who build content and contribute to content, there's a culture around it and they really like doing it. Again, you have to find the evangelists to make it work. We talked about reaching into our customer and vendor base and targeting folks who we know are that way. Amy Bills: David, do you see people tapping into partners, tapping into third-party research, tapping into their channels? Where does the content come from?  David Fortino, VP of Audience Development, NetLine: It's a bit of a mix across the board. The concept of the evangelist is definitely something you see regardless of where the evangelist physically lives. And more often than not, that evangelist could actually live inside your organization. They maybe never have even been considered by anyone else, nor by themselves, as a thought leader or a potential external evangelist for your product or solution, but they have the passion—these are the people who are really building your product, thinking about the users everyday. That's one unique instance I've seen where engineers inside a company are basically freed to be externally represented outside the four walls of that organization. It actually resonates quite strongly.
I would imagine it's a bit different within different verticals. That specific case was related to software development: A developer speaking to another developer holds a lot of credibility, versus a marketer speaking to a developer. Aside from that, some of the more "Web 2.0" evolution of content sourcing is leaning on bloggers. People who are independent within the sphere, who have their own particular slant, not necessarily backed by any huge publishing entity—they have their own credibility as well. Perhaps the fact that they are unique and independent lends them more credibility. Everyone knows that there really is no bankroll for a lot of these bloggers supporting the decisions they make, so they tend to be pretty honest and to the point. Naylor Gray: I have a unique perspective on this issue, because I deal with research analysts all the time. What often will happen in the absence of strong leadership from Marketing is that these technical types will beautifully showcase their data. The problem with beautifully showcased data is that it doesn't tell you what to do. So you really have to be able to work with that person and say, "This technical information is wonderful but how is this important to me or to the end user?" Connect the dots for the audience. Amy Bills: In terms of very tactical advice for getting subject matter experts who are very busy and whose primary job is not the creation of content, I recommend doing a recording of somebody—a poor quality one if you just need the notes, or a little better quality one, doing an interview and pulling that information from them verbally. And that can be repurposed a bunch of different ways. If you do it in a better quality, that can turn into a podcast, or an audio file. You can transcribe it as a Q&A, or you can even use it as an outline for a white paper. Being able to provide a subject matter expert an outline of a white paper, verbally outlined by them and then put into a written outline by you, and having them color in the numbers is way easier than having them start from scratch. We have used that to great effect. BONUS: Question not covered during the live event Are you saying that the traditional data sheet is "out" as a useful form of content? David Fortino: Data sheets certainly have their niche within the buying cycle. With that being said, there are so many more informative and value-driven methods to execute the intent of a data sheet while offering the prospect something more compelling. It's important to think like the prospect in this case: What value does the data sheet provide? If you find yourself struggling to answer that question, it's safe to say that your prospect's needs could be addressed in a better and more compelling fashion. Naylor Gray: Not at all. Try locating the data sheet on a landing page that is referenced in an e-mail or other source that might identify who is accessing it. Data sheets would serve to overcome objections and are relevant content for the selling process. At issue is whether or not you can track who is accessing it. BONUS: Question not covered during the live event We rarely get our clients' permission to talk about what we do for them, which makes writing case studies and testimonials difficult. Any suggestions on how to create validation content without clients' participation? Also, any suggestions for giving clients an incentive to participate? Responses David Fortino: You can certainly take your real-world findings and simply remove the connection to your client. But doing so will immediately lower the validation level of the statements you are putting out. Perhaps you can entice your clients into offering permission simply by presenting a concise plan detailing how their brand would benefit by being included. Long story short: Make sure you are addressing their pain points as well. You’re destined to always hear 'no' if the testimonial only serves the benefit of your organization. Naylor Gray: We have the same issues because our clients expect confidentiality of the work we perform for them. Our clients are usually amenable, however, to cloaked case studies where all identifying characteristics of their organization have been removed but basic details of the work performed can be cited. Testimonials of good work are rarely controversial so long as the nature of the work itself is not referenced. Try this approach and see if it works. Amy Bills: My advice would depend on the reason your clients won't participate. If it's because doing so could put their objectives at risk (for example, if they are a federal agency involved in security operations), you may not be able to do traditional case studies. That's where exclusive briefings or invitation-only events might come in. If the hesitance is due to the work effort, then I'd take the direction David advises above, by ensuring they understand it benefits them as well. Whenever I ask a client to participate in a case study, I do a one-page proposal clearly explaining the (minimal) work effort on their part, the tone, the use of the case study and the benefits to them. Question Amy Bills: Is it advisable to offer the same asset (let's say a white paper) more than once to the same segment, or is it important to offer it only once and never again? For example, if you offer the white paper via e-mail to the same people once a month for three months, is that too much? Or it that something you need to do to make sure you're able to capture them? Rob Solomon: There are white papers and then there are white papers. There are white papers on my desktop from 2008 that I still share with my clients. They have a very powerful message and they are very well done. If you are measuring that people are still downloading, or if you have rating engines attached to it and people are still rating it positively and forwarding it, then I think it's great to be able to use it as often as you possibly can. But when content starts to feel like it's not so relevant anymore, then it's probably time to kill it fast. David Fortino: Ideally, you should know whether or not you should be sending it to those same folks based on whether or not they're converting. If it's a defined audience segment, then if ten people converted that same month, there's no need to send them that same asset again. You can move them down the pipe and send them additional content to further educate them about that product or service. You can continue to refine things based on who you're converting. It all depends on who you're reaching out to. If it's an open audience segment, ever-flowing and refreshing, than yes, you can reach out to that same audience segment because in theory, the people there in any given month are different than who was there last month. Naylor Gray: If you're monitoring the downloads and the numbers, then you will notice that there is a time period where you will see that it's not performing as it once did, and that's the time to pull the plug. Return to MWJ Home Original Q&A has been edited for clarity and consolidation. Panelists: Amy Bills is Director of Field Marketing, Bulldog Solutions. David Fortino is VP of Audience Development, NetLine. Rob Solomon is CEO and Founder, Bulldog Solutions. Naylor Gray is Director of Global Marketing, Frost & Sullivan. Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, a lead optimization and lead management company dedicated to helping our clients generate more, better leads and turn them into revenue. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, director of field marketing. |
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