Over the past 44 months here at The Sales Lion, much of my work has been dedicated to sharing everything business and life has taught me up to this point. Without question, it has been an amazing ride. There have been many changes. I’ve truly done my best to offer value and build a community. But today, for the first time, I’m stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit and seeking the help of this incredibly important community.

You see, two weeks ago I stood on a stage in Alexandria Virginia to give the most important talk of my life. As some of you may already know, the event was TEDx Rock Creek Park, and I was given 12 minutes and one-shot at sharing with the world a subject that has been brewing within my being for just over a year now– The Honest Economy.

Truth be told, the following TED talk almost never happened. The event’s amazing organizer, Alison Whitmire, had asked me to try out for TED months ago– but there was one caveat to her request–she didn’t want it to be about “content marketing.” Nope, it had to be more universal and far-reaching than the usual suspects here at TSL.

Considering Alison is responsible for bringing Simon Sinek to TED, I knew she was right. In fact, she told me something I’ll never forget:

“Marcus, I need you to give the talk NOW that you’ll be giving in 5 years.”

It was one of the most profound and thoughtful statements anyone has ever told me. And it also challenged me to the core.

So much did it challenge me that I, at one point, asked out of the event. Frankly, I couldn’t “see” the talk in my head– something I’ve never had a problem with– but this time it seemed to be gnawing at me day in and day out. After  essentially giving up and telling Alison I simply couldn’t come up with a message that fit her expectations, she kindly rejected my petition and told me we simply had to talk it out even more.

Finally, after multiple conversations and pensive moments, I could see the talk in my head. I saw each story unfold. And I believed I had something that could truly resonate with anyone.

After hours and hours of practice in front of a mirror and envisioning each and every element of the talk, the moment came. Please take a few minutes to see the final results:

1. The quality of the message

2. Whether or not the message seems to resonate with others.

It is for this exact reason that I need your help.  It is my sincere hope that, if the video touches you in any way, that you’ll share it with your communities, be it Facebook, Twitter, G+, a blog– whatever. Every little bit matters, so please know that even though I may not be able to tell you directly, I’m deeply grateful for all your support.

The easiest way to do this is by simply going to the YouTube link, hitting “share,” and then selecting where you’d like to share it. Also, here is a direct link to it on YouTube

Here is a photo that shows what to click when you see the video:

Over the past 18 months, I’ve been heavily involved in helping companies with multiple employees utilize insourcing as a means to produce large amounts of powerful content amongst their staff and team members. During this time, I have found there are two main elements that deter employees from writing and participating in the company blog, which are:

1. They aren’t sure what to write about.

2. They aren’t sure how to get their article started, beating themselves up over the “right” first paragraph.

The solution to #1 is very simple—You take it out of their hands. In other words, employee teams should brainstorm the questions they get every day, at which point that list becomes blog titles, and then those very titles get assigned an employee name and date from the company’s content editor/officer. Although the idea of “just let the employees write about whatever they’d like” may sound nice, it doesn’t work. Trust me, I’ve tried it enough times now to know this, and these days when my clients push for this “open” editorial approach I immediately shut the idea down. Editorial calendars are simply a must in every great content marketing campaign that involves multiple participants.

Once #1 is resolved and the employee is given an article to write, their next “hold up” can often times be the first paragraph. The thing about this is, if they are able to finish the first paragraph, their ability to finish the rest of the article increases drastically. (Think for a second about doing the chores or working out—getting started can be the tough part, but once you’re going, it’s much easier.)

Over the few months, I’ve spent a lot more time working with clients on how to systematize this first paragraph writing style in a way that is not only easy for the writer to produce, but also easy for readers to understand and appreciate.

The 2 core elements of a great opening paragraph for a business blog are quite simple to remember: Expertise and Empathy.

To help you see exactly how to use these two elements, I’m going to write a few example posts and show you how the structure, style, and voice is almost exactly the same every time, no matter the subject or question. Here goes:

Blog Title: Mac vs. PC: Which Lasts Longer?

Opening Paragraph:

Customer’s often come to us here at Lion’s Tech Services and ask us a simple question: Will a Mac or PC last longer? Ahh yes, a very good question indeed and an important one too for anyone that is looking to purchase a quality computer that will stand the test of time. And because we get this question so very much, today we decided to write an article explaining to you the potential pros and cons of each one of these computer systems.

Blog Title: What is the Most Energy Efficient Clothes Dryer on the Market?

Opening Paragraph:

A few days ago a customer came into our store here at Lion’s Appliances and had one goal in mind—she was looking for the most energy efficient dryer on the marketing today. Considering “green” has been such a hot topic lately, this is a question we’re fielding more and more lately and it’s a great one to ask if you’re trying to conserve as well. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the industry’s most prominent models and show you the efficiency numbers for each.

Blog Title: What are the Best Ways to Save for College?

Opening Paragraph:

With the constant escalation of college tuition, more and more of our clients here at Lion Financial have been coming to us looking for the best ways to save for college and help their children get the education they deserve. As consultants that have worked with literally thousands of clients in helping make this dream a reality, we are passionate about this subject, and have come up with the following 5 keys to helping you prepare for such an important endeavor.

Hopefully you’re starting to see a pattern here. The structure of each one of the paragraphs is the same:

1. Expertise:  Mention that people come to you with a problem/or concern (Note** This concern is the subject/title of the blog post). You can do this by saying phrases such as, “Customers come to us all the time…”or “Recently, a client asked me the following question…” By doing this, you’re making it clear you/your company are an expert in solving this problem, which is critical to your subtle selling success as a content marketer.

2. Empathy: No one wants to feel alone in their problems. They want to feel understood. This is a deep psychological need we all have, which is why simply adding phrases such as, “we can relate” or “we appreciate” or “this is understandable” will go a long way in helping the reader view you as someone that is not only trustworthy, but “gets” them—opening up the doors for a potentially great working relationship moving forward.

Another very simple way to look at this first paragraph structure is as follows:

1. People come to us with ____________ problem.

2. We understand and empathize with this problem.

3. Here is the answer to your problem.

Hopefully you see not only just how easy this method is, but also how it applies to any type of business—big , small, B2B, B2C,etc.—it doesn’t make a difference, and it’s certainly a style that any employee, no matter what their writing abilities are, can relate to and benefit from.

Your Turn

What are your thoughts on this method? Also, what have you done to help employees “get going” with their content marketing efforts?  As always, your opinion and questions matter, and I’d love to know what you think.

Is 100 blog articles in less than 5 hours possible? Of course it is…

When it comes to content marketing and blogging, I have found there are basically two types of business owners and leaders:

1. The person that has every excuse as to why there isn’t enough time(and employees, resources, etc.) to produce enough needed content.

2. The person that makes no excuses and simply does what it takes.

In other words, slackers and doers. (Just keeping it real y’all)

At this point in my career as a consultant, I’m happy to say I no longer work for person #1. In fact, it has become my entire goal to find the outliers in each industry that are willing to be digital renegades and quit looking for excuses as to why they “can’t” do certain things and instead embrace the possibilities of what “can” be done if they simply make it a priority.

Kirk Drake of Ongoing Operations is one such renegade. Kirk heard me speak about content marketing at the end of last year and since that day he has tackled this new marketing approach unlike any business owner I’ve ever seen. Although I could literally go on all day about some of the steps he has taken to ensure the success of content marketing within his organization, today I’m simply going to focus on one act he did which indicated just how forward-thinking he is with regards to content.

I’ve talked at length before about why companies should require employees to participate in the company blog and content marketing efforts, but Kirk Drake took this suggestion to a whole new level I’ve not yet seen done by any company ever within the content marketing realm. In 3 simple steps, here’s what he did:

1. Along with his core staff of less than a dozen employees, Drake took the time to brainstorm all the questions they get from clients every single day, and then turned these questions into titles for his blog posts.

2. He then assigned the articles to his fellow employees and told them (again, less than 12 employees total) the company would spend 90 minutes a day, during working hours, over the course of 3 straight days, to write the answers to these questions.

3. Over a 3-day period, the staff spent a total of 4.5 hours answering these questions in their words, with the end result being over 100 blog posts.

Pretty cool, huh?

Yep, that’s called putting your money where your mouth is.

Like I said earlier, some folks make excuses as to why there isn’t enough time to produce content and others simply do what it takes to make it happen.

By leveraging his employees and simply answering client questions, Ongoing Operations is getting huge results.

Real Results, Real ROI

Because of his labors, in less than 6 month’s time, Kirk Drake is changing his business and industry as we know it. He has gone from getting a 1-2 leads a month from his website to getting, on average, 1 a day. Furthermore, he has posted over 200 blog articles during this time frame and just produced his first eBook as well.

Even better, he realizes he’s just starting to tap into the potential of his industry.

Oh, and did I tell you that his company specializes in backup cloud-computing services for the credit union industry?

Yep, that’s what he does, and although it may not sound like a “sexy” industry for content, Drake realizes sexiness is in the eye of the beholder, and frankly there is nothing more sexy than answering consumer questions better than they’ve ever been answered before.

At a recent conference where I was brought  in to speak to a few hundred credit unions, I interviewed Kirk on stage at the end of my talk and asked him a simple question:

“Based on the leads you’re now getting from your website compared to before, what type of financial impact will this have on your business’ bottom line?”

His answer was telling:

“Somewhere between $500,000 to $1,000,000 in the first year.”

If that ain’t ROI my friends, I don’t know what is.

Our Challenge

Hopefully you can see why I wanted so badly to share with you this story. The fact is, anything is possible when it comes to marketing if we learn how to leverage the talent around us. Whether you are an army of 1 or have a staff of 1,000—seek to be unique. Imagine the possibilities. And for the love of Pete, clear your own path and make your own rules—just as Kirk Drake has done and just as you could do within your industry.

Your Turn

I’d love to hear about some of the most creative ways you’ve seen companies leverage their existing staff and talent to produce more/better content. If you’re aware of such a story, tell us about it. What were the results? And what is preventing you from being a digital outlier within your niche?

I rarely talk about it, as it certainly doesn’t apply to content marketing in the direct sense, but my feet hurt. Seriously, they do. Plantar fasciitis is a constant whisper sending signals to my brain that the arches in my feet aren’t happy. Sometimes it’s not so bad, and other times it gets much worse. Amongst the many things I do to remedy my situation is the usage of a special insole for my shoes—insoles (orthotics) that often times cost way more than the shoes themselves.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on insoles alone at a store called “The Walking Company.” If you live in the US, there is a good chance you’ve seen one of these stores before, as they have small retail locations, often at malls, all over the country, specializing in quality shoes and inserts for unhealthy folks just like me.

A few months ago, as I was dropping a few hundred more dollars at one of their locations, they asked for my email address during the check-out phase of the purchase. Knowing their motive would likely be “sell, sell, sell” as is the case with most bigger brands, I decided to give away my contact information with the hopes they’d surprise me and possibly embrace a more “teach, teach, teach” mentality.

As you can likely imagine, I’ve been sadly disappointed.

Just to give you an example of what I’m talking about, here are the subject lines for the last 3 emails I’ve received from the company:

• Feature of the Week: Our Most Popular Dansko Sandals – FREE 2nd Day Shipping!
• NEW Arrivals of our #1 Sandals – ABEO B.I.O.system | We’ll Pay Your Tax!
• NEW Spring Arrivals for Men! | ECCO, ABEO, Thad Stuart & More!

I’m curious, what do you see wrong with these subject lines?

Seriously, think for a second about how they make you feel and what actions they inspire.

Are they truly attempting to teach you something?

Do you feel their earnest desire is to help you?

Is there a possible solution to a problem you’re having likely found within the email?

Of course, the answers to these questions are “NO.” The pattern is sadly consistent:

1. They make a “new and exciting” offer

2. They mention a few brands (many of which someone like me knows nothing about)

3. They include some type of “special” at the end followed by the always captivating “!”

Alas…

A recent email from The Walking Company– a classic example of a brand that has unlimited teaching opportunities for their customer base yet chooses to promote instead of inform.

I don’t mention these things to pick on The Walking Company. But unless we have conversations like this one, brands will continue to fall short of their potential.

Think for a second about how many customers The Walking Company has right now that are experiencing pain of some shape or form with their feet.

And how many of these same people would be willing to read educational articles or watch educational videos that give them possible solutions to their problems?

Furthermore, how much would such an educational campaign build trust and brand awareness?

I submit the answer is higher than any of us can possibly imagine.

But instead of thinking like their customers—instead of truly feeling their pain, problems, and issues—they continue to make silly offers, one after the other.

Because of this, after just 3 emails, they’ve become “The Brand that Cried Wolf.”

From this point forward, no matter how loud they scream and shout about specials and brands and offers, I won’t hear them. Nor will so many others on their email list.

And it’s all because they don’t have a culture of teaching within the company.

Becoming Teachers

This, of course, is the biggest reason why most brands fail to achieve their potential in a digital world. Sure, some throw money at other forms of marketing with great success, but few think, talk, walk, and act like “the teacher.”

Because of this, most email campaigns are awful.

Because of this, most blogs have almost no value.

And because of this, most web copy fails to touch readers.

So that’s our challenge folks—become the teacher. And truth be told, this really isn’t just about big brands at all, is it? Nope, whether you’re a mom and pop business where I live in Burgess Virginia or a world wide entity grossing billions in sales, great teaching is a universal principle to success we can all stand to improve upon.

Your Turn

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Why is this concept of “great teaching” so difficult for brands to embrace? Also, what brands have you seen do this well?

Jump in folks, your voice matters.

Well it’s podcast time again everyone, and although I talk about many subjects in this episode, I spend a good bit of time discussing the subject of getting paid for speaking events, and dive into some personal information about where I started with my speaking, the journey up to this point, what I’m getting paid today, and furthermore, what I hope to be making tomorrow.

As always, this episode is as real and as impromptu as it gets, so I hope you’ll take the time to at least listen to the first few minutes to see if it’s a good fit and if you like what you hear, please be so kind as to leave a review in iTunes.

Have a wonderful week everyone!!

Your Questions:

Hi Marcus, I am sure you get emails like this every day telling you how wonderful your inbound marketing ebook is. I have to say it is one of the best books I have read in a long time not since the “marketing agency blueprint” has so many lights gone off in my head. I always remember Stephen King saying sometimes when you finish a great book you just want to pick up the phone and talk to the author. Which I guess is what I am doing here. I was sitting wondering why it was that I loved your book so much. I know I love the subject of inbound marketing but I have read many on this subject so it wasn’t that. It wasn’t until after a couple of days playing your book over in my head that I realised it was how personal you were and how it was real life, not some text book or technical manual. It has soul and heart. …. Kind Regards, Kevin

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Hi Marcus

I just signed up for your list after a recommendation from my friendly coach, Jarom Adair, from Solopreneur marketing, and I’m looking forward to reading your inbound marketing book, thank you.

One question I do have at the moment is “getting started with speaking engagements”.

As a result of my website, coaching, and blog etc. I was approached today, for the first time, about the possibility of speaking to a professional photographers’ group next year. This is something I’ve been considering offering for a little while, but I’m clueless about where to start with what to charge, how to get photographic sponsors etc.

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Hi Marcus – just listened to the most recent episode of the Sales Lion. Great listen and interesting to hear how each of us has highs and lows.

My hubspot leads this month has dropped off a cliff – no idea why, so consider this month a low! We had 12 in Feb and only 3 so far this month.. No rhyme or reason I guess but it’s frustrating.

I had a question which I hope you don’t mind taking a minute to answer. You can use this on the sales lion podcast but would appreciate a quick reply if you get the time.

I have a couple of keywords which I used in a single blog post. I’d like to split up the keywords into 2 brand new posts but I don’t want to remove the existing post since it’s ranking a little.

Is it OK to blog about the same keyword in multiple posts? The hubspot consultant told me not to do this but looking around, I can see you’ve done it and others as well… Any advice appreciated.  Appears crazy to me that you cannot blog about the same keywords but I’m no expert.

Eventually, I’d like to remove the existing dual keyword post.

Rob.

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Marcus…

I could also stand to get over my “content envy” of all those other brilliant bloggers who come up with such great content and all I can do is sit and stare — at them. And their fabulous content.

Patricia

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Questions? Comments? Don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts below!!

Let me just cut to the chase here folks: For years, a large portion of SEO companies have been ripping off their clients. I wrote about good vs. bad SEO companies not too long ago, but some recent developments have got me so fired up I simply can’t hold my tongue.

I’m going to share with you an email that was recently forwarded to me from a client I’m currently engaging that was originally sent from this client’s existing SEO firm. Whatever you do, don’t skim over these few sentences. Rather, read it slowly and take it in. Here goes…

“…There is a lot going on with Google these days. I wanted to share some info with you…Remember when we used to write articles and send them out to get you a bunch of links to your site? Well those days have been over for a while now, as I am sure you are aware of. We at [company name] have not been doing this because Google has now deemed it as “not good”. Our company strives to stay up with all the Google Webmaster guidelines, and this is why we have not been doing link building lately.

The bad thing about this is now we have to go through all your webmaster accounts, and find the “bad links” that used to be “good links”. We have been manually deleting as many bad links as we can. This will actually improve your ranking, just having these bad links removed.

Most of our time has been spent doing this for the past 40-60 days or so… I have a list being built now, with all of your accounts, and which links are being removed. I will let you all know when we have completed the cleanup of the bad links.

When this is all done, we can move on and continue to SEO your sites according to the new rules; which a lot of it now, is driven by social interactions…”

Anything about this make you want to vomit?

Yeah, me too—every single word of it.

Basically, this SEO company is now charging the client to remove the crap links it built for them in the first place.

Un-freaking-believable.

And not only that, but they’re acting like this is some arduous task that requires meticulous investigation, skill, and hard work.

Give me a break.

Paying the Price of Previous Sins

Sadly, this SEO company isn’t the only one charging unknowing and uninformed clients to fix dirty work that they themselves created.

They danced with the link-building devil and now their clients are paying the price. Very sad indeed.

Over the past few years I’ve helped many companies with their search content marketing efforts. And with none of these organizations have I ever once worried that we needed to backtrack and remove previous content, links, etc. If we got a link, it was real. It was earned. It was legit.

And it certainly wasn’t blackhat.

My personal philosophy is that any company (or SEO firm) that did blatant and obvious black hat link-building practices over the past decade deserves to get Google slapped.  Even before search engines developed their algorithm to better (ideally) focus on “quality” over “quantity,” it was obvious to me that one day Google and the rest of them would know if I had tried to game the system, and it would come back and bite me.

Frankly, it’s common sense.

A New Era of “Link-Removing” Services

Going forward, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this. A new era of “link-removing” will be a service offered by SEO companies. Yeah, it’s unbelievable but it’s true.

I can tell you this though: If you’ve been with an SEO company for a while and they give you a load of bull in the form of an email that wants to charge you to pay the price of their sins, fire them. Send them down the road.

And start working with a company that’s not looking to “game” the system, but rather embrace it through quality content, great communication, and consistent consumer-value going forward.

This, my friends, is what great content marketing is all about, and it’s also why it’s the future of successful SEO.

Your Turn

I’m curious to know your thoughts upon reading the email above. Also, when it comes to link-building as a major part of search engine algorithms, where do you see it all going?

Jump in folks, your opinions matter.

With my DC friends, Derek and Melanie Coburn.

It’s the weekend and because I’ve been contemplating Social Media Marketing World (#SMMW13) these past few days my thoughts are drawn to this word we hear so very much about—Social—and the fact that although so many conferences (in and out of the marketing realm) may have session titles that include the word “social” in them, they don’t always demonstrate the principle of social in the way they’re organized.

As I’ve reflected on what made Michael Stelzner’s SMMW such a successful event, I keep going back to the intimacy of the experience. Maybe more than any conference I’ve ever been around (Content Marketing World is right there as well), it seemed like conversations and interactions abounded as attendees and speakers alike bustled about.

Personally, I brought two very good friends from Washington DC, Derek and Melanie Coburn of Cadre, in the hopes they would be able to meet some of their favorite marketing minds, and , without exception, everyone I introduced them to made them feel incredibly welcome and important—something that reminded me as to why so many of these folks have attained the success they’ve been able to achieve up to this point. (They take their own medicine.)

Trying to put my finger on how this happened the way it did, there are 3 things Stelzner did to make this conference so incredibly “social” and intimate.

1. Eliminate “Death by Convention Center”

Quick question: What’s the difference between a jammed room of 100 people with another dozen standing against the walls versus a half empty room of 200 people with another 200 empty chairs?

Answer: Everything

As a speaker, I prefer “quality” over supposed “quantity” any day of the week. So would any other seasoned presenter. Packed rooms have more intimacy, a stronger vibe, and more of a “we’re in this together feel.” Why so many conference organizers allow their sessions to occur in half-empty rooms is flat out foolish and frankly irresponsible in my opinion. Now granted, sometimes this cannot be prevented, but the idea is always to create a sense of overflow.

Believe it or not, it’s *always* better to pack it in…

This is exactly why the setting for SMMW was perfect. It was at a very nice San Diego hotel (Marriot Marquis) and was not in some mammoth convention center. Had the event moved down the street just a few hundred yards to the actual convention center, I guarantee you the vibe for the event wouldn’t come close to what it was this year.

Takeaway: Keep attendees tight—in the halls, in the conference rooms, and in the events.

2. Larry Benet

You may have never heard of Larry Benet before, but the guy understands networking and relationships. He also does a tremendous job helping others maximize their networking and social opportunities in non-digital settings. This alone doesn’t mean much until you know that Benet was the opening keynote of SMMW. In other words, instead of Michael Stelzner telling everyone, “Hey, make the most of this tremendous networking opportunity” as you’d see in many other conferences, he invested an entire keynote to lay a social foundation for the conference, something I honestly thought was genius and clearly had an effect on me and others as we went about the rest of our time at the event.

Takeaway: Don’t just talk about networking, teach it.

3. Create Outside-the-Box Opportunities

Although there were quite a few networking “breaks” during the event as with most other conferences, Stelzner and the gang organized two exceptional activities—an opening night welcome party at a museum and another karaoke bash on a cruise boat that took us under the Coronado Bridge and was certainly a unique experience. Although activities such as these may appear to cut into the “bottom line” of conference organizers, they have a profound effect on attendees and are often where the “social magic” happens.

Takeaway: Put attendees in unique settings beyond “the classroom” so as to provide social opportunities.

It’s often by “getting away” that the social magic happens, just as it did for many as we cruised under the Coronado Bridge.

When all was said and done, I left San Diego this past week with a smile and appreciation for this industry. There truly are some incredible people herein. In fact, what I didn’t see whatsoever in the industry leaders I met and chatted with at SMMW was any sense of entitlement or superiority. Sally Hogshead was surrounded by fans wherever she went, but she always seemed to make the time. Chris Brogan did what he always does and made each person he came in contact with feel like the only person in the room. Others like Mari Smith, Joe Pulizzi, Jay Baer, and Mark Schaefer were equally giving of their time and attention. I could literally mention name after name here, but you get my point.

So props to Michael Stelzner and his team for putting on such a memorable event that truly was a tremendous representation of its name. Props as well to all the attendees that showed “social” in all their actions. And props to any conference going forward that looks to do the same.

Your Turn:

A couple of questions I’d love to know your thoughts on. What are the most “social” events you’ve attended? What made them so special? What are the features of conferences you like most and which ones do you like least?

As always, your thoughts matter.

As I was churning away on my elliptical Friday night around 11pm, I found myself watching the latest episode of NBC’s “The Shark Tank”—a show that I’m starting to feel should be required watching for every entrepreneur and business owner from here to the North Pole. The reason why I say this is because the entire success or failure of the show’s contestants (entrepreneurs trying to get investors to agree to their concept/business and invest money) is contingent upon clear communication. And in this particular episode, a gentleman that was pitching an advanced water bottle/filtration system was so very unclear in explaining his product that he immediately lost the respect of the judges.

Literally, as I watched this man attempt to articulate the unique features and benefits of his water bottle, and as I saw the sweat start to build on his forehead upon realizing that he was a crashing and burning, my mind was brought back to a problem I’ve been seeing a lot more of lately:

A huge portion of businesses can’t explain, in the most simplistic of terms, the problems they solve.

Instead of describing what they do in a way that relates directly to the consumer (again, their problems), they instead dance around theory, ideas, and cloudy phraseology that makes everyone’s head spin until the point of mental exhaustion.

Why Interview-Based Blogging Isn’t For Everyone

I bring this up because a few months ago, I started a very unique blog outsourcing solution called EasyBizBlogging. With this being an interview-based system, we are able to help people that don’t have the desire or time to write and produce web content by sitting down for  a 1-hour virtually recorded interview and complete 6-10 new posts per setting. Even better, the content is produced in their voice, something that is often the biggest problem with blog outsourcing.

This being said, I have found that services like EasyBizBlogging are not for everyone. And why is this? Because, as I mentioned above, some people simply can’t seem to explain what it is they do. This can be especially prolific in the B2B realm where the “thing” being offered is a service.

Keep in mind many of the companies  I’ve worked with up to this point could easily address how their service (or product) addressed consumer issues, concerns, problems, etc.—but at the same time, I’ve worked with others that, after having interviewed them, it was almost impossible to makes sense of what was said in a way a prospect or consumer could easily understand it.

A Sole Focus on Problems Solved

Recently, I’ve become very good friends with a gentleman named Ian Altman. He’s a member of Cadre, a business group I belong to in Washington DC and is easily one of the most talented communicators I’ve ever been around. With Ian, 90% of his time is spent helping business understand who they are. But when it comes to understanding who they are, the conversation is never primarily based on company lingo, jargon, services, products, and all that all junk that seems to kill great business to consumer(B2C) or business(B2B) communication. Instead, Altman’s sole focus is on helping his clients understand the problems they solve. Once this is clearly identified, and the entire organization is able to understand and articulate this vision, the communication to prospects and consumers now becomes magical—be it face to face, blog posts, video, etc.

Think about it for a second—when was the last time you met with someone for the first time and when they described what they did for a living you were left scratching your head? Personally, I know for certain in the past I’ve made the dumb mistake of telling companies “I specialize in content marketing.” Considering most people have no clue what “content marketing” even means, it’s not  the smartest thing in the world for me to come out of the gates talking about it.

This is exactly why my communication today with prospects goes a little something like this:

“Businesses come to me because they have problems and need them fixed.

They’re tired of getting a report from their SEO firm and not having any idea what it means or if they’re getting results.

They’re tired of hearing all this talk about social media and not knowing how or where to start.

They’re tired of having a great company with a great product or service that doesn’t get noticed by anyone.

They’re sick of seeing their competitors crush them online and want to make some digital noise of their own.

So I fix these and many other problems business have…”

Do you see the difference? Instead of saying something really dumb like, “I’m a content marketing expert” I focus the conversation on all the problems I can help solve.

Since taking this approach, my face to face communication has improved drastically and I’m starting to help clients catch this same vision with all their verbal and digital communications as well.

It’s Time to Figure it Out

My point with this little post is a simple one:

If you can’t tell me, in simple terms, what problems your company solves, then you need to stop talking and go figure it out. Heck, contact Ian. But it needs to happen. If it doesn’t happen, your verbal communication will stink and your web content will stink even worse.

In fact, here’s what I’d love to do, just as a little challenge: In the comment section below, tell me the problems you solve. Again, don’t tell me your service, I’m only interested in the problems you solve. Include a link to your website as well if you’d like so readers that share the problem can see how you could fix it. If it goes to spam, I’ll make sure to bring it out, so don’t worry.

Trust me, this will be a good exercise for you, so give it a try.

It wasn’t long ago that in order to buy a car, you couldn’t even get cost information on the phone, much less view a web page that gave you every spec, photo, and no-haggle price you could possibly imagine.

But companies like CarMax realized their industry was screwed up.

In their mind, the way cars had been bought for years was ridiculous, and instead of “wheeling-and-dealing,” consumers just wanted to know they were buying an honest car, from an honest company, while getting an honest price.

CarMax filled that need, and today, their business is killing it while turning the industry and supposed “thought leaders” on their heads.

CarMax is changing the way people view the phrase “used car salesman.”

McDonalds: Unabashed Honesty

It wasn’t long ago that fast food chains were scared to death to tell consumers what was in their food. And they certainly didn’t want consumers seeing stats like calories, fat grams, etc., even though the government started requiring them to show this nutritional information somewhere in the restaurant—albeit in a hidden corner where no one bothered to look.

But today, companies like McDonalds are holding nothing back. Not only are they creating incredible educational and transparent campaigns like “Our Food. Your Answers.”—but they are also the first major fast food chain to post the number of calories next to all the food and drink items on their main menu.

Say what you want about McDonalds, but they’re embracing transparency like it has never been done before in the fast-food industry, and the positive PR they’re getting because of it is exceptional.

Not only do their store menus now show the nutritional information, but their website is loaded with all the facts.

“The Way Daddy Did It”

When I was still a “pool guy” back in the day, there was an 8-year period where I went on almost 2000 in-home sales appointments, many of which were an utter waste of time, all because my company was seriously lacking in consumer education and qualifying on the front end, which meant massive time wasted and money spent as a result.

Today, instead of continuing this cycle of wasting time on prospects that aren’t a good fit, my swimming pool company is literally the only one in the country that gives all pricing before we go out on a sales appointment. Instead of enticing shoppers with the “buy today or lose your chance to save big” crapola that is prolific in our industry (as well as thousands of others), we instead have elected to quit “dealing” and start being real in every way imaginable, basing our business model on 3 fundamentals:

1. We’re the best teachers in the world at what we do.

2. We embrace and celebrate our products, prices, and procedures.

3. We do dang good work.

Pretty simple, huh? This simplicity allows us to reach a pricing agreement in principle with literally 90% of all of our customers before we ever set foot in their home, something that most swimming pool contractors don’t come close to believing when I discuss our sales processes to the rest of the industry.

Notwithstanding, this transparent way of doing business has us on pace to crush sales and revenue records from our previous 12 years in operation—a trend only made possible because we’re steadfast outliers in a relatively antiquated industry that has always been full of slow adopters.

At River Pools, we moved away from sales tactics and shifted towards a completely open and honest approach.

The Honest Economy

The examples of CarMax, McDonalds, and River Pools are just a small microcosm of what is a major shift happening in the world of business and marketing today. Instead of looking to keep business secrets in a smoky, dark back-room with a bunch of fat guys in a black suit, the trend we’re now seeing is a literal renaissance of doing business in an honest and transparent way that’s truly built to last.

Although it may sound cliché or silly to some, I’m calling this “The Honest Economy,” and I earnestly believe, because of the proliferation of the internet and its ability to help outliers stand out, this is the beginning of a trend that will dramatically impact the way marketing and business are done around the world as we know it.

My friends, the world is thirsting for transparency. They can’t find it on the news. And they certainly can’t find it in politics. So why not in business? More specifically, why not in your business?

Don’t wait for the others to join you. Be an outlier now—a  “Youtility” as my friend Jay Baer would say. Set the tone and watch the magical results speak for themselves. Trust me, it will be worth it.

With me?

We hear lots of talk on the web about “awesome” and “epic” and “unique” content. And although I may deviate in my view of how we should define “awesome content,”  I think we can all agree that most content doesn’t stand out, most blogs fail, and most companies are left wondering where they went wrong and why they never seem to generate more traffic, leads, and sales with their efforts.

If I may cut to the chase, the majority of these companies fail because of two people, or should I say two “groups,” that crush content marketing success each and every day, in every walk of business life.

Who are these groups? Let’s take a look…

The “Big Five”

Most long-time readers of TSL know how I feel about the dire need businesses have to discuss the essential topics/questions all consumers want to know about when it comes to the buying process. These “Big 5” (as I like to call them), when it comes to any product or service, are:

• Cost/price articles
• Problems articles
• Vs./Comparison-based articles
• Review-based articles
• “Best of” articles

For example, just to make sure everyone understands exactly what I’m talking about here, let me show you a few articles from my swimming pool site that correspond with the Big 5 I’ve just mentioned:

• How much does a fiberglass pool cost?
• Top 5 fiberglass Pool Problems and Solutions
• Concrete vs. Fiberglass Pools vs. Vinyl Liner Pools: Which is Better?
• A Review of Barrier Reef Fiberglass Pools
• Who are the Best Swimming Pool Builders in Richmond Virginia?

Whether you sell a product or service, consumers are using these 5 subjects to vet you. They want to know how much your stuff costs. They want to know any problems/issues/drawbacks your products or services have. They want to know how you stack up against the competition. They want to know the reviews of any product, service, or manufacturer you’re associated with. And finally, they want to know the “best” your industry has to offer.

Why do I address the hard subjects? Because they generate traffic, great leads, and more sales…that’s why.

This is just the way it is folks, whether you sell rocket fuel to NASA or after-school tutoring in New York City.

In other words, please don’t think you’re an exception, you’re not.

Every client, business, and reader I’ve ever dealt with applied to all 5 of these subjects.

And because you’re not the exception, you’re left with a choice: Either talk about this stuff or ignore it.

Sadly—and here is the mind-blowing part of this—the overwhelming majority of businesses ignore these subjects, all because of those two groups of people we mentioned earlier.

The Competition and Bad Prospects

Whenever I talk about the need to discuss cost and price information on a company’s website, there is always two main reasons why people resist. Can you guess what they are?

The first, as you might imagine, usually sounds a little like this:

“But our competitors will find out…”

Alas, the competition—the first major cause of blogging and content marketing failure.

The second, if you guessed right, sounds like this:

“But we’ll scare certain people off…”

In other words, the second group that causes content marketing death are those persons that are not a good fit for our company (i.e.—those  we don’t want to work with).

Stop Worrying about the Stupid Competition

Let me ask you a very serious question:

When was the last time your competition paid your bills?

I’m guessing your answer is “never,” correct?

Notwithstanding, instead of worrying about legitimate prospects that are searching the web right now for answers to their critical buying-questions, we ignore them…we tell them to essentially “go away,” all because we don’t want the competition to learn what’s in our mythical “secret sauce.”

Considering there ain’t no such thing as secret sauce, maybe it’s time we let ours go..

This all means we care more about the competition than those persons that allow us to make payroll on Fridays.

Are you seeing anything wrong with this picture?

The 80% that Ain’t a Good Fit

I get asked often why I list price and cost information for my services here on TSL. I get asked the same question regarding my swimming pool site. My clients also get confronted with this question.

Although there are multiple answers for this, the two main reasons for such a simple decision are as follows:

1. They generate a ton of visitors and leads

2. They filter those visitors (roughly 80%) that are not a good fit for my business.

Why is it that we are so afraid  to readily admit that we (our products and services) are not a good fit for everyone? Fact is, if someone reads cost and price information (or versus, problems, best of , etc.) on your website and is clearly not qualified, why the heck would you want to spend your valuable time helping them when you could be dealing with someone who is in a buying position?

For years I met with pool shoppers that clearly did not have the budget/desire to buy my product. And why did I meet with them? Because I never took the time to properly qualify them until we went through much of the buying process—and  I certainly didn’t teach them well on the front-end through content marketing.

This all meant hundreds of hours a year that were wasted on people that would never be a good fit for my company—all hours that could have at least been spent doing something way more beneficial, like being home with my wife and children.

My case isn’t unique though. Thousands upon thousands of businesses are making the same mistake I was making all those years.

Instead of teaching, informing, and educating qualified prospects, they’re busy worried about two groups of people (the competition and bad prospects) that will never impact their business’ bottom line.

So here is the challenge folks:

1. Never, ever allow thoughts of the competition(what they will do, or find out, or think) to hinder your content marketing approach.

2. Don’t be afraid to lose those prospects that will never be a good fit anyway.

The moment you adhere to these two principles, I’m telling you everything will change. Your content will be better. Search engines will like you more. Qualified prospects will see your expertise and therefore trust you more than ever.

And even better, those silly little numbers called “sales” will likely take a direction you never previously conceived.

Your Turn:

As always, I’d love  to hear your thoughts on this subject. Why do businesses worry more about the competition and bad prospects than they do about their ideal customer? And in your experiences, how has your organization (or one you’ve worked with) overcome these fears?

About a year ago I wrote about the future of home page design, one in which simplicity, ease of navigation, and funnel marketing were all prominent components to success. Looking back, I made one major omission, and that is the power of video marketing when it comes to powerful home page website design.

To break it down to its most simple form, the reason why great home pages need video is simple:

People want to consume information in their chosen manner, not yours.

For some this is text. For others it’s video and audio. It all depends on the person.

Furthermore, the way web visitors consume information will change depending on what stage of the buying process they’re in. For example, often times when I start researching a product I might prefer to only read about it, but once I’ve learned enough and established a solid base, I’ll watch videos so as to take a “deeper dive” into said product.

Such is the pattern of millions of consumers around the world.

What surprises me though is that most companies still don’t “get” video, and certainly aren’t using it right, especially when it comes to integrating it into an effective content marketing campaign that starts with the home page of their website.

In my research, I have found there are 5 main qualities that home page videos should ideally have. Granted, not every business has the same capabilities when it comes to producing content, be it video or text, but notwithstanding there should be at least a few “best practices” to strive for to maximize success. That being said, here goes…

1.  There is a Face Tied to the Company

We’ve all heard this statement before—We are more likely to do business with those people we know, like and trust. And what better way do companies have in “humanizing” their brand than to integrate a real person into the video? This is exactly why Papa John is in every one of his company’s commercials, or the late Dave Thomas with Wendy’s, or George Zimmer of Men’s Warehouse (“You’re going to like the way you look, I guarantee it…”)

An example of a company doing this right on their homepage is HubSpot, showing the following video in conjunction with their funnel marketing approach on their company home page:

2. It Tells a Story that Teaches

It’s simple—People remember stories. Actually, people remember good stories, but you get my point. Storytelling, done right, is content marketing’s greatest weapon and the world’s greatest teaching tool, yet few truly embrace it well. If you did a study on the greatest communicators from the beginning of time until now, you’d see almost every single one of them shared an essential trait—great story telling.

This is exactly why the home page video here at The Sales Lion tells my story. Not only is it incredibly humanizing, but if you break it down, it teaches in this pattern:

Pool guy almost loses business, discovers the power of inbound marketing, saves business, and now teaches others how to do the same thing…pretty cool, right?

3. It Guides Them through the Website

Recently, my business partners and I at River Pools decided to take our company’s website to the next level of simplicity, education, and video. As you can see from the photo below, the page consists of very basic funnels—all matching different stages of a pool shopper’s buying process, as well as a video tied to the main call-to-action.

Although this may sound biased because he’s my business partner (Jason Hughes) and it’s our company, this is one of the best home page video’s on the web today. It literally takes the shopper by the hand and says, “Hi, I’m Jason, and I’m going to hold your hand and make this a wonderful experience. Let me show you around our house…”

Don’t believe me? Watch the video, it’s that good.

4. The Video Quality Elevates the Brand’s Quality

Although I’m never one to say that videos have to be perfect and “Hollywood” to be effective, I do believe that if you’re going to put a video on the home page of a website, then it’s needs to not only be of good quality, but it should also elevate the brand perception as well.

A great example of this is found with my friends (and clients) at US Waterproofing. You’ll notice this video is not only personal with Matt Stock representing the face of the brand, but it tells a great story, walks viewers through the web experience, and leaves a very, very powerful  impression on the US Waterproofing brand.

5. It Speaks in Terms of Real Humans with Real Problems

People don’t care so much about what you and I do as much as they care about if we can solve their problems. Unfortunately, most videos (and communication in general) miss the mark on this important element. Done right, company videos will leave the viewer saying, “Oh yes, I’ve had that very same problem, and look, they can fix it!”

A great example of this found on the homepage video of my friend and master business/strategic sales consultant Ian Altman, who intertwines a powerful mix of real-world business problems and social proof in this video:

Your Turn

Obviously, there are more than 5 qualities of great home page marketing videos, but I hope these will give you something to think about as you look to maximize your website’s success in moving prospects through the sales process while building your company’s brand. That being said, I’d love to hear what other qualities you’d add to this list. Also, do you feel video will be a major part of effective home-page design as the digital age continues to unfold?

Your thoughts and questions matter, so don’t hesitate to leave them below.

It’s podcast time folks, and if you’ve never listened to one of these episodes, do me a favor and listen to this one. It’s personal, it’s real, it’s passionate, and it represents every reason the Mad Marketing podcast is so different than many other podcasts out there today. Just you, me, and a conversation. Oh, and btw, make sure you read the email I received at the bottom of this post from a reader, and then watch the video, you’ll be moved and inspired, seriously.

As always, if you have any thoughts or questions, I’d love to hear them in the comment section below.

Your Questions

Hi Marcus,

My biggest struggle for inbound and content marketing is creating an all-encompassing strategy that can be implemented with a reasonable time commitment.

Thank you for sharing your content. I look forward to future articles.

Best,

LUCY

___________________________________________________

Marcus,

Something on the homefront I wanted to get your advice on. All of 2012 we were rolling with content marketing. Had 3 pieces of premium content put out. We were averaging 1-2 posts a week and 2 job posts a week. Generated about 800+ new leads.

At the end of January we had an upper management change. I had printed off some ROI reports on the marketing we have done. I proved about 1.1M in revenue in 2012 produced directly from inbound leads. The new CEO essentially threw those in the trash and said he didn’t care.

Since then my budget has been cut, and I have been told that I need to run errands and support our sales team. I’m trying to figure out how to pitch them back on inbound marketing, but no one seems to want to listen to me and my direct boss. I’m getting very discouraged.

The CEO says we are taking a “new direction” Have you ever dealt with a client who had a regime change? Any advice?

____________________________________________________

Hi Marcus,

My biggest challenge is having the energy to produce my own content when I spend most of my time creating content for others as part of my web marketing company. That’s the darn truth. Great to see you on the NYT. Much success to you.

cheers

~ julian

_____________________________________________________

Cheers Marcus,

I’ll look forward to reading the ebook and congrats on all your hard work. I became aware of you from a blog I subscribe to from Bob Lefsetz. I’m an artist, musician and well I guess I’m a tech guy as well all due to my passion of supporting ‘Outsider Artists’ I’ve learned a lot about the digital world.

Rudely Interrupted, my band is different in some ways, but if you have a moment to listen to our music you wont hear the story behind the group. Our vocalist was born without eyes and lives with Aspergers, our drummer Josh lives with an intellectual disability and we have Sam, a punk rocker down syndrome entertainment explosion. The UN in new York invited the band to play 2 years after I started the group and as a result the momentum has carried the group around the world many times performing and breaking down barriers and rocking out places that need to be rocked, like the UN.

Just thought I’d connect before reading the ebook, and thanks again Marcus.

Rohan

(Watch this video, seriously, this is what it’s all about my friends…)

Marketing automation is blowing up, big time. And just like there is an arms race with content marketing, there is another battle going on when it comes to marketing automation software companies that are trying to establish themselves as “top dog” in a very nascent industry that’s getting ready to hit a tipping point and receive acceptance by hundreds upon thousands of businesses around the world. This movement makes sense though, because marketing automation software can change the entire sales, marketing, and customer service culture of an organization if used properly. I’ve seen it change mine and certainly seen the same with many clients. This being said, the debate and questions surrounding these solutions is constant.

When it comes down to it, marketing automation software costs time and money, and companies don’t want to make a mistake. Furthermore, they require serious commitment and cultural shifts, often times from the management on down. Whether you choose Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, HubSpot, Infusionsoft, or any other– success will not happen overnight.

It’s Starts with YOU, Not the Tool

Some people may consider me a  “HubSpot Guy,” but in reality I’m a “better marketing” guy. This is why I’m passionate about tools that help companies and customers get greater results. Many people that come to us at The Sales Lion will ask about HubSpot, but often times, we end up suggesting a different solution based on their individual needs. And that, my friends, is the key to all of this.

Before you can choose an automated marketing software, you must know what YOUR priorities are. What are your requirements? What are “must-haves”? Once these parameters are defined, the choice as to the right solution becomes much, much easier, as is the case with every client we work with at TSL.

A few weeks ago, we kicked off our marketing automation series with an in-depth comparison of HubSpot vs. Infusionsoft to much success and conversation. Today, we’re going to take a deep look and review Marketo, Pardot, and Eloqua. As before, my fellow TSL team-member Rich McElaney had a HUGE part of this post , as did I. We both spent hours of research in an effort to offer up the components of each company that merited discussion. Assuredly, we have missed some noteworthy information, which is why I’d like to strongly urge any person with experience using these products (or the brands themselves) to voice your thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of the post. Also, if you’re wondering why this post is 4,000+ words long, our answer is simple: This is going to be a big decision for your company, and we don’t want you to mess it up.

That being said, here goes…

1. Company Background

Marketo was founded in 2006, has over 2,300 customers, 300 + employees and over 100,000 users worldwide. Marketo has enjoyed explosive revenue growth, posting a 3,545% revenue increase over a three year period ending in 2011 ($32.9 million) and was named the 78^th fastest growing business by Inc. magazine in 2012.

 2. Platform Functionality

While all three of these companies offer marketing automation and many of the functional aspects of their software overlap, there are distinct differences in feature sets. Marketo does a good job simplifying the definition of marketing automation in their latest eBook, The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation  : a category of software that streamlines, automates and measures marketing tasks and workflows to increase efficiencies and grow revenue.

The common feature set in marketing automation includes:

• Email marketing
• Landing pages
• Lead management
• CRM integration
• Social marketing
• Analytics and Reporting

We’ll use this feature set as the context for comparing these three platforms.

Email Marketing

Marketo offers the ability to design emails with a visual drag and drop interface and the user doesn’t need any html skills to build a high quality design. Email can be sent based on actions, timing or a series of pre-defined steps. Testing email versions is simple and content can be changed dynamically to fit specific situations via rules and filter settings.  Email can include a social component with the Forward to a Friend feature. Reporting is available through a library of standard report formats.

Marketo Email Interface

Pardot also offers a WYSIWYG email design interface, along with 36 pre-built template designs. As with Marketo, email can be sent based on actions, time intervals or a range of other parameters and can include auto-responders. Email content can be configured dynamically – driven by prospect data fields and/or sales rep assignments. List segmentation, scheduling, social sharing and integration with preferred email programs (Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010, Apple Mail, Gmail, Mozilla Thunderbird and Chrome) round out the features. Pardot also features an integrated spam analysis and rendering engine that shows how your email will look in the leading programs and browsers and help in getting maximum inbox delivery. (http://www.pardot.com/products/marketing-automation/features/email-marketing/email-rendering-preview)

An example of a dynamic email created within Pardot

As with Pardot and Marketo, Eloqua has a very robust email platform, with multiple templates to choose from and customize while using a very simple user interface. In fact, the interface for building an email with Marketo is the same interface they use in their landing page creation. No matter what segmentation you’re trying to achieve when dealing with your database, there are many possibilities, including behavioral filters, which lends itself to precision targeting for best results.

Landing Pages

Just as it does with its email design capabilities, Marketo offers a drag and drop interface combined with a range of pre-designed templates with which to create landing pages.  Data capture forms are set up for progressive profiling which means you can obtain more lead data over time as prospects fill out subsequent forms.

A/B testing is easy with Marketo’s automated process and landing pages can be easily converted into Facebook pages.  Landing pages can be personalized using Marketo’s dynamic content capabilities and text, images and calls to action can be customized using a number of attributes in the prospect’s record or based on the prospect’s previous activities on your site.

Marketo also offers a social sign in capability with its landing page forms – a site visitor can fill out form fields automatically by connecting with their social profile of choice, which, for some users, is a great sign-in alternative.

Pardot also offers pre-defined templates and a visual drag and drop landing page builder to facilitate landing page creation.  Progressive profiling, dynamic content personalization and custom fields are additional features incorporated into Pardot’s landing page functionality. One unique feature is the ability to block the input of both invalid email addresses and free email addresses on landing page forms, which can help in providing higher quality leads to your sales team.

Just as it was with email, Eloqua shares many of the same characteristics as Pardot and Marketo when it comes to landing page creation—predesigned templates, dynamic content, drag and drop images, powerful form customization, etc. One feature of note here is what Marketo refers to as “Microsites.” Specifically, they state:

“…When a single landing page isn’t enough, Eloqua Hypersites™ – content-driven, personalized microsites that greet your prospects by name, deliver targeted content and increase conversion rates – help you create a unique, relevant experience. You can develop, deploy and maintain Hypersites in Eloqua without any IT involvement using an intuitive content editor – or simply import HTML files.

Hypersites feature personalized URLs like http://moviestars.eloqua.com/bradpitt that can increase visitor rates, personalization to improve conversion and powerful content management rules to match offers to prospect interests. Hypersites are particularly effective for industry and account-based marketing campaigns, new product launches and events.”

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration

To track and report on the full sales cycle – from initial lead to closing the sale – marketing automation software needs to integrate with your CRM system. Marketo offers native integration (meaning the platforms seamlessly exchange data with each other) with Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics(as shown in the video below). Native integration allows for bi-directional data syncing – which means a change in Marketo will pass through to the CRM system and conversely, a change in the CRM system will pass to Marketo. This bi-directional syncing keeps both the sales team and marketing team aware of any changes triggered by either team and allows for more accurate tracking of prospects’ progress through the pipeline.

Pardot natively syncs with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite and SugarCRM. Pardot also offers developers an API (application programming interface) with which to connect other third party CRM platforms.

Like the other two software, Eloqua does not act as its own  CRM, and instead uses what they refer to as their “integration studio”—which natively syncs with Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Oracle/Siebel CRM On Demand.

Lead Management

Lead management typically denotes a platform’s ability to nurture leads through various stages of the sales pipeline and score leads based on a combination of factors such as prospect data attributes and behaviors. We addressed both Marketo’s and Pardot’s lead nurturing capabilities in the email section, so we’ll focus on the lead scoring features from each provider.

Marketo offers the capability to score leads based on an unlimited number of dimensions such as:

• Demographics
• Product-specific scoring
• Sales rep input
• Prospect behavior (downloaded a white paper, attended a webinar)

Eloqua’s “Co-Dynamic Lead Scoring” technology uses common lead quality definitions such as Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline, as well as key qualification data, including lead response, activity and behavior.

All three platforms offer adjustments to the score in either direction, which is important if you want your scoring model to reflect prospect inactivity by deducting points.

Social Marketing

Social Marketing provides the capability to increase the reach and impact of your content across your social channels. Marketo offers what they term “social media applications” in three areas:

• Social sharing – which offers intelligent share buttons triggered by prospect actions, customization of the share message and image and the capability to build a database with social profiles and prospects’ sharing behavior
• Social engagement – allows you to publish video content on your site and your Facebook page, engage your audience with polls and voting and embed forms across all your channels with reward or discount incentives
• Social promotion – run sweepstakes offers for data capture and build socially driven referral programs

Pardot offers a social posting capability that connects with users social accounts and allows for posting to those accounts with custom bit.ly pro urls which allows tracking of retweets, likes and comments.

Pardot also scans for prospect profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Klout. Location and prospect summary data, if available, will display by the prospect’s name. Two versions of Pardot offer this social profile capability – Pardot Enterprise and Ultimate Edition. A third party resource (Full Contact) provides the social information.

When it comes to Eloqua, “Social Suite” is the hub of their social media marketing, and is a collection of apps broken down into three core categories:

• Social apps that allow you to drag social content directly onto landing pages from within the Eloqua editor.
• Social data apps that pull in and manipulate social data from leading social sites
• Social reports and dashboards for measuring social conversions.

Analytics and Reporting

Closed-loop reporting is the standard here – users need to see how the efforts of the marketing and sales team moved the prospect through the sales funnel – from first conversion to the closed sale. Other critical data can answer the following questions:

• Who are the hottest, most engaged buyers?
• What web pages did the prospect visit?
• Which search terms brought them to your site?
• How did they respond to your email marketing campaign?
• Are they on the website now?

This process is the essence of inbound and content marketing, as its importance to a business can’t be emphasized enough. Considering all 3 software answer these questions, this feature alone can pay for the entire system cost within a short period of time when used properly by a company’s sales department.

Marketo offers a library of standard reports showing email and landing page performance, web activity, and lead performance.  They also offer campaign performance results with customizable metrics, influence reports showing the impact of marketing campaigns and a revenue modeling capability that reviews the sales and marketing process at a high level.

If users want to look at specific performance data not provided in the library of standard reports, Marketo provides fully customizable reporting.

Pardot relies on a third party resource for reporting – GoodData (shown below). Users can create custom reporting using the GoodData visual interface and then schedule report frequency and distribution – highlighting specific metrics tailored to the recipient.

Also included in Pardot’s reporting and analytics is a campaign ROI calculator which shows cost per lead, cost per sale and ROI data.

“Eloqua For Sales” offers the following 4 main feature:

• Eloqua Discover for Salesforce: A prioritized view of the hottest, most engaged prospects and accounts to increase lead generation quality.

• Eloqua Profiler: The most intuitive graphical summary of prospect online activities and behaviors that helps sales people focus conversations on topics that resonate with buyers and create qualified sales leads.

• Eloqua Engage: A tool that lets sales professionals customize, send and track pre-built email templates from the iPad, CRM, or web.

• Web Visit Alerts: Real-time lead generation email alerts sent directly to sales when hot prospects visit your website, containing visitor details like pages visited, length of visit and search terms used

3. Structure and Strength of Providers’ Sales Channels

As with most marketing automation providers, Marketo sells direct to businesses and through a partner network. Marketo’s LaunchPoint offers information about the partner network.  The network is divided into two groups: Agency Managed Service Providers and Services Partners. At the time of writing this article, 12 companies are currently listed on Launchpoint on the Agency Provider side and 21 are listed on the Service Partners side.  The actual number of Agency Providers and Service Partners is higher than displayed on Launchpoint – the approximate numbers we received were 50+ Agency Providers and 33+ Service Partners and this number is growing.

Marketo Launchpoint

Agency Managed Service Providers typically offer a full range of interactive services, such as brand management, creative services, P.R., lead generation and related marketing services. They also manage Marketo’s marketing automation solutions for clients in need of that support.

Service Partners tend to be consulting companies, systems integrators and agencies with a deeper focus on demand generation, integration of CRM systems with Marketo and the alignment of the sales and marketing process.

Pardot sells directly to businesses and has two categories of providers: Agency Partners, of which there are currently 29 and Technology Partners, of which there are 6.  Agency Partners typically provide full service support: strategy, content creation, email execution, lead generation and management of the Pardot platform. Technology Partners tend to focus on system integration, most notably CRM integration, but can also provide a deeper set of services around lead generation.

Like the other two, Eloqua does direct-to-business sales but also has a partner program, with 50+ at the time of this writing, broken down into the following categories:

• Global Strategic Partners
• App Cloud and Technology  Partners
• Marketing Ambassadors
• Revenue Performance Management (RPM) Partners

4. Integration Capabilities and the Application Marketplace

Marketo’s LaunchPoint also offers information on the applications that work with their platform. There are 9 application categories listed on LaunchPoint:

• Analytics and Big Data – 24 apps
• Content Marketing – 19 apps
• Events & Webinars – 5 apps
• Lead Data – 34 apps
• Lifecycle Marketing – 13 apps
• Online Ads & Campaigns – 16 apps
• Sales Tools – 29 apps
• Social Media – 23 apps
• Top of Funnel – 28 apps

Not all of the applications listed in LaunchPoint natively integrate with Marketo – so be sure to read the overview of relevant applications to determine integration options. Marketo offers comprehensive APIs to allow connectivity to a wide range of existing applications such as CRM, ERP and eCommerce systems.

Pardot offers connectors to the following 12 programs:

• Eventbrite
• ReadyTalk
• WebEx
• GoToWebinar
• GoodData
• Olark Chat
• Google Analytics
• Google Adwords
• Jigsaw
• LinkedIn
• Twilio
• bit.ly

Pardot also offers an API that allows for integration with other third party apps – access to this API is not standard with the Professional Edition of Pardot.

As with the other two, Eloqua has a robust and growing app community—Eloqua AppCloud, which features apps/connectors in the following categories:

• Community
• Data Sources and Quality
• Sales Enablement Apps
• Webinars and Events
• Communication
• General Tools
• Social Landing Page Apps
• Channel Management
• Social Data
• Incentives
• Content Marketing
• Landing Page Apps
• Content Management Systems

5. Onboarding Approach

Marketo offers onboarding and training in five modalities:

Customer Enablement – Marketo offers what they term “Launch Packs,” which are pre-configured training packages that include a range of onboarding and support services from integration consulting to creative services. There are 6 Launch Pack versions and you can review them here.

Expert Services – Marketo offers three levels of Expert Services delivered via a framework they call Marketo Drive, which is a standardized process of marketing software implementation.

• Campaign Expert Services – Marketo experts help clients optimize campaign design, segmentation, nurture tracks, lead scoring and personalization.
• Reporting Expert Services – Experts help clients optimally set up reporting and analytics to provide complete insight into your revenue cycle (how your customers buy).
• Social Marketing Expert Services – Expert guidance on leveraging social media to find and connect with your ideal audience, setting and measuring social media goals and maximizing the return from social media marketing efforts.

Education – Marketo offers a range of training formats:  self-paced online courses, live classroom and  virtual classes focusing on three key areas:

• Product Training
• Advanced Techniques
• Sales and Marketing Best Practices

Community – Marketo Community provides help articles, product documentation and on-demand training. Collaboration with a sizable percentage of the Marketo user base provides insight on best practices from the real world.

Customer Support – Marketo offers four levels of Customer Support Services: Basic, Standard, Premier and Elite. Basic service is included with the Spark Edition (small business). The Standard, Select and Enterprise Editions come with a Standard Support subscription and a dedicated Customer Success Manager.  The Premier and Elite Support Services offer higher touch and faster response times and subscription costs for these are extra.

The table below provides a good snapshot of the features included with each Support Service plan.

Marketo Service Plan

Pardot offers a range of onboarding and training services to help users quickly maximize the value of their subscription.

Pardot’s  Quick Start Onboarding programs connect new users to a dedicated Pardot implementation manager. Typical program length is 30 days, but new customers have up 90 days to configure the Pardot system, launch campaigns and evaluate campaign results. Beyond the Onboarding program, users have access to weekly instructor led trainings on all Pardot features.

Pardot offers three Quick Start Programs, Bronze, Silver and Gold. The Bronze program is included with all three versions. The Silver program is $2,500 and the Gold program is $5,000. The table below provides a summary of features in each program:

Pardot Service Plan

*Client must provide applicable HTML creative for HTML emails or copy for text emails

Other support resources include:

• Complimentary Instructor-led Training – 18 group training sessions each month which are recorded and offered on the Knowledge Base.
• Office Hours – 30 minute consulting calls with trainers
• Custom Training – personalized training offered at $250 per hour

“Eloqua University” offers 3 main delivery options to its customer base:Instructor Led Training (ILT)An Eloqua facilitator travels to the customer’s location to deliver learning face-to-face. Alternately, this can be held in one of the Eloqua offices located globally.

• Content can be selected from current course catalog
• Maximum of 12 learners per class
• Optimal solution for companies with groups of learners

Instructor Led Online (ILO)

• Courses are delivered in a web virtual classroom with a facilitator
• Most sessions are hands-on, in either a training install, or sandbox
• Maximum of 15 learners per class
• Optimal solution for individual learners

Web-Based Training (WBT)

• On-demand eLearning modules
• Interactive content with video and dynamic exercises
• Ideal solution for learners with specific content questions or want to learn Eloqua at their own pac

6. Marketo, Pardot and Eloqua Costs, Pricing and Packages

Marketo comes in three versions for small and medium businesses and one version for large enterprises. Pricing tiers are set at two levels: Annual contracts and Quarterly contracts.

• Spark is the basic version and ranges from $1,195 per month to $2,495 per month and tops out at 100,000 “known leads” in your database. Known leads are contacts in your database with an email address, postal address or phone number.
• Standard is the next version in the Marketo lineup and ranges from $1,995 per month to $7,195 per month and tops out at 500,000 known leads.
• Select is the top tier in the small and medium business lineup and ranges from $3,195 to $11,995 per month, topping out at 1 million known leads.

Marketo Pricing

Discounts for signing an annual contract can be significant, ranging from $240 per month on the low end to $2,400 on the high end.

For a comprehensive review of all pricing and features, you can download Marketo’s pricing and feature options PDF here.

Note: we did not include pricing on the Enterprise version of Marketo

Pardot comes in three versions: Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate. The base pricing for each version includes up to 30,000 database contacts. Additional “blocks” of 30,000 contacts can be purchased for $300 per block per month up to 500,000 contacts – that price drops to $200 for any 30,000 block above 500,000 contacts.  All pricing below reflects an annual contract; billing is quarterly.

• Professional starts at $1,000 per month.
• Enterprise starts at $2,000 per month.
• Ultimate starts at $3,000 per month.

Pardot Pricing

As you can see from the following chart, Eloqua has 3 main pricing tiers: Marketer, Team, and Enterprise:

Eloqua Pricing Chart

7. Total Cost of Ownership

To provide a balanced review of the TCO of these three platforms, we selected the mid-tier package with an annual agreement for each as the basis of our cost calculations.

 

Feature	Marketo Standard	Pardot Enterprise	Eloqua
Base program cost	$3,995 per month	$2,000 per month	$4,000 per month
Number of users	Unlimited1	Unlimited	50
Number of emails sent per month	Unlimited	Unlimited
Training cost	Included	Included	Included
Integration cost:
CRM	$200 per hour2	$200 per hour2
CMS	$200 per hour2	$200 per hour2
Total Annual Cost:	$47,940	$27,600	$50,000+

^{1.                Unlimited marketing users, 10 users for the CRM Sales Dashboard  2. Integrations are not provided by any of the platform providers, this service is typically delivered by the Technology Partners. Light integration projects are usually under 10 hours; complex integration projects can be up to 100 hours or more. A growing number of connectors are being built for the most popular CRM and CMS systems. Consult with a sales rep regarding your particular integration needs to get a referral to the right integration partner.}

Problems and Drawbacks of Marketo, Pardot, and Eloqua

As mentioned previously, there is not such thing as “the perfect marketing software.” In fact, in order to keep things as real as it gets, we wanted to put a few “negative” points of these 3 vendors. Keep in mind, if you’re considering one of these companies and they do not currently offer a particular component to their software you desire, you may want to ask if such a feature is in the works and at what point it will be available. That being said, here are some potential drawbacks to consider:

Marketo:

• Along with Eloqua, it’s one of the most expensive automated marketing software available today, which can lessen the ability of certainly small-mid sized businesses from using the product
• There are a very small number of actual partners
• Does not support dynamic website content integration (Smart CTAs)
• Arguably too Salesforce centric

 Pardot:

• Not a strong social marketing tool
• Lead sourcing is also limited to identifying only a single source (if they are a repeat lead, this can be a problem)
• Only basic lead nurturing is offered

Eloqua:

• Like Marketo, BIG pricetag
• Can be slower to implement
• Cannot split-test emails
• Does not integrate with PPC/Adwords so as to achieve better ROI metrics for keyword campaigns

Which Software is Best for You?

So the question you may still be asking is, “Which is the best?”

As I said at the beginning of this post, the phrase “best,” at least when it comes to marketing automation software, is extremely relative. This is exactly why you must first develop your wishlist of features, components, and requirements– and then choose the tool that best fits these needs. By so doing, you’re much more likely to get the greatest bang for your buck, and embrace a technology that is becoming more and more mainstream by the day.

Your Turn:

Questions? Comments? Have you ever used any of these software providers? What was your experience like. Jump in folks, your voice matters!

Ever since Panda and Penguin, local SEO has become more and more of a challenge for businesses. Not only do they need to target what is in some cases many location-based keywords, but they need to do it without sounding like they’re schlepping Google with an abundance of out-of-place local search phrases. Truth be told, the information that I’ve seen around the web on this subject of how to combine SEO with Content Marketing (Search Content Marketing) on the local level is seriously lacking.

But that’s going to change today, because the Lion has some pretty dang cool stuff to share

Like everything that has to do with great content marketing, the key to all of this comes back to thinking like a consumer and being willing to answer their questions. Although this may sound easy, many folks are scared to death of such a task once push comes to shove, as you’ll soon see.

This being said, the stuff I’m getting ready to show in today’s article is for companies that are interested in the bottom-line results, and not those that base their marketing strategies on how “business has always been done…”

Sound Good? Then let’s get to it…

1. Focusing on Local Laws, Ordinances, etc.:

Although this will certainly not apply to all types of businesses, it does with many. If the process of buying your service or product requires any approval whatsoever, then you need to be the one writing about this. Let me give you an example.

For my swimming pool company, every one of our customers has to deal with zoning and setback laws with respect to where they are allowed to put their pool in their yard. Knowing that this is a major question/concern that potential pool owners have, I decided to run a series of blog posts on my site that addressed the zoning regulations of each county (in Maryland and Virginia) we do business in. Because each county has their own regulations and because pool shoppers generally type in something like “Chesterfield County Swimming Pool Laws” or “Frederick County Swimming Pool Setbacks” I went ahead and wrote a separate article on each county. In order to make sure I was as successful as possible from a search engine standpoint, I included in each title the major phrases that someone might type in. For example, the following post was entitled: Powhatan Va Swimming Pool Zoning, Permitting, and Setback Laws

Articles like this are easy to write and can get tremendous results

As you can see, the post addresses multiple keyword phrases that someone (from Powhatan) researching a swimming pool might type in, and it’s also written in a very clear, educational manner. Considering so very many businesses deal with county/state laws and regulations when selling their product or service, this technique can be a major Local SEO success, just as the article above ranked on the first page of Google for every major keyword phrase we were initially targeting, shown here:

2. Write “Who is the Best______________?” Articles

Think about it for a second: How often, when searching for a local business, do you go to Google and type in, “Who is the best ______________ company in [my town]?”

Chances are, if you’re like most of the digital world, you’ve done this many, many times. So have your customers. In order to address this critical customer question, you may want to consider taking every major town you work in and write an article addressing this critical question. I’ve done multiple “Best of [location]” articles and every single one of them ranks on the first page of Google and have generated critical traffic, leads, and sales that have benefitted my business. Here is an example for Virginia Beach:

By addressing a simple question for different areas, you’ll likely get great results.

Now you may be asking the best way to write this type of article (Actually, I’m sure you’re asking that question by now ) Well, my answer to this is to literally pick a group of your competitors that that have a solid history of business in your area and list them, without listing yourself, as I’ll now explain in #3.

3. Write “Best of” Posts that also Review Your Local Competitors

OK, now comes the part that makes people scratch their head, but if you look at it from an intelligent business standpoint and get rid of all your “old school/secret sauce” mentality, I think you’ll get what I’m saying here.

Fact is, your potential clients are vetting you and your competitors all the time. They are going to Google and typing in phrases like “Reviews of [your competitor]” and 99.9% of the time, some awful 3^rd party review site is the one controlling this conversation. I noticed this trend a couple of years ago and decided to start optimizing for my competitors keyword phrases when a prospect was vetting them online. To do this, my approach was something no one had ever done before online(I don’t say this to brag, it’s just the truth)—I made a “best of” list that included 5 competitors I respected, briefly described their company, and did NOT include myself in these “best of” lists.

Want to rank for your competitor’s keyword phrases? This is how…

Why did I not include myself in these lists?

Because if I had, I would have lost all credibility, and at that point there is no trust with the reader.

Instead, I chose honesty and transparency, and because of this, I now rank for a slew of my competitors phrases, as you can see here:

Now, when customers are vetting my competition, they’re reading my articles.

When I’ve presented this principle at conferences around the world, occasionally audience members want to know if I’m worried about losing a sale because I’ve now introduced my competitors to my readers.

My answer to this question is simple: NO

I say that because in this age of easy information, it’s NAÏVE to think for one second that our potential customers haven’t already vetted our competition, or that they won’t at some point.

The fact is, when it comes to great content marketing (especially search content marketing), I don’t care about my competition. They aren’t the ones I’m trying to have a conversation with. And ultimately, that’s what this is about—controlling where the conversation takes place.

This one single article made over $150,000 in sales last year for my swimming pool company, and it’s also one of the biggest reasons the New York Times ran their article last week on our transparent approach to answering customer questions.

Again, stop fearing the competition and start fearing what will happen if you ignore the customer.

4. Write “Best of” (or worst of) Posts about Related Industries to Yours

This is a tremendous technique that very, very few people do, but it works quite well. Let’s pretend you’re a real-estate agent in Austin Texas for a minute. What are some typical “best of” questions potential clients (people that are moving to Austin from another area) would ask? Here is a small list:

• What are the best school systems in Austin?
• What are the best restaurants in Austin?
• What are the best neighborhoods to live in in Austin Texas?
• What are the worst school systems in Austin?

Do you see how this works? If someone is moving to the town, they very likely want to know these things, and there is also a very good chance each person asking these questions could be a potential client for that agent.

When companies think outside the box and produce content about their area, branding and networking experience growth as well.

Let’s do one more example just so as to make sure everyone completely understands this. Let’s say you have a pet-sitting business in Washington DC. An example of some indirect “best of” articles would be:

• Who are the top veterinarian clinics in Washington DC?
• Where are the best dog kennels located in Washington DC?
• What are the top dog grooming/spa companies in Washington DC?

Writing these types of articles not only do great from an SEO standpoint, but they also help you become a brand/thought-leader in your local area, as many of these businesses will be thrilled with your positive discussion of them on your site and possibly send you more referrals because of it. (This is also known as “Networking )

Some of you may be questioning the efficacy of these techniques, but let me stress this: They work in all types of industries, in all parts of the world. Whether you’re B2B, B2C–it doesn’t matter. I say this because I’ve not just done this stuff with my companies, but certainly with my clients, and I’ve  got an incredibly diverse group of clients right now.

When all is said and done, our challenge is a simple one my friends: Think outside the box. Reward those in  your town and city. Talk about them. Think like a consumer. Good things will happen.

Your Turn

A couple of questions folks that I feel could really add to this post: What other location-based SEO techniques have you used with success? From what I’ve mentioned above, what do you agree and disagree with? Why?

Jump in, your voice matters.

I’m taking a break today from “marketing stuff” to share some personal thoughts and reflection on these last couple of weeks. If you’re uninterested in the personal, tune back in a few days where we’ll be talking about some incredibly effective and innovative local SEO techniques for content marketers. Until then, here goes:

A Series of Fortunate Events

Thursday January 24^th 2013, 12:10pm: I’ve just finished speaking at the Vistage International Conference in Dallas Texas. The session seemed to be a huge hit, and among the people that approached me afterwards was a very kind employee of the New York Times, Loren Feldman, saying he wanted to possibly do a story on my swimming pool company’s success from content marketing and also my transition from “pool guy” to “marketing guy.” Although the idea sounds wonderful, I don’t anticipate anything will come from this.

Tuesday January 29^th 1:37pm: I just received an email from Loren and he says a reporter will be contacting me soon to do a story. Honestly, I still don’t expect much, as my experience with newspaper reporters up to this point when discussing marketing never seems to be too exciting, but we’ll see.

Friday February 8^th 6pm: I just got off the phone with New York Times reporter Mark Cohen. Expecting the call to be just a few minutes, we ended up chatting for over an hour about my entire story and the unusual things I’ve done with content marketing to find success. He was especially interested in my willingness to discuss the competition and answer every single question we’d been asked as pool guys. I didn’t know reporters could be this fun to talk to.

Thursday February 14^th: I got an email from Mark Cohen today. He says Loren from the Times loves the piece, and that they’re going to be sending a photographer down to my swimming pool store as well. Now things are starting to get interesting…

Friday February 15^th : A very cool freelance photographer, Jay Paul, came down to my store today and took a bunch of photos of me holding my laptop while standing next to one of our fiberglass pool shells. He tells me the story should be running in the NY Times website in about a week, but isn’t sure as to whether or not it’s going to be in the paper version of the Times as well. Not wanting to make a mistake and give false information to anyone, I decide to wait to tell any friends about the possibility of the story.

Wednesday February 27^th 10am: I get a Google Alerts that the article has run in the NY Times web version of the paper. Throughout the day, more and more people are starting to contact me with kind words of congratulations. Even better, I find out the story is running in the actual paper tomorrow as well. The article is only about 20% of our actual conversation, but it turned out great, and I’m finally allowing myself to be excited.

Thursday February 28^th 10:30am: I’ve just gotten off stage after speaking to about 300 internet entrepreneurs at the Underground Conference (tremendous event btw) in Washington DC. Feeling great about how my talk went, I sit down and find a barrage of emails in my inbox. One of them is from Seth Godin’s literary agent, and she tells me she believes the story needs to be told in book form, and would like to represent me going forward.

Oddly, I feel tears running down my cheeks. I read the email twice to make sure I didn’t read it wrong the first time. Yep, it’s Seth Godin’s agent.

I’m finally one step closer to getting the book (or should I say series of books) published that I know is very much inside of me, and am overwhelmed with gratitude.

Sunday, March 4^th 12:10am: Here I now sit, writing this little blog post. This last week has been incredibly surprising. The article in the Times was a hit, one of their most read business articles of the week. And with record traffic on the TSL website every day, hundreds of emails have come in and almost 1000 people have subscribed to the blog.

At the same time, what this last 4 years has taught me is to not get too high or too low with any event. Often, “big breaks” aren’t nearly as big as they initially appear, and those “huge disappointments” are equally not as bad as we often perceive them.

Life works in funny ways. For the first 12 months of The Sales Lion, almost no one read or listened. Those were tough times.

Today, people are listening—and although it may not be the biggest or best blog in the world, I feel a deep sense of appreciation for all the progress that has been made, to all those wonderful people that have helped get me there,  and at the same time know this is just the beginning.

Over the last two years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with quite a few companies ranging from 1-200 employees in an effort to implement a culture of content marketing. With each of these companies and their content, we’ve always had 3 major goals:

1. Produce as much content as possible

2. Produce content that truly answers consumer questions and has value (quality)

3. Produce content that gets great results from a search standpoint (SEO/SCM)

With each of these critical goals, there has been one truism that stands out more than any other:

The greater the number of employees that help produce content, the more success the company has.

This makes perfect sense to most folks, but it begs a critical question, one that CEOs and Chief Marketing Officers are asking quite a bit these days:

Should blogging and content marketing be a required duty of employees?

Ahh yes, a very important question indeed.

But to cut to the chase, my answer is quite simple:

YES

Now that we’ve gotten that part of it out of the way, let’s talk about why. Here are 10 reasons to chew one, and I’d love to hear yours.

10 Reasons Blogging and Content Marketing Should be Required of Employees

1. Sheer numbers:

With the content arms race in full effect, the battle to take the content hill is pretty fierce, especially in industries that are on the cutting edge of marketing practices. This being said, the more (good) content, the better the results.

Unfortunately, for many businesses, even larger organizations, the marketing falls on the shoulders of just a few. To give you an example, I spoke to a company this past week that had hundreds of employees in “sales,” but less than a dozen in “marketing.” Crazy, huh?

But what would happen if this same company converted those hundreds of sales professionals into bloggers and content marketers? What would happen if each viewed themselves as a teacher with something very valuable to share to the world?

I can tell you what would happen: They’d blow up.

Hopefully, I’ll be telling you exactly how they blew up in about 12 months (once I get done with them ), but the days of this organization having no connection between sales and marketing is quickly coming to a close, and the results will be profound. Just think of it this way:

If a company has 100 sales people, and each writes(or helps write) one blog article every 4 months, how many total articles per year would that equate to?

Yep, 300, and that’s without causing a major burden on any singular person.

Now granted, I know most companies don’t have nearly this many employees, but even 3 employees contributing content on a consistent basis can work miracles in terms of generating more traffic, leads, and sales from content marketing.

The bottom line is “Insourcing” works. Do it.

Companies like Segue Technologies (client) are leveraging their rich employee base to establish consistency, diversity, and quality with their company content.

2. Diversity of thought and subject matter

What happens when only a few in the marketing department are the ones producing most of the content? I’ll tell you:

Everything starts to sound the same.

The opposite occurs when employees are producing content. Depending on the clients they deal with, the questions they answer every day, and the area they specialize in—there can be an incredibly vast array of diversity of content when multiple employees from multiple parts of the company are utilized to share their knowledge, stories, and experiences. I’ve seen this occur over and over again and it’s always one of the biggest surprises of management to see just how diverse their employees truly are.

3. Sales presentations and communication become much better.

This is one of the biggest secrets to blogging and content marketing that no one really talks about nor fully grasps until they’ve actually done it.

When I was selling swimming pools, I noticed the days I wrote blog articles about the industry and my products, my sales presentations were always crisper, stronger, and more on-point. This enhanced communication is simply a byproduct of putting your thoughts to pen (or video, audio, etc.) and distilling to the world exactly what you think and feel.

Now that I’m a silent partner in the pool business and writing/yapping about marketing all day, my ability to communicate in this arena has skyrocketed. But this was only made possible from countless hours of forcing myself to take the thoughts that were in my head and putting them down on paper in a way that was convincingly clear.

Simply stated, writing has a dramatic impact on verbal communication.

When I was still a pool guy, writing about my industry and products sharpened my sales presentations and communication greatly, as is the case with any salesperson who blogs and produces content.

4. Employees pay much greater attention to the content.

Just like any sports team, club, charity, etc.—those that participate are always the biggest advocates. The same applies to company’s content marketing efforts. In fact, if employees are assisting with the content, they are way more likely to share the content via their social media channels, talk about it, use it within the sales process, etc. This benefit alone can be worth its rate in gold.

5. People are now emotionally invested.

This one is similar to #4 but there is something very magical about seeing your name next to an article, an eBook, a whitepaper, etc. The majority of employees for companies big and small around the world do not currently see themselves as teachers, nor realize the value of their words and knowledge. This all can change the moment they put their name next to a piece of content and thereby take ownership.

As I’ve discussed many times here on TSL, my friends at Block Imaging get amazing participation on their company blog from dozens of employees, much of which carries over into their belief in the company’s mission and what they’re doing.

6. If it’s not required, they won’t do it. Nor will they take you seriously.

I’ve literally seen this time and time again. I have some clients that refuse to require a set amount of content from employees. With almost every single one of these, the employees don’t produce what has been “suggested” of them. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve had clients (generally a CEO or CMO) tell employees, “This is who we are. This is what we do. It’s part of your job.”

Whenever this approach occurs, the production rates area generally 200-400% greater than the companies that simply “nudge” versus the requisite approach. Yes, the requirement method may not sound utopic, but it’s no different than any other job duty and expectation.

And one other point about this: When employees sense that management are not truly “all-in” with content marketing, a domino effect generally occurs, causing others to see it as “just another program” that will soon be terminated or drift off into the sunset as so many other “great ideas” before it.

7. Everyone is a teacher. It’s our job to help them realize that.

The profession of “teacher” is one of the most respected (although under-appreciated) in our society. With such a title comes pride—the pride of knowing you have influence for good on others. Content marketing, done right, is the pinnacle of teaching in my opinion. Simon Sinek often teaches about happiness in the work place, and the fact that most folks are so very unfulfilled when it comes to their “purpose” and “mission”. By taking the “teacher’s” approach of content marketing, many employees will find a sense of pride and purpose they never previously felt—something that can have a tremendous overall impact on the company morale.

8. Individual brands are built.

Companies that truly see the “big picture” want their employees to develop personally and elevate their individual brand and worth. As you might imagine, content marketing is one of the best ways these employees can do just that, and further develop themselves as thought leaders within their respective fields.

Companies like Wegmans have done a tremendous job tapping in to their rich employee knowledge base, building individual brands along the way.

9. It’s impossible to know who will be great until you get started.

I’ve worked with companies that started their content marketing efforts off with a small percentage of their total employee base, only to realize later on that they missed out on having some of their most talented teachers, writers, and communicators participate in the blog and content marketing efforts.

Without fail, there is always a diamond in the rough just waiting to show his or her talent to the rest of the company, and world for that matter, by embracing the content marketing opportunities.

10. It eventually becomes a culture.

Yes, the company blog and content marketing efforts may start off as a “program” to most employees, but eventually, it will become a culture, especially if everyone is actively engaged and made aware of the victories that come from all the content that has been produced. Although few companies have truly reached this point, I’ve seen it happen more than once, and when it does, the results on each individual and the collective group is a powerful and lasting one.

In many ways, HubSpot was a pioneer in the blogging space because they tapped into their many employees to produce a prolific amount of content, the result of which is a true “culture” of education and a brand that is known to be one of the premier teachers in the inbound marketing realm.

Letting them Participate in a Way that Suits Them

On a final note, if you do decide to require your employees to write blog articles and produce content, I’d suggest you give them as many ways to do this as possible. Generally speaking, there are 3 methods of employee content extraction:

1. The employee writes the post

2. The employee makes a video post

3. The employee is interviewed by someone who then turns the information into a blog post and acts essentially as a ghost writer.

By allowing employees to choose one of these three methods, you’re much, much more likely to get full participation, as you have now overcome any potential obstacles/excuses that may have impeded a significant amount of work and progress. Also, a Chief Content Officer (anyone that can write well and understands the brand message) is a critical component of catching, filtering, and planning this entire content strategy, something I’ll discuss much more of at a later time.

When all is said and done, the choice you make with your company’s content marketing and blogging efforts is an individual one, but hopefully these suggestions are enough to have you consider a full-blown cultural implementation.

No doubt, this stuff works, it’s just a matter of getting the work done.

Your Turn

So what’s your take? Do you think employees should be required to do this? Why? Give us your thoughts, I’d love to know your experiences with this important subject.

Some guy named Rand Fishkin recently said, “Delivering an exceptional experience and building a true web brand are now essential to long-term SEO success.”

Something tells me Rand was right

Something also tells me it’s time we moved to the next phase of SEO—one that manages to maintain best SEO practices post penguin/panda, but also delivers an exceptional experience through great content.

This is exactly why I feel Search Content Marketing (SCM)—the morphology of two digital marketing essentials—is a needed vernacular shift in this industry, as it better describes what some SEOs and content marketing companies are now (or at least should be) doing.

This Isn’t About Acronyms

Recently, while speaking at a conference in Dallas, a WordPress developer who was in the audience gave me one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever received. After my 1-hour talk, the gentleman came up to me and made a very simple statement:

“That was the best presentation on SEO I’ve ever seen.”

I don’t mention this compliment from the gentleman to brag, but rather to make a point—during my entire time speaking to this group of people, I never mentioned the phrase “SEO”  or “search engine optimization” one single time. Rather, I simply discussed the power of thinking like a consumer, being willing to address every single question they have on our website, and then using those questions to create a long tail keyword campaign that generates traffic, leads, and sales.

When I consider the essence of search content marketing, I see a fundamental belief in 3 things:

1. SEO is not the devil: That’s right, it’s not. Sure, there have been a lot of black hat digital scumbags that have done naughty things in the past to game the system, but SEO itself is not the enemy. Nor is it bad. How else are the search engines going to show their customers (you and me) great, relevant, and specific search results? This is also why anyone that says, “Don’t ever pay attention to SEO,” is a fool and needs to be shown the door, in my opinion

Believe it or not, there are many “content marketers” out there right now that don’t pay attention to SEO, and really don’t even mention it to their clients when they are planning, analyzing, and executing a content marketing plan. I find this a bad practice, and it’s one of the reasons I think search content marketing needs to be another component of this conversation.

2. Content that doesn’t ever get read is essentially a failure: Let me ask you a question: If someone writes an article, and it never gets read, was it ever written in the first place?? Like the tree in the forest that didn’t fall because no one heard it, I say this because content, without readers, simply does not move the needle for a business.

For a huge portion of businesses out there, the main way their content gets read is through search engine inquiries. Yes, of course direct referrals, advertising, email, social media, and assignment selling play a big role in traffic generation as well, but organic search results are still the gatekeeper for a large majority of businesses.

3. Quality will be the most important aspect of digital content moving forward: Not that it needs be perfect, but with more and more industries becoming incredibly saturated in content, quality is and will always be the great divide between the masses of “producers” versus the few that are able to rise to the top.

Examples of Great Content Marketing Combined with SEO

This being said, I want to show you examples of what I think search content marketing is all about:

A clear keyword goal with loads of content value is the essence of Search Content Marketing

Why it Rocks from a Content Marketing Standpoint: This post was a doozy. It took over 10 hours to prepare (thanks Rich!) and was drafted multiple times. With 3,000 words, readers finally are able to see an in-depth review of two companies that are a constant topic of debate for many small businesses around the globe looking to jump into  the automated marketing software arena. In many ways, this post embodies everything Fishkin was speaking of in his opening statement of this post– delivering an exceptional user experience.

As you can see, this article after only two weeks has done quite well with search engine rankings.

Why it Rocks from an SEO standpoint: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million more times: “Versus” posts work. Readers love them. Search engines love them. And few companies have the guts to write them. But, if you do have guts, then you get search engine ranking results like you see in the image above.

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Combining video with text while answering a GREAT consumer question is what it’s all about.

Why it Rocks from a Content Marketing Standpoint: I’m biased when it comes to the folks at Block Imaging, mainly because they were one of my first clients and have one of the best Chief Content Officers in the world in Krista Kotrla, but their company brand continues to skyrocket because they aren’t afraid to address questions consumers have—like cost and price—something that most companies are scared to death of and won’t do. Furthermore, this article is a great example of allowing visitors to consume information in a manner that suits them best, be it text or the embedded video from the company’s president, Josh Block.

Why it Rocks from a SEO Standpoint: Google “MRI Machine Cost” or “Price of MRI Machine” and you’ll quickly see why it rocks, and why it’s generates tons of traffic, leads, and sales for the company.

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If you read Convince and Convert often, you’ll see someone that always merges best SEO practices with incredible content.

Why it Rocks from a Content Marketing Standpoint: Few people are better online at search content marketing than Jay Baer. What’s interesting about Jay is that although he doesn’t talk about SEO very much, it runs through the guy’s veins, as is evident if you look at many of his blog titles. That being said, this article was powerful because it answered, and in a very clear, concise, and thoughtful manner, a question that bloggers, businesses, and marketers have all over the world, “How do you calculate the ROI of blogging?”

If you read this article, you’ll see why Jay is such a respected teacher, speaker, and thought-leader in this field, as he embodies the essence of great content marketing.

Why it Rocks from an SEO  Standpoint: Was Jay trying to be witty with that title? Nope, not at all. He went after a perfect long tail keyword phrase and scored an immediate touchdown. Just Google “calculate blogging ROI” to see what I’m talking about.

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By simply thinking like your customer and answering their questions, you will have a great mix of content marketing and SEO, just as Segue Technologies shows in this post.

Why it Rocks from a Content Marketing Standpoint: One of my newest clients, Segue Technologies, specializes in developing mobile apps for a variety of businesses and needs. Knowing they are constantly asked about app compatibility with iOS, they wrote an excellent article addressing this common customer question—an article that can now be a part of their sales process going forward.

Why it Rocks from an SEO Standpoint: Although the long tail phrase that is this blog title might not be a prolific one in terms of the number of monthly searches it gets, it is certainly a question that companies are asking when going through the app development process. And because no other app developer has addressed this question so well, Segue ranks #1 on Google for the phrase.

Going Forward

I could literally go on and on showing examples of individuals and companies that are doing a great job combining SEO and content marketing, but I think you get my point.

Please understand with this post I’m not saying we should change the phrase “content marketing,” as content marketing is way more than writing blog articles and producing videos that are well optimized, as you can read in this article here.

But I am saying I think we need to start the process of changing the world’s mentality towards SEO. This starts with SEO companies integrating content marketing into the mix and helping their clients understand the days of keyword stuffing, silly URLs, and crappy inbound links schemes are quickly coming to a close and no longer have value. This doesn’t mean they forget their SEO roots and best practices, it just means they refine the old while embracing the new.

And the new, at least in my opinion, is Search Content Marketing.

Your Turn:

I would imagine many folks will disagree with this article, which is fine. That is why TSL is known to have one of the best comment sections on the entire web. Respectful disagreement is welcome in these parts.

That being said, do you feel SEO needs to evolve into SCM? Do you think I’m a fool for making such a suggestion? Jump in folks, it’s your turn to say what’s on your mind.

Well it’s podcast time again everyone, and in this fast and furious episode I not only riff about the following blog articles that got so much response these past few weeks, but I’ll also answer your great questions/emails that are listed below. Not only that, but I discuss in this episode getting rejected from a speaking opportunity I really, really hoped to get, and my thoughts on the rejection now that I’ve had a few days to chew on it. As I’ve mentioned before, you can listen to this podcast by hitting play on the button found within this article, or find it in iTunes or Stitcher Radio.

• Why you should fire Your SEO firm if they don’t do content marketing
• Why comments and social shares are incredibly overrated as a KPI of content marketing
• 5 Reasons Why long content and blog posts are once again the future of content marketing

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Marcus,

The last time we spoke, I was beginning to unveil my blogging and content strategy with my $100M sales company. 99% of the people here are old school, pavement pounding sales people or administrators. They still use fax, so getting them into this was a challenge.

I managed to grab one, then a second one. The first one has been interesting to watch him attempt to balance his traveling sales duties and the blogging – and it remains to be seen how he is (willing to) incorporating his blogging into is daily sales interactions.

The second guy deals specifically with industrial robotics solutions and I got him interested in writing a short series on one of the new robot products our company is selling. After structuring his topics, I told him just give it a shot and get them to me – I’d give him the media and edit it.

In one month, he’s been swamped with calls, including one business that found [this post] and were considering our competitor, but then chose us! I know you get validation on a daily basis, but this stuff works. Great opportunities to cross sell and up-sell too. ..

These are old school engineers. The truth about content production can be learned by anyone! 

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Hi Marcus,

Thanks for your time earlier this week.  At this point, we are not going to move forward.  I believe your content is very relevant, although we need more of a global perspective. (ouch!!!)

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Our biggest issue is getting sales to follow-up on the leads we generate.

They receive 150 a month and can’t seem to connect.

I think we have to help our sales people recognize a good lead and then know what to do with it.

Scott

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Hello Marcus,

My biggest challenge with inbound and content marketing is that we haven’t been doing it.  At all.  Nothing.

I see the critical need for it, hence a website that has been in development for 6 months and is on the verge of going live.

One component we really need to work on is the blog.  We have just hired a ‘marketing coordinator’ who is going to have his work cut out for him in doing this!

I have one question for you:    what is the first step we should take??  

My feeling is that it is something along the lines of getting our team together and coming up with the best  subjects/questions/discussions/etc to start working on.  I would really value your thought on this.

Thanks very much Marcus, have a great weekend,

Regards,

Brad

Marketing trends are a funny thing. What is “true” today is often “false” tomorrow.  As an example, when blogging and content marketing really started to pick up speed over these last few years, many claims were made as to the most effective size and length of blogs posts/content. I’m sure you’ve heard a few of these statements in the past:

• “People don’t have the attention span nor time to read long blog posts…”
• “No one watches videos that are over 3 minutes, so always keep your videos short…”
• “The quicker the content, the better…”

And on and on and on.

At the same time, there have been others in the industry that have stuck with longer content and preached just the opposite of the “always keep it short” approach.

The truth is both styles of communication can work. Seth Godin averages about 200 words a post and Social Media Examiner is typically in the 1500 words range, but both sites are wildly successful models for content production.

This being said, if one looks at all of the changes happening around us and then looks ahead at where all of this is going, longer content and blogs will likely have more relevancy going forward, and here are 5 reasons why:

1. The Content Arms Race Likes Big Weapons:

I started talking about the “content arms race” over a year ago and more than ever I see just how aggressive companies and industries of all sizes are now starting to compete with each other and saturating their markets with content. As this happens, and companies are consistently putting out new articles, videos, eBooks, etc.—there is one main thing that separates the average from those that stand above—quality. And not only is the perception that longer content is of better quality, but generally speaking, length gives writers the opportunity to dive deeper and teach better on any given subject.

Because they are in such a competitive space, HubSpot has spent a good bit of time over the last year producing content-rich eBooks to increase their pipeline, something that can be much more powerful than simply writing blog post after blog post.

Plus, ask yourself this question: If you were in a literal arms race, would you rather have 100 grenades or 100 missiles at your disposal? Yeah, I know, it’s not the most romantic analogy but it’s true.

2. The Focus of ROI (Return on Investment):

As those in marketing and sales start to understand the power of content as a sales tool, they’ll also begin to realize how bigger and better content, when consumed, can have a dramatic impact on consumers and potential clients.

Take my eBook here at The Sales Lion for example. A lot of people tell me it’s silly to have a 250-page eBook because it’s too long and therefore turns off most readers. What these folks don’t understand, though, is the fact that I know the eBook is going to eliminate a lot of readers. In fact, I want that. Why? Because the eBook is meant for companies that want to dominate online through content marketing. And because they want to be the best, they’re willing to put the time into learning about how they can achieve these goals.

250 pages may seem like too much content for some, but for me and my business, it’s the key to deeply educating and then finding the right clients.

Because it’s a requirement that my clients read the eBook, it has become my greatest single sales tool, qualifier, and filter. It also ensures I’m working with great companies all the time.

And isn’t this exactly what every business wants?

3. More Visual Capabilities

It has now become an accepted fact that the more visual components an article or piece of content has the more likely it is to draw attention and be read. Going back to Social Media Examiner, you’ll notice that not only do they average over 1500 words per article as I mentioned earlier, but they also have at least 5 photos (and/or video) with every article as well. This is an editorial rule for SME writers and it’s a good one to have, as it ensures that visual and textual learners are able to consume information in their preferred method. This magazine-style approach is very calculated and effective, and it’s one of the main reasons why SME has about 200K subscribers despite the fact they’re just over 3 years old.

As master of long content with multiple images, Social Media Examiner has gone from a “blog” to “digital magazine.”

Looking at this more simplistically though, short articles don’t allow for as many photos and videos to be placed within a post. The natural ratio for a blog article/piece of content is this: 1 main idea= 1 main image

This is exactly why you’ll find a photo/image under each number(main idea) of this blog post—a pattern I picked up after guest writing for SME and something that makes a big, big difference in just how visually appealing an article is.

4. Penguin, Panda, and Google like Big Content

When Google updated their algorithm in 2012 with Penguin and Panda, the whole web was turned on its head. Many of the most disgraceful SEO practices were now coming back to haunt companies that had danced with the devil, and a new era of “content quality” was born. Furthermore, when one really understands how search engines work, they also understand that “time on site” and social shares are becoming more important metrics of SEO success.

Look at it this way: If Google has a choice to show two articles for the same keyword, which one are they going to choose:

The one where readers average 45 seconds on the page or the one where readers average 4.5 minutes on the page?

Now granted, this is just one of many factors that dictate search engine rankings, but I’m sure you understand my point.

Google wants to show great content that delivers their users a delightful experience. That’s their goal. And longer content that does a deep dive into a subject certainly has a better chance of meeting this goal. (Again, there are always exceptions, but you get my point.)

To learn more about Penguin, Panda, and where all of this is heading, check out this video from Google’s Matt Cutts:

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. Longer Content Gets More Social Shares

I’m going to ask you a question, and you’ve got to be honest: Have you ever looked at a really long piece of content, skimmed it because you simply didn’t have 10 minutes to read it, but still shared it because you “felt” like there was a lot of value there?

Yep, I bet you have. So have I.

Guilty as charged.

This post took over 8 hours to write and was over 2500 words, but the time was worth it, and was more effective than if I had written 5 other posts of little size and minimal impact.

When people sense that an author has spent a lot of time creating value, they are much more likely to share it than they would if it was a smaller post—even one of equal “quality.”

Here at The Sales Lion, 90% of my most shared posts are more than 1200 words, even though about 50% of my articles here are less than 1200 words. Although I’d like to think the articles I’ve written that weren’t as long were still good, the fact cannot be ignored that there is a direct correlation between length of content and social sharing—a reality that many businesses and bloggers are starting to take note of.

And as I mentioned in #4, because search engines are starting to use social as part of their algorithm (I think this is a dumb idea btw but time will tell), more and more companies are going to do anything they can to get an edge when it comes to search engine rankings, and social appears to be a part of that unending battle going forward.

Your Turn

As I mentioned earlier in the article, I’m not saying here short content is bad, as quality and results come in all sizes and will always be the most important factor. Plus, many industries still have such little content (low content saturation index) that doing anything at all will make a company a frontrunner. That being said, would you agree that the trend in content marketing is that of longer, meatier content? Also, what other reasons would you add to the five above?

Jump in folks, let your voice be heard.

I was reading an article entitled “8 KPIs Your Content Marketing Measurement Should Include” on the Content Marketing Institute blog the other day and was once again scratching my head as to why the author allowed social shares and comments to make his list of these critical metrics we’re supposed to be paying attention to as businesses.

Don’t get me wrong, the article was really good, and I thought the first 6 KPIs (key performance indicators) mentioned were dead-on. But social shares? Comments? As a KPI?

I’m going to say something here that rarely seems to get mentioned online:

Most industries aren’t very social.

There, it has now been said.

Let’s really ask ourselves for a minute how we got into this comment/share mess in the first place. The reality is that we are a world living and breathing immediate gratification—real or not.

The Science Behind Why We’re Addicted to Comments and Social Shares

On a psychological and physiological level, what comments and shares really do is release a chemical in our bodies called dopamine—a temporary shot of happiness, the same type of feeling we get with alcohol, gambling, or even those little sounds our cell phones make with each new text or email message.

Don’t believe me? It’s true, just ask Simon Sinek, one of the foremost leaders in this area.

Recently I received an email from someone who was starting a home fitness blog/business and was quite depressed he wasn’t getting any comments. Because of this, he was contemplating if he should just “hang it up.”

My response was as follows:

Run a business man, not a club.

And don’t quit.

This gentleman was incredibly representative of so many other businesses that have set up a false god with comments and social shares and allowed themselves to lose sight of why they started writing and content marketing in the first place.

Real Numbers, Real Businesses

But enough of that, I want to talk about a few companies I’m working with and just how little they care about comments and social shares.

Many of you have heard me talk about Yale Appliance in Boston. Last year their sales increased by over 10 million dollars while stopping most regular forms of advertising and instead focusing on a tremendous content/email marketing campaign—with their blog setting the pace and dominating search engine results simply because they’re talking about things customers care about,  something few other companies are willing to broach.

But here’s the catch—if you look at Yale’s blog articles, there is something you see very, very little of—comments and social shares.

Huge success, few comments and shares.

Or let’s look at US Waterproofing and my friend Matt Stock. The guy has done amazing things in the basement waterproofing realm. His content is read by thousands and thousands of people. But if he gets more than a few likes and shares with each post, and maybe a comment here or there, then it’s unusual.

US Waterproofing’s most popular article, shown above, has been read thousands of times and shared very little on social networks.

Or how about my other company, River Pools and Spas? Just look at the page below where I wrote about how much a fiberglass pool costs. Because it’s an actual “page” of the site and not a “blog” article, it has NEVER been liked, tweeted, or commented on. Currently though, my analytics are now showing that one page (article) accounts for about 1.7 million in sales since it was written four years ago. Fact is, most  blog articles at River Pools rarely crack more than a couple of social shares and maybe a few comments—often times not by consumers, but from those working in the industry.

Real ROI

One of my newest clients who has produced over 150 blog posts in 3 months through insourcing, OnGoing Operations, has experienced incredible business gains already because of their content marketing—yet they almost never get comments or shares. But think about it, how often are people going to rush to Twitter or Facebook and share “How do DDoS Mitigation Services Work?”

Not the most “shareable” topic, is it?

I could literally go on and on with examples of clients that don’t allow social shares and comments to be KPIs whatsoever, but I’ll stop there, as I’m sure you get the point.

Content Marketing is about building your business, your brand, and your bottom line.

It’s not about comments and shares. And the minute it is, that’s when businesses lose their way and start allowing the false metric gods to dictate their success and focus.

Could comments and social shares be a byproduct of content marketing excellence? Yes, of course, and they can help things too.

But the keyword here is byproduct—not KPI.

Remember, it’s just dopamine running through our veins.

Your Turn:

A simple question for you today my friends: How would you rate comments and social shares as a KPI in content marketing? I’m sure we can all agree that the answer is “it depends,” but let’s see if we can’t dig a little deeper…

Note from Marcus*** Over the past 6 months, I’ve been getting more and more questions about all of the different automated marketing software solutions that are available to businesses. Because so many know me not only as a HubSpot partner, but also one that will give frank assessments of the good and bad of this or any marketing software, I wanted to take the time today to compare HubSpot (HS) with another marketing software that has grown quite nicely in recent years– Infusionsoft (IS). In fact, this is going to be one of many comparisons/studies we’ll be making at The Sales Lion going forward, with Eloqua, Pardot, Marketo, and others being subjects of future posts. To help make this 3700-word post a reality, my fellow teammate here at TSL– Rich McElaney ,spent hours of research to come up with the information herein, after which I spent another 4 hours coming up with videos and screenshots to make it easier on readers to more thoroughly vet these two companies.  This being said, I feel the following article is easily the best comparison made online (at least from what I’ve seen) of HS vs IS to date. So if you’ve been considering any type of marketing automation software for your business, read on….

Infusionsoft vs HubSpot: A Complete Review

A common trait with most marketing automation software, “All-In-One” is a claim that everyone is attempting to own at this point.

If you’re a business owner or you run a marketing department – you’ve very likely been approached by several of the big name providers of marketing automation software. While the promise of this technology is big, it takes significant due diligence to narrow down the choices and really sort out the features and functionality that will bring lasting change to your business. It’s a tough challenge to stay on top of the rapidly developing marketing technology landscape while running a business. We at The Sales Lion feel your pain. Our aim is to lighten your research burden a bit by getting you familiar with today’s marketing automation choices.  In this post we’ll compare HubSpot versus Infusionsoft – two of the biggies in the small to medium business marketplace. 

Notice a common theme?

We’re going to look at six factors in our Versus Evaluation:

1. Company background information – how long each company has been in business, the number of clients served and the latest news that may have an impact on company operations.

2. Specific Functionality of the Platform – this is probably the most important consideration in your due diligence. Do the features and functionality align with your needs and objectives? What are the differences between the platforms?

3. Structure and Strength of the Providers’ Sales Channels – how providers sell and the scope of their sales structure are good indicators to watch.

4. Integration Capabilities and the Applications and Service Marketplace – even though marketing automation platforms are growing from a functionality standpoint, a buyer should have the ability to easily integrate their specialty tools of choice. The app and service marketplace is an interesting area to assess – has a vibrant ecosystem emerged in support of the software? The level of activity here shows buy-in from both the client side and the developer side.

5. Onboarding Approach – what are the onboarding, training and technical support resources available to clients?

6. Total Cost of Ownership – all marketing automation platforms have related costs that need to be factored into budgeting to get a clear picture of the total operating cost.

1.      Company Background.

HubSpot was founded in 2006, has 8,000 clients, 400 employees and received its latest capital infusion of $35 million from Altimeter Capital and Cross Creek Capital.  Much of the press coverage and market speculation predicts that this latest funding puts them in pre-IPO territory.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Infusionsoft was founded in 2004, has 12,000 clients, 350 employees and just received a $54 million investment from Goldman Sachs to help step up marketing and sales efforts, training and partner education programs and product development activity.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2.      Platform Functionality

At a quick glance, HS and IS seem to be very similar in their promise:

• attracting visitors to your website
• converting those visitors to prospects
• converting prospects to incremental revenue
• analyzing this whole process with the intent of refining it over time

We’ll use this trio of value deliverables as the basis for comparison – Attract, Convert and Analyze

Attract

Right out of the gate there is a big difference between the two platforms because HS offers a Content Management System (CMS) that provides a potential foundation for your site to be built on or migrated to (Note**Depending on need, this could be your entire site or just your blog platform). While there are limitations in the range of design flexibility in HS compared to a CMS like WordPress (read more about this here), having the functionality of a CMS baked into your marketing automation software simplifies things, especially for those non-techie business owners and marketers who would like greater control over the website design but struggle with a more complex CMS, like WordPress or Drupal.

HS helps users have a strategic keyword focus, complete with goals and analytics, as shown here with my swimming pool company’s account.

Along with the CMS, HubSpot brings a host of other benefits, especially from an SEO standpoint, something that Infustionsoft doesn’t focus as much on:

• A very robust keyword analysis/tracking tool
•  inbound link tracking
• on-page SEO
• a blogging module(optional to users) that offers SEO guidance and analytical tools to show how your blogging efforts are generating leads.

Taken from the “fiberglass pool cost” page of my swimming pool website, HS shows users key SEO elements of every page of their site, changes that should be made, as well as stats such as ranked keywords, inbound links to said page, etc.

Infusionsoft offers the ability to have an eCommerce business presence on its platform, but there is no “full-blown” CMS functionality offered. This requires an integration between your CMS of choice and IS.  Your CMS will “hold” all the content you create to attract visitors to your site – blog posts, videos and the rest of your foundational site content – and is a critical piece of the Attract value delivery.  So, your site could live on WordPress and IS would plug into your site. HS can also be configured in this way – for example, if your site is on WordPress (as is The Sales Lion) and you’re happy with its look and blog functionality, you can plug HubSpot in and utilize the best of both platforms.

Sporting a robust, built-in ecommerce platform, Infusionsoft offers a feature most other marketing software do not.

Both platforms provide the ability to attract visitors through social media.  Content and campaigns can be pushed to your preferred social accounts and tracking of this activity is available in both.

Convert

On the front lines of the conversion process, you’ll need calls to action (CTA) and landing pages (LP).  A common use for a CTA is at the end of a blog post – it is literally a graphical button, banner or box that when clicked will direct visitors to a landing page. The LP’s job is to offer an exchange – for example, an offer of value from the site owner for the visitor’s name and email address.

HubSpot allows you to build graphical call to action (CTA) buttons and landing pages (LP) that are critical to the conversion process.  Creating both is an easy process in HubSpot, as is tracking the activity from the pairings of CTAs and LPs that you create.

A simple example of landing page created using HubSpot

You can build landing pages and web forms on Infusionsoft, and as is the case with HubSpot’s CTA and LP builders, these are critical components in moving site visitors from just visitors to interested prospects and eventually, new customers. With IS, you would need to create your CTA graphics elsewhere and place them on your site.

Campaign automation and creating workflows to drive conversion are key components of both platforms. IS provides a richer graphical interface with which to design campaigns and workflows – you can actually “see” your campaigns come to life by dragging and dropping your campaign components into a linear timeline of execution..

A screenshot of Infusionsoft’s workflow campaign builder.

HubSpot provides the same functionality in designing campaigns and workflows , although there is no drag and drop capability with which to do so.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Both platforms offer solid email capabilities: list segmentation, campaign execution tools, design templates, nurturing functionality and analytics. Infusionsoft’s email module is heavy on the graphical interface and visually oriented users may find that to be an advantage in laying out campaigns.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Going deeper into the conversion process, both platforms offer lead scoring, which is important in tracking prospect advancement through your sales process.  In order to provide this information, lead activity has to be tracked site-wide. As with its campaign and workflow setup tools, lead scores in IS are graphical – the higher the number of flames, the hotter the prospect.  HubSpot uses a numeric lead grading system and there’s a standard algorithm that ranks prospects  based on their behaviors on your site. In the upper tiers of HubSpot versions, you can customize your lead scoring based on your particular needs.

The following videos demonstrates the lead scoring of IS:

Click here to view the embedded video.

At the tail end of the conversion process,  closing the sale is the focus.  This is another area of significant differentiation between the two platforms. This differentiation doesn’t necessarily translate into efficiency or performance gains, but it’s important to  be aware of.

Infusionsoft has a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system built into its software.  Just as HubSpot’s inclusion of CMS functionality simplifies content management, Infusionsoft’s inclusion of CRM functionality simplifies sales management.  And, just as IS integrates with a wide range of content management systems, HS integrates with a wide range of customer relationship management systems.  One of the leading CRM systems –Salesforce – integrates with HS natively – meaning if you have the Professional versions of both HS and Salesforce, the two will sync with a one-time setup process.

Here is a brief video showing part of Infusionsoft’s CRM capabilities:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Analyze

The analytic capabilities of both of these platforms are very similar. While there are subtle differences in how the data is collected due to the native functionality of the respective platforms, both track and report on the full life-cycle of the customer – from initial site visit to the conversion to a sale.

HubSpot analytics not only show traffic, but dive deeper showing total number of leads and sales(customers), a critical element of defining your marketing ROI (return on investment).

Additional Functionality Considerations

Historically, IS has catered to the eCommerce sector and as such, has another layer of functionality beyond HubSpot. The key features in this added functionality:

• online storefront
• shopping cart
• upselling and discounting options
• billing and payment plan execution
• subscription plans
• product inventory and fulfillment tracking
• affiliate and partner program tracking
• all relevant analytic tracking and reporting

3.      Sales Channel Structure

HubSpot sells directly to end users and has an established Value Added Reseller (VAR) network of consultants, agencies, and third-party providers.  There are approximately 700 VARs worldwide selling HS with the majority of those in the U.S.  Each VAR must go through a certification process in order to sell HS and is rated Silver, Gold (which is what we are at The Sales Lion) or Platinum based on a number of performance attributes.  Training and certification is free to prospective VARs. The majority of HubSpot’s revenue is generated directly by their internal sales team.

VARs are compensated on each HS sale they make. The majority of VAR revenues comes from the services they provide in support of the HubSpot platform.

Infusionsoft also sells directly to end users and through Certified Consultants, Referral Partners and third party providers. According to Infusionsoft’s website, there are 66 Certified Consultants in the U.S.  Certified Consultants pay $2,000 upfront to get certified and $1,500 annually to remain certified.  Both Certified Consultants and Referral Partners are paid a percentage for each sale. As with HubSpot’s VARs, Infusionsoft’s Certified Consultants generate the bulk of their revenue from support services.

4.      Integration Capabilities and The Service and Application Marketplace

At the time of this writing, HubSpot offers over 150 applications in its Application Marketplace. The applications available cover core areas such as: CRM, Content, Social Media, Email, SEO, Analytics, eCommerce and Mobile. Applications are built so they can be added to an existing user’s HubSpot platform with the click of a button.  Some of the applications are free and others are either a flat fee or subscription based.  Apps are rated by users and use a 1 to 5 rating scale.

A newer component of the HubSpot community, the App Marketplace has exploded with new apps over the past 2 years.

Pre-configured templates are also available in the Marketplace – examples would be email templates or landing page templates that can be purchased individually or in packs.

HubSpot uses an open Application Programming Interface (API) which allows developers to create their programs within the HubSpot platform.

Over on the Service Marketplace, HubSpot has over 100 providers offering 25+ services ranging from website design and blog writing to pay per click and eCommerce integration.  Ratings are listed, just like the Apps – from 1 to 5 stars, for the service providers and look at both the number of transactions the provider has completed and the performance lift from the service provided.  To get service pricing, a HubSpot user would need to contact the service provider and discuss their specific needs.

Infusionsoft’s Marketplace currently shows 80 applications available for users. Featured categories are: Accounting, Business Management,  Analytics, eCommerce, Social and Lead Generation.  Apps are rated from 1 to 5 stars and pricing is similar to what is found with HubSpot apps – some free, some flat fee and some subscription based.

On the Service Marketplace, there are 66 Consultants in the U.S. offering services ranging from copywriting and design to social media and data management. Ratings range from 1 to 5.  End users contact the service provider(s) of their choice and negotiate a service agreement based on their needs.

A screenshot showing just a few of the apps offered within the Infusionsoft Marketplace

Infusionsoft is in the process of launching a Developer Network which will entail the certification of developers on the platform and allow end users to have custom API integrations developed.

5.      Training and Technical Support

HubSpot is offered in three versions: Basic, Professional and Enterprise. While the training process is similar across the versions, the underlying training varies in cost, depth and intensity.

Basic users pay $300 for their training and this is required of all users. Professional users pay $2,000 for their required training and Enterprise users also pay $2,000 with an option to get advanced training for $7,000.

Once the initial training has been completed, users have a variety of options should they need additional support or guidance. HubSpot offers:

• HubSpot Academy – a broad collection of webinars, templates, case studies and user group information
• Inbound Conference – an annual three day conference which provides information on the new and upcoming features in the software, along with six tracks of training tailored for beginners all the way to advanced users.

Over the past year HubSpot has focused more and more on providing better education for their growing user base.

As a quick check on the responsiveness of the phone support function, we called the support line twice recently on different days and different times. In these tests we were informed we were 6^th and 12^th in the support queue, and experienced an average wait time of 10 minutes.

Another support option is using the services of a Value Added Reseller. VARs offer a range of services from basic coaching to full agency support and can be found in the Services Marketplace and in the VAR directory listed on the HubSpot site.

Infusionsoft is also offered in three versions: Standard, Plus and Premier.  Their 30-day KIckstart training program is required for all three versions and starts with their Gold Package at $1,999 and ends with their Platinum Package at $2,999.

In order to get things rolling for new clients, Infusionsoft will import your contact database and set up your first campaign. Packaged campaigns are also available for as low as $200.

Infusionsoft offers ongoing training in several modalities:

• Inbound University is a live three day training session that covers strategy and best practices for the core functional areas of the software
• Virtual Academy is aimed at the newer user to familiarize them with the capabilities and setup of the software
• Small Business Success Tours are one-day live training events in six US cities
• Infusioncon is a three day annual event providing information on the latest updates to the software and best practices via five specific learning tracks geared to the proficiency level /focus of the end user

Like HubSpot, Infusionsoft wants to help their users stay on the cutting edge of solid inbound marketing principles by showing how to better use the tools and strategies to get maximum results.

Once a client completes the 30 day Kickstart program, one on one support from a Success Coach is $200 per hour or three sessions for $450.

In checking the customer support queue times for IS, on two test calls we had hold times of 5 and 7 minutes.

As with HS, IS  has a network of Certified Partners,  which is listed on their website. Certified Partners provide a wide range of services, from basic support to comprehensive service packages.

6.      Infusionsoft and HubSpot Costs, Pricing, and Packages

As mentioned above, IS is offered in three versions. Standard is their 2 user version and offers landing pages, web forms, social media tools, web tracking and analytics tools to address the Attract functions. Their Visual Campaign Builder, email  and multimedia marketing tools provide the core of the automated marketing functionality. The multimedia marketing capability is unique to Infusionsoft and allows campaigns to incorporate personalized direct mail, voice broadcast, fax distribution and fulfillment list components from within the platform.

A pricing breakdown of the 3 Infusionsoft Tiers

Rounding out the Standard version is CRM/contact management functionality featuring lead activity and behavior tracking, segmentation and calendar/task management.

The contact limit is 5,000 and the email distribution limit is 500,000 emails per month.

This version is $199 per month and as with all IS versions, does not require a contract.

The next version is Plus and at $299 per month, adds lead scoring, lead assignment and sales automation tools along with all the Standard features. Also included are all of Infusionsoft’s  eCommerce features – ranging from storefront and shopping cart functionality to referral tracking and commission management.  This version accommodates 5 users, 20,000 contacts and 500,000 emails per month.

The flagship version of IS is Premier which is the same as the Plus version in feature set but accommodates 10 users, 100,000 contacts and 500,000 emails per month.

HubSpot’s three versions start with Basic at $200 per month.  The major difference in HubSpot’s pricing model is its tiered pricing based on contact database size.  If you have between 1,000 and 19,999 contacts, you’ll pay $100 per  1,000 contacts in addition to the base price.  20,000 to 199,999 is $40 per 1,000, 200,000 to 1,999,999 is $10 per 1,000 and 2,000,000 and above is $5 per 1,000. This tiered pricing for contact quantity applies to all three versions.

HubSpot has 3 pricing tiers– basic, professional, and enterprise.

Next up is the Professional version with a base cost of $600 per month and the top level version is Enterprise at $1,000 per month. All HubSpot pricing is based on entering into an annual contract.

Below is a feature comparison chart across all versions.

7.      Total Cost of Ownership

In order to provide a balanced look at the TCO, we’ll select the mid-tier package for each of the platforms as the basis of our cost calculations. Keep in mind though that the TCO can range drastically from company to company, based on the needs and circumstances unique to each case. The following is just one example of potentially many, so be sure to consult with an actual sales rep with each company before nailing down what you expect the total cost to be.

^{1.                Cost of Salesforce Professional   2.  Average cost of a 10 page site build plus CMS template  3. Average cost of CRM integration based on HubSpot marketplace provider costs.  4. Estimated cost of average CMS integration with Infusionsoft.}

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, both HubSpot and Infusionsoft are loaded with features that are intended to automate and optimize the execution of your marketing strategy.  Even though they both bill their software as “all in one sales and marketing software,” each of them have significant differentiation in the feature set they offer.  “All-in-one” on the HS side comes without CRM and eCommerce functionality; all in one on the IS side comes without a CMS, Keyword analytics and SEO functionality.

That being said, neither of these functionality differences present insurmountable challenges as the functionality can be purchased elsewhere and integrated with each platform. Potential buyers should prioritize the features needed to properly execute their marketing strategies and decide accordingly.

Finally, both of these companies have been stalwarts in educating the public on all facets of inbound and content marketing, and should be commended for these efforts. As pioneers in the marketing automation field, they each have a very bright future and will assuredly be adding more and more features with time.

Your Turn:

Questions about HubSpot vs. Infusionsoft? Now is the time to ask, as reps from each side are listening and ready to answer your questions. Also, if you currently use any of these two tools and would like to add your thoughts, feel free to do so below.

About the author: Having been in the game for over 25 years, Rich McElaney loves business and marketing. That’s why he’s a team member of TSL and also has his own firm– BrassCycle.

Over the last decade, search engine optimization companies (SEOs) have reaped the benefit of a nascent industry saturated with businesses small and large dying to take the hill on Google (ie. Rank #1 for a keyword) as the digital and Internet search era exploded.

In order to get results, we’ve seen an unbelievable variety of black and white hat techniques being used by these SEO firms to get an edge.

Some of it has been disgraceful.

Some of it has been commendable.

The SEO Shift

But because the search engines and folks like Matt Cutts have made it their mission to get rid of the crap and demand more excellence from businesses and SEOs alike, we now find ourselves in an incredible transition.

“Gaming the system” has been replaced by “Embracing the system”— a system that is now built around content that talks, walks, and thinks like the consumer– and answers every possible question or need they have. (Content Marketing)

And it’s because of this new model so many SEO companies are in huge trouble. In fact, I’d venture to say that over half of the SEO companies that are around today will be gone within the next two years.

Frankly, some will deserve it. On the other hand, some will have been left behind by a new era of search engine optimization — one that is intricately connected to understanding the principles of content marketing.

But before I tackle the merging of SEO and content marketing, let me explain the big, fat problem of many SEO company business models.

The Problem with Old-School SEO Companies

Currently, almost every client we have here at TSL was using an SEO company when we started working together. And with the large majority, their relationship with said company had gone like this:

1. SEO company comes in and identifies keyword opportunities for client— much of which are location- based—as  those are the easiest (at least in the past) to identify and get immediate results for with respect to search engine rankings.

2. Over the next couple of months, the SEO company produces pages targeting said keywords. Often times, these pages are buried somewhere in the site, not so much to be “read” per se(from a quality, information-driven standpoint), but rather to rank for a keyword and get a visitor to the website.

3. After about 6 months, the SEO firm has now stopped producing content (because the location stuff has run dry) and so they are giving the client a report each month about how “they are staying on top of Google’s changes” and “adjusting content” and “staying ahead of the search engines” and blah, blah, blah.

4. After a few months of this, the client no longer has any idea what the heck they’re paying for.

Although these 4 steps may come as a surprise or exaggeration to some, I’ve seen them over and over and over again. In fact, the first question I always ask a prospect or client that is using an SEO company  is as follows:

“How much content have they added to your site over the last 90 days?”

As you might imagine, the most common answer is, “I’m really not sure.”

Some will take these statements as an attack on all SEO companies, but it’s not meant to be.

80% of SEO companies are not worth what they’re getting paid.

20% of SEO companies are worth every bit of their monthly retainer fees.

This being said, any SEO firm that cares about their clients and the future success of an organization is now starting to talk about and implement content marketing. They realize more is needed, and a content marketing culture is generally the one solution that makes the most sense for the long haul.

Should You Fire Your SEO Company?

Clearly, I can’t make a blanket statement to that end for every company and person reading this post, but I can say this if you’re wondering about the current value of your SEO firm:

1. If you have no idea what your SEO is doing each month, then you have a serious problem.

2. If all your SEO does is give you “keyword ranking reports” each month, then you have a problem.

3. If your SEO isn’t talking about content marketing and its need on your site, then you have a problem.

4. And if your SEO isn’t pushing for new, fresh, and informative content on your site each month, then you have a problem.

This is exactly why the future of SEO companies and their business models will look more like marketing agencies with many diverse services than simply hired guns that help companies rank for keywords.

In fact, my prediction is the acronym itself will change from “SEO” to “SCM”—search content marketers.

I could be wrong about the exact phraseology, but there is no question a major shift is in the air, as well it should be.

But as with all of this stuff, time will tell.

Your Turn:

How do you see the evolution of SEO companies? Do you feel content marketing will have to be a part of their service offerings?

Jump in folks, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

image credit

It’s podcast time again my friends! And for this  episode I’ll be covering a variety of subjects we’ve recently been discussing:

• The Content Arms Race and the Death of Single Author Blogs
• Disarmament is the key to great content—but it’s a skill
• CEO Involvement is becoming bigger and bigger

Furthermore, we’ll be chatting about the unbelievable Simon Sinek who I saw speak this week plus the following questions from readers. As always, if you enjoy the podcast, I’d be very grateful if you took a moment to give it a review on iTunes and if you’re looking for another great podcast, I’d suggest you consider Chris Brogan’s newest show–The Human Business Way.

Thanks everyone!

Your Questions

Marcus

We did our all staff and had three blog a thon’s (1.5 hours each).  40 people participate in one session each.  Over 250+ questions generated – over 150 answered on the spot…totally awesome.

Hub spot has been crazy – I sat down with my brother-in-law (the one from Google) and showed it too him .  He pulled up some other google tools – you can absolutely see the day we went live with hub spot…we now have 35 words ranked in the top 3 and 62 in the top ten…

You rock!

Marcus,

First off, TheSalesLion and Mad Marketing have struck a major chord with me because you’ve put into words what I’ve always innately felt about honest, effective marketing on the Internet. Great job!

I begun ghostwriting a blog/site as a favor for an old friend of mine who runs a pest control business in your neck of the woods…

The nature of his business makes it difficult to discuss pricing, as a job can range from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars, and there is no way to estimate a price sight unseen. Similarly, it is difficult get information to compare companies other than what they have publicly available on their websites.

My question is: what other sorts of comparison articles would you recommend when the competition companies are competent and ethical (as
far as I know), use different but equally-effective methods, and most other factors, such as pricing, are unknown?

Thank you so much,
Mike

____________________________________________________

Hi Marcus,

I think your website is a dream come true. It isn’t only insightful and full of easily digestible knowledge, but it is also fun and engaging. I love it!

In regards to your question, I would have to say my biggest struggle with Inbound and Content Marketing is inspiration. I have already read this section of your ebook and am completely up for trying each one of them. The reason that this is my problem is that I feel like I keep saying the same thing in almost every post. My repetition is becoming a curse I am endlessly trying to remedy. I am a one-man department, so idea generation is strictly up to me. I am attempting to find a way to get in touch with the sales, customer service, and any other helpful departments to assist with topic generation. Any ideas on a way to do this without taking too much of their valuable selling time out of their day?

Thanks for the help!

When I was a 21 year old missionary walking the streets of Chile, trying my very best to speak to groups of people in a language that was so very foreign to me, I discovered something about myself that I never anticipated nor realized—I have a passion for communication. Furthermore, I love the art of public speaking, so much so that by the time I was age 24, I had my first book published on the subject.

This passion of mine took a back-seat to running my swimming pool company from 2002-2010, but gratefully over the past 3 years I’ve had the opportunity to get back to my roots and speak at many social media/marketing conferences, workshops, and company events. Even better, over this time period, I’ve had the tremendous opportunity of listening to some pretty amazing speakers—all with unique styles and strengths—and all with their own story to tell.

The Best Social Media Speakers of 2013

As someone that adores the art of communication so much, I typically find myself analyzing a speaker’s skills, habits, and techniques more than I actually listen to the content itself. I don’t say this to brag, as in some ways it’s a curse, but I literally can’t help myself. And anyone that considers themselves an aspiring or professional speaker likely knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Knowing that I’m going to be in this business for a long time, I’ve decided to start a tradition here at The Sales Lion of annually announcing who, in my opinion, are the best Social Media Speakers in the world. Although some folks may not find value in list or “best of” posts such as this one, I’ve always benefited from them personally as it’s great to learn about new talents, voices, and places of learning—which is exactly what I hope this post will do as it shines light on what I feel are great teachers and communicators in this industry.

That being said, when I say “Social Media,” I’m lumping in most of the marketing phrases and fields we all hear so much about. Whether it’s content marketing, blogging, social, etc.—I’m putting them all under this umbrella, so please understand the semantics here are broad and loosely interpreted. Also, during this process, it has been my goal to find speakers of different styles and subject matter, as you’ll see with each of the speaker descriptions.

Finally, bear in mind that these are my opinions based on my observations. I’ve literally studied all of these speakers, how audiences react to them, and watched each in action. Furthermore, just because someone isn’t on this list doesn’t mean they  aren’t great at what they do nor a phenomenal speaker. The longer I spent researching this post, the more difficult it was for me to have to eliminate speakers that I truly respect and admire from the top 10. In the coming years, it is my hope that I’ll be able to identify more and more “up and comers” as well with this post.

All that being said, let’s get to it.

Tom Webster (Wit and Numbers Collide)

Tom Webster far and away is one of the most unique speakers I’ve ever heard. Although he may be most well-known for his position of Vice President of Strategy at Edison Research, he has this magical way of interweaving deep numbers and statistics with a witty sense of humor and sarcasm that requires one to fully pay attention when he’s giving a presentation. More than once I have found myself listening to Tom and after repeating what he just said in my head a few times (my brain works just a tad bit slower than his) I’ve laughed out loud at his unique sense of humor. A wordsmith with unlimited depth, Tom Webster will make you laugh, think deeply, and look at social media statistics in an entire new light.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mitch Joel (Digital Visionary)

Mitch Joel of Twist Image is one of those people that make the rest of us look really dang lazy. Not only does he manage to write in-depth observations about what he sees in the world of social and digital on his blog every day, but he also has one of the best and longest running podcasts on the web as well.

Although Mitch might disagree with my thoughts here about him being a visionary in the digital realm, there is no question the guy simply has a magical way of distilling on a screen and on stage a view of where all of this social media stuff is going, and what it means for each of us on a personal and professional level.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mari Smith (Presence and Style)

Have you ever met someone that, whenever they entered the room, they seemed to have a glow about them that was simply too hard to explain yet clearly present? Mari Smith is without question one of those special types of people that has an unexplainable “It Factor” that makes her a joy to be around, listen to, and learn from.

With an unrelenting smile and unforgettable style, Mari in many ways is the essence of what social media is supposed to be. Whether it branding, community building, or Facebook advice—she manages to help individuals and companies strive to be better and work harder whenever she graces a stage or gives one of her popular webinars.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jay Baer (Depth, Breadth, and Strategy)

Author of the Now Revolution and the upcoming Youtility, Jay Baer is easily one of the most popular social media speakers in the world today and it’s for good reason—the guy knows what the heck he is talking about and can literally riff away on just about anything that falls under the word “marketing.”

Having the advantage of working in the online space since the advent of the medium, Jay Baer has the unique ability to hear a company’s issues, quickly assess the situation, and cut to the chase when it comes to strategy and getting results.

As a speaker, Baer was the highest ranked presenter of Content Marketing World 2012 and will somehow find a way to deliver this same value to over 100 companies and conferences in his 2013 presentations—all while managing a great blog, podcast, and consulting schedule. I don’t know how he does it, but I do know Jay Baer is a special talent that gives the audience value each and every time he’s on stage.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pat Flynn (Teaching the World about Making a Living Online)

Founder of Smart Passive Income, what Pat Flynn has been able to achieve with his business and brand online since he lost his “normal” job about 5 years ago is absolutely astounding. Sporting an incredibly popular podcast and legion of fans/readers to his blog, Pat has been hitting the speaking circuit more and more over the last year with great success.

What makes Pat so special is his transparency. Between his monthly income reports and his powerful “How To” articles, the guy is a master of giving it all away, and then reaping the benefits through a mix of affiliate marketing, niche sites, and other income streams.

As a speaker, Pat carries this same “teacher’s mentality” on stage and whenever he speaks, it’s obvious he has one goal in mind—delivering the audience value based on his personal experiences, successes, and lessons learned.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ann Handley (Witty Truths Combined with Masterful Strategy)

When it comes to giving advice and strategy on social media and content marketing, few are better than Ann Handley. The co-author of Content Rules and Chief Content Officer of Marketing Profs, Ann is always a very appreciated and respected speaker at any event she attends because of the value-driven information she’s willing and able to consistently deliver.

I know every time I hear her speak, despite the fact that I think, talk, and write about Content Marketing hours upon hours a week, I learn something new and helpful from Ann Handley.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jason Falls (Frank Talk)

One of the problems we sometimes see with thought leaders in social media is the lack of gutsy opinions and the willingness to take a stand on controversial topics. Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer clearly does not have this problem. In fact, the first time I ever heard him speak it felt like he slapped me in the forehead and then proceeded to give me frank-talk for the next 60 minutes—something that immediately garnered my respect and appreciation.

Never one to mince words, Jason is as real as it gets. He has worked with brands of all shapes and sizes to formulate his opinions and is constantly pushing the envelope in the world of social media—all of which makes Jason one of the most enjoyable speakers in the industry.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Amy Porterfield (Incredible Application and Teaching)

Whereas Jason Falls might bring the occasional fire and brimstone to a social media conference, Amy Porterfield has the style and voice that seems to take everyone back to their favorite teacher in primary school.

As one of the premier leaders in the realm of Facebook and Pinterest marketing for business, Amy Porterfield has a masterful way of giving her audience members actionable and applicable advice that can truly enhance their company’s social media strategy. Her soothing style and tone engenders audience trust while her deep experience allows her to deliver tremendous value. If you’re ever in one of Amy’s sessions at an event you’re sure to make 3 observations:

1. The room is always full

2. Everyone seems to have a smile on their face

3. Heads are constantly nodding in affirmation

Yep, Amy Porterfield is one of the best social media speakers in the world today.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Scott Stratten (Renegade Story-Teller)

Scott Stratten of Unmarketing is the type of speaker that is polarizing, unforgettable, and clearly one of a kind. Specializing in helping companies truly understand how to use social media the right way (or the “awesome” way), Scott has a mixture of wild, impromptu comedy and social media stories that make his presentations a truly memorable and thought-provoking experience.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gini Dietrich (Mixing PR and Social)

Maybe more than anyone else on this list Gini Dietrich of Spins Sucks seems to be good at everything when it comes to social media. As an observer of her astounding blog, Facebook, and Twitter community, I sit in awe as she seems to get the work done of 3 people with an unmatched zeal and determination that shows itself day in and day out.

As someone who has successfully managed to merge PR and Marketing on a personal level and then with her many clients, Dietrich travels the world speaking to businesses and conferences with a schedule that is mind-boggling and a style that engenders her to all she comes in contact with.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Your Turn

I know there are at least 10 more names that I’d really like to add to this list, but I had to stop at some point, hoping others would chime in and add your thoughts in the comment section. Who are some of the top speakers you’ve seen at events and conferences? What was it about their style and message that resonated with you? What were you able to apply to your business?

Jump in folks, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

More than ever, the trickle down effect of management buy-in with content marketing is imperative to big success.

Whether or not you feel trickle-down economics work well in national government, there is no question of their incredible importance when it comes to content marketing success for businesses large and small. In fact, I’ll just toss this one out there for a second:

If your company CEO and/or management team do not fully embrace content marketing, your efforts to find massive success online and have a cultural transformation will very likely fail.

Yeah, sure there are outliers in every realm. And yes, there will be renegades that do amazing things despite the lack of buy-in from leadership.

But the more I seek to help companies go big or go home with building their digital brand and business through content marketing, the more I realize nothing great happens without full buy-in from the top dogs.

Why?

Because success in this business doesn’t happen overnight.

Content marketing isn’t a chia-pet—water today, a vine jungle tomorrow.

Yes, I did just integrate a chia pet into content marketing.

Rather, it follows the principle of the Law of the Harvest.

• The field must be prepared.
• The seed must be planted.
• The beginnings of life must be continually watered and nourished.
• The crop must be protected.
• And the harvest eventually comes.

For some businesses, like my pool company, this success can happen quickly.

For others, like those in deeply competitive industries, success may be slower to appear.

But done right, it comes—without fail.

Doing It Right

I think about my clients a lot.

Some are doing very well. I’m not just talking about small gains either. I’m talking about millions of dollars in sales and impact.

I’ve got other clients that struggle. For whatever reason, roadblock after roadblock seem to appear with their content marketing efforts.

• There is never enough time.
• The employees are too busy.
• The website isn’t right.
• On and on and on.

But the funny thing about this is the fact that companies who have top buy-in never seem to be stifled with these same obstacles.

And when I say “buy-in” I’m not just talking about a CEO who is generally aware of what’s going on.

Rather, I’m referring to someone who is actively engaged in the process and walks the walk with everyone else.

Real Examples of Trickle Down Content Marketing Success

Last year, Yale Appliance’s website and business exploded. A +50 million dollar company, their CEO, Steve Sheinkopf, acts as their head content producer. He spends hours each week producing content, studying analytics, and focusing on ways to improve their content marketing efforts. Although he could easily afford to have someone else do what he does, he realizes the greatest ROI he can have right now with his business is found by leading a company, and an industry, with a new way of thinking and doing business.

Despite being the CEO of the company, Steve Sheinkopf has lead his company’s tremendous web and business growth by taking such an active role in their content marketing efforts.

Josh Block of Block Imaging is like any business owner in that he has multiple “issues” that come his way each and every day from all branches of his company. Notwithstanding, he makes the time to write blogs and produce content. He awards employees that are active with the content marketing efforts. He attends marketing conferences just to get an edge. Simply put, he gets it and because he buys in, Block Imaging has experienced massive success through content marketing.

And just last week I did a content marketing workshops for a IT company near Washington DC—Segue Technologies. And how important is content marketing to their Executive Vice President Ron Novak? Here are just a few things Novak has done to ensure these marketing efforts are a huge success for his company:

Ever considered doing an in-house infographic to give employees the vision of content marketing? Here is how Segue Technologies handled it.

1. He brought in over 40 of his employees to participate in a half-day content marketing workshop so they could understand the “How,” “What,” and “Why” of the new marketing approach.

2. He had his team produce an in-house infographic(above) showing the company culture and approach to content marketing, just so the vision would be very clear to all employees.

3. He made it known to employees that content marketing wasn’t simply a “fad” or “option.” Rather, it was a part of the company culture and makeup, and they were “all-in.”

4. He allowed his team to set up an on-site video “booth” where they could produce not just textual content, but video content as well.

With over 100 blog articles already being lined up and delved out to produce, my gut tells me Segue is about to do some pretty amazing things in their industry.

But again, it trickles down from the top. That’s where it starts. That’s where the magic lies.

Get Your Hands Dirty

I’d love to go on about more clients I’m seeing do amazing things with content marketing, but you get my point.

Am I saying here that the CEO of Apple (or any massive company for that matter) should be blogging? No, I’m not. But at a minimum, the guy needs to understand how consumers think, shop, and research these days—and the role that social media and content marketing play in that process.

And when he knows this, he needs to do something about it, and get his hands dirty in the process.

Speaking of getting your hands dirty, 4 years ago, when my swimming pool company was about to go out of business, I barely even knew what the word “blog” meant.

I certainly didn’t have a clue as to how marketing worked online.

My business partner Jason, equaling my ignorance, had never picked up a camera to record videos in his life.

Today, about 800,000 words later, some people think I’m pretty good at blogging and content marketing.

And Jason, beyond the 1,000,000+ views we’ve had on our YouTube videos, is now creating pieces that make me smack my forehead, something that further distances us from our competitors:

Click here to view the embedded video.

My point with this article is a simple one. Content marketing is not a passive approach to business. It’s all-in and all hands on deck.

And it starts with the top.

Your Turn:

What has been your success in getting top to bottom buy-in for blogging, social media, and content marketing? Have you seen occasions of success without this buy-in? And in your opinion, how much do you feel that ownership and management need to be involved to make content marketing work?

As more and more businesses embrace content marketing, the majority are failing to understand one of the most important principles of communication and persuasion that has been around since the beginning of time.

But before I talk about this essential key of great communication—be it in a blog, video, sales presentation, etc.—I want to talk about the Catch 22 so many businesses now find themselves in.

In order to be great at content marketing, assuming you’re a business, you have to be willing to address two areas that every consumer wants to know:

1. Your own products and services
2. Your competition’s products and services

Unfortunately, when most companies address #1, they end up either sounding like a used car salesman or at best a very biased “pitch machine.”

Regarding #2, talking about the competition, most companies are either afraid to do it at all (not aggressive enough) or end up attacking the competition and come across as very unprofessional (too aggressive).

Like everything else in life, if you’re going to persuade consumers and customers to buy your products and services through content marketing, you absolutely must find a balance. This balance, when done right, comes down to the Law of Disarmament.

The Law of Disarmament

The Law of Disarmament, a phrase that I came up with to describe much of the content marketing tips I’ve been teaching these past couple of years, is incredibly simple and works like this:

If you’re answering a question about your products and services, always start with the “negative.”

If you’re answering a question about your competition, always start with the “positive.”

Let me give you a few examples of what I’m trying to explain here so that the phrases “negative” and “positive” are not misconstrued.

As most of you reading this know, I own a swimming pool company that sells inground fiberglass pools. Because of this, our potential customers are always asking us questions like:

• What is the difference between concrete and fiberglass pools?
• Which is better, vinyl liner or fiberglass pools?
• How does your brand of pools compare to your competitor’s brand?

We literally get hundreds of these types of questions a year, and because we follow the golden rule of content marketing (They Ask, You Answer), we’ve addressed every single one on our blog.

An article that has been read over 100k times on our swimming pool site, this article by my business partner Jason Hughes is a textbook example of how to write copy that is professional, unbiased, and leads to sales success.

For example, let’s say we are explaining the difference between vinyl and fiberglass pools. By starting with the negative, the article would go something like this:

1. Every pool shopper has different needs (empathy)
2. In some cases, vinyl pools may be a better fit than fiberglass, and here is why… (negative)
3. In some cases, fiberglass pools may be the better fit than vinyl, and here is why… (positive)

Keep in mind, the amount of negative or positive points you make is up to you, but the right order is critical here. By doing it in this manner, as soon as you’ve mentioned that your product might not be a good fit for the customer; they immediately trust you more and are more willing to let their guard down. This, in essence, is how the Law of Disarmament works.

A master of openly discussing products and the competition, Yale Appliance gets well over 100k visitors to their site and blog a month by using the Law of Disarmament.

The process of disarmament is the same in any form of communication, be it text or face to face conversation.

For example, I’ve had the following conversation many, many times:

Question: Marcus, do you think HubSpot would be a good fit for my business?

My Answer: Well that depends. I can tell you that HubSpot is not a good fit for everyone. In fact, let me tell you who it’s not for and then I’ll tell you who it is for…

Do you see how the order of operations is the same? Start with the “negative,” finish with the positive.

Oh, and by the way, whenever you tell someone, in a very open and upfront manner, that your product (or service) may not be a good fit for them they are naturally more inclined to want to make it a fit. (I call this the Law of Inclusion. In other words, we all want to be included.)

One final example about how to handle discussing your competitors: As I mentioned above, the order changes when we talk about the competition. Generally speaking, you want to start with the positive and move to the negative. Keep in mind when I say “negative” I’m not at all referring to bashing your competition, but rather showing their factual drawbacks. Here is an example:

Consumer Question: Marcus, I hear concrete pools are better than fiberglass, is that true?

Answer: In some cases, depending on what the customer is looking for, yes, that might be true. Concrete pools have certain benefits that some pool shoppers find very appealing, such as (benefits listed here)….At the same time, concrete pools have certain drawbacks and thus aren’t a good fit for everyone. (drawbacks listed here)

Hopefully you’re seeing how this properly unfolds in all applications. If you do this right, you’ll be viewed as a trusted source and advisor to your customers and readers. If you do it wrong, as many companies currently are, you’ll appear to them to be no better than a used car salesman with extremely biased motives.

This is exactly why understanding the Law of Disarmament is critical to a culture of content marketing success for any organization moving forward in the information age.

Your Turn

I’d love to hear how you’re using disarmament with your company’s content marketing. How have you helped employees to shift from “pitching and bragging” to “teaching and informing?”

What other strategies are you finding success with when it comes to discussing the competition?

In so many ways, content, from a business and digital perspective, has become a modern day arms race.

Company “A” starts blogging twice a week.

Company “B” doesn’t want to be outdone and blogs 3 times a week.

Company “A” reacts with the addition of a video blog twice a week, on top of their other two articles.

Company “B” responds with a new podcast, a video campaign, and articles 5 days a week.

And on and on and on.

Believe it or not, that’s where every industry is headed—who can get the most content out to the masses, in as many ways as possible, on as many platforms as possible…and fast.

In some ways this is good, in others it is bad.

As a byproduct, some content will stink. Other companies will do exceptional things. It is what it is.

The Fall of Single-Author Blogs

But it will also open up a Pandora’s box of dominoes that will continue to fall over the coming years.

From a business perspective, one of those dominoes that is going to fall will be the death of the single-author blog.

Now before you roll your eyes at my statement, understand that when I say “death,” I’m referring to the great demise, not the total extinction, of an act that has changed the world of business and marketing as we know it.

But think about it for a second. If you look at the top marketing blogs in the world today, what do 90% have in common?

Yep, they’re all multi-author blogs. (Pretty much every single-author blog that is extremely popular in this realm has been popular for at least a few years, so please don’t start telling me about Seth Godin.)

Furthermore, if you look at the ones that really took off the most in 2012—blogs like the Content Marketing Institute and Convince and Convert (both went from popular to really popular)—they followed the same pattern—rich content with in-depth articles, daily posting schedules, and multiple authors.

One of the blogs that helped establish this trend 3 years ago was Michael Stelzner’s Social Media Examiner and since that time more and more are following suite, for good reason, as the system works, and is necessary to attain the highest level of success.

The model of Social Media Examiner with daily, rich content by multiple authors is a growing trend of many successful blogs.

I mention “marketing” blogs here because of the fact that the CSI (content saturation index) for this particular industry is incredibly high, which means to rise to the top as a blog (or website, same thing really) you’ve got to be doing some amazing things, for a long stretch of time.

Although such isn’t necessarily the current case in low CSI industries, mark my words that it will be within the next few years after every industry has accepted content marketing similar to the way everyone has now accepted the need to have a company website.

Not Able to Keep Up

I’d be lying if I said this “content demand” wasn’t something I’ve often thought about. Naturally being someone who wants to be one of the best in my field, I’d like for individuals and businesses around the globe to recognize The Sales Lion as a premier hub of inbound and content marketing information.

But the simple fact is this—I won’t get it there myself.

Why?

To make a long answer short, I can’t out do the work of a team. It’s that simple.

So I either change the TSL model and do guest posts with daily, ultra-rich content, or I continue along my current path of modest growth, hoping that my best-selling book that gets translated in 84 languages is the impetus to blogging stardom

Understand folks that I’m not at all crying the blues here. In fact, I’m just making a simple observation about the state of this industry.

Content Insourcing will become a standard part of business culture

This is also exactly why I work my hardest to help every company I consult with leverage the power of their employees to produce content. Because of the arms race, one person writing articles for a larger organization is foolish when compared to what can be done if synergy and team work are in effect amongst all employees.

I call this process of producing content by multiple employees “insourcing,” and although it’s not a common practice yet with most organizations, I can see it being a standard part of one’s job description for most companies within the next 3-5 years.

As talked about previously here at TSL, companies like US Waterproofing that leverage the power of their employees to produce content will set the bar for their industries and own the digital web.

Sure, some folks will squawk at those numbers, but if these last few years are any indication of where we’re all headed, the arms race isn’t about to slow down whatsoever. In fact, just the opposite is true.

Which brings me back to my original point. As smaller bloggers and businesses look at the leaders of their industry (the ones that are at the top of the content production heap), I can see many being left with two choices:

1. Give up on the idea of content marketing

2. Join the big boys and leverage numbers

Sure, there will be exceptions and “tweeners”, but this is how I see it going down.

As for me, I think I’ll just stick with my current style, counting on the tortoise to eventually win the race…at least for now

Your Turn:

I’m curious to know if you agree with my premise here or think I’m way off base. Do you see less and less single-author blogs, especially from businesses, in the future? Also, do you think the Content Saturation Index of most industries will make the barrier to entry incredibly difficult?

Jump in folks, I’d love to know your thoughts.

Well it’s that time again folks, the Mad Marketing Podcast with all of your awesome email questions from these last few weeks. As you can see from below, there are some great ones here so I hope you’ll have an enjoyable listen and don’t hesitate to leave and questions for future podcasts in the comment section below!

And don’t forget that the Mad Marketing Podcast is now on Stitcher .(For those unaware, Stitcher is killer app that allows you to download and listen to podcasts and radio shows very easily on your phone– so you don’t have to do it in iTunes!!)

Your Questions

Hello Marcus,

I started my business 3 years ago and sadly realized very slowly that I was a highly trained Sales Rep without the knowledge and skills to create my own leads.  I started using Hubspot seriously in July of 2012 and have seen a dramatic increase in my web site traffic.  My biggest concern is how to convert those that visit my pages into real leads and ultimately paying customers…. 

Either way, I already read the beginning of your book and love it .  I am committed to Hubspot more than anything else I have ever done and look forward to using your insights to do what I set out to do 3 years ago.

Hello Marcus,

[I'm responding to this in the middle of reading your 8 Renegade Methods post]….

Would the “generic” blog server to create brand awareness and authority within the industry, with the local blog functioning as the primary lead generator? 

Would I host both blogs on our agency’s website, or would I need to move one elsewhere?

My only concern, with the generic blog not focused on “money keywords” how does it justify the content? Would it not be better to post four times a week to the local blog instead of two times a week to each?

Would it be safe to assume that, while not completely impossible, it’s very difficult to have ONE blog serve both functions?

Thanks again for time, it’s much appreciated.

 ___________________________________________________

Hi Marcus,

___________________________________________________

Hi Marcus,

What is the big difference between business blogging and personal blogging. Also If you have a business (in this case children’s furniture) do you then have a blog on your website or do you have a blog separate to your website ? Presumably you want to lead your readers to your website but thought I would check with you

Thanks

Maiken

___________________________________________________

Hi, Marcus.

I’m really enjoying your blog, newsletter, and podcast and am doing my level best to incorporate social media into my marketing mix. But it’s problematic, and here’s why. My business is a sole proprietorship, so I have to do it all myself: marketing, accounting, lead-gen, creating content, and doing actual billable work. In addition, my kids are in grade school, so my workday effectively ends at 3:30. It’s not feasible for me to stay up until a million o’clock or get up at oh-dark-thirty to carve out more time during the day because then I would lack the energy I need for work and family activities. My biggest problem is with analytics. Although I have a WordPress site with a Google Analytics plugin, I have no idea how to track data. I see the spikes and valleys but don’t know how to read the charts. I just keep cranking out the content with my goal being four blog posts a month. Is there an easy way to learn how to read the results? Thanks for all you are doing for my business and for keeping your upbeat attitude. It’s contagious!

Laura

This article will not be “logical.” It will not fit in that little box that’s so requisite to get anything “approved” in most organizations. Nor will it be for conservative-minded marketers and business owners that would rather imagine 1000 ways “it might go wrong” instead of dreaming of the unlimited reasons “it might go right.”

In other words, what I’m about to tell you takes guts, imagination, and the magic of thinking big.

So if you fall in the latter, please continue to read on.

Oh, and it’s long too, as well it needs to be, so you’ve now been warned.

12 Months to Do Magical Things

Whether you’ve been embracing content marketing for some time now or are just starting to jump on the train that has already left the station, over the next year you have the ability to do unbelievable things in the digital world to help your business. In 2012, I worked literally with dozens of companies on their content marketing efforts. Some took the advice they received, made it their own, and then shot off like a rocket within their industry. Others threw up barricades, looked for excuses, and stumbled badly out of the gate.

Based on these experiences, as well as the constant set of content marketing “experiments” I’m running at “The Sales Lion Center for Advanced Content Marketing Studies” (wink), I’ve come up with 8 innovative and outside-the-box steps your business can take to build your brand and achieve outrageously successful results.

1. Show it like it has never been shown before:

A while back I was working with a manufacturing company and one day, when I was touring their manufacturing facility, I decided to start recording a video of what I was seeing. Within seconds of realizing what I was doing, the management team became extremely nervous, and told me that I would not be able to record inside their facility because they didn’t want their competitors to see their processes, equipment, and methodologies.

In other words, instead of worrying about the consumer, they were worried about the competition—which truly is the death of great marketing in the digital age.

Luckily for this business though, after spending some time helping them understand their “secret sauce” was no secret, they embraced a transparent marketing approach that helped brand them as one of the top in their field within a year’s time. And speaking of “secret sauce,” have you ever wondered why McDonalds food looks so much better on camera than in person? Instead of ignoring the question, McD’s shows how this is made possible in this incredibly transparent video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lesson: If you do it, show it. Video is a magical medium. Just pull out your phone and record the dang thing. Make it accessible to the masses. Invite the world in to see how you do what you do. And if you need the ultimate example, just see what McDonalds is doing to take transparency and trust to the next level, which is just another reason why every fast food company will always be second place in that industry.

2. Reward Your Competitors

I’ve spoken about this subject more and more over the last 6 months—much to the chagrin of many traditionalist marketers that can’t seem to grasp the principle of transparency and influence in the digital realm. But considering I’ve personally applied what I’m getting ready to tell you, hopefully that will help influence your decision and thought process here.

One of my first content marketing experiments on giving credit to those in my industry, even the competition. This article opened my eyes to the power of such a transparent approach.

I first started experimenting with this in 2010 with my swimming pool company when I gave out awards to manufacturers in the industry, many of which were competitors of mine. Not only was that article a major anomaly to the industry at that time, but it also generated tremendous discussion, confusion, and curiosity—from industry peers as well as potential customers. Today, that article has hundreds of inbound links, ranks for a multiplicity of major keywords, and has generated dozens upon dozens of leads that have turned into customers.

In 2011 and 2012, I further experimented with this by writing “best of” posts with respect to my local competitors in the Virginia and Maryland areas. These posts struck a chord with real people and search engines alike, and again, like the previous “competitor” articles, generated trust, traffic, and sales.

When consumers type in “Best Pool builders Richmond Virginia”–they land on this article. Not only that, this article ranks for a variety of my competitor’s keyword phrases as well in search engine results.

I’ve also had many clients experience tremendous success by prolifically reviewing and comparing products, brands and services. One such client, Yale Appliance, has garnered national attention in the kitchen appliance industry by creating a mountain of “vs” related posts, therefore addressing core subjects and issues their customers want to know.

With huge emphasis on “Vs.” style posts, the Yale Appliance website exploded in traffic and sales in 2012.

Lesson: Stop pretending your competitors don’t exist. Your customers already know they exist, so find a way to deal with it, to your advantage.

3. Review Your Competitors

In every industry there is good and bad. There are good products and bad products. There are good services and bad services. There are legit and non-legit companies. The list goes on and on.

But if you want to be known as a trusted voice and source of consumer information, this is the type of content that needs to be on your website, blog, and other marketing platforms.

I first started experimenting with digital reviews in 2008 with my swimming pool eBook, “How to buy a fiberglass pool the right way from the right company at the right price.” After that, I took it a step further by giving my honest opinion of manufacturers on my company blog, seeing huge success with each article written.

Articles like this one comparing two different lines in the swimming pool industry get read thousands of times a year.

Within a year’s time of doing these things, my personal and professional brand in the fiberglass pool industry became such that I was receiving multiple emails every single day from consumers around the world asking me what pool they should buy, who they should buy it from, and how they should go about doing it. Because of this, the information on our blog had an incredible influence, for good and bad, on manufacturers within the swimming pool industry.

As my friend Jay Baer would say, the River Pools and Spas brand had become a “Youtility” within the industry—the go-to place (utility) for honest and useful consumer information.

The same occurred after months writing with The Sales Lion. As a HubSpot partner, I created content that was open in discussing the software’s problems, benefits, competitors, etc. By so doing, I’ve become known by many as a trustworthy voice on all things HubSpot, and have a very large foundation of HubSpot clients to show for it.

Even though I’m a HubSpot partner, by giving an honest take on their strengths and weaknesses, I’m able to generate traffic and trust. Just Google the phrase “HubSpot problems” to see what I mean.

Lesson: Consumers are reviewing you. They’re also reviewing your competitors. It’s your choice where that conversation takes place.

4. Use platforms and methods that have not previously been used in your industry

As someone that consults with businesses about digital marketing on a consistent basis, one of the first questions clients like to ask is the following:

Who else in our industry is having success doing it this way?

Although this isn’t necessarily a bad question, it can be a sign of negative things to come. Why? Because it really doesn’t matter what other companies have done in terms of digital marketing and what platforms they’ve been on.

• So what if no one has a blog in your industry?
• So what if no one uses video effectively?
• So what if no one has found a way to utilize Facebook and get returns?
• So what if no one has a podcast in your realm?

Despite the fact that they’re in an industry where practically no one is blogging, Ongoing Operations (client) has managed to quickly rise to prominence because of their astounding content marketing efforts.

Lesson: What other businesses have and have not achieved from a marketing standpoint doesn’t mean squat to you. Their methods and their vision aren’t yours. Forget’em and start your own trend, regardless of the actions of others.

5. Be Everywhere

Although Pat Flynn can certainly speak to this better than I can, this is a trend that really started to pick up greatly in 2012 for individual brands and companies alike. Essentially, the principle of “be everywhere” comes down to our ability to communicate with our audiences in as many forms/platforms as possible, as consistently as possible.

Granted, I’ll always be a firm believer that spreading ourselves too thin is not a good thing, but if there are ways to find greater reach without sacrificing quality, then we should do it. To give you an example as to what I’m talking about, no brand and businesses exploded more than CMI (Content Marketing Institute) did last year. Let’s take a moment to analyze their strategic growth and “be everywhere” methodology:

• They took the CMI blog to new heights by posting beefy, quality content on a daily basis– leveraging the knowledge of industry experts and other businesses around the globe to form a very sound, guest post driven blog.
• They came out with the premier traditional magazine in the content marketing industry—CCO (Chief Content Officer) Magazine
• They grew Content Marketing World into a massive conference for marketing professionals on a global level.
• They started offering smaller Content Marketing World conferences and workshops around the world.

CMI is rapidly becoming a global brand, all because they understand the principle of “Be Everywhere” so very well.

These are just a few examples of what Joe Pulizzi and the CMI gang did this past year, but without question, they were literally everywhere preaching the word of content marketing, establishing themselves as the clear leader in a growing industry.

Lesson: Whether you’re a mom and pop business or a massive corporation, finding more ways to communicate, teach, and reach others in your industry could provide major brand and business benefits in 2013.

6. Challenge the Status-Quo at Every Corner

Let me just be very frank for a second and say that most industries lack guts. I openly say this because every field has major problems, issues, and inefficiencies that no one wants to talk about. (Note: When was the last time you saw anyone that worked for the IRS talk about their terrible waste issues? Answer: Never)

To give you an example of what I’m talking about, for years fiberglass swimming pools were installed on top of sand. My swimming pool company, having been taught this method, installed our first 300 pools on top of sand.

Because we saw a problem with the status-quo in the swimming pool industry, we decided to do something about it.

But, over time, we started to see issues popping up—issues we knew could have been prevented had there been a better base for these pools.

So despite the fact that we were in a major minority and got attacked for it, we wrote extensively about the need to install fiberglass pools on top of gravel when they’re in the ground. And because of this educational push, today, 4 years later, the majority of fiberglass pools built in the US are built on gravel.

The same applies to The Sales Lion. All over the web, I see lots of things being taught about inbound marketing, content  marketing , and social media. I feel much of the information being taught out there is exceptional. But there are also times I feel bad advice is being given, at which point I’ll write articles that openly disagree with the opinions and sentiments of others (respectfully).

Although this may open me up for attacks, it also shows that I’m my own man with my own opinions and experiences—something that businesses are often looking for when they seek to hire any type of consultant.

Lesson: Great companies and brands don’t just “accept” everything as it is. Neither should you. Develop a sound opinion and share it to the world.

7. Become the Wikipedia of Your Industry

This is another area where I philosophically disagree with a few others in the social media realm. Based on every content marketing campaign I’ve seen achieve huge success for businesses, there is one over-riding principle that makes all the difference: They Ask, You Answer

Because they’re willing to address the questions they get from customers day in and day out, Block Imaging (client) experienced huge benefits from their content marketing efforts in 2012.

In other words, if a prospect or customer has ever asked you a question, the answer to that question should be found on your company website. By doing this, a company will be viewed as the ultimate teacher and voice of their industry, and gain the respect of the 2 parties that dictate everything when it comes to success—search engines and real people.

Lesson: Make the choice to control the conversation. It can either happen at your house (your website and other platforms) or someone else’s place. Why not choose yours?

8. Dance with the Influencers

In every industry and in every realm, there are influencers. Some might be bloggers, some might be media outfits, others might be buying groups—the list goes on and on. But if you’re looking to have incredible brand recognition in your industry, it’s important to establish relationships with these groups. Sometimes you may want to write about them, mention them, or simply drive business their way. But make no doubt, attaining success is much easier when it’s a team effort.

Joe Pulizzi is just one of many people who helped make 2012 my most successful professional year ever.

On a personal level, I know I never would have attained nearly the success I’ve  been able to manage in this industry if it wasn’t for the likes of great people like Michael Stelzner, Jay Baer, Joe Pulizzi, Mitch Joel, Gini Dietrich, and others. If it weren’t for these folks, much of the stuff I’ve said or written would have fallen by the wayside and been read by few people.

Lesson: Like it or not, influencers exist in every field. If you sincerely embrace and help them, they just may help you as well.

Your Turn

Question? Comments? What else would you add to the list? Is there anything here you don’t  agree with? Tell us about it.

Have you ever taken a moment to look at the keywords people are typing in to land on your website? If so—and this is where the rubber meets the road—what percentages of those keywords being typed in are the kind of word(s) that would denote the individual is looking for a product or service your business offers?

If you haven’t done this, please stop reading and go to your Google Analytics for a second. Once there, look at the top 50 that are driving traffic to your site and ask yourself how many of these keywords would be typed in by your “ideal prospect.”

Here is the thing—We all love traffic. Me. You. Everybody. It’s the ultimate Golden Calf of the internet, an idol we often worship despite the fact that we generally know better.

“Money Keywords”

This is exactly why many have come to understand web traffic does not pay the bills. And if you’re a business, once the initial euphoria of blogging and traffic growth has subsided, you’re often left wondering how much of all that “traffic” equates to actual sales.

Truth be told, this is a very difficult question to answer. When it comes to keywords and content, there are those that help prospects into the sales funnel, and then others that push them down (or out) of the funnel.

This being said, often times businesses produce content that has very little impact on either of these two goals. To give you a real example of what I’m talking about, let’s look at the main keyword traffic for The Sales Lion this past month. If you look at the following photo, the red arrows indicate what I refer to as “money keywords”—keywords that fit my ideal paying client. You’ll also notice black arrows in the photo, which show the correlation between the less ideal keywords and the average time on site of each visitor, something I refer to as “false traffic.”

By taking a hard look at your website and blog traffic, you can get a much better feel for what words are and are not helping your business grow.

As you can see from the black arrows, those persons typing in phrases that don’t fit my business model at TSL (inbound and content marketing consulting/speaking) generally don’t hang around the site very long– hence the “false” description. But for the money keywords, the average time on site for the visitor can be quite substantial. (Note** Although it varies by industry and business, any keyword that leads to an average visit time of 2 minutes or more is a very good sign. )

You may be asking yourself why I’m ranking for so many keywords that don’t quite fit my ideal client, and here are a few answers to that question:

1. Like any business, this blog has changed and developed over time. In fact, when TSL started, it wasn’t a business at all.

2. Google has a funny way of optimizing content. For example, I once wrote an article on why McDonalds kept kicking Burger King’s butt year after year after year. The article did well from an SEO standpoint (McDs vs BK) and has generated thousands of visitors, but the keywords it’s optimized for have nothing to do with the services I offer at TSL, thus bringing in zero direct revenue to the company. I’m not saying this is necessarily bad, it just is what it is.

3. I like talking about diverse subjects here at TSL. Because I write about diverse things, I end up attracting many visitors that couldn’t care less about blogging, content marketing, etc., which is fine. That being said, if I were in a financial crunch with my business and had a need for immediate leads and sales, I would spend all my focus on targeting those “money keywords” that might bring in immediate leads and sales.

Targeted Keyword Strategies

Speaking of a clearer focus, let’s take a look at my swimming pool blog for a second. Here are its top 20 keywords for 2012. The difference from this list, as you can see, is that almost every single one of these phrases would be typed in by an ideal client:

Because of a targeted blogging and content marketing strategy from early on, almost all organic search visitors to my swimming pool site would make for an ideal client.

The key behind a targeted keyword strategy is that it doesn’t happen by accident, as the content needs to be strategic. And if you’re looking to be more strategic and targeted, here’s what I would suggest:

1. It always comes back to consumer questions: You’ve heard me beat this horse again and again, but if we’re solely focused on producing content that answers the questions we get everyday from prospects and customers, we’re going to be outrageously successful. To make this even more plain, ask yourself what are the questions you receive in the first 10 minutes of a meeting with a prospect. Because prospects tend to ask the questions on the forefront of their mind at the beginning (showing their biggest concerns, issues, problems) this group of questions is loaded with “money keywords” you should be producing content around.

2. Focus on the Big Five: I call it the “Big Five” because it represents the five subject areas that people search for aggressively online, no matter what the product or service is. Those five subjects are:

• Cost/Price
• Problems/Issues
• Vs./Compare
• Best of
• Reviews

Just by focusing your company content around these keywords, you should come up with dozens if not hundreds of targeted content pieces that aggressively go after your best type of client and customer.

3. Use Tools: Although listening to customers will always be your best solution to consistent content that gets results, sometimes keyword tools to help generate blog article ideas are a tremendous help. I’ve studied the area of keyword tools quite a bit and am a very strong proponent of Long Tail Pro– a tool that I use weekly with my clients in helping them identify great keyword opportunities with their content.

I’m not saying with this post that every blog article you write from this day forward should be solely targeted on the “ideal customer.” Frankly, it’s your job to assess that question. Notwithstanding, if you’re a business, and you want to build your brand while increasing traffic, leads, and sales– then a clear keyword strategy is ideal. And the more focused and strategic it is, the more “real” your traffic will be.

Your Turn:

I’d love for anyone to share what percentage of your content marketing and blogging efforts are clearly directed to your ideal client/customer? Has your strategy been intentional up to this point? What other suggestions would you offer on generating content with targeted keywords that produce results?

Along w/my wife Nikki, my daughter Danielle (12) is behind me, with Larsen (5) on my lap. Pink (2) sits “happily” with her mother and JT (9) stands on the far right.

I simply can’t thank everyone enough for all the support you’ve given me, and indirectly my family, over this past year on The Sales Lion.

Merry Christmas to everyone and from my family to yours, may your 2013 be a wonderful and prosperous year!!

(see 2011 photo or 2010 photo)

You may have noticed that I’m not big on focusing on failure, negatives, or anything of the sort as it typically doesn’t inspire others (nor myself) to reach greater heights of success on a personal or professional level. Notwithstanding, I wanted to share a few experiences I’ve had this year that, although disappointing, have taught me greatly, and I’m hoping they might touch you in some way as well. Here goes:

1. Failed Buy-In for a Culture of Content Marketing

For me, this was the year of the content marketing workshop. After having left my swimming pool company in the hands of my two amazing partners 18 months ago, I was able meet with multiple companies and give workshops on what it truly means to have a culture of content marketing—one where every employee sees themselves as a teacher of what they do, with a voice that needs to be heard by the world.

From these workshops, many such cultures have been established, some of which you’ll see described with in-depth case studies during the coming year. Notwithstanding, two of the companies have not taken off at all since my departure. Despite my best efforts, and despite the fact that they fully believe content marketing will work–especially if all the employees participate–they just haven’t done anything.

For me, as one who prides himself in helping others “get it and go,” such inaction is painful to watch. Furthermore, I hate rendering a service where I get paid and despite it being very much out of my control, the results don’t come.

Despite not achieving a 100% success rate of “action” from all my workshops, many companies have flourished. Three of the companies– Block Imaging, US Waterproofing, and Yale Appliance–all attended CMW with me where we had our own little “mini-conference,” something that was a highlight of my year.

This being said, cultures aren’t force-fed, and sometimes the organization simply isn’t ready.

2. Failed Hirings of Chief Content Officers

Often times when I consult with companies it works something like this: Workshop –>Hire CCO–> everyone produces content –> I oversee the campaign for 6 months until the company is off to the races.

So just as 2012 was the year of the “Content Marketing Workshop,” it was also the year of “Hire and Train Chief Content Officers” to carry the culture forward when I’m gone.

Most of the CCOs (or whatever you want to call them, I’m not particular about acronyms) have done incredibly well, but there was one occasion when I hired a CCO for a company and the individual simply didn’t work out. From that experience (and others), I’ve learned that great CCOs have the following qualities(as well as many others):

• They are incredibly social within the organization in the sense that they laugh lots, smile lots, and know how to make friends with everyone.
• They love to write and edit content.
• They are passionate about analytics.
• They are willing to try new things and push the envelope.
• They know when to fold ‘em, and know when to hold ‘em.

As you can see, a great CCO has some special qualities, and the more CCOs I hire and train, the better I’m becoming at identifying a good fit from a bad fit. Notwithstanding, it hurts when a company counts on you to find an employee and train him/her to lead them to content marketing greatness and it doesn’t work out whatsoever.

3. My Screw-Up Keynoting Content Marketing World

As some of you may recall, I gave the keynote at Content Marketing World this year. About 12 months ago, when I found out I’d been chosen for the slot, I literally shed tears of joy. And over the next 11 months, I thought, and pondered, and thought, and pondered over what that talk was going to look and sound like for hours upon hours. But I made one mistake in all this preparation—a mistake someone with my experience should never make—I didn’t account (at least not well) for the length of the presentation.

Birds-eye view of my CMW 2012 Keynote

Because of this error, Joe Pulizzi had to come up on stage 65 minutes into my keynote and let me know I was over time.

He was kind enough to let me finish, and after rushing through the final slides, I ended up going about 15 minutes over what my allotted time was for the session. What was supposed to end in a bang clearly didn’t match the vision I’d laid out in my head. And despite the fact that the tweets, feedback, and response from the keynote were overwhelmingly positive, to this day I cringe at my error and am bothered that I wasn’t my best when I wanted it most. Joe had been kind enough to entrust me with 60 minutes to his entire audience and I took 75…Not cool, hard lesson learned.

Gratefully, Joe immediately laughed it off, but you can be assured I will not make that mistake ever again.

I’m sure I could discuss some other “learning experiences” from 2012 but I think that will suffice. Needless to say though, I’m grateful to have such experiences, and to learn from each. And I also know 2013 will bring with it another set of challenges but without question, I’m excited for what it will bring, and hope we’ll walk the path together.

Your Turn:

If you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about some of your biggest professional disappoints of 2012. What did you learn from the experience? And how do you envision 2013 for you professionally?

As always, your thoughts and support are appreciated.

There has been one constant to growth and evolution since the beginning of time:

Leaders of the previous generation are the slowest adopters of the next one.

Kmart did it. Henry Ford did it. Blockbuster did it. Kodak did it. Sears did it.

The list goes on and on.

The same holds true for those that now speak of “content marketing” as if it’s simply a buzzword and silly annoyance that will surely be washed away with the next high tide of marketing-speak.

Just look at the recent article in Forbes.com entitled Why I hate ‘Content Marketing’ and Blogger Outreach. In all frankness, I can’t believe this article made it past the editor’s desk, as the author understood what content marketing was about as well as I understand the rules of cricket—but truth be told the author had a journalism background and has allowed gross bias to fog his acceptance of an important and influential phrase that’s here to stay. In other words, if he doesn’t want to use the phrase, then fine, but why the attack? Heck, why the attack on any phrase being used in marketing realms, be it “inbound” or “digital” or “content” or any other metaphor we could surely come up with?

But this isn’t particular to the marketing and writing industry, it happens everywhere. To give you an example, 5 years ago swimming pool companies used to tease and talk-down fiberglass pools because they were still relatively new to the US market. Today, those same companies are eating their own words and selling fiberglass pools just as hard as they can. And why are they doing this? Because the public is informed and they now demand it.

Mark my words, the same people that want to poo-poo “content marketing” today will be using it in their occupational description tomorrow, as the momentum is now too great and the phrase will soon reach critical mass, infiltrating the vernacular of two main areas that tip everything when it comes to global business trends—colleges and small businesses—which will take it to the main stream just as “social media” became mainstream a few years back, at least in the vernacular sense of the word.

That’s why I think it’s time we stopped with this silly and petty debate. Instead of complaining about the phrase(s) used by the various groups, let’s focus on helping businesses learn how to use digital content to teach, inform, communicate, and garner consumer trust. If someone wants to call it “content,” then great. If they choose “inbound,” then good for them. Again, it’s not the actual word that matters, it’s whether or not the masses understand it.

After all, it ain’t about us “experts” and what we feel is kosher or acceptable phraseology. It’s about the consumer. And because they’ve spoken loudly in 2012 and will only increase their volume in 2013, it’s now time to move to the next phase of marketing’s evolution.

Agree? Disagree? Go ahead, speak your mind.

Earlier this year I spoke at a conference to about 100 or so business owners over the course of 2 days. During that time period, I had the opportunity to give 4 seminars, all of which were sequential in terms of beginning to advanced principles in content marketing. Because each session built upon the previous one, it was as technical and strategic as it gets for audience members just thirsting to advance their business in some way, shape, or form on the web.

After my final session of speaking to the group and shaking hands with the many audience members that approached the front, something happened to me that I won’t soon forget.

With a timid and concerned look in his eye, a gentleman, likely in his 40s, came up to me and we proceeded to have the following conversation:

Gentleman: Hi Marcus, thank you so much for these last two days. I have a question for you and it doesn’t have anything to do with marketing, or business, or the Internet…but I feel strongly that I should ask you this.

Me: Please do.

Gentleman: About 6 months ago my son failed to make the school basketball team. After getting cut, he seems to have gone into a downward spiral. These days he drowns himself in video games and almost never leaves his room. Frankly, I can’t seem to get through to him and I’m starting to get scared…what should I do?

It’s a funny thing how life works. In a million years, I would not have expected this type of question after spending what was about 6 hours giving an extremely technical class on content marketing. But there it was—a  deeply concerned father who simply wanted to reach his struggling boy—a subject to him that was way more important than generating another lead or sale for his company.

Even more profound, at least to me, was what happened next. Without even hesitating, it seemed as though I knew what to say before he had even finished his question. It was almost as if the answer had been waiting inside me and it was just looking for a way out, without me even realizing it.

Me: Let me ask you a question. When was the last time you went out on a date with your son?

Gentleman: (after a few seconds of what appeared to be deep thought) Honestly, I really don’t know.

Me: The answer you seek will be found as you reestablish a relationship with your boy. I’m sure you’ve attempted to talk to your son and motivate him in that manner, but without a deeper foundation, this won’t be possible. It’s time to rebuild the foundation that has somehow been lost over the years. If you commit to going on father/son dates with your boy for the next 6 weeks, I can promise you he will open up, he will start to talk, and he’ll do it on his time.

The only thing you’ll have to do is allow for the moment and listen when it comes.

With tears in his eyes, the gentleman shook my hand and thanked me profusely for the counsel. Moved almost beyond words, he committed to going on father/son dates with his son every week from that point forward and was visually overwhelmed as he left the room.

That night, I sat in my hotel room pondering the event. For whatever reason, this kind man had been touched with my words about business so much that he trusted me to guide him as a father. Even more uncanny, as I stated earlier, was the fact that the answer was something I didn’t have to think about—it was simply there.

No Accident

I’m nothing special folks. I’m an imperfect man with a wife and four children. I go to church on Sundays and try my best to give life everything I have.

Sometimes I succeed.

Sometimes I fail.

But I can tell you with a surety that on that particular day, as I looked into that man’s eyes, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt it was no accident he stood in front of me with that question. It was also no accident the words he needed to hear were being delivered by a “pool-guy turned marketing-guy.”

Such is the way life works my friends. We can’t always understand it. It certainly doesn’t always make sense.

But there is something much greater and deeper going on here than any of us can possibly understand.

I’m grateful for 2012. It has taught me much. I have grown personally and professionally. But more than anything, I know there will be many more moments in my future where fate collides with intention and I’ll be given the opportunity to be an instrument in the hands of a higher power to do the work of good.

At least, this is my great desire, and I hope you’ll take the journey with me.

Your Turn:

If you feel so inclined, I’d love to know of any great accomplishment or moment that you’re proud of from 2012. What did you learn? What are you planning as you look ahead?

Over the last decade (especially the last five years), social media marketing has been one long train of speculation and theory after another. I don’t say this to be negative in any way. It’s a natural byproduct of a new phase this world is going through. But phase one is over. We need to move on. Our conversation, if we really want to make progress, has to go from one of theory to a place of application and real results.

And when I speak of real results, I’m referring to experiences like that of Dominic, who sent me this e-mail just a few days ago:

Love your work Marcus. Keep it up…On page 210 of the book, and 3 months in to setting up with HubSpot Pro account.  Inbound (marketing) is already making a massive difference to our traffic and conversions.

Set all the team blogging 3-4 posts per week and 5 ebooks now offered for free on the site.

Resulted so far in 8,000 new leads in the last 3 months and conversions up 20%  

Lovin it!

Dominic

That, my friends, is what it’s all about. It’s also the type of story businesses need to hear. Without going into too much detail, Dominic has managed to create a culture of inbound marketing within his company. He is producing content of different types. And more than anything else, his business is attaining more customers. Exciting times indeed.

When it comes down to it, we need more stories like Dominic’s in this industry. We need more businesses that truly understand the principles of social media and content marketing and know how to implement strategies in ways that work. Granted, there will always be those that elect not to keep up with best practices and do what it takes to achieve success in the digital age. That’s fine, we’ll let them be.

But for the rest of the world, application needs to be the name of the game in 2013. And for those bloggers and thought leaders that write about this stuff day in and day out, it is my hope we’ll all work hard to shine a light this coming year on businesses that are actually achieving success in the digital realm, and the strategies they’re using to garner said success. At this point, we’re all obligated to show more.

When I look at the direction The Sales Lion is headed in 2013, I want this site to become known as one of the premier non-theory marketing sites on the web. This is exactly why I plan on highlighting clients and readers that are crushing it online with their business (be it big or small) and then showing exactly how they are getting results.

This, in my opinion, is what most business owners and marketers want to be reading about. They don’t want wild overviews. They don’t want theory. They simply want results.

More Hands-On

On a side note, this is also why I’m excited about a brand new blogging conference being put on by Mack Collier in Los Angeles this coming year. The conference is called “Blog H.O.T”—which stands for “hands on training.”

A few months back when Mack approached me about speaking at this event, my initial reaction was not one of great enthusiasm, as I suspected it was going to be just like many of the blogging and social media conferences being put on all over the country these days—speakers speaking and audiences listening. (Not that this is necessarily bad, but at this point I feel we need more.)

But that’s when Mack told me something that truly piqued my interest. He said the conference was going to have two unique qualities:

1. It was going to be clearly focused on business and corporate blogging strategies. (In other words, it wasn’t going to try and be everything to every type of blogger—just businesses.)

2. It was going to be hands-on with heavy interaction.

A blogging conference full of businesses where the audience gets their hands dirty?

Yeah, I wanted in.

Now granted, time will tell if Mack’s conference is a great one, but I have a feeling he’s on to something, and shares my thoughts in that all need to step up our game in 2013.

So that’s my commitment to you, my readers. Sure, I’m going to have my normal mix of business, opinion, and personal development writings within the walls of this digital home.

But more than anything else, I want to give you, my readers, reality. I want you to hear about real business doing real marketing strategies that are getting real results. And if you’re not seeing just that, don’t hesitate to call me out on it.

Your Turn

As we look ahead to 2013, where do you see things going within the social media and content marketing realm? Do you believe as I do we’ll start seeing less talk of theory and more talk of application? When it comes to conferences, do you prefer the hands-on approach or would you rather keep things as they’ve mostly been up to this point? Finally, what would you like to see more of from The Sales Lion in 2013?

________________________________________________________

What exactly do you do after you write an article?

Rick

_________________________________________________________

Wait, so are you “the pool guy”? Biggest challenge. Brand new business. Do not have $9K/year.  Yet. Used hubspot at previous job but did not pay enough attention. Now what!?

Best,

Emily

___________________________________________________________

Hello Marcus,

______________________________________________________________

Do you have an example handy of a good negative review article? I have never heard of doing that before and it would really help to see how it should be done. Thanks!!!

_______________________________________________________________

Love your work Marcus. Keep it up…On page 210 of the book, and 3 months in to setting up with hubspot Pro account.  Inbound is already making a massive difference to our traffic and conversions.

Set all the team blogging 3-4 posts per week and 5 ebooks now offered for free on the site.

Resulted so far in 8,000 new leads in the last 3 months and conversions up 20%  

Lovin it!

Dominic

Let me be clear, this is NOT a personal attack on anyone. In fact, if a person’s name is mentioned here  in this post, it means I respect them greatly. Frankly, I don’t spend time online dropping names of people I don’t like.

For some reason though, some folks in this industry feel it’s not kosher to openly disagree with other bloggers and experts —like it’s a sign of disrespect or something. To me, that’s just crapola. If we never disagree amongst ourselves how in the heck are we going to make progress?

So for those of you that appreciate diversity, read on…

Nodding and Cringing at Content Marketing Advice

Christopher Penn is smart. Really smart. I have followed him for a long time and very much enjoy his work. But I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever loved and hated a post as much as the one he recently wrote entitled: How to Fix the Sad State of Content Marketing

First, let’s talk about what I loved.

In the post, as Christopher was talking about how to produce more and better content, he offered up the following suggestion:

Get smarter. Get more creative. How? First and foremost, if you’re a content creator for business, you absolutely must be out in the world talking to customers on a regular, frequent basis. Your best ideas will almost always come from seeing people at work with your products or services and observing the challenges they face. You can do that by going to conferences, visiting customers, helping out with customer service, and being a customer yourself of your company.

Any of you that have ever read anything that I’ve written know how obsessed I am with the principle that great blogging comes down to the 4 essential words I feel are the golden rule of Content Marketing—They Ask, You Answer.

In other words, unless someone is listening to their customers, clients, and prospects—they’ll run out of content fast. But if they listen well, a constant flow of ideas will come their way—just waiting for someone to tackle the question or subject online in a way that’s easy to understand for consumers. This point, along with his suggestion to utilize the talents of more than one person in the organization to produce content, were GREAT in my opinion.

But this also brings me to the 3 elements of this post (and a few others I’ll mention here) that I feel are  potentially bad advice to the many businesses across the world that are simply trying to get their arms wrapped around this marketing “stuff” we all yap about day in and day out.

1. The “Sad State of Content Marketing”

Is it accurate to say content marketing is in a sad state? I’d venture to say content marketing is pretty much in the same state it has been since…well…papyrus and cave carvings.

Fact is, some people are good at communicating, and some stink.

Some people are great teachers, and others stink.

Some people (and companies) look for cheap shortcuts in everything they do, while others do not.

But this isn’t specific to content marketing. This is the case with every single industry in the history of the world. It’s Pareto’s Law.

So just because a few companies are a content marketing train wreck doesn’t mean we should let the bad eggs represent the efforts of the masses.

2. Looking down on the concept of editorial calendars and frequent blogging:

Citing the “garbage content” that we often see online, Penn stated in  his post:

…The aforementioned Tom Webster correctly cites the issue of content production schedules as being the primary cause for this – if you commit to blogging a certain number of times per week, personally or organizationally, then you have to find content to fill those commitments. The easiest choice, as Tom points out in a recent blog post, is to abolish the content production schedule entirely and only share content when you have really great ideas to share, but for many businesses, that’s not a step that’s viewed as realistic.

Again, I strongly agreed and disagreed with both Penn’s thoughts and those of my wonderfully insightful friend Tom Webster referencing the negatives of producing too much content and the necessity to only write GREAT stuff. But before I explain why, let me show one other email that really bothered me last week from another person who I respect and admire that has done amazing things online—Jon Morrow.

In an email he sent out to his list last week with the subject line, “Are You Listening to these Old Farts? Tell me it ain’t so” Morrow stated:

Despite their mantels of authority, the majority of popular bloggers are just old farts masquerading as experts. Most of them started blogging five years ago or more, which may not seem like a long, but on the Internet, that makes them freaking ancient…And it also means a lot of their advice is outdated…For example, writing daily blog posts might’ve been a smart move five years ago, but it’s an outright waste of time now. Just ask any up-and-coming blogger who’s experimented with it, and they’ll tell you it’s true. So why are a lot of popular bloggers still pushing the whole “publish daily” strategy? They didn’t see the shift. In some ways, their own success prevents them from seeing it, kind of like a grandparent who retired after 30 years working for a big company advising you to do the same thing.”

Although both of these aforementioned paragraphs have legitimate points and can be seen as great advice, I’d submit the following:

1. Your industry has never-ending content: Yep, it’s true, especially if it (your blog) is based on consumer questions and answers. I’ve written hundreds of blogs about swimming pools as well as social media and haven’t even covered 1% of the content I could potentially discuss.  In fact, I’d challenge anyone to show me any blog that is a true Wiki of that industry and covers more than even 50% of potential consumer questions regarding that product/service/field/etc.

2. If you’re answering questions (content marketing the right way), success will parallel frequency: Currently, I have clients that are lawyers, software developers, government contractors, manufacturers, consultants, etc., etc. The group is incredibly diverse, but one principle remains true for every single one of them—

The biggest factor that leads to blogging and content marketing success (leads, sales, brand awareness, blah, blah, and blah) is their ability to POST OFTEN.

But then again, I don’t talk to my clients about being “awesome” or “epic” with the content they produce. To me, those are relative terms that change with every brain determining their qualification.  Rather, my clients follow the golden rule approach and are simply looking to apply the kindergarten teacher methodology and distill basic truths in a very basic language. To me, this is the essence of the “awesome content” that should be the focus of blogging and social media experts within their teachings.

But for Morrow to say that writing every day is an “outright waste of time”—although possibly applicable to some people who write about social media (many of which attained success early on and now don’t need the frequency), it clearly doesn’t apply to the majority of industries in this world (outside the “blog-o-sphere”) that have way more demand (consumer questions) than supply (answers). And with the deep web analytics I have from clients, my studies show just the opposite is  true.

3. Like anything, blogging and content marketing are a discipline: Sure, one can easily argue that editorial calendars suck the life out of “epic content” and “pillar posts” but I can tell you that a huge majority of every small and large organization out there that has achieved content marketing success uses some type of calendaring and accountability system.

Without a calendaring system, especially at first, it’s EXTREMELY difficult to get better at this thing we call blogging and content marketing. Why? Because it never become a culture. Just as payroll is a culture in an organization that happens on a set schedule, so should blogging be for the majority of businesses looking to make a run at a successful digital marketing campaign.

Frankly, I really don’t think calendars are the problem at all when it comes to good or bad content. Rather, most companies still don’t understand what they should even be blogging, talking, and teaching about in the first place.

3. The Unrealistic Expectation of Great Content

My final disagreement, and the strongest one of the three, comes with the closing statement Penn made in his post. He says:

Like a restaurant, you only need to serve up one plate of garbage instead of a good meal to lose someone forever.

Do you know the biggest reason why companies large and small don’t embrace great content, communication, and teaching on their websites?

Because if they can’t do it GREAT, and be AWESOME, they elect not to do it at all.

In other words, FEAR wins.

Instead of Godin’s “Just Ship It,” it becomes a motto of “Just sit on it and over-analyze the stupid thing.”

Businesses are so scared to death of not doing everything just right that they never do anything at all.

This isn’t NASA folks. Content marketing is not a space shuttle. Perfect is not a requirement, nor is it even attainable.

Plus, we can’t be afraid to lose readers and turn people off. In fact, just the opposite is true.

And speaking of “serving garbage on a plate,” just look at the first blog articles on my swimming pool site—River Pools. Without question, I served up garbage almost 3 times a week for the first few months of blogging.

I was a bad writer.

I was a bad blogger.

I was a poor communicator.

And nothing was “epic.”

But somehow, some way, the “little website that could” is now the most trafficked website in the world for inground swimming pool construction.

The Sales Lion is no different. I cringe when I go back and read those initial posts on this blog. It’s almost like they were written by a different person.

But at the same time, each post was a victory. Each post was a learning experience. And each post was a small rung on the ladder that got me to where I am today (wherever that may be).

Write More Crap

So I say go write some crap. Seriously. Accept your imperfections while giving your best. Allow yourself to learn, screw up often and grow without comparing yourself to the content demands so many experts online are espousing.

Will there be bumps along the way?

Yep, absolutely, but assuming you have the right intentions, no word produced by your hand for the world to see will ever be a waste of your time. I sincerely mean that.

So that’s my take folks. That’s where I stand. And I welcome your diverse opinions below.

This past month, The Sales Lion turned three years old. And as I sit back and contemplate how this blog and business have changed over this time , I feel prompted to share maybe the most important lesson I’ve learned during this period. In conjunction with this, I want to answer a question today that many readers have asked about , but I’ve never taken the time to fully explain– What is the business model of The Sales Lion and how do you make money?

You know,  we hear a lot of talk about how to create successful business models. And although understanding the concept of business models is certainly important, I think sometimes we might put too much stock into knowing exactly what we are and exactly what we need to be before our identity is allowed to appear.

Many readers likely do not realize this, but when I started The Sales Lion, I thought this was going to be a blog about retail and in-home sales. Believe it or not, the main focus was not going to be inbound and content marketing. But this is exactly why listening is so very important. If we really want to be successful as bloggers and business owners, far and away listening is the most important key.

My very first post on TSL, and it had nothing to do with Inbound and Content Marketing.

Listening to Yourself, Your Readers, and Your Clients

After the first couple of months of writing this blog, I realized the passion I have for retail sales and in-home selling wasn’t nearly as much as my passion for inbound and content marketing. So I did an about-face (I listened to my gut) and started to change the theme of what this blog was all about. But not only was I listening to myself, but I was also listening to my readers, who always seemed to be more responsive to my thoughts on inbound and content marketing . They wanted to see exactly how I was able to elevate my swimming pool company from near bankruptcy to the top of its industry. In other words, the readers showed me where the business needed to go, and all I had to do was listen.

Once I made this important decision, I continued to listen to the reader and tried my best to understand what they were looking for. As I did this, I could see that many wanted help with HubSpot. They wanted help in using the tool and they needed someone to guide them. So once again, I listen, and I followed. It was during this time I became a partner with HS and before long I was signing people up to use their software and was getting paid to teach them how to be successful inbound marketers utilizing the tool.

This was the first time I have ever made any money with The Sales Lion, and it occurred well over a year after starting the blog. Today, with respect to number of clients, I’m one of HubSpot’s largest VARs in the world.

Another Business Appears 

Speaking at Block Imaging, my first full-day content marketing workshop, and one of many that would follow.

About a year and a half ago, I started getting calls from people who wanted to get their staff involved in inbound marketing. They wanted help producing content, blogging, and teaching. This request came more than once, and finally, when my friend Krista asked me to come to Michigan and teach Block Imaging and their entire organization how they could all embrace a culture of inbound and content marketing, I decided it was time to listen. Since that time, Block Imaging has become a major thought-leader in their industry, their brand has grown, and sales have benefited. Furthermore, they’ve been the subject of quite a few social media case studies, including one on Social Media Examiner.

Further Listening Equates to a Better Business Model

After meeting with Block as well as a few other companies to give this workshop, I knew it was time to promote this service more openly to my blog audience. The demand was there. I was listening. And even though I never dreamed of giving these types of workshops when I started The Sales Lion, the business had presented itself. The model had taken shape.

Today, I give inbound and content marketing workshops all over North America. In fact, these workshops now make up a huge portion of the income generated through TSL. After giving a few of these workshops, though, I realized, upon listening to my clients, that many wanted more. They needed someone to guide them through the initial process of creating a successful content marketing campaign that was built to last, and built upon a company culture. Once again, because I was listening to the needs of the clients, a business model presented itself. Currently, I have multiple clients set up on six-month consulting retainers, where the whole purpose is that of making sure they’re able to establish this very important culture.

The Birth of EasyBizBlogging

Recently, you may have heard me announce the new service provided here at TSL—EasyBizBlogging. This service came as a direct result of listening to the many e-mails and conversations I’ve had with readers and clients over these last few years. Because so many said they simply did not have the time, skills, or understanding to make blogging a priority for their business — I decided to provide a way for these same businesses to use the intellectual property and industry wisdom that was in their heads and distill it in a digital manner by using an interview-based blogging format. This way we are able to overcome the problem of time and skill with professional ghost writers, but the clients still are using their information in their voice. This would also allow them to develop stronger relationships with their potential clients, because the content is real and genuine. After just a few short weeks since the launch, I can see that EBB is going to be very successful. There is a huge demand for it. It makes sense to businesses.

Would the model of EBB have made sense to me a few years ago? No, of course not. But today it does. And it does only because I have listened again and again to the needs of my readers and potential clients, which has enabled the business model to appear.

EBB never was on my radar until the constant need kept popping up from readers and clients.

I don’t mention any of these business victories to brag in any way. I’m not smarter than anyone that reads this blog or any other blog for that matter. But I think sometimes we tend to make this whole process of marketing and blogging and business development much harder than what it has to be.

What is most important in all of this? The answer is simple, and one you already know — we need to listen. Sometimes, we’ve got to stop talking. We’ve got to stop writing. We’ve simply got to turn on our ears.

By so doing, the answers we’ve been looking for will often appear—and so will the business success we so desperately seek.

Your Turn

I’d love to know about a business decision you’ve made over the last couple of years that stemmed directly from listening to your readers/customers. What were the results?

Also, if you have any questions about the TSL business model, I’d be happy to openly answer them here.

As many of you know, I spoke at HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Summit a few months back and gave one of the most thorough (and fun) talks I’ve ever given on business blogging strategies. Since that time, I’ve been waiting for HS to release the session on YouTube because, at the risk of sounding arrogant, the content in that session was enough for any business, in just about any industry, to dominate online if they would but follow the plan given.

To give you a preview of what you’ll see, here are the 7 blogging subjects discussed in this video:

• Cost/price
• Problems
• Vs.
• Best
• Awards
• Breaking News
• Thought Leadership

If you watch this video, you’ll see exactly what you’ll need to do to apply these principles to your blog. Furthermore, by following the pattern laid out herein, you’ll get months worth of content ideas that will not only build your brand, but have a dramatic impact on organic search traffic through SEO as well. I can tell you this with full sincerity because I’m still getting feedback from audience members that attended and applied what they learned in this session months after the fact.

Yes, the video is long, but trust me, it’s worth it…

Click here to view the embedded video.

You’re better than this…

This post won’t be long folks, but it needs to be said…unfortunately.

I was researching a bit of information for my swimming pool company tonight when I stumbled across a high-end builder in the industry that was making a big deal on their home page about the fact their company Facebook page had over 2500 “likes.”

Knowing this elevated number to be extremely rare for any swimming pool business, I then looked at the photos of their “fans” that were on display and within seconds it became obvious to me that they had sold their soul to the social media devil and paid a few bucks on some place like Fiverr (a site I actually like a lot) to get a couple of thousand “fake likes.”

Now you might be asking how I know their fans were fake. Well, I’m not going to go into details, but let me just say I know what swimming pool consumers look like…and they didn’t look like the folks on their page.

And after seeing what this company had done to “appear” socially awesome, what was respect I had for their business quickly turned to disappointment.

Here is the deal my friends—Online consumers aren’t dumb. In fact, they’re getting smarter every day. Furthermore, they can spot a social media rat when they see one.

Be it fake testimonials.

Fake videos.

Fake reviews.

Fake anything.

This is exactly why it doesn’t pay to try and attempt to bloat your numbers for the purpose of appearing more “popular” than you really are.

So please, don’t go there. You’re too good for it anyway.

Stick to transparency. Stick to truly listening to consumers and then earnestly answering their questions.

If you do this, although the “numbers” may grow slowly (many of which don’t mean squat anyway), at least they’ll be real and won’t make your brand look desperate for attention.

Your Turn

A simple post begs a simple question: Why the heck are companies still doing this junk? Thoughts?

Well it’s the first “Thanksgiving” episode of the Mad Marketing w/The Sales Lion podcast this week my friends, and it’s a fun one, so I hope you’ll check it out and have an enjoyable listen while on vacation or on your way to work as well. As always, don’t hesitate to leave your questions below or email me directly.

And please know that I’m grateful for all your support these past 3 years online, they’ve been amazing!!!

______________________________________________________

Hi Marcus,

As requested, out biggest struggle with inbound marketing and content is probably one you hear all of the time…. Creating content!

However, the reasons behind our issue may be slightly different. Myself and a colleague head up the digital marketing team here and we are passionate inbound marketers. We have convinced senior managers and the board to commit to HubSpot and are using various elements now. However, we work in the clinical diagnostics industry and find that, even when reusing existing content, we struggle to create blog posts etc due to our lack of technical knowledge. We have a small marketing team here (approx 10 people) who have become disengaged with marketing and focus more on product management. Our biggest struggle is motivating and re-engaging them with marketing and, more specifically, inbound marketing! We have a breakfast workshop set up at the beginning of December to try to achieve this but I don’t imagine it will be easy!

If you have any advice, I’d love to hear it!

Cheers

Marcus, hey Bro,

Why do you use aWeber?

I’ve heard some marketers complain about aWeber, and they went with other companies.

I’m currently considering Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, and Get Response.

Thanks,

Marcus,

My biggest dilemma at the moment is the best places to advertise for an Excavating Company. I am helping my brother with marketing his company and am self taught. Did a website and am presently paying for google ads.

Thinking about Face book Linked In etc. Just getting started.

_______________________________________________________________

Hi Marcus,

I’m going to answer your question, I read about you and what you’re doing in the book “The rebels guide to email marketing“ and my biggest struggle is that I don’t like marketing emails when I get them into my inbox. I have unsubscribed from practically everything that I ended up being opted into. I only read a handful of people, and when they start to bombard me, I unsubscribe to them too. (e.g. Brian Tracy, John Assaraf – I love them both, I’d go see them if they came to Ireland like a hot shot however two, three emails a week, more even, is too much for me and I just unsubscribed from both of them.)….

How do I make my emails stand out from the crowd? Keep them coming back without making them feel like I’m selling them anything?

Abby

_________________________________________________________________

How do you get buy-in for content marketing from sales and marketing departments where sales are only interested in something if it directly produces revenue and marketing will only do something if they can track the number of leads it generates.  Is the only way you can track the direct impact of each article by using something like Hubspot?

Chris Heffer

One of the most common “best practices” or suggestions you read about setting up a blog’s structure has to do with using a “popular posts” widget in the sidebar of your site—thus showing readers the most read/popular articles found on your blog since its beginning.

Sounds like a good idea, right?

Well, maybe, or maybe not.

Like everything else, it depends, which I’ll now explain.

Popular Posts Based on Comment Counts

Over the past year, I’ve had the following “popular posts” widget displaying in my sidebar. Like many do in the blogosphere, this display is based on the number of comments each article has received. Take a look:

Although these articles have huge amounts of comments, how many would a potential TSL client find truly valuable and interesting?

The obvious reason to put a widget like this in your blog’s sidebar is to show what other readers seem to respond to and resonate with, but going this route can have one major drawback—they do not always reflect your business goals and the type of client/customer you want to have.

I’m not sure if that makes sense, but let me explain my situation.

With The Sales Lion, it is my goal to attract two main types of clients:

1. Companies that need help with their inbound and content marketing efforts with the goal of building their online brand and attracting more traffic, leads, and sales.
2. Speaking opportunities.

If you look at this list of the 10 most commented articles in the history of The Sales Lion, how many would you say are targeting these types of clients? (Seriously, look back at the list and think about it for a second, you may be very surprised.)

In my opinion, the only post that could possibly help my clients of today is the blog post scheduling article, which is designated with a red arrow.

The rest, although they may have received a HUGE response, simply don’t speak to my client-base today.

I’m not saying here that those articles don’t have value and don’t help certain individuals, but most were written during a period of The Sales Lion when I really didn’t know what the business goals of this site were—as my main goal at the time was simply to attract readers by writing good stuff.

There was nothing wrong with those goals then, but they weren’t a business model, and certainly aren’t going to pay the bills.

Swallowing My Pride

Over the past few months, every time I’ve looked at those articles in the sidebar I kept asking myself the same question:

“If a 50 million-dollar company stumbles upon my blog and immediately starts reading all these ‘popular posts’—are they going to get a better sense of the value I’d bring to their organization?”

My answer, as I’m sure you already know, was “NO.”

And if I’m being honest with myself, I think the only reason I may have left them up there that long was to show new visitors how many comments people had left on my blog. In other words, like many times in my life, pride was getting in the way of intelligent strategy and best results.

Page Views as a Leading Indicator

This being said, some of you may be asking if, instead of a popular posts widget that uses comments as the leading indicator, why wouldn’t we use “page views” as the key metric—something that is offered by certain widgets/plugins that  you can easily install on your blog’s sidebar.

But like before, the answer would be, “It depends.”

Here is the thing—if you feel like the most-viewed pages (articles) on your blog represent your ideal client, then by all means, show them. Put them out there for the world to see.

But if you don’t feel strongly about them because they aren’t truly targeting your end-user/ideal customer, then I wouldn’t include the list, and instead would come up with a set of articles/links that you feel your clients would be best served reading.

In the case of my swimming pool company, the “most popular posts” widget is perfect for my client base—those persons serious about buying a fiberglass pool. In fact, here is a screen shot of the top 10 blog posts on my swimming pool website, with a red arrow indicating it has significant value for our target audience.

With River Pools, the 10 most popular articles are all VERY applicable to the target customer.

Frankly, the main reason why the River Pools popular posts display is so much better than what I would have here at TSL is because, at River Pools, we’ve had a clear focus for quite some time as to who we are and what we want to teach our clients about—whereas The Sales Lion (as a content marketing/speaking brand) is just starting to truly take off these last 10 months or so.

Hopefully you understand the point of this article. In fact, now that I think about it, the title really didn’t need to be just about popular posts at all, but more about the messaging we want to send to our web visitors and readers.

When it comes down to it, you have to ask the following question with every piece of information/article you display on your website:

Will showing this help me generate more trust, leads, clients, and sales?

If you allow that simple question to be your guiding light going forward, there is a good chance the positive results will follow.

Your Turn:

I’m really curious to hear your thoughts on this subject. Do you have a popular post widget displayed on your blog? Do you feel it accurately represents the customers you’re targeting? And what guides you as to the main information you display on your website?

Speaking near DC last night at to a group of 130 business business professionals and entrepreurs– another blessing of joining Cadre and become involved with more face to face networking.

If you had asked me two years ago if offline networking still had the incredible importance to business success it had 20 years ago, I would have foolishly laughed at the notion. In hindsight, I think I may have been drinking too much of the digital and social “kool-aide,” causing myself to miss out on some incredibly important opportunities that were happening all around me in the non-digital realm.

But at the beginning of this year, I started to feel like something was missing in my professional life. Despite the fact that I had built up such a large online community with The Sales Lion and had “met” so many amazing people that had taught and inspired me so very much, I couldn’t seem to rid myself of the feeling that I needed to build relationships with other professionals in a way I hadn’t done over the previous few years—and that was face to face.

It was during this same time period that I was invited to an event where Chris Brogan was speaking in Washington DC that was put on by one of the city’s most premier networking groups—Cadre. Upon attending this event and the subsequent dinner afterwards with Cadre’s members as well as their incredible founder and super-networker Derek Coburn, I immediately knew I had found what I was looking for.

For 3 straight hours I shook hands, watched facial expressions, observed gesticulations, and listened to profound insights from entrepreneurs and business owners from the DC/MD/VA areas.

To say I left that dinner inspired would be an understatement.

I also knew that it was time my offline network caught up to my online one, which is why, despite the fact that I live 3 hours away, I joined the group and have worked since that time to establish relationships with, and give value to, its great members.

7 months later I can honestly say the best career move I’ve ever made, other than starting The Sales Lion, has been joining Cadre and building an offline network with like-minded professionals.

Other than the many friendships made, from this one group I’ve received well over a dozen speaking opportunities (like TED next year), multiple new clients, incredibly sage advice, and much, much more. In fact, the blessings just keep pouring in, and I’ve never felt so “social” in my life.

This Isn’t Just About Digits

As I mentioned in the article I wrote entitled 7 Reasons Why Blogging is Failing to Generate Leads For So Many Marketing Agencies, a huge reason why so many marketing consultants and companies are failing to generate stronger leads and relationships is they’ve become entirely dependent on their online efforts and forgotten the beauties of good old fashioned offline networking with face to face communication.

Frankly, many of the agencies I’ve seen achieve the most success are the ones that are active in the community, busy speaking to professional organizations, and unafraid to make a first contact with a handshake versus an email or blog post.

Finding a Balance

Please don’t get me wrong folks. I’m not here to say that networking will ever be what it once was, but rather, I see the future of great networking the perfect mix of face-to-face and digital where each makes the other stronger, and none are dismissed as irrelevant and outdated.

I guess like everything else in life, balance is key…

Your Turn

I’d be curious to know how you’re business and networking efforts have evolved over the last few years. Are you just using the Internet or are you more in the world of face to face? What’s bringing you the most results? And what do you do to strike a balance?

For the past three years here on The Sales Lion I’ve been beating the drum called “Blogging for Business” until I’ve practically turned blue in the face. As you all know, this passion stems from the fact that content marketing saved my swimming pool company, made The Sales Lion brand what it is, and is the catalyst of success for thousands upon thousands of businesses all over the world.

My writings during this time period have centered around a common theme:

1. You can be a teacher.
2. Your employees can be teachers. (I call this “Insourcing”)
3. And when you catch this vision, and put it into action in a digital form, your business will never be the same.

I’m happy to say that many, many readers and clients of TSL have done just that. They’ve taken action. They’re doing it the right way. And they’re getting incredible results.

Notwithstanding, there is another very large group of businesses out there that see the value of content marketing, especially blogging, but are unable to get momentum going. In most cases, this stems from one or more of the following:

1. They don’t have the time to produce content.
2. They don’t like to write.
3. They’re not good at writing.
4. They really don’t know where to start and what to write about.

The Problems with Blog Outsourcing Companies

It is because of these issues that so many smaller businesses elect to use blog outsourcing companies. And although I’m by no means saying here blog outsourcing is bad, there can be a few major drawbacks to having someone outside of your company write articles in your stead. They are:

1. The personal voice and experiences of the employees, especially the owner, are typically lost in the writings. This in-turn hurts the quality of the content and gives it more of a “lifeless” feel in many cases.

2. The quality of the writing is highly contingent on the abilities of the writer, which means often times companies have to “try out” multiple writers in order to find someone they feel is a good fit.

3. Many blog outsourcing companies do not pay attention to proper titles of blog posts, which, as I’ve said many times—is the biggest SEO mistake made by businesses blogging in the world today—by far.

EasyBizBlogging

It’s funny how in life and in business if we just sit back and truly listen to the problems people have we can come up with some profound solutions every now and again.

Frankly, this is how I feel about EasyBizBlogging—a blog outsourcing system that completely changes the way the industry has been done up to this point by 99% of the outsourcing companies and addresses their 3 major problems listed above.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In short, what makes EBB so unique is the following:

1. Clients are guided through a blog title brainstorming process based on the consumer question model I’ve spoken of so many times here on The Sales Lion.

2. Once the questions are finished, they are then vetted (by me and my team) to ensure maximum SEO potential and phone interviews with the client are scheduled.

3. For every 10 blog posts the customer orders, an hour phone interview is done with a member of The Sales Lion team.

4. The interviews are recorded, transcribed, and then turned into clean, edited, and “personal” blog posts.

In other words, unlike typical blog/content outsourcing companies, EasyBizBlogging is done in the true voice of the business owner (or his/her employees). This allows for much stronger content, a much quicker delivery, and at an incredibly affordable rate.

My Vision

The “beta” testing period for EBB was incredibly successful. In fact, it was so successful that, despite the fact I’ve been mum about its release, many bloggers/marketers, after stumbling upon the EBB page and watching the videos, have already asked me about affiliate opportunities—which are certainly available to anyone interested and can be found by going here.

For too long I’ve had business owners tell me, “Marcus, you have no idea how much information I have in my head about what it is I do…I just don’t think I could ever write these thoughts in a way that I’d feel good about.”

I’m proud to say it is my goal to help the thousands upon thousands of experts out there overcome this issue and finally have a voice. I want them to have the opportunity to be teachers. And I want them to be able to become thought-leaders within their industry because they’re willing to tackle subjects and address consumer questions better than anyone else in their field—whether they’re good writers or not.

Even better, I want to see their names next to their blog posts.

(Note*** To visit the EBB page and learn more about pricing, packages, etc., just go here)

Your Turn

If you’ve ever used a blog outsourcing company, I’d love to hear about your experiences? What did you like? What did you dislike? Also, what are your thoughts on EasyBizBlogger compared to the standard blog outsourcing model? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts below.

My opinion is that blogs are dumb…

That’s right, it doesn’t, and neither does mine.

Just look at the election for a second. Opinions and projections were incredibly diverse on both sides. Thoughts about which party and candidate had the most “momentum” kept coming up again and again.

Yet when all was said and done, none of those opinions mattered until the final votes were counted. Then, all of the sudden, some folks appeared smart, while others didn’t.

Such is life and such is marketing.

The final numbers are really the only thing that matters.

But It’s “Cool”

3 years ago, when I decided to embrace online marketing with my swimming pool company I was taking a hard look at my website and doing whatever I could to make it better. During this process, I learned that having a black background with white text (which I had) on a website was not good if you wanted your visitors reading a lot of text, as this combination is hard on the eyes.

When I read this information, although it did make sense (After all, when was the last time you read a book that had black pages and white text?) I had one big problem– I liked the way my website looked.

I thought the black background looked “cool.”

I thought it looked professional.

And I didn’t see what the big deal would be.

But then I read the numbers and studied further and realized a very important point– my opinion about the color of the background didn’t matter. If I kept things the way they were, readers (potential customers) wouldn’t stay on the site as long to read because their eyes, without them even realizing it, would get tired and lose interest.

Eventually, I changed the background and font colors of my website, but looking back, my reasoning (personal opinions) for keeping the site the way it was for as long as I did was a seriously dumb one–and one that we see over and over again with business owners and marketers all over the world.

Opinions Equal the Death of Great Marketing

When it comes down to it, personal opinions kill successful marketing plans each and every single day. Take for example the business owner or marketer that…

• says they “don’t read blogs” and therefore doesn’t want a company blog.
• thinks “Facebook is for gossip and political rants” and therefore dismisses its utility.
• believes “SEO doesn’t exist” and then misses countless opportunities for free web visitors.
• is contrary to doing anything that doesn’t fall under “social media”—even though a proper Pay Per Click campaign would work in his/her market.
• only wants to sound intelligent with their web copy instead of writing in a way that is personable, understandable, and gets results.
• doesn’t listen to podcasts and therefore thinks having a podcast would be a complete waste of time.
• refuses to change the copy in an ad even though a split-test has shown the copy is less effective

The examples go on and on and on.

And as one last example, I’ll use one from The Sales Lion.

For many, many months I’ve read articles and stats about the power of pop-ups for list building. Notwithstanding, each time I thought about having a pop-up on The Sales Lion, I rejected the idea.

Why?

Because I didn’t like them.

That was until I saw sites like Social Media Examiner, Content Marketing Institute, Amy Porterfield, and others using them—all with great success.

With great sites like this one from Amy Porterfield using Pop-Ups, I knew it was time to accept the positive results over my own opinions.

Finally, after swallowing my pride and opinions, I added a pop-up here on The Sales Lion. It’s not too annoying to regular readers because it only appears once every 30 days if someone has seen it already, but the results speak for themselves, with an additional 10-20 sign ups each day coming from the pop-up form alone, which means my newsletter list and the number of folks reading the eBook are growing at a really nice rate these days. (Note** The pop-up I use here is by Pippity (none aff.), and I’ve been very happy with it.)

The bottom line is this my friends—We’ve all got to get used to the idea that our opinions don’t really matter when it comes to smart marketing. The way we think, act, and talk isn’t the way others think, act, and talk.

And the moment we can separate the way we feel versus the actions and decisions that get real results, we’re going to be way, way more successful.

Your Turn

I’d love to hear about a time when you didn’t think something was a good idea yet you did it anyway and saw great results. Also, if you’re a marketer, how do you help business owners get over their opinions and biases so as to make sound marketing decisions?

It’s a windy Saturday morning here in Burgess Virginia. I’m sitting in my office and looking out the window, contemplating where and who I was three years ago when I started this blog, The Sales Lion. And in 2009 when I wrote the first article of this site—Death of Salesman—little did I know what would become of the TSL brand, community, and ultimately my career.

And to this day, I still have no idea.

Nor do I think I’ve “found my voice” as we so often read about in the million or so “How to Blog” guides that are out there.

What’s funny is I once wrote about how I found my online voice.

Since that time, I’ve reached another conclusion. I hadnt’ found my voice at all, rather, I’d just moved on to a newer version of me. My focus, thoughts, and passions had changed—and with it, my writings.

But that’s the way blogs, business, and life work.

They change.

Tomorrow Never Arrives

That’s also why finding your blogging voice is like saying, “tomorrow is here.”

Nope, tomorrow never arrives.

I’m not the only one. Hang around the online world long enough and you’ll see bloggers and writers changing their style all the time.

Take Geoff Livingston for example. Geoff is a smart guy, a published author, and a passionate thinker.

In the past, Geoff has written some pretty polarizing stuff, and more than once he and I have been on opposing sides of the argument.

But recently Geoff turned over a new leaf. In fact, he announced he was going to change, and since that time the difference in his writings has been quite astounding.

Has Geoff found his voice? Although I certainly don’t speak for Geoff here, my opinion is that he is just continuing to develop and evolve, which is the only way any of us can make it for long in this difficult business of the online world.

Or take my friend Chris Brogan.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Chris has gone through some major changes recently. He has shifted much of his focus from the blog to more of an emphasis on deep relationships with his email/newsletter audience.

As his site has done before and will continue to do so, Chris Brogan is always changing and evolving who he is online.

Also, his site was completely redesigned and revamped.

As a big fan of Chris, I watch him with great interest and learning, because I know this is just another stage of the development of his voice and business,  and that eventually, he will change again.

Growth

I could literally go on and on with stories and observations of others who are still developing their online voice, but I’m sure you get my point.

Frankly, after doing this now for 3 years and having written over 350,000 words in my “voice”—my suggestion to others in the online world is this:

From this day forward, stop worrying about “finding your voice.”

And if you do find it, throw it back in the river so you can find it again later.

Finding is not the goal here.

This is about GROWTH, pure and simple.

And trust me when I tell you that if you’re growing, happiness will follow.

Your Turn

I’m very curious to know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts on finding your voice, and would love to hear about  your experiences with this subject. Do you think we ever really find our voice or is it more a matter of moving to the next phase of who we are? And what stages have you been through up to this point in your blog and business?

Don’t forget, your thoughts matter.

I fly a lot these days. And for those of you that fly much, you also know that flying with a friend is way better than flying solo. Luckily for me, I’m often accompanied by Mitch Joel. We fly together a bunch. When Mitch isn’t available, Pat Flynn may step in, or possibly Srinivas Rao,  Jay Baer, or my friend Michael Stelzner.

OK, maybe these guys don’t actually “fly” with me, but after listening to their enlightening conversations and words for a few hours, it certainly feels as though we’ve just engaged in an incredible dialogue.

You see, all 5 of these gents, as many of you already know, are prolific podcasters, and despite the fact that I don’t physically “talk” to these men much, I sure feel as though we converse all the time.

And that’s the magic to podcasting. It’s also exactly why I started the Mad Marketing Podcast w/ The Sales Lion a few months back. I wanted to provide others with an intimate picture of the inner-workings of my mind, just as Joel, Flynn, Rao, Baer and Stelzner have done with their podcasts so very well.

That’s also why it brings a massive smile to my face when I get emails like this one that hit my inbox today:

Hi Marcus,

I took you and Michael Stelzner with me on my afternoon hike the other day, and have to tell you how much I enjoyed listening to both of you.   Your honest, transparent, personable style really resonated with me.  I had to stop at the top of Upper Granite Loop and send a quick email to  a couple of my clients to ask them to come up with a list of their top 10-20 most asked questions by their customers. Since them, I have sent them the link to that podcast and asked to set up a meeting with them to discuss it further…

Thank you again, for you content and for sharing your passion and wisdom.

Your new fan,

Susan

Pretty cool, huh?

You see, I’ve been creating textual content for 3 years now on The Sales Lion. Currently, this blog has about 19,000 comments. But never have I received emails like the ones I get from listeners of my podcast.

Blogging vs. Podcasting: Which is Better?

All this being said, trying to compare blogging and podcasting and answering the “Which is better?” question is no easy task—nor  is it possible considering like so much in this industry, the answer is “it depends.”

The thing about podcasting is that for those who are podcast listeners, it’s incredibly effective in terms of building a brand and trust from listeners. With blogging, we’re lucky to get someone’s attention for more than a couple of minutes. But with podcasting, they’ll hang around and listen to our thoughts for 30, 45, even 60 minutes sometimes.

Plus, a connection with the podcaster is deeply personal—as voice flection, sarcasm, humor, and enthusiasm can all be portrayed and understood so much easier than when they’re done in textual form.

The Elephant in the Room

Despite this, podcasting has one major “elephant in the room” that no one can ignore—not enough people listen to podcasts. Heck, some folks reading this article have never even heard the word until now. Furthermore, podcasting doesn’t have the potential shelf-life and reach benefit of SEO like textual content can offer.

If I were to break out efficacy of business communication platforms for the “average” business (again, this can vary drastically), I’d  rank the top 3 as follows:

1. Textual Content (blogging makes up a large portion of this)

2. Video Content (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)

3. Audio Content (podcasting is obviously the core here)

But if a business really understands how consumers think, act, shop, and feel—they’ll also know that it’s important to communicate in ways that consumers “get it.”

For some, that will be text.

For others, that will be video. (percentages are growing more and more in this arena every day)

And for another small sector, it will be audio—the podcast listeners.

Just as children have unique learning styles, so do consumers, and the most effective businesses no how to tap into each.

The question then becomes one of focus. Where should companies spend their time and resources in their content creation?

One Thing First

Personally, I always go back to this rule:

Get good at one thing first. Once you’ve gotten really good at that, move on to the next.

Remember, being GREAT at one marketing element is way more effective than being terribly average in 3 or 4 areas.

On a personal level, I spent about 6 months with textual content/blogging before I dove into video. I didn’t get around to podcasting until 3 years later.

Today, I absolutely love all 3 for their unique capabilities.

I’m not saying this should be your timeframe, but I am saying that in an “ideal” world, it’s great for you and your business to be able to spread your message to match as many consumer communication styles and preferences as possible.

Frankly, we could carry on this conversation comparing blogging and podcasting for quite a while. But hopefully you see my point. Both have value. Both communicate in a different way, often reaching a different audience and set of people.

Ultimately, the key is a willingness to experiment with both, stay diligent, and then watch the results. Pat Flynn often credits podcasting with his brand explosion. For my swimming pool company, video played a HUGE role, along with the blogging. For TSL, it has been a mixed batch, each holding their own.

So although the answer to the blogging v podcasting question is, “It depends,” one thing is for certain—both can do wonders to build your company’s brand, followers, and consumer trust—and that’s all that truly matters.

Your Turn

What’s your take on podcasting for business? How do you feel it stacks up to text and video? If you don’t listen to podcasts, why not? And if you have any general podcast questions, now is a great time to ask.

As always, your comments and shares are valued and appreciated.

Well it’s podcast time again folks, and boy do we have some GREAT questions that came in from around the globe over these past couple of weeks plus I have to share a CRAZY social media story with you.

So get your iPod or MP3 player ready and let’s have a listen, and if you have any questions or comments, as always, don’t hesitate to leave them below!

Your Questions

On my mind:

1. Most important metrics to measure inbound marketing success

Thanks for the e-book.. looking forward to reading it.

-Karthik

___________________________________________________

My biggest problem? I feel like I have the content and knowledge but wonder if my phrases are correct for titles and descriptions.

Bella

___________________________________________________

Hi Marcus,

my biggest struggle is getting my colleagues to help me with content creation. Serving as an example (in writing of over hundreds of articles in my career) did not help. They just don’t want to (favorite excuse: “don’t have the time”) contribute, and it’s too much for me to handle and carry the burden. They all “know” the value of content marketing, but it does not help. And when I say “colleagues”, I mean my equals, not my employees – I mean my partners, my co-founders.

Thanks for asking,

Cheers,

Marcus,

My biggest struggle is “finding my voice” – what I mean is what I write on the very first blog?

Greetings from Brisbane Australia

Jamie Hayes

____________________________________________________

Marcus,

Thanks for another outstanding information piece.  How about this step: What about “be sure to set up your blog to receive/collect reader comments” and “What to do with reader comments when you get them”?

Sheryl

____________________________________________________

Hi Marcus, I am searching for answers here.

Sorry to bug you.

Question;

When titling my blog post for content marketing, should it be a question?

“How much does a personal trainer cost”?

If yes because I am answering questions or concerns most of my competition will not – then good, right?

What do I put in the URL?  Website.com/blog/how-much-does-a-personal-trainer-cost

Is this right?  Or just the keywords   (website.com/blog/personal-trainer-cost)

I am wondering as well, how long it takes to rank on google 1^st page and do you require to send this post (URL) to search engine submission sites / directories?

Thx, always love your content!!!

Rob

Note*** The podcast mentions an upcoming speaking event I have in Washington DC on Nov. 15th. Read more about it here if you’re interested in attending, as I’d love to catch up!

Have you ever been on a website and been left with the impression of– “This company is so stuck on themselves they make me want to vomit.” (OK, you may not have said it like that, but you know what I mean.)

The fact is, as more and more businesses and individuals are learning the power of content marketing to talk about what they do, their products, and their services– many haven’t figured out how not to come across as a biased hack versus the true goal of great content and copy, which is that of “informed and trustworthy consultant.”

When it comes to achieving the consultant vs hack status, there is one essential key or principle to understand: Disarmament. Allow me to explain.

Not a Good Fit

I get contacted by many businesses each week as to whether or not they should be using HubSpot as part of their company’s marketing strategy. And as soon I have a conversation with someone referencing HS, the first thing out of my mouth is this:

“HubSpot may or may not be a good fit for you, as it’s certainly not for everyone. The goal of this conversation to to figure out which group you fall in…”

When people hear this statement and see, right off the bat, that I’m not trying to shove the benefits of HubSpot down their throat regardless of their business , there is a natural respect, appreciation, and trust relationship that follows.

In other words, they let their guard down and “disarmament” has occurred, allowing trust to follow.

This same principle applies to the things I write about HubSpot. I’m honest about the product. I openly discuss its problems. Because of this, people see me as a trusted voice on the software.

By openly discussing HubSpot’s good and bad points, I’ve become a trusted source on the inbound marketing company.

Comparing Products

Let’s look at another practical example from my swimming pool site.

As I’ve discussed many times before, “Vs.” posts are incredibly important for most companies because consumers love to compare products, companies, and services all the time. This is why one of the most effective elements to a great content marketing campaign is addressing every single “vs.” related subject your client and customer base could possibly want to know.

When it comes to swimming pools, here are a few of the very common “vs.” related phrases/questions:

• Fiberglass vs. Concrete Pools
• Fiberglass vs. Liner Pools
• Inground vs. Above ground Pools
• Natural Gas vs. Electric Heaters for Swimming Pools
• Mesh vs. Solid Swimming pool Covers
• Concrete vs. Pavers for Swimming pool Patios

As a company, we’ve addressed each one of these subjects on our company blog. Furthermore, we rank in the top 3 of Google search results  for every one of the phrases. But if people came to these articles and found we were utterly biased, we wouldn’t garner their trust.

It is for this reason that we always give frank and honest assessment, telling consumers who each product is for and NOT for, which is a must-have element of content that converts.

For example, in the Fiberglas vs Concrete Pools article, as you can see from the following screen shot, we start the article off discussing the lack of “unbiased” reviews online about the different types of pools, and how someone had written our company in sheer frustration because they couldn’t seem to find an honest opinion anywhere.

Great content is unbiased, which ultimately garners more trust and sales from consumers.

Later on in the article, you’ll find that it mentions a few key points:

• Fiberglass pools have size and shape limitations
• Fiberglass doesn’t offer total customization like concrete does
• Fiberglass pools cost a little more upfront than concrete

Despite the fact that my company doesn’t offer concrete pools, we’re honest in our assessment and it’s because of this that consumers trust our words and in many cases end up filling out a form to set up a sales appointment.

The Willingness to be Real

Unfortunately though, most companies don’t do this. In fact, most companies NEVER talk about their product’s issues and drawbacks. Instead of being transparent and honest, they pretend these issues don’t exist.

But with the proliferation of facts, opinions, and content in the information age– consumers are going to eventually learn a product’s pros and cons, so you may as well just be straight from the beginning and allow the trust-process to build.

And if you’re a service-based company, talk about your ideal client. Then talk about your ideal non-client. Believe it or not, by openly discussing who your company is not a good fit for you’ll actually attract more people than you would have. Again, disarmament works.

The bottom line is that honesty still has a place in this world. It certainly has its place in web copy and content marketing.

So be real. Be genuine. Be frank.

By so doing, you’ll likely be a lone voice of trust consumers and buyers can finally believe in.

Your Turn

Do you agree with my assessment that most companies still don’t know how to produce content in such a way that is not just a straight sales pitch? Why are so many afraid to openly discuss who their product is for and not for? Jump in, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Engaged?

This past week, as I often do while traveling, I was listening to Mitch Joel’s great podcast and his recent episode with Bob Hoffman of the Ad Contrarian. Always one to masterfully combine pessimism and years of rich experience when discussing marketing, Hoffman’s pessimistic outlook on such phrases as social media “engagement” and “interaction” not only gave me a good snicker, but also prompted this post.

Apparently, we like the word “Engagement”

If you look across the web and social media marketing realm, how often do you see the words “engagement” and “interaction” being thrown around? Frankly, the two have been so used and abused that I don’t know if anyone really “gets” their relevance any longer.

That being said,  let me ask you an important question , and please give it a second of thought before you simply read on:

How do you define “engagement” and “interaction” within your company’s marketing campaign?

Is it based on comments to your content?

Social media shares?

Someone calling your store or office?

Making a purchase?

These examples and more could fit your company’s definition of engagement I’m sure, but I’d submit another point.

Reading Is Interacting

Often times when I speak at conferences I’ll show audience members the incredible number of pages single individuals will read on my swimming pool website when in the process of researching a pool. Believe it or not, many of the customers that buy a swimming pool read at least 100 pages of the website before we ever even have the first sales appointment. (Note** I know this because I use HubSpot)

Some have even read over 500 pages.

Think about that for a second… 500 pages??!! Can you imagine reading 500 pages of any website???

Believe it or not, it’s becoming more and more common with our swimming pool customers. But not only that, it’s quite common with my marketing clients as well.

For example, most companies and brands that contact The Sales Lion for help have read my eBook before we even have our first conversation—which means they’ve already read over 250 pages of my content.

And would you say these folks are “engaged?” Would you submit they are ” interacting”, even though it’s not necessarily a “true conversation” such as are found within a Facebook page, tweet, or blog comment?.

Content Interaction vs. Social Interaction

I don’t know about you, but I choose “content interaction” over “social interaction” any day of the week. This may sound sacrilegious to some in this industry, but because great content (when read and absorbed) is literally the best sales tool in the world, why would anyone see it any other way?

Furthermore, how come so many, like the Ad Contrarian, do not see great web content in this same light? Why aren’t page views considered to be a social media interaction? And why aren’t companies targeting pages views (content marketing) as more important than total likes, friends, followers, shares, pins, or whatever else you can add to the list??

The Education Economy

To me, this entire conversation goes back to what I consider the “education economy.” In this day and age of information-driven consumers—brands, if they want to be great, must be master listeners, teachers, and content creators, which therefore leads to consumer engagement, interaction, and true advancement. Yes, this “engagement” may not be the kind that shows up in an Edgerank or Klout  Score, but is sure as heck leads to trust, branding, and sales.

And when all is said and done, do the rest of the metrics really matter?

Your Turn

I’ve got a few debatable questions to ask you my friends, and I’d love to here your answers: Where do you rank “content read” in your social media and marketing priorities? Do you consider it an “interaction” and as an “engagement?” Do you see it as more or less important than tweets, like, shares, etc? Why?