Indoors. No Heavy Lifting.

Five Art and Design Books Every Creative Marketer Should Own

2024-07-06T09:14:00.000+01:00

Part five of five.

By way of context, I studied graphic design when a 14pt Pica type-slide and cow gum were essential to the craft. I still use ‘lorum ipsum’ and the fleuron. Second-hand bookshops are one of my happy places. I have more ephemera related to graphic design, photography, painting, art history, perspective drawing, and the creative process than is probably healthy should the house catch fire. Some of these books are good, solid guides to creative practice, and some are reference books that have inspired me over the decades. All are worth the few quid you can find them for on eBay.

As a content marketer, it’s important to stay creative and inspired and to embrace the creative process. Humans are, for the most part, visual creatures. We need to understand the basic concepts of layout and emphasis in design and lead our prospects to that final point of action. The power of brand is undeniable. Just look at this blog; it sets a tone and visual standard that stresses the (possible irreverence of) the content. Often, even if we don’t have our hands on the design process directly, we will have to talk to infographic designers, illustrators, and other visual creatives, and we need to be able to speak the same language. An undervalued part of staying creative as a content marketer is surrounding ourselves with creative inspiration, and good design is inspiring.

And we’re away…

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Almost a pamphlet at a mere 160 pages, this is brimming with frame-worth illustrations of refreshing takes on creativity, urging readers to embrace influence through study, remixing, and transformation rather than striving for pure originality. Kleon advocates for starting creative endeavors now, without waiting for a fully formed distinctiveness, and stresses the importance of doing work that resonates personally, even if it means emulating heroes or engaging in side projects for the sheer joyful shenanigans of it. This book champions kindness, routine, and the power of subtraction in navigating the overwhelming possibilities of the creative process, making it a guide for anyone looking to unlock their creative potential in a connected yet overwhelming world. It’s a lovely little thing to read and even more precious to give as a gift—but be careful with the spine, or it will explode on day one.

A Designer's Art by Paul Rand

Frankly, I’d watch Paul Rand paint a fence. Rand was a trailblazer in American graphic design, and left his mark with iconic logos for giants like IBM, UPS, and ABC. He pioneered the Swiss Style in the U.S., blending simplicity with functionality. Rand would be at the top of my ultimate TED talk wish list, but sadly, he passed away in 1996. This book, however, is essential reading and crosses all creative disciplines, including online, which was almost before his time.

This is a truly insightful look into the deeper aspects of graphic design, going beyond simple aesthetics to explore visual theory and design philosophy. This is the Tao Te Ching and Jonathan Livingston Seagull of design thinking. He examines the power of repetition, a principle that brings rhythm and memorability to art and to everyday life. It's a thoughtful read more suited to reflective moments than bedtime reading. Perfect for anyone fascinated by the intricate philosophies behind art and design and looking to understand better the nature of our relationship with our clients, the audience, and our art. While the book is a treasure and a joy to hold, and recently reprinted, a decent original is as rare as rocking horse do-do. It is, however, such a seminal classic that it’s available online as a PDF.

100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design

by Veronique Vienne and Steven Heller

This one’s a bit left-field and personal, but it’s been a source of great inspiration to me over the years. There is a difference between art and graphic design, and this book is a comprehensible window into a discipline that has changed perceptions, culture, iconography, and minds—indeed, a discipline that created and crafted social revolution and transformation.

This is a visually stunning journey through the milestones of graphic design and a treasure trove for anyone looking to improve their understanding of the visual arts. This book isn't just a read; it's an experience. With hundreds of concise vignettes showcasing the evolution of visual communication design, and each idea is graphically illustrated in a way that’s pleasing to the eye and suits the subject matter. While certainly not structured for cover-to-cover reading, it’s an ideal reference for creative stimulus and skimming. Still, its breadth of corporate art and design aesthetics makes it a worthwhile addition to any creative’s coffee table. It is a call to consider beauty and style in design as much as function and suitability, and a fresh lens on our visual world that I pull off the shelf for pleasure, often.

The Art of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins

This isn't your typical how-to book; it's an animated feast to stir the creative appetite. Judkins, hailing from the much-acclaimed St. Martin's College of Art, serves up 90 short, thought-provoking chapters. He draws from a diverse well of historical and contemporary figures, the sort of approach I eat up like cheese and charcuterie, blending anecdotes and a smorgasbord of ideas to challenge “conventional” thinking.

This book isn't meant to be devoured in order, and one should dip in and out as one’s pallet demands. While some might crave more depth or diversity among the examples, it's a Harrods hamper for those seeking a taste of creativity in their daily lives. I’ve talked before about staying creative as a content marketer, and this is one of the places to which I turn when Calliope and Erato are “out at lunch with their sisters.” If I open any page, something will invariably stir me to think, create, and even contradict—because that's where true creativity begins. A must-have for under £5 on WoB.

Well, those should keep you occupied and give you something to think about. I hope you find them as useful as I have. Sorry about all the food metaphors in the last one; I’ve no idea where they came from. Low blood sugar? Anyway, please share your thoughts with me on Threads—a more friendly place where I’m invariably talking about my latest reads. Should I write more reviews from my bookshelf?

Books are brilliant. They smell nice, look nice, they’re tactile and are filled with wisdom and inspiration. Whether you beg, borrow, or bag a deal online, please jump in and enjoy the journey. Let the scent of pages fill you with joy. Let the wall of colorful spines bring you happiness. Revisit your favorites, and maybe (if you can part with them) pass them on to a friend.

If you enjoyed finding these, you might also like:

If you’d prefer to read this as one big list, you can do so on LinkedIn.

Sic erat scriptum, and Boomshanka.

Five Marketing Books Every Creative Marketer Should Own

2024-05-05T09:44:00.000+01:00

Part four of five.

Since taking (what I thought would be) an easy night school A-level in psychology back in the 80s, relating psychology and sociology to marketing has always fascinated me. It’s an area I read for pleasure. Content marketing leans heavily on the core principles of engagement, and crafting the right headline or ad copy is the meat and two vegs of what we do. From creating buyer personas to target our output and weaving the right call to action, catering to user intent and the purchase process must be an underlying consideration of our work. We are not being paid to believe in the power of our dreams, and we are here to support the sales process.

As such, here are five books I have repeatedly mined for marketing theory gold, specifically with an eye to creative content creation and copy for marketing. Yes, we may already know the core principles, but sometimes we need a reminder and a kick to apply them to our day-to-day.

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith

Tons of quick, practical tips that'll open the eyes and stimulate the neurons of even the most jaded marketeer. Yes, you may know them already, but we all need to be reminded and inspired from time to time. Packed with easy-to-digest insights, it debunks common myths like the pitfalls of focus groups and discount pricing while shining a light on the emotions that genuinely sway an audience. The magic of vivid storytelling, the power of first impressions, and quirky lessons from black holes to grocery lists. Overlooked gems for research, presentations, and keeping clients happy. I own it; I pick it up and open it at a random page every so often to stop myself from getting cocky.

Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer (CCO) at MarketingProfs, set out to create an accessible paperback that was: “Part writing guide, part handbook on the rules of good sportsmanship in content marketing, and all-around reliable desk companion for anyone creating or directing content on behalf of brands.” This she achieves with aplomb. This is peppered with golden rules that blend empathy and integrity into brand work. Ann dishes out practical tips for mastering branded content, equipping us, the reader, with the skills to support solid copywriting and B2B/B2C strategy. Updated in 2022, it’s a must-have for agency bookshelves and was always suggested reading when mentoring content creation colleagues.

Letting Go of the Words by Ginny Redish

This is a must-have for those of us tapping away at the content marketing keyboard. Whether we're crafting technical documents by day or copywriting by night, this book is a gem for its clear-cut guidance on how to make our writing more engaging, punchy, and memorable. Loaded with tips on everything from perfecting web content to making every word earn its place, the interactive, almost conversational tone makes it a comfortable and informative read, and its 'key messages' summaries at the end of each chapter are a godsend for quick reference.

It's far more than just theory; she gets into the nitty-gritty with practical guidelines to help us cut the fluff and get straight to the point, ensuring our content is a conversation our readers will want to join. Don't expect to snooze through this one; it's the kind of book you'll read with a highlighter in hand. Whether you're a novice emailer or a seasoned scribe, grab this book, stick in some Post-Its, and you’ll be back.

Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson

Kristina Halvorson is one of the leading figures in the world of content strategy and user experience (UX). As the brain behind Brain Traffic, a consultancy specializing in content strategy and the voice of The Content Strategy Podcast, she’s shaped our industry with her killer expertise. She's the driving force behind the widely celebrated Confab and Button conferences. Her work has made her an indispensable resource for anyone looking to master content strategy and UX.

This guide is a clear and simple roadmap for those of us crafting content strategies, tailored especially for business professionals who do the writing themselves. It's especially useful for its practical advice on shaping our strategy and turning it into effective content that actually makes an impact. Well worth a tenner of anyone’s budget.

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath

This book is a riveting exploration into the mechanics of why certain ideas become unforgettable while others fade away. The Heath brothers, combining academic insight with real-world examples, show us the “secret sauce” to creating ideas that stick through their SUCCESs acronym. This book isn’t just for marketers but for anyone looking to make their ideas resonate, including librarians and educators grappling with making instructional content and strategic communications more impactful. With a mix of storytelling and practical advice, the Heaths dissect the anatomy of ideas with longevity, offering tools and techniques to make our messages unforgettable. Whether we're crafting a strategic plan or looking to leave a lasting impression in job interviews, this is an essential guide filled with wisdom and resources to help our ideas make a mark.

If you liked that, try these:

5 Writing Books

5 Web Design Books

5 Film Production Books

5 Art and Design Books

Thanks for reading, and if you pick up any of the above, I hope they inspire you like they have me. I’m always open to reading something new, so please grab me via Threads if I’ve missed something I should have on my bookcase or if you just want to correct my punctuation.

Five Web Design Books Every Creative Marketer Should Own

2024-03-05T09:43:00.000+00:00

Part three of five.

As content and creative markers, we need to be polymaths. A part of that is embracing, at least, a common knowledge of the disciplines surrounding us and our output. I worked directly on the web for a long time, creating eCommerce sites and SEO copy for an eclectic array of products and services, both in-house and in agency. Many of these books I’ve picked up on my travels and had recommended by folks I respect, from UX experts to web developers, and their words of wisdom have stood me in good stead.

Even if you’re just speaking with external web agencies, creating approachable content for search engines, want to create compelling web copy, or may be diligently posting thought-leadership to WordPress, we need to (at bare minmum) understand the basics of good web design theory. While you’re here, and to further broaden horizons, please also consider my thoughts on my favorite Graphic Design Books, Marketing Theory Books, Copywriting Books, and Film Production Books. Some of the books below will invariably cross into the realms of design and psychology, but that’s the nature of the web design beast.

Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton

Design goes beyond showing off our brand's traits, creating navigation, or displaying what we think our audience likes. It plays a huge role in people's feelings, guides their choices, and molds their view of what we offer. Is this strictly web design? I don’t care. A smart design can make a packet of biscuits seem tastier and healthier than it actually is, boost someone's focus, or even stir up anxiety—which applies to the web as much as it applies anywhere else. It's all about the impact our design has on the viewer. Lupton effortlessly breaks down complex theory into engaging, bite-sized lessons. She explores the psychology behind design through storytelling, offering insights for everyone, from filmmakers to web professionals. With principles given context, she illustrates these models in action, making it a must-read for anyone interested in the hidden power of design.

A web designer bookshelf indispensable for under £12, it includes the essentials of visual storytelling, the impact of color on emotions, and the intriguing principles of behavioral economics. It’s worth it for a clear definition of the "rule of threes," to which I thoroughly subscribe, a powerful storytelling and design principle she puts in cultural and historical context, from ancient myths to modern advertising.

Laws of UX by Jon Yablonski

In 12 insightful chapters, Yablonski demystifies design laws and theories with clear examples from familiar digital interfaces like Facebook and Twitter [X]. This is a great read for designers who want to get a grasp on how users psychologically engage with digital platforms.

Effective design should simplify user goals and enhance positive interactions, and it acknowledges that while complexity can't always be eliminated, it can be managed to make the user's journey smoother. With a light, approachable style, it’s a fantastic intro to UX principles and a convenient refresher on design theories. It's a quick, enriching read and a perfect guide for anyone looking to further their understanding of the user experience.

I picked this up off a colleague's desk and inadvertently never returned it (sorry, Jon). It's not a cheap one, but if you take your time, you can find it for under £30 on eBay, and it should be a staple of any web agency library.

Web Designers Idea Book by Patrick McNeil

"Web Designer's Idea Book," available (used) on Amazon for under a fiver, is a visual feast and creative companion, packed with over 700 website designs sorted by themes like layout, color, and style. Cherry-picked from Mr. McNeil’s vast online catalog of examples, it’s the perfect tool for sparking ideas and being able to say, “No, I mean like this.” The designs are categorized for easy browsing and brainstorming sessions, and it’s a treasure trove when consulting with colleagues or clients. Grab this one when kicking off new projects; it’ll keep the inspiration flowing.

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

I’ve bought at least four copies of this book, in its various iterations and revisions, and given all of them away or lent them to the needy, never to be seen again. When I briefly lectured on web usability, it was on my required reading list (and still is). Not being able to find a copy on my shelves, at the time of writing, actually makes me a little anxious.

Easily one of the best work-related books I've read, it's aimed at those looking for the core fundamentals of user experience design and content strategy. A clarion call for the path of least resistance in navigation and messaging, it’s chock full of indispensable wisdom. It’s a breezy read that practices what it preaches, and I find myself mulling on its principles with regularity, especially as the face of our web design best practices when talking to designers and our external web agency.

Get the latest version; it’ll be worth it. And pick me up another copy while y’there.

Web Design Playground by Paul McFedries

The full title of this book is “Web Design Playground: HTML & CSS The Interactive Way,” but I didn’t want to put you off. Trust me, this is the perfect starting point if you're new to web design. It’s a surprisingly entertaining, interactive guide that takes us from the basics of HTML and CSS to the more advanced tricks of the trade. Through these pages, we get to play around with actual code, building our own web pages as we go, and there are questions after each chapter to check our progress and drive things home. Yours for under a fiver on World of Books. Do it.

If you have opinions, and I hope the suggestions above stimulate the creative juices, feel free to grab me for a chat and connect on Threads or LinkedIn. If you know of other web-related books I should have in my TBR pile, I’d love to hear about them. I can always put up more shelves.

Also in this series:

5 Writing Books

5 Film Production Books

5 Marketing and Psychology Books

5 Art and Design Books

Ten Obvious Tips for SaaS Marketing

2024-02-11T12:26:00.016+00:00

Standing out among a rapidly swelling and roiling sea of SaaS offerings, fulfilling every software niche from AI podcast managers to ML behavioral baselining solutions (or whatever) is going to require an innovative strategy and (likely) a deeper understanding of your audience and the ongoing friendship of your resident Product Marketing Manager.

However, there are similarities and basic principles we can explore as a foundation for some good working strategies. By way of bullet points (and rocket science, it ain't), the notes for this post were corralled together as part of my visiting lecturer series at Nottingham Trent University in 2013, basically the same but now fluffed a little for 2024. Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud-based service model that allows users to access and use software applications over the internet, typically on a subscription basis. In 2013, it was a moderately cutting-edge and a mildly revolutionary thing where I wanted to show that core marketing theories, with a twist, still apply. I’ll leave you to expand on these bullets yourself, but trust me, if it was difficult, I wouldn’t do it for a living.

1. Audience Understanding

Success begins with knowing your audience inside out. Use analytics, surveys, and direct engagement to uncover their needs, preferences, and pain points. Create buyer personas. Tailoring your marketing efforts to address these specific prospects and their genuine needs and cares can seriously increase any product's appeal and customer satisfaction. What boxes does your SaaS product tick for prospects?

2. Sell Solutions, Not Features

It’s a classic. No one wants to buy an electric drill; they probably just want a perfect hole. Customers are looking for solutions, not just software. Sell them the perfect hole. Highlight how your SaaS solves problems or improves their life or business. Transform features into benefits in your messaging, making it more relatable and compelling.

3. Content Rules

Create valuable content that prospects will give a damn about that educates, entertains, and engages your target audience. Blogs, eBooks, webinars, sales support with solution briefs, and videos that address cover the challenges or questions position a brand as a thought leader and build trust with potential patrons.

4. SEO: Your Best Ally

Visibility is gold, and organic SEO is still an important factor for any content marketing efforts. Bootstrap your site for mobile. Do some keyword research and lovingly roll content in relevant keywords. Use H tags, internal cross-linking, meta descriptions, and court high-quality inbound links with guest-posting and digital PR to increase rankings. For more in-depth advice on this, see my post on SEO in 2024.

5. Harness Social Proof
Testimonials, reviews, and case studies are gold in establishing credibility. The SaaS audience also traditionally loves things like the Garner Magic Quadrant and (sponsored) brand placement in Forrester Reports etc. If you can afford to take part, it’s also good for decent inbound links from reputable and decent PageRank sites.

We can showcase customer success stories and ratings on our website and across social media to build trust and encourage conversions. If you’re one of those industries, like microsegmentation tools, where getting clients to take part in case studies is as rare as rocking horse do-do, get creative with something like this (which I made last year).

6. Prioritize Customer Success

Beyond acquisition, focus on retaining customers through exceptional support and success programs. Happy customers are more likely to become brand advocates and contribute to organic growth through word-of-mouth. The importance of keeping punters happy and keeping them renewing can’t be overstated for SaaS products.

7. Free Trials and Demos

Offering free trials or product demos lowers the barrier to entry, allowing potential customers to experience the value of your SaaS firsthand. Show ‘em it’s good and get ‘em hooked—if it works from drug dealers in 80s cop shows, it can work for us. Make sure the trial/demo process is straightforward and supported by sales engineers to make the most of conversion opportunities.

8. Pricing Strategy

How is this the job of marketing? A pricing strategy can make or break a SaaS product, trust me. It needs to reflect the value you provide while remaining competitive. It's too expensive; there are plenty of alternatives. If it is too cheap, our skeptical online audience won’t see the value. How about flexible pricing tiers to cater to different customer segments or needs? Be transparent with the cost, and clearly show the ROI. Marketing absolutely should have a say here. Do some competitor research and come to the pricing meeting armed with the facts and a solid solution.

9. Build a Community
Fostering a community around a product encourages engagement, feedback, and loyalty. Make the most of your own technical/community forums, social media groups, or user events/webinars to create a space for patrons to connect, share experiences, and provide valuable insights for product improvement. Do not underestimate content and community marketing for renewals, as well as new business; this is where we give away our swag and make our evangelists.

10. Be Data-Driven
Make the most of analytics to track the performance of marketing efforts—continuously. If you’re not data-driven, even casually, you were dead in 2013, and you’ll be doubly so today. Know what you want to achieve; qualified leads, demo requests, installation documentation downloads, whatever, and measure it religiously. Understanding what works and what doesn't lets us iterate and adapt strategies quickly, meaning our marketing remains effective, agile, and ROI-positive.

By way of inspiration, dive into these tips, and you can not only attract but also retain customers, which is absolutely death-row serious for safeguarding any long-term success for any SaaS business. Who’s demoing the new features and getting the existing customers talking? Who’s answering the FAQs? How are you teasing the next release? How’s the community using the software already?

Now, SaaS marketing is an admittedly evolving field that requires a blend of creativity, analytics, and customer-centric strategies—and far more in-depth than the bullets above. This, however, is a starting point and will hopefully get the creative neurons firing. Stay agile, keep learning, and always put your customers at the heart of your marketing labors.

If anyone wants to buy me a coffee, I’ll be in the refectory.

Five Film Production Books Every Creative Marketer Should Own

2024-02-10T09:34:00.000+00:00

Part two of five.

Continuing my recommendations for the books that should be on every content marketer's shelf, and because I’m a big believer in paper, it’s time to look at five for film and video production. Please also see Five Writing Books, Five Graphic Design Books, Five Web Design Books, and Five Marketing Theory Books that I believe we should own as tomes of inspiration and reference to improve our work.

I studied (experimental) film and TV production and worked in the feature industry just long enough to get jaded and tired. I share a BAFTA for an interactive project I directed. Cinema on a Sunday is my church. Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Lulu Wang, and Sam Raimi are part of a pantheon of Corinthian gods. I script and produce explainers regularly, talk to animators and editors daily, and still revel in my own video projects—dabbling in AI video, machinima, doing voice-overs for friends projects, and still writing for pleasure. Some of these books are personal, and I’ve had them for decades, and some are more accessible recent acquisitions. All are worth a read.

Film Directing Shot by Shot by Steven D Katz

This was required reading when I studied for my MA, even though I studied Production and Script Writing rather than Direction. I swear by this one and have bought it as a gift for other people, usually when I see a second-hand copy in the wild, many, many times. Probably the best and most accessible pre-production film book I have ever read, mainly due to his ability to cut through the industry jargon and offer clear illustrations to match its explanations. There are at least two copies in the house right now—one in the downstairs loo.

"Shot by Shot" offers a time-tested take, providing tools, rules, and a wealth of glorious examples from cinema history. Applying these insights effectively is up to the filmmaker, but whether you’re heading for a career in game design, animation, storyboard illustration, or want to create content in the aspect ratio of TikTok, this is a bargain secondhand for as little as a fiver at World of Books or Oxfam.

Making Movies by Sidney Lumet

In a reply on Twitter, this was recommended to me by my old friend Matt Cooper. Matt is a BAFTA shortlisted/RTS nominated scriptwriter and filmmaker with credits from EastEnders to Emmerdale. As a long-time collaborator of some 30+ years from the halcyon days of the indie-film-making Leeds mafia, I picked up a copy, knowing I was probably onto something good. I’m very glad I did.

With critically acclaimed movies under his belt like 12 Angry Men [1957], Serpico [1973], Dog Day Afternoon [1975], and Network [1976], Lumet’s words are a gift for anyone curious about the filmmaking process. Dripping with on-set anecdotes, this is a seminal work on wrangling the best from performers and the overall creative method, told in Lumet’s trademark pragmatic style and easy to read, non-technical, entirely relatable, and wholly unpretentious. I worked in the features industry back when I was young enough to embrace a young man’s game, and making films is hard work, tricky, and packed with challenges—but it's also rewarding. As runners and production assistants, we’d grumble in our ignorance that directors had it easy, just picking the right people to handle everything on their behalf and being two-faced to the talent. However, Lumet clearly demonstrates just how essential and involved a director's role truly is. Why does a director pick a certain script or keep actors genuine across so many takes? How can you stage a big shootout in New York with extras and taxicabs or satisfy studio bosses? "Making Movies" is the perfect insider's view from start to finish, packed to the rafters with clear, honest, inspiring insights you can take to any production, regardless of size and scope.

How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck

by Steve Stockman

Gotta love that title, and to be fair, it does what it says on the cover. This a straight-shooting guide to filmmaking that easily drew me in, and it's particularly accessible for those interested in creating YouTube/Vimeo content or the likes of Reels. Stockman shares his golden rules to improve our videos and covers everything from storyboarding to technical tips on lighting and sound—useful for both vloggers and feature filmmakers. He briefly skips over specific equipment and software recommendations, which was useful on my first pass. He does repeat himself a bit, which, while making it easy to follow, makes a cover-to-cover read somewhat déjà rêvé, and it’s best dipped into. Check out this interview with Stockman ℅ YouTube.

Special Effects in Television by Bernard Wilkie

Wilkie spent a quarter of a century creating special effects for Auntie Beeb, where he was manager of probably the largest and most specialised visual FX unit in the world. I’ve got the second edition of this, and I’ve had it a very long time. I’ve had it so long, since 1993, that I was a pence-poor student and I had to save up to buy it. This is the Spons' Workshop Receipts of practical film and video effects, with instructions on everything from shooting matte shots to building wind machines and from blowing up miniature landmarks to Peppers Ghost. It’s an insight into the Magic Circle that was the BBC Visual Effects Department. I’ve had my money back from this book tenfold, especially in my student days.

Alas, a mint one of these now goes for the price of a working kidney, but it is possible to find a reasonable (all be it stained, likely singed, and invariably dogeared) copy on eBay at the price of an artisanal sandwich. Mine also has the Jagoroth spaceship on the cover from Doctor Who/City of Death [1979], which has to be a further plus, and I don’t lend it out. You can pull it out of my cold, dead, obsessive hands.

The Smartphone Filmmaking Handbook

by Neil Philip Sheppard

Something more recent and probably more applicable to the modern content marketer, this is a lexicon of advice for those who want to embrace mobile filmmaking. Nine times out of ten, as content creators, all we have available is our devastating good looks and the contents of our pockets. Armed with just a smartphone and some basic know-how, this is the doorway to creating decent video, no matter the technology at our disposal. Whether we're a budding filmmaker, vlogger, educator, student, wanna-be influencer, or in-house marketing Shemp, it’s packed with solid tips to help us get the best results with just an HD phone.

From picking the right equipment and apps within our budget to mastering lighting, sound, and some decent camera tricks, this is an easy-to-read point of reference that covers all we (probably) need to know about smartphone filmmaking. Great for beginners, and cheap as chips second-hand, Sheppard gives us the scoop on the best gear, video editing, live streaming, squeezing the best from the format, and sharing our masterpieces online. The updated 2023 edition—because things move on—is probably worth considering and includes welcome advice for the foibles of the iPhone 14 Pro.

Also, for your consideration:

I hope that’s useful, and if you have other suggestions, I’m all ears. Please let me know via Threads; I’m always up for connecting with like-minded souls and for reading something new or just chatting about movies and video production—if that’s your bag.

Has Using AI Made Me a Better Writer?

2024-01-06T14:00:00.047+00:00

Unexpectedly, yes. I think it has.

As I’ve said, many a time and oft, I’m not a trained writer nor hold any formal degree in copy creation beyond a module in scriptwriting when completing my MA. And, for the record, I don’t use AI to write things for my blog. I have been doing this for over 30 years, however, and do use Artificial Intelligence (AI) regularly for work (check out my interview w/ Skedler) and in creating imagery and copy for RP games and personal projects—daily.

AI has been a massive disruptor over the past year, revolutionizing fields including (but not limited to) brand journalism, marketing, and copy/design creation. As a writer, though I hate to leverage the title, integrating AI into my workflow has undoubtedly enhanced my efficiency and, surprisingly, sharpened my skills, making me a better wordsmith in directions I’d have never anticipated when I penned my initial feelings less than 12 months ago.

Here are a bunch of ways I’ve found that using AI has made me a better scribe, specifically within the arena of daily copy creation, as a hobbyist RPG writer, and as a head content marketer for the world’s leading zero-day protection solution.

Research

At advantage one, AI tools have drastically improved my research capabilities. I mean, DRASTICALLY.

AI has access to vast databases of content and can process information rapidly, meaning I can gather and sort relevant information quickly, providing a solid foundation and helpful reassurance for my daily output. I don’t have to constantly be hassling people for general facts, explanations, and figures, asking, “Is this right,” and cruising the Interwebz for assorted fluff to inspire and pad out my copy. It’s all a (curious) prompt away, all backed by accurate and comprehensive data, seriously elevating the quality and the speed of publication for the bulk of the content I produce. I mean, sure, I still double-check anything I’m not 100% sure about, especially in relation to our specific product or in reference to the AIs knowledge cut-off date, but (certainly for mostly top-of-funnel things like blog posts) it’s a game changer.

It's worth browsing around and adding a few bolt-ons and specialist plugins. I use Chat GPT with Wolfram Alpha, AskYourPDF, Advanced Data Analytics (to give me insights into CSV files, etc), Show Me plugin, WebPilot (super handy for rewriting and translating), and others.

Google Scholar, boosted with AI capabilities, is a great one for casual researchers and scholars needing up-to-date academic research, including scholarly literature, articles, conference papers, and theses. With the traditional Google interface (so we don’t cut ourselves) and the painless ability to find elusive publications and citations, I’ve found it indispensable for more academic learning.

Scite, another academic research tool, uses natural language processing to analyze articles and find definitive references and sources, assessing the dependability and “impact” of references, and offering visualizations and metrics for those of us with a more visual appreciation of things—which is often inspiring.

Grammar and Style

AI writing tools are excellent for refining style and morphology, and I’m a big Grammerly fan-boy. They provide suggestions for syntax, word choice, and sentence structure, letting me polish my work to a more professional level, or not if that’s the voice I’m using, inline and as part of the process. This constant feedback loop has honed my understanding of grammar and style, undoubtedly making me a more proficient writer, with and without AI tools.

Learning and Improvement

Having used copy assistants like this for a while, it’s had a direct impact on my initial output, meaning I now rely on them a lot less, but having a copy editor in my pocket is a serious boon. Being able to specify brand traits for voice, as well as general assistance with clarity and form, is a constant teacher of the best form and a reminder of best practices. I don’t need to know all the in-depth punctuation and grammar rules when Grammarly has my back, but having a constant tutor has significantly upped my personal and professional growth as a writer and content creator, and this kind of feedback is far harder to get outside of an agency environment.

Writing for the Audience

AI's can review large sets of data and have empowered me to tailor my content to the preferences of my target audience more effectively. By understanding trends, industry terminology, reading patterns, and engagement metrics, I can subtly adapt my writing style, tone, and content to better resonate with my readers, a notoriously skeptical and specialist audience of CISO, network engineers, and the c-Suite, undoubtedly making my writing more impactful and relevant.

So, in case you didn’t realize, on this blog, I write like I speak. I’m happy with that here, and it's purposeful. It’s very useful for scripting explainers and VO, but it doesn’t translate well to the likes of technical documentation, and I have to cater my wording accordingly. I also write in other voices, as appropriate for the forum in which I'm writing or the brand style for whom I'm writing. It's like being a creative sociopath. Chat GPT, bless its little digital heart, gives me (with a consistent and well-tweaked prompt) a consistency and readability that has shown me how to better present data for maximum readability and understandability, tailored to a technical and professional audience into which, very often initially, I only have casual insight. As a content creator who’s worked on subjects as random as sustainable fisheries and kids' history education, this is pure fried gold.

Productivity

The automation of repetitive tasks, such as formatting and even initial drafting, has freed up more time for the creative aspects of my writing and for further content creation. AI's efficiency has not only sped up the writing process but also allowed me to focus on brainstorming, structuring narratives, research, and refining arguments—leading to richer and more thought-out pieces, leading to better traction and distribution.

I’m not joking when I say that AI has given me around two extra hours a day to produce two extra hours of output. This, alone, makes AI a must-have for any marketing team and sets those of us who’ve adopted AI working practices as stand out assets to recruiters and CMOs.

Inspiration

Finding creative and relevant inspiration is a common challenge, and I wrote more about this last year in my post on Staying Creative as a Content Marketer, but AI has been a help f’sure.

AI-powered writing assistants can suggest ideas and prompts and even draft small sections of more ‘explainer’ content, kickstarting the creative process. This not only saves me time but also keeps the creative juices flowing, promoting a steady stream of potential posts and topic ideas for a given target audience. Admittedly, it’s not where most of my inspiration comes from, but it can help.

AI has also pushed me to explore new genres and styles of writing. With AI-generated suggestions and examples, I've been able to venture out of my comfort zone a little more, experimenting with different formats, narratives, and themes, thereby expanding my creative horizons. This has been especially true in my personal work when penning scripts for my fan podcast or intros for RPG sessions.

Supporting SEO

For digital content, SEO is key. Check out my post on Why SEO is Still Important for Content Marketing in 2024.

AI tools have equipped me with the ability to optimize my content for search engines more effectively. While I don’t use AI for integrating the right keywords, creating H2/H3 titles, or for structure to improve online visibility, I believe you can. Using AI to write SEO copy, for me, is a bit like putting parking sensors on a Smart car, and if you need parking sensors to park a Smart car, you probably shouldn’t be driving in the first place. After decades of writing SEO, I don’t need it and actually find its input frustrating. However, it’s fantastic for shortening copy and writing to word (not character) length.

I do use ChatGPT to some degree when streamlining keyword research, putting target keywords into the chatbot, and requesting related suggestions before heading to Moz for confirmation and further insights.

Plagiarism

Ensuring originality in writing is crucial, and the AI plagiarism checker in Grammarly has been indispensable. It provides peace of mind by ensuring that my content is unique and free from unintentional penalties while maintaining the integrity and originality of my work.

In truth, I’ve never seen a notification from Google Search Console that I’ve been penalized for duplicate content; however, an absence of alerts doesn't necessarily imply that a website is free from penalties for hosting identical or similar content across various pages or multiple sites. Better safe than sorry, and it’s a piece of black forest gatteux with AI.

Always on

Unlike human editors and collaborators, AI tools are available 24/7, always on, in my pocket, providing that assistance whenever inspiration strikes. Invaluable, when one works in a different time zone from 80% of one’s colleagues, and this round-the-clock sounding tool has undoubtedly made my writing process more flexible and less interrupted.

So am I a better writer?

Yes.

AI has not just been a tool; it has been a genuinely transformative force in my career and content output. It has made me more efficient, creative, and adaptable, allowing me to consistently produce higher-quality work. I spell, punctuate, and structure content better—having been led by my learning from the copy I’ve created with AI collaboration.

As AI continues to evolve, I’m genuinely excited to see how it’ll further shape the future of content marketing and continue to improve my abilities as a writer. It's only been a year, and I look forward to the year to come.

Five Writing Books Every Creative Marketer Should Own

2024-01-05T10:04:00.000+00:00

Part one of five (or Fit the First)

I’m a rabid BookWyrm, and I have an acceptable office library that comes and goes, but there are a few books I’ve carried around, like much-loved luggage, as constant sources of inspiration in my work. Some are old, and some are relatively new. All are good.

In final proofing, I realize this is somewhat lengthy at twenty-five suggestions, especially how I ramble on, so I’ll spit it up into more assessable posts. From video production to web design and marketing theory to graphic design, these are the works I’d recommend to anyone starting out in our chosen profession or looking to inspire their output. Should you want to read this as a single list without the added filler, I’ve posted it to LinkedIn.

Let’s start with the basics.

On Writing Well by William Zinseer

"On Writing Well" is universally lorded for its practical advice, clear delivery, and accessible tone—and justifiably so. I picked this up because it was recommended by Stephen King. It's an absolute must-read for anyone looking to improve their writing skills, especially non-fiction, and for me (a copywriter without an English degree), it was pure fried gold. Advocating for simplicity and the proximity of a Thesaurus, it shares the essential principles and wisdom of a seasoned writer and teacher from the trenches. With over a million copies sold, it's a timeless chaperon for writers at any level. It’s also on Blinkist and Audible if that’s more your jam, as are many of these books, but you can grab one on eBay for a couple of quid. It’s the absolute foundation of the storytellers’ art, and you won’t regret it.

And speaking of Stephen King…

A Memoir of The Craft by Stephen King

As a Gen X white male and only child, I read. In my formative years, I found Stephen King, Clive Barker, Hunter S Thomson, and Douglas Adams. Few things have influenced me more, even to this day.

There’s a reason King is one of the best-selling authors of all time, and getting a look behind the curtain into his process and ‘rules’ is a masterclass in the bread and butter of the writer’s craft. This book is friendly, inspiring, and marvelously anecdotal. It's not the sort of thing you can dip into, but it’s still a read worthy of Rats and The Fog. Not just about the process itself, he discusses the foibles of the world of publishing and delves deep into the industry and the discipline with an insightful clarity only a master can offer. Perfect night-time reading for anyone keen on improving their writing or curious about his methods.

The man is an astronaut among monkeys. Ten shiny gold stars.

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, as the song goes, is the greatest sci-fi writer in history (with a quiet punt to Asimov, Vonnegut, Neal Stephenson, Orwell, Mary Shelley, Frank Herbert, and Philip K. Dick).

Bradbury feels like some caring companion cheering us on, saying, "You can do it!” through a series of accessible essays. His passion jumps right off the page, energizing us mere mortals with enough momentum to dive into our own writing projects, be they as humble as writing our own D&D campaigns, that novel that lurks inside us all, or an 1800-word blog post on microsegmentation tools.

A little dated, perhaps, his infectious style points the finger to say, "Get serious about this or get out." More for the novelist than the content creator, perhaps, it’s nevertheless one of the finest books on writing ever. What we do is a job, and a better modern translation of the Zen may be, “If you can’t get out of it, get into it,” but it’s a treat to read and a chef-d'oeuvre in creative motivation and making our imagination pay the bills.

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

On day one of my HND scriptwriting class, I was told that bad guys kick the skinny puppy, and good guys give it their lunch. That’s how we know who to root for; even if that good guy goes on to be a murder hobo with zero social graces, it’s ok cos he likes dogs. When John Wick goes postal, we all shrug and say, “Fair enough. I would, too.” There are certain metaphors and indicators, not quite tropes, more like visual triggers, that are irresistible storytelling cues for the audience.

Clearly written and accessibly structured, "Save the Cat" is a well-thumbed guide for creating marketable ideas and engaging scripts. It’s packed tightly with indispensable advice like crafting winning loglines and understanding screenplay assembly. It tells us how to categorize movies by genre and how to align our lead character with our core ideas. Sometimes useful for organizing my thoughts, it walks through fashioning a story with emotional depth and critical conflict, offers troubleshooting advice to fix common script issues, and tells us how to make a screenplay irresistible by simply saving the cat (or by shooting the hero's dog).

Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clarke

With a mantra of “You need tools, not rules,” Peter Clarke has collated a list of fifty essentials that writers of all kinds can use every day, notwithstanding the purpose of our output. I believe the modern iteration has fifty-five tools, but I have the fifty.

This was one of the first books I read about the writing process, and it blew my mind. From golden nuggets like giving words space and activating verbs to creating structural story blueprints and learning from criticism, it’s a handy toolkit brimming with practical tips that writers of every stripe can use to spark our creativity. Under a fiver on eBay, I’d say, if you’re going to get one of these books with the purpose of making a difference in your work, this is the badger.

Well, that should keep you busy. I hope you find them useful, and please let me know how you get on (via Threads, where I often get my book geek on).

Please also consider:

Buy them. Steal them. Borrow them. Read them. Put them on a shelf. Revel in the bibliosmia. Dip into them again. Lend them to a colleague. Lose them. Seek them out again in second-hand shops. Put permanent searches on eBay and revel in bargains. Repurchase them. Reread them. Enjoy.

Influencer Marketing in 2024

2023-12-17T15:26:00.020+00:00

In the fine tradition of a yearly post on the future of our industry, here are a few thoughts about influencer marketing and the road ahead.

2023 was a disruptor for our industry, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) being at the forefront and influencer marketing still a pivotal force in teasing consumer behavior and brand perception.

As we near 2024, digital marketing is set for yet another overhaul, fueled by technological advances, changing consumer preferences, and a drive for authenticity and the personal touch. Brands want to show they’re connected to an ever-increasingly skeptical customer base in an honest and approachable way.

Only last week, I was propositioned by a company proposing advertising on my (sweary and somewhat profane) personal fan podcast, Dirty WHoers. “We’d love to send you samples and for you to create your own advert for us, in your style,” seriously? And they are offering serious money. Admittedly, we do get plenty of downloads by a very targeted and passionate audience, but if brands are considering promoting themselves through a medium like that and think an 18-rated Doctor Who podcast is the place to do it, the floodgates are wide open.

Influencers are becoming central to brand strategies, moving way beyond the after-thought add-ons to other campaigns. I believe brands, especially B2C brands, are going to have to think more innovatively, promoting ‘a creator economy’ that needs to go beyond conventional collaboration models if they want to foster trust and get in front of their prospects.

The Rise of Micro and Nano Influencers

The influencer marketing scene, traditionally dominated by macro-influencers with hefty follower numbers, is gradually recognizing the value of micro and nano influencers.

These smaller-scale and specialist content creators, known for their highly engaged and loyal (nah, obsessive) followers, offer brands a more genuine connection and trust, which can be elusive with the larger influencers. They're also a lot cheaper than going for the traditional big fish. Going niche means solid targeting, and while it may be long-tail, that’s a good use of marketing spend.

AI-Powered Influencer Discovery and Matching

AI is revolutionizing influencer marketing strategies. In the coming year, advanced AI tools for influencer discovery and matching will undoubtedly become more commonplace—trawling a wealth of data to match brands with influencers who share their values and ethos, with the aim of finding 'more meaningful' partnerships. I’ve not played with AI influencer analysis tools much, but there are a few good examples here, and the likes of podcasting platforms are already promoting them as a possible source of revenue.

New and Developing Mediums

The trend is shifting from static content to interactive and immersive experiences. Live streams through Twitch, interactive polls, and augmented reality (AR) content are becoming more popular, meaning influencers can create more engaging and dynamic content in a whole new space. Brands that embrace these formats can forge deeper consumer connections and stand out from the crowd at the same time without necessarily having to become experts on these new mediums themselves. Why would Karcher, for example, develop their own VR game about pressure-washing fire engines when there are streamers who already have a dedicated audience—yeah, that’s a thing.

Back in my days working in virtual worlds (notably Second Life), we created a campaign to carbon offset an avatar's virtual life and the spaces they owned by planting real word trees for the green news aggregation site (alas now defunct) Big Green Switch. We sponsored well-known SL creators to create virtual trees, environmentally aware household objects, and assorted giveaways. This led to the brand winning The New Statesman Campaign for Change Awards and a plethora of positive PR, and the assets from which continue to be shared in-world to this day.

The Rise of Virtual Influencers

While somewhat alien to a lot of marketers, virtual influencers and computer-generated entities are carving an interesting place for themselves in influencer marketing. Names like Lu do Magalu, Lil Miquela, and Imma may be unknown to us Gen Xers, but for the right audience, they are household names. Admittedly used by the single brand Mattel and riding the coattails of her recent movie success, Barbie, however, should be no stranger to any of us.

Yes, it’s admittedly a wee bit bizarre, but they offer a unique and fresh approach to brand promotions, and as technology evolves, they will become more integrated into marketing strategies and shouldn’t be ignored. Aligning with a virtual influencer is, after all, still an indirect PR stunt in itself and well worthy of consideration, and one the marketing team has a degree of creative control over.

Long-Term Partnerships for One-Time Campaigns

The trend is noticeably moving from one-off campaigns to long-term influencer relationships. Sustained partnerships allow for non-intrusive and authentic storytelling and better brand integration, making for a consistent brand narrative over time, plus longevity of spend.

Remember the YouTuber ‘Where the Hell is Matt?’? He was sponsored over a decade ago (long-term and subtly) by Stride Gum (Cadbury Adams USA), which still features to this day, proudly on his videos, now with 100s of millions of views.

Sustainable and Socially Conscious

Most businesses will create a Sustainability Report, something I particularly enjoy doing, but you can leverage a whole different audience with the right collaborations.

More generally, as consumers grow more aware of their environmental and social impact, brands aligned with influencers who share the same concerns and ethics can boost their brand image and appeal to socially conscious consumers by tagging along with the right content producers.

Adidas is doing good work in this area by stepping up as a surprising sustainability leader in fashion. They're visibly shifting their focus to create cool, eco-friendly stuff, like shoes made from ocean plastic. Teaming up with Parley for the Oceans, they've come up with sneakers made completely from recycled materials. They're also using their online clout with influencer campaigns to get the word out, which isn’t just great for their image; it's moving the goalposts by showing everyone how fashion doesn't have to be 'fast fashion' has the potential to be both trendy and good for the planet.

Ephemeral and Short-Form Content Dominance

Ephemeral content, care of platforms like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, is still a growing trend. In 2024, influencers are expected to continue leveraging these fleeting formats to further instill a sense of urgency and exclusivity in their content, and effectively capturing their audience's attention. This content strategy, which emphasizes momentary engagement, appeals to the audience's fear of missing out (FOMO) and can drive more immediate responses. “Buy this awesome thing now, or lose out.”

General video content continues to evolve, with platforms like TikTok obviously leading the way and cross-posting being the norm. The rapid growth of TikTok highlights our audience's leaning towards short, engaging, easy-to-consume storytelling. Influencers are harnessing this trend, creating content that is not only visually appealing but also capable of conveying messages quickly and effectively—all be it with a lot of dancing. This ongoing shift is a reflection of changing consumer behaviors and offers an undeniable opportunity for the way the right brands and influencers can connect with our audiences.

It may not be for everyone, but even my work in cybersecurity is offering opportunities, with influencer opportunities growing in every field.

More of the Same

The 'creator economy' of 2024 is set to be marked by technology, authenticity, and social consciousness. If nothing else, it’s going to pay my podcast hosting fees and give me some pocket money—with very little effort on my behalf. Only a decade ago, I had to resort to spammy banner advertising to do this.

As marketers, we need to stay agile and innovative, open to new ideas, and understand the dynamic influencer-follower relationship to be an effective part of the ever-changing influencer marketing opportunities.

For brands, diving into this space opens up a world of possibilities, from reaching wider audiences to adding a personal touch to our marketing. Partnering with influencers can bring our brand story to life in the most relatable way. So, here's to making those connections.

Why SEO is Still Important for Content Marketing in 2024

2023-11-12T17:17:00.080+00:00

Creating content without an eye for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is like having a brochure printed and leaving it in the stationary cupboard. Customers don’t read cold marketing emails, they go to a search engine when they have a genuine need. As we careen towards 2024, the relevance of SEO continues to be a vital part of the content marketing stack.

Apologies in advance, this is probably going to be a long one. Google will hate it. It hates my unoptimized Blogger blog anyway, which is ironic as Blogger is a Google service.

I started my digital career in SEO, back at the turn of the millennium. However, the modern digital world is in a state of perpetual disruption, and SEO practices are no exception. The algorithms that determine search engine rankings are becoming mind-bogglingly sophisticated, embracing the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and this evolution calls for a more dynamic approach. Sympathetic table layout and getting a client on DMOZ just won’t cut it anymore.

As a content marketer, it’s common sense for me to stay abreast of the latest trends and updates in search engine algorithms to maintain and improve online visibility for the sites I manage. While I work with a splendid agency (Bay Leaf Digital) specifically for SEO optimization and the bulk of link-building, it’s still a big part of my remit to get us seen and incorporate their research and on-page recommendations into my work. However, The focus has shifted from traditional keyword-centric strategies to a more holistic approach that prioritizes a solid user experience, mobile optimization, and (thankfully for my bank balance and mental health) high-quality content that addresses user intent.

We need up-to-date strategies. Adapting to these changes is fundamental for organizations to be sure their online presence remains strong and that they continue to reach their target audience. In 2024, staying informed and agile in SEO strategy isn’t just beneficial; it's going to be essential for the win.

I’d grab a coffee if I were you. Here we go.

Understanding User Intent

Stuff keyword stuffing. We need a much more nuanced understanding of what people actually want.

Loading webpages with a bunch of relevant keywords was a common tactic to boost search rankings – and, shamefully, one I’ve used myself. Sure, we still need our keywords, but search engines have become more sophisticated, now “prioritizing the ‘relevance’ and ‘value’ of content to the user's search intent.”

This means that effective SEO needs an understanding of what users (our customer personas) are searching for – their needs, questions, and the type of content they’ll find of actual value. This creates more engaging, useful, and informative content (Hurrah!) that resonates with an audience. It improves search engine rankings, sure, but it also enriches the overall user experience - hopefully leading to higher engagement, trust, and loyalty. This is a good thing. Understanding and catering to user intent is a clear commitment to providing value and relevance to an audience – of which I’ve always been an advocate.

Quality Content is Thankfully Still King

The old adage 'content is king' holds more truth than ever, especially for SEO. Engaging, valuable content is totally essential for achieving and maintaining decent rankings.

E-E-A-T: Google's ranking system leverages a ton of factors to rank high-quality content, loving content that's the most useful, as indicated by experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Trust is the cornerstone, with the other elements enhancing it, though not all are required for content to be considered valuable. For instance, content may be deemed helpful due to the author's experience or the expertise presented.

While E-E-A-T is one of those annoyingly nebulous ’indirect’ ranking factors, it does “guide the system,” especially for the critical "Your Money or Your Life" (YMYL) topics affecting health, finances, (online) safety, or societal welfare.

I’m a big fan of creating assets that thoroughly answer user queries. This involves delving deep into topics, providing detailed explanations, and covering all the aspects and nuances that users might be interested in. I utilize keyword research to understand what our target audience is searching for and attempt to address those topics with depth and clarity. I also do my research and dive into the forums and specialist sites where our target audience is talking. You can also use the likes of ChatGPT to get some inspiration about your audience's biggest concerns. Knowledge is power.

I run the whole gamut of content formats, like blog copy, explainer videos, infographics, solution brief resources, and even podcasts, in an ongoing (but strategic) attempt to enhance engagement and cater to user preferences. Try our resources page for some examples. Content marketing is only dull if you’re doing it wrong.

I also update and tweak existing content fairly regularly to keep it current and relevant. Going back and cross-linking to newer posts to promote trawling, etc. Producing rich, informative assets that genuinely satisfy user queries and updating them with new info., adds to thought leadership creds and goes a long way to establishing any website as a trusted resource.

Video Content for Enhanced Engagement

The growing power of video in SEO is a testament to changing user preferences and the engaging nature of visual content.

Videos increase the time visitors spend on our website, known as ‘Page Dwell Time,’ but they also provide a dynamic way to present information and tell stories, which can be another boost to search engine rankings. To increase dwell time from a content perspective, in the past I’ve used audio recordings of the copy so visitors could play them without having to wade through posts that went beyond the fold. Page dwell time is accompanied by a new metric in GA4 called ‘engagement rate,’ which is essentially a bounce rate flipped on its head. It also factors in other shenanigans like the percentage of the page scrolled. This is all achievable with content, but a proper run-down would need to be a whole other blog post.

To optimize video content for search engines, I focus on metadata, including relevant keywords in the video title, description, and tags to improve its ‘discoverability.’ I usually repurpose any script to provide a transcript, as it generally makes the content more accessible to search engine crawlers, thereby improving the chances of ranking for those relevant keywords.

By hosting videos on platforms like Vimeo and YouTube, and then embedding them on our site, we leverage YouTube or Vimeo’s high domain authority to boost visibility. They also appear on their own in Google search results.

Mobile-First Indexing

With the majority of internet users accessing the web via mobile devices, some 60.73% in July 2022, it's now standard practice for websites to be optimized for mobile browsing to maintain and improve their search engine rankings.

The big key to this optimization is responsive web design (RWD), which makes sure that any site is “visually and functionally compatible” across devices, giving a more seamless user experience whether on a smartphone, via tablet, or on our desktop.

Page speed is a big one; mobile users invariably have less patience for slow-loading pages, I know I don’t, and search engines (like Google) factor load times into their rankings. It’s good practice to focus on optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and minimizing code. Implementing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) can also be a boon to load times, directly impacting a site's visibility and user engagement, which Google loves more than chocolate.

AI and Machine Learning

The impact of AI and machine learning on SEO, particularly regarding Google's algorithms, has been somewhat transformative to say the least. It’s created a new playing field for search engine optimization and will be one to watch in 2024.

Google's AI-driven algorithm, such as BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), focuses on understanding the context and nuances of user queries, moving way beyond just keyword matching. This disruptive change means that SEO strategies have to adapt to prioritize content quality and relevance.

In an active attempt to align with advanced algorithms, once again I focus on writing for users first, keeping content natural and informative, and answering key questions. Embracing semantic search principles by including related keywords and topics that provide a comprehensive view of the subject matter is now part of the process. This takes into account factors like the searcher's location, search history, word variations, synonyms, and the relationships between words to provide more accurate and relevant search results. Basically, “semantic search aims to understand the searcher's intent and the contextual meaning of terms as they appear in the searchable dataspace, whether on a webpage or part of a user query,” to improve the accuracy of search results. This means a portion of my output must focus on creating content that answers questions and provides valuable information related to the topic rather than just the old-school targeting of specific keywords.

Try SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz Pro, MarketMuse, or Ubersuggest. I’m a big exponent of AI, and I believe that staying updated with the SEO tools that incorporate AI for keyword research and SEO analysis gives us something of a competitive edge. I’m also a fan of Yoast Pro, in Wordpress.

Local Search for Local People

Local SEO is fried-gold for businesses serving specific areas, meaning they can target their local audience. A big portion of searches have local intent, so having a presence in local search results is important.

Businesses can make a start by optimizing their website for local keywords, and adding location-specific phrases that potential customers in the area are more likely to use. Claiming and optimizing a Google My Business (GMB) listing is standard. This involves providing accurate and updated business information, like the address, phone number, and hours of operation, as well as adding photos and responding to customer reviews.

Encouraging customers to leave reviews, and then engaging with them afterward, can also be a plus. Finding local online directories and checking consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information across all listings will support any local visibility.

For more ideas, check out my post on How to use Google Shopping to get Local Sales.

Secure Websites Are a Must (HTTPS)

A secure website is the new normal, serving as a foundation of trust between a user and any online presence. For visitors, a secure website - signified by HTTPS and a padlock icon in our address bar - signals a safe space where our data is encrypted and protected from interception or misuse. This level of security, usually provided by SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates, safeguards sensitive information and builds consumer confidence.

Most search engines prioritize secure websites in their rankings, considering HTTPS as an important ranking signal. Implementing an SSL certificate, therefore, is a dual-faceted tool: it acts as “a guardian of data integrity and privacy” plus boosts search engine visibility. Website security is a necessity - trust me on this, I work in cybersecurity – to influence credibility, user experience, and search ranking. Go HTTPS or go home.

The Rise of Featured Snippets

Featured snippets have become a coveted feature in search result real estate, usually appearing at the very top of the page in the much sought-after "Position 0." These snippets give quick, direct answers to user queries and increase visibility and click-through rates. Happy days. Well, happy days if your customers are using desktop machines. This year, Google moved the goalpost once again and removed the ability to influence snippets on mobile using FAQ schema, so who knows where this is going in the future.

I don’t make every post optimized for snippets. When I do, in an attempt to increase the chances of our content being featured like this, I do so strategically. This includes directly answering questions in a clear, concise manner, ideally in the form of short paragraphs, bullet points, or numbered lists.

Content that addresses common questions in a "how-to," "what is," or "why do" format seems particularly effective. I try to include a relevant question as a subheading, immediately following it up with a straightforward answer or definition. I also try to keep well-organized, using header tags (H1, H2, etc., still with relevant keywords) and adding custom-made (thank you MidJorney), consistently high-quality, and relevant images. I use clarity, brevity, and directness in my snippet copy, which so far appears to be working, but I do so sympathetically to the site and the content itself, and always consider where on the site that content is going to sit so it's still natural and doesn't come off like content spam. In my opinion, be it unofficial, overusing this tactic is a further kiss of SEO death.

Core Web Vitals and UX

As a user, Google's introduction of Core Web Vitals as an SEO factor is a welcome shift towards prioritizing user experience as a part of the ranking process. Professionally, a bad UX makes my teeth itch. Core Web Vitals are a bunch of factors that Google considers important in a webpage's overall user experience, including loading performance, interactivity, and "visual stability." It’s basically good for everyone, especially the customer.

Step one, have a chat with your web developers to reduce load times - optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, minimizing JavaScript, etc. - improving server response times and reducing the impact of third-party scripts.

Enhancing "visual stability" means making sure that elements on the page don’t shift around unexpectedly as the page loads – and honestly, that’s well above my pay grade.

Regularly checking a website's performance with tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse can give me some idea of how well our site is performing and insights to drop into Jira for those who know more than I do.

Building Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are links from one website to another and are of best value if they're one-way and not reciprocal. They can be a time vampire, but they’re still a cornerstone of SEO, acting as a key indicator of a website's authority and relevance to search engines. A solid backlink profile from reputable, high-authority websites is a thing of beauty.

I can’t stress how important it is to avoid black-hat SEO tactics - like buying random low-quality links or taking part in dodgy link farms - as these will lead to ranking penalties. Just don't. The process of disavowing backlinks is another logistical headache that nobody needs.

To build backlinks ethically, I focus on creating valuable and polished content that naturally encourages other sites to link to it – check out the likes of ‘30 Sobering Cybersecurity Statistics for 2023,’ with over 200 social shares and a ton of blogs linking to it in just week one. I also offer my services on (reputable) sites for guest posting in exchange for inbound links. I started with industry partners and resellers, reaching out and suggesting I share any posts I write for them on our own social channels to grease the wheels and give them something in return. Adding RSS feeds to syndication sites is a simple win, see my copy on Security Boulevard as an example. Hitting up industry influencers and bloggers for collaborations, or to share our content, is time-consuming but has resulted in a few nice inbound opportunities.

Building relationships within your industry and actively participating in community discussions, forums, and social media can give organic linking opportunities, but again, there are only so many hours in the day, and we're usually not the experts. Most in-house or agency content creators aren't knowledgeable enough on a specific topic to have the critical and supportive conversations needed. I try to focus my efforts on quality over quantity, making sure backlinks are relevant and adding value to our audience by encouraging relationships with sites that discuss our industry issues - giving credence through context - which has the added bonus or reinforcing my own writing creds on any given subject.

The Role of Social Signals?

The role of social signals in SEO is a heated topic of much debate among digital marketers, but when I see my own LinkedIn posts in search results, I’ve got to give the idea some props.

‘Allegedly,’ social signals - likes, shares, comments on social media platforms, etc. - influence a website's search rankings. While Google has repeatedly said that “social signals are not a direct ranking factor,” the benefits to me appear to be very real. Social media can also boost brand visibility and drive traffic to a website, which are further components of SEO success.

If nothing else, content that gets decent traction on social media can boost backlinks, as it gets noticed and shared by a wider audience, including bloggers and journalists who might link to it from their own websites, plus opens the doors to syndication.

Again, I focus on creating shareable, engaging content that resonates with our audience with good, custom-written social posts written for each asset. I encourage social sharing through the integration of social media buttons on our website, as standard, and actively engage with our followers and evangelists on platforms. By building a strong social media presence, you can enhance brand recognition, drive traffic, and (potentially) positively impact your site's SEO (all be it indirectly).

While the ever-changing value of individual social channels is a whole other conversation - gee, thanks, Mr. Musk, for taking the Twitter [X] pipe away from Google - social still appears to be a part of the process.

Voice Search Optimization?

I have to mention voice search, or someone's bound to say, "What about voice search?"

Voice searches have been ‘the big thing for next year’ for over half a decade, but honestly, all it really does is read snippets. Nobody is regularly optimizing for voice. So far, it seems to be "a goalless win." With any result, where's the click-through? Where's the transaction? Who's booking a demo through voice results? Where's the memorable experience? Where's the branding? Where's the awareness element? Yeah, it's happening, but it's not making sales - so far.

Voice search queries tend to be more conversational and longer than typical text-based searches. This means that if I am catering to them, I focus on optimizing for natural language and long-tail keywords that mirror how people speak in everyday life. I occasionally craft posts that incorporate question-based phrases and complete sentences into my copy, at least into my H2 copy, as these are seemingly more likely to align with voice queries. For instance, targeting phrases like "What are the best Chinese restaurants in the center of Liverpool?" would be better than just "Chinese restaurants Liverpool."

Even if it’s not a sales goal, I still try to make sure that my content gives clear, concise answers to potential questions, which can supposedly increase our chances of appearing in voice search results. However, that's just something I do for clarity rather than a conscious effort to court the likes of Alexa. At the start of 2023, structuring content in a Q&A format or including an FAQ section on a website page (like this one I wrote on mitigating zero-day attacks) was beneficial - and actually not as ‘grey hat’ as I initially thought - but now this doesn't show in mobile results. As a result, that's two days of writing fluff for FAQs I'll never get back.

Voice search optimization is still one to keep a casual (and critical) eye on, but I won't be making it a big priority until the algorithm and the outcome tell me otherwise.

SEO Analytics and Tools

Analytics provide insights that are a goldmine for understanding the effectiveness of my efforts and for making informed decisions. It’s a dopamine fix when I’m proven right and helpful when I'm proven wrong.

Analytics tools let me monitor key metrics like conversion rate, organic traffic, bounce rate and 404s, keyword rankings, and page load times, and give me a clearer picture of overall performance. Google Analytics is the de facto tool, giving me data on website traffic and user behavior. Google Search Console gives me insights into search query data, website impressions, click-through rates, and the health of our website in terms of indexing and pesky crawl errors. Other tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz offer advanced features for keyword tracking, analyzing backlinks, and thought-provoking/content-inspiring competitor insights.

Regularly reviewing the numbers helps me see the areas of success and highlights those much-needed improvements, allowing us to smooth overall SEO/content effectiveness and work better towards our business goals. I also like services like Tableau and Skedler for visualizing SEO report data, which gives my non-statistical brain that wee bit more clarity.

Getting SEO Ready for 2024

Sorry, I did say this was going to be a long one, but SEO is as crucial as ever heading into 2024.

As search algorithms evolve, with artificial intelligence and machine learning, an informed approach to SEO and content marketing is going to be a must. The narrative has shifted from the keyword-centric tactics of yesteryear to a holistic strategy that embraces user intent, new tools, visual storytelling using video and quality imagery, and mobile-first indexing, all underpinned by the timeless value of quality content.

For success in the coming year, we content marketers need to stay as informed and agile as our specialist SEO comrades, adapting our content strategies to sophisticated, context-aware algorithms without resorting to content spam for the sake of it. A multifaceted content repertoire optimized for semantic search, mobile responsiveness, and AI tools, alongside ethical backlink practices and leveraging social media's indirect benefits, are going to be the backbone of growing (and keeping) a decent online presence.

With Google's focus on Core Web Vitals enhancing user experience, and the potential of featured snippets to boost visibility, there’s an obvious call for continuous learning and adapting content marketing accordingly. It needs to be as much a part of the job as creating graphics and copy. Monitoring these efforts through accurate analytics means strategies can be data-driven and finely tuned to the whims of search engines. There are interesting times ahead.

After that, I’m going to go and have a little lie-down...

Storytelling and the Brand Narrative

2023-10-31T23:56:00.021+00:00

The Backstory

Even my father says so, at heart, I am a storyteller – and there are stories everywhere. Being “creative” on demand and rolling things in narrative glitter are my bread and butter. Giving an organization a clear message and a clear voice in which to tell it is the crux of my nine-to-five. Making that message resonate, giving it life, making it visual, making it stick, stimulating a conversation, and giving people a reason to actually give a damn, is a disciple in itself.

Please excuse the somewhat flavorless tone of the following post. This was initially written as part of my 2013 visiting lecturer series at Nottingham Trent University, but I’m trying to post something relevant at least monthly, and alas, October has run away with me.

Flippancy and professional irreverence will be resumed as soon as possible.

Crafting Connection and Distinction

The Power of a Story in Branding

Ideas are cheap, nay free, and products are plentiful. And boy, the marketplace is crowded. What makes you stand out?

A "brand narrative" is a consistent and compelling story that encapsulates a brand's values, mission, and unique identity, designed to provoke an emotional connection with its audience. A compelling brand narrative isn’t just a luxury; it's a necessity. If you don’t have it, you don’t have a connection, so you have no emotional value to your audience.

The art of brand storytelling - yes, I did say art - goes that step beyond just advertising; it creates an emotional bridge between us (the brand) and our audience (probably a buyer or prospect), fostering a deeper, more meaningful connection. It’s not esoteric, it’s just basic psychology blended with creative journalism. It’s about wearing our brand values and product journey on our sleeves and cutting through the hyperbole and marketing speak.

Emotional Engagement Through Storytelling and Design

Emotional engagement is the cornerstone of effective storytelling, and there is an interplay between storytelling and design. Admittedly, this is the natural angle I come from because my roots are in graphic design, English literature, messaging, filmmaking, scriptwriting, etc., and technology and theory are moving forward all the time. It is, however, in my somewhat jaded experience, true.

A well-crafted story, combined with visually striking graphics, be they AR animations or magazine copy layout, can evoke a range of emotions, from trust and comfort (John Lewis) to apprehension and anxiety (the pro-Brexit campaign) and from excitement and aspiration (Nike’s "Just Do It") to simple FOMO (Apple tapping into their existing consumers' desire not to be left behind in the latest advances in shiny tech).

Obligatory 1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial playing in the background. Not because it’s related or illustrates a specific point. Just because it’s awesome.

Brands like Apple have mastered this blend, using minimalistic design and poignant narratives to create a loyal and passionate customer base of like-minded souls. Apple's narratives often focus on innovation, creativity, and the human element in technology, resonating deeply with their tech-savvy audience.

Crafting a Compelling Brand Narrative

I don’t have the great British novel in me. I get my dopamine fix in other ways, and with more regularity. I imagine, however, that creating a compelling brand narrative is akin to a plotting a captivating book.

It should have a clear theme, consistent characters (your brand's voice), and a plot that unfolds over time. The narrative should be authentic, reflecting the brand's values and mission.

NB: Brand values and a clear mission statement are crucial as they define a company's identity, guide its business practices, and inform its relationship with customers. They serve as a compass for decision-making and communication, helping to build trust and loyalty by ensuring consistency and authenticity in all aspects of the brand's operations and messaging. There is no brand narrative without them.

Anyway, par exemple, the fashion brand Patagonia's commitment to environmental sustainability isn’t just a marketing strategy. It’s a core narrative and brand equity that influences all its business decisions and marketing efforts. It’s their “shtick,” their “hook,” and their base identity. In many ways, it is its audience, and it supports the same ideals and standards.

It attracts that audience by saying, “We are who we are, and we’re passionate about it. We take a stand. We’re on your side, our side, and the planet’s side.”

Many folks say Patagonia “goes against the normal,” but customers in most sectors are bored of normal. Normal doesn’t stand out. Normal doesn’t sell. Who wants to wear normal?

Standing Out with Stories

Our increasingly skeptical consumers are bombarded with obvious and targeted advertisements. A unique and creative story can cut through the skepticism (if it’s told with sincerity and consistency) and legitimately raise a brand above the heard. Customers are savvy and can see when they’re being sold to, but an honest and compelling brand narrative with real motivations and an obvious human behind the curtain adds credibility, passion, purpose, and trust.

Good stories make good brands stand out. Take, for example, the then somewhat revolutionary storytelling approach of Dove with their 'Real Beauty' campaign. By focusing on real stories of diverse beauty, with real people at the fore, Dove instantly distinguished itself in a market saturated with unrealistic beauty standards and created conversation around the topic of its detrimental effects. We know that the use of impractical and unrealistic ideals of physical perfection in advertising fosters negative body image, low self-esteem, and mental health issues among consumers. It perpetuates narrow and unattainable ideals, contributing to a culture of exclusivity and discrimination. Dove used their campaign to make a stand and to stand out, sparking conversations and creating a strong emotional response. It broke the mold in a good way, immediately promoting the likes of online retailers to use common and plus-sized models, which we now think of as the norm.

The Role of Brand Voice and Personality

This will be in the quiz, so write this down as I say it: “A brand's voice and personality are essential elements of storytelling.”

This voice should be consistent across all platforms, whether it's the witty and irreverent tone of Old Spice (wow, you can tell when this was written) or the inspirational and aspirational tone of Under Armour, Tesla, Airbnb, L'Oréal, or Peloton.

The brand voice is a critical tool in making any narrative relatable and memorable.

Discovering Brand Stories

Finding stories within a brand can seem daunting, and some of the examples I’m using above are, in reality, obvious extremes, but stories often lie in simple places: the origins of the company, customer experiences, the journey, employee stories, stakeholder passions, or the creation of a product.

For instance, the story of how the microsegmentation and zero-day protection provider, TrueFort, was founded: “It all started with a breach” at a major banking organization, which revealed a problem, so two clever guys in the trenches fixed that problem then took their solution to market - is a narrative that speaks of innovation and industry-focused solutions. It’s honest, simple, true, and says, “We’re real people on the side of CISOs and the security team.”

I’ve talked about finding inspiration for stories previously in my Staying Creative as a Content Marketer post, which might have some nuggets worth mining, and here are some further notes on finding your brand story.

Leveraging Thought Leadership Content

Thought leadership is a simple and recognized way to build a brand narrative. It positions a brand as an expert in its field, adding depth to its story.

A tech company might share insights about emerging technologies, or an interior design firm might discuss future home trends. Essentially, a small brand can have a big voice and become a source for opinion and news on their specialist topic. This content, while informative and of value to the customer, also tells a story of expertise and foresight. Rocket science it ain’t.

Using personality is useful for companies of all sizes, and personality can be used for used to leverage the distribution of the message.

Consider a project I did with renowned opticians Vision Express: Then CEO, Jonathan Lawson, connected with all 500+ employees on LinkedIn. That was a lot of clicking, trust me. He then began to use the platform to share Vision Express posts, silently promoting brand content. He blogged on LinkedIn, ghost-written by me, to showcase new technology, his leadership style (keeping it human/personal), and company achievements. He shared company PR and HR ideals from a personal perspective. His connection to the organization, and a transparent and accessible (managed) voice from behind the curtain, was the story.

While I was working with Vision Express, I went to a store opening and had one of their free eye tests with their new visual fields testing equipment, and the ophthalmologist found I had early-stage glaucoma. Catching this at the beginning, with their new in-store technology, probably saved my vision, and treatment stopped the headaches I’d been ignoring for months. Stories are everywhere. I shamelessly jumped on this, crafted a raft of related video and written content, and I was happy to be the poster boy for that month. “Go and get a free eye test.” After all, I kinda owed 'em one.

Creating Written and Visual Brand Journalism

Brand journalism combines storytelling with journalistic principles. It's about creating content that's informative, engaging, and newsworthy. The key is to focus on stories that interest your audience, not just your brand.

Red Bull is a prime example, with its magazine and media company focusing on extreme (non-combative) sports and lifestyle, which aligns with the brand's “adventurous spirit.”

Cohesive Storytelling

The art of storytelling in branding is a multifaceted endeavor. It's about striking the right balance between emotional engagement and informational content. A successful brand narrative should be consistent, authentic, and above all, compelling.

Consumers are more discerning and better informed, and a well-told brand story is what will ultimately resonate and endure.

Here endeth the lesson.

How to Manage Gen X Employees

2023-09-20T16:53:00.042+01:00

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..."

I made my first ‘corporate video’ on a 16mm Arri BL, and it contained the words “Just 5 minutes from this cinema.” I created magazine ads in 1:618 with a scalpel and Cow Gum. I rendered video titles with my 1040 Atari ST. I wrote my first website in Notepad and my second in Netscape Composer. I worked in SEO when getting on DMoz was critical and Lycos was still a puppy. I’ve seen dot com bubbles burst, the Berlin Wall fall, every Star Wars film at the cinema (and got the figures to prove it), and I was an art student under Thatcher. I am tech-savvy - but not tech-dependent. I’ve written millions of words of copy, been married twice, and lived/worked in seven counties. I have footwear that's probably older than you are.

Be sure you actually want an honest opinion before you ask me for one. My work/life balance is good, but I’ll work ‘til I die (and when I work, I work hard). Self-reliance is my middle name, and I don’t give a damn about workplace politics unless it gets in the way of my deliverables. I’m flexible and can adapt to change, but I can involuntarily roll my eyes so hard I check out my own ass. I have learned to keep my mouth shut, but only recently, though not if I see injustice, bad science, or bigotry. I am loyal but do not cross me.

I am Generation X.

Here’s how to manage us so that nobody gets hurt.

Who Exactly is Gen X?

In my experience, my Gen X colleagues are often the unsung role models and silent mentors in the modern workplace. Born between the late 1960s and early 1980s, they are more Taoist than the Boomers and more stoic than the Millennials. Now in our 40s and 50s, we hold senior positions in agencies and across all industry sectors.

As any savvy marketer or creative will tell you, understanding the dynamics of your team and where people fit is important. We're not complicated, but there are some things you need to know because they run deep in the Gen X psyche.

While younger workers may be taking career breaks, Gen X employees are deliberately choosing to stay employed, driven by necessity and desire. Primarily, our financial obligations of kids, mortgages, divorces, medical bills, that classic camper van we didn't really need, etc. make a consistent income indispensable. Moreover, after navigating numerous economic upheavals and diligently building their careers, many are reluctant to sideline their potential for further career advancement. So much for the label of "the slacker generation."

Here are my thoughts, from the horse’s mouth, based on thirty years working in/with creative teams (in-house and in-agency) and from being a somewhat typical (all be it neuroatypical) example of my demographic:

Unpacking the Gen X DNA

Gen Xers are archetypically known for their resourcefulness and independence and for valuing work-life balance. We embraced personal computing from the ZX Spectrum onwards and invariably hold strong views on equality and individual liberty.

As the ‘latchkey generation,’ we’re more than capable of managing our time and challenges solo. We’ve been feeding ourselves since we were ten, and we "drank out of the hose" because we weren't allowed in the house. We were 30 at the age of 10 and still 30 at the age of 50. We thrive without micromanagement, solving challenges with experience and initiative, and are best given a goal and some KPIs. Revved up, then let loose like an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. Helicopter-manage us, and we’ll hate you and our jobs and leave (for a 16%+ pay rise with your competitors). Micromanagement shows a clear lack of trust and feels it’s taking away our autonomy - it will stifle our creativity and hinder productivity. We’ve been doing this a long time, and we’ve plenty of connections and other places to go if we don’t like it here.

While respectful, we do lean towards open, relaxed work settings. Expect friendly collaboration and an open-door policy. We are often straight-talking and appreciate straight-talking comms in return. Gen X are resilient, having self-medicated themselves through the 90s, and we’ve earned any success we may have. Our tenacity - some may say bloody-mindedness - often shines and can be used to drive projects with passion and perseverance. The MTV Generation (X) is less about the hustle and more about efficient results. Often cited for our grace under pressure, Gen X will ensure quality over quantity. Our aptitude for time management and problem-solving makes us efficient players – so let us play. We got this. Leave us to it.

Growing up in a battlefield of economic shenanigans, we value work dedication AND personal time. If you want a late meeting, fine, but don’t push it too much, or we’ll quickly feel undervalued and unappreciated. Quid pro quo, Clarice. Taking us for granted is a mistake, but with some concessions for fair division of holiday time so we can take our teenagers to Disneyland (or whatever), and keep weekends for our hobbies, we’ll nod and smile quite happily. I work for a US company, so it’s part of the job to be flexible and available outside of GMT, and that’s fine, but I still take time to walk my dogs in the mornings if I’ve got meetings 'till 9 PM. Having experienced a litany of seismic shifts in work cultures, we’re all about adaptability.

We can embrace change, proudly championing diversity and creativity, be it AI in the workplace or collaborative cloud tools, and are often change leaders. Putting us in charge of collating the ESG report or having us on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council is our natural habitat. We evolved with the rise of PCs, mobile phones, and the internet. Quickly picking up new tech trends and early adopters while valuing traditional methods, we’re happy to try most new things (unless it’s decaf coffee) if you can engage us with how they’ll streamline processes and won’t impact our deadlines. If we're given a boss who's twenty years younger and a different gender or nationality, we really don't care—if they want to manage things so I don't have to, bonza, I can get on with what I do best and what I've been doing for 30+ years, and they can support the team's autonomy and do all the schmoozing and political stuff.

We genuinely value a clear brief and constructive dialogues, so open feedback channels to promote growth and understanding. A tech-free childhood fostered innate problem-solving and collaboration abilities. Gen X is capable of taking part in some superb team dynamics leading to productive and creative outcomes.

Actual Management Tips

To harness the dynamism of your resident Gen X, consider the following:

Micromanagement? No thanks. Allow them their autonomy.
Feedback is gold. Constructive criticism is welcome, but expect a two-way conversation.
Valued Time = Productivity. Their work-life balance mantra ensures optimal results.
Open conversations lead to success. Honesty garners respect and drives collaboration.
Never stop learning. Offer opportunities for skill enhancement.
Experience is priceless. Respect their journey and insights; they’re a world-weary goldmine.

Tapping into Gen X's strengths and understanding can really add to any team's dynamism—especially when there’s so much young blood in our industry, it’s important not to be trapped in a single generational mindset. Gen X is a bridge between tradition and innovation and can bring invaluable insights from past lessons, a hands-on and polymath attitude, and a passion for exploring future trends.

Whether you’re a Gen Xer yourself, work alongside one, or manage a whole team of them – appreciating their unique blend of skills and experiences can only set you up for success.

Play nice, and we’ll play nice back. Probably.

Why Content Marketing Should Embrace AI

2023-08-10T18:43:00.032+01:00

At the beginning of the year, I wrote about how I was using AI, still pretty much in its content marketing infancy, as a collaborative tool in my daily work. It might be a good time for an update.

I’m writing this by hand, not using any AI input, but I am using AI spellchecker because, well, that just makes sense.

I genuinely believe that artificial intelligence isn’t just a tool, but a transformative force in content marketing. It offers unparalleled personalisation, enhances creativity, optimises distribution, and fosters data-driven decision-making. While there’s ethical considerations that undoubtedly need to be addressed (should I be sharing the by-line?) and a wider conversation to be had, the gains for me have been weapons-grade.

For content marketing professionals like myself, who seek continuous innovation and efficiency as part of the process, the integration of AI has a lot of benefits. Its power to revolutionise the way we approach marketing is not just promising; it's already here. And I use it daily.

Using AI Day to Day

Just about everything I’ve written at work since last November has had some level of AI collaboration, be it ideas, data, explanations from ChatGPT, or images and visuals from MidJourney. As I said in my early thoughts and finding on AI, I am not now and never will be, any kind of an aficionado of Artificial Intelligence (AI). I’ve found a level of usage, however, that suits the way I work and has put my productivity level through the roof. If there were KoolAid, I’ve drunk it.

Here's a few reasons why:

I can’t spell for Jack: Or punctuate, really. I get by pretty well and always have, but most of that is from practice and I don’t have an English degree. I’ve worked with journalists who have nothing but my deepest admiration. I don’t naturally write in US English, for starters. On the most basic level, AI tools (like Grammarly and Wordtune) are indispensable spelling and grammar checkers that can be tuned for brand voice and stop me rambling on with run-on sentences and comma splices. They do this in-line while I’m writing, across assorted applications, with zero friction. If we get one decent solar flare, I am so screwed.

Explaining concepts: Most content markets are biblical at trivia – especially those of us in an agency who flit from topic to topic. We have to write and create fresh ideas around everything from pet food to the socio-economic impact of retail robotics. Immersing myself in a topic is one thing, but I work in cybersecurity, and sometimes, working from home as I do, I need to ask someone to “explain, like you would to a graduate student, what are the core concepts behind user and entity behavior analytics” without (once again) hassling our product marketing manager in Teams. I don’t have time to wade through pages of weak Google results. Thank you, ChatGPT4.

Fresh ideas: Being creative on demand, daily, is what I do. Some days, at the risk of using the phrase “writer's block,” it’s not a natural state to be in. Sometimes I need some inspiration. AI is one of the options I turn to when I’m staring at my screen like a goldfish in a strobe light.

Above and beyond ChatGPT, which is my default for most things, platforms like ShortlyAI, Jasper, and others provide creative writing environments with useful prompts and suggestions. Websites like Reedsy offer writing prompt generators that can kickstart the creative process. If we have some programming skills, and it’s actually not rocket science, we can use AI models (including OpenAI) to create customised prompts based on our specific needs and interests.

I recently wrote a whole other post on the creative content marketing process, including the use of AI, but tools like MindMeister or Lucidchart also allow us to create mind maps and visual prompts to help brainstorm and ideate.

Talking to the audience: I’m not the Chief Information Security Officer of a billion-dollar Fortune 500, but the CISO is the main target of the bulk of the output I produce these days. What do they actually care about that will be of genuine value to them? What are their concerns? What is the CISO community talking about? Much as I love them, this is the new Yahoo Answers (alas, no longer with us) and Quora.

Using AI for inspiration, I recently crafted a post on “How can Busy CISOs Avoid Occupational Burn-Out?” Sure, it’s low-hanging fruit. It was, however, “syndicated” by Cloud Security Alliance, who published it to their site, giving us a ton of retweets from their share and some juicy PageRank from linking. This has happened more than once, because the professional cybersecurity community found real value in my writing.

Making it pretty: Back in the 80s, before I ventured into the world of film production and before the advent of the Internet, I studied graphic design at college. I can turn my hand to a reasonable infographic, airbrush a burnt-out car out of a corporate image (true story), and I’m something of a Photoshop veteran, but, MidJourney is now my go-to for basic imagery. Sure, there’s beautiful original art for free at Pixabay and Upsplash, and many a time I still make use of these invaluable assets, but I have deadlines and things to get done. While always enjoyable, I don’t have the capacity to wade through thousands of images that are “almost” right for the job – not when I can cut and paste a prompt I know will give me exactly the brand look and consistent style we use, add a few new words that reflect my copy, then spend two minutes in Photoshop to round off the edges and apply (in our case) a corporate duotone. And this for $15 less month than Shutterstock and with no limits on volume.

Just this week I’ve been dabbling with PikaLabs, to give our corporate Twitter pics some movement - because it’s our job to experiment. I also use MidJourney for ideas, like showing me graphical suggestions for infographics (using specific data) that I can then exploit in Illustrator. It’s not the whole process, far from it, but it’s a part of the process.

Analytics: AI’s not just useful for producing content, it’s also a godsend for analytics and decision-making. Statistics and data analysis leave me cold, but content is born of good data. Original data insights make bankable PR, and getting those insights is now a whole lot easier. Also, trend analysis affords inspiration. I have to give Tableau some props. It's great for anyone who wants to play with data and make it come alive visually, and I’m no tech wizard. It can handle complex calculations, mix different data together, and getting started with the free trial was a breeze. Again, I then add brand and other elements to the output, but it’s damn helpful for ideas and for pulling out the unseen. Being able to dump a load of web analytics onto OpenAI and ask it who our most engaged visitors are, then create me a few personas for those visitors, all within seconds, is useful, enlightening, and inspiring.

Saving time: Rolling all the above together, how much time do I save on a full production day? I’d estimate an hour, maybe two. What do I do with that time? More work.

I can produce two 1200-word blog posts, or a blog post and solution brief, plus my other work, between 9-5. That’s probably an extra case study and an explainer script in a week – and good value content at that. Harsh, perhaps, but with a level of productivity like that why would future employers consider a candidate who hasn’t embraced AI collaboration?

Will AI Take Our Jobs?

Obviously, I think of AI as a boost for my creativity and efficiency. It is, right?

Well, yes and no. Unless we’re an undertaker or a hairdresser, we’ll have to embrace the possibilities of AI, or yes we’ll get left behind. Proofreaders and translators, copywriters, video producers, graphic designers, audio editors, analysts… I do elements of all these jobs in my content marketing role and all jobs in the AI firing line. But is my job in the firing line?

No. AI isn’t creative without the right promps and actions by a human agent. Ps Beta now has AI image generation built in, and it’s now part of the creative process. Digital artists are training on this in Universities around the world, right now. The likes of outpainting and process-driven AI image creation are a massive time saver, and now a part of the creative process. Augmenting imagery with AI is now normal and part of the job, but it still needs a creative operator – well, at least for now. As you can see from the above, I’m still pretty hands on. AI is not the creative in creative content marketing, it’s a means to an end.

We can’t afford to put our heads in the sand and ignore AI, and we need to make it a part of our day-to-day or, frankly, get a new career. Isn’t it a part of our jobs to be experimenting with new tools and mediums? In the future, AI will turn one creative person into a polymath, an individual into a team, and continue to be a fantastic collaborator for outstanding creative output. Embracing AI as a collaborator, now, means we’ll be a part of that future.

Let’s not get left behind.

If you’d like to follow up with me on this post, please grab me on Twitter (though I’m shadow tweeting these days), Threads (where I’m happily get my book geek on), or LinkedIn for a chat.

Staying Creative as a Content Marketer

2023-08-01T14:40:00.088+01:00

A colleague suggested I write this, and it’s been percolating at the back of my brain, getting tickled by the bubbles of misfiring neurons, for the last seven days.

In the giddy world of content marketing, where engagement and innovation reign like Louis XIV, creativity isn't just a bonus; it's an essential part of the mix. As a content marketing “expert” – “ex” being the unknown quantity and “spert” being a drip under pressure - my job is to be thinking out of the box, tapping into new trends and thinking, immersing myself in a topic I usually have no knowledge about going in, and creating fresh content that resonates with a specific target audience. Originality at capacity is our bread and butter. How do I stay consistently creative - ahead of time, on spec, and under budget - in an always-evolving environment?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

Understanding the Importance of Creativity

“Alexa, what is Creativity?”

“Creativity is the innate or cultivated ability to transcend traditional thinking, develop original ideas, and discover uncharted paths of expression and problem-solving. It is not confined to the arts but permeates all aspects of life, from scientific innovation to business strategies. Creativity involves connecting disparate ideas, thinking laterally, and taking risks to create something new and valuable. It's a dynamic and often unpredictable process that engages the mind, emotions, and spirit, transforming the way we see and interact with the world. Creativity is the spark that ignites innovation and breathes life into our everyday experiences.”

“Yeah, whatevs. Play Spotify.”

Creativity pays the bills.

Strategies to Boost Creativity

Always be Learning

Never stop trying new things. I’ve dabbled in podcasting, virtual worlds, VR, AR, AI, and so many other things before they made it to the mainstream because curiosity is important.

I was an early Second Life adopter and joined Twitter and Facebook the day they went public. I was also a big user of Google Lively and a multiple Mayor on Foursquare. Some become useful, and some fall by the wayside. They do, however, stimulate ideas.

I once won a New Statesman Award for the best green campaign by building trees in a virtual world, selling them in-world, and using the L$ to plant trees in meat-space, allowing people to carbon offset their virtual lives as Second Life hit the cultural zeitgeist. I was adding locations to the Niantic database when it was Ingress, meaning some of my retail clients suddenly found they were Pokémon Go hubs and were inundated with potential customers. I use AI in my work daily, and have been for nearly a year. Specialisation is for insects.

Always be playing. Always be experimenting. Always be learning. Always be curious. It stimulates ideas, and you never know what’s going to become useful. As long as you're green, you're growing. As soon as you're ripe, you start to rot.

Invest in yourself and attend workshops and seminars. Visit trade shows. Learning from experts keeps things fresh. Seek out wisdom. Engaging with fellow creative minds nurtures your innovative spirit. Once a month, I Skype with my old colleagues from Conversify, Karen Woodward and Shelli Martineau (who are social media and creative content geniuses), and it's always inspiring - sometimes, we record it for the Bad Twin Podcast. I get together for virtual coffees with the content markers who are using AI at one of our agencies just to shoot the breeze after work and share prompt ideas.

Books on creativity, marketing, art, branding, psychology, graphic design, history, and even fiction can expand our thinking, and I've an ever-growing collection of eBay bargains that I sit upon like Smaug. Flicking through the pages, rubbing my chin like a veritable BookWyrm, when the creative fancy takes me.

Daily Creative Habits

Coffee first, then I head up to my office.

Job número uno I scan my emails. I have our BDMs and sales engineers in the loop to provide me with content suggestions to support what they do. If they have a client or prospect with a specific content or usage case, that may be an excuse for a solution brief, an explainer video, or a new angle on a success story. A blog post, if nothing else. We’re part of the marketing team – never forget we’re there to support the sales process. You are not being paid to be creative without a business case for it. In the words of Capt. Jack Aubrey, “We do not have time for your damned hobbies, sir!” We’re not being paid to believe in the power of our dreams – if that’s your thing and you make a living from it, good on ya, but alas, that's rare, and I like a regular paycheck.

Once I’m happy nothing’s broken or needs my attention, and I’ve made a few notes of anything for action, I take the dogs out for a walk. Physical movement stimulates mental agility and creative thinking. I’m very lucky. I live in the spectacular Sperrins, the largest mountain range in Ireland, spanning some 40 miles. Regardless, the same stimulation existed when I lived in Leeds, Nottingham, Denver, Stockholm, or anywhere outside my home office. Not focusing on a pair of monitors eight inches from my nose is a must and gives fresh stimulus and time to mull ideas. I might see some cool signage, a Pine Martin, a tractor rally, talk to a neighbor, or I might just think of a different way to phrase something for clarity. I wouldn’t get that at my desk, and it’s all a catalyst for creativity. A few months ago, Alison in the Post Office complained to me about the effects of the cyberattack on the UK postal service, so home I went to write a guest post about the effect on rural communities for link-building. Subconscious processing during this 'incubation period' can lead to unexpected and innovative solutions.

When I return to my desk I usually make notes and put any thoughts in ink. I have a notebook worthy of a serial killer and the search history of a domestic terrorist. If your desktop doesn’t look like Verdun, do you even work in content marketing? Writing freely each morning can clear mental clutter and spark new ideas. It might not be relevant today, but in 6 months’ time, it could be the seed for an entire campaign or a white paper on whatever. My partner calls it “Dopermining,” but even when I watch TV in the evening, I hit Wikipedia or IMDB to “find out more.”

NB: ALWAYS write an idea down, or at least take a screen grab or leave the tab open. Nearly 30 years of doing this has taught me that I won’t remember it if I don’t, even if I think I will. Give the likes of Evernote a go.

Regarding moving, I also love a standing desk and have been using one for decades. This is my current setup:

Which brings me on to:

Building a Creative Workspace

A sedentary body is a sedentary mind. Also, it’s bad for the waistline.

I spend at least half the day upright at my desk, some of that getting my steps in with an under-desk treadmill, tapping away about all things cybersecurity. Standing lets me step back and gives me a different perspective. The rest of the time, I sit on an exercise ball. This means I don’t have to move the treadmill, and it’s great for posture, so I’m not bending over my keyboard like a croissant. I appreciate that not everyone can afford the luxury of a desk like this, but I began with a bit of DIY and a wireless keyboard. Get creative. This is how I started many moons ago, with a bit of spare pine bolted to an adjustable shelf.

If you don’t work from home, ask about a change in your environment come appraisal time. Agencies, especially, are often surprisingly amenable to the idea of a communal standing hot desk, and Ikea does some low-budget starter packages that won’t break the bank. During COVID we got a "home office payment," so I bought a secondhand Flexispot base from Facebook Marketplace and a bit bit of nice oak for esthetics, which I'm still using today. In total, it cost me about £250, but it is a REALLY nice bit of oak. The treadmill was partially bought with Amazon vouchers from some VO work I did for a friend.

Sometimes it’s good to take a step back. Surround yourself with colours, books, objects, and artwork that inspire you. Structure your space in a way that stimulates and doesn't stifle your thinking. If you can, have a view with a window nearby. Changing scenery or rearranging your workspace can shift your mental state and stimulate creativity. Yes, sometimes I do play with those action figures in work time.

While I’m working I listen to an eclectic array of music and podcasts. I even watch YouTube or BritBox (but nothing I have to concentrate on) on my iPad. Don’t limit yourself to your usual – try Nordic Folk, Polynesian Pop, Trance, Frank Zappa, Ganstergrass, or someone else's playlist made for running around a castle at midnight or selling your soul at the crossroads at midnight. Feel free to have a root through my playlists on Spotify. Staying in your comfort zone defeats the purpose.

Weekly Internals

Once a week we have a marketing dept. team call, and I solicit ideas and suggestions for gaps in our assets catalogue. I also ask for anything for our weekly internal newsletter (all the what’s new and fluff that’s good for LinkedIn sharing) that they’ve produced and invite contributions for proofreading and brand compliance, which all come under my remit. I also attend the big weekly sales pow-wow because nine times out of ten it stimulates an idea or another usage case, plus it keeps me on the sales team's radar. I can't create a conversation if I’m not a part of the conversation.

Regular collaboration with team members can ignite fresh ideas. Engaging with colleagues from different areas of the business can provide new perspectives. Figurative speaking, I'll turn up to the opening of an envelope if there might be a story in it.

Here's an infamous anecdote I’m paraphrasing from my old boss, Trevor, at Tank PR:

“I worked with a veteran PR guy who would sit in the loading bay at his company. He’d sit there every so often and just watch. Eventually, he’d spot something, like a pallet going to Zimbabwe or a special order going to New Zealand, and he’d have his story.”

Leveraging Technology for Creativity

Platforms like MindMeister allow us to visually organise our ideas. Tools like Feedly can help us stay updated on the latest trends and inspiration.

While not directly a creativity tools, Zapier or HeyData's automation of repetitive tasks can free up time and mental energy, allowing content marketers to focus more on the creative aspects of our work. Admittedly somewhat whimsical, if you're stuck for a blog or content ideas Portent generates suggestions based on keywords, often sparking inspiration for unique angles - especially for SEO content. While primarily a grammar-checking tool, the free version of Grammarly can also help in refining the tone and style of writing, aiding us brain-weary content monkeys in crafting compelling text – infinite monkeys, infinite typewriters.

AI is fried-gold and, with the right input, can be brilliant in generating creative content and providing innovative ideas – see this post for more on that.

There's a lot of good resources out there, and ten minutes on Pinterest, Behance, or 99Designs can get the creative juices flowing if you're looking for infographic ideas or new ways of displaying data.

The Creative Block

Even though professional work is driven by process and necessity, it can happen to the best of us.

Recognise what might be causing the block and address it. This invariably involves introspection and some observation of my work habits and mental state. Considering factors like recent stressors, unrealistic expectations, fear of failure, fear of "the unknown" when you write a lot of technical content like I do, the need for stimulus, or even external distractions - any of these may be inhibiting our creativity. Reflecting on changes in our routine or environment, and assessing how we feel about the project itself, can often illuminate underlying issues that have led to staring at the screen for the last fifteen minutes. Sometimes this raises an inner tut, and I realize I'm just procrastinating and need to break a big task down into smaller tasks so that I can crack on.

Often, stepping away for a while can bring back creativity and give me a fresh angle. Trying painting, baking, new tools, online Dungeons and Dragons, or playing music can all unlock hidden creativity. New experiences and cultures provide a fresh perspective.

The most surprising insights can come from unexpected places. I find that creativity often thrives in a non-linear way, and exploring new avenues can help us reconnect with our creative flow and find the spark we need to continue our project. Turning things around and considering new approaches is good practice: Take, for example, this video, where I embraced and highlighted the limitations rather than looking to create the standard case study assets.

Go for lunch with younger or older colleagues outside your departmental bubble. Brainstorm, or just chat. Sometimes, a fresh perspective from a workmate or friend can provide the spark needed to break through a creative impasse. Speak aloud to the dog; vocalisation is underrated. New ways of looking at things, and new insights, are all around us.

Putting too much pressure on yourself for the perfect idea can stifle creativity. Embrace a growth mindset, recognising that mistakes and imperfections are part of the creative process. There's plenty of opportunity to polish things later. Instead of fixating on a single solution, try to generate a multitude of ideas. Embrace thinking that doesn't follow a straight path and allow yourself to explore possibilities.

Techniques such as the Six Thinking Hats or SCAMPER can provide a structured approach to thinking creatively, guiding us through the different angles and aspects of a problem.

An old boss, Aliza, suggested mindfulness during one of our podcasts. She’s written books on the subject. Mindfulness practices can help clear mental clutter, allowing new ideas to surface. As a white Gen X male from Lancashire, I didn't consider the benefit until I was challenged to try it. Meditation, in whatever form makes us comfy, helps nurture a state of relaxed attention where our creativity can flourish. Stop. Clear your mind. Give ideas a chance.

Embrace The Creative Journey

Staying creative as a content marketer isn't just about sudden sparks of brilliance. It's about cultivating an environment, both within and around you, that continuously nurtures and encourages creative thinking. Sometimes it’s about attitude – it’s not writing twenty FAQs for SEO; it’s a fresh crop of word puzzles that must be conquered. Whether adopting new daily habits, restructuring your workspace, collaborating with others, or embracing new tools, remember that creativity isn't a finite resource. It's a renewable energy that thrives on curiosity, exploration, and a willingness to experiment.

Sure, it’s work, but when I publish a piece of research I’m proud of or something of genuine value to our target audience and picked up for syndication, it feels like more than work. Embrace the wonderful chaos of professional creativity. Let it lead you down unexpected paths, open up new doors, and fill your content with the kind of humanized energy and originality that resonates with your audience.

The road to inspiration is wide open, and it's ours to travel. Now I just have to practice what I preach.

Using Content Marketing to Win Trust and Investment

2023-07-26T11:17:00.030+01:00

Content marketing has evolved beyond a trending and nebulous buzzword to a recognized and pivotal pillar in modern marketing. Its potential to foster trust, authenticity, and authority isn't a newfound revelation, and it’s entirely possible to create content that won’t just entice customers, but will also hook those potential investors.

External Influence to Self-Controlled Narrative

Historically, journalists, PR agents, and external representatives largely dictated the media narrative. While this offers credibility, it also presents vulnerability — especially if your brand isn't currently 'in the limelight.’

Content marketing turns the tables, allowing brands to carve out their own narrative. By doing so, it hands the reins to internal “experts,” like me, enabling us to produce and harness owned media. This control establishes undeniable industry leadership and expertise, coming with a clear brand voice, an opinion, standards, and a narrative – just as all good content should.

Lets' presume we already have a killer elevaror pitch, a biblical business plan, and can adequatly articulate our reasons for approaching any potential investor, and crack on...

The Investor Audience

Who these people are depends on your industry, and just as we would create personas for buyers, it’s a good idea to create character sheets for the folks who hold the future purse strings and to know what exactly is going to make them see your company as a solid bet.

Making content with resonance means having an understanding of the diverse motivations of potential backers. Who are these people with magical unicorn money and angel wings? Unless you know you can’t personalize content, and a scattergun is rarely as effective as a rifle when bagging these mythical birds. While we're promoting our vision to them, we need to know their unique drivers.

Far from a definitive representation, here are a few basic folks you might consider, paraphrasing personas I’ve used for this in the past. If you know your targets you can even consider boosting relevent content through some targeted social advertising. Different sizes, motivations, targets, wants, and needs:

Enthusiastic Emma

Emma (or Em2 to her friends) is deeply entrenched in our industry. Her Gen X and well-established perspective is invaluable, whether professional experience or through a genuine connection with our product. She goes to trade shows to catch up with old friends and colleagues, and is probably (at least) aware of our directorship and business players. While she might not invest directly, her expansive Filofax could usher in potential backers. Share business expertise in social channels and credit folks she probably respects already. If she’s published, how about reviewing one of her books? However, recognize that industry familiarity doesn’t always equate to embracing innovation, and be sure that any business ideas are articulated very clearly, highlighting its unique angle in the market.

Boardroom Brian

Juggling the intricacies of the investment landscape, boomer Brian meticulously manages a diverse portfolio of opportunities on behalf of various investors - or, he could work for a single investment firm looking for opertunities and gaps in their squillian dollar portfolio. With an innate ability to spot emerging trends and an eagle eye for under-the-radar prospects, he blends caution with calculated risk. Brian is an opportunity of opportunities. For Brian, every investment is not just a transaction but a proud testament to his unwavering commitment to maximizing returns and fortifying trust amongst the investors or the company he represents. Brian reads the investment press, likes seeing numbers, spends time with his grandkids, plays golf, and appreciates good Irish whisky.

Strategic Steve

Mr. Steve is a serial investor with a decent track record of success, and the allure of tax reliefs like the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) for start-ups has got him thinking. We need to familiarize ourselves with EIS & SEIS benefits and articulate the perks they offer, while obviously underscoring our venture's inherent value and ROI. Steve believes in diversifying his portfolio. After investing in our vision, he might swiftly transition to another opportunity, preferring a hands-off approach. Regular communication is vital. While he may not always respond, our updates keep him in the loop, and we need to show him we’re out and about, touting our wares and bigging up his investment. Initially he's going to want to see growth in the market, and that we fulfil an obvious business need and plug a gap that our competitiors can't.

Mentorship Mandy

Mandy’s vast experience is a veritable rhodium mine. Her insights can be transformative - whether she's directly from our sector or possesses overarching competencies like legal or sales enablement. Maybe credibility and accountability are important to her, and she wants to see how we treat our people and know our ethics before investing or offering her support. Maybe, thanks to our transparency, she can see a gap where she could make a difference. She's going to want to get involved rather than invest money, and (if that's what you need) her value is incalculable.

Institutional Ikshula

Operating funds and meticulously scouting investment opportunities defines Ikshula. Her structured approach is matched by her expectation of entrepreneurs - it's her money, after all. Transparency is a big factor, and Ikshula wants to see the numbers and the people - or her chequebook is staying in her pocket. She knows there are plenty of other opportunities, so she wants to see the ROI and our position/movement in the market. Showcase your professionalism and don't let it slip - she'll probably take a spelling mistake personally.

Chris Crypto

Chris is new to business investment but has a chunk of capital, burning a hole in their Gen Z crypto-wallet. Just because they're new doesn’t mean they're not shrewd, and Chris wants to know if their investment is going to turn into gold. They want to see how the company is growing already and wants to know who and what they're investing in. They are tech-savvy, but show them the money. They might enjoy some of the kudos from being involved, but show them what other investors and stakeholders are getting out of their investments. Show it in a “Millennial way” and in the investment channels where they consume their news and information.

Investors who groove with your content see you as a beacon of expertise and “a safe bet.”

This perception raises your brand's credibility and can unlock decent investment opportunities. Trust me, I’ve seen this work for previous brands and companies I’ve worked with. I've just seen a previous company I worked for is being bought for $3.6B, thanks Brian, which was our overall and ongoing content marketing strategy and what's promoted this post.

It’s also basic psychology:

Passionately Broadcast (from the diaphragm)

Like attracting clients, magnetizing investors necessitates broadcasting your expertise and zeal. Here we should be crafting content that reflects the business's leadership and fervor, appealing to investors who align with the business's aspirations. Stand out and have opinions, or fade into the background.

Disseminating our content to potential investors using digital platforms like emails or LinkedIn groups, or even publishing ghostwritten articles by leadership onto the inherent LinkedIn publishing platform, is now a must. Having active social channels for both the business and its C-suite demonstrates transparency and improves credibility – they must, however, be active and of genuine value, even if an organization's marketing team manages some of this and calls for content and expertise from across the wider org.

Investors will want to see certain documentation as part of the mix, such as success stories, appearance in any prominent awards (think Gartner, Forrester, or high-profile industry-specific), and a company ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance – including diversity and sustainability) report. They will appreciate insight into what’s going on behind the curtain and how the company supports and retains staff/expertise – knowing that any business is so oftern the sum total of its workforce experience and commitment.

Make it Personal

People invest in people. Go first-person, from one of the founders or the MD.

Don’t rely on a team member who could take their voice with them, go direct to the horse's mouth. Even if everything they create is ghostwritten, it doesn’t matter. Even if you script video interviews and podcast opportunities for them. Personality sells and gives investors reassurance in having a face attached to the brand, in the organization's in-house expertise, in where and how the company sits in the market, and in its consistency. If they have even a glimmer of personality and/or sense of delivery, get them some media training and push them into the limelight.

Having an opinion and making statements in conjunction with news-jacking/PR activities is great here, as the individual can write or speak on topics that have real value and showcase their (the business) thought leadership credentials. From panel discussions to external fire-side chats, using that person will be a big part of raising brand awareness and adding credibility for investors.

Fluff The Narrative with Data

Investors love numbers, so if you have numbers make them part of the PR story.

“We produced 2M more bottles of chili sauce this year!”
“We mitigated a massive DDoS attack of 2.54 Tbps!”
“Our Stockholm team has doubled in size to 500 employees in Q3 2023!”
“We now have data centers in 40 locations worldwide.”
“In our first four years, we've never lost a single member of staff.”

You get the idea. While enthusiasm sparks interest, tangible facts and concrete evidence cement trust.

Any investor-centric data content should ideally include the following:

Demonstrable expertise that assures investors of our capabilities.
Comprehensive research underscoring our proposition's market relevance.
Highlighting what sets us apart in our specific marketplace.

Effectively answering these will intrigue investors and (critically) convince them of a venture's viability.

Cultivating Investor Relations

Just like clients, investors vest their faith and finance in our vision.

Post-investment, it's good practice to engage and reassure them continually. Regularly update them about our venture's trajectory, spotlighting how their investment or support is amplifying our overarching vision. If necessary, give them their own Investors newsletter, even if it’s only going out to a handful of people, with gentle encouragement and easy links to share our other content with a wider audience.

Be Ready

Naturally, organizations should anticipate presenting investors with a comprehensive business blueprint, with all those essential financial terminologies, promotional tactics, fiscal forecasts, and market insights so beloved by those who hold the purse strings.

More often, an ESG is now part of the content mix. Investors are canny to greenwashing and want to see a genuine effort by companies to be ethical, address outstanding ESG issues, and promote change from within. They want to know, prior to any commitment, that a business is sustainable and addressing the likes of gender equality and LGBTQ rights in the workplace. An ESG takes time and research and usually involves many stakeholders across assorted sectors of the org. so get the ball rolling ASAP. According to HCCA, 82% of workers say they’d prefer to be paid less and work for a company with ethical business practices than receive higher pay at a company with questionable ethics, so this is usually good messaging regardless. No one wants to find out they’ve invested in a company that has a sweatshop of coders in another country, pumps raw sewage into the local river, or has an MD with a history of wire fraud.

Remember, they probably also have their own accountants to placate, and they'll want to scrutinize indicators like expenditure rate, anticipated expansion, cost of securing new customers, and profit margins, to the nth degree. This is standard content fare and will be the backbone of any engagement once the process moves forwards. I invariably get roped into this to humanize it, roll it in graphical glitter, proof copy, and liaise with any designers involved. Have it ready before you even start content marketing for investors, and make it good.

A nurtured investor relationship can amplify a brand's credibility, potentially attracting more patrons, akin to satisfied clients becoming brand advocates.

In essence, genuine passion, complemented by a well-executed content strategy, with a backbone or relevant ready ephemera, can nurture the right investment opportunities and help to maintain long-term investor relationships.

Content is what people see – make sure investors are seeing what they need.

How to Create Customer Personas for Content Marketing

2023-05-12T18:09:00.049+01:00

One of the questions I ask in a client or personal interview, when they invariably say, “Do you have any questions,” is “Who’s the target audience.” I can’t count the number of times I get a bunch of job titles and the words “People who want our product,” especially in my years in agency life, and that’s never enough. Invariably, it falls on Muggins, on day one, to start creating customer personas. Don’t get me wrong, I love this part and get a lot of inspiration from it, but so many companies don’t have this in place already, especially smaller companies.

Google loves copy that fulfills customer intent, and who that customer is and what they want is the strategic backbone of the creative marketing process. Guessing is just throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks, and that’s a waste of my time. If I don’t know who our target audience is, I can’t talk to them, and I don’t know what’s going to make them care. I can’t write a Solution Brief if I don’t know the pain points.

Crafting customer personas is like writing D&D character sheets for the people I’m aiming to serve with an organization's products and services, so admittedly comes somewhat naturally, and I rather enjoy the process. Any content marketing or social media strategy should start with a chapter on who the customer personas are, then a chapter on the brand values and voice, and everything after that should be influenced by these insights.

So, here’s how I go about it:

Dive Into Discovery

Start with a healthy dose of professional curiosity.

Some of this information can be teased from the existing company CMO and marketing team, but unless this work has already been done, this tends to be anecdotal and may be out of date. Going to the numbers and the source is always best. Making a fresh start will give fresh insights, and the process will stimulate ideas for campaigns and let you see any gaps in existing content assets.

I often use social media analytics, which can tell me the basics of who our friends and followers are, highlight the brand evangelists who may be more open to a survey or a chat, and give some clues as to what customers care about.

Quizzing the sales team is a good start, plus it puts you on their radar if they have other insights down the line. Plus, it’s the sales team who can help to arrange that valuable heart-to-heart Zoom with an existing buyer, and a good 1-to-1 is worth twenty people filling out some sterile form – no matter how personable you try to make it or what reward you offer for completion. Focus groups are a gold mine in this respect, but most SMEs don’t easily see the value and don’t usually have the finances to make that happen.

Here are just a few of the questions I like to ask and some things I like to know:

Demographic Information:

Age, gender, location, education level, occupation, income level – most of this I can get by connecting on LinkedIn before any meeting, which saves the inevitable weirdness factor of getting “too personal.”

Behavioral Patterns:

What problem does the product or service solve for them?

How often do they use the product or service?

If it’s not them, who actually uses the product or service day-to-day?

What features of the product or service do they use the most?

How do they usually purchase/do their research (online, in-store, etc.)?

Are they repeat customers or one-time buyers?

Psychographics:

What are their hobbies and interests?

What values are important to them?

What are their goals and aspirations?

What challenges or pain points do they face in their daily professional lives?

What are the big professional concerns for them right now?

Customer Journey:

How did they first hear about the product or service?

What factors influenced their decision to purchase, and who else was involved in the purchase process?

What was their purchasing experience like?

Have they recommended the product or service to anyone else?

Who has the final buying decision in their organization?

Feedback and Preferences:

What do they like most about the product or service?

What improvements or changes would they suggest?

What are their preferences in terms of product features, customer service, and communication?

Loyalty and Engagement:

Are they part of any loyalty program the brand offers?

How do they prefer to be contacted for promotions or updates (email, social media, popping ‘round for a cuppa, etc.)?

What kind of content or offers are they most interested in?

Do they visit industry events, and if so, which?

Technology Usage:

What devices do they use to access content (mobile, desktop, tablet)?

Are they active on social media? If so, which platforms?

Expectations and Future Needs:

What are their expectations from our brand in the future?

Are there any upcoming needs or challenges they anticipate where the product or service could help?

You get the gist, I’m sure. What you ask is likely to be product-dependent and should be influenced by who you’re talking to, obviously.

Group With Care

To further continue the analogy, it's like putting together the perfect D&D party.

Crank up XL, and find the common threads that link your customers/personas together. It could be young parents who love technology or retirees who are travel enthusiasts. Maybe it's time-poor middle-aged CISOs with staffing shortages or Dwarven barbarians with a fondness for real ale and with anger management issues.

Start to group these traits to begin forming the outlines of personas and give them names sourced from their age/gender/preference demographics and regional info. You might find 'Eco-friendly Eddie,' 'Techy Talli,' or 'Budget-conscious Beatrice' starting to take shape with surprisingly little effort.

Bring Personas to Life

Another favorite part of the process is sketching out the personas with names, faces, and stories.

Imagine 'Gourmet Gordon,' who’s all about the latest cooking trends and follows Jamie Oliver, or 'Adventurous Atina,' who’s always on the hunt for her next thrill and has the Instagram account to prove it. Detail their goals, like finding the perfect espresso machine or a tent that won’t quit in a storm, and their pain points, perhaps 'Gordon' hates complex instructions, and ' Atina' can’t stand slow delivery times.

Go to MidJourney, and craft each one a profile picture to help the rest of your team visualize who they are – all in the same style. Give them some flavor, it’ll help to humanize them for our other team members and for us to see them as more than numbers. What car do they drive? What TV shows do they watch? Where do they get their news? Keep it accurate and based on the numbers, but roll them in a bit of creative glitter.

Get Team Input

Start with the main stakeholders one at a time. An initial free-for-all of opinions is no good for the process. Once you’ve got some initial insights, roll your persona portraits out with everyone else, especially those who chat with customers daily or run the likes of PPC campaigns. They can add splashes of color and texture to our ‘characters’ with their own sub-departmental insights and their firsthand experiences.

This will generate a ton of notes and new ideas, perfect for rounding the personas off into useful assets.

Take Them Out for a Test Run

Take the finished NPC out for a level 1 adventure. Put the personas to the test in real-world scenarios to be sure they truly capture the essence of the audience segments.

In <inset situation>, how would <insert persona> respond? How would 'Gourmet Gordon' react to Black Friday Deals or 10% off if they were prompted to sign up for your newsletter? Would 'Adventurous Atina' want to get involved in a photo competition, and how would they react to a server outage?

Here's the place where we can also start crafting a few headlines for the brand content they'd be likely to respond to favorably. Think what posts 'Gourmet Gordon' can’t wait to read or video that's good how-to value to 'Adventurous Atina.' The scenarios should be product/service and brand dependent, and opening the exercise to the rest of the teams can give some interesting ideas.

Use Your Personal Wisely

With our personas as our muses, we can let them guide our content marketing adventure and customer service approach - and more, even product design. It's all about creating experiences that resonate personally with each character in our party – because making it personal makes players come back to the table, adds that feeling of involvement, and with an eye to their backstory, it makes for memorable games/campaigns.

I’m probably taking this analogy too far… But we should now have a much clearer idea of their wants, needs, intent, and expectations, which means we can be of genuine value to our actual audience. This means our content has a far greater chance of being consumed, shared, and being of actual significance to our prospects - helping to make a relationship and steer them through the purchase process by putting the things they give a damn about (sympathetically) under their noses.

Keep Them Fresh

Over time, people change, and charters go up levels, and so should our personas.

Regularly add new details, touch up the backgrounds, and add new elements to keep them fresh. Creating personas isn't a one-time thing, but an ongoing process that evolves with business developments and market trends.

Summing Up

Crafting customer personas for content marketing is an important (and hopefully rewarding) process that should tap into creativity and strategic thinking. It involves a deep dive into discovery, gathering demographic, behavioral, psychographic, customer journey, feedback, loyalty, technology usage, expectations, and the future needs of any audience.

This process is more than just collecting data, it’s also about understanding the heart and soul of our customers and their motivations. The aim is to form rich, detailed personas representing real audience segments. This brings a human element to marketing strategies, making sure that content resonates deeply with the intended people, making it more effective and authentic. Ultimately, these personas should become the creative benchmarks and influencers of any content marketing or social media strategy.

Using AI for Content Marketing: Early Thoughts and Findings

2023-02-26T10:34:00.097+00:00

I write for a living.

I am not now, nor ever will be, any kind of an expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

I write ad copy, technical documentation, and scripts for explainer content. I create infographics, edit videos, produce podcasts, and run the full content marketing gamut from social media to PPC advertising. I've been doing this for over 25 years, and I currently work in-house for a well know cybersecurity provider.

Since November last year, my output has changed dramatically; I’ve been using AI tools to support our content marketing efforts.

However, using AI is a bit like editing sound: You put shit in, you get shit out.

Words

AI has come a long way in the last few months. No longer just words of caution from the pen of Heinlein or Gibson, AI can produce high-quality content virtually indistinguishable from that of flesh and blood writers. This is down to how one uses AI and how we create prompts (instructions) rather than a natural ability for AI to write in an approachable way. I hear a lot of people say that AI (I use the new ChatGPTPlus) is instantly recognizable because it talks in a passive voice. There’s an answer to this, as with pretty much all current gripes about AI textual output. Tell it not to.

Here’s an example of the most basic and first prompt I use in ChatGPT for creating text content for work:

“Please act as a B2B copywriter. You will write in a positive and active voice. Your copy will be <brand trait>, <brand trait>, and <brand trait>. It will also be original and innovative. It will be targeted at experienced <target persona> and <target persona>, and should be of genuine value to this audience. It will use terminology with which they are accustomed. Each article or post you write should contain sub-headings of major points, and bulleted lists of sub-points or actions. Please expand on any content with real-world examples and/or citation (as appropriate), providing URLs to further reading if possible. Please write in American English, and finish your writing with a fleuron.”

One can even afford a few affectations: Notice how I always say “please,” just in case it’ll spare me during the AI/robo uprising? I also ask for an indicator that the AI has finished writing because, in longer-form content, it’s necessary to type “please continue” to get past character limits, so I like to clearly know when it's come to an end.

I’d consider this the very basic of prompts and start every new chat with something along these lines. Then I go into what I want the AI to do after giving it its “mode of operation” and voice. “Create me an 800-word blog post worthy of Mordor,” etc. Usually, this will include additional instructions like SEO keywords I want it to cover, topics or solutions I want it to touch on or consider, specific industries I want it to research, or whatever. Yes, I do edit any output - pretty thoroughly. I insert more brand voice, add product value to blog posts on general topics, sprinkle in a bit of appropriate levity, add hyperlinks, further relevant information based on my general topic knowledge, I might play with the tense, add a bit more SEO glitter (if needed), and often whole paragraphs of additional content where the AI has inspired me to do so. I sometimes turn back to ChatGPT to “please expand on <blah>,” “please explain <technical term/concept>,” or “please rewrite this in <blah> number of characters,” and I’ll always fact-check any references, technical output, or legal standards that it provides. AI has become my collaborator and writing partner, and (right now) that's definitely the way to get the best results. If you’d like to see more prompts like the one above, I heartily recommend the splendid work of Maximilian Vogel, and there's tonnes of stuff on GitHub (including prompts for writing code, etc.). Remember, any copywriter won’t be able to give you what you want if the brief is poor, so learn how to prompt before you expect usable results. You can dip into anything written on the TrueFort blog since January to see some examples.

Also, try things like “Optimize <sentence> to 75 characters to use as a LinkedIn ad description,” "Please give me some ideas for blog posts targeted at <persona>, discussing their most important professional concerns,” or once it already has your traits and targets (and maybe even existing sample messaging) “Please create six attention-grabbing call-to-action messages, and buttons, for a landing page on <blah> where we want visitors to <action>." The functionality is only limited by your input. Even if it’s not immediately what you’re looking for, I guarantee some of the output will be a catalyst for other ideas. Seriously - go play - the basics are free, and my new “Plus” plan is only $20pcm. Plus is available during peak traffic (which seems to be all the time of late), has a much faster response speed, and I get priority access to new versions and features.

I’ve started using it in other ways to help my day-to-day, such as asking it to summarize a page of web content or “Please rewrite <text, or even a URL> in a more accessible or more targeted way.” I’d estimate that using ChatGPT is already saving me around two hours every day, and that’s valuable time I need to get my job done. As anyone in content marketing will testify, short of time travel or cloning, there can never be enough hours in the day. If the ROI of using a tool like this has a productivity saving of two or more hours on a writing day, and you show that ROI and the optimized output to your CMO, I guarantee they’ll find 20 bucks a month in their budget. Mine did.

In support of any output, I also run everything through Grammarly. Mainly to check I’m using American spelling (which doesn’t always come naturally) as I go along, and to check for duplicate online content for SEO purposes.

Already, I’m more inclined to use ChatGPT as a point of reference rather than Google, as I can ask it specific questions about, for example, controlling lateral movement and adopting zero trust best practices, rather than rely on Google pulling back other people's marketing content or, more annoyingly, my own. I’ve actually added a simple web link to my iPhone home screen.

Pictures

Again, check out our blog. Every single header image (since November) has been generated with MidJourney.

This text-to-picture artificial intelligence service empowers users to create art, from (virtually) photo-realistic to the work of Hieronymus Bosch, based on text descriptions. It’s far from intuitive to use, with a plethora of optional fields and seemingly zero instruction manual. It also uses Discord as an interface, so it’s all new unless you’re fourteen years old or an online gamer (which, thankfully, I am). I dipped into MidJourney a while ago to generate images for our online D&D games but soon ran out of the credits needed to make more artwork. A small investment, however, has meant my VTT players now have the perfect graphical representation of who or what I’m thinking.

More recently, I've begun to use this for work.

Putting this in the context of ROI again, MidJourney is $8 a month and takes me 30 seconds to get what I need (content, aspect ratio, angle, depth of field, etc.). In contrast, Shutterstock is $19 a month, takes at least 20 minutes to find what I need, and that will invariably be a compromise. UnSplash and Pixabay have limited assets - and are even worse time vampires. MidJourney is the very definition of disruptive innovation.

For the imagery on our blog, I augment the results with Photoshop to get that distinctive duotone that is our ongoing brand style, but otherwise, the output is perfect. We use a lot of perspectives and patterns in our imagery, and it replicates and topic in this style seamlessly. I’ve also used it in other ways, such as asking for suggestions for convention badges and custom art for mood boards (after uploading our logo and existing brand imagery) or asking it to suggest layouts for infographics.

Learning how to prompt isn’t immediately intuitive, and at first, I had to trawl around forums and communities, hoping someone would throw me a bone. I found the work of Lars Nielsen, Kris Kashtanova, and Guy Parsons very helpful. MidJourney will also test your visual chops above and beyond the subject matter itself, and I've found that my experience with photography, graphic design, and film work has helped a lot in creating prompts. It responds best to camera directions (symmetrical, low-angle, full-body shot, cinematic still shot, etc.), art movements (minimalist, film-noir, brutalist, pop art, etc.), F/stops, lighting types, and styles of photography (landscape, underwater, tilt-shift, still life, etc.). It even responds to prompts detailing the different types of camera you want to replicate (Nikon D850, disposable camera, Polaroid, Canon EOS R, etc.) with added lens types (telephoto, wide-angle, 85mm, neutral density filter, etc.). You also try directors in the prompt, such as “in the style of Sergio Leone” or “in the style of Wong Kar Wai” for that elusive mise-en-scène, so that quinquennial paying off loans from film school might have been worth it after all.

Predictions

AI video is still in its infancy, but it’ll probably be as early as 2024 when we start to see script-to-explainer video content hit the market. Text to AI-voice and AI audio leveling/editing are already commonplace. I expect us to see a lot of content support-specific AIs turning up in the next few months as the industry realizes the potential and the developers who were victims in the recent spate of Silicon Valley redundancies get to grips with the associated APIs. Expect a crop of low-budget filler, but watch out for the unexpected coming from home developers - building their own Jarvis on any old skip-scrounged kit that’ll run Python.

Also, expect some serious low-quality copy and a fall in news standards in the form of “black hat journalism.” It’s a simple matter of linking a few APIs to automatically write and publish magazine-style content to a cobbled-together portal for skimming off those referral link dollars. Without good prompting and some appropriate manual editing, we’re going to see some mediocre bollocks that’ll put a black mark on AI's journalistic copybook - and the real press will (justifiably) rush to point fingers and scoff.

Quality content is king. Google has already made a statement about this, but clearly says it has no problem with AI if the copy is of genuine value and will “reward high-quality content, however it is produced.”

Nation-state bad actors and hacktivist are going to ride ChatGPT like a pony, all the way down the misinformation highway to QAnonville. Now anyone can write copy and code, at volume, and the code side of AI functionality is bound to grow even faster as code writes codes. Brace for automated factual disruption on a Brobdingnagian scale. Throw in a couple of Deepfakes, and the 2024 US election is going to be a disinformation masterclass.

Obligatory call to action

Honestly, I think our industry needs to get on board, or we’ll be left on the dock.

I’m not saying human-generated content is dead, far from it, but a human/AI collaboration in a business environment feels productive, and creative, and it’s already happening.

We should look at AI now and consider how it can make what we do more efficient. It’s the copywriters, PR peeps, and content creators who don’t take an interest and don’t integrate AI into their workloads who will find themselves on the sidelines in favor of the people who do. I have a couple of extra hours of additional capacity a day because I know how to use the tools; why would you give my job to someone who doesn’t? Have we reached the point where we should be sharing the by-line with an AI? No, not yet, but I bet we're only a year away from Elon trying to charge us for a tick to prove we're flesh and blood. Expect "prompting" (or whatever they'll call it) to become a part of media courses in the very near future, but those joining University courses in '23 may well be training for jobs that won't exist when they graduate. Things are moving fast, the ball is already rolling, and we can’t stand by like print journalism once did, denying the inevitable.

❦

The Post-Brexit Future of UK Digital Data Standards and GDPR

2021-08-30T11:00:00.001+01:00

I spend a lot of time researching and writing about cybersecurity and the digital landscape. It's become increasingly apparent that, in the aftermath of Brexit, the UK is embarking upon interesting and challenging times regarding data security.

Compliance, in particular, will be a key issue in the months to come. In June 2021 the UK was awarded two adequacy decisions - one under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the other with reference to the EU Law Enforcement Directive. These decisions allow for the free flow of personal data to and from the European Union and the UK. Further, the UK currently benefits from an (essentially) equivalent level of protection to that which is guaranteed under EU law. In light of this, the UK must be cautious regarding any changes to its current data regime in order to avoid disrupting the EU-UK adequacy decision (if it wishes to maintain the benefits of this status in the future). The EU’s official approval of the UK’s data standards is vital for many businesses that operate across borders (notably in Ireland/Northern Ireland) and around the world, where the frictionless movement of personal data is critical to international trade and operations.

In a recent announcement regarding the UK government’s plans to reform its data laws, Oliver Dowden CBE (currently serving as Secretary of State for my old employer the Dept. of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport) stated, “It means reforming our own data laws so that they’re based on common sense, not box-ticking”, and that the UK will aim to reduce “unnecessary barriers and burdens” to sharing data with non-EU countries, including the United States and South Korea. As a part of its digital renovation, the UK has further confirmed plans to boost the legal status of digital identities - to make them as widely recognized as driver’s licenses and bank statements.

In reply, EU Commission spokesperson for Rule of Law, Christian Wigand, commented that the EU will be closely monitoring any changes in UK data law, adding that: “In case of problematic developments that negatively affect the level of protection found adequate, the adequacy decision can be suspended, terminated or amended, at any time by the Commission.”

The UK government has further made it known that it is conducting a public consultation on its new, post-Brexit, data protection practices. Whether this will mean that England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland might move away from the UK General Data Protection Regulation is currently unclear, though many other countries appear keen to follow the basic principles of EU GDPR as a framework for data standards in order to facilitate the flow of international business data. Oliver Dowden, on behalf of the UK government, has further announced that their preferred candidate for future Information Commissioner, head of the UK data protection regulator, will be John Edwards, who is currently Privacy Commissioner (OPC) for New Zealand, a country that also holds a working adequacy decision with the EU - possibly implying a wary approach to ongoing adequacy compliance.

There will certainly be a balance to be achieved if the UK wishes to maintain business and consumer trust, on which the growth of their post-Brexit digital economy will depend, and if they also wish to be seen to cater to some of the more flexible and emerging digital markets. For now, things will remain as they are, but it's part of my job to keep a very close eye on developments and I'll report and react accordingly. Watch this space.

Ransomware: To pay or not to pay?

2021-07-11T10:42:00.004+01:00

If your company is the victim of a ransomware attack, should you pay your attacker? This one caused a bit of controversy when I wrote this for work, so I'm posting it here under the umbrella of "my personal opinion - on your own head be your final choice in this matter - don't sue me."

This isn’t an easy question to answer. It’s one thing to say “No, never pay a ransom”, but it’s another thing entirely to stare at the flashing lights of a data encryption hijack, with no immediate way of recovering essential data and your payment records and invoicing system crippled by malware. People do pay the ransom to release their files, but should they?

In July 2020 the US business travel management company CWT Global handed over an impressive US$4.5 million in bitcoin during a ransomware attack – setting a new ransomware payment record. Not really the sort of claim to fame that a company wants.

Reasons not to pay.

In October 2020 the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released an advisory that paying ransomware ransom is now illegal, and people and companies can be fined for making payments to sanctioned hackers. Many other international law-enforcement agencies are considering similar actions, and are encouraging victims not to pay. Paying ransoms, however, is still technically not illegal in most of the world. So far we’ve not seen any evidence of enforcement of the advisory, but watch this space - It’s going to be tricky to explain to the IRS why you had to spend US$220,000 on bitcoin and where it went.

Paying a ransom encourages criminals into further criminal activity. Crime only pays if the victims pay. The more companies and individuals who pay, the more it encourages new black-hat hackers to enter the ransomware arena and launch attacks against other companies – or even a repeat attack against your company. If victims stand together and don’t pay, bad actors have no recourse other than to pack up their laptops and shuffle back to their dark web newsgroups. Is it better PR to stand firm and refuse to be bullied, standing with your fellow victims and promoting ransomware prevention best practices, than to look weak by paying for a company mistake? Very probably, and you don’t want to be seen as a target for other malware in the future.

It’s estimated that last year, over half of ransomware victims paid the ransom to restore access to their data. If your data is encrypted, the only way to reset the clock is with the hackers’ decryption key. It’s further estimated that around 20% of these people never heard anything else from their ransomers and their data stayed locked without them receiving any unlock code – essentially paying for nothing. While the percentage of organizations that recovered their data has increased, from 49% to 72% over the last 3 years [Cybersdefence Report, 2021], black hat hackers and the systems they use aren’t to be trusted. There is no guarantee of getting your data back. Hackers have also been known to further leak sensitive data for further financial rewards, regardless of payment.

Prevention is better than cure.

The average ransomware payment increased by 43% this year, to approximately US$220,000, and a company is hit by a ransomware attack every 11 seconds. There are a few cost-effective areas of preventative action that can be taken.

54% of all ransomware breaches begin with a phishing email. Digitally screen all mail, but also educate yourself and train your team on the different tactics behind a phishing attack. There are many ways hackers might attempt to fool your staff into granting them access to your network. Try running an internal simulated phishing attack across your company to get stakeholders familiar with your reporting processes and the sort of attacks they might see. Check my article, here, on how to do so. Discourage staff from visiting unapproved websites, and physically block staff from sites that have the potential to distribute malware.

Do you have a tried and tested disaster recovery plan? You should. Ransomware attacks should only be a part of this. What would you do if the phones went down? If you had a flood in the building? Or if your website was hacked? Your team needs to know the plan, who needs to do what, and what they need to do. Make sure stakeholders have a printed copy of this – there’s no point in having an encrypted disaster recovery plan in the event of a ransomware demand.

What do you do on Tuesdays? You patch. A regular and thorough software/OS patch management routine is important preventative maintenance critical for keeping machines up-to-date, stable, and safe from malware and other threats. ABP: Always Be Patching.

It's good practice for IT departments to back up company data regularly and securely, off-site. While this is by no means guaranteed, as some ransomware software has been seen to attack even (supposedly air-gapped) backed up files, it can be a help in some cases – though probably not for long as bots get more savvy and bad actors to have the time and resources to develop more sophisticated programs. Coding elements for following data to its backup resources are available for purchase on the dark web, and the black hat hacker community is not to be underestimated.

Install an anti-virus or web application firewall (WAF), Intrusion Prevention / Intrusion Detection Systems (IPS/IDS), and other controls to prevent ransomware from communicating with Command & Control centers. Cyber attackers “will penetrate the organization’s network and stay for months, sometimes years” prior to encryption, and this is the time they are vulnerable to detection and where you can prevent an attack before it happens. Also, invest in runtime application self-protection (RASP) to have protection against those known and zero-day attacks that patching may miss. Protecting with 2FA can also bolster your security posture.

Save time, stress, and tens of thousands of dollars

An attack at some point is statistically inevitable, with an all-time high of 69% of organizations having been victimized by ransomware in 2021, so spend a fraction of what you could lose on preventative measures and not on paying criminals. A small investment in time, effort, and funds right now are better than chaos later.

Hacking the Death Star: Imperial Cybersecurity 101

2021-05-04T00:01:00.032+01:00

Jokes about brute ‘Force‘ attacks aside, if we were rebel scum how would we hack the galaxies’ most secure data centre?

Today is May 4th, the traditional day for celebrating one of the greatest franchises in movie history. As such, and having a geek streak a parsec wide, we thought (at work) that it’d be fun to set ourselves a challenge. I'm an avid and weekly Star Wars RP player (Savage Worlds system - Pew Pew), so how could we plan and execute an attack against The Death Star, the galaxies’ premier evil planetoid and residential superlaser? Not wanting to get in hassle for publishing this on a company website - cease-and-desist from Disney is never a good way to start the month - I'm publishing it here.

To begin with, we’ve got to exercise our geek muscles and actually look at the Star Wars universe for clues. Hacking is known as ‘slicing’ in the Star Wars universe. Yes, I'm going to do this properly and take this way too seriously.

If there’s one thing that the films Rogue One, New Hope, and RotJ taught us, it’s that Imperial files are woefully unencrypted. No 2FA, no 32-bit encryption, just sitting there on a data stick waiting to get left on a seat in a cantina or on the number 13 transport. The files themselves aren’t going to be a problem. There’s no wi-fi in the Star Wars universe – a concept unimaginable to Mr. Lucas in 1977. Secure messages are run around the Death Star corridors by toaster-looking robots (MSE-series ‘mouse’ droids) and held on ‘code cylinders’ peeking from the top pockets of classically-trained English actors.

Datacards store and transfer data to and from datapads in the same way floppy disks and USB flash drives are/were used with computers – R2-D2 carried a Datacard with the first Death Star plans on it, given to him by Leia Solo (née: Organa, actually née Leia Amidala Skywalker) at the Battle of Tatooine.

DataCore’s are repositories of bulk information, but there appears to be little connection to them from the outside world – and as such may be air-gapped and therefore the most ‘secure’ element of the Imperial data security policy (though criminally inaccessible to off-site teams). The only cloud in which the Empire work is probably Bespin.

Data can be transmitted, however, to a ship in orbit or to another secure location – though this seems to require aligning transmission dishes, further family appropriate drama, and considerable personal sacrifice that’s best avoided.

There is also the HoloNet, as mentioned in Clone Wars and featured in SW Rebels, which appears to be an Imperial controlled broadcast network that also lets citizens look up information akin to Wikipedia and with websites, etc.

Apart from ‘radio’ communications and transmissions, it appears that everything requires physically plugging into a wall socket. It’s all quite primitive, actually, and does seem to leave the Empire prone to any Datacard or grubby R2-unit with a virus on it.

Now that we’ve set the scene we can lay out a plan, hopefully without the untimely demise of too many Bothans, using the knowledge of cybersecurity (edge, application and data) that I've crammed into my brain as ongoing writer and content creator for one of the world's largest cybersecurity providers.

Approaches:

Most Imperial staff aren’t the sharpest tools in the woodshed. Stormtroopers, the foot soldiers of the Galactic Empire, even less so. Transmitting a ‘secure’ message containing malicious code, waiting for an unsuspecting Imperial trooper to click on the latest specs in an advert for the BT-16 perimeter droid - they say it's quite a thing to see - seems a solid approach to introduce malicious code into the network: “Send us 20,000 Galactic Credits to unlock your files and data!” If only The Empire had anti-phishing training as part of their HR policy.

Imperial offices seem to have a substantially higher IQ, though the path to career progression seems somewhat unforgiving. We can, however, assume that the most intelligent, shrewd, and (possibly) security-conscious make it to Moff without being shot by the plucky proletariat or choked to death by their line manager.

These officers are better trained and unlikely to click on phishing emails. It’s possible any attack could come from within, however. Disgruntled or previous employees, perhaps now seeing the error of their ways, with legacy security codes (”It’s an older code, but it checks out”) and with default access to parts of the DataCore that may contain information inappropriate for their access level. It would be simple for such individuals to leave with classified documents (Mon Mothma herself was a former Galactic Republic Senator) or sabotage important data (like Galen Erso in Rogue One). If only The Empire had data risk analytics.

In any large organization, it’s likely that developers will use 3rd-party code, especially when on a tight deadline like the building of the second Death Star. Sometimes this leaves security teams out-of-the-loop and leaves a blind spot, making it hard for Imperial Security Officers to monitor all dependencies. It’s likely that Imperial dev teams will utilize reusable software components, developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original (Genosian) vendor, to design the likes of landing bay forcefield controls or even planetoid propulsion systems. This means there may be code making calls outside of the secure network – which is a nightmare for regulatory compliance and for possible interference from malicious Rebellion clients. If only The Empire had runtime self-protection.

Malicious code can do anything any other program can do, like writing a warning message on a screen, stopping a trash compactor program from running, setting off a claxon, or making millions of voices suddenly cry out in terror as their planet is evaporated… Without database security, it may be possible to piggyback malicious code on, for example, supply chain code or outdated security cyphers from a Lambda Shuttle requiring permission to enter the atmosphere of the forest moon of Endor. It may be introduced by an inquisitive Astromech droid, recently arrived from some back-water hive of scum and villainy, careless about where they put their malicious dongle. Malicious code could go undetected on infected Imperial systems, quietly monitoring applications and any outbound connections. Once critical information is stolen, such as personnel information, plans, or passwords, the information could then be transmitted to any attacking ground force (for example).

We can safely assume that the Death Star has a HoloNet presence, for propaganda (and possible recruitment) purposes at least - perhaps with a contractor login area. If it doesn’t it’s a tragically missed opportunity by the Galactic Empire Public Relations department (yes, that’s actually a thing). If it does then it’s going to be a prime target for attack by Rebellion slicers, who could easily use a denial of service attack - utilizing the thousands of droids, vehicles, and apps out there in the Star Wars universe to bombard the Death Star HoloNet pages with thousands of requests. This would overload the HoloNet site, crashing it or making it run slowly so that it becomes unusable and ruins the experience for normal citizens. A bit of DDoS protection wouldn't go amiss here.

One can assume the Empire has a backup plan in place against any malicious attack – unlike the Jedi who managed to lose an entire planet and appear to have no alternative storage or rollback capability. Regardless, any of the above assaults would make for unwanted disruption and embarrassment, legal issues, downtime, and a very angry Sith Lord that could be easily avoided with the right precautions. We had a lot of fun writing this.

Here’s wishing you and yours a very happy May 4th. May the odds be in your favour and may the Force be with you. Always.

Big thanks to Imperva for letting me write this in work time.

The Current State of Play

2021-03-01T10:30:00.047+00:00

This blog has become like a bidet - seldom used, and when it is used it's not for the purpose it was intended. Life in Ireland, despite Covid, has become busy. For the past 4-months I've been power-learning a new subject: Cybersecurity.

If you follow me on Twitter you'll know that I'm somewhat password paranoid, having spent an evening at the start of Lockdown 1 investigating the fringes of the Dark Web and having found my own email address and password for sale c/o a hack on my domain name provider. Sobering.

I now work for a cybersecurity software firm full time as Content Marketing Manager. This isn't a product-specific role (application security, cloud, bot, edge, whatever) like the bulk of our marketing team, but rather about creating graphical, written, video and audio content for our sales teams, customers, prospects and campaigns. This includes brand and content strategy, including social, obviously. It's interesting, uses my full skillset, and right up my street.

It's a steep product learning curve, but it's a ground-breaking company with an excellent product offering. Our new UK offices are based in Belfast, but I'm working from home in Omagh right now and the 'new normal' means location isn't a factor any more. My colleagues are awesome and it's solid and stable stuff, which counts for a lot these days. I'm feelin' like I'll be happy here indefinitely.

Northern Ireland is being very kind to me and I've no plans to return to England. I'm house hunting around Gortin, Omagh and Newtownstewart, in Co. Tyrone, for something I can turn into an AirBnB or B&B in my dotage. Fingers crossed, pending surveys and mortgage shenanigans, I hope to be in somewhere by late-spring.

My sweary Who fan podcast has had a revival, which has been fun. VTT games have replaced table-top, such is the way of things, but I'm still playing and reffing a couple of nights a week. It's a social luxury I know many people don't have and I'm always grateful for the company of good friends - back to back against the darkness. Not a lot of space here for model-making and painting, but I hope to resolve that when I move. There are other projects in the works.

No promises on any regular blog updates - life is busy. Time to shed a few Covid inches, brush up on my Premiere Pro, and embrace the DIY.

How to use Google Shopping to get Local Sales

2020-09-23T10:20:00.006+01:00

Google changed the game today, making its Google Shopping tool the daddy for retail SMEs and businesses selling locally.

When people search for things these are the pictures that appear at the top of the search results and link through to retailers sites and points of purchase. Google Shopping compares prices, etc., but now it also adds local retailers on a map and highlights who's closest to you.

Searchers can navigate to the Shopping tab, click the 'nearby' filter, and voila. They can also, and this is a far more common way of searching, add the phrase “near me” or “nearby” after whatever it is they're looking for and get localised 'crap on a map'. Brilliant for mobile searches and more and more important in modern times when people are shopping more and more locally and provenance and 'food miles' are more valued by future customers.

This is great, but actually getting your products onto Google Shopping just got super important and it's a bit of a hidden art. Here's how to get your business up and running in a few easy steps, with just an afternoon of playing in Photoshop and fiddling with your product data (depending on how many products you've got, obviously).

Step 1 - Join Google Merchant Centre.

Adding products and the whole process is done here. It's actually a pretty simple interface and this is where you add your products. Managing shopping campaigns is done through Google Ads, because they want your ad dollars, but more on that in due course.

Step 2 - It's all about the visuals, and I really can't stress this enough. Have nice imagery or die trying. Google Shopping is a visual experience, like Pinterest for bargain hunters, and this is what's going to make your artisan bath products, widgets and spares, Danish home office furniture, local history DVDs, value veg boxes, or reproduction whatever stand out from the crowd.

Google Shopping uses the images on your website to 'create' listings, so it's these images that you need to fluff appropriately for the platform. Google has it's own image guidelines which are well worth following - give them what they want, Google knows best. You will have to consider this during photography as well. A basic guide is:

Use even and clear lighting. For small stuff, you should probably invest in a light tent and a couple of teeny spots. They're buttons on eBay and some traders offer custom kits just for this purpose. A YouTube video later you'll have all the skills you need to use it properly.
If it's something like clothing show it in situ. People buy clothes more if they see them 'on body'.
Avoid overly complicated and madly coloured backgrounds. Go for white, plain grey or anything light. Keeping the product up-front and clear makes Google happy.
Show what you're selling at the right scale - it should be around 90% to 75% of the total image. You're not selling set dressing. Keep the product dominant.
No major image additions like watermarks, dissolves, blur, fancy frilly borders or whatever. Keep it super simple.

Step 3 - Set up your feeds.

With everything ready to rock it's time to get busy with Google Merchant Centre.

Next, click on Products > Feeds, and then on the blue “+” icon. Add your country and native language so that Google knows which initial demographics are going to see your wares. There's no point me going over all the particulars of how to do this when so many others already have - Google itself has a really good section on this, here. Just make sure all your input fields are full.

Step 4 - Link this account to your Google adword account.

Yes, they want your money. Google Shopping, like liberty, is not free.

At the top right-hand corner in your Mechant centre click on the three vertical dots, then click 'Account linking'. If you've not got an AdWords account, you can make one from here. If you have, click on 'Link account' and enter AdWords customer ID. If you need to know where this is sign in to your Google Ads account then click the help icon at the top right corner - you'll find your 'Customer ID' at the bottom of the menu. Sorted.

Step 5 - Create a campaign.

In your Merchant Center account you should then be able to click on 'Create Shopping Campaign'.

Give it a campaign name, a location and daily budget. When you press 'Create' you’ll be asked to carry on via your Google AdWords. You can also do this directly in AdWords if you like, just open your Campaigns tab (on the left) and click that blue “+” icon, than pick 'New campaign'.

Again, Google has a really painless how-to on the topic, here, which will save me waxing lyrical.

Step 6 - Place some bids on your Shoping campaign.

In settings, you’re asked to select a bidding strategy and set a campaign budget. Go on. Spend some money. Google has a Bid Simulator Tool that's actually quite a lot of help here, and shows how any changes will impact on your ad performance. This gets pretty involved when you're trying to get the best bang for your buck, but there's some good tips here.

Step 7 - Targeting and scheduling.

More important stuff. Pick the places you want your ad to target, but be sure to only target places you ship to or where you're actually located.

You can change the Target and Exclude settings under 'Under Location', but the default's usually good enough. This going to be especially important for the new map settings to get folks ready to come in-store to pick up that bargain today.

Next set the start and end dates of the campaign. Rocket science it ain't.

Step 8 - Create Ad Groups.

The final step is to create campaign ad groups. It's these that determine what sort of ads are going to be run and how you’ll organise the bids for them.

There's a couple of types - Showcase Shopping (multiple items as part of a sort of catalogue style ad that showcases your overall business, working on cost per engagement) and Product Shopping ads (for a single product, working on cost per click).

Click 'Save' and you've made your first ad. It's actually surprisingly simple.

It takes a bit of time and fiddling to get the best out of Google Shopping, but it's well worth the effort if you ahev a sutable product type - especially now it's local. The Ads work connect sellers and buyers in a unique and efficient way, right at the top of the search results if your bid is strong enough. It's compaetative, but a good solid place for ad spend dollare, especially now it's rolled out it's new map functionality.

I recommend having a play. Highly. There's a tonne of Google Shopping tutorials out there, especially on YouTube, and rally no need to seek a pro-tool or agency help.

What are Porters 5 Forces and are They Still Important?

2020-09-13T17:25:00.007+01:00

As well as working in digital marketing for many years, I've often operated within a traditional marketing framework. When creating strategy or insight for a new company, part of my remit has sometimes been to identify their strengths and weaknesses in their chosen marketplace. This is part of the process where we create brand voices, brand personas, etc., and is a part of the overall marketing process often missed in digital marketing.

Luckily I'm old, and this is what we used to do "back in my day" that's still (of some/limited) value today, all be it a very general analytical framework suitable only to gather the basics about a company and its market position.

Please also read the end of this post. This method has its limitations and is really just a beginning to look for better understanding, rather than a solid framework for success.

So, what are Porters Five Forces?

This is a tool invented by a chap called Micheal Eugene Porter back in 1999 (at Harvard Business School) in order to create a framework for business analysis (and us marketing types) to document and evaluate the competitive strengths and weaknesses of a company in any given marketplace. It helps to recognise your USPs and your possible profitability - so gives your positive (and negative, in relation to your competitors) talking points in relation to any content marketing you might undertake.

Understanding 'Porters Five Forces Analysis'.

Most businesses keep a close eye on their competition, and while this is one element there's far more to a business strategy than just doing things better (or differently) to your nearest rival. Mr Porter identifies 5 specific forces at work against sales or recognition in a competitive environment. These are:

1. Competition.
"A monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity.”
This is the first and most obvious of Porters 5. In short, who (if anyone) can undercut you or offer a better service to the same target audience? The more competitors, plus the equivalent number of products or services they offer, the weaker your business position. Factors such as geography and standard segmentation elements also play a part in this. Potential clients and suppliers will always look for a company offering a better service at a reduced cost.

Naturally, if competitive opposition is low, businesses have more leverage to charge higher prices and set the terms to reach healthier sales and turn a better profit.

2. Supplier Power.
Change is inevitable, but everybody resists change.
The fewer suppliers of product (or service) elements, the greater pricing power they have over their customers (you). Do you have exclusivity in supply? Just how much DO you depend on your current suppliers? Can you source your componentry or raw elements elsewhere? Sometimes profits end up being diverted to suppliers rather than the end businesses.

Remember in the 90s when Microsoft surpassed IBM when they licenced MS-DOS and IBM lost the PC market? It pays to buy your suppliers a bottle of Johnny Walker and to send them a card at Christmas.

3. Customer Power.
"This job would be great if it wasn't for the f***ing customers."
How many buyers do you have and how much would it cost you to find a new one? This is – essentially – the crux of customer power. Some businesses have a small but dedicated user base (like our local butcher) while some have a broader but more fickle clientele (like Tescos). A tighter and more influential customer base means each client has more authority to negotiate for lower prices and better deals, just through their footfall or purchase power. A business that has numerous, smaller, independent customers has a simpler time charging higher prices to boost profitability.

4. The Threat of Substitution.
Coke came before Pepsi, but only just.
What’s the likelihood of your clients finding a new way to do or source what you offer them? As an example, can your customers substitute your piece of accounting software by doing the work manually or by paying someone else to do it at a lesser price? A cheaper or easier substitution could be a killer for your profitability or market position.

5. The Threat of New Entry.
"Here come the Belgians, and they're playing their Joker."
Existing business in areas that have high barriers to entry – which could be through the likes of legal requirements, expensive start-up or running costs, mad brand loyalty (I only buy Apple), protected copyright elements, specific geographical hurdles (like platinum mining), the economics of scale (we’re bigger than they are) etc. - have a lot less competition than businesses that have lower barriers.

Pharmaceutical companies, for example, have patents on certain drugs. Oil and gas exploration needs serious capital to let businesses spread the risks of an unsuccessful drilling venture across lots of potential land leases.

Some Limitations of Porters Five Forces.

Easy enough, but this is only really useful - and this is worth remembering - for short term strategy.

Nowadays the world moves a damn site faster than it did in Mr Porter's day. Rapidly changing technology and globalisation means your data can go out of date pretty damn quick. After all, it only takes one pandemic, a new device (see iPhone), a rapid-response marketing platform (social advertising) or fast-evolving trend to blow EVERYTHING out of the water. Great for the short term. Not so good for the long. Revisit your 5 forces analysis often or if you see any major or possibly disruptive change (all your customers just moved to a new social platform!?) in any of the elements above.

Porters Five Forces also has its limitations for businesses that cross into more than one industry and/or have wildly different product ranges. One size does not fit all. Apple and Cannon are competitors when it comes to cameras, for example, but not in other areas. Apple doesn't make printers and Cannon don't make smartphones.

This framework doesn’t work for not-for-profits, obviously, where making money for direct gain isn’t a prime consideration.

The Five Forces model really serves best as a starting point for a further examination of a business’s strengths and vulnerabilities, but it is at least a simple start. It also acts as a catalyst for ideas and messaging. Examining competitors, for example, can highlight competitor weaknesses against your strengths – “We pride ourselves on our customer support”, for example, when a competitors clients are complaining about their poor helpdesk response or their returns policy.

Use it, by all means, but review it often and be aware that Porters Five Forces is a starting point and not an answer. It's dated, like me, but it's solid if you keep in mind its limitations.

Strategic Marketing Changes SMEs Need to Make Post-COVID

2020-08-17T09:24:00.008+01:00

After 6-months of staring at our own wallpaper, working from home or looking at the world from behind a mask, consumer behaviour has changed considerably in a way we could never have predicted. Add to this a world recession plus the UK careering toward obscurity on the world stage c/o Brexit. Factor in a national second wave (any day now) and we've got the perfect storm for change. All bets and gloves are off for UK business. Que training montage.

As marketers, this is new territory. Words like 'unprecedented' and 'marketing disruption' are 'the new normal'. For SMEs, unused to this level of rapid change and without the finances or facilities to react, this could be a blood bath.

If there's any way you can deliver or serve your customers through online channels you need to be acting on this yesterday. Amazon just had a 30%+ boost in sales. Customer intent to shop in a physical store post-pandemic has plummeted 7% in the UK. This comes in a time when the retail high street was already in distress. Empty shops are on the rise as footfall sinks.

It's time to think about how you connect with your consumers. Obviously, e-commerce and digital channels should be your number one investment. It's critical to think about (and highlight) what will make you stand out from an already saturated market and to use every trick in our digital marketer's playbook to get the best bang for our investment. Investment will have to be made and money will have to be spent - but wisely, because not everyone has that right now.

How are you going to stand out against a behemoth of online retailers like Amazon? Sure, you could join them, but could you really stand to pay the basic seller's fee of (fixed rate) of 75p an item, plus referral fees and closing costs? Add to that the bulk of people shop for value as well as convenience, so how are going to undercut everyone else? A lot of people also use AmazonPrime, meaning they want it tomorrow, so you might also have to provide what you're selling in bulk to a local fulfilment centre. In times of financial hardship people also repair or replace with refurbished items. This means you also have the likes of eBay to contend with. It's not going to be easy and there's no one-solution-fits-all approach here.

Get your own WordPress site - there's still no substitute. Get help if needs be, but your call to action could be to get people to ring you if an online shopping system isn't for you. If it is think OpenCart, WooCommerce or Magento (they're all decent for SEO). Use solid images with your staff and customers in them - humanise y'self. Get on Trustpilot and start collecting reviews and case studies.

USPs (unique selling points) are going to be critical. What can you do to stand out from everyone else? On a local level, there might be benefits to being an SME - if you can get seen to show people those benefits. Imagine, for example, the power of being a local store who can showcase their (limited-time) deals and offers in social media (to a dedicated audience), hand-picked and sourced on the doorstep, then literally hop in the company van or use a local courier to drop off what your customer wants the same day? Post-Brexit, local provenance and supporting the regional economy could well be more of a necessity than a green social issue - and being ready to capitalise on that by humanising your company and giving that extra service could be the very thing that sets you apart from the likes of Tesco home delivery and Ocado. What can you do that your big competitors can't? Personalisation? Innovation? Localisation? Specialisation? After-care? Don't be surprised if we see a resurgence in traditional values and messaging.

Imagine being able to advertise locally, free through the likes of Google Business and organic SEO, but also via low-cost ads in the likes of Facebook and on a regional level. Get those remarketing codes into your website now, even if you can't afford an ad campaign immediately, and get it collecting visitors and interested parties - Adwords, LinkedIn, Facebook, whatever's appropriate to your audience. It'll save you money down the line when you inevitably look towards online advertising, even if you're not going to use it right away.

Making smart choices about ad spend will be important. Going granular and laser targeting your customers is going to be critical. Spreading your budget too thinly is a quick way to burn funds - and many SMEs don't want to feel like they're putting all their eggs in one basket. Trust me though, knowing your audience and who wants your service or product, and having the right landing page to give them the specific information they need to make that sale, is the way to go. Again there's a power in local. Small test spends with solid targeting.

Start sharing stories. This should be on a blog platform as part of your site and within your social channels. If you sell something as simple as eggs what makes you special? Maybe you write the name of the chickens on the boxes? That gives people ownership and investment. Maybe your a small off-licence and your staff write their own personal reviews of their favourite wines and whiskeys? Local brands mean local tagging and content. Maybe you're a local greengrocer and you've bought young Sally a moped so she can deliver to people who can't get out? Do your team sing while they work? Hello TikTok. Got a cool office or get out in the field in all weather? Hello Instagram. Empathy goes both ways, and people are trusting the big companies less and less (which is probably a whole other blog post). Small boosted posts in social will get your offers and deals under the right noses at the right times. Be relevant and authentic. Be there to offer a BBQ meat pack or Bouncy Castle just when people are going to need it. Send people to your content and make the most of that Ad referral code to capture anyone who shows an interest beyond your stories. These are basic strategies that most companies can put to use, now.

It's going to be important to look at how the world is going to change. Every car dealership and service centre worth their salt knows legislation is changing and is talking about electric vehicles - by 2030 you won't be able to buy petrol, diesel or even hybrid in the UK. Times are going to change fast, and if the conversation relates to you, you need to have a voice. Watch your market and watch the legislation. Be there to pick up on the good and the bad and use it to identify your own strengths. SMEs will have to be agile - things WILL NOT be going back to normal. Talk to your customers, digitally if not in person, because in times like this going with instincts instead of facts is dangerous (and unnecessary). Right now our customers have never been more sympathetic and insight is part of what separates us from the likes of Amazon.

If you need any help with this, especially if your business is based in Northern Ireland or The Republic, give me a shout on Twitter or LinkedIn. I've been giving advice to local companies, from pubs and bars to farm shops and auto dealers - if you're not already, now's the time to get ready and this isn't going back to the old normal.

Waving Goodbye to Blighty

2020-08-12T19:49:00.003+01:00

Just a few lines to announce I'm heading for pastures new.

At the beginning of August, things being what they are, I was made redundant at Everard Group. A bloody shame, we had such plans and I really enjoyed working with some great folks there, but this is what happens when people eat Chiroptera.

With a looming UK (nay, World) recession, a current pandemic, a change in the general attitude of the UK as it careens towards casual fascism, unemployment, and Brexit hanging over the head of the working classes like the sword of Damocles, I've decided to run for (almost) foreign shores. As of tomorrow, I'll be a resident of Northern Ireland.

From beautiful scenery to a lower cost of living. Here's to countless beaches and dramatic coastlines. The Ulster fry. Powers and Jameson's. Friendly folks who don't mind introverts. Taytos. Brilliant local radio. Better education. C.S Lewis, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, and Gary Moore. Open fires on rainy afternoons and ancient forests to walk my dogs.

Recent politics, media bias, a lack of general education, and a swing towards general intolerance means England isn't my home anymore. I'm done.

I'm in my fifties now. Here's to the third act.

I'll be living in Co. Tyrone for the first year, job hunting in The North and The Republic for something appropriate, and filling in the gaps with contract stuff. My worldly goods are packed into a Pickfords van, and I'm heading for the ferry as I press send on this post. There's a lot that local SMEs can get from what I do, and I feel a calling.

Connect with me on LinkedIn if you're looking for advice from a digital marketing manager in the Omagh area, if you have a contract or something permanent you think might entertain me, or happen to be local and fancy a drink.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” - Samuel Beckett.

How to Work from Home Without Going Crazy

2020-03-09T19:42:00.002+00:00

Nationwide self-isolation is probably coming. I've revamped this article in the hope it may help.

I've worked remotely from the UK, in the past - with distant company offices in Stockholm, Alaska and Colorado - for many years. I even worked from home and in a virtual world for eighteen-months. I ran my own web design business from 2001 to 2003 from a tiny cabin on a narrowboat in the middle of the Nottinghamshire countryside.

Compulsory viewing so that everyone understands
the dangers of disturbing people when they are working from home.

Here's some basic advice, in the wake of coronavirus and the sudden move to self-isolation and working from home, so that you don't lose all your social skills and avoid going stark raving bonkers within a month.

Keep scheduled and regular core hours

This really is the key to it all: It seems obvious but our bodies are used to what our bodies are used to.

We need a little order and disciple to stay focused. We need to make sure this isn't going to suck for work/life balance. It's a slippery slope once you start working outside of your agreed hours, whatever they are.

It may be that we're working with a company or agency outside of our time zone. This is fine, but we need to set rigid guidelines for our colleagues and clients as to when we're available and when we're not. If we don't we'll end up working all the damn time, or twenty minutes here and there every evening or chairing client meetings at 3AM. After a while, that's just annoying, so setting out clear hours in advance is key.

Set yourself a working routine: "I walk the dog at 8 and start at 9. I have a break at 11 and lunch at 1. I go outside with a coffee at 3.30. I close the laptop for the day at 5.30." Admittedly, in the paraphrased words of Helmuth van Moltke, "No plan survives contact with the enemy", but you have to set a basic framework as you would if you were working in an office environment with others. A light smattering of casual discipline is key to a healthy workday.

Overtime should be an aberration, not a habit. Keep to those hours if you can. Sometimes you will have to meet up with colleges if they work in different parts of the world, but most working days overlap to some degree. If you're self-isolating then you're probably working with people in the same geographic territory (or at least close to your core hours).

I've had this fail, but I've always been happier when it's worked.

As part of this, try to eat and rest at regular times. We need and receive energy in different ways and at different times. Protein and coffee were my go-to's. Cheese omelette (the power of working from home) and a pot of filter will keep you more alert than carbs.

Working late and not getting enough sleep is the mind-killer. Lack of rest is the little-death that brings total obliteration. Get away from the blue light of your monitor or mobile device at least 2-hours before you plan to hit the sack.

Have a set space in which to work

It could be a spare room, an open roll-top desk, a standing space against shelves in the corner, the exclusive daytime use of the potting shed, or whatever. Having your own workspace means, soon enough, you switch into work-mode when you're there.

Keep distractions to a minimum

Home is full of other shit you could be doing. It's a hotbed of outlets for procrastination. There no harm in hanging up some laundry, or whatever, but do it when you have a scheduled break.

I particularly liked using the slow cooker in the winter. By 4PM the house smells ace and dinner's on the way with the illusion of not having cooked it - which also saves the temptation to start it early.

I know some people who work with a TV on and some who work with music. Some people don't find this a distraction - I don't particularly - but some people do, so just see how you go and, if you do, scarp that and enjoy the focus that comes with peace and quiet. Sometimes I've worked with an open Skype channel between myself and other colleagues, 3 or 4 at a time, with mutual music.

Don't start doing the dishes or folding sheets if you're not on one of your scheduled breaks.

Stay connected: Use face-to-face meeting software

Getting face-to-face with your clients and/or other staff is important. It keeps communication flowing and gives us a reason to put on pants (except on Wednesdays, when it's custom to go without - long story).

Using the likes of Google Hangout, Skype, Skype for Business, Slack Video, Zoom, Facebook Live, YouTube Live and Microsoft Teams all have their merits, limitations and maximum numbers of participants. You'll probably need a decent mic and headset combo (covering both ears, not just one, then you can still stream your tunes and be ready if you get a call) plus a webcam if you don't have one built-in. The investment is well worth it.

Face-to-face means we communicate better. It allows for body language. It's more to-the-point and it seems to humanise people. Screen sharing is possible, so technical points are clearer and more easily explained. They give just enough one-to-one contact to make a real difference in long-term communications and relations.

Keep active

Got a walking machine or exercise bike? Remove the drying laundry from it and blow off the dust - just twenty-minutes a day will make a MASSIVE difference to you well being, mentally as well as physically.

Dogs are ideal, for everything, cos, dogs, but anything that will get you out - even just as far as the garden or patio - will blow some cobwebs away, help you focus on something further away than your monitor and freshen up the fug of not leaving the house.

I have puppers which need walking flu or not, and I live out in the middle of nowhere. Obviously, dogs will have to learn to use the garden or be walked at night for a few days in the advent of self-isolation. Dogs are ideal motivators and also give one that tiny bit of interaction that separates one from those languishing at Her Majesty's pleasure in solitary confinement.

Brush your hair and get out of the bathrobe and slippers

Keep your self-respect. It's easy to just potter about in leisure pants (or no pants - see Wednesdays) and a hoodie avec breakfast stains, but that's not going to help motivate you, keep you productive or encourage you to keep a working and efficient order in what you do.

Just because others may not see you doesn't mean this isn't important. Clean clothes - clean leisurewear if you must - but make sure you're crumb-free, shaved (if appropriate) and change daily, including after exercise.

As an aside, however, done properly this is the perfect time to grow that novelty facial hair you've always wanted to experiment with.

Getting in to the pattern from day one is a great practice that means your always ready for an impromptu client meeting and stay fresher and more awake just by keeping your standards up. I'm not suggesting a suit and tie, but personal grooming is all about self-respect and positive attitude. Let it go and it's a slippery slope - before you know it your sat in your underwear and a bathrobe at 5PM and "Can't see the point in getting change now cos it's nearly bedtime..." I found a morning shower, before a stroll with the pooch, was a natural and normal excuse to put on clean clothes and have a shave. Just like my normal office-bound work day. Maybe this is something you'd prefer to do later on, to separate the workday and evening?

You might think "That's kinds disgusting and it won't happen to me" but seriously, the next thing you know you've not had a haircut for 8-months and you have toenail fungus - I've honestly seen it happen to perfectly respectable former colleagues and others (especially when we worked remotely in virtual worlds).

Set targets for yourself. Get results

Regardless of professional targets like deadlines, set some personal goals. I once decided to walk across America, while stood at my desk. This is, admittedly, a bit extreme but I was well on my way from Delaware to California (having completed some 480 miles in 3-months on my walking machine) before my job changed and my standing/walking desk was no longer a practical factor.

I also learnt PPC when it was in its infancy, got pretty damn good at Premiere Pro, learn the basics of 3D Studio Max, rediscovered painting D&D miniatures, built a Meet-Up community for digital marketers, started podcasting for myself (see the now dormant Dirty WHOers and Yank & Limey) and wrote a lot of articles in the online press on digital marketing and networking online.

Personal projects, done in personal time, expand the mind and skillsets. It's essential when we don't have as much external motivation from colleagues/clients etc., that we still keep an active interest in learning and in personal project-driven activities.

It's conceivable this could be something more immediate, like building foundations for a new greenhouse or repairing an old motorbike, but I found that anything motivational that separates work from playtime is important for our mental well being when we're 'locked-in' to one location. Also, your not gonna wanna get too physical with flu symptoms.

Keep out of the way of your partner

Does your housemate or partner already work from home or do they have a day off mid-week?

Approach with caution. They're used to having this time and space and you're about to come crashing into like The Dukes of Hazard. They probably don't want you disturbing their routine, despite how nice they may say it'll be a first, so just go softly. I get it, and when I'm working I'm concentrating. All the best will in the world and love in the heavens doesn't mean I want my train of thought breaking to be given a kiss or told about something the cat just did.

If you're both suddenly quarantined then make sure you have your own working spaces. Hot desking or sharing the kitchen table will just get annoying - trust me. Also, it's much nicer to get back together and value your time after work's done and dusted.

Online ordering is your friend

You're gonna need tissues, food, plenty of fluids, take Paracetamol (if they're not panic bought out of existence) to treat aches and pains and lower your temperature.

Amazon usually provides, but give those smaller local companies a call and they might deliver - a lot of the bigger supermarkets will deliver a week's worth of chicken nuggets and beans or quinoa and whatever the hell goes with quinoa for a fiver these days.

Make sure, if you live as remotely as I do, to order more fuel oil and pre-cut wood as you'll be using more fuel by staying at home.

One idea might be to print out a note that says "Self Isolating. Please knock loudly and leave parcels by the door." A biohazard symbol makes for a nice extra flourish.

Also, occasionally, treat yourself - even if it's just to a posh takeaway. For a while you're your own HR dept., make the most of it.

Hope that's a help to someone. Keep a structured day and you should be grand. Don't annoy your housemates and keep active. It should only be for a few weeks, not years, so you should be fine.

I do wonder how many self-styled ‘digital gurus’ will suddenly have ‘remote working expert’ appear, as if by magic, on their LinkedIn profile in the coming weeks.

Good luck and get well soon 😉