I was very honored yesterday to get to participate with some extraordinarily smart folks in what was labeled “The Great Marketing Conversation”.  It was a webcast hosted by PropelGrowth and sponsored by the DemandGeneration report.

Joining me on this webcast were:

• Mike Volpe – CMO of Hubspot.
•  Ardath Albee – Author and B2B Marketing Queen Extraordinaire
• Marcus Sheridan – The Amazing Sales Lion (nuff said)

What was originally going to be a “Debate” of how content marketing and inbound marketing differed – turned into a wonderfully productive conversation about how to actually start to apply these processes in your marketing organization.

Of the hundreds of registrants – we sadly only got to about five or six questions from the audience before time ran out.   As promised, we wanted to answer many of the other questions that came in – and so I thought I’d run them here.    So, without further ado…. Here is a baker’s dozen more questions and my take on the answers…. I hope you enjoy…

Q. I don’t get the difference between content and inbound marketing

As Mick Said “I know… It’s only Rock and Roll – and I like it!”  My advice is don’t worry too much about it. At their core, both are approaches to marketing that use content – whether organically grown or curated – as a means to create a positive business result.  You might look at Inbound Marketing as a little more focused on the upper end of the funnel (being found, and generating leads) and Content Marketing as more focused on deeper engagement, establishing thought leadership and moving into deeper parts of the funnel (customer upsell, retention etc..).  But in the end – it doesn’t really matter.

Q. Interested to hear the take on traditional SEO being replaced by inbound.

I guess I would ask: “is SEO being replaced?”   In my view, great SEO starts with a high velocity of quality content (especially these days with the Panda update).   If you get that engine humming, then the rest (meta tag manipulation, keyword density, normalized HTML and inbound links) are like the fine tuning of the race car.   So, I don’t know that I’d agree that SEO is being “replaced” by inbound.  Rather, I think SEO, itself, is fundamentally changing – and quality content (that is shared through social media) and the practices around inbound and content marketing are simply becoming more important to the practice.

Q. Is the question whether content marketing is considered outbound? I also understand the idea of placement of content but both forms have snakingly strong ties to traditional advertising, don’t you think?

Bonus internetz for you for using the word “snakingly”. And, yes, in a way they do.  For years, we’ve spent money to place content in context with where our buyers might be.  We called it Advertising.  Now, we are focusing our strategy on changing that content to something that’s more “valuable” to the end-user and spending the same kind of effort to place it strategically.   So, in a way, Content Marketing is the next generation “media buy”.    But now, of course, we as marketers can “own the media”.  In other words – we used to rely on scarce inventory available to us from a media supplier that had an aggregated audience.  Now, WE can actually aggregate our own audience – and contextually place that message in a way that solves our customers challenges.

Q. Why is this debate/conversation important to human mankind?

Well – how about this…. Einstein said “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.”   It’s all about your point of view I suppose.

Q. Why isn’t content marketing just considered to be a subset of inbound marketing?

Because it’s not.    While they overlap – there are many distinct differences about which processes are applicable.  Inbound Marketing (which is no doubt growing and transforming like Content Marketing) has traditionally focused on the upper end of the funnel – using content to “be found, generate inbound leads and facilitate prospects through the funnel”.   Content Marketing – especially the brand of CM that we work with at CMI – focuses on other aspects of the funnel.

In my experience, I see that the marketing department has more responsibility over more aspects of the business than it’s ever had in the past.  Let’s say I’m a shoe company, and I sell shoes online.  And, as the marketing team I have a role to play in making sure our customers stay loyal and evangelize our brand.  I’m going to use content – placed strategically to encourage our customers, not that we sell better shoes, but that we sell “happiness”  (yes, I’m using Zappos).     Or, another example:  we work with a large software company that is using Content Marketing practices to educate and drive attendance at employee and partner meetings.  That’s not traditional inbound marketing – but it is certainly content marketing.

Q. What are useful content & inbound strategies when my customer base has widely divergent personas (behaviors & interests)?

Great question.  I wish there was a book for that… Oh there is…. <grin>   But just like there’s no one shoe that fits – I would argue that if your customer base has widely divergent personas – then there will be different strategies that fit those personas.   The question is how many are there?   Really?   Those personas will naturally aggregate under different channels.  So, you might find that it’s better to launch separate channels (completely) for the personas your targeting.  For example, one might be better served by a print magazine – and the other might be better served with a social strategy (blog, Twitter etc..).  If you start with WHO.  And then add the WHY (which is just as important) – you end up with a target audience.   Then, the channels start to define themselves and the question will be – what story do you want to tell each?

For example, I know a services company – and their service works for old people, and children.  The two personas couldn’t be any more different.   So, for old people – their content marketing is all offline, event driven and physically based.  And, for the kids – it’s almost all online.  And the stories themselves are all under one overarching brand – “they sell comfort”.  But the way they tell those stories are VERY different.

Q. How much content creation is needed? (its vague I know)

Yes… it kinda is.  So, I’ll give ya an equally vague answer.  As much as is needed to affect the behavior you want changed, and not one word more.

Q. How to use Inbound Marketing to attract the right kind of traffic for your target market persona

You might read this book… Or this book….  (see what I did there).

Q. Generally speaking, what percentage of an annual marketing budget would you apply to content and inbound marketing.

That’s the wrong question.   Don’t look at content and inbound marketing as competing tactics to your other marketing efforts – that’s where you’ll get into trouble.  Neither are tactics.  Both are processes that lay directly on top of and integrate into your existing efforts.  Content marketing will affect your traditional media spend.  Inbound marketing will naturally feed off of your other efforts.   These are processes that you apply to an integrated effort.

Q. Generating great content is great to increase your leads and reach, but in your experience, when/where is it appropriate for a content/inbound marketer to push for the sale?

If you’re doing it right – you’ll never need to push.  When you understand your customer’s buying process in an intimate way – you will have mapped a journey that you will take them on.  So, once they have reached that last stage – it is perfectly okay to make them the offer.  But at that point – they have already decided to purchase.   Remember, in the best scenario, you never sell people.   Through the experience you give them, they come to the realization that they need your product or service.

Q. How do you convince old school executives to do inbound or content marketing?

Mike Volpe over at Hubspot had a great suggestion of giving them a great book – and leaving it on their desk for them to discover.   Other techniques include just trying a content marketing program against one of your already existing tactics.  Ask your executive if you can just experiment with any money you save.  Also, as Marcus Sheridan says – show them your competitors are doing it.

Q. How to target multiple stages of the buying cycle?

With the same content?  Yes – do it where and when appropriate.   If you’re asking actually “how” to do it – well then that’s a much deeper conversation.

Q. Should we be optimizing content on our site for mobile for a B2B audience?

Well…. I might ask how much of your audience wants to access your content on a mobile device?    If the answer is A LOT – then yes.  If the answer is “none” or “few” then I’d say “maybe”.   Assuming the “few” answer – I’d ask if that’s a new market for you?  In other words – is there a new persona that you’re trying to attract – and how might mobile content attract them.  Who are they and WHY would they care about the story you’re trying to tell.

Keep The Conversation Going

Hope some of that is helpful for you all – I’ll update when the archive of the event is made available.  Until then – remember It’s your story. Go out and make it remarkable.

So, over the weekend, I went back and re-read Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars (it was subsequently retitled with the words “tell stories”).  Also, like I’m sure a good many of you, I watched the NFL playoff games.  But something struck me as I watched the Denver game, the coverage and the steady stream of Facebook posts, Twitter updates and overall restaurant conversation over the weekend.

Tim Tebow is a damn good content marketer.

Marketing As Storytelling Is Powerful

So, big shock – I believe in this wholeheartedly. Now, Seth Godin said it much better in his book than I ever have (he says just about everything much better) when he wrote in the forward:

If you think that (more expensive) wine is better, then it is. If you think your new boss is going to be more effective, then she will be. If you love the way a car handles, then you’re going to enjoy driving it.

That sounds so obvious, but if it is, why is it so ignored? Ignored by marketers, ignored by ordinarily rational consumers and ignored by our leaders.

Once we move beyond the simple satisfaction of needs, we move into the complex satisfaction of wants. And wants are hard to measure and difficult to understand. Which makes marketing the fascinating exercise it is.

Okay, so – at this point, I’m watching the Denver Broncos get decimated by the New England Patriots – and I see the discussion about Tebow start to roll in – both pro and con.  And there’s no wavering here – you’re either “thank god he got his come uppance” (pun intended) or “okay, he’s not winning, but I still think he’s still amazing”.

By some estimates, when he and his team surprisingly beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime, brand Tebow generated more than 9,000 tweets per second.  Now, they’re getting creamed – but even in defeat there’s something joyous about Tebow.  It’s inspiring some – and annoying the shit out of others.

So, what has Tim Tebow done to create such a viral brand with so many brand subscribers so quickly?   It’s simple: he’s telling a powerful story that has an emotional connection.

It’s Not The Real You – It’s The Amplified You

See here’s the thing. People aren’t engaged by the real us – or the reality of our brands.  No one buys the shiny gadget that is produced a million times over by guys in white coats in China.  They buy magic held in the palm of Steve Jobs hands and set to a funky beat.   This is true for personal brands as well and Brian Clarke over at Copyblogger said this extraordinarily well back in August.

What's the story?

It’s the same with content marketing and storytelling.  People don’t want real stories.  They are vey much like Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire when she says: “I don’t want realism, I want magic!  Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be truth.”

Think about your favorite crime drama for a moment.  You know the scene – they’ve just found some obscure picture of the perp or sub-strand of his hair. Then through the magic of one of the coolest and most beautiful computer interfaces you’ve ever seen, the computer flashes through thousands of faces, and automatically finds exactly who they’re looking for.

The real truth of that scene won’t engage.  Can you imagine watching a real computer – someone typing command line searches into an ugly green screen interface – and then sitting back as it grinds through a minutes or hours long search through a mainframe computer database.  No, in real life we don’t catch crooks that way.  But, dammit – it oughta be that way!

No – the truth is real – and real is rarely engaging.

It Ought To Be The Truth

But (and this is important) – real doesn’t mean it’s not genuine.  A genuine story is what “ought to be truth”.  We’re not trying to trick our brand subscribers.  We are simply being an amplified version of our unique selves – because otherwise we’re just… well…. just like everyone else.

Tim Tebow is telling a genuine story.  Whether you love him or hate him – he’s passionate about the story he is telling.  And, as I discussed in the “secrets from Hollywood” piece – he really knows what he does.  He’s got a much bigger story that he’s telling – and football is just simply one channel to tell it.  As he has said himself “‘I’m using football as a platform for bigger and better things.”

It would be easy for Tebow to keep that “real” and undifferentiated.  He could avoid painting John 3:16 or Ephesians 2:8-10 on his eye black (pictured).     His dramatic, and now famous, pose could have simply been him thumping his chest twice and pointing to God (as many athletes do).  He could have gone the traditional post-game interview route of saying “it’s a team sport and we came together as a team” and left it that.  But he didn’t.

He is an amplified version of his genuine self.   And love it, hate it – or think it completely irrelevant – it’s generated a nationally recognized consumer brand and generated more discussions about the story he’s trying to tell than I’ve seen in years.   The night he and the Broncos beat the Steelers “John 3:16″ was the most searched for term on Google.  It didn’t hurt that he actually threw for 316 yards – and because he threw 10 completed passes – his average was 31.6 (mysterious ways alright).

Our Lesson As Content Marketers

I deal with many clients – especially in the B2B and technology space – that don’t believe that their brand is particularly interesting.  Their stories commonly rely on just relaying facts and figures and speeds and feeds.  In short, they are relying on “the simple satisfaction of needs.” And the “wants” of our customers are where the emotional connections can be made.

As Seth says: “wants are hard to measure and difficult to understand.” And here’s the thing – when we can connect to them, well that there is some powerfully magic stuff.   If you want to see how Tim Tebow has done this in six months – here’s a great article on ESPN that I think captures it well.

As Joseph Campbell says in Hero With A Thousand Faces:   “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.”

It doesn’t matter who we are – and what we’re selling – using the stories we tell and the way we market to connect emotionally with our constituencies is what will make us successful.  And in telling stories.. Well, it just might be our Tebow time…

So, I’m the guest speaker at a Webinar hosted by the folks over at Hippo today.  When they asked me to speak – they wanted me to put some thought into how “context” was going to play a role in changing the process of content marketing.  Okay –  Context Aware Content Marketing.  That’s cool. I got it.

Now for some strange reason – As I wrote this post – I felt the need to put on some music. And what hit me was Etta James’s Something’s Got A Hold Of Me. 

I have no idea what this has to do with marketing (other than… well it’s Etta – and it’s just an awesome song) – but I’m not one to ignore my gut – so there ya go.  So if you want the same context I had while I wrote this – turn on Etta there on the left – and then read the rest of the post as it plays.

I’ve put a bit of thought into it – and as I look out to the future of how context is going to change what we’re doing from a content marketing perspective – I see 4 evolutionary steps over the next three to five years (see image).

Four Evolutionary Steps For Context Aware Content Marketing

Step one is Channel Aware
(” …sometimes I get a good feeling”)

This is where we found ourselves last year as we started scrambling to manage Web content for all these different channels – mobile, social, landing pages, global web sites etc… It’s simply a realization that it’s not about just dumping our content into these different channels.  Publishing the entirety of our Web content onto a mobile site is easier – but it isn’t terribly productive.  We’ve got to change our content marketing processes to reflect an awareness of the context of how and (more importantly) why our audiences are consuming our content through different channels.   When the CEO asks us to put the whole Web site into a Mobile app – we have to say “no”.  It just doesn’t make any sense.     The feedback loop here is mostly manual.  Our Google Analytics, reports in content management systems and manually creating CSS for the design of our content is all done as we’ve done it for years – iteratively as a process.

Step two is Attribute Aware
(“…something’s got a hold on me…”)

This is where the feedback loop becomes slightly more automated – and is a step I think a good many marketers will start to take this year. Look at many of the CMS vendors out there – and look at their move to “managing the experience” and you can tell it’s one they are certainly hoping you take.   This is where we start to use attributes that we can glean from our audiences to optimize the content for context.   Think here how we might automatically detect what KIND of mobile device you’re using.  Or, how we can start looking at explicit attributes like your title, your name or your preferences and optimize the content dynamically to be more relevant based on that information.  The technology is already here to deliver this (and has been for years).  But this is something (much to the contrary of what you read) is something that most marketers just aren’t doing in practice.   Maybe now it’ll start to take hold… Etta’s startin’ to get to me…

Step three is Real Time Aware
(“…somethin’s got a hold and it won’t let go”)

The technology will need to catch up a bit here to make this easier for the average marketing team – but this is where we can start to optimize content using interaction happening in real-time.  For example we want to optimize our visitor’s content experience based on choices they make in real time – watching clicks and optimizing content based on that behavior (maybe watching the speed of the connection to offer abstracts or a slimmed down version of the site).

Step four is Contextual Integration
(…“I don’t know what it is but it sure feels good”)

Out a few years (my guess is by 2015) we’ll start truly integrating content as a service – and interfaces themselves will adapt to the context automatically.   This is where I might pull in multiple data sources in real-time to help optimize content for a particular audience.  For example, if we’re a product company selling software to businesses – and a visitor hits our site – we might be able to match attributes (device, location, company, time of day) with real-time awareness (what the visitor clicks on in the site) and pull in third-party data (information about the visitor’s company) to help contextualize their experience.

As Soon As We Get A Hold On Who….

These steps are evolutionary… and certainly I may be overestimating or underestimating how fast we’ll get there…   But this much I know – applying context to our content marketing strategy starts with WHO.  We’ve got to understand who we’re talking to – and then what, where when and (again maybe most importantly) why they want our content through different channels and in different contexts.

I’ll update with a link to the webinar after it’s archived… Until then… Etta and I are out..

La La la la….

Happy New Year!  So, what will be Your story in 2012?  How about your business?  Whether you are simply throwing 2012 wishes into your New Year’s fire, making resolutions, or putting the finishing touches on your 100 slide 2012 Go To Market Powerpoint – it’s all the same thing:

 Crafting your story is knowing what you want – and then accepting the responsibility for making it happen. 

If you simply state what you want without accepting the responsibility of realizing it/receiving it – you’re simply not authoring your own story.  In short (to paraphrase Jagger and Richards) you’ll always get what you NEED, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to what you WANT.

Stories, at their heart, are the characters’ attempt to solve problems. Whether they are internal or external problems – our heroes must eventually work to solve them.  In short – heroes WANT something.  And what creates the emotional bond with an audience is how what they WANT aligns with what they NEED, and how they deal with the someone or something that stands in the way of them getting it.

So, what problems will you solve so that you craft a 2012 narrative that creates an emotional bond with your consumers, your constituencies, your audience – yourself?  What kind of hero will you be?

Need Vs. Want In Storytelling

There’s a storytelling technique in building some stories (as we’ll see it’s not exclusive) where our hero must come to realize their ultimate internal struggle.  It’s the point at which they finally realize that what they NEED is not aligned with what they WANTED – and it completely changes the reasons they’re fighting for what they’ve been fighting for up until this point.

Two quick examples from two favorite movies.  So, Phil Connors in Groundhog Day starts out as a person who rejects almost everyone and everything in his life.  In the beginning he simply WANTS to be done with doing something he hates (covering the Groundhog Day festivities).  But through trying to solve that one problem – he comes to realize that he NEEDS to be more accepting. He goes from rejecting everyone to accepting everyone and his circumstances.  In the end – he becomes a better person, finds love AND solves the problem of being stuck in the same day.

The second is, of course, our old friend Luke Skywalker. In the beginning Luke simply WANTS adventure, and thinks he can do everything on his own.  In the end, through all that he deals with, he realizes he NEEDS to rely on others and trust in things larger than himself.  In the very end, this trust and faith, is what enables him to destroy the Death Star and save the rebellion.

But of course this isn’t true for EVERY story.  No.  Think of heroes like Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs, or William Wallace in Braveheart.  These heroes don’t need to LEARN anything.  Instead, they are what we might call “Teaching Heroes”.   Instead of coming to a realization of an internal “problem” they must solve – they are driven to solve an EXTERNAL problem – and others come along for the ride (and may themselves be transformed).  For William Wallace it’s saving Scotland; for Clarice Starling it’s finding a serial killer.  For these heroes, each scene builds toward the justification of what they will eventually do when faced with the ultimate challenge at the climax of the story.

So it’s simply this:  One set of heroes (our transformational heroes) learn through each challenge and are transformed by each of them – until they ultimately realize what they really need.  Phil Connor doesn’t realize he’s a pompous ass – until… well… he does.   Our other set of heroes (the Teaching Hero), on the other hand already realize what they WANT/NEED – and just need to overcome the ultimate challenges to achieve it.  Both are doing the same thing:  solving problems.  The only difference is that one may be initially looking in the wrong place.

What Do You WANT In 2012

So – which hero will you or your brand be this year?  If you immediately jumped to the “teaching hero” – you might just think twice. It’s not always that straightforward.

Inevitably this is the time of year of both reflection and forecasts.  Our inboxes, feeds, televisions and radios are filled with “year in review” and “predictions for the one to come”.  It’s also a time of year for us to plan for the one ahead.   Whether it’s our strategy, marketing, sales, weight loss, romance, what have you – it’s the time we wipe the whiteboard and start anew.   Time to craft a new story.

Maybe we really do know what we WANT/NEED – and we just have to map our road of challenges in order to get there.  Or, (and this has been the case in at least two clients and one friend I’ve spoken with recently) – maybe we only THINK we know what we want?  We’re not quite sure if it will come to pass.  Maybe we’re unsure of our hiring capacity, the economy, the election, the competition or even our own capabilities.  Maybe for us – our Brand Hero is young and impetuous.  We know we want to win – but we know our hero may have to transform along the way.

Two quick examples. One client I know is crafting a 2012 story of the “teaching hero”.  They’ve spent the last year building their company as a thought leader in their space. They’ve “transformed” their hero and people really believe it.  This year it’s all about solving the problem of scaling. They are crafting a story that creates bigger and bigger challenges to build to an event at the end of the year that will be culmination of this brand “becoming a real player in their space”.

Another Brand Hero I know is working the exact opposite “problem”.  She is in flux.  It may be time for her to double down on what she’s known.  Or, it may be time for her to tell a completely new story.   It might be an incredible year of opportunity – or it might be risky as hell.   She knows there’s big adventure there – and she WANTS it.  But the story she’s crafting ALLOWS for her brand to LEARN – to have the NEED revealed to them over time.

So, which will you be?  What story will you craft?

Again, it doesn’t matter whether you are simply lighting a wishing candle for 2012, listing out your 23 New Year’s resolutions or tapping “send” on that new content marketing strategy – it’s all the same thing.   If you simply state what you want without accepting the responsibility of realizing it/receiving it – you’re simply not authoring your own story.

In the movie “The Matrix” Neo asks Morpheus, “What are you trying to say, I can dodge bullets?” Morpheus replies “No Neo, when your ready.. You won’t have to.”

So, let’s get ready for 2012.  Let’s write our story.

That’s mine anyway…. And I’m sticking to it.  Whatever yours is – make it remarkable.

For those that have known me for some time – you’ll recognize this as what I used to send out as my yearly email card.

A little fun just before Christmas – celebrating the year that was.   This year, I thought I’d move it to my blog.  So – without further ado – I give you…

Twas the night before Christmas – My wishes for you….

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through our nation
no candidate was comfortable with the pre-caucus situation.
All our hopes were hung by the chimney with care,
in hopes that things might be less nutty next year.

Charlie Sheen and two goddesses in the beginning -
tigers blood, trolls, warlocks and – Winning.
For months the Ma-sheen seemed to blow on and on
Then came the maid and the illustrious Strauss Kahn.

Candidates rustled, nestled all snug in their base,
it seemed like everyone – even Trump – might enter the race.
And Perry in Cowboy ‘hat, and Bachman in denial,
basically anyone but Romney and his Ken doll coiffed style.

When out on the news there arose such a clatter,
Everyone sprang to their browsers to see what had just shattered.
We blogged, we tweeted, Liked and cried to the skies
Bin Laden was taken out – score one for the good guys.

But Tweets turned to cheats and notorious hunks
Edwards on trial – and Weiner tweeted his junk.
And what to wandering eyes should appear,
but Arnold’s love child and one possibly for Bei-beer?

But then, with a flash, so lively and quick –
We were inspired again – with something other than… (okay not going there)
He was more rapid than eagles, or a Khardashian Marriage,
He whistled and shouted and called from his carriage:

“Now Dasher! Now Dancer!
Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid!
On, Donner and Blitzen!
Now Friday! Friday!
Gotta get down on Friday!”

And he came, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
the prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
down the chimney St. Steve came with a bound.

Dressed in black turtleneck, and jeans on his legs,
his clothes were untarnished from the ashes and dregs.
Wiggling fingers upward and twinkling shiny blues
He winked when he said “I’m here to occupy your news”

His eyes–how they twinkled! His dimples, how cute!
His sleigh simple, clean, emblazoned with a fruit
His glasses were round – the lenses just buffed,
and the beard on his chin not too much just enough.

He walked when he talked and went straight to work
and filled all our stockings, then turned with a jerk.
“Just one more thing” he said, pointing finger aside
“If you love what you do in life – it’s how you’ll be satisfied”

He sprang to his sleigh, and to his team gave a hoot,
That sounded suspiciously like the Mac when it boots
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to you, and to all a good night!”

As his light disappeared I wondered what he’d left
So, I opened the stockings and peered at the gifts.
And to what my curious eyes did I see?
The stockings were filled with love, hope and peace.

See it’s easy to wonder in this world of “more”.
Like Rick Perry thinking in threes – it can make our puzzlers sore.
Like before in who-ville and this year in our-ville
I hope your Christmas is about love, laughter – and just being still.

Your joy, your success, your friendship is what matters
All the rest – while entertaining – is just oblivious chatter.
Now, you’ll excuse me as I go prepare for my feast –
I celebrate you all as I go myself – carve the roast beast.

I wish you nothing but the most hopeful new year
I know mine will remarkable as long as you’re all near.