In an age where all the information of the world fits in the palm of everyone’s hands (even baby hands, can you imagine that), people are more inclined to start their own business, than ever before. Everything they need to know about running a start-up is at their disposal, a lot of which is free to consume and only a few clicks away.

When doing their due diligence on how to run a start-up, many young entrepreneurs quickly come across a couple of ‘universal laws’:

• They need an exceptionally strong marketing effort
• They need to focus on email marketing to get their message across

The arguments are common sense: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, it doesn’t make a sound. Or, in other words, if nobody knows about your business, you won’t make an impact no matter how hard you hit the dirt. The second ‘universal law’ might not be common sense for everyone, so here’s a short recap:

Today’s younger generations are exposed to more than 200,000 marketing messages by the tender age of 15. That means if your message is not ultra-relevant it will be ignored more than the terms and conditions of a mobile app. That makes traditional ad marketing a very challenging task.

Second, email marketing is an awesome method because it is opt-in and thus you can be 100% sure your messages go out only to those who are genuinely interested in hearing it. It has also been proven effective time and time again. You can check out the latest figures (August 2017) on this link.

But perhaps the most important ‘side-effect’ of your email subscribers list is that you’re creating a community, and a community has the strength to move mountains. Creating a movement, having people that feel they’re part of a group or a tribe, as Seth Godin puts it, creates a strong bond between you and your visitors. They become your brand evangelists, your PR spokespeople, your strongest advocates. If they feel included, if they feel like they’re part of a group in which they will be respected and missed if they’re gone – they will be very passionate about you and your work.

You have an idea for a startup, you’ve put together a team and now you want to find an investment. Your idea is important but your potential investors will probably be even more interested in figuring out whether or not you’re aware of who exactly your competition is. An investor under the impression that you don’t understand who your competition is, or worse – aware of a competitor that you’re not aware of, won’t take you seriously.

This post will teach you how to find your competitor landscape, why you need to and why people are afraid to talk about their competitors.

Facebook just introduced a new video watching service and considering the direction the internet has been taking in the past couple of years, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone. Before we dig into why I think it’s a logical step forward for Facebook, let’s first take a look at what this new feature actually is and how it operates.

Say Hello to Watch

Image Credit: Facebook

The platform is called Watch, and given the explanation Facebook’s put up on its newsroom, it feels a lot like YouTube:

“Watch is personalized to help you discover new shows, organized around what your friends and communities are watching. For example, you’ll find sections like “Most Talked About,” which highlights shows that spark conversation, “What’s Making People Laugh,” which includes shows where many people have used the “Haha” reaction, and “What Friends Are Watching,” which helps you connect with friends about shows they too are following.”

The above is similar to YouTube, which has sections like “Your Subscriptions”, “Trending”, “Recommended”, “Entertainment” or “Watch it again”.

Another thing that makes it a lot like YouTube is the fact that it revolves around user-generated content. So, home-made videos and anything else which might fit along those lines.

“Watch is a platform for all creators and publishers to find an audience, build a community of passionate fans, and earn money for their work. Shows are made up of episodes — live or recorded — and follow a theme or storyline. To help you keep up with the shows you follow, Watch has a Watchlist so you never miss out on the latest episodes.”

What’s also interesting about the way Facebook’s presented the new feature is the order in which it listed all the available platforms: “Watch will be available on mobile, on desktop and laptop, and in our TV apps.”

Keep in mind – it’s listing mobile first. It’s a strong indicator of where Facebook feels the future of video lies (more on that later, as well).

The comments are where Facebook decides to take it a step further compared to YouTube. They, too, will be live and will be a “part of the experience”.  “So when you watch a show, you can see comments and connect with friends and other viewers while watching, or participate in a dedicated Facebook Group for the show.”

A logical step in a logical direction

Now that we know what Watch is and how it works, let’s briefly touch on why I feel it was long coming.

First (and foremost), all predictions on what the internet will look like in the next five years have the same conclusion: it will be dominated by video content. A higher penetration of high-speed broadband everywhere, followed by a decline in prices, has made viewing video over the internet a more enjoyable experience. And consumers have responded in kind A report by Cisco  says that by 2020, 80 percent of all internet traffic will go on video, up from 73 percent last year. Five years ago, we were still counting how many pieces of content were watched – thinking of percentages of the ENTIRE global traffic was inconceivable at the time. So, how much data exactly are we going to watch in a few years’ time? Well, roughly three zettabytes. Yes, I know. Let’s just say it’s REALLY a lot.

Introduction – content that’s both relevant and evergreen

Back in the Summer of 2016, Pokémon Go was all the rage. Everywhere you went, you saw people walking around staring at their phones trying to find little AR creatures hiding behind mailboxes and lampposts, all in the hopes to “catch ‘em all”. Within no time at all, marketers couldn’t help but take notice.

Over the course of that summer, the number of blog articles written about ‘Pokémon Go marketing lessons’ was out of control. Since Pokémon Go was so incredibly relevant, it was an easy springboard to talk about marketing strategies for any company blog. The issue is Summer 2016 came and went and now Pokémon Go has just become another fad of the past.

(Google Trends interest report for Pokémon Go, July 2016 – July 2017) 

While these posts might have been popular during the summer of 2016, there’s a good chance they’ve lost their relevance factor over time.

What’s a marketer to do? You want to write relevant content for your audience but what’s the use if it’s going to be passé in a matter of a couple of days, weeks or months? You spend good time writing blog posts, and you want them to last in relevance until the end of digital marketing’s time.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s first understand relevant and evergreen content.

Relevant Content

Relevant content rocks. When done right, you tell your readers that you’re with the times, and you understand who they are, their interests, and what’s on their minds. To do that, you’ll need to do a couple of things.

1. Understand the buyer’s journey. More than writing about the season, upcoming holiday, or latest ‘must have’ gadget, truly relevant content speaks to where your reader is in his/her buyer’s journey. Do they have a {insert your vertical here} problem they’re looking for help with? Are they looking to assess potential solutions to a known challenge? Are they ready to buy, but just not sure if you’re the best fit for them? Make sure each piece of content speaks to one of these stages in the buyer’s journey. A reader should finish a blog post and say, ”wow, that article was really on the same page as me.”
2. Buyer persona/ vertical research. This is your chance to step into your reader’s shoes and walk around for a bit. Each buyer persona has their own unique lifestyle. Get to know their taste in movies, blogs, tech, and music. In other words, speak their language and culture. Same goes for their vertical. What else is going on in your vertical besides for the challenge that you solve? What other industry news are your prospects thinking about? If you’re shrugging your shoulders, you’ve got yourself a new research project.
3. Seize the day. Or holiday. Or season. You get the point; time is of the essence. When you make content sensitive to the here and now, it becomes within itself a call-to-action. People want to read things while they’re still hot (but more on that later). Take-away lesson: If you call, they will follow.

(Courtesy of Convince and Convert)

Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is compared to an evergreen tree because it survives throughout the seasons without getting old or irrelevant. In addition to never ‘going out of style’, evergreen content is helpful because these are posts that you (and others) can link to in other posts, giving you better ranking on SERPs and positioning yourself as an authority to your readers.

B2C companies are less likely to write evergreen content because their prospects tend to have a flavor of the week when it comes to just about anything and everything. These companies work endlessly, creating timely and stylishly relevant content that will be read now and scrolled over tomorrow, with new material to take its place.

B2B companies know their personas and their challenges, and for the most part, those are consistent. So for them, evergreen content can be helpful to readers no matter when they read an article. What’s most important though is that it still sounds relevant and engaging.

So how can B2B companies write content that’s both relevant and evergreen?

Here are some hybrid relevant-evergreen content ideas:

1. Socially evergreen content. Tools like Qzzr or Fyrebox can help you create interactive quizzes that can give readers a good laugh, insight, or uncover pain in their business strategy. These can also be used for knowledge assessments to aid readers in understanding where there might be gaps in their knowledge. From there, you can position yourself as the company that can offer advice about how to fill those gaps.
2. Annual reporting and predicting. Time relevant blog titles like “What MarTech companies can learn from 2017” and “Upcoming digital marketing trends to watch out for in 2018” can be eye-catching. It’s important then to set yourself reminders for when the content won’t be relevant anymore, so you can reassess if you want to write follow-up articles. This is a great way to take readers on a journey through time and discuss trends in your field.
3. Follow up on case-studies. Case studies are an excellent way to get decision makers to seriously consider the work you do and how it might be an effective solution for them. That being said, everyone likes a movie with a good sequel, so feel free to create a follow up article after the case study comes out to discuss the long term results. Give a Q&A with a client’s CEO down the line, and let them sing your praises about how you changed the way they do business.
4. Separate the fads from the faves. So Pokémon Go’s popularity didn’t last forever, but you could have seen that coming. Before creating token trendy B2B content, consider what is popular now, and what will stay popular in the future.
5. The right content, on the right channels. More trendy content is great for your social channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. Since these are ‘now’ mediums of information, they can be a great place to share industry news, wish followers happy holidays, and showcase new features. On your blog, try to keep your content evergreen. This is a place to add value, so make sure it does that no matter the season.

Conclusion

Whether you’re looking to build content that’s trendy, evergreen, or something in between, there’s one golden rule: all content should add value. Regardless if you’re offering them a case study or wishing them well before a national holiday, your goal is to let your followers and readers know that you’re thinking about them.

Ready to start blogging? Click below to download our Ultimate Blog Content Editing Checklist to make sure your blogs are top notch before you hit that ‘publish’ button.

Schedule a FREE consultation

Introduction – inbound marketing in the MarTech and AdTech industry

You know what they say about those who assume (if you don’t know the answer to this, ask the next thirteen-year-old you see). But let me venture a guess that you fall into a camp of people who are vaguely familiar with inbound marketing but you’re not totally sure how it all works. If in fact you’ve never heard of inbound, stick around, because I’m about to explain what it is and how it applies to the MarTech and AdTech vertical.

Where to begin? Let’s start with traditional marketing.

If we wind back the clock ten years to 2007, cold calling and cold emailing is the norm. The name of the game is to get yourself in front of your customers, smooth talk them through your elevator pitch, and close the deal. But here in 2017, people don’t pick up their phones if the number is unrecognizable and much of the emails we get are spam. Suddenly there’s a need for a different kind of marketing.

While traditional or outbound marketing focuses on getting your brand out there and talking about your company and what it does, inbound marketing turns that model on its head. With inbound, the goal is to drive leads to your brand on their time and create marketing content that speaks to who they are and where they stand in their journey to purchasing a product/service like yours.

There’s a good chance that last bit replaces your one question of “what is inbound?” with an assortment of new ones. “How does one drive leads? What does ‘on their time’ mean? What kind of content? How can you write content for everyone? The buyer has a journey? How does this apply for MarTech and AdTech companies specifically?” Great! We’re going to answer all those questions now.

But first, B2B marketing

Before we tackle how inbound can be used to help MarTech and AdTech companies, we first have to zoom out and talk about inbound for B2B companies vs. B2C companies. Remember before when I was talking about the need to understand where prospects are in their journey to purchasing a product? We call that trek the buyer’s journey.

In the case that I go to the mall after work because I feel like my closet could use a makeover, there’s a good chance I’ll walk into an H&M, consider a few options that peak my interest, and head to the register with the item of my choice in less than 30 minutes. Could your prospects beat my time? Probably not.

In both B2C and B2B transactions, buyers progress down the same journey. They realize they have a challenge, they consider possible solutions, and finally choose one to solve their needs. It looks like this.

In B2B companies, the journey of awareness (of a challenge), consideration (of solutions), and decision (of a remedy) is the same. The main difference is the time it takes to move from one phase to another and the level of trust required before making a decision. B2B products typically cost more, so naturally, people will be more hesitant and will want to make sure they are choosing the right supplier and that they are in good hands.

Other things that make B2B different:

1. With B2B, there’s also more people involved in the decision process.
2. B2B companies have a narrower target audience. But more on that later.
3. B2B business is not a one and done. You’re (or at least you should be) looking to build lasting relationships with your clients. By delighting them, you turn them from customers into promoters of your brand.

Inbound methodology

When you’re marketing the inbound way, the buyer’s journey is important, but how can we encourage strangers (who aren’t even aware of your brand) to travel down their journey to decide on your service/product and become lifelong supporters? Welcome to the inbound methodology!

As a B2B business, you should ideally focus on the following:

1. Attract – bring people to your website
2. Convert – turn casual visitors into leads
3. Close – sign on the dotted line and shake hands with your new clients
4. Delight – secure clients by offering them perks, transforming them into your advocates

What guides the methodology? Content.

Now that we’ve created the framework, let’s talk about strategy. By offering them content or help for each stage in their journey, you become a mentor that accompanies them throughout. Let’s talk about the different kinds of content that can be created to help prospects at each stage of the process, positioning you as an expert of your vertical (and their challenge).

To do this, I’m going to use a fictional MarTech company I thought up called Landing Pad to use as an example. Landing Pad is a marketing conversion tool that allows companies to convert visitors to leads through unique DIY landing pages. In this scenario, the main buyer persona (or target audience) that Landing Pad is looking to attract to their website are CMOs.

Awareness

First Landing Pad will need to do some research in order to understand these personas. They’re writing content for them, so it’s important that what their writing speaks to them as people and professionals. They should brainstorm and research the kinds of challenges their buyer personas face as CMOs. Once they figure out what their persona’s main challenges are, they should research what keywords their personas are searching for on Google when trying to find a solution to their challenges. Since 57% of prospects research online before even contacting the supplier, Landing Pad’s goal should be to be there and add value for their future prospects at those early stages of research. Once they’ve done that, they should be ready to create content. With consistent (and frequent) blogging, B2B companies having almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0-1 times per month. That being said, there’s no doubt that blog posts should be the front door to Landing Pad’s website.

Watch out: Make sure to keep the buyer’s persona in mind. It’s important to make sure your content is educational, not promotional.

Some examples of blog titles Landing Pad might use for the awareness stage:

1. How to increase your landing page conversion rate
2. Landing page optimization tips
3. How to keep your leads engaged (hint: thank you pages)
4. Tips for creating better landing pages

Are any of these blog posts going to talk about Landing Pad? Nope. We’re simply trying to educate Landing Pad’s buyer personas. If Landing Pad bombards visitors with their marketing solution’s features right away, they’ll have jumped the gun and risked scaring them off.

Quite the opposite, this is just the beginning of Landing Pad educating them.

Landing Pad will need to add a CTA (Call-to-Action) at the bottom of each post, inviting readers to download a content offer. That click is going to lead them to (my favorite marketing tool) a landing page! After filling out requested information, readers will receive their offer via email and voila! Landing Pad’s marketing team just got themselves a lead to nurture.

MarTech/ AdTech Tip: Awareness stage content is the hardest to write. You have a tech solution, so it’s hard to think out of the box when all you feel you know is your software, what it does, and how it works. Do research by talking to current clients about their larger marketing strategies to learn more about your vertical and the related challenges that exist in it.

Consideration

Consideration stage is all about offering solutions. Whether it be more blogs or eBooks or videos, this is your chance to show them what’s out there to meet their challenges and needs.

Going back to Landing Pad, this is the stage of the journey where our CMOs know they have a challenge that is related to landing pages. This is Landing Pad’s chance to educate them on all the options and solutions out there. Sure they should name drop Landing Pad, but it should not be the center of their content. They should make it clear to their prospects that they should find a solution that most suits their needs.

MarTech/ AdTech Tip: When talking about tech, think about your buyer personas. Are they millenials that advocate for new technology and are savvy enough to use it? Are they from an older generation who want more clients and results but can be hesitant to change the existing technology they’ve been using for years. By keeping your personas in mind, you can be sensitive to their personal tech capabilities and adjust your content accordingly. One more thing, offer low-tech options to consider if possible. They’ll appreciate knowing those options exist.

Decision

Finally, it’s time to talk about you. Your tech is great, and it’s time to show that off. Content to consider at this stage includes case studies, product comparisons, or live demos. Watch out, it can be tricky to not slip into a business-centric model! Remember that even at the end, this is about them and the tech and support you can offer. When listing what your software can do, be sure you’re giving them benefits over features. If you list a feature that can be responded to with a “so what?”, you’ve missed the opportunity to explain to your prospect how it meets and fulfills their needs.

MarTech/ AdTech Tip: When it comes to tech, it’s important to show your prospects how it works. If you’re running demos (or considering running demos) for your leads, do you have a standard script you use across the board? According to inbound, you have an opportunity to dive deep into the needs of your prospects — take advantage of it! Uncover challenges they have. They will likely ask, “I really wish we could X, is that something you can help us with? How would we do that using your product?”. From there, you can customize your demo to answer their questions and review other benefits you think will peak their interest. Hint: Using storytelling to aid in making the software walkthrough engaging and practical.

Conclusion

Inbound marketing is the methodology that turns strangers into brand ambassadors by continuously offering personalized content that is helpful and engaging. If you’re in the MarTech and AdTech vertical, what you’re doing is probably really cool. The issue is, techy things like software, data, and coding can be confusing or boring to people. Try to use inbound to connect with who and where your prospects are.

If you’re working on an inbound marketing strategy, we’ve created a blog editorial calendar template which we think just might make your life easier. Click below to download it.

Schedule a FREE consultation