1131: 5 Ways to Use Research to Generate Content at Scale w/ Phil Mobley

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:05.639 Looking for a guaranteed way to create content that resonates with your audience? Start 2 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:10.589 a podcast, interview your ideal clients and let them choose the topic of the 3 00:00:10.750 --> 00:00:15.109 interview, because if your ideal clients care about the topic, there's a good 4 00:00:15.150 --> 00:00:18.989 chance the rest of your audience will care about it too. Learn more at 5 00:00:19.030 --> 00:00:27.460 sweet fish Mediacom. You're listening to be tob growth, a daily podcast for 6 00:00:27.579 --> 00:00:31.820 B TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard before, like Gary vanner 7 00:00:31.859 --> 00:00:35.659 truck and Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard from the majority of our 8 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:40.689 guests. That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors. 9 00:00:41.289 --> 00:00:44.689 Most of our guests are in the trenches leading sales and marketing teams. 10 00:00:44.929 --> 00:00:49.929 They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're building the fastest growing be 11 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:53.600 tob companies in the world. My name is James Carberry. I'm the founder 12 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:57.359 of sweet fish media, a podcast agency for BB brands, and I'm also 13 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:00.880 one of the CO hosts of this show. When we're not interviewing sales and 14 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:03.590 marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our own business. 15 00:01:04.030 --> 00:01:07.430 Will share the ups and downs of our journey as we attempt to take over 16 00:01:07.469 --> 00:01:19.219 the world. Just getting well? Maybe let's get into the show. Welcome 17 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:23.099 back to be tob growth. I'm your host for today's episode, Travis King. 18 00:01:23.219 --> 00:01:27.420 Here at sweet fish media. I'm joined today by Phil Mobili, who 19 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:32.620 is the head of research, arch and tenant experience at Building Engines Inc. 20 00:01:33.090 --> 00:01:34.650 Phil, what is up, my friend? What's going on? Hey, 21 00:01:34.730 --> 00:01:38.010 Travis, I'm doing all right. How about yourself? I'm doing good, 22 00:01:38.129 --> 00:01:42.049 you know, can't complain, living another day, right. Yeah, yeah, 23 00:01:42.049 --> 00:01:45.849 well, thanks for having me on, of course. So, yeah, 24 00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:49.359 let's let's let's dive right in. Today you're going to be sharing a 25 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:55.120 little bit about how you use research to generate thought leadership content for positioning, 26 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:57.920 Lea Gen and PR opportunities. But before we get into that, you know, 27 00:01:57.959 --> 00:02:01.590 I'd love for you to share with listeners a little bit about yourself and 28 00:02:01.750 --> 00:02:05.950 what you and the team at building engine are up to these days. Yeah, 29 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:09.629 sure, so I'll start with building engines. We are a software provider, 30 00:02:09.710 --> 00:02:15.150 software as a service, and we serve the commercial real estate industry. 31 00:02:15.349 --> 00:02:20.979 So our platform is active and over two billion commercial square feet right now. 32 00:02:21.939 --> 00:02:29.539 We help our clients more smoothly operate their facilities. We help them automate a 33 00:02:29.620 --> 00:02:35.129 lot of the processes and then, crucially, we serve as the link between 34 00:02:35.169 --> 00:02:39.569 a building management team and the tenants and the occupants that are in the space 35 00:02:39.729 --> 00:02:46.080 that that those building management teams own and operate. So that's what our software 36 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:50.280 does. My role in the company, I we're sort of two hats day. 37 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:53.759 Today I lead our tenant experience development team, so any part of our 38 00:02:53.800 --> 00:03:00.509 software platform that the tenant occupants interact with, that that's what my team works 39 00:03:00.590 --> 00:03:06.110 on. But then also I'm head of research and that role is more geared 40 00:03:06.310 --> 00:03:09.430 toward producing thought leadership content that we use for marketing and legend, like you 41 00:03:09.509 --> 00:03:15.180 were mentioning in the introduction. Awesome and I find it's super interesting that, 42 00:03:15.219 --> 00:03:20.219 as a researcher, you have an integral role in the marketing department, because 43 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:23.780 not, it's not oftentimes you find, you know, marketing department has their 44 00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:28.610 own internal research expert that can go dive and find all the golden nuggets from 45 00:03:28.610 --> 00:03:31.409 all the different resources and places that you're able to get to. Yeah, 46 00:03:31.449 --> 00:03:37.490 and it's interesting because there's a tie to a software product management role as well, 47 00:03:37.729 --> 00:03:39.849 and that we are doing research all the time on what our users want 48 00:03:39.930 --> 00:03:46.199 and need and where the gaps are from technology perspective in the marketplace. So 49 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:50.199 you know, it is unique, I think, particularly in our sector, 50 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:53.159 the industry, but it also makes a lot of sense. There's a lot 51 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:58.590 of synergy there between what I do on the product side and on the marketing 52 00:03:58.710 --> 00:04:00.830 side. Got It. So I mean I'd love for us, you know, 53 00:04:00.949 --> 00:04:03.830 dive right in and kind of could you tell us a little bit about 54 00:04:03.990 --> 00:04:09.110 how you know, how does it work like? What's the process like when 55 00:04:09.110 --> 00:04:14.500 it comes to research and, you know, generating ideas for different thought leadership 56 00:04:14.539 --> 00:04:20.779 content that you guys are using? The thing about good research is that you 57 00:04:20.939 --> 00:04:25.370 want to start with what do you want to be able to say at the 58 00:04:25.410 --> 00:04:28.569 end of this? Right, you begin with the end in mind. I'm 59 00:04:28.610 --> 00:04:32.170 usually that starts with a solid hypothesis. So, in other words, you 60 00:04:32.209 --> 00:04:36.730 don't necessarily want to just go collect all the possible facts and start boiling the 61 00:04:36.810 --> 00:04:41.120 ocean. You really want to have a goal. So a couple of examples 62 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:46.120 that we've used in our research. One was we had a hypothesis, based 63 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:55.189 on understanding our clients, that a successful commercial real estate management team operates their 64 00:04:55.310 --> 00:05:00.310 buildings maybe a little bit differently than those they're less successful, and so we 65 00:05:00.949 --> 00:05:03.829 did some research. That became what we call the commercial real estate operations report, 66 00:05:04.629 --> 00:05:11.500 and in that report we examined the whole realm of commercial real estate operations, 67 00:05:11.740 --> 00:05:18.139 from Preventive Maintenance and service request management to technology and communications and staff management 68 00:05:18.180 --> 00:05:23.769 and the whole mine yards, and from that research we were able to essentially 69 00:05:24.170 --> 00:05:28.410 prove out our hypothesis that, yes, the buildings that are the most successful 70 00:05:28.569 --> 00:05:31.889 in terms of having the highest rents, having the highest occupancy, that's how 71 00:05:32.009 --> 00:05:34.649 the building to make money. So the ones that do that the best, 72 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:44.439 they really do practice different operational techniques and engage in different operational best practices and 73 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:48.839 those things differentiate them in the market place. So that report has been valuable 74 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:54.750 to us not only to just show hey, look, we're thought leaders, 75 00:05:55.430 --> 00:06:00.110 but to do something a little bit for provocative, to provide new insight to 76 00:06:00.470 --> 00:06:05.459 our existing clients, of course, but also to prospects. Another example of 77 00:06:05.579 --> 00:06:13.899 that is we have somewhat of a different and provocative take on the tenant experience. 78 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:17.259 There's a lot of movement, particularly in the technology space, in the 79 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:25.129 commercial real estate industry toward mobile APPS and trying to get tenant occupants to engage 80 00:06:25.129 --> 00:06:29.050 with and use mobile APPs, and our take on that is that we are 81 00:06:29.050 --> 00:06:31.810 a little bit skeptical of that. We're not sure that's the way tenants really 82 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:36.600 want to interact with their building and the management team there, and so we 83 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:43.399 did some research into that as well. That resulted in what we call the 84 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:48.509 tenant experience gap report, and in that piece of content we were able to 85 00:06:48.550 --> 00:06:54.550 again prove out this hypothesis and identify that, you know, what the building 86 00:06:54.589 --> 00:07:00.709 management teams understanding of what the tenants will want and what they're expecting in terms 87 00:07:00.750 --> 00:07:05.019 of experience and communication and interaction it's really different than what the tenants themselves are 88 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:10.139 expecting and what they're hoping to get from the management team. So, you 89 00:07:10.220 --> 00:07:12.699 know, you asked a question about how these come about. Well, they 90 00:07:12.740 --> 00:07:17.329 come about with having a position or having a hypothesis, in our case, 91 00:07:17.410 --> 00:07:21.810 something that we look at maybe a little bit differently than the industry, and 92 00:07:23.050 --> 00:07:25.970 so the research helps you bear that out and it also helps you make some 93 00:07:26.089 --> 00:07:28.769 noise. So we will talk some more about how we've been able to use 94 00:07:28.850 --> 00:07:31.639 those pieces, I'm sure. Oh yeah, and it's funny that you say 95 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:39.680 that, because I was actually in my tenant APP earlier today and it's interesting 96 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:43.040 how they have it laid out and they, you know, expect their tenants 97 00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:46.589 to go in here and actually find updates the things, when it's just another 98 00:07:46.629 --> 00:07:50.790 platform that I need to figure out my login for and remember a password for. 99 00:07:51.350 --> 00:07:54.670 And then even once you get in there, it's not like the Uis 100 00:07:54.709 --> 00:07:58.389 a hundred percent up to date. And I'm like, no, I totally 101 00:07:58.389 --> 00:08:01.699 understand where fiels coming from, because I definitely have this pain point as a 102 00:08:01.779 --> 00:08:05.139 tenant right now. Yeah, and I and I this is not really the 103 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:07.459 purpose of this call, but just use for some context. I mean our 104 00:08:07.540 --> 00:08:13.089 position is essentially that apps can look nice and feel great, but it's hard 105 00:08:13.089 --> 00:08:16.290 to get people to use them, and so where we really see the ten 106 00:08:16.370 --> 00:08:20.050 and experience going is where most of the rest of our lives are going, 107 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:24.250 which is through messaging. Right. So you know, if I could get 108 00:08:24.290 --> 00:08:30.800 an update, or submit a service request or register a visitor all through an 109 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:35.799 AI enable text messaging APP or text messaging bought, then we think that's a 110 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:39.000 win, and so that's sort of where we're going in a product direction, 111 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:43.990 and we're doing that because of the research that we did and to hey, 112 00:08:43.070 --> 00:08:46.269 this is what tenants really want to do anyway. So, you know, 113 00:08:46.350 --> 00:08:52.149 number one, the research ended up supporting our product vision, but also helping 114 00:08:52.230 --> 00:08:56.419 us tell the story of this is why we're going in this direction and this 115 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:00.500 is why it's better and this is why you should listen right. No, 116 00:09:00.980 --> 00:09:03.820 I really value that and I think it's something that a lot of commercial real 117 00:09:03.860 --> 00:09:11.250 estate operations companies should aspire to think about it in thinking about where their customers 118 00:09:11.289 --> 00:09:15.409 are headed. Because, I mean, as as we're kind of going into 119 00:09:15.450 --> 00:09:20.049 kind of next phase of the conversation, my my next thought is is thinking 120 00:09:20.090 --> 00:09:24.009 about, you know, some of the ways that other betb marketers can leverage 121 00:09:24.129 --> 00:09:28.440 these sorts of methods and their organizations to kind of take back something that they 122 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:31.159 can use, you know, from you know, your research or from your 123 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:37.720 from your process. Yeah, sure. So what we have done as a 124 00:09:37.879 --> 00:09:45.190 starting point in terms of output is to put together really well produced, well 125 00:09:45.389 --> 00:09:52.070 written research reports and we've engaged, when necessary, external people to help us 126 00:09:52.110 --> 00:09:56.419 design, to help us copyright. You know, we have some internal capabilities 127 00:09:56.860 --> 00:10:00.259 in the data analysis piece, so we were able to do a lot with 128 00:10:00.379 --> 00:10:03.460 that ourselves, but where we didn't have the expertise, we found it and 129 00:10:03.659 --> 00:10:09.769 produce some high quality pieces that make really great leave behinds. We have found 130 00:10:09.009 --> 00:10:13.610 that they get very senior level eyes. It's an easy you know report like 131 00:10:13.649 --> 00:10:16.809 that as an easy thing to take with you on an airplane ride, for 132 00:10:16.889 --> 00:10:20.570 example, or a train ride, and so we get feedback that, hey, 133 00:10:20.330 --> 00:10:24.080 you know this or that senior leader in this sort that real estate company 134 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:28.600 saw your report and really enjoyed it and now they want to have a conversation. 135 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:33.200 So that that's one thing. But beyond that, when you have a 136 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:39.070 wealth of information that you've collected through research, you can also turn that into 137 00:10:39.149 --> 00:10:41.830 a lot of different kinds of content pieces as well. So we've put together 138 00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:48.509 blog posts. We have pitched and placed by lines in trade publications, but 139 00:10:48.629 --> 00:10:52.620 I did that just last week. In that we have put on our own 140 00:10:52.740 --> 00:11:01.019 webinars. We have participated in industry organizations and their educational output. We've had 141 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:05.769 speaking engagements. I went to Shanghai in September this year to present some of 142 00:11:05.809 --> 00:11:09.529 the findings from our turn experience gap report. So that was an amazing opportunity 143 00:11:09.850 --> 00:11:16.330 both for me personally and for the company. So it's the kind of thing 144 00:11:16.529 --> 00:11:20.759 that you do invest in to produce. But once you do that, it's 145 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:24.639 not that the content is evergreen, but it does have a fairly long shelf 146 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:31.279 life and you can get lots of smaller content pieces out of it that didn't 147 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:35.710 you can use to push forward across a variety of different platforms. Hey, 148 00:11:35.750 --> 00:11:41.190 everybody, logan with sweet fish here. You probably already know that we think 149 00:11:41.269 --> 00:11:43.509 you should start a podcast if you haven't already. But what if you have 150 00:11:43.750 --> 00:11:48.620 and you're asking these kinds of questions? How much has our podcast impacted revenue 151 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:54.299 this year? How is our sales team actually leveraging the PODCAST content? If 152 00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:58.460 you can't answer these questions, you're actually not alone. This is why I 153 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:03.289 cast it created the very first content marketing platform made specifically for be tob podcasting. 154 00:12:03.850 --> 00:12:09.929 Now you can more easily search and share your audio content while getting greater 155 00:12:09.009 --> 00:12:15.690 visibility into the impact of your podcast. The marketing teams at drift terminus and 156 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:20.080 here at sweet fish have started using casted to get more value out of our 157 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:24.080 podcasts, and you probably can to. You can check out the product in 158 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:33.470 action and casted dot US growth. That's sea steed dot US growth all right, 159 00:12:33.669 --> 00:12:39.389 let's get back to the show. Sounds like a smart plan to me. 160 00:12:39.789 --> 00:12:45.500 Yeah, like a lot of times marketers struggle with figuring out ways to 161 00:12:45.700 --> 00:12:50.460 repurpose content and doing, you know, one off something that might not be 162 00:12:50.620 --> 00:12:54.379 able to be, you know, reused or transformed to a different sort of 163 00:12:54.460 --> 00:12:56.340 platform. And you guys are doing a really, really well and taking, 164 00:12:56.820 --> 00:13:01.889 you know, that pillar piece of content and being the research and then figuring 165 00:13:01.929 --> 00:13:05.409 out different ways to disseminate that content across multiple different channels, whether it be 166 00:13:05.529 --> 00:13:11.490 webinars, Yep, blog posts, podcasting, whatever the channel that you guys 167 00:13:11.529 --> 00:13:13.919 decide. But yeah, and I can give you sort of a concrete example 168 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:18.240 of that from the tenant experience gap report. I mean, part of the 169 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:22.639 question that we wanted answer as well. What is the tenant experience anyway? 170 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:26.360 How are we defining that? In our industry? It's a term that gets 171 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:31.309 thrown around, but it's vieused very loosely and people don't really define that in 172 00:13:31.389 --> 00:13:37.029 a disciplined way. So our full report alludes to that. But then we 173 00:13:37.590 --> 00:13:41.110 came back and created a supplemental presentation about, okay, well, here's what 174 00:13:41.190 --> 00:13:43.299 this actually means and here's what it means for you and what you should do 175 00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:48.379 about it. So we've been able to give that presentation in a variety of 176 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:54.460 different form formats and forums, but then we also were able to break the 177 00:13:54.539 --> 00:13:58.570 presentation itself down into three or four different blog posts that we were able to 178 00:13:58.649 --> 00:14:05.690 publish. So there's really been a cascading effect from the full research to a 179 00:14:05.929 --> 00:14:11.519 presentation based view of it to breaking it down even smaller into, you know, 180 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:16.200 by size, chunks that are consumable in platforms like Linkedin and our company 181 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:20.919 blog and even some industry trade magazines. Nice. Thanks so much for that 182 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:24.710 concrete example. I think that'll be super helpful for the listeners, especially when 183 00:14:24.710 --> 00:14:26.629 it comes down to figuring out how they can implement this research in their own 184 00:14:26.629 --> 00:14:33.070 companies. And then one final question. Why do you believe research is a 185 00:14:33.190 --> 00:14:39.379 great method for other marketers in there's, you know, respective roles. Yeah, 186 00:14:39.379 --> 00:14:41.059 I mean there's there's a lot of reasons. I mentioned that we've been 187 00:14:41.059 --> 00:14:45.899 able to get our research in front of senior eyes. I think a lot 188 00:14:45.940 --> 00:14:52.460 of the reason for that is that it is of course it's motivated toward increasing 189 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:56.730 our brand awareness and generating leads for us, but it also does provide real 190 00:14:56.009 --> 00:15:01.730 value for our more market place, whether or not their clients right. So 191 00:15:01.929 --> 00:15:05.450 if you're trying to get in front of those decisionmakers eyes, they'd rather read 192 00:15:05.649 --> 00:15:11.799 something that's interesting to them and that adds value immediately then just a simple sales 193 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:16.080 pitch. So that's that's one reason. I think another is it really helps 194 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:20.590 with positioning the company. You know, I mentioned our commercial real estate operations 195 00:15:20.750 --> 00:15:28.590 report. The scope of that report certainly included the aspects of operations that are 196 00:15:28.710 --> 00:15:31.590 software enables, but it was also broader than that and so, from a 197 00:15:31.629 --> 00:15:39.259 positioning standpoint it tells the marketplace building engines is not only a software provider, 198 00:15:39.419 --> 00:15:43.700 but we are experts in this market and so therefore, by implication, you 199 00:15:43.820 --> 00:15:50.450 can trust us to design and maintain and serve software because we understand the entirety 200 00:15:50.490 --> 00:15:56.090 of operations in the challenges that you are market places are facing. So it's 201 00:15:56.169 --> 00:16:00.889 very helpful from a positioning standpoint and I think it's you know, if you 202 00:16:02.330 --> 00:16:06.440 can invest in the capability to produce something like that, it does pay dividends 203 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:11.039 down the road. Got It well, Phil this has been such a such 204 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:15.720 an amazing and information and insightful episode. So listeners just want to, you 205 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:19.149 know, wrap it up and, you know, number one, some key 206 00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:25.230 takeaways that I just learned. Always start with a solid hypothesis. Leverage research 207 00:16:25.309 --> 00:16:32.230 reports so that you can use them to then transform the initial content into multiple 208 00:16:32.269 --> 00:16:37.580 different pieces of micro content. And, you know, finally, research reports 209 00:16:37.700 --> 00:16:41.259 actually provide real value for the marketplace, whether or not they're your ideal clients, 210 00:16:41.539 --> 00:16:44.940 and it's also a very helpful way for you to get in front of 211 00:16:44.980 --> 00:16:48.850 decision makers. So, Phil thanks so much again for hopping on today and 212 00:16:49.009 --> 00:16:52.090 sharing some of these insights with us. And, you know, as we 213 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:56.889 wrap up, you know, this has been a great conversation. If listeners 214 00:16:56.929 --> 00:17:00.090 want to stay connected with you or follow up to ask any questions on this 215 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.200 topic, what's the best way for them to connect with you? Yeah, 216 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:11.000 great questions. So I my email address at building engines is it's P mobly, 217 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:17.029 PMO Belley at building enginescom. You can also find me on twitter at 218 00:17:17.230 --> 00:17:22.230 Hilarious rets either. Those will get in front of me pretty quickly. Thanks 219 00:17:22.269 --> 00:17:25.269 so much for we really appreciate being on the show today. It's been a 220 00:17:25.349 --> 00:17:30.259 pleasure. Drafts, I appreciate it. We totally get it. We publish 221 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:33.539 a ton of content on this podcast, and it can be a lot to 222 00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:37.779 keep up with. That's why we've started the BETOB growth big three, a 223 00:17:37.940 --> 00:17:42.380 no fluff email that boils down our three biggest takeaways from an entire week of 224 00:17:42.500 --> 00:17:48.289 episodes. Sign up today at Sweet Phish Mediacom Big Three. That sweet PHISH 225 00:17:48.369 --> 00:17:51.930 MEDIACOMA Big Three