Transcript
WEBVTT
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Yeah,
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Hi everyone welcome back to be to be
growth. I'm Olivia Hurley with sweet
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fish media and I'm joined today by
Griffin Moss, the senior digital
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marketing Manager over at Microstrategy.
Hey Griffin, how you doing? Hey good.
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How are you? Good to be with you?
Awesome. I'm doing well too. I'm glad
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we get to chat today and I'm glad we
get to dive into some of this. So
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before we hit record, we were talking
about the biggest challenge, Some of
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the biggest challenges that people face
with content marketing. And you were
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saying that one thing that you've
encountered before is that when you're
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planning a release of new products,
it's always the same issue, you know,
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the product is great, it has the
capabilities that people want and are
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asking for. But how do you create the
content calendar without use cases? So
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I think we should unpack that and let's
start super basic what our use case is
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going to provide for the content
strategy. Sure. Well, yeah, I think, I
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think fundamentally what use cases can
provide you, especially if you can tie
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in specific customers is a less like
sales, e and direct approach. Um which
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I think helps you to build a certain
degree of trust because you're going to
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be able to kind of lead people to
examples that have already worked well,
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you're not saying oh this is the
greatest thing ever and like you should
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definitely jump on board because that's
just going to kind of I don't think it
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hits the right tone, but when you can
show people possibilities, I think it
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gets the wheels turning in a more
organic way. I think a good example
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that we used recently was a use case
kind of customer success story in
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conjunction with cox automotive, who is
not a hugely familiar name but they
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kind of run the background of sites
like Autotrader and Kelley Blue book
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and so the use case that we found for
them with hyper intelligence products,
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which I won't get too in the weeds on
that, but we were able to present a
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scenario where, you know, when they're
looking to purchase a car and put it on
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the, on the market on one of their
sites that's not a peer to peer. Uh, we
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were able to build out something for
them where it literally shows them like
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a green light, a yellow light or a red
light, depending on the specific specs
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of the car, what they know the market,
what they know the make and model. Um,
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and I just thought that was a really
interesting story where it's kind of
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like intellectually stimulating. Um,
it's a unique use case and then for
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somebody that's, you know, looking at
the product that might again make them
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think, well, like, that's a very
interesting way to do it. What's one of
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those situations that we encounter? Um
and all of a sudden it's not
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necessarily like marketing as much as,
you know, getting them into the
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consideration phase, I think, a little
more quickly. So what do you stand to
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lose without use cases? I think without
use cases you're confined to maybe a
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more direct, and I'm gonna probably
overuse sales. E but, um, sales, the
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approach, you might have to lean a
little bit harder on, you know, the
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unique product offering, It's a unique
service offering, which, well, you do
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want to communicate that. I don't think
that's ultimately what gets people to
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By. I think ultimately, especially in
B2B when oftentimes, the product is
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specialist, you want people to be able
to really wrap their head around what
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they're going to be able to get out of
it. And so if you don't have those, and
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it's something that's a little bit more
murky, uh then you maybe lose people at
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the beginning, where they're just like,
I don't really understand how I could
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plug this in, so I'm just gonna, it's a
pass for me and you know, then you may
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not get the second opportunity to
interact with them. So how do you
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replicate the credibility that comes
with use cases? Oh, I think one big
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thing is leveraging your existing brand
clout. If you haven't, obviously not,
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everyone is going to have a brand,
brand cloud or recognition in the space,
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but, you know, if it's a new product,
then you don't have a use case. I think
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that's something that you have to do,
um, you know, speak to your strengths
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that are already going to be known,
especially if there's an existing
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audience and then you may just have to
sort of make the leap. And even though
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it's not ideal, you know, speak to
those unique value proposition is kind
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of in conjunction with your existing
branding and that that may be enough to
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kind of get people to open up to the
idea of the new product, but it's
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definitely a tougher road to how I
would say. Mm So let's get tactical
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here. How do you craft your content
strategy without the use cases? So I
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spoke to it a bit, but as far as like
the actual content to put forward, I
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think if you have it any kind of 3rd
party validation of your company or
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brand or product is great and that
could even be like average customer
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rating on something, although I know
that's not quite B two B, but if there
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is like a analyst report that says like
this is where you fall in the ranking,
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leveraging any kind of good takeaways
there. And then I think really thought
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leadership content, especially if
you're in a unique space is good. Again,
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anything that's going to advance, I
guess people's perception of you as a
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leader in the space, I think it's going
to make them more open to any new
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products that you may come out with. So
I think it's it's more of having to
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have a little bit of an end around in
mind where you're kind of promoting
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content that's not as directly focused
on the product, maybe even, but but
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really knowing you're promoting the
product just with your general content
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strategy and then maybe in a small way,
kind of seeding the ground with that
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more products specific content. But
within a mix of these other thanks
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other other pieces. Hey everybody Logan
with sweet fish here. If you've been
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listening to the show for a while, you
know where big proponents of putting
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out original organic content on linked
in. But one thing that's always been a
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struggle for a team like ours is to
easily track the reach of that linked
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in content. That's why I was really
excited when I heard about Shield the
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other day from a connection on, you
guessed it linked in since our team
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started using Shield. I've loved how
it's led us easily track and analyze
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the performance of Arlington content
without having to manually log it
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ourselves. It automatically creates
reports and generate some dashboards
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that are incredibly useful to see
things like what contents been
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performing the best and what days of
the week are we getting the most
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engagement and our average views
proposed. I'd highly suggest you guys
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check out this tool if you're putting
out content on linked in and if you're
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not, you should be. It's been a game
changer for us. If you go to shield app
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dot Ai and check out the 10 day free
trial, you can even use our promo code
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B two B growth to get a 25% discount
again. That's shield app dot Ai. And
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that promo code is B the number to be
growth. All one word. All right, let's
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get back to the show, curious. Have you
tried to create content without use
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cases in the past and what ideas
haven't worked? How would you caution
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our listeners?
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Sure. Well, I I think there's a
temptation and in B two B to operate
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more like B two C where it's like,
here's the product, like download it
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now, trial it right now, you know,
that's obviously specific to the SAs
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space, but like the phrase that I've,
it's not mine, but I'm going to steal
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it, just asking somebody to kind of
move in on the first date. Um and this
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kind of goes back to my earlier point
about having these other pieces of
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content to kind of push maybe a broader
brand messaging strategy to push in
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conjunction with that final step.
Because ultimately, you know, from my
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perspective, being like the digital
marketing space, if you're only doing
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product specific content by now to talk
to somebody right now, um if you
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haven't ceded the ground with those
other things, then that's going to be a
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very, very expensive strategy that is
not going to yield probably the results
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that you want. And you're really not
going to be bringing net new people
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into the fold, You're going to be just
sort of probably reengaging maybe your
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existing customer base or people that
have already taken in your messaging in
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some way. It's very hard for to
somebody just take a a leap because,
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you know, in our case, even if it's a
free trial, it's it's not free in the
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sense that you're going to have to
undertake maybe hours of implementation.
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So, so that is one thing where, you
know, I think we're definitely getting
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better about this, but there have been
occurrences in the past where we do
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focus just on that bottom of the funnel
or we have focused on just that bottom
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of the funnel. And it's, you know,
something where we're
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building upward in the funnel, when
really we should be kind of starting
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upward and then gradually move down and
have a smaller subset of people where
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you're really encouraging them to move
in and interact with the product. So
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for somebody wanting to do what you're
suggesting, who's in your shoes? What
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is Step 1? What's step 2? Uh, yeah, no,
that's a, that's a good question. I
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think the first thing that you need to
do is have an idea of your timeline. I
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think, I think one mistake that a lot
of people make is okay. The product
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launches like next month. So I'm going
to start thinking about it two weeks
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before and then by the time I request,
um, you know, all of the content needs
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that we have and think through the
campaigns were already kind of into the,
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you know, the products maybe already
launched or you're just, and you don't
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have as many assets as you need to work
with. So I think Really think probably
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with, you know, at least like a 3-6
months lead time on, Anything that
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you're wanting to do is a step, one
that I think is very important. And
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then uh, step to, you know, kind of
touched on this to an extent, but I
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think, you know, don't reinvent the
wheel on certain things that go with
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certain brand messaging tactics that
have worked well and just figure out
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how you can kind of plug in the new
product. And then I think as a, maybe a
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final thing to not get kind of too into
the weeds on, on steps and just keep it
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broad, you know, think of like the
emotional value proposition more than
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the product specific value proposition
because that's probably what's going to
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bring people's interest enough to
interact and get to the point where
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they're actually learning about product
specifics griffin. What results can a
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listener expect to see if they're
following these tactics, implementing
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this strategy? Tell me about that. Sure.
Well I think one thing to keep in mind
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is especially if you kind of follow the
steps that I've kind of laid out, where
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you're doing like a broad approach of
like seeding the ground and maybe
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slowly kind of ramping up what your
what you should probably see is that
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it's not going to be an immediate, you
know, probably not an immediate win.
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People probably need to interact with,
you know, your campaigns, your tactics
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a handful of times before they're
really deeply into the consideration
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phase, especially in B two B um you
know, they might interact with a
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webinar or they're on your mailing list
and they're interacting in a few
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different ways, so I would expect. Um
and what you want to see is, you know,
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maybe very little activity in the
beginning, but like a slow and steady
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ramp up of improvement over time. And I
think that's just unfortunate sometimes
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because a lot of times we want that
immediate win and so does so does our
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CMO. Um, but I think oftentimes it's
just, you know, you have to almost
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fight that battle uh, internally to
start with and say, you know, look,
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this is probably going to take some
time. It's a new product, you know, I
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don't expect us to, you know, overnight,
see a big flood of activity, but as
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long as you're seeing more in week two
than you did in week one and more in
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week three than you did a week too. And
that kind of extends through then
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you're, you know, you're on the right
track and if, and if you don't then you
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probably need to retool. I love it.
Well that is such good encouragement
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for anybody who is in that scenario
right now, Griffin, thank you so much
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for joining me today. Where can people
go to learn more about you and
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microstrategy? Yeah, absolutely. I'm
not a huge social media person, but I
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feel free to direct message me on
linkedin and if it's related to this,
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I'm happy to connect and kind of share
more explicit contact info and then
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microstrategy. Uh we're on all social
media and microstrategy dot com if you
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want to learn more about what we do.
Well, thank you again for joining me on
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the to be growth. All right, thank you.
It was fun. Is the decision maker for
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your product or service at BBB marketer.
Are you looking to reach those buyers
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through the medium of podcasting?
Consider becoming a co host of GDP
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00:13:52.970 --> 00:13:57.250
growth. This show is consistently
ranked as a top 100 podcast in the
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marketing category of Apple Podcasts,
and the show gets more than 130,000
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downloads each month. We've already
done the work of building the audience
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so you can focus on delivering
incredible content to our listeners if
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00:14:10.870 --> 00:14:15.860
you're interested, email Logan at Sweet
Fish Media dot com. Mm hmm.