Transcript
WEBVTT
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Conversations from the front lines and marketing. This is be tob growth. Welcome
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back to be tob growth. I'm
your host, Benjie Block, and today
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I am joined by a new friend, my Morgan Wells. She is the
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senior content marketing manager at act on. My were so happy to have you
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here. Thanks for having me,
Benjie. So, before I take us
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to our our main conversation today,
I have to start us here because it's
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not too often that on the podcast
I actually interview a fellow podcast host,
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so I want to know my what's
like your favorite part of getting to host
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a podcast and maybe, like what's
been your biggest learning since you've been hosting?
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I love hosting podcast one because I
just like to talk in general,
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so it's perfect for me to be
hosting a show like the marketing hero podcast.
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been doing about eighteen months now,
and I think the biggest thing I've
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learned, it's a small thing,
I guess, but for me it's been
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big to not script out your podcast
too much. I think at the beginning
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I was really concerned about making sure
I asked all the questions I wanted to
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ask and prep my guests, you
know, accordingly, and I feel like
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the first few guests I had really
wrote out their answers and it seemed robotic
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when the recording came out. So
that's been a little nugget that I've learned
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that's made my podcasting experience a lot
better. I think the conversation stations come
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out better and honestly, the last
few interviews I've done have gotten a lot
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deeper into, you know, issues
of diversity and inclusion and how do you
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become a leader and going beyond the
tactical stuff a little bit. So that's
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been really, really fun to learn. And Yeah, I just love doing
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it. I love meeting people that
are way smarter than me and talking to
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them about marketing and specifically about SASS
marketing, because that's what I do in
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my daytoday job, and so getting
to talk to some of my heroes and
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nerd out with them a little bit
has just been an awesome experience. Yeah,
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I always say with podcasting, to
me, making sure you have the
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right questions to start and prompt the
conversation is wonderful, but being willing to
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go down the rabbit trails with your
guest is where the greatest parts of the
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episode come right. So like yes, you did your research, yes,
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you did your homework. You got
some questions right now. But, like,
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I love what you said there.
You don't want to be too scripted,
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and so really glad to be chatting
with you today. And we're not
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talking about podcasting on this episode really
at all, because you are in a
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newer role, lots of new faces
and the organization at large, and there's
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a lot of that you're currently working
on right now, really focused on brand
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messaging and positioning, right. So
maybe give us a brief rundown on what
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you're working on? My sure.
So, as you said in your brief
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introduction, I lead content marketing at
act on and the foundation for what I
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do as a content marketer comes from
the brand's position. HMM, if you
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don't have a specific brand positioning Guy
Messaging Guide, you know, it comes
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down to who are we as a
company? Who are we as a brand?
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If you don't know the answer to
that question, how can you possibly
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come up with an effective content strategy? Right? So, coming up with
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and defining really well who it is
you are as a company and what it
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is that you're offering to whom is
extremely important to provide the foundation for what
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we do as marketers every day.
HMM. And a key piece of the
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strategy you guys are working on now
that maybe it sound like, was maybe
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even a little new to you,
but it's basing all of your content around
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a couple key verticals. Is that
right? How does that work? Yes,
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a very new and exciting approach to
what we're doing at act on is
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identifying and going after some really key
verticals for our product. And where that
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came out of is partly from the
exercise and brand positioning. Because to answer
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who are we? To whom?
You know, it's that to whom part
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right. And so the exercise really
started with looking at who are our most
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successful customers. Where do we really
find success? What Industries gravitate towards act
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on as a marketing automation solution?
And that comes from collaborating with the director
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of Product Marketing, with our new
crro you know, and some of the
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other executives that have a really great
handle on who do we serve best?
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And from that we identified three verticals
that were now focusing in on, not
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that we're completely, you know,
re charting everything that we're doing, and
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they're still going to be thought leadership
you know, helpful content on how to
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those types of things always need to
be there as a foundation for good marketing.
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But, you know, pivoting and
talking more towards these specific industries is
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one way that we're going to try
to reach the goal of being a big
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name, a big player in those
specific verticals and and really going from that
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underdog sort of positioning that we currently
sort of have as a brand into,
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you know, this is the best
in class marketing automation solution for this particular
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industry. You know, one of
them that we were heavily going after and
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that we're very successful in so far
is financial services. So banks, credit
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unions, financial advisors, wealth management, those types of companies do really well
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with act on. So part of
it is who does well with the solution?
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How does that solution provide value in
that industry? And then, you
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know, conversely, who are we
in that conversation as well? So focusing
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in on these verticals has really provided
us sort of like a guard reels,
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you know, so that we can
plan the right activities and marketing to really
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hit the right people. So you
mentioned three there and then gave us a
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specific on one, which is the
financial services what are the other two that
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you are are focusing on vertically?
The other two right now are high tech
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manufacturing. We recently did a great
case study with Hitachi, which is one
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of our customers in the EMEA region, and so really focusing in on high
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tech manufacturing and then also business services. So another area that does really well
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using a specialized marketing automation solution like
act on are people that provide be to
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be consulting, you know, in
other types of business services. So those
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are the three were focusing in on
right now and having a really great time
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kind of figuring out the balance of
the general thought leadership content, the how
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to, the inspirational content that we
sort of always need to do, and
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then how do we then sprinkle in
articles and and podcast episodes and other things,
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webinars and things like that for people
in these specific industries? And it's
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interesting right now because I'm trying to
figure out, as a content person,
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what's the right mix of that,
because I don't think, honestly that if
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I'm, you know, let's say
I'm a CMO or even a marketing manager
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at a bank, I don't need
every single article that I read to be
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specifically about you know, marketing automation
for bank marketers. I I don't think
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we need to get that keyword happy. You know, in the situation,
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what is the right mix of providing
specific resources for those people that relate to,
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let's say, email regulations that all
banks need to follow? There's a
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regulation called findra right that banks have
to follow if they're doing email marketing.
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Has To do with consumer privacy protections. So it's a little bit of a
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niche kind of thing that we need
to be aware of as marketers, but
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I don't think it's a hundred percent
niche to down, if that makes sense.
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So I'm in the process right now
planning out the content for q three,
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Q fur. What what's the right
mix of that? So that's partly
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on the content side. So we
are looking at those three industry verticals and
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planning out our next moves and industry
partners that we might want to get involved
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with at this time too. So
I want to ask a follow up question
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there, because it's I mean three
verticals is probably close to the Max that
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someone would pick. Once you get
beyond that, I imagine that starts to
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get immensely complicated. But even with
three you're going to be dealing with some
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complexities. So within your content strategy, how are you thinking about kind of
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splitting your time or trying to become
like a thought leader in each of those
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three spaces? How do you think
about that? Man, that really is
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a great question and that's something I'm
working on right now and our whole team
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is actually working on, and not
only in the marketing site. We also
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are involving stakeholders, from sales stakeholders
from product even you know, what are
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the features that are going to become
important as we really pivot into these industries,
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not that we haven't worked in them
before, but really honing in and
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going okay, we're not going to
be everything to everyone, not right now.
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We really need to focus on doing
a really great job in these three
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particular industries. So the way that
we're starting is general. Part of that
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is driven by Seo Keyword Research as
we start to update content on our website.
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Right. But it's very rare that
somebody's going to type in according to
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seem rush right or some of our
other tools like Mas. If you're doing
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that actual keyword research for SEO and
you're typing that in, you're researching that
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it's very rare that somebody's going to
be searching marketing automation software for credit unions.
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Right. There's a very low search
volume for that. You would you
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guys can look it up. If
you got a subscription to sem rush aw
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you might you go it. Just
looked that up for fun. The search
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volumes low and if the search volume
is so low that you're really not going
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to draw in a lot of organic
traffic, then you start to question what's
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the point of focusing there, right. And so, you know, one
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of the things that we've done is
realized very early on in this process that
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we do need to start a little
bit broad. So instead of focusing in
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on, let's say, making a
pillar page or a website page for marketing
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automation SOFTWARE FOR BANK MARKETERS, we're
just doing bank marketing as our main,
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you know industry page, because people
actually search for that and it is a
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place that we can provide valuable content
for people in that industry. People might
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be looking for advice and expertise on
marketing in general for banks or for high
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tech manufacturing and the different you know
industry verticals we just talked about. So
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we're starting general and it's not only
because of the Seo Keyword, research,
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Bingee, it's also because we need
to start somewhere. We don't just want
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to wait and have like analysis paralysis. Right. That's kind of difficult in
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marketing because we always want to have
data informed strategies, but we also want
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to do along the way. So
what we're doing is we're starting with the
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general and then moving into more specific
topics as we start gathering data. People
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that come in through that page,
people that might come in through PPC campaigns
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around those keywords, for example.
Where do they go? What happens with
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them and what type of content helps
them on their customer journey to really make
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that decision. And you know what, at the end of the day we
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might find out that, you know, the General Marketing Automation Quick Start Guide,
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you know, is one of our
most popular ebooks, for example.
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We may find out that that is
the resource that Credit Union marketers love to
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read and we don't need necessarily a
resource specific to the nuances of Credit Union
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marketing. Maybe that's better done with
a Webinar that invites people from that industry
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to see some speakers that they look
up to in their industry. So that's
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a long answer to your question,
but we're starting general and then we're going
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to get more specific as we get
more data and as we really reveal what
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kind of topics are valuable for the
specific people were going after. Yeah,
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let me ask you one more question
on the vertical. So do you see
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the play towards these three as a
way to kind of stop losing mqls or
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to maybe generate more ideal leads?
What was that kind of May behind the
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scenes conversation or what pushed you in
this direction? Well, I think part
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of the motivation is that little phrase
I said before, which is it's hard
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to be all things to all people, and so if you really decide who
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you are and decide who you're helping, it really helps to put those guard
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reels up for planning on all levels, from top of the funnel, middle
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of the funnel, all the way
through the pipeline. You know who are
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we and how do we talk to
these specific people? And so that goes
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for somebody like me WHO's, you
know, running content marketing. It goes
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for people like some of my colleagues
who are doing social media or webinars.
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Where are they really interacting online and
what watering holes. I don't really love
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that term, but watering holes,
where are these people hanging out? It
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helps us to really focus our energy
a little bit more into these different verticals
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and, like you said, so
that we are drawing in the right type
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of leads, as I think sometimes
a problem in marketing is we love to
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see those metrics, right. We
love to see thousands of leads coming into
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our you know, sales force or
wherever we're collecting leads, something like act
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on. We love to see those
numbers in the thousands every month, right.
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It's kind of gratifying. It's like, look how many people filled out
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my form. But if those are
not the right people that are a fit
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for your solution, you're going to
be wasting Your Business Development Reps time,
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you know, your SDR's time,
being on the phone call seeing if that's
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a well qualified person. And this
is mostly for the B Tob side,
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right where we're really qualifying leads.
It's a longer sales process if you're sending
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mqls through that are really not mqls. You know, maybe it's just you
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know, we've we had one really
surprising issue come up when we were talking
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to our sdrs well, how come
these mqols aren't moving on to become sqls?
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What are you rejecting them? What's
the problem? And in a couple
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of cases the the lead didn't understand
that we were not a crm. That
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act on is specifically a marketing automation
platform, and that's a failure on marketings
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part, right, because we should
have very clear messaging that of who we
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are what we are. So I'd
know if that's necessarily only related to honing
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in on some industries. You know, that's a messaging thing overall and we're
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working on all of these things at
the same time. But I thought that
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was a really interesting problem of wow, like it's a lack of understanding of
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the product at all, right,
and so that's definitely not a call that
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you want to spend time on.
Then you know at that point in the
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sales side. So it is helping
us to first identify that ICP in the
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first place, like who is our
ideal customer? And then what I always
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like to ask myself on the marketing
side is what does that particular person need
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to know in order to move to
the next stage and be confident with our
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company? So do they need to
know how the product works? Do they
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need to know the features? Do
they need to be inspired with what other
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people have done? Do they need
to know that we've got great reviews on
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Gtwo like, what is it that
that person needs to know at that moment
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in the customer journey in order to
move them forward? And I think if
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we can answer that as content marketers, as product marketers, whatever part of
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the marketing equation you're in, as
long as you're thinking about that, I
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think it really helps you to better
qualified leads and give better leads to the
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sales team. Hey, everybody,
Olivia here. As a member of the
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sweet fish sales team. I wanted
to take a second and share something that
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makes us insanely more efficient. Our
team uses lead Iq. So, for
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those of you who are in sales
or sales ups, let me give you
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some context. You know how long
gathering contact data can take so long and
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with lead Iq, what once took
us four hours to do now it takes
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us just one. That is seventy
five percent more efficient. We are so
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much quicker with outbound prospecting and organizing
our campaigns so much easier than before.
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I suggest you guys check it out
as well, you can find them at
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lead iqcom. That's La d iqcom
already. Let's jump back into the show.
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What is it that that person needs
to know at that moment in the
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customer journey in order to move them
forward? And I think if we can
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answer that as content marketers, as
product marketers, whatever part of the marketing
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equation you're in, as long as
you're thinking about that, I think it
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really helps you to better qualified leads
and give better leads to the sales team.
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HMM, and that's where I want
to go now because I love that
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question. What do they need to
know? And so you have these verticals
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to find and then it goes obviously
that's going to begin to really inform your
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content strategy. You're saying you're going
to start a little bit more general.
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You found in previous jobs that you've
been in this idea of content clusters to
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be particularly helpful. So I wonder
if we could kind of push these two
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things together in a sense, right
and take this vertical, informed content strategy
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and then these content clusters and spend
the rest of our time together giving that
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away to our audience to go hey, here's a different way of maybe thinking
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about it. You know where our
ICEPS, you know who they are,
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and now we're going to create this
kind of content cluster around that. So
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let's let's start here. My would
you walk us through what a content cluster
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is? Sure, and this is
going to be the play along portion of
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the podcast episode today, because you
can grab your Google Dog, get your
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notebook out, your Google dog,
whatever you want to take notes on,
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because we're going to do this together
and if you want to pause to come
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back, you should do that.
But an all in all seriousness, a
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content cluster is just what it sounds
like. It's a cluster of content.
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And if you don't like the word
cluster, you can say, you know,
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hub and spoke. There's different ways
that people say it. Our pillar,
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content, hubben spokes is another way. So really what we're starting with
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is the center of that. So
what is the pillar? What is the
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center of the the hub? Right, so, in most cases that's going
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to be a big long web page, website page that is, this is
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very important, linked in your main
navigation on your website. It cannot be
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an orphan page that lives on your
website. It can be in a dropdown,
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it can be in a sub menu, but it needs to be in
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the main navigation of your website and
it's important for reasons I will talk about
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later as we get into the master
of all Seo and all organic traffic,
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which is Google. Like this is
all to please google. So at the
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middle of that is going to be
your pillar page, and we can think
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about this together right now. So
in the case that we've been talking about
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today, we're focusing on industry verticals, and so the way that I've planned
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the content clusters for right now,
for my current position, is based around
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the verticals. So at the center
that is going to be the industry vertical
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website page. So for us is
going to be, you know, your
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ultimate guide to bank marketing, you
know, A to Z guide to X
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Y Z. So it can either
be industry or, if you're playing along
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right now, it can be a
type of service that you offer, it
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can be a category of product that
you offer. And so I've done this
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before and a previous job I worked
at an agency called clear pivot, and
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clear pivot wanted to get more clients
in the SASS industry. They had a
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lot of success of medical device marketing
and other industries and had started to kind
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of trickle in with a few clients
from the SASS industry and really wanted to
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make a concerted effort to pull in
more leads for SASS. So we created,
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just like I was saying, the
ultimate guide to SASS marketing, and
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it's a website page that's linked in
the main navigation and then when you navigate
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to that page, it is literally
everything you need to know. If you
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were trying to, you know,
get a degree in SASS marketing by reading
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one website page, that should be
your goal. It's like a five thousand
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to seven thousand word massive website page
on gated and you go through everything you
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need to know, so whether that's
a certain type of product that you offer,
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a certain service that you offer,
a different audience that you're trying to
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hit. So you pick one.
For us right now we're picking three to
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focus on, and the main part
of that is the middle, the pillar
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page. So that's that long everything
you need to know page. The key
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to this, then, is building
out the cluster around that. You're going
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to plan out the topics that are
going to be important for your audience to
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know. So going back to that
question for yourself, what does this person
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need? To know at this time
in order to move forward in the process?
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Do they need to know specifically about
social media marketing in order to feel
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comfortable? Do they need to know
use cases that other people have, you
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know, experience? Do they need
to know about how your solution helps them
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stay compliant with industry regulations? You
know in the case that we're doing right
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now. So if you can imagine
the s folks going out, that's going
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to be a bunch of different blog
posts, it's going to be podcast episodes,
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webinars, anything like that, videos, any of the content that's around
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that, you'll start to plan out
and and create a list of content that
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that person needs to know in order
to become a sales qualified lead, pretty
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much. So that's the goal in
that content cluster. This is also hugely
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important. Each of those assets need
to be linked to from the pillar page
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and needs to link from itself back
to the pillar page. So if you're
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imagine you're writing a blog about some
specific topic, make sure that you're specifically
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linking back to that pillar page and
that every asset in that circle links back
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to the pillar page. That's where
you're actually creating, cody. Yeah,
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that's where you're creating the cluster.
It's not a cluster if there's no links
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people. So you have to create
the actual cluster and that's where you start
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to develop that authority for the page, for the main pillar page that Google
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is going to start to send traffic
to. And now I mentioned the example
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of that ultimate guide, disass marketing, for the agency I worked with and
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in six months of one putting up
the pillar page and then building a content
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cluster around it, I think we
ended up with like twenty five different blogs.
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You know, it is like how
to choose the best agency. You
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know how to choose the best SASS
marketing agency. What are the best Sass
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marketing metrics to pay attention to right
so you can hear those keywords SASS marketing
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metrics, Ass Marketing Agency and so
on. Right SASS marketing examples, those
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start to become your, you know, your leafs on the edge of your
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flower for loop, using the act
on example, and linking to each other.
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And that started to create so much
organic traffic for that main page that
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we tripled, and I'm saying tripled, our organic leads on that topic in
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six months from building that out.
It really really worked and I know that
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it's hard to judge exactly what the
Google Algorithm is going to do, but
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I'm telling you, planning and executing
your content with this content cluster idea one
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really helps you to provide value to
that ICP. It answers all the questions
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they have and provides them all the
social proof that they need and really starts
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guiding them through that customer journey to
hit that get a demo or schedule my
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consultation, you know, whatever that
called. Action is to hit that.
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And one small little thing that I'll
just add to the end of that is
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on your pillar page, you want
to have all the content totally on gated
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on there, but you also want
to have a small form, floating form
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if you want, that scrolls down
the page with you, where you can
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get a download of that same information
as a PDF. And you would be
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surprised, even though you can read
all that right there on the page without
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given up any info, so many
people fill out that form and that's where
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you start to get all those leads
coming in because people are downloading that ultimate
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guide to x, Y Z.
and then just another I know I'm saying
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I said, one more small point, but another small point on that is
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make yourself a landing page as well. That's specifically for PPC. For that,
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because this is not only about organic
traffic, right. It's not only
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about SEO value, it's also about
providing yourself a ton of content that you
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can then use for other stuff.
Social Media topics that you know, giveaways
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after your Webinar, follow up by
email, put it in your automated email
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programs, all that great stuff.
So another tip for you is use this
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for PPC, use this for paid
social programs. Say, Hey, get
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the ultimate guide disass marketing, get
the ultimate guide to bedb grows, you
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know, whatever it is, and
have a separate landing page that doesn't give
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up all the information that is just
hey, get our ultimate guide, typical
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landing page. So that would be
my kind of detailed explanation of a content
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cluster and I think you know,
if you were writing some stuff down,
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you probably already have half your cluster
planned out for right now that you can
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do so. I hope that helps. No, I think it helps a
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lot of some some follow up questions
that I want to ask. Their one
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would be, as you're thinking of
again, this Combo of verticals meeting the
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content clusters. Correct me if I'm
wrong, but I could see one of
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the issues being in my immediate way
that my content strategy goes. It could
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get a little to marketing heavy if
you're not careful. or it's like I
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know the exact verticals. So now, instead of giving away just helpful content,
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I'm giving away like use our service, use our service, use our
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service. How is that something that
you've run into where you're like, okay,
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I need to make sure that we're
giving away helpful content and then also
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that we're meeting the expectation and then
we're actually getting M quels from this.
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How do you think about that?
That is a really good question and I
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think about that a lot because the
main point of what I do is to
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be helpful and to provide value,
and I think that one of the ways
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that we achieve that is to never
say and we offer that with our service
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here at Blah Blah Blah company.
Do not write that in your blog,
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but it's hard not to you.
You have to stop yourself from that.
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The calls to action will come in
the calls to action, the calls to
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action you are following you down the
sidebar. You want to have an inline
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CTA inside that content every few you
know, if you're writing seven thousand words,
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every couple thousand words thrown inline CTA
in there. How you know the
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context of your website is going to
provide the opportunity to convert? You don't
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have to say and by the way, we provide that service here at Blah
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Blah company. That is I think
most people know that. That's super cheesy.
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I feel like I don't want to
throw sales people under the bus,
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but I think when sales team get
into the content conversation too much, that's
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when you end up with that type
of language. Or, let's say,
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bless their hearts, a salesperson wants
to contribute to content, or even if
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it's like a solopreneur and they're doing
everything themselves, it's like a compulsion to
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say that you know, and and
you should demo our software because it does
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this for you. You know,
save it for the CETA, save it
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for your PPC advertising. You know, rarely posted on social. It should
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be like maybe every couple months you
say, Oh, and by the way,
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we are actually a service that does
some stuff. You know, it
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should not be coming into the content
conversation. Really at all. It really
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should not be in the text of
what you're offering, even like an ebook
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or anything. It should, you
know, have an ending page, you
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know, like your back cover of
your Ebook, so to speak, is
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going to be that called action.
It is not going to be within the
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text of the Ebook if somebody wanted
to just take the front cover and the
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back cover off. That information should
be solution agnostic, is what we call
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it. Be Solution Agnostic, be
helpful right about topics that you don't even
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serve with your service or you know, like we write about, for example,
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SMS marketing regulations. We are not
a legal service whatsoever, but hey,
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if you're doing SMS marketing, which
is a tool that act on offers,
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you might be wanting to be aware
of that and here's some helpful content
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about that. And, by the
way, we have any book on Best
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Practices for SMS which is in the
CETA, not in the text of the
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blog. HMM. Yeah, it's, thinks, a crucial point. The
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other question I have is around if
you have a, let's say, an
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industry vertical page, so it's your
pillar content there, when you're linking to
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all of these blogs, might,
as you're creating this content. Like,
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does that vertical page, as that
pillar content, inform all the blogs you
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then create for the next quarter or
so, or like Howard, how do
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you think about the timing of all
of that and how much that one sort
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of pillar page informs the rest of
your content? It is an iterative process,
402
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to be sure of binge, because
you want to, Yep, start
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somewhere. You want to write about
the basics. What are the benefits of
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this? What are the potential problems? How can marketing automation help? Those
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types of things you know you're going
to write about and then link to what
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you have so far. So if
we already have a few blogs, you
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know, a few Webinars, some
case studies in these different industries, we're
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not coming out a completely cold we
do have, you know, some stuff.
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00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:00.559
To start with, we did a
content audit of these different industries.
410
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You know, have ten blogs or
so for each one of these industries already.
411
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That's very specific. And then I
have some thought leadership content that applies
412
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:11.400
that people in these industries gravitate towards
right. So what I'm going to do
413
00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:15.799
is, number one, start with. What is everything you need to know
414
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about XYZ topic. So again that
ultimate guide to, the ADZ guide to.
415
00:28:21.160 --> 00:28:23.720
I know these titles seem a little
bit overused. See if you can
416
00:28:23.720 --> 00:28:26.839
get more creative with that, but
it does help you to just say what
417
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it is. It is the ultimate
guide to whatever that pillar page is on.
418
00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:33.000
So start with that. And what
are the questions that people would be
419
00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:36.440
asking? Again we're coming back to
that same question. What do I need
420
00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:38.200
to know? So I need to
know like, what is it, who
421
00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:42.720
is it for? Why is it
beneficial? How do I choose a partner?
422
00:28:42.759 --> 00:28:45.640
Maybe something like that, but not
again, not. Here's how you
423
00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:49.960
choose me. Here's how you choose
a partner. And then you talk about
424
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:55.400
the things that actually make you become
the choice, but you don't actually say
425
00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:57.799
and I'm the choice. Right.
You might subtly link to your product page
426
00:28:57.799 --> 00:29:03.319
in that paragraph or linked to your
pricing page, but you know those types
427
00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:04.759
of things. So those are going
to be the general questions that are going
428
00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:07.920
to rule your outline. And then
in that you're probably going to have some
429
00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:12.720
content that already applies that you're going
to just literally hyperlink to those assets.
430
00:29:12.759 --> 00:29:15.319
And then yes, and then the
second layer of that is, all right,
431
00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:18.279
where's our holes. You know.
Okay, we had you know,
432
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:22.799
we didn't talk about linking to your
arp in the manufacturing context. People have
433
00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:27.079
ARP systems and they want to know
if that links in with how does that
434
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:30.440
relate to marketing automation, like,
for example, in this in this example.
435
00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:33.319
So, oh, we don't have
a blog about that. Well,
436
00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:34.519
there we go. There's some topics
that we need to write about. We
437
00:29:34.519 --> 00:29:38.839
start filling in the holes and then
actually, that may even inform more of
438
00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:41.359
what you need to add to the
pillar page. So you're going to be
439
00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:45.880
kind of going back and forth between
your supporting assets. Yeah, so you're
440
00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:49.079
just looping it and you just were. The cool thing is that loop provides
441
00:29:49.119 --> 00:29:52.319
you with a road map for it
could ride you with a road map for
442
00:29:52.359 --> 00:29:56.480
like years. You know, as
I mentioned the product, the project that
443
00:29:56.519 --> 00:29:59.680
I set as an example, that
was really successful. We worked on that
444
00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:03.440
and started to series olts after six
months, but the company still, I
445
00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:07.640
mean it's been almost a year since
we really started that, maybe a year
446
00:30:07.640 --> 00:30:10.640
and a half since we started that, and they're still adding blog topics and
447
00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:14.319
adding to that page and then going
back and adding images and going back and
448
00:30:14.359 --> 00:30:18.279
saying, Hey, here's how three
different companies did this kind of approached to
449
00:30:18.359 --> 00:30:21.119
Sass marketing, and here's a screenshot
of the email that we got, you
450
00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:23.319
know, and and adding to that
so that page can get really, really
451
00:30:23.319 --> 00:30:29.559
big and it can really become the
ultimate guide to whatever you're trying to talk
452
00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:32.839
about. All Right, here's how
we're going to wrap up. I want
453
00:30:32.839 --> 00:30:37.920
to act like I'm dropping you into
a new job. Okay, my so
454
00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:41.359
it's down the road. It's a
new company. They have an established really
455
00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:48.599
like this structure yet. So what
are you doing when you're coming in to
456
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:55.240
get started, whether it's knowing what
you know now with the verticals and the
457
00:30:55.279 --> 00:31:00.759
clusters, like, what's that first
action item on your list? Okay,
458
00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:04.400
the very first thing that you have
to do is look at the existing data.
459
00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:08.240
What is there, what has been
working and what is not been working
460
00:31:08.319 --> 00:31:12.480
so far? That's a number one
thing. And if we don't have a
461
00:31:12.519 --> 00:31:17.160
Google Pixel going on, if we
don't have tracking going on in your company
462
00:31:17.160 --> 00:31:22.079
currently, you got to start that
like yesterday. You should not be doing
463
00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:25.559
any marketing without tracking it. I
think the audience for be to be growth
464
00:31:25.559 --> 00:31:29.799
already knows that. I think people
are tracking their data right. So you
465
00:31:29.799 --> 00:31:32.079
know, the first thing I would
do is show me the data. You
466
00:31:32.119 --> 00:31:34.240
know what is performing, what's not
performing, and I would really like to
467
00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:40.279
see multitouch attribution on some of your
best customers. What content did they find
468
00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:42.119
helpful? Did they download an Ebook? Did they not? Did they go
469
00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:45.039
straight to the pricing page and then
sql and they were a customer the next
470
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:48.880
day? Great. You know,
that really helps to inform where the holes
471
00:31:48.920 --> 00:31:52.759
are, where people are falling off. You know, do they visit your
472
00:31:52.759 --> 00:31:56.880
pricing page and then unsubscribed from your
list immediately? You know what what is
473
00:31:56.920 --> 00:32:01.319
actually going on, because I think
if you don't have a place to start,
474
00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:05.000
you have tould be able to go
anywhere, right. So data is
475
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:08.640
the very first place I would start. If there are not any pillar pages
476
00:32:09.160 --> 00:32:14.400
happening, I would maybe start to
identify what are some of the most important
477
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:17.000
categories of content that we might want
to start to focus on. So,
478
00:32:17.079 --> 00:32:21.720
again, that could be a product
category, it could be a services category,
479
00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:24.720
it could be an industry, for
example, and oftentimes companies that I
480
00:32:24.759 --> 00:32:30.799
work with already have this like fifty
percent the way they're this is not something
481
00:32:30.839 --> 00:32:32.480
that you have to start from scratch, and that's the really cool thing,
482
00:32:32.480 --> 00:32:36.960
because it could seem overwhelming, like, oh my gosh, this whole pillar
483
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:39.920
page thing like that is crazy.
Now you probably already have the page on
484
00:32:39.960 --> 00:32:43.680
your website. It's just not big
enough, it's just not rich enough yet,
485
00:32:43.680 --> 00:32:46.400
it just doesn't have enough links from
into it yet. So you probably
486
00:32:46.440 --> 00:32:50.440
already have that page. If it's
a new company I'm coming into, they
487
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:54.200
probably already have some industries pages or
some solutions pages or some product pages.
488
00:32:54.279 --> 00:32:59.279
Right. So let's analyze those.
Let's look at some heat maps, let's
489
00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:01.599
look at some converts and data.
Again, we're back to the data.
490
00:33:01.720 --> 00:33:07.079
How are those pages performing right now
and what can we do to start improving
491
00:33:07.160 --> 00:33:10.839
them incrementally without completely overturning the whole
ship? So it's something you can do
492
00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:15.960
incrementally. I mean even just last
week I went on to our industries pages
493
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.480
and just edited the language a little
bit, you know, and then next
494
00:33:19.480 --> 00:33:22.480
week I'm going to start to do
some more on that. And so it
495
00:33:22.519 --> 00:33:25.160
can be just as a small step
out of time. Add a blog post,
496
00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:29.160
link it back to the pillar page, link it from the pillar pach
497
00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:32.079
right, share that on social get
some momentum going. Okay, now what's
498
00:33:32.119 --> 00:33:37.400
the next question people are asking and
I think I'll end that with one of
499
00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:40.480
the most important things to do in
that process is talk to your partners in
500
00:33:40.519 --> 00:33:45.960
sales. They're going to be able
to inform the questions that they get asked
501
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:47.960
over and over. They're going to
be able to tell you what content is
502
00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:52.759
going to seem valuable to the people
that they're talking to. Do not do
503
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:55.960
marketing of any kind in a vacuum. You have to involve your partners and
504
00:33:57.039 --> 00:34:01.559
sales and really create this revenue engine
where marketing and sales are pushing everything forward
505
00:34:01.640 --> 00:34:07.000
together, not separately, and you're
going to get a lot farther. I
506
00:34:07.160 --> 00:34:12.679
love this conversation. I love the
idea of combining these verticals with our content
507
00:34:12.840 --> 00:34:15.559
clusters so much here. Probably have
a page full of notes. Maybe you
508
00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:19.920
were cooking dinner and taking notes at
the same time, or running and just
509
00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:22.920
getting I always listen to podcasts while
I'm running and I think about him like
510
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:25.840
I need a jot that down,
so I'm sure there's some that pulled up.
511
00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:30.159
That's when you stop the treadmill.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, US
512
00:34:30.159 --> 00:34:31.679
stop the TREADMILL, jump up with
your feet on the sides and write on
513
00:34:31.719 --> 00:34:35.199
your notes, thaying real quick and
then try to jump back on. Yeah,
514
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:37.920
that's hopefully you don't fall down in
the gym, guys. Well,
515
00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:42.159
thank you so much, my for
being here with us on B tob growth
516
00:34:42.199 --> 00:34:45.880
today. Tell us a little bit
about where people can stay connected to you
517
00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:47.400
and the work that act on is
doing. Oh my goodness. Well,
518
00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:52.159
first you guys can go to act
oncom and see what we're doing with those
519
00:34:52.199 --> 00:34:55.400
industry pages and how that develops.
Sign up to get some of our e
520
00:34:55.519 --> 00:34:59.159
books if you want to. If
I'm doing my job right, you should
521
00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:01.280
be very, you know, pleased
and have things that are easy to find
522
00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:05.719
that are interesting to you. And
then me personally, I'm on Linkedin.
523
00:35:05.880 --> 00:35:09.199
I'm Maya Morgan Wells, so search
me up and if you want another podcast
524
00:35:09.239 --> 00:35:15.159
to listen to, go look for
the marketing hero podcast over on Apple Podcast,
525
00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:19.239
spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, again, Maya,
526
00:35:19.400 --> 00:35:23.079
thank you for being here for our
listeners. If you have yet to subscribe
527
00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:27.480
to be to be growth, be
sure to do that or whatever podcast platform
528
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:32.800
you're listening to this on. And
we're so glad to have had my here
529
00:35:32.920 --> 00:35:37.119
with us today. Thanks for being
here. You're welcome. Is My pleasure
530
00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:52.800
we're always excited to have conversations with
leaders on the front lines of marketing.
531
00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:57.800
If there's a marketing director or a
chief marketing officer that you think we need
532
00:35:57.880 --> 00:36:00.760
to have on the show, reach
out email me, Beng dot block at
533
00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:05.199
Sweet Fish Mediacom. I look forward
to hearing from you.