- Since content marketing is different 2 00:00:02,001 --> 00:00:05,001 from traditional marketing, it's important to define 3 00:00:05,001 --> 00:00:06,009 thought leadership versus selling, 4 00:00:06,009 --> 00:00:08,001 when you're first starting out 5 00:00:08,001 --> 00:00:11,001 and creating your content marketing strategy. 6 00:00:11,001 --> 00:00:15,001 Your content should contain thought leadership. 7 00:00:15,001 --> 00:00:17,000 What is thought leadership? 8 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:18,007 A thought leader looks to the future 9 00:00:18,007 --> 00:00:21,003 and sets a course that others will follow. 10 00:00:21,003 --> 00:00:23,007 Thought leaders look to existing best practices 11 00:00:23,007 --> 00:00:26,002 to come up with better best practices. 12 00:00:26,002 --> 00:00:30,000 They format change, often causing disruption. 13 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,000 Your content should be thought leadership. 14 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,001 It should be educational, 15 00:00:34,001 --> 00:00:36,007 it should be focused on best practices, 16 00:00:36,007 --> 00:00:41,001 it should really help your customers do their jobs better. 17 00:00:41,001 --> 00:00:43,007 Your content shouldn't just be a sales pitch. 18 00:00:43,007 --> 00:00:45,005 What do I mean by a sales pitch? 19 00:00:45,005 --> 00:00:47,008 You shouldn't be just talking about your own 20 00:00:47,008 --> 00:00:50,003 products and your own service in your content. 21 00:00:50,003 --> 00:00:53,004 That will cause buyers, especially your buyers 22 00:00:53,004 --> 00:00:54,009 that have never heard about your company, 23 00:00:54,009 --> 00:00:56,005 to be turned off. 24 00:00:56,005 --> 00:00:59,005 Your content should, instead, show your buyers 25 00:00:59,005 --> 00:01:03,003 how to do their jobs better, and educate them. 26 00:01:03,003 --> 00:01:05,008 What's the difference between thought leadership 27 00:01:05,008 --> 00:01:07,005 and sales content? 28 00:01:07,005 --> 00:01:11,007 Thought leadership educates, sales content sells. 29 00:01:11,007 --> 00:01:14,006 Thought leadership pulls your customers to you, 30 00:01:14,006 --> 00:01:18,008 and sales content pushes your marketing messages on them. 31 00:01:18,008 --> 00:01:21,003 Thought leadership contains best practices, 32 00:01:21,003 --> 00:01:25,009 and sales content contains product details. 33 00:01:25,009 --> 00:01:28,007 Let's take a look at what this looks like in action 34 00:01:28,007 --> 00:01:31,006 by looking at two real-life examples. 35 00:01:31,006 --> 00:01:33,007 The company that I work for, Marketo, 36 00:01:33,007 --> 00:01:35,006 we create both thought leader pieces 37 00:01:35,006 --> 00:01:37,006 as well as sales pieces, 38 00:01:37,006 --> 00:01:40,004 so I think it could be a good example to show you 39 00:01:40,004 --> 00:01:42,006 the difference between the two items. 40 00:01:42,006 --> 00:01:43,006 The piece on the left, 41 00:01:43,006 --> 00:01:45,005 The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation, 42 00:01:45,005 --> 00:01:48,008 is a thought leadership Ebook that we've created 43 00:01:48,008 --> 00:01:52,000 to help customers think about marketing automation 44 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,004 as a theory and as a practice. 45 00:01:54,004 --> 00:01:56,005 Within the Ebook, the content itself 46 00:01:56,005 --> 00:01:58,001 does not mention Marketo, 47 00:01:58,001 --> 00:02:00,006 but it does mention marketing automation, 48 00:02:00,006 --> 00:02:02,008 and we do try to educate customers 49 00:02:02,008 --> 00:02:04,009 on how to do that better. 50 00:02:04,009 --> 00:02:07,009 The example on the right is a sales data sheet from Marketo. 51 00:02:07,009 --> 00:02:09,007 This is very product-specific, 52 00:02:09,007 --> 00:02:12,007 talking about one of the products that we offer. 53 00:02:12,007 --> 00:02:15,003 This does not have a ton of thought leadership in it, 54 00:02:15,003 --> 00:02:17,003 it just has product details. 55 00:02:17,003 --> 00:02:19,001 As you can see, there's a real difference 56 00:02:19,001 --> 00:02:22,004 between thought leadership and sales data sheets. 57 00:02:22,004 --> 00:02:25,005 Another thing to think of is the 411 rule. 58 00:02:25,005 --> 00:02:28,004 The 411 rule was popularized by Joe Pulizzi 59 00:02:28,004 --> 00:02:30,004 from Content Marketing Institute. 60 00:02:30,004 --> 00:02:32,004 You can use this as you're thinking about 61 00:02:32,004 --> 00:02:35,001 how to set up your content programs 62 00:02:35,001 --> 00:02:38,000 and your other programs that you're creating in marketing. 63 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:39,005 For instance, on social media, 64 00:02:39,005 --> 00:02:40,006 for some of your paid programs, 65 00:02:40,006 --> 00:02:42,004 this works quite well. 66 00:02:42,004 --> 00:02:44,005 For four educational assets, 67 00:02:44,005 --> 00:02:46,007 and that would be those thought leadership Ebooks, 68 00:02:46,007 --> 00:02:49,007 those pieces that are about helping your customers 69 00:02:49,007 --> 00:02:51,004 do their jobs better. 70 00:02:51,004 --> 00:02:53,009 With one soft promotional piece. 71 00:02:53,009 --> 00:02:57,000 A soft promotional piece might be a piece of content 72 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:58,008 that you're using to promote, say, 73 00:02:58,008 --> 00:03:00,009 a webinar or an event. 74 00:03:00,009 --> 00:03:02,009 And then one hard promotion. 75 00:03:02,009 --> 00:03:05,000 A hard promotion might be something like 76 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:06,005 that sales data sheet. 77 00:03:06,005 --> 00:03:08,005 As you're thinking about your content mix, 78 00:03:08,005 --> 00:03:10,008 you do want to mix in thought leadership 79 00:03:10,008 --> 00:03:13,001 with that sales content, but again, 80 00:03:13,001 --> 00:03:15,004 content marketing is, because it's really focused 81 00:03:15,004 --> 00:03:18,001 on thought leadership, you do want to do those 82 00:03:18,001 --> 00:03:19,006 four educational assets. 83 00:03:19,006 --> 00:03:21,004 You do want the balance to tip 84 00:03:21,004 --> 00:03:24,003 on the thought leadership side. 85 00:03:24,003 --> 00:03:26,003 Let's see the 411 in action. 86 00:03:26,003 --> 00:03:28,009 The top four pieces are your educational assets 87 00:03:28,009 --> 00:03:30,007 that you're using to promote your 88 00:03:30,007 --> 00:03:33,002 thought leadership across your marketing programs. 89 00:03:33,002 --> 00:03:35,004 These pieces are best practices, 90 00:03:35,004 --> 00:03:38,002 they are tips, and they are not sales-related. 91 00:03:38,002 --> 00:03:40,003 This will be the majority of what you're using 92 00:03:40,003 --> 00:03:44,004 on say, a social channel, to get your message across. 93 00:03:44,004 --> 00:03:47,005 Then, we have the two promotional pieces 94 00:03:47,005 --> 00:03:49,002 on the bottom, here. 95 00:03:49,002 --> 00:03:52,004 The first promotional soft-push piece, here, 96 00:03:52,004 --> 00:03:55,002 is more of a third-party asset of vendor study. 97 00:03:55,002 --> 00:03:57,001 It could be some type of report 98 00:03:57,001 --> 00:03:58,007 that mentions your product or service, 99 00:03:58,007 --> 00:04:01,000 but also includes some thought leadership. 100 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,002 The last one, that hard-push, again, 101 00:04:03,002 --> 00:04:05,004 is that type of sales data sheet 102 00:04:05,004 --> 00:04:07,008 that you're using to push your product, 103 00:04:07,008 --> 00:04:09,009 and to really explain your product. 104 00:04:09,009 --> 00:04:12,003 This combination really enables you 105 00:04:12,003 --> 00:04:15,000 to create a great content marketing mix, 106 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,009 and to be able to show not only your thought leadership, 107 00:04:17,009 --> 00:04:20,009 but also add some promotion in there. 108 00:04:20,009 --> 00:04:24,002 As you're thinking about your content marketing strategy, 109 00:04:24,002 --> 00:04:26,002 from a to z, you want to think about 110 00:04:26,002 --> 00:04:28,000 creating thought leadership pieces 111 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,006 instead of only sales content. 112 00:04:30,006 --> 00:04:32,003 If you're only creating sales content, 113 00:04:32,003 --> 00:04:34,004 you run the risk of turning off buyers, 114 00:04:34,004 --> 00:04:36,005 especially those early-stage buyers 115 00:04:36,005 --> 00:04:38,002 who have yet to have heard of your company. 116 00:04:38,002 --> 00:04:40,002 Thought leadership draws them in, 117 00:04:40,002 --> 00:04:41,008 it provides them best practices, 118 00:04:41,008 --> 00:04:44,005 and gives them a reason to keep coming back to you.