I’ll give you my thoughts a bit below, and in future posts, but check this out first.

This is for all of you who have reached out to me in the last month asking about how to create and share information with prospects and customers in a way that creates awareness, preference and — as this presentation contends — paying customers. This really hits the nail on the types of content to create and when to do it based on where people in your prospect pool are in the sales cycle. Really worth your time. Commit it to memory.

Cautionary Tale Ahead

As good as this deck is, however, what I’ve found in my experience, is that in trumpeting “Content Marketing” as the way and the light, marketers and their bosses get lulled into thinking … “Hey, if we get interns to blog and write a white paper our prayers will be answered.”

This is a career killer of ridiculous expectations unmet. Content marketing is or should be the linchpin in a much larger strategy.  (more on that next time). For the purposes of managing expectations from people in the C-suite, the corner office and even your own, I’ve seen content strategy succeed  or fail based on whether these five must-haves to succeed in content marketing were present.

1. Patience — If you’re ramping up a content strategy with the sole goal of generating revenue, you’re doing it wrong. This is a strategy, if executed well, that takes 3-6 months to develop and may not bare fruit for a several months after a campaign is launched. Content is a conversation. It is meant  to walk people through the way they buy a product or service and serves up information as it is needed to make decisions or help others in their company reach conclusions. If your entire marketing strategy is a single piece of content or a content carpet-bombing of the marketplace for the purpose of having sales-ready leads, you will disappoint yourself and others.

2. A large library of information (bought or created) that targets people based on who they are, the problems they are trying to solve and how they make decisions.

• Are people unaware of your company and why its products are what they need?
• Do they need to narrow selected companies down to a list of 5 for a presentation to compare apples to apples?
• Are they selling it up into the organization to bosses and bean counters?

The answer to all of the above is YES. You better have content that addresses all of these things and more before you set the world on fire with your white paper. Otherwise You’ll always be playing catch up to the needs of your prospects.

3. Deep  research to understand your universe of prospects, influencers and visionaries in your field. Start a content strategy at your own peril if you don’t know who you’re talking to and why.

4. A clear path to integrating content marketing into your sales/marketing go-to-market plans — Content is the conversation catalyst, accelerant and hopefully, the decider. It won’t deliver itself and it won’t build a relationship with a human being. Only you can do that.

5. A multi-dimentional content calendar that includes a strong blog, social evangelism and an asset creation strategy that is tied  to news, events, interesting discussions and other topical engagements occurring in your universe. Notice how a blog or whitepaper talking about your product  doesn’t fit this criteria? Good!

Oh, and 5a: A distribution and socialization strategy that uses all online and offline tools at your disposal that you can afford. How is your content being used as pay offs for these tactics:

• Social media engagement (company and external blogs, LinkedIn Groups, Twitter, etc.)
• Direct mail campaigns
• Email blasts
• Search Engine Optimization/Marketing efforts
• Paid online and offline advertising
• Events
• Earned media coverage

Content Marketing has a place in all of these inbound and outbound marketing tactics, which should be tightly woven into your larger, more theme-focused Go-to-Market strategy.

If there is one thing to takeaway from all of my words it is this: Content Marketing is absolutely vital for maintaining relevance in the marketplace. You need to incorporate it into your marketing efforts. That said, success will elude you unless you have an integrated plan, more than a modicum of patience and the persistence to keep developing the content the market needs — not just what you want to tell them.

Reach out if I can help.

Mark

If you know anything about me, you’ll know that for better or worse, I’ve had my fair share of jobs. Trust me, it’s nothing I’ve ever wanted to be known for, but it’s an unfortunate truth borne out of a bad economy, bad choices or the dreaded “bad fit.”

So what the hell does all of this have to do with my headline?

My ability to feed my family and/or avoid crashing on one of your couches for any extended period of time is almost entirely due to social media engagement and networking … with a dash of reasonable skill in the areas of marketing strategy, social media engagement & content creation. And thus … the tie in to my headline.

Social Media Club PDX is bringing Social Stallion Joshua Waldman to town to show you how to discover those hidden job nuggets using social media tools and ways to pay it forward in true “You-Tweet-my-Back, I’ll-Tweet-Yours” fashion. Here’s the title and some eloquent prose from my social chum @unclenate, Prez of @SocialMediaPDX:

“Job Searching With Social Media For Dummies” author Joshua Waldman

“For anyone looking for a first job, exploring a career change, or just setting up for future success, social media is a proven platform for facilitating connections, demonstrating passions and interests, and ultimately landing the job. Joshua Waldman, author of “Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies” enables you to harness the power of the Internet to research and identify job opportunities, and create a strategy for securing a position.”

Other nuggets include:

• creating effective online profiles and resumes to sell your strengths
• maintaining your online reputation (and ensuring that employers who Google you like what they find)
• understanding electronic etiquette
• using the power of personal branding
• building your brand online
• avoiding common pitfalls, such as jumping into filling out a social media profile without a strategy
• getting to know Twitter, the only real-time job board with literally thousands of jobs posted daily
• using social media sites to uncover opportunities in the “hidden job market” ahead of the competition

This is your chance to meet some really cool and connected people as well as escape the job or the people you hate — for three whole hours! Just sign up already!

DETAILS
January 18, 2012 at 6:00 PM | $25 Online, $45 @Door | Limit: 100

Collective Agency
322 NW 6th Ave
#200
Portland, OR 97209

REGISTER FOR SOBCon Now!

Coming soon, either “Social Media is my Job Pimp” or “The Mobile Security Arms Race” Feel free to vote in the comments below. And now, without further ado…More than 88 Lines:

For those of you without an insatiable addiction to 80s punk, goth and new wave, the title of this post is inspired by the ’80s classic by The Nails — 88 Lines about 44 Women.  This song was the first thing that came to mind when the folks at Infosec Island asked me to join their band of security crazies as a regular contributor.

Flattered to be sure, given that I’ve only begun to cut my baby teeth in this space as a former vendor marketing hack.

Now, before you stop reading, one thing you should know is that my background (visit me on LinkedIn) has trained me all too well to take the tangled mess of Cyber, rootkit detection and eradication, Application (In)Security, common exploits, etc. and turn it into something that end-users actually understand and want to avoid.

With that in mind…and with your indulgence…here are my observations after nine whole months in the IT security sector–  88 lines about less than 44 weeks in Infosec. Let’s start with my Top 5, which, given my tendency to drone on, may end up being 88 lines.

1. From Week 1 to present, you have all sufficiently scared the holy hell out of me with how real, lucrative and mostly unavoidable cybercrime/cyberwar/cyber espionage is for targeted companies and people. Good show!

Any thoughts on taking your act on the road to senior citizen homes, community-sponsored events on online safety, schools, etc? Layer 8 (aka people for the uninitiated) needs you! It’s time to take what you know to the street and quit telling each other what you already know.

I’ll offer myself up as your first community leader in my hometown of Portland, Oregon… I’ll just need your brains and a help with a curriculum that makes sense. Help me help you!

I know millions of people even more ignorant than I on the perils of Internet stupidity. And they need to be reminded daily, not once a year in a thin public service announcement or press release by DHS during Cyber Security Awareness Week.

2. Information security isn’t about you. It’s about protecting the weak from the valley of darkness. Be the Shepherd, not the self-congratulating rancher. You can be smart, revered and successful without being a prick.

Call up your alma mater and offer your skills or consulting advice for free. Help a newbie gain his stripes in the industry (thanks @falconsview @jackdaniel @BrianHonan @DeathwishDuck @Wh1t3Rabbit @TripwireInc @andrewsmhay @briankrebs and so many others!).

Celebrate the fact that somebody actually respects you enough to ask for your guidance. And then give it away…freely.

3. I love that people in the IT security community are so far out in front on the usage of social media tools like Twitter to not only engage with each other, but use it as a means of revealing new threats, testing theories and furthering the global #infosec community.

I know the medium is also used for evil on the social engineering front, but those leveraging it for good will prevail. Expose the shitheels at the speed of “Send.”

4. Cloud computing has got to be the dumbest, most innocuous name for something so vital and potentially dangerous.

Can we please call it what it is: A Digital Data Trailer Park susceptible to methed-out dudes breaking in to steal your valuables, with more-than-occasional, seemingly targeted, natural disasters that may put you in the bread line and delivering a nagging, persistent gut ache and brain traffic  that circles the unanswerable question “Is my valuable data secure?”

C’mon you’re doing this to save $. Is it worth it? Are you sure?

5. And this is probably the most crystal clear and personal observation over the last 40+ weeks in infosec.

Like security itself …it’s a never-ending journey that unearths painful truths, nerve-wracking challenges to your beliefs and confidence, and it keeps its clutches in you with the lure of fighting the good fight or making an obscene amount of money and wreaking a new kind of havoc on the world if you’re donning the black hat.

Damn you, Infosec. I’m hooked. A reluctant data security junky with a dangerous amount of semi-informed knowledge, eager to fight alongside you. I’m not going anywhere.

For better or worse. I’ll be taking what you know and sharing it with the computer users getting pummeled by their own laziness or uninformed mistakes… until further notice.

Until next time.

@MarkAEvertz

A prelude to an actual point
Before I figure out where I’m going, I’d like to take a peek back to where I was the last time we crossed paths in this here wordslinger’s outpost OK…Done. Hmmm…All I can think of is: Who the hell pissed God off in June?

Michael Jackson - R.I.P.
Farrah Fawcett – R.I.P.
Ed McMahan - R.I.P.
Billy Mays – R.I.P.
Karl Malden – R.I.P.
My Job – R.I.P.

And July’s off to a grim start with Steve McNair and Arturo Gatti. All I can say is: Hang in there Patrick Swayze!

This recent foray into obitu-tainment and an air of professional vulnerability at the moment have made me take stock in a few things — as death and loss have a tendency to do.

Family – Seeing my kid swim for the first time and hanging out with my wife at a movie on a Tuesday afternoon were life-affirming ( Go See Public Enemies!) .

Remembering the world through the eyes of a child – Just watching my kid react to something and then ask “Why?” has re-educated me on the importance of not taking anything at face value. And the whole wonderment thing he’s got going  for the seemingly inconsequential…I want more of that, for sure! Check out this dispatch from Braden Kelly (www.twitter.com/innovate for you Tweeps) Innovation Through the Eyes of a Child. Get your inner child back via this recap with vids featuring Gever Tulley @ the TED Conference on Tinkering School. And for a longer leap into this idea, Watch Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture — Achieving Your Childhood Dreams video (76 min. of pure gold). Still blown away by the personal and professional lessons in his presentation/book.

Connections with people of like mind — I can’t believe how many people want to help me or need help themselves when it comes to marketing, social media strategy, sales lead generation, Green business communications or health care research. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the kindness and opportunities.

A strict,  bullshit-free diet — Seriously, just tell me what you have, what you want and why you think you need it. If I can help I will. With brevity, sincerity and transparency, people will likely be willing to join your parade by being followers, evangelists or customers.

The last life lesson re: avoiding b.s. is hard to do in an uberconnected, socially explosive and largely self-serving world. I don’t spend a lot of time on social psychology but one name that always sticks out is Abraham Maslow and his Theory of Human Motivation, aka Hierarchy of Needs. Sales guys and gals grinding it out day-to-day know this theory all too well. Marketers are trained these days to call them pain points and my guess is that sales reps have adopted the language out of sheer acquiescence borne from too many deer-in-the-headlights interactions with doe-eyed corporate do-gooders.

Putting the pain point out of its misery
Maybe in these dark times filled with grief, fear and  financial uncertainty  we should pick a new rallying point for how we engage people who don’t know us very well and probably don’t care. The video on David Meerman Scott’s recent blog post Times Change. B2B Fundamentals Do Not says it all (worth the 2 minutes, but basically…Who are you? What do you want and why should I care in both  GrumpyVision and BusyVision). Be concise. Be relevant. Be helpful. Or Be Gone. This isn’t about you convincing people you understand their pain with limp phrases like In this tough economy… or a  data point from a well-paid analyst that says 80 percent of their peers fear losing their jobs and are eating  Xanax by the handful.

Trust me, your prospects know money is tight, that  their job is harder than it was a year ago and that their bosses are way too interested in  showing  hotshot summer interns the ropes in marketing and sales departments all across the country.

Enough with trying to sympathize. Do something or sell something that assuages fear or boosts confidence.

The Maslow Mashup
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy lives in the textbooks of many a marketing student but slowly leaks out of the brain over time due to stress, forced servitude and/or organizational compliance under the heading of “We’ve always done it this way so you will too.”

If your sales pitch to prospects doesn’t somehow tell a good story using at least one of these 5 needs, you need to talk to someone in your marketing department. If you’re in the marketing department and you have no idea what I’m writing about, then we need talk, tweet or telepathically connect.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Take note of the fact that if your product helps people breathe, eat, drink, have sex, sleep, stay chilled out, or poop you are likely going to make a very good first impression. Good for you!

If not, then you need to: Be Concise. Be Relevant. Or Be Helpful.

So let’s put the pain point to bed and try to be a little more reaffirming, huh? I vote for PuppyPoint: Warm fuzzy ways to trick the heart into buying something you know you’re going to have to clean up after, but just can’t resist.

I’ve been part of the problem for about 15 years now, but moving forward I’ll try to market and sell products, services, causes (myself!?!?) in  ways that help people keep their jobs, feed and spend more time with  their families, save or make money and have more sex. Before you think I’m on the road to door-to-door perversity, remember that even if your product isn’t Viagra or some jaw-dropping gadget, it is likely to have the capacity to help someone in some way to afford a new car, buy a nice place to sleep or grab just the right body spray to get the girl or boy. If you can make that connection with a level of relevance and sincerity in any industry from Agriculture to Zoology, then you’ve done your job.

Let me know what you’re doing out there to make a difference. And if you’re in sales or marketing and want to tell me “DUH!” then feel free to do that below. If you need me, though, I’m ready to help.

Cheers,

Mark

T.C.P.