Exceptional Content - MarketingProfs€¦ · Marketing All about the brand Free to lie One-sided...

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Exceptional Content Challenging the invisible conventions

of content marketing

Kessler

Co-Founder

Velocity

@dougkessler

@dougkessler • #mpb2b

Two lovely, little, old, rectangular, green,

French, silver, whittling knives.

Two French, old, whittling, metal, little,

rectangular, green, lovely knives.

Adjective order

Number > Opinion > Size > Age > Shape

> Color > Origin > Material > Purpose

Adjective order

Little Red Riding Hood

Adjective order

Number > Opinion > Size > Age > Shape > Color > Origin > Material > Purpose

The Big Bad Wolf?

Adjective order

The Big Bad Wolf?

Adjective order

Reduplication

Hodge-podge • Helter-skelter • Hanky-panky

Ablaut Reduplication

zig-zag • knick-knack • mingle-mangle •

criss-cross • flip-flop • sing-song

i then a then o

bish-bash-bosh

zig-zag • knick-knack • mingle-mangle •

criss-cross • flip-flop • sing-song •

tick-tock • Kit-Kat • King Kong • ping-pong •

ding-dong • pitter-patter • splish-splash

The Big Bad Wolf.

The power of invisible conventions.

We need conventions.

But we don’t need

to be slaves to convention.

As marketers, it’s our job to expose the

hidden conventions in our markets…

…and play with them.

Marketing Defense Barrier

discipline’s

Circles of Convention

company’s

conventions

industry’s

country’s Our

species!

Marketing conventions are

deep, strong and invisible.

Marketing lies.

Cancer

Disease

Congestive

heart failure

Lost a

Lung and

brain cancer

attack

Marketing lies.

Everyone hates marketing.

Marketing Defense Barrier.

Something came along

and shattered the core

conventions of marketing.

Marketing

All about the brand

Free to lie

One-sided

Sales message led Brand has power

Interrupt value

Content

Marketing

All about the brand

Free to lie

One-sided

Sales message led Brand has power

Interrupt value

audience

tell the truth

Balanced

Utility Buyer

Deliver

Content conventions

Format conventions

Style conventions

Strategy conventions

Promotion conventions

Content marketing conventions

Marketing Defense Barrier.

Let’s look at a few conventions

“Marketing hides your

weaknesses.”

How do you market an office building that looks like this?

Kessels Kramer

Openly share the weaknesses of your products.

Openly share the weaknesses of your products. It surprises and delights

It signals confidence

It builds trust

It alienates less likely buyers

It attracts ideal prospects

It focuses you on battles you can win

Picocells: Pros and Cons

“1. Picocells are a new thing to introduce into your network. You may prefer not to have new technology in there.”

“3. In some places, there may be no IP available for backhaul.”

“Content marketing is all about the data.”

“If SEOmoz hadn’t been a small startup that could

do whatever it wanted, it would have been very tough

to justify continuing to produce Whiteboard Friday.”

Average views: 20,000

Highest: 200,000

Engagement: 30% higher than any

other Moz tactic

Average views: 20,000

Highest: 200,000

Engagement: 30% higher than any

other Moz tactic

Data said “Kill it.”

Live and breathe data – but be prepared to follow your heart.

“Most great projects start

with belief and instinct.” – Rand Fishkin

“Hide your nerds.”

GE Paths of Flight

Jenny Doan Missouri Star Quilt Co. Thanks Andrew Davis

David Lyle, Informatica

Get your geeks into the spotlight.

Most companies are full of smart,

eccentric, gloriously passionate

people who are great at things that

no one else ever thinks about.

“Marketing is relentlessly positive.”

Explore charged emotions, not just the happy-clappy.

“If you don’t have anything nice to

say about anyone, come sit by me.”

– Alice Roosevelt

“B2B marketing speaks ‘B2B’.”

The conventional B2B voice. Stiff

Serious

Uniform

Formal

The new B2B voice. Straight & simple

Confident

Conversational

Real & human

Personal

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performance, enterprise-class and

object-based Verizon Cloud Storage

offers data accessibility in a pay-as-

you-go model.

Loosen up. Find a voice.

“Marketing never swears.”

People are a bunch of sweary people. Swear words

f spoken w

0-3.4%

The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words, Timothy Jay

People are a bunch of sweary people. Swear words

f spoken w

0-3.4%

1st person plural

pronouns

The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words, Timothy Jay

1.73 ‘fucks per minute’.

-- Final season, Deadwood

We swear liberally in TV shows, movies, plays, poetry, music, fiction, non-fiction, daily speech, bar mitzvahs, visual arts, emails, Post-it® Notes, shopping lists and conferences.

We swear everywhere.

Everywhere but marketing.

Don’t swear if your audience doesn’t like swearing.

But do aim for the things swearing can do.

Resonate with the like-minded

Be authentic

Be passionate

Be funny

Add mojo to your voice

Two techniques for breaking conventions

Content

conventions

Format

conventions

Strategy

conventions

Promotion

conventions

1) The Exposé Workshop

• List the invisible conventions in your market

• Explore what the opposite could look like

2) Reasons not to buy from you

• List 10 reasons smart people may NOT choose you

• See how many really alienate great prospects

• Publish the rest

10 Reasons not to

choose us

Two lovely, little, old, rectangular, green,

French, silver, whittling knives.

The old little man.

Invisible conventions are holding you back.

Expose them.

Break them.

See what happens.

Thank you!

Ask me anything at the Post-Presentation Huddle!

doug@velocitypartners.com

@dougkessler

Exceptional Content - MarketingProfs€¦ · Marketing All about the brand Free to lie One-sided...

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