Robert is the founder and chief strategy officer of The Content Advisory, the education and consulting group for The Content Marketing Institute. Robert has worked with more than 500 companies, including 15 of the Fortune 100. He’s provided content marketing and strategy advice for global brands such as Capital One, NASA, Dell, McCormick Spices, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Robert’s third book – Killing Marketing, with co-author Joe Pulizzi has been called the “book that rewrites the rules of marketing.” His second book – Experiences: The Seventh Era of Marketing is a top seller and has been called a “treatise, and a call to arms for marketers to lead business innovation in the 21st century.” Robert’s first book, Managing Content Marketing, spent two weeks as a top 10 marketing book on Amazon.com and is generally considered to be the “owners manual” of the content marketing process. You can follow him on Twitter @Robert_Rose.
My old boss, the CEO of a former employer, was one of the best salespeople I’ve ever known.
He could work a room, listening and knowing just the right thing to say to keep interest piqued and drive value in the conversation. Just as importantly, he knew exactly (and I mean exactly) when to end the meeting and walk out the door. It’s just like show business, “leave them wanting more.”Continue Reading
Should you try to personalize your content? Is it even possible?
Much of the content advice you’ll read says yes (while acknowledging how hard it is to do).
But a recent article in Marketing Week proclaimed personalization unachievable.
The authors cite two reasons to give up on personalization. The first is that real personalization is impossible because it assumes you have perfect data on every customer. The second “fatal flaw” (as they call it) is that personalization doesn’t work even if you have perfect data on everyone.Continue Reading
One of my favorite scenes in a movie is from Men In Black. Jay, played by Will Smith, is a new “man in black” and has just dealt with his first aliens. He asks his boss Kay, played by Tommy Lee Jones, why they don’t just tell the world that aliens exist. Kay says humans simply couldn’t handle it. Then, he adds this:
Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and 15 minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll ‘know’ tomorrow.
He perfectly encapsulates that even though we humans can intellectually comprehend something new, it’s often difficult for us to take it in and make rational changes.
Continue Reading
Wanna start a fight among content marketers? Ask four content marketers whether blog posts should include the date of publication.
You’ll probably get five or more opinions. Yes, you read that right – at least one of the people you ask will likely have at least two opinions.
There are good arguments on both sides. I see the point made by those who say that you can’t correctly cite any content that isn’t dated. And I understand the argument that says including the date will eventually make your content seem old, even if it’s “evergreen.”Continue Reading
Many people talk (and write) about how the B2B marketing process has changed. But they overlook how the entire buying process has changed.
Volumes of research and points of view articles explore how digital marketing needs to change to meet the needs of the modern B2B buyer. Heck, I’ve written plenty of them.
But it’s not a one-way street. The Internet and associated digital technology have also upended the way B2B customers research and purchase things.
You’ll find it easier to adapt your B2B marketing process if you first understand how B2B buyers’ journeys have changed (and why).Continue Reading
It seems like a good time to talk about rented land again.
This week, Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s bid to purchase the company in a leveraged buyout and take it private. Apparently, Musk loves the product so much that he bought the company.
Does that sound familiar? Gen X and Baby Boomers might remember the catchphrase “I liked it so much, I bought the company” from Remington electric shaver commercials in the 1980s.Continue Reading
Writing is a little like working out for me – I don’t love it, but I love having written.
I feel the same about technology. I don’t love enterprise content technology, but I enjoy having “technologied.” (Is that a thing?)
I know a lot of content marketers feel the same way – about writing and content tech. The ambivalence content marketers feel toward technology arises because so many of us work with a tech stack that wasn’t designed for content’s specific needs.
As I (too often) find myself telling clients, “That marketing tool can do that. But it’s not built to do that.”Continue Reading
I write and talk a lot about creating content. But learning how to listen is just as (if not more) important.
Think about that last Zoom meeting you had. Your coworker was talking about the state of the business, the results from last quarter, or the proposed new project, and you had this internal dialogue going on as you nodded at the camera.
“Wow, that’s a lot of data she just laid out. Do I agree with it? Which statements should I respond to? Should I ask a question now? How about now? I’m ready with an answer. What should I say to sound smart? I wonder what time the dry cleaner closes.”
We hear, but we’re not listening.
Hearing is a simple physiological act. But listening involves taking in the meaning of the words and the implied communication in the silences in between.Continue Reading
You’ve heard the term “managing up.” But do you know what it means?
Some articles, like this one from The Wall Street Journal, say managing up is “all about making your boss’s job easier.” That sounds nice, but really? Is that what’s going on here?
Others, like this one from Harvard Business Review, define managing up as “being the most effective employee you can be, creating value for your boss and your company.”
Have any of these people ever tried to manage up? So many of these definitions start with the assumption that the boss is always right. You just need to find out what makes them tick to earn their trust – then all will be right in the world.Continue Reading
What happened to strategic planning – once a core element of marketing operations?
You may be saying, “Strategic planning is still a core piece of what we do.”
Is it, though? Today’s “strategic planning” typically involves semi-annual or quarterly events consisting of “strategy making.” Managers and leaders get together (often starting with bagels and coffee) to listen to SWOT analyses, participate in brainstorming sessions, and listen to summaries of new ideas for the strategy.Continue Reading
