Session from the Digital Workplace Conference NZ (#DWCNZ), held at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand on April 30th, 2019. Presented by Christian Buckley, Microsoft RD & MVP, and the CEO of CollabTalk LLC, an independent research and technical marketing services company based in Lehi, Utah.

1. Why Does My Digital
Marketing Suck?
Christian Buckley
CollabTalk LLC

2. THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

3. Christian Buckley
Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC
Microsoft Regional Director & MVP
cbuck@collabtalk.com
www.buckleyplanet.com
@buckleyplanet

4. What is “Good”
Digital Marketing?

7. Where do most
organizations go wrong?
• They focus primarily on keywords
and metrics
• They believe SEO = Marketing
• They fail to understand and ensure
authenticity in their campaigns,
messaging, and positioning
• Their customer nurturing most often
ends with the sale
• Their strategies focus where every
competitor is focusing, which makes
it difficult to stand out

8. When author and marketing
guru Seth Godin published his
book ‘Permission Marketing‘
back in 2001, the traditional
methods of marketing were
being fundamentally transformed
by the maturity of the internet
and advanced email marketing
techniques.

9. “Because the purpose of business
is to create and keep a customer, the
business enterprise has two—and only
two—basic functions: marketing and
innovation. Marketing and innovation
produce results; all the rest are costs.
Marketing is the distinguishing, unique
function of the business.”
Peter Drucker

10. Webinars Email Campaigns Blogging
Channel Development Email Conferences Public Relations
Branding Social Presence
Thought Leadership Community-Building Advocacy
Innovation Trust Passion
Originality Authenticity
The Marketing Baseline
Finding the Baseline

11. The number one failure of organizations with
marketing has nothing to do with technology.

13. Without a strategy, you’ll “go plaid”

14. Modern Marketing’s Core Tenets
 Market research
 Branding
 Messaging and Positioning
 SEO
 Social network marketing
 Personas
 Customer Journey
 The Elevator Pitch (Avoiding "going plaid")

15. Mistake #1:
Focusing too much on brand

17. A common mistake is thinking that your
corporate branding – your logo, tagline,
and chosen color palette – constitutes
your brand.
More than any design elements, it is you,
your company culture, and the reputation
of your front-line employees that define
your brand and level of influence.
Your
Logo

18. "If your brand walked into a bar,
what would it start talking about?"
Lisa Moretti, Gartner

19. Mistake #2:
Relying too much on metrics

21. “Many executives have a love affair with
spreadsheets. I am not one of them. In
fact, I encourage my team to approach
spreadsheets with a healthy dose of
skepticism, and I caution everyone else to
do the same. Spreadsheets are no doubt
very useful tools, but too many executives
view them as the be-all and end-all for
their planning. They manage from the
spreadsheet, viewing it as an oracle,
rather than as the map that it actually is.
Ron Shaich, Panera Bread

22. Mistake #3:
Not learning from your
mistakes through iteration

23. One of the biggest mistakes in any product or
software development effort is spending too
much time on the details of the first iteration,
often referred to as analysis paralysis.
The key to rapid prototype development is to
not try to do too much at the beginning of your
project – instead, follow an iterative model and
move forward.
There is always time later in the process to add
detail to your requirements.

24. Mistake #4:
Failing to plan

25. What is your target market?
 What is your Total Applicable (or Available) Market?
 What is your Served Available Market?
 What is your geographic reach?
 What are your primary channels of distribution
within that reach?
 Who are your key partners for sales and marketing
within those channels?
 What will it cost for you to capture 10 to 20
percent of that market?

26. Mistake #5:
Failing to understand and
connect with your community

27. In The Social Organization by
Bradley and McDonald (Gartner),
the authors talk about the components
of successful collaboration:
 Community
 Social
 Purpose

28.  Most companies do not understand who the influencers
are within their customer communities, and how to
tailor their messages to those influencers.
 Even more elusive than a strategy for external
influencers is a plan for internal influencers, and yet
these people are often the eyes and the hands for an
organization.
 Just because something is difficult to measure does not
mean that it does not have value.
 Whether you have someone dedicated to building out
your corporate brand, like an evangelist, or you take the
time to ensure each customer interaction provides the
right branding message, the secret is to at least try to
measure the outcomes of influence.

29. Build a Champion Program (Office 365 Team) http://bit.ly/2roTeZS

30. Build a Champion Program (Office 365 Team) http://bit.ly/2roTeZS

31. Building your
“Above the Line”
marketing strategy

32. Consider & Buy
Companies overemphasize
this phase, allocating more
resources to awareness
through traditional
advertising and encouraging
purchase with “retail”
promotions
Evaluate & Advocate
This phase has increasingly
become relevant. Marketing
investments that help
consumers navigate the
evaluation process and then
spread positive word of
mouth are as important as
building awareness and
driving purchase
Trust
If a consumer’s bond with
a brand is strong enough,
they may repurchase without
cycling through the earlier
decision-journey stages, and
influence others in this same
decision
The Consumer Decision-Journey:
Develop Trust

33. Install & Activation
Adoption
Engagement
The Consumer Decision-Journey:
What are you measuring?
Advocacy

34. Strategy Tip #1:
Identify your core messaging

35. You must be clear on what you want to achieve:
 Improved branding
 Thought-leadership
 Partnerships and alliances
 Product or service feedback
 Competitive intelligence
 Corporate strategy
 Community development
 Internal cultural improvements

36. What is your content strategy?
 Create your ‘Hero’ content (eBook, whitepaper, feature article)
• Tactical media plan
• 2-3 blog posts
• 2-3 derivative articles
• 9-12 social posts
• Landing page
• Adword campaign
• Email nurturing

37. Your content marketing strategy should be
 Consistent
 Multi-layered (volume + quality)
 Strategic

38. Take Note:
 Creating marketing copy is not the same as developing authentic, valued content.
 In the former, you're writing text to fit your marketing message. In the latter, you're
developing content with the goal of helping your prospective customers -- without strong
(read: obvious) marketing messaging.
 It has more to do with providing education, and demonstrating your knowledge and
expertise. As your reputation (and social influence) grows, you can then leverage your
leadership position to open doors, engage with the community, and talk about your products
and services.

39. Strategy Tip #2:
Identify your target personas

40. Identify your target customer personas
Every company has a target customer or customer. Give them names. Define job titles, their
unique problem statement, and understand why this ideal customer is in need of your solution.
If you understand who you are trying to sell to, you'll have a better idea of the types of content
this person needs to
1) understand the problem space (or to help them recognize that there is even a problem),
2) understand what is needed to solve the problem, and
3) understand how your company can solve the problem.

41. Strategy Tip #3:
Map your message to each persona

42. Map your message to each persona
This can be a difficult step, but once you get the ball rolling, it'll get easier. Start by compiling a
list of every possible topic you would like your customer to understand: key product use cases,
the visible gaps in the out-of-the-box platform, industry best practices. As you think about the
products and services you believe this person needs, get granular about how you would define
this need, and your solution.
If you are a SharePoint ISV delivering analytics tools, you might include topics like:
 Building no-code dashboards in SharePoint
 Out-of-the-box SharePoint reporting options
 Best practices for automating reporting
 Leading 3rd party analytics solutions for SharePoint
 Real-world examples of building KPIs into SharePoint reporting
 Changes in OOTB analytics from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013

43. Map your message to each persona
As you begin to outline the topics that will become the base of your content strategy, continue
to break them down into simple topics.
Your goal should not be long, complex white papers, but short, insightful blog posts and feature
articles. Look to your initial posts for feedback from customers and partners, and use that data
to further expand your list.
And its also important to watch for trends within your industry -- and from your competitors --
and identify the keywords and themes that seem to be resonating with customers, adding them
into your own content strategy.

44. Strategy Tip #4:
Organize by distribution method

45. Refine your outline, organize by distribution method
 Not surprisingly, the refining of your outline is an ongoing effort.
 Which topics are appropriate for your company blog, or which ones should be polished and
submitted to industry journals?
 Keep things organized in One Note by publishing source, shuffling each article idea under the
tab which best matches the tone of the story, allowing you to flag new content ideas up
front, and tailor each post for the audience of that site or magazine.
For example, I might write a strongly-opinionated post about social collaboration that is
appropriate for my company blog, but write a similar, expanded article for CMSWire that
includes a more neutral standpoint and other industry perspectives. I might then create a
much more personal view, sharing specific stories from a recent event and a conversation
with a business partner, on my personal blog. Three posts on a similar topic for three
different sources, but all demonstrating my thought leadership on the topic.

46. Strategy Tip #5:
Divide your messages by voice

47. Incorporate corporate, SME, and personal voices
It is important to vary your voice in your content marketing strategy:
 Sometimes your content should be more formal, coming from a "corporate" perspective.
This might be content that talks about a specific position, or that mentions your products
and services -- albeit in as neutral fashion as possible. The tone tends to be factual and
straight-forward.
 Sometimes your content should utilize your 'subject matter expert' or SME voice, focusing
on education and a more granular view of your topic. People want perspectives and
opinion, and they want personality, but most of all they want to know that you have
mastery of your subject.
 Some of your content should inject your own personality into your writing, personalizing
your stories with actual interactions and humor to let your readers know that you are a
real person, and not just a marketing content machine.

48. Strategy Tip #6:
Keep your messaging topical

49. Keep it topical
 Part of my daily routine is to read through the latest industry journals and scan various
online news sources for anything relevant to my content marketing strategy, and to quickly
amend my day's plans to include whatever story is going to interest my readers. It's a bit like
being a journalist, I suppose: you want to both educate and entertain.
 The more you can keep your topics relevant to the news of the day, the better you will
position yourself and your content in the eyes of your prospective customers.

50. Strategy Tip #7:
Be authentic

51. Be authentic
 Be open and honest with the community and prospective
customers about what you can and cannot do for them.
 Be authentic in your marketing and in your content. Share what you
know -- but don't be afraid to use your content development as an
opportunity to learn more yourself, exploring new topics and
strengthening your own understanding of your subject matter.
 Prospective customers can see right through inauthenticity.
 Ultimately, content marketing is not about the quick win, but about
the long-game, so be consistent and focus on providing value.

52. Strategy Tip #8:
Don’t just sit there – move forward

53. https://www.fastcompany.com/
28905/brand-called-you

54. A modern update on ‘The Brand Called You’
 Understand your unique value proposition
 Be able to tell your story
 Leverage your influence
 Defend your brand
 Embrace change

55. Final Thoughts

57. Webinars Email Campaigns Blogging
Channel Development Email Conferences Public Relations
Branding Social Presence
Thought Leadership Community-Building Advocacy
Innovation Trust Passion
Originality Authenticity
The Marketing Baseline
Find the Baseline & rise above it

58. Christian Buckley
cbuck@collabtalk.com
@buckleyplanet
Thank you very much!

59. cbuck@collabtalk.com +1 425-246-2823 www.CollabTalk.com
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