Widen's webinar slides sharing our proprietary market research with 221 marketing, creative, and IT professionals. We conducted this research to understand how they define connectivity, what challenges they face connecting marketing content, the tools they use at work to stay connected, and where they think connectivity is going in the future. Get the full report at http://www.widen.com/widens-2017-state-of-connectivity-report.

1. Widen Connectivity Webinar20
17

2. Nina Brakel-Schutt Jake Athey

3. Connectivity

4. Marketing connectivity

5. ? ? ? ?

8. What we learned…
Research Findings

9. The human side makes
1
Connectivity real

10. Q:What does it mean
to be connected?

11. Q:What does it mean
to be connected?

15. ●
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17. Bendyworks
Brad Grzesiak is the CEO and
co-founder of Bendyworks, a Madison,
Wisconsin-based company that designs,
builds, and fixes digital applications.

18. What:
How:

19. Why:
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Results:
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20. The ineffective way [of being transparent] is basically
saying to our employees, “If you want to know something,
just ask and we’ll tell you.” It’s not very effective because often times
people don’t know what to ask. And it sets up a power dynamic of having to
almost beg for information.”

21. 1
2
3
What does this
mean to marketers
and creatives?

22. Collaboration is a core
2
component of connectivity

23. Q:What is the best
way to achieve a
sense of connection
at work?

26. survey respondents want to
maintain work connections in
person instead of email, text,
or web/video conferencing.

27. survey respondents want to
maintain work connections in
person over email, text, or
web/video conferencing.
survey respondents say being
connected means being together in
a physical space.

28. survey respondents want to
maintain work connections in
person over email, text, or
web/video conferencing.
survey respondents say being
connected means being together in
a physical space.
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30. Q:How important is being
connected to a professional
community for career
growth and satisfaction?

31. Q:What would an
online community
need to offer you,
as a customer, to be
worth your time?

34. ERDMAN
Jenne Meyer is the Vice President
of Brand at ERDMAN – a planning,
design, and construction company specializing
in health care facilities.

35. What:
Once a month, Jenne’s marketing team dedicates time off site to simply
being creative. This time connecting is called is a creative co-lab.
How:
They leave the office and traditional meeting agendas behind, to find a
place where they can work together, feel inspired to generate ideas, and
have fun. The location and topic are very organic.
They take suggestions from everyone on the team. When a creative
co-lab is coming up, Jenne will ask what people want to do.
Past co-lab locations:
● A walk around the block to get the blood moving
● Starbucks to relax and get centered
● A paint store to talk about color

36. Why:
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Results:
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37. I prefer to start collaborating face-to-face to make sure
everybody has the right expectations, knows what we’re
doing, and who we’re working with. And when they have questions
along the way, then we jump in on email.”

38. 1
2
3
What does this
mean to marketers
and creatives?

39. Taking a break from
3
connectivity is necessary
to maintain balance

40. Q:What is the top
device you use today
to stay connected?

43. Q:What is the greatest
challenge you
experience with the
marketing content
you need to get done?

46. To processes
(too many processes
defeats efficiency)
To data
(monitoring too often makes
it difficult to measure)

49. LinkedIn
Mike Pilarz is a content marketing
evangelist at LinkedIn where he leads
customer marketing and internal training
programs that help LinkedIn clients become
better content marketers.

50. What:
Mike helps marketers create content that solves the problem of an
audience and builds a direct, human connection with them.
How:
Establish content goals from the get go and reach out to people on your
teams to get at the information your audiences crave.
1. Ask your customer service team: Of the calls you got this week, what were the top
four or five questions asked? (Create content to help answer those questions)
2. Ask your sales team: What pain points and challenges are you hearing from clients
in terms of what they’re trying to solve for as professionals? (Create content that
speaks to their pain points)
3. Ask your marketing team: What keywords are buyers and prospects using to
research your product or service? (Which ones do you have the expertise to deliver
content on?)

51. Why:
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Results:
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52. The goal is to do a couple of pieces of content really well rather than ten
pieces poorly or even mediocre, because the reality is no one’s
opening up their LinkedIn feed or their inbox and saying
“Man, I wish I had more content to sort through.”

53. 1
2
3
What does this
mean to marketers
and creatives?

54. The future of Connectivity

55. TECH TOUCH

58. - GREG YATES, Chief Marketing Officer, RICG Agency

60. Connectivity and DAM

62. survey respondents
ranked “Measuring the
effectiveness of your content” as
one of their biggest challenges.

66. Q:Which tools do you
use each day at work?

67. Technology
wishlist from
our research
participants

68. Digital
Asset
Management
2. PRODUCE
WORKFLOW
PORTALS
INSIGHTS
LINKS
TEMPLATES
PLANNER

70. Teams Departments Divisions External Partners

71. Creative workflow Sales Enablement Web Management
Product Management Customer Service Human Resources

72. Web Content Management (WCM) Product Information Management (PIM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Marketing Automation
Social Media Management

77. The Big Three Takeaways

82. Questions?

83. Get the
full report!

84. What’s next?

85. Want to
connect with us?