I’ve recorded my last episode of The Marketing Companion. Beginning in January 2026, the legendary Sandy Carter will take over as the show’s owner and host.

You can hear my last, surprise-filled episode here:

Listen to Episode 331 of The Marketing Companion

Throughout the podcast’s 13-year history, I’ve always looked forward. I love talking about what’s next!

But for this episode, I broke the pattern and reflected on the story of the show. It’s had many ups and a few downs, and I thought this might be an interesting lesson in tenacity and what it took to build and sustain a podcast that beat the odds.

These promotional photos for The Marketing Companion reflected the zany chemistry of the early shows, which included promoting fake products like Google Pants and the “Get a Roon” app. The brilliant Tom Webster co-hosted the podcast for the first six years.

This last episode covers:

• Why I created the show
• Why the peculiar format of the podcast is a key to its success
• How and why I chose the co-hosts for the show
• Some of the funniest moments in the history of the podcast
• How the show was in constant creative reinvention
• What happened when the downloads began a precipitous decline and I almost lost the show
• How an innovative new format saved the podcast

Brooke Sellas was the co-host of The Marketing Companion from 2019 to 2021. Brooke’s playfulness brought out a fun new side of me!

A driving force of the Marketing Companion’s success was pushing the creative envelope. The world doesn’t need two more talking heads. There had to be entertainment value in the show that earned my audience week after week.

I’ve always looked for ways to innovate, and I was proud to debut the first-ever podcast episode recorded with a synthetic voice.

In 2021, I embarked on a new experiment — six rotating co-hosts. This allowed me to expand the show’s content to cover new marketing ideas. The line-up changed over the years, and fan favorites included Dennis Yu, Amanda Russell, Keith Jennings, Dana Malstaff, and Andy Crestodina.

Scott Monty

One of the most fun innovations was the zany intro created by the talented Scott Monty. I had known Scott for many years and respected him as one of the leading voices in corporate communications. But the first 60 seconds of the show became his creative playground as he “introduced” the show from outer space, a dude ranch, the White House, and a hundred other places. I suspected that the show grew as people just tuned in for Scott’s intros!

Another creative innovation was the addition of a “studio audience” beginning in 2022. Members of my RISE community could watch the live Zoom recording of the show and then ask questions after the recording ended. Seeing emotional reactions in real time added an exciting energy to every episode!

It’s remarkable that over nearly 13 years, I never repeated a show topic twice. And I suppose I kept that record intact by creating an episode that looked back. I hope you’ll enjoy this sprint down memory lane.

When I announced that I was leaving the show, I received many kind notes of thanks, encouragement, and, of course, sadness that this era had come to an end. But this is the right decision at the right time. While I am moving away from a show that was a big part of my life, I am re-acquiring time for new ideas.

This final episode is also my tribute to you, the fans.

Every time I prepared an episode, there was only one idea pounding in my mind: I will never let you down.

I never published a perfect episode, but I kept publishing work I was proud of. It was a show that was always relevant, interesting, timely, and entertaining. 331 times.

And this tradition of excellence will continue with the new host, Sandy Carter. Sandy is probably the most connected, wise, and generous marketing pro that I know. She is absolutely the right person at the right time to take the reins of the show.

Sandy Carter is the new owner and host of The Marketing Companion. Her connections, insights, and wisdom usher in a new era of innovation for the show.

Thanks to each of you for supporting my show. I will miss this important part of my life, but feel proud of what I accomplished and secure in knowing Sandy will continue The Marketing Companion legacy of excellence!

Please support our sponsors, who make this fantastic episode possible.

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now, any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customers to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

A recent Semrush study found that AI search traffic is projected to surpass traditional search by 2028. That makes now the time to prepare your brand for the future of search.

With Semrush AI Search tools, you will lead this transition.

• Track your AI visibility score: See a single, clear benchmark of your share of voice across AI search platforms.
• Identify AI mention opportunities: Uncover sources where your competitors are cited—but you’re not—including social media, forums, and more.
• Benchmark against competitors: Find the exact prompts, mentions, and sources where your competitors appear in AI responses and you don’t.
• Discover trending prompts: Spot the real questions your audience is asking AI platforms—and build content around them.
• Shape your brand narrative: Monitor the sentiment and context tied to your AI mentions, and make sure your brand is being represented the way you want.

The post My Fond Farewell to The Marketing Companion appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Each year I enjoy digging into the Infinite Dial report, the longest-running social media study that is conducted by Edison Research. I always find a few surprising social media trends that raise an eyebrow and this year was no different.

It’s a Marketing Companion tradition to explore some of the big ideas from this research report and on the newest show, Brooke Sellas and I explore questions like:

• Why Facebook is seeing a rise in teen usage.
• Why podcast listening us up, but the average number of shows consumed is down.
• Why Pinterest is in an apparent nose-dive.
• How the idea that older folks are taking over TikTok is a myth.
• Why the war on smart speakers will have long-ranging eCommerce consequences.

Oh my gosh, this is a juicy episode. If you’re a social media geek like me, this will be your best content of the week. Enjoy!

PS Could this be the best Marketing Companion intro ever?

The post Big, huge, massive, surprising social media trends appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

In an episode of The Marketing Companion a few months ago, my friend Tom Webster declared that “social listening is crap.”

A bold statement.

But new research from Pew provides some back up as to why any social listening program primarily based on Twitter feeds (or any influencers lists!) is fundamentally flawed.

Twitter is not America

Pew Research Center conducted a nationally representative survey of U.S. adult Twitter users. The survey provided a unique opportunity to look into the characteristics and attitudes of Twitter users and link those observations to actual Twitter behaviors versus the general population.

Highlights:

• The analysis indicated that just 22% of American adults who use Twitter are representative of the broader population in certain ways.
• Twitter users are younger, more likely to identify as Democrats, hold liberal views, are more highly educated and have higher incomes than the overall population, to name a few key differences.
• The most active users completely dominate the conversation. Just 10 percent of Twitter users are responsible for 80% of all tweets. So the dominant views on Twitter are coming from a very small, non-representative population of the country.
• These prolific tweeters are more likely to be women (65%), and are more likely to discuss politics (69% compared to 39% for other Twitter users). 42% have tweeted about politics in the last 30 days, compared with just 13% of other users.

The fatal flaw of influencer lists

If you dig a little, you’ll find that a disproportionate amount of social media research and influencer lists are based on Twitter activity.

Why?

The only commonly available social media platform API is from Twitter. That means you can effortlessly acquire and analyze their data. You can’t do that as easily with Facebook and other platforms because so much of the information is private or behind a privacy firewall, or the API is simply not available.

Likewise, it can be complicated and expensive to examine content and engagement on original content like blogs, podcasts, and videos — the primary sources of authority on the web. Many companies have tried, most have failed.

Instead, these lists are almost entirely based on Twitter activity, which I regard as the LEAST influential social media channel. Twitter can be easily gamed and automated to provide a synthetic impression of activity and authority.

And as we see from the Pew study, Twitter is in no way representative of what is going on in the real world.

A lesson for marketers

I learned long ago to click around on social media research studies and influencer lists to look at the methodology. I hope you try this yourself. You will be absolutely amazed at how much of it is based on a Twitter feed.

And, if that’s the case, it’s hooey. Ca-ca poo poo.

That is the first time I have used “ca-ca poo poo” in a blog post but I think it is a well-deserved description in this context!  Kind of like it.

So … PLEASE use some critical thinking before you quote social media research or get overly excited about some social media influencer list. Even the people on those lists know they are ca-ca poo poo.

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world.  Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.I

illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Twitter is not reality: The fatal flaw of influencer lists appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Mark Schaefer

Our new Marketing Companion episode is about marketing research and so much more, but first I have to ask you: When was the last time you heard me sing on a podcast? The answer to that would be never … until now, that is. Brooke Sellas and I introduced a new sponsor for the show and we are so excited about it that it made me break into song!

But there are even more (and better!) reasons to listen to the new episode, aside from our warbling!

The top story is about a significant marketing research trend noted in the Wall Street Journal. The article reports that the number of people willing to respond to polls has been in steep decline. People don’t trust the intent of polls and they’re tired of being annoyed by pollsters.

This has significant implications for almost everything we do in marketing, whether we are building a plan on the marketing research of others, or we are doing our own work.

Perhaps this is the ultimate act of marketing rebellion. Consumers are fed up with interruptions from marketers and they’re saying “enough!”

Brooke and I are seeing a drop in response rates in our own marketing research efforts so we turned to our dear friend and polling expert Tom Webster of Edison Research for a fascinating commentary on this concerning trend. The return of Webster!

Marketing research in jeopardy?

This discussion will give you something profound to think about. The top marketing research companies are overcoming these polling issues, but for the rest of us, are we becoming  unwitting generators of “fake news” with our own polling? Even reliable sources we’ve used for years may be in jeopardy.

Think about this … how often do you refer to research from a company you’re unfamiliar with in your own marketing plans or content? What happens when we can’t count on that information like we used to?

But wait! There’s more!

• Coming out of the Facebook developer conference, Instagram announced it’s rolling a new version in Canada that would eliminate likes and other “vanity” metrics. In the test, followers won’t see total likes on photos, or views counts on videos, in their Instagram feeds or when visiting a user’s profile. The account owner will still be able to access their own metrics and see the total likes or view counts for a specific post, although they will need to tap through a post to view those metrics. Isn’t Instagram repeating the same mistake Snapchat made a few years ago?
• Amazon is using an algorithm to fire non-productive workers and the social web went crazy over this idea. Brooke and I have our own take on this and we were prepared for a fight on this one!
• Finally, a signature element of our podcast is the unique and creative introductions provided by our great friend Scott Monty. After nearly 100 of these little art pieces, they’re about to get even better!

So much fun, so much to think about, in 30 minutes of Marketing Companion goodness. What are you waiting for? Click here:

Click on this link to listen to Episode 161

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes
• Listen to us on iHeart Radio
• Find us on Google Play
• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

Real people. Real brands. Real connection. Sprout Social offers deep social media listening and analytics, social management, customer care, and advocacy solutions to more than 25,000 leading brands and agencies, including Evernote, Grubhub and Edelman.

Sprout’s suite of solutions supports every aspect of a cohesive social program and enables organizations of all sizes to extend their reach, amplify their brand and create the kind of real connection with their consumers that drives their businesses forward.

Headquartered in Chicago, Sprout is a Twitter Official Partner, Facebook Marketing Partner, Pinterest Marketing Partner, Instagram Partner Program Member, and LinkedIn Company Page Partner. Learn more and start your special free 30 day trial at sproutsocial.com/companion.

The post What happens when we can’t depend on marketing research any more? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Mark Schaefer

Last year my smart friend James Hahn suggested that I read a book called The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World.

I hesitated because it sounds like some sort of boring SEO book but, in fact, it’s an interesting tale that is a lot different from what the title portrays. The book describes in great detail how almost every great business leader and company is in our world due to pure dumb luck. Strategy and planning don’t really mean anything … it’s who you met, where you were, some accident that created a business epiphany.

For example, both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had unique access to early computer prototypes as teens. The author uses their example — and many others — to show that extraordinary opportunities, not some visionary talent, create the people and products we respect today.

I decided to test this with some of my friends, colleagues and social media personalities we know and love. Did they get to where they are today by following a plan, or was it plain old luck.

In the order I received them. Check it out …

Mari Smith, Premier Facebook Marketing Expert

The day I set foot in the US on January 11th, 1999 — emigrating from Scotland with a mere £50 GBP in my wallet — a series of synchronistic events unfolded that was definitely a catalyst in my entrepreneurial career.

Prior to emigrating, I’d always been an employee. But, I’d spent all of 1998 putting together a business plan to launch a speaking and training business. Out of the blue, I got an invitation to emigrate to San Diego, CA and I just knew I was meant to establish my new business in America.

I was blessed with numerous resources within a short period of time, but it was when I met a specific person around month two that my life and career took off. I will forever be grateful to my dear friend, Carol Dysart for sponsoring me into the US, introducing me to numerous fellow entrepreneurial leaders and giving me my jump start!

Tom Webster, Vice president – research, Edison Research

My career was definitely not a plan.

I’ve been with my current company for 15 years, but I went through a period a while back where I wanted to leave and do something different—anything. Turns out, the imbalance was in my personal life, not my professional life, but changing jobs felt a lot easier than changing everything else.

Eventually, though, I addressed the real problem. Once my personal life was congruent with who I really am, my “list of grievances” about my job evaporated. I realized I was in exactly the right place at the right time, and I doubled down on that. My success in my current role is down to sticking with it and building something, year by year. But I wasn’t ever going to do that if I wasn’t a happy person. Today I am a happy person.

Jeff Bullas, Social media blogger and speaker

Achieving a goal is or succeeding in life is mostly seen as a planned event.

But life is full of random events and my current place and location in life was due to the intersection of a few obscure and unplanned adventures.

These included a marriage breakup, a business failure, the emerging of the social media revolution and reading the right books.

These all happened in close succession.

But it was a whisper that I barely heard in the middle of that chaos and noise but I acted on that changed my life. So listen for that quiet voice that can be the messenger to finding your life’s passionate purpose.

Dionne Buckingham-Brown, career coach

At the age of 41, I was burned out and passionless after 22 years as a police officer. I needed to find something new that lit my fire. Problem was, I had no clue what that “something” was … so I took a leap and thought “I’ll figure it out.” So, no plan!

I initially set up a business as a commercial energy broker, but my sales training was poor. I had a pretty pitiful and inconsistent income stream.

The discovery of networking on LinkedIn enabled me to build my personal brand, achieve consistent sales and an increasing income so I figured that I could help others do this, too — plus it was so much more fun than energy procurement!

I now run my business helping those wanting to move out of a corporate / institution career to create sales and business opportunities using LinkedIn, but it really was a result of series of events.

Dorie Clark, strategist and professional speaker

My career path was shaped by three major rejections and setbacks in my early 20s.

I had always enjoyed school and done well at it, so I had planned on a career in academia – which was rudely interrupted when I was rejected by *every single doctoral program I applied to* after I finished my master’s degree. I literally had no Plan B, because it hadn’t occurred to me that I wouldn’t get in anywhere.

Eventually, I stumbled into journalism, which was — I thought — a good alternative for someone who liked to read and write. But after a year working as a political journalist, I got laid off, as the newspaper industry began its slow, precipitous decline. To make matters worse, I was laid off on Monday, September 10, 2001 – bringing my plans to go job hunting the next day to a crashing halt.

I couldn’t find another job in journalism, so I ultimately took two jobs working on political campaigns. I was the spokesperson for a governor’s race, and then for a presidential campaign. Both were exciting, high-profile races – and we lost both of them. If things had gone right, I might well be an academic, or a journalist, or a political operative today. But instead, I ended up self-employed, because I realized it was the way I could control my own destiny and build career and financial security for myself.

Natchi Lazarus, Agency founder, consultant

My success was definitely due to a life event rather than a plan. Actually, it has been through a series of life events that continue to impact my life over time.

However, any life event would not have had any significance if I did not follow it up with a plan, aiming at a goal. So, for me it is a combination of the two — a life event followed by a plan. The former triggers a new path and the latter propels it to give it momentum.

For example: One life-event that was a turning-point in my career is the conversation I had with you (Mark Schaefer) in Bangalore several years ago. You encouraged me to write a book based on my story and experience. This was a life-changing conversation. But I had to follow it up with a disciplined plan to actually finish my book and the ensuing courses, consulting service offering, creating a business model around a vision.

A conversation with Mark in a park changed my life. My plan made it actionable and real.

So what we see here is that a person’s success is almost tied more to a life event than a plan. I suppose the lesson is, pay attention to your life events!

I once had the opportunity to meet the legendary PR industry pioneer Harold Burson. He was working on his life story at the time and told me his success was attributed to recognizing the doors that were opening before him and knowing which ones to open, and which ones to close.

Wise advice.

And me?

My early career was definitely a plan. During college, I recognized a career goal and took all the right steps to achieve it.

But today, I can trace my “second career” — and how you know me today — to a single event. I reached a level of intense dissatisfaction with my corporate career, and in particular, with a boss known as Beelzebub. I decided to try a new career path but honestly, if it weren’t for the jerk of a boss, I might have stayed a few more years and missed the social media career door that was opening.

If I hadn’t left at that exact time, I would have been much later to the consulting game and I certainly would not have written at least my first two books. Who knows … maybe I wouldn’t have even started a blog.

So in a way, my greatest career success and joy was directly attributable to having the worst boss of my life!

What about you? A plan or an event?

Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

The post Is your career path a result of a plan, or pure dumb luck? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Mark Schaefer

Over nearly six years, I have had the pleasure and honor of co-hosting The Marketing Companion with my dear friend Tom Webster.

In this special episode, I say goodbye to Tom as my podcasting partner. We discuss the show’s evolution, the show’s future, and what’s next for Tom.

I hope you’ll join me for this final episode with Tom and our tribute to our wonderful collaboration and friendship. It’s the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. The Marketing Companion will continue with a new co-host, starting with the next episode, number 149.

Tom’s last show:

Click on this link to listen to Episode 155

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes
• Listen to us on iHeart Radio
• Find us on Google Play
• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

The post The end of an era for The Marketing Companion appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By  Tom Webster, {grow} Community member

Having your company or brand attached to a significant piece of research that actually reveals new, useful information is one of the best ways to show your prospects that you’re not just trying to sell your stuff, but also trying to contribute to the field.

These days, however, it can be a bit tricky to get your studies and research findings out there, since the Internets are lousy with quick stats, infographics, and other ephemera. When everyone is doing the same thing, and no one is standing out, there is only one thing to do — you need to do what others will not do. Here are five ways to do just that.

1. Answer the Question on Everyone’s Lips

Often, the best way to determine what your brand could study is simply to listen to your customers, or your competitors’ customers, to see the most common types of inquiries.

What you are looking for are what Donald Rumsfeld might call “Knowable Unknowns”: things we do not know, but are knowable through proper study. Last year, for instance, Netbase contacted my company Edison Research to get to the bottom of the true impact of social media on fashion buying decisions. Anyone with some web analytics smarts can tell you that a link or impression led to an online purchase, but the research question was this: how much does what your friends say on Facebook or show on Instagram affect your decisions when you buy something offline? (We love researching the things you can’t click.)

This was a “knowable unknown,” and led to a very successful series of white papers and mainstream trade press placements for Netbase, and it taught me a little bit more about shoes than I wanted to know!

Questions like this are everywhere, by the way. On a past episode of The Beancast (Bob Knorpp’s wonderful and well-produced marketing podcast) we discussed the fact that most people who view YouTube ads skip the ads just as soon as they can, five seconds in. Clickstream analytics can tell you that a potentially appallingly low number of ads are watched in their entirety, but they can’t tell you want the impact of those five seconds are in terms of branding. Good question, eh?

2. Answer the Hard Questions

For the past few years, Edison has put out a study that not only met criterion #1 in spades, but also had an added bonus: it wasn’t an easy question to answer! We have put out research on the online radio space for years, but one question kept popping up from media buyers, agencies, and investment analysts alike: how much of the total time spent with audio goes to online radio, compared to terrestrial? How much time is spent listening to “owned music” (your own CDs or MP3 files) versus podcasts, or satellite radio?

We were asked this question enough to know that it was worth finding the answer. Turns out, it wasn’t an easy question to answer, but it was, in fact, a “knowable unknown.” We saw the fact that it was a hard question as our opportunity to answer it–again, to do what others will not, in order to cut through the din. So we answered it, in what has become a very successful research series for us called Share of Ear® (covered here in Billboard.)

3. Know How to Reach your Audience

For us, getting a gazillion hits on Buzzfeed is gratifying, but ultimately does not put food on our table, in terms of our specific prospects. For example, part of our business is election research, so it is far more important for us to produce the kind of quality work that will get covered by Huffington Post’s Pollster column or Politico than to get hundreds of irrelevant placements. And we love getting picked up by the print editions of things like The New York Times, or The Wall Street Journal. Not only do our prospective clients read those publications, they also tend to respect and acknowledge the level of scrutiny those resources place on research they cover.

So, when we are working with clients to produce research studies that will motivate action with a desired target, we learn as much about that target as we possibly can (yes, by doing some research–we drink our own champagne here at Edison). This helps us to work with a brand’s PR agency or their internal communications department to ensure that our research isn’t just “interesting” (the damnable faint praise of the Internet) but useful and well-targeted to the kinds of placements that matter.

4. Don’t be Known. Be Known for Something.

Here is a little secret: getting your research-based content marketing shared a million times or featured on Mashable and Techcrunch could be wonderful on the surface, but can be devastating to your brand if you didn’t do the work right.

The initial venues that post your work will do so if it sounds interesting, or has a slick, well-designed infographic, or addresses a hot topic. This will put your pie charts in front of a lot of eyeballs, and your vanity metrics will soar. This is good, if you get paid with eyeballs.

If, however, you get paid with cash, there is a very real danger here: if your work won’t hold up to scrutiny, was shoddily conducted, mis-reported or otherwise will not stand the test of time or numeracy, all you have done is get famous amongst those who will not buy, and infamous to those who might.

I see this all the time — a prospect will reach out to me asking me if I have seen (famously shared study X), and then proceed to tell me how awful it is. Essentially, you’ve had a grand opening for your store, but left the shelves dirty and bare.

Doing your study quickly and cheaply is the best way to maximize your eyeballs to dollars ratio. But doing it right is the best way to be known for doing things right, and for the quiet minority–the brand managers, the B2B customers, the Agencies–to recognize that your company cares about actually advancing the field. People notice.

5. Illustrate your Findings Simply, Clearly and Accurately

This is as much as I will say about actually presenting and illustrating your data: just be clear. We don’t use 3D graphs, pie charts with dozens of slices, or tiny-fonted footnotes about the sample. We want our audience (and your audience) to see exactly what the point is of even displaying the data in a graph in the first place. Ultimately, we want our data to live, both on and off the screen. What we have found, over and over, is that if we do the work right (#4, again) and present it in the clearest, simplest way possible, our data gets more uptake to reputable sources and curators of data. Period.

For us, this means we don’t have to have the shiniest graphs, or the most vividly illustrated infographics. If we have done our job right, it is the data, and its usefulness, that will live on. Indeed, it’s the only thing that truly does. We LOVE it when reputable sources for research like Statista (below) and eMarketer not only cover our data, but regraph it (with attribution, of course ) Again, that gets it not only shared more widely, but also lends more credence to the work. If a sharp, clear graph like the one below from Statista can’t be drawn from your data, you’re doing it wrong.

Final Thoughts

There has been a lot of talk about the flood of content that overwhelms us (my friend Mark Schaefer calls it content shock) and there is no question that it is harder than ever to stand out with research studies or any other kind of content.

Certainly one way to do so is to establish genuine expertise, and to be known for not just quantity, but unimpeachable quality. When 80 percent of the players at the poker table are similarly skilled, the only way to win even marginal gains is to do what others will not. In the case of fielding and publishing research data for the purposes of content marketing, we’ve been holding to the last full measure of research devotion for two decades now. Take these five principles to heart, do the work, and you’ll do more than create content, you’ll create value.

Tom Webster is a vice president of Edison Research. He blogs at the BrandSavant and is the remarkable co-host of The Marketing Companion podcast.

Illustration courtesy Married to the Sea.

The post 5 Ways to distinguish your content and brand by using research appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I recently had the opportunity to observe some great speakers — Mitch Joel, Tom Webster and Laura Fitton and I learned a few things that I am incorporating into my keynote presentation style. I think they’ll help you too.

The black slide

Tom Webster did something I had never seen before in a presentation and it was very effective. When he came to a transition point or wanted to punctuate a statement, his slide deck flipped to an all-black slide.

This is a simple idea with big impact. First, there was absolutely no distraction. All eyes were on Tom. This was particularly effective on a large stage where literally the spotlight was on Tom and nothing else. The technique commanded your attention and emphasized the point Tom was making.

I immediately incorporated this idea into my presentations. I use slides as visual prompts and obviously a black slide is not a good visual prompt … so you really have to know your material before you use this technique.

There were a couple slides in my deck that had important messages but I thought the slides were too busy … so I’m going all-black on these.

Simple words

Here is one thing I learned from many years on the stage — something ALWAYS goes wrong. So I’ve tried to create either a buffer or work-around for anything I can think of that would jeopardize my talk.

At a recent conference, the lighting in the auditorium was funky. The stage lights were so bright and the projector was so weak that it was difficult to see many presentation slides, especially if they had small type or a thin font.

The only presenter who overcame this was Mitch Joel because most of his slides only had a few words in a bold, white font on a black background. Your slides should not be too busy any way, but it was easy to see that Mitch’s slides would show up well in almost any circumstances.

When slides are too busy, the audience is trying to read your slides instead of listen to you — an added bonus of the Mitch Joel keep it simple school of presenting.

Timely theme

If you have the speaking slot before lunch or at the end of the day, you’re going to need something extra to connect with people and hold their attention.

Laura Fitton was up to the task when she created a Halloween-themed presentation for the very difficult right-before-lunch slot.

When she was introduced, a loud witch cackle thundered from the balcony. There was Laura, dressed in a witch costume. Her entire presentation was filled with zombies and ghouls, which added that spark of entertainment to push people through to the break.

I also saw this done recently when a presenter dressed like Doc Brown to pull off a “Back to the Future” theme.

Feed the tweeters

I spoke at the same conference and “led the league” in Twitter mentions during the two-day event. Was it because my presentation was the best? Was it because my topic was the most conversational? Or was it because I made it easy for people to tweet me?

At nearly every conference, I want to tweet the best content but may have no idea what the Twitter handle is for the presenter. Sometimes I might look for it, but most of the time I just give up. Would conference attendees know that Tom Webster is @webby2001 or Laura Fitton is @pistachio?  How many people would know I have a “w” in my Twitter handle — @markwschaefer.

To make it easier for my content to spread, I have the conference hashtag and my Twitter handle at the bottom of many of my slides as a “footer.” It’s just a nice courtesy to help the most active tweeters remember who you are.

I hope these little ideas will have a big impact on your presentations, too!

The post Four new effective presentation techniques you can use right now appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

By Tom Webster, {grow} Community Member

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a keynote speech by Daniel Pink, author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, at the Inbound conference in Boston. In his speech, he asked an audience of roughly 14,000 marketers “How many of you sell?” Nearly every hand went up–it seems like a reasonable thing to agree with these days, right?

Pink went on to talk about how sales used to be in the days prior to the Internet by giving the example of the used car salesperson. Twenty years ago, if you walked into a dealership, the salesperson had ALL the information—what the invoice price was, how much the options really cost, how much your car was worth, and so on. The buyer, however, had little information. In short, it was a time of information asymmetry, which resulted in a profitable situation for the seller.

Today, however, a car buyer walks into a dealership with near total information—sometimes more than the salesperson! So how can the seller succeed? Pink argues that salespeople need to become “servant sellers,” providing helpful information, answering questions, and generally providing a good experience—before any sale is made.

Sounds a lot like content marketing, doesn’t it?

Why you should be worried about content marketing

In fact, that’s exactly what content marketing does, and Pink left that audience of 14,000 marketers fired up with the charge to become helpful, servant sellers by creating content that is helpful and useful, so that the well-equipped buyer will inexorably come to the right decision—to buy our products and services.

Think about what actually happened after that speech, however: 14,000 marketers left the room fired up to take what a good salesperson is supposed to say to a customer, and…uh…write it down.

Are we sure that’s marketing?  Because it sounds like what sales has become, only without a commission.

Frankly, I’m worried about content marketers. The field has taken Google’s Zero Moment of Truth stat, that online buyers consult 10.4 pieces of information prior to a sale, a little bit too close to heart.  Try this: Google “how to create a content calendar” and tell me how many answers you get. Look also at the authors of those articles—the first 10 pages are all companies that want to sell you something related to building a content calendar, right?

Sometimes all you want is a burger, hold the content

Now think of an electric car you want to buy (if you do.) Dollars to donuts you WANT to buy a Tesla, and you didn’t read 10.4 pieces of jack squat to get there.

You want a Tesla, because you WANT a Tesla.

We are irrational actors, and we certainly don’t need 10 pieces of data to decide to buy. We do, however, consult 10 pieces of data AFTER our irrational brain comes to this decision, in order to justify a purchase decision that we’ve likely already made.

Don’t believe me? Consider that the year before Google’s 10.4 stat, in 2010, that number was a little over 5. Did our brains change? Did our cognitive processes really require twice as much information as they did the year before? Patently absurd. Yet someone is out there, writing article number 577,000,001.

Does content really contribute to sales?

The proliferation of nearly identical content has reduced the value of that content to something approaching zero, which leaves the odds against that content actually contributing to a sale in a meaningful way as quite slim, indeed.

Think about this: what would cause you to lose your job? What would have to go down? You very likely had one of two answers: Sales, and Leads.

Consider the former. If Sales are down, and marketers get fired, doesn’t that seem a little perverse? Shouldn’t the sales team get the blame here? These metrics do not help you—and only serve to confuse the sales and marketing functions in ways that don’t help you, help your organization, or help you with the goal of ANY business: to create a customer.

That leaves leads—which seems more reasonable, right? If we are providing more leads, but the sales team doesn’t close those leads, we’re safe, aren’t we?

Am I really a lead?

Well, consider this: have you ever signed up for a webinar or white paper, and then gotten an absolutely cringeworthy, ham-handed sales call as a result? I sure have. For a long time I blamed the sales team—their training, hiring, and (frankly) ability to interact with humans. But I’ve come to a different realization.

If I watch a webinar to learn something, am I really a lead for that company?

Overwhelmingly, those of us who sign up for these content pillars have NO interest in buying from the company. We just want the content. But marketing dutifully delivers our contact info into the hands of the sales team regardless, to give us a one-degree-warmer than cold call.

Who’s really to blame when those leads don’t convert?

The quantity and quality of leads is a trailing variable, and not the end itself. Our goal as marketers is to understand the consumer, speak with their voice at the highest levels of your company, and create a marketing-led product that people (and not your product team) WANT. It’s not to serve as a bullhorn for the company, pointed out into the ether—it’s to be a bullhorn for the customer, pointed at the CEO, the product team, and yes—the sales team.

The dangerous confusion of sales and marketing has turned many content marketers into Smarketalsers: salespeople without the upside. And what gets lost here is what the central goal of Marketing-With-A-Capital-M really is: uncovering or creating demand. It’s not to “sell” a product created by a passionate founder or product team in a vacuum, but rather to ensure that every product we create is so imbued with the needs, wants, and desires of our customers that a sale is inevitable.

I leave you with this: “A good deal of what is called ‘marketing’ today is at best organized, systematic selling,” a quote that perfectly sums up my argument. Those words were written by Peter Drucker — more than 50 years ago. Drucker also wrote that “Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

Unique and distinguishing. It’s a high bar, but it’s the right bar—and the key to fighting the dangerous creep of Smarketalesing.

Tom Webster is a Vice President of Edison Research and co-host of amazing The Marketing Companion podcast.

Illustration courtest Flickr CC and Jim Linwood

Book link is affiliate link.

The post The dangerous confusion of sales and content marketing appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.