Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion, always calls me “brother.” Though I’m way older than him, I see him more as a “father” than a sibling.
You see, it was just four years ago when I read “Inbound Marketing” by the founders of HubSpot. I thought, “I get it. This is how marketing works now.” Then I thought, “I want to learn more about it from someone that’s actually done it,” that is, drive mountains of traffic, leads and sales by creating content prospects seek and pulling them into your website to devour it.
I went to a conference to hear Marcus speak. He blew me and everyone else in the room away.
Then I got to know him. We became friends. I did what Marcus said to do, which essentially was blog. Answer your prospects’ questions. It worked.
I continue to pay close attention to what he teaches. I continue to learn. And now, I bring you some very special lessons from a cat that teaches and preaches content marketing like no one else.
Marcus wants you to understand something immensely important…
Your marketing department should not be the voice of your company
One of the things Marcus and company now offer is a content marketing workshop. The objective is to get the entire company to understand, rally around the practice of content marketing, and then do it effectively.
In an eBook he offers about the workshop, he writes, “Marketing should not be the digital voice of the company. Marketing does not have a finger on the pulse of clients and customers like the rest of the company does.” He continues… “Therefore, marketing’s job from this point forward, is to help the employees that actually deal with the customers produce content.”
He told me he asks his audience, “Which department hears the most questions from prospects and from clients?” The answer, of course, is sales.
He asks, “Which department has the best answers?” You know the answer to that one. Then he asks, “When it comes to your website, which department in your company is responsible for addressing the questions that prospects and customers have?”
Everyone agrees the answer is marketing. So finally, he asks, “What’s wrong with this picture?”
Getting it right…
He suggests you shouldn’t even call the practice “content marketing.” Doing so makes it difficult, or impossible, to sell it to the CEO. He says it isn’t about content and it fails if it comes strictly from marketers. Instead of telling you any more about what he says, I want you to simply hear him say all kinds of stuff that sheds new light on:
- Why the biggest problem in content marketing right now is how it’s presented to the executives
- Why great content marketers learn how to in-source
- The four things that are the essence of great content marketing
- How companies discover the answers themselves when they put themselves in the buyer’s shoes
- The solution to the marketer’s number one complaint
- Why sales and marketing should no longer be separate departments
- The real reason people want to master content marketing
Did you make it to closing seconds of the video? My buddy Marcus lays a truly great compliment on me. I can’t get myself to type it, but I’d love for you to hear it.
Comments
Tony
Congrats, Barry! I have to agree with Marcus. You are a wonderful TEACHER. Thanks for creating/sharing this interview. Hope to meet you soon.
Mia Sherwood Landau
It’s always amazed me how management usually discounts the wisdom and client connections in front line employees and contractors. Mining their knowledge and experience is priceless, but they’re not necessarily comfortable writing or making videos. Interviewing them and using their words and ideas is ideal, but other people may be better suited to blog and create content, as well as promote it.
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[…] Create marketing-aware culture throughout company: High performers task the entire company to contribute content. They kick off their programs with content marketing workshops. […]