Why would you define sales personas down to their favorite author?

 

Our guest today is Joe Chernov. He's now the Chief Marketing Officer at @InsightSquared. He also lends a hand to startups and wildlife causes when he can. Diving right in, he says, "It's unbelievable what you can get done if you don't care if you get fired!" Talking about his experience at Eloqua, "If we were to publish something that is valuable, we could edge our way into deeper coverage by the media." 

Scorecard - even though we're not supposed to keep score: 

16 articles after spending 2 years developing a product and writing up the release.

An infographic got 800 articles. Very eye-opening.

Joe says, "Content marketing is what happens when a marketing department shifts its thinking from knowing that the company that signs their paychecks needs to shift to the customer signs the paycheck." That shift in mindset turned collateral into an ebook, a self-serving whitepaper into a more valuable, lengthy piece of content.

 

 

Point: The opportunity to leverage the correct content through the active sales process:

 

Best content ideas come from your sales people. Conversations with sales will be the source of the best ideas. 

Example: They publish a issue of their "blog" once a month that includes a recap of 4-5 articles on similar content. Each month has a new theme which helps to focus the articles on that topic. 

 

He's talking about a sales team creating an editorial calendar. You heard Matt right.

 

Point: Personas as a driving force for effective content.

 

Personas help reduce the size of your universe so that as a writer or content creator, your writing universe is smaller which helps guide the writing and allow it to be less daunting.  But, he cautions against being way too specific with a persona. "Susie Seller" is just a role in an organization. We don't need to know which college she attended or coffee brand she prefers, unless you are selling coffee.

 

People have a hard time comparing their content metrics to their business metrics.

 

The very best way to shine a light on the value of your content is to look at lead quality. Your lead or transactional content success could be measured by downloads, subscribers. These are higher value than typical leads. 

You want to know did they close?

Did they move deeper into the funnel than other sources?

Lead Quality tops the list for this comparison and measurment.

 

Favorite KISS song and why: Deuce. Gene Simmons wrote it on a bus. It's about absolutely nothing. 

 

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Even though this is a replay, it's timely as it mentions the upcoming Dreamforce. Matt will be presenting 5 minute walk from Moscone. Take a break:

 

 

You Can’t Buy a Beer With a Hashtag: How to Translate #ABM Into Execution, Pipeline & Closed Deals - Matt Heinz

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