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Transcript

3/2/26 #ContentChat: Best Answer Marketing for B2B Brands · #ContentChat

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, everyone.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Erica Heald, your content chat host.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: And today I have Lee Odin in the hot seat.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited because Lee and I always have great conversations.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to be talking about something that I know it's going to help a lot of folks because everywhere, everyone I talk to who does content marketing is talking about how it's so hard to get that attention to break through the noise and to be found.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because let's face it, Google search traffic is not what it used to be.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, Lee, for folks who don't know you, could you take a minute to introduce yourself and tell them a little bit about who you are and what you do?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, it's great to be here, Erica.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I agree, we do have great conversations, and I'm happy to have one in front of other folks about this topic.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I am the CEO of Top Rank Marketing, we're a 25-year-old B2B marketing agency.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we are uh, you know, a business that has evolved uh quite a bit over the years, starting as a PR and SEO firm in 2001.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: And fast forward to today, and we're pretty much a full-service B2B agency serving a mix of uh mid-market and large enterprise brands.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, we just celebrated our 13th year of uh serving um uh LinkedIn um with content and SEO uh consulting and other companies like that.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So um yeah, we're um we're a business that does our best to walk the talk, meaning that we experiment quite a bit on ourselves and use those learnings as well as the cumulative knowledge of solving difficult marketing problems for a portfolio of clients and develop best practices out of those sorts of things.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we're constantly testing.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: We do original research, we publish research reports, um, and you know, we're very much involved in the cycle of you know, this idea of hypothesis and testing and validation and this just continuous state of optimization, um, both from a process standpoint and from an impact standpoint.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm lucky to have a great team of creative people, analysts, and you know, content creators and social media folks, influencer marketing folks, um, and us and of course search folks that help make magic for some really great clients.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it was one of those playbooks, and we'll get to it in a minute, that um actually prompted me to say, oh my gosh, we totally need to talk about this.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: But first, let's just start by setting the stage.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's it's really clear because we all know that the way that we approach in our everyday personal life, the way that we approach um finding out information or making purchase decisions, it's vastly changed.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're not necessarily starting with a Google search, or if we are, we're starting with Google search with the AI turned on, um, or we're going to a Claude or another, you know, favorite um generative AI tool to ask it to compare some options that we've heard about from friends.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a vastly different experience.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd love to, you know, have you kind of give an overview for folks who are, you know, in denial maybe about how this new zero-click search world and with people using all these other tools for finding out what they need, how that's really changed discoverability for content marketing.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it's a great, you know, kind of summary of the current state of, I guess you'd call it fragmentation.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Discovery is fragmented.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it used to be this wonderful thing to just go to Google and and uh you know get the answers you're looking for.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, people are drawn towards the user experience of chat and uh AI tools that afford that.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just a convenient, uh different experience.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And certainly AI overviews and AI mode on Google provide some of that.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's so common now, it's people are learning that's how you interface with knowledge and answers.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it was some some study uh research from Sixth Sense that said 90 94% of buyers, B2B buyers, um are using large language model or AI search um during their buying process.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's everybody.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And and um and at the same time, you know, there's expectations that you know, organic search or standard search is is is dropping.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or Gartner, I think it was, so that organic search uh traditional search will drop in popularity by 25% by the end of this year.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe, maybe not.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's other data that shows that organic search is even more popular.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the reasons I think that might be is because um, you know, if you look back, Eric, I think I'm sure you remember when social media was a newer thing, right?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And people would discover things through social.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like your friend would post something on social, you hear something from a brand on social, but it's like, yeah, okay, then what do you do?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you go over to Google to validate it, right?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that validation behavior is very much in play in a world of AI search, because while AI search is probably the fastest growing discovery channel that's out there right now, there's also trust issues because information isn't always reliable.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: So people are going to other sources to validate, and that's part of what's fueling that fragmentation.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so, where are you as a brand in this search, in this discovery experience, right?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: You can't rely just on traditional Google search.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: You you've got to be where buyers are actually looking.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where this notion of best answer marketing um really came about.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I wrote a book called Optimize in 2012.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: I've got it on the footcase.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've got it up here somewhere.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it in that book, there was this holistic view of search being something that will connect people that are looking for anything with information that will answer their questions.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where the, you know, I first started using the expression best answer, best answer content and fast forward to today.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And now it's a whole, you know, marketing system that we've architected to help folks navigate this world of fragmented search, the rising popularity of AI, and what does that actually mean for ultimately driving, you know, discovery, driving engagement, and I think more than anything, driving decision confidence because it's not enough just to be visible.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, you've you've got to help inspire people to actually take action.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: What's so um so interesting to me is people are kind of treating this uh fragmentation the same way that they treated the early proliferation of social media channels, by which I mean they're just posting the same content in these same places.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're trying so hard to have, you know, to be known for whatever that thing is, but they're not understanding necessarily how the different channels are different, how the different audiences are different.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is that something that you've also been seeing?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, so at the center of this idea of best answer marketing is that we have these six pillars that make up this architecture.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And one of them that's informative to what content type on what channel is the first pillar, and that is being data informed.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we're sourcing insights around well, how what's gonna be our strategy by understanding the questions that buyers have?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: What are they asking?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Where are they asking them?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And what are their preferences for content format when trying to get those answers?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so doing some of that upfront homework uh and collecting data around buyer information um consumption and uh discovery preferences will inform then subsequently your content mix and content format mix.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, there's some obvious things like I mean, super obvious, like video on YouTube or whatever, but you know, video on LinkedIn, for example, I mean, absolutely.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and also there are notions like, well, does B2B, you know, and video belong on TikTok?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely it does.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so, but but what the answer to that and the knowledge that informs your decision making has is ideally informed by the data you can collect about, you know, through audience intelligence, CRM analysis, SEO analysis, um doing surveys and interviews with your customers and that sort of thing.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that way, you're giving people what they want.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're giving them what they want, where they want, and in the formats that they want.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's especially true if your audience is part of a thriving Reddit community.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because people, you know, you think of Reddit just as being consumer related, but it's not because if people are in the habit of having Reddit be their morning newspaper, and I know my partner, that's his morning newspaper.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: He has it up, and his feed is all the different things.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like he has a personal feed that he looks at separately from his, you know, being a school nurse feed.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's all there in one place, and you know, it really has become this um this front page of the internet for so many people, and it's completely different than any other channel.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it's its own internet in a way, in that the depth of community and diversity of community there represents just about every topic you can imagine.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you're right, it is different in uh the way that you would engage with that community.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: You don't just go and publish and hope for some sort of um you don't toss a link out there unless you're looking to be flamed.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: You've got to earn it, right?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: You've got to earn the respect.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many rules to follow.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, some explicit and some just, you know, you've got to be part of the community to understand what the the the values, the mores, and that sort of the community uh guidelines might be.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: And and so you've got, yeah, you've got to earn it and you've got to approach it a little bit differently.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the thing.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to be effective, you know, you're not gonna throw, you know, the exact same digital spaghetti against every single wall.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're gonna that's where this data-informed pillar comes into play so meaningfully, and that you know, you're pulling on the strings of intent and interest, um, and even things, uh, insights that can give you ideas around storytelling that matters to a particular audience.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can connect the dots between those data points and what it is that you're trying to be known for, the value you're trying to bring to the to the marketplace, and then decide, well, what kind of stories are we going to tell and what channels and in what format.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: So then what does that kind of what does that integrated strategy then that next part, this next pillar, you know, what is it that you're doing differently than what we might be used to in um traditional content marketing?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we're thinking about the other pillars as we develop the strategy.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: So the pillars are, you know, besides data informed and the integrated strategy, the other um three um that are quite informative that make up what the strategy is, obviously that strategy is answering why, why, why are we doing this?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and to what end, and with what audience and that sort of thing.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: But um the the the third pillar is uh what we call a trust system.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, credibility is so important.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and there's a lot of reasons I'm sure folks watching or listening um understand why why is being trustworthy so much more important today than maybe in the past.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: But we're want to architect those signals of of trust.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: We want to bring proof to market, we want to um instill credibility and advocacy and even consensus that you are credibly consistently across different channels.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: So uh the trust system um is part of that strategy, and and how do we architect that?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the the next one is around content.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And in this case, we are going beyond text content and to really focus on experiential content.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, think about you know, there's an old expression, uh, facts tell, story sell.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: And what better way to tell a story than through creating an experience of some kind?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that's video, audio, interactive events, that sort of thing.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then the pillar um that follows that is multi-channel discovery, um, meaning that, you know, that's at the center of this idea of being the best answers.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: So in your and in in a in the case of a particular brand, you know, they may find that their customers are most meaningfully engaged on LinkedIn or on Reddit or Substack or uh something to that effect.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and so understanding what channels make sense um are the channels where you want to focus on.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that multi-channel discovery is is is key because obviously no one's winning by being the best answer on just one channel, you know?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and then what ties it all together is unified analytics.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: So basically taking all those different elements of your strategy and making sure you have those aligned to um uh an analytics solution that allows you to dashboard and instrument the uh KPIs and outcomes that you're you're after in a meaningful way.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I love this because basically these six pillars, I've over the past um two months, I've had guests that have talked about each one of these.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh last week it was Robert Rose, and we talked very extensively about trust uh because it's so it's so core to being able to maintain that audience and build those real relationships.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because if people don't trust you and your brand, you really you can't be in the business of doing content to reach them because there's so much shoddy content out there that's you know AI generated and trying to fool you.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: No one wants to feel fooled, and not everyone picks up on the tells, but once they do, or once they have fallen for it, and then some SmartyPants comes along and says, Well, obviously that's AI with this video because, and they point out all those tells, you know, shame on you if you're the one who posted it and you know and thought you're gonna fool everyone.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it becomes so much more.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's the kiss of of death when when uh you know people pick up those um those artifacts, those those language um tells, as you say, the syntax of sentences and structures and that sort of thing that seem to be so common and favorites of um AI uh content systems.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're right.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Trust is it's and the thing is, is it's not just about the objective of being trustworthy, right?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: It but it's also, you know, that hand in hand is relevancy and and um and you know, understanding intent and those sorts of things.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: But also, you know, what are the signals that build trust?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what are the sources that deliver those signals?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so part of a trust system that we talk about is sort of um, you know, picking things like original research to base your marketing program on.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you might start with original research, go to thought leadership, and then thought leadership can then be repurposed into demand gen programs, for example.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: But you've got statistics that are based on, you know, real data, real humans sharing their answers about their preferences, about what's going on.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, influencers and creators, um, in B2B, there's there's this sort of um shift towards using the word creator, and creators and influencers are not exactly the same thing to me.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and in our and we've been practicing influencer marketing since 2011 or 12.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I have some opinions about this.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And and and so, but but regardless, the output or the outcome, excuse me, that you're after can be informed through these different sources or signals of trust.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And um, another one um that can work along with this idea of having original research and having industry experts, you know, validate and contextualize um, you know, that that research or or the uh the the expressions that you're trying to be known for is earn media, obviously.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, being able to have third-party validation, not just with industry experts, but you know, publications or things that people subscribe to.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it could be a newsletter or a podcast or something like that, are you can architect those sorts of signals and when you can create continuity, not exactly the same thing, but you can create some level of continuity authentically that you know everyone's pointing in your direction, that that that leads to the kind of confidence and certainty that people are looking for.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, I spent a year at Highwire PR, which is a mid-size, you know, B2B technology um PR firm.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that was something they really had down to a science, how to build those recurring pieces of proprietary research where every single question was very specifically architected in so that they could pitch that one answer to that one question to a specific, you know, uh media contact.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they they really had it down to a science because they wanted to have that really um that burning question that people wanted answered and the data and to be able to pitch it exclusively to the media.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: So then they'd get all this coverage from doing that proprietary research, which then made it really easy for the comms leaders to continue to have the budget to do that because when you're getting that kind of consistent coverage, that makes it easy, you know, to um justify the spend.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have all the other benefits that come along with it.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: But that is such the like easy to quantify kind of ROI that frequently is the difference between getting a budget for doing this kind of work and not.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, well, for sure.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the value delivered through that exercise extends beyond visibility in a publication that your buying audience is paying attention to.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when it's a citation, when it's something that's digital, well, that's something an LLM can pick up on.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it can be a signal that it uses to probabilistically determine that you're the answer, right?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: At the same time, um, it could be a citation and/or include a link, and maybe that's a signal that Google uh pays attention to in surfacing um your brand as the answer.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now, besides that, you know, the the secondary effect of high visibility on in the places where people are searching, especially if those people, not just buyers, but people who are in a position to publish.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's interesting how there's an expression, the rich, you know, the richer you are, or the more money you make, the more money you make.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: I know that's probably a horrible analogy, but the more media you get, the more media you get.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: And part of the reason why is because that media coverage you're getting is going to increase your visibility in these places where people are searching.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: And other folks who are covering that topic are then gonna follow you.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: And people who are making genuine listicles, um, people who are writing blog posts, people who are inviting guests on shows, um, featuring um content in newsletters and and so forth.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: It it creates a sort of momentum.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that momentum isn't something that is purely self-maintained.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you've got to feed it, you've got to continue to feed it.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you've got to continue to be interesting, you've got to be continue to be novel and um useful in order to make it work.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: But wow, when it does, um, it's a beautiful thing.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody wins, right?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Buyers get what the information they're looking for, media gets useful stories to tell their subscribed audiences, and of course, brands get to, you know, deliver their solutions to buyers that actually need them.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, buyers, one of the things that they're really always looking for are those true interactions with customers.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that I feel, you know, I've seen, you know, as a consumer of the playbooks that you put together and your uh research over the years, you guys do such a good job of that because you have your B2B customers, they're featured all the time in content that you're creating.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not just saying we work with all these amazing companies and they love what we do.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're talking about the work that they're doing with you and the results that they're having.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and in the same way, you know, those are the same kinds of conversations that people can have at industry, you know, dinners where maybe it's at an event.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've certainly been to a number of those that are marketing-related events where you gather your a couple of your best customers and some, you know, speakers from an event and some folks that you'd love to have as your customers.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that is also that is a content experience because you're putting together the right people for the right conversations at the right time.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's interesting because in the past, people probably would have thought of that as more of like, oh, that's a field marketing activity, that's an event activity.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I've, you know, I've been an attendee, but I've also been the marketing person putting those things together in my whole experience, my whole career in-house was content.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it's nice to see to me that experiential content like that is finally being seen as hey, this is a content opportunity.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I there's a I think a very strong hunger right now, born in part out of COVID and remote work and the state of the world and whatnot right now.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think um human to human connection is especially you know coveted.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: It is something that's desired and you know, um, events are are a great way to.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Do that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's kind of funny.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: An event has so many dimensions, and you're surfacing one of them beyond just sitting in a chair and getting some inspiration or education.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: The people-to-people contact is an experience.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you can architect that through VIP dinners or other sorts of things, sponsored or unsponsored or whatever, an event.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's funny, I I did a um I published a blog post uh just today about Forrester's B2B summit.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I talked to a couple of analysts that are speaking at the event.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's a and I asked them, how do you how can people get the most out of the event?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: And what you're talking about, what you just brought up, Erica, is the thing that was most often suggested in that is you've got to connect with people, find opportunities to connect with other people.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Have questions in mind, of course, things you want to solve for, but you know, connect with analysts one-to-one, connect with peers, other attendees, you know, find and I would echo that advice.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: I can't um tell you how much benefit, mutual benefit has occurred as a result of really focusing on that human-to-human connection through events.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: What's funny is um Phyllis Davidson, who is a Forester analyst, yes, uh, she and I worked together at Annaplan.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: We actually were elbow to elbow in our opening workspace back in the day.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what she was always talking about because she was doing the demand generation and I was doing content.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we were right next to each other.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: We are always talking about that.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was fantastic for me because she would feed me back all those tidbits of things that people were saying and you know, comments they got.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the kind of thing that, you know, today I can't imagine these things being separated.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: They really need to be all together.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's you know, you just brought up something that's like a gold mine of insight in when, you know, someone who is customer-facing, prospect-facing can share the sorts of things that you know, buyers are actually asking about pain points that they're experiencing.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what my um um Alexis uh Alexis Hall and my team, uh, who's uh a very, very important person in our business, um, and and how and has a lot of uh prospect uh-facing conversations, you know, she just delivered an FAQ to me today.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like this is gold.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like these are this is an FAQ, but not not the answers, it's it's the the questions, you know, these are all the questions that people are most often asking me about you know that particular topic.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: And my response was great, now we're gonna become the best answer for those things.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's what you know that that dynamic is um really important.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I think folks that are you know watching, listening, whatever that, you know, just think about what are those points of you know um interaction that you can harvest, you know.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, back in the day I used to talk about, you know, get customer success as they're answering questions to BCC marketing on the kinds of questions that they're hearing a lot.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know if that would still work today or not, but you could mine your HubSpot data, connect Clot or GPT to HubSpot if you are running HubSpot or other CRM and see if you can mine the questions that people are asking.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, have conversations with folks um on the different teams in your organization and and you know, get some insight into what is it that people are wondering about.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we use tools like um query fan out simulators.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, people also ask simulators and that sort of thing to understand the kinds of questions that people are asking.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: And we reconcile that against actual customer uh interviews and things like that.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's an amazing source of information to help you create, I guess what I'd say, less mechanical and more meaningful um types of content and content experiences.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, from your perspective, which is certainly, you know, as somebody who heads an agency, but you would you work with all of these different types of B2B companies, where does the best answer marketing fit in relation to the brand building, the demand generation, and revenue goals?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like how does it kind of fit in there with the rest of the marketing programs?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, for us, best answer marketing is the architecture which we deliver value for solving marketing problems for our clients.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's not trying to be a category per se or anything like that.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's just that, you know, we know we want to make it front and center that, you know, this idea of being the best answer is the, you know, the intersection of utility and value proposition and and you know, all the sorts of things we hope to achieve, you know, across the entire customer lifecycle.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so it fits in that it is able to deliver on brand, it is able to deliver demand gen programs, and it is able to contribute uh measurably to revenue um outcomes, right?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd like to think it goes beyond that to you know the kinds of content and engagement that reinforce post-sale activities.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: So customer retention, customer engagement, customer growth.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's really important because too often we think about all of the content priorities as being um before somebody purchases.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: So even, you know, we think of the out-of-market experience as the well, before they've purchased.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: But so much of it is, you know, after the purchase, because if you're able to keep them engaged, if you have great content that helps them get more out of whatever it is that you provide to them, then they're gonna be talking about you.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be your best salespeople because of that word of mouth, because of sitting at conferences and hearing somebody say that they've got a problem and you know, just doing the, oh, I totally let me refer you to someone.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know I do that kind of stuff all the time.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: People do.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be helpful, but to do that, you've got to maintain that relationship after the sale.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And too often I think folks miss that opportunity for really continuing that content conversation um after the sale.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh, it's spot on.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's funny, it reminds me of a conversation I was having with Michael Brenner, who's uh VP of Thought Leadership and Customer Advocacy at Workday.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he was telling me about as we were talking about this post-sale situation uh in customer engagement, he was talking about how they use thought leadership um to engage their their customers, and they use customers to engage their prospects, is kind of how they go about like this brilliant, right?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you know, we we even had um in our and we did a publisher research report.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I I love this being able to um, especially if you're not logged into Google or anything like that.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: But if you search for a B2B influ B2B Thought Leadership report, you're gonna find this report.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh fingers crossed that actually happens with people based on their search history.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, it's pretty bold.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, um and and we found it was something like um what was it 97% of the so we've surveyed 797 senior B2B marketers, and 97 said thought leadership was important and critical to full funnel success, but less than half are using it at all after the sale, right?
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like a lot less than half.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just kind of interesting, and so so so Michael kind of turned that on his head, and he's like, Well, no, we we're using thought leaderships definitely to to engage your customers.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you think about it, and you know, it makes sense because the kinds of what thought leadership is, it's it's information that helps business leaders make better decisions, right?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not pitching or selling anything, it is providing utility and strategic direction around a thing.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, for someone who's already your customer to be able to add a layer of that kind of value, uh uh, well, first of all, it's gonna differentiate your brand from somebody else, that's for sure.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: And secondly, uh not in order, of course, but um secondly, it's going to give your customer um an experience that is, you know, really going to be something that sinks in, that's meaningful, meaning that, you know, it's thoughtful, it's relevant, and it's something that is so valuable um strategically that it's going to totally uh differentiate you from anybody else that is purely simply trying to retain you with minimum viable resources.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what's so cool is when you put that effort forward for doing that with your best customers, you can still repurpose that content for other things that you want to do.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the example that comes to mind for me is um Salesforce would host these like very VIP, limited number um special webinars where they would have an internal thought leader paired with an external business author, and they would have a conversation and let you know, certain um customers ask questions of that author and have kind of a round table.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would be hired to take that transcript, do an interview with the author again, and create a piece of content that was for their more general audiences and you know, to some have something that would be surfaced in discovery for people who weren't their clients yet.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that was, you know, to me, that was such a smart twofer, right?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you do this really bespoke great in-person event for your best customers, but then you can make something great out of it too.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a one and done.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's a huge opportunity.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: I love that example.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is that is fantastic because you're, you know, you're creating this in-person experience for the people that are there.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: That content for the general uh general consumption is useful, but you can even give a copy of that to the people who attended as a takeaway or as a thank you after the fact.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love that example.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I know, of course, some people watching right now are gonna be like, well, Lee and Erica, that's really great for Salesforce, but we don't have millions of dollars in our budget.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, what is your advice for folks who want to get started with best answer marketing?
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how what are the budget-friendly ways to kind of get in there and start to build that proof of concept?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: So let's follow the six pillars and and look at and and uh take a say sort of a search slash AI search perspective in terms of okay, we want to reinforce our visibility and credibility um around some solution that we um stand for, that we represent, that we provide for our customers.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it would start with that understanding what are the questions buyers are asking, right?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: And there are a couple of different tools.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you're already engaged with SEO, then you might have a subscription to AHRES or SEMRush or something like that.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they have question discovery tools within them.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: They're also um query fan out tools.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're not actually query fan out tools, but and I'll explain query fan out is something that uh occurs when an AI search uh is conducted.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're asking about something uh through Google and you've got AI mode or uh uh or um AI overviews are triggered, or if you're in ChatGPT or some other um LLM um tool, then the thing that you ask about isn't the thing that that application goes and looks for.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: What it does is it predicts a whole spectrum of derivative concepts and it searches on all of that, and then it takes the best answer out of the uh aggregate of all those search results, and that's what it delivers to you.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: So that's part of the reason why continuity across channels is part of what makes up you being the best answer, because as it searches for all those derivative expressions or that query fan out uh collection of expressions, um, you know, you you can you can sort of correlate that if I am frequently cited as the best, you know, uh accounting software for small businesses solution across influencers and publications and and uh and even in in different places where you can be digitally discovered, then ultimately it's pretty pretty straightforward probabilistic determination that you're the answer for that thing.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: So understand what the questions are.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: This is and I spend so much time on that because it is probably one of the most important things.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Understand the architecture or understand the uh questions that people are asking, and then sort of then translate that into your content art uh strategy or architecture.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like what questions are you going to answer that are relevant to moving buyers forward?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Segment that by stage a buying journey or whatever, and that's part of your strategy.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: Trust system now, okay, in the way that you would think about all right, you know, traditionally in SEO, we'd be like, what are the keywords that are the best match for the article I'm writing, for example?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a metaphor.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, think about who are the influencers, who are the most trusted voices around this topic, and think about ways in which you could collaborate with them.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we've got many, many, many ways of cleverly uh uh collaborating with uh industry experts.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them are organic, some of them are paid, but find ways in which to connect with and collaborate and co-create with those people that are most trusted and have the attention of your customers and how you can make content together.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, again, earn media placements, you know, pitching articles.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you can do any original research on answering those questions your buyers have, like that's amazing because it delivers over and over and over again, delivers value.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you've got our our our our um the questions buyers are asking, trying to simplify.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: So the questions buyers are asking, we've got a strategy that uh considers how we're going to get representation, trusted and credible representation of our ideas by influencers earned media and that sort of thing.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, what kind of content experiences are we gonna use to tell the stories around the answers to those questions?
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, explainer videos or are you gonna have a podcast?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, are you gonna, you know, create um other types of talking head videos?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, are you gonna have events, real world, virtual, whatever?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: Multi-channel uh visibility, you know, obviously we want to make sure we're publishing in the places where people are looking.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got to kind of think about what are the best channels for us to answer these types of questions.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then on the unified analytics side of things, um, I mean, that's not a cheap, you know, that's not a budget thing to do.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: So um obviously you've got to rely on the analytic solutions that you have.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when you do have budget, you know, we we work with a data warehouse company that allows us to bring disparate data sources into a unified system.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then we use a business intelligence platform to um to instrument it and create dashboards relevant to you know, uh marketing dashboard, sales dashboard, executive dashboard, that sort of thing.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then we can actually integrate in uh interact with it um through natural language uh if we want to.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's extra, but you know, it's a nice convenient thing to be able to do to just talk to your analytics.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: But you could use ChatGPT or Claude to interface with um maybe your analytics or your CRM data.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: I know you can do that now, so that might be the um inexpensive way, as it were, um, to surface uh some of the different data sources.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: You have to cobble together some data into like a Google spreadsheets, maybe, and then kind of bring that into an AI environment that allows you to conduct some analysis.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've definitely done that.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is so much nicer when you have a tool or a platform like Integrate or some of their competitors that allows you to hook up all those systems and bring that data into one single source of truth.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's just so valuable.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but you, you know, you can use AI to do that again, to do that that model to show, hey, when we bring all this content, you know, when we bring all this data together, we get such rich information to make better business decisions.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can make the case for getting one of those orchestration platforms that will allow you to have that unified data analysis.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: If I got to answer your question again, I'd say this.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say do a research, do do some original research.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Do a nom, even if it's just nominal, 200 responses, maybe 300 responses.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um do some original research.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to get a you're going to be able to use that to fuel content in all the ways I just mentioned across the entire customer, customer journey.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it'll be so much easier to measure that, which is so nice.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's because it's a lot more public.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: What you're going to see is going to be public.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um Yeah, like like, I mean, we, you know, with our research reports, we'll do a research, we'll collect data.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously the magic is in the planning.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we're this we're architecting the questions in a particular way.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we have influencers in mind when we construct the survey so that when we write the report, we have validated voices that are trusted in the marketplace to add their commentary to valid, contextualize the data, and then to validate concepts that are born out of that data.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: All of this is in support of the questions and the answers you're delivering, the questions buyers are asking, the audience is asking, and the uh credible answers that you're you're delivering.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can do stuff um creatively with AI or with not in terms of video creation and content creation, um, and uh inspire folks to to share, um, you know, drive conversations around the thing.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that that's something that can go a long, long way at delivering value long beyond when your you know technical campaign start and stop time have occurred.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that people can um steal from Andy Cristadina, because he's um been doing this forever with his uh blogging survey, is make really simple but beautiful images that illustrate the findings from your research, because people will take that image and either link to it directly, or they'll take that image.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you say that, you know, anyone can use the image, but you've got to use the citation and you provide that citation right there in the caption, people will do that.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can do search for you know, finding out how many times that particular caption that you require is used, or how many times that particular image is used.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you've given it a very unique name, people don't usually change the name if they download it to post it on their site.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then the people who just use the link because they don't even want to host it, that happens all the time too.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you end up with these this piece of um, you know, content that's embedded in the different ways that you're sharing your research that then is so easily shareable that people will share it.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because if people can have something for free that gets the point across that they want to make, they're gonna share that a lot.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, one trend I've seen um with research reports is, you know, and and this is really central to best answer marketing too, is on the experiential side.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in our own research about thought leadership, we found that, you know, uh the the majority of uh marketers say that interactive experiential content, you know, makes a huge, huge difference in terms of engagement.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: But um, what was it, 33%, only 33% actually use it.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we're seeing things like um IBM uh has a thought leadership group in it, and um they launched this AI tool that allows you to interact with all of this research, right?
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you can ask the research report questions.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: Nice, you know, and I know there's people adding links um to content now to you know kind of trigger you to be able to ask questions of that of that content or whatever, but this is it's literally like and and and it's funny, I I just vibe coded uh a thing for our own research report that does the same thing.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: So you can just go to Google AI Studio and and um it's amazing.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um not only did it create um a summary of how to experience the research findings, but it also had uh a readiness guide.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a quiz basically you could take um to kind of determine whether this is this sort of thing is a fit for you or not.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then it also had, you know, you could interrogate the the uh the the survey findings uh via an AI uh chat tool.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is all available right now.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's just a matter of figuring out, you know, how to how to do it, how to do it securely.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's fun times.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, maybe in that case, it's not so much about sharing the individual statistics, which is a really useful idea, but it's about driving utility around the destination such that you know you've got a lot of publications and people who have um, you know, relevant and notable audiences pointing in your direction.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: I have to ask you this because I got asked this when I gave my uh marketing profs uh webinar a few weeks ago and was talking about um the way in which I build custom GPTs.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a bunch of folks that are locked into the Microsoft ecosystem because of their workplace and the IT rules.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so they frequently they'll they'll get a little exasperated when we're talking about Google.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: AI Studio, Google Gems, ChatGPT, et cetera, because they aren't necessarily allowed to use it at work.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know, have you worked with clients who are in that kind of situation where they're having to use Copilot?
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I believe Copilot has a very specific studio license that you have to get in order to be able to do any of that kind of stuff.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if you've had experience with that or if you've just helped coach people on how to get that marketing IT exception.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: I send them Pam Didner and she can teach them about Copilot and any other AI platform.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: So no, we haven't.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, the the utility of our consulting is really less about how a thing is made and more about what the output is.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we're we don't fall into that situation necessarily where um collaboration is happening within an AI uh platform uh in that way.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm totally gonna steal that answer.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell people talk to Pam Didner.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: Pam will love that.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: She's written a couple of books on how to use AI and and uh yeah.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh she's I mean, I know there's other folks like Chris Penn, obviously, that you can, you know, I you can't uh go wrong there either.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the other answer is to hire, you know, an external agency or a consultancy who can use those tools on your behalf, who can build those things on your behalf.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because if you are stuck with those kinds of limitations due to security concerns that your organization has, frequently that doesn't mean that your any of your contractors have those same limitations.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I do think that that can be a good workaround.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I have clients that they've literally had me do that for them.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Build that, you know, custom GPT for brand voice, for example, not using any confidential kinds of information, doing it around 100% with things that are out there and available publicly if you know where to find them, because then they can use that GPT and it's not, you know, breaking any of the rules.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: So there's always, I think there's always a way, there's always a good workaround.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I learned from my decade at Schwab.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: I learned there was always a good workaround.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're getting close to the end of um our time today.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'd just love it if you if we could kind of close out with, you know, your advice for marketers who are feeling just a little overwhelmed with how discovery has changed and who just, you know, really want to kind of dive in and learn more about this, and maybe give a little bit of uh a plug for your best answer marketing playbook, too.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: I guess I I'd take a look at a couple of things.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: One is in in three three categories, trust.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, think about you know, what is it that you're doing right now to architect trust into all the content that you're publishing, right?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: And think about back in the old days, like I said, uh, if you were optimizing for search, you'd know that you'd have mapped keywords mapped to to uh individual content objects, right?
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, oh, this the intent of this is to be discovered when people are searching for X.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: That as a metaphor, think about okay, what are the signals that will build trust around this thing, whether it's an ebook or a blog post or um a video or you know, whatever it is, digital and public?
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_01: What are the things that you're doing to build proof and credibility in that particular idea, in that particular content asset?
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and and think about the gap between where you are and where, you know, maybe where you could be.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um the second thing is discovery, you know, fundamental.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: Are you the best answer for the things that you want customers to think of you about in all the places where they're looking?
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, you know, and and so you got to figure out from a measurement standpoint whether that's true.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then again, there's a gap that can be closed.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you're not a meaningful source of trusted information in the places that buyers rely on, and I'm sorry to say that if, or not sorry, but I'm just saying, you know, if that's Reddit, you're gonna have to figure out Reddit.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if if that's um some dark social community somewhere else, you're gonna have to figure out how to get in.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, get on Discord, and there you go.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think my son, my son was just telling me he plays Dungeons and Dragons on Discord.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what?
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, anyway.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, my I have I'm a member of a lot of World of Warcraft uh communities on Discord.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've been playing it for 20 years, and Discord is where all those communities are now.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and so you've got to figure out where are, you know, where are you visible, where are buyers actually looking, and and you need to bring close that gap.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the third thing I think I would look at, and obviously analytics is something I would recommend too, but um, experience.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of experiences are you creating?
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, are you uh like take inventory of the content you have and how much is it text, how much is it telling stories, how effective is that storytelling?
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and you've got to look at, you know, video is playing a pretty important role in search, in LLM visibility, YouTube, um video.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: I I can't tell you how what what a shortcut to visibility publishing video podcasts have been for us, just as for our own visibility, um, let alone publishing video on uh within LinkedIn.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: Not the same thing, obviously, because LinkedIn's not getting crawled that way.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's it's think about the experiences that you're creating.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: And those experiences can be that VIP dinner at the conference, um, which, you know, it doesn't have to actually be that expensive.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and so, you know, think about what it is that you're doing to, you know, extend out of this mechanical drive for end-of-quarter, you know, sales results and think about what kind of meaningful experience can you create that's gonna generate dividends over and over and over again.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: So trust, discovery, experience.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: Think about your current situation and really where you should be, and think about what you can do to close that gap.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: One of the sources of information to close that gap is this playbook that I was talking about.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you can literally just go to bestansormarketing.com and that'll redirect to the playbook, um, which you can get.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a pretty robust blog post there that explains those six pillars for you and what you can do.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then if you want to go further, you can go ahead and get the playbook.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, Lee's not paying me to say this, but I'd say you need to just go get the playbook if this is something that you're really wanting to dig into, because uh they don't spam you.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: You get on the mailing list, but you don't get spammed, you get really great information, you get the heads up.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh it's definitely worthwhile.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think as marketers, we need to make sure that we're actually consuming content and marketing.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: I am really concerned when I hear somebody say that they don't, you know, listen to any industry podcasts, that they aren't reading anybody's content.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because how on earth are you going to be creating anything that's memorable or differentiated if you're not aware of what's out there?
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you get so much inspiration by seeing fantastic work from your peers.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my that's my pitch, my plug for you, Lee, because I think you guys are doing amazing work.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always, you know, sharing it and happy to um share with other people because I hope that it does help them think about how they can have a different type of customer um experience through content.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate that.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: My pleasure.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh appreciate the work you've been doing here for how long?
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: How many years have you had?
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be 10 years in June.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe it?
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: Happy content chat birthday.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um, Lee, where are you gonna, where can people find more from you?
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: And are you have any upcoming speaking engagements?
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm actually uh speaking at Digital Summit in a couple of weeks um down in Tampa.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: So uh Digital Summit, you can just Google Digital Summit Tampa, and I will be talking about best answer marketing um and how you know you've got 95% of buyers are not in market, only 5% are in market at any given time.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, how can we be top of minding, meaningful to that 95%?
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: So when the time comes, your first choice, right?
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: You've made that day one list and you're meaningful not just to the decision maker, but to the rest of that buying committee that's lurking in the shadows, you know, finance and HR and IT.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: How can you create meaningful content for those folks at the same time?
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope that folks can see you there, and I hope that you uh get to see Pamela and we'll do.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I know she's spoken at a few of those too.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if she's there, I hope you guys get a chance to say hello.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we're about out of time.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks everyone for listening, and we'll be back next week with the next edition of Content Chat.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: Bye bye, everybody.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.