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Exceptional Content Challenging the invisible conventions
of content marketing
Doug
Kessler
Co-Founder
Velocity
@dougkessler
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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Two lovely, little, old, rectangular, green,
French, silver, whittling knives.
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Two French, old, whittling, metal, little,
rectangular, green, lovely knives.
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Adjective order
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Number > Opinion > Size > Age > Shape
> Color > Origin > Material > Purpose
Adjective order
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Little Red Riding Hood
Adjective order
Number > Opinion > Size > Age > Shape > Color > Origin > Material > Purpose
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The Big Bad Wolf?
Adjective order
Number > Opinion > Size > Age > Shape > Color > Origin > Material > Purpose
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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The Big Bad Wolf?
Adjective order
Number > Opinion > Size > Age > Shape > Color > Origin > Material > Purpose
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Reduplication
Hodge-podge • Helter-skelter • Hanky-panky
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Ablaut Reduplication
zig-zag • knick-knack • mingle-mangle •
criss-cross • flip-flop • sing-song
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Ablaut Reduplication
i then a then o
bish-bash-bosh
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Ablaut Reduplication
zig-zag • knick-knack • mingle-mangle •
criss-cross • flip-flop • sing-song •
tick-tock • Kit-Kat • King Kong • ping-pong •
ding-dong • pitter-patter • splish-splash
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Ablaut Reduplication
The Big Bad Wolf.
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The power of invisible conventions.
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We need conventions.
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But we don’t need
to be slaves to convention.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
As marketers, it’s our job to expose the
hidden conventions in our markets…
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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…and play with them.
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Marketing Defense Barrier
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Your
discipline’s
Circles of Convention
Your
company’s
conventions
Your
industry’s
Your
country’s Our
species!
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Marketing conventions are
deep, strong and invisible.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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Marketing lies.
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@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Lung
Cancer
Heart
Disease
Congestive
heart failure
Lost a
lung
Lung and
brain cancer
Heart
attack
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Marketing lies.
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Everyone hates marketing.
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Marketing Defense Barrier.
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Something came along
and shattered the core
conventions of marketing.
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Marketing
All about the brand
Free to lie
One-sided
Sales message led Brand has power
Interrupt value
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Content
Marketing
All about the brand
Free to lie
One-sided
Sales message led Brand has power
Interrupt value
audience
tell the truth
Balanced
Utility Buyer
Deliver
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Content conventions
Format conventions
Style conventions
Strategy conventions
Promotion conventions
Content marketing conventions
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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Marketing Defense Barrier.
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Let’s look at a few conventions
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“Marketing hides your
weaknesses.”
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How do you market an office building that looks like this?
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Kessels Kramer
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Openly share the weaknesses of your products.
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Openly share the weaknesses of your products. It surprises and delights
It signals confidence
It builds trust
It alienates less likely buyers
It attracts ideal prospects
It focuses you on battles you can win
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Picocells: Pros and Cons
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Picocells: Pros and Cons
“1. Picocells are a new thing to introduce into your network. You may prefer not to have new technology in there.”
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Picocells: Pros and Cons
“3. In some places, there may be no IP available for backhaul.”
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“Content marketing is all about the data.”
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“If SEOmoz hadn’t been a small startup that could
do whatever it wanted, it would have been very tough
to justify continuing to produce Whiteboard Friday.”
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Average views: 20,000
Highest: 200,000
Engagement: 30% higher than any
other Moz tactic
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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Average views: 20,000
Highest: 200,000
Engagement: 30% higher than any
other Moz tactic
Data said “Kill it.”
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Live and breathe data – but be prepared to follow your heart.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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“Most great projects start
with belief and instinct.” – Rand Fishkin
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“Hide your nerds.”
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GE Paths of Flight
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Jenny Doan Missouri Star Quilt Co. Thanks Andrew Davis
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David Lyle, Informatica
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Get your geeks into the spotlight.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Most companies are full of smart,
eccentric, gloriously passionate
people who are great at things that
no one else ever thinks about.
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“Marketing is relentlessly positive.”
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Rants
work
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Explore charged emotions, not just the happy-clappy.
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“If you don’t have anything nice to
say about anyone, come sit by me.”
– Alice Roosevelt
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“B2B marketing speaks ‘B2B’.”
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The conventional B2B voice. Stiff
Serious
Uniform
Formal
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
The new B2B voice. Straight & simple
Confident
Conversational
Real & human
Personal
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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vCloud Air is a dynamic public
cloud platform that offers high
performance, reliable storage
options to fit varying workload
needs.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
vCloud Air is a dynamic public
cloud platform that offers high
performance, reliable storage
options to fit varying workload
needs.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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Gain instant access to advanced
storage capabilities and worldwide
scale on day one. The high-
performance, enterprise-class and
object-based Verizon Cloud Storage
offers data accessibility in a pay-as-
you-go model.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Gain instant access to advanced
storage capabilities and worldwide
scale on day one. The high-
performance, enterprise-class and
object-based Verizon Cloud Storage
offers data accessibility in a pay-as-
you-go model.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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Loosen up. Find a voice.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
“Marketing never swears.”
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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People are a bunch of sweary people. Swear words
% o
f spoken w
ord
s
0-3.4%
The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words, Timothy Jay
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
People are a bunch of sweary people. Swear words
% o
f spoken w
ord
s
0-3.4%
1st person plural
pronouns
1.0%
The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words, Timothy Jay
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1.73 ‘fucks per minute’.
-- Final season, Deadwood
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
We swear liberally in TV shows, movies, plays, poetry, music, fiction, non-fiction, daily speech, bar mitzvahs, visual arts, emails, Post-it® Notes, shopping lists and conferences.
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We swear everywhere.
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Everywhere but marketing.
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Don’t swear if your audience doesn’t like swearing.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
But do aim for the things swearing can do.
Resonate with the like-minded
Be authentic
Be passionate
Be funny
Add mojo to your voice
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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Two techniques for breaking conventions
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Content
conventions
Format
conventions
Style
conventions
Strategy
conventions
Promotion
conventions
1) The Exposé Workshop
• List the invisible conventions in your market
• Explore what the opposite could look like
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2) Reasons not to buy from you
• List 10 reasons smart people may NOT choose you
• See how many really alienate great prospects
• Publish the rest
10 Reasons not to
choose us
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Two lovely, little, old, rectangular, green,
French, silver, whittling knives.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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The old little man.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Invisible conventions are holding you back.
Expose them.
Break them.
See what happens.
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
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Thank you!
@dougkessler • #mpb2b
Ask me anything at the Post-Presentation Huddle!
@dougkessler