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I Know Marketing, Not Rocket Science. How Do I Create Technical Content?

Luke Probasco

Marketing Manager, Townsend Security

FUN FACT: As a concert photographer, I have photographed everyone from Pearl Jam to KanyeWest.

@geetarluke

LukeProbasco

1 Inbound marketing & Townsend Security

2 Getting others in your company to create content

3 Creating content when you aren’t the SME

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Inbound Marketing & Townsend Security

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Website Visits Since HubSpot

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Website Visits

2012: 61,1722013: 125, 160

Leads Generated

2012: 1,1202013: 2,171

Opportunities Generated

2012: 1552013: 505

Year Over Year Growth

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Content is Still King

1 White Papers 6 Videos

2 Webinars 7 Infographics

3 Podcasts 8 Resource Kits

4 eBooks 9 Newsletters

5 Blogs 10 Social

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64% of B2B content marketers say their biggest challenge is producing enough content.*Content Marketing Institute (2012)

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2 Getting Other People In Your Company To Create Content

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1 Get buy-in from company leaders

2 Offer incentives

3 Make friends with Support

4 Interview technical people

5 Sit in on sales calls

Everyone Is In Sales & Marketing

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• Show company leaders how inbound marketing is

responsible for lead generation and sales

• Once they see a direct influence, there will be an

alignment from the top down

• Interview your company leaders

Get Buy-In From Company Leaders

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• Budget: Offer money per blog

• Limited Budget: Enter authors into a drawing and choose a winner

• No Budget: Earn extra time off

Offer Incentives

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Hi Everyone!We love it when other people in the company write blogs. For each blog you write we will award you $50!Ideas for blog topics:• A problem ticket - a common problem and how we help our customers solve it• Common question(s) that arises in a walk through, sales or support call• "How-To” do something

THANK YOU!

P.S. Part of the writing process is editing for grammar, spelling, and clarification. I may ask you to make small edits or clarifications for readability or ask you to expand on certain points if the blog is too short. I won't make any edits without your approval, and you will always have final approval before publication.

Write Two Blogs, Get $100

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• Convince the Support team to write blogs

• “Hey, that stupid question you always get, write a blog on it.

Let Google answer it for you.”

• Asked to be CC’d on Support emails

• Any live chat transcripts?

Make Friends With Support

ISUPPORT

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• Have technical people demonstrate something for you

• What do the technical people think is important?

• Have technical people dumb it down

• “So what your saying is…”

Interview Technical People

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• Listen to what customers are saying

• What are their questions/concerns?

• No one needs to know you are there

Sit In On Sales Calls

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3 Creating Content When You Aren’t the SME

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• The hardest piece of content to create when you

aren’t the SME

• Largely technical

• Find someone to write it for you!

• Use the white paper as foundation for all other

related content

Tools: Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word

1] White Papers

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• The second hardest piece of content to create

when you aren’t the SME

• Create webinar based on topics covered in the

white paper

• Webinars are great middle/bottom of the

funnel resources

Tools: GoToWebinar or WebEx

2] Webinars

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• Find co-workers to be a guest on your podcast

• Presents multiple industry thought leaders within your company

• Another platform to get your message out

• Podcasts make great interview style blogs

Tools: Apple GarageBand, Blue Yetti microphone, Auralex Mud Guard,

headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro)

3] Podcasts

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• High perceived value

• Compile your most read/informative blogs into an eBook

• Great opportunity to associate industry thought leaders

with your brand

• Crowd source content

Tools: Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Word or PowerPoint

4] eBooks

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• Interview the technical people in your company

• Have support team turn customer

interactions/emails into blogs

• Townsend Security pays employees to write blogs

5] Blogs

Companies with an active blog report 97% more leads.

*Content+ (2013)

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• Interview technical people in your company

• Start a “Whiteboard Friday” now that you

are intimate with the content you have been

re-purposing

• Record web presentations

• Make videos consistently

Tools: iMovie, ScreenFlow, VideoScribe, Prezi

6] Videos

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• Fire up Google, look for statistics

• Are there any industry reports you can pull from?

• Visually communicate your message

Tools: Piktochart, Venngage

7] Infographics

40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text.

*Zabisco (2011)

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• You’ve already done the work, repackage it!

• Another chance to present your content to people

who may have not read your previous emails

• Great CTA for Blogs, White Papers, & eBooks

8] Resource Kits

80% of decision makers prefer to get info in a series of articles, not an ad.

*Content Marketing Institute (2013)

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• A “Readers Digest” of all the content you have

created for the month

• Excellent way to help promote your partners, guest

contributors, etc.

• Guest contributors will often share your newsletter

since they are affiliated with it – expanding reach

Tools: HubSpot, MailChimp, Constant Contact

9] Newsletters

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• Let your subscribers, fans, and followers

know when you have new content

• Post links to industry news

• What are people saying about you?

Tools: HubSpot, Social Networks

10] Social Media

80% of users prefer to connect with brands through Facebook.

*Huffington Post (2013)

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QUESTIONS ?

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