Tag Archives: blog

There’s a Reason Why “Tech” is a Four-Letter Word

By Tomia, original image en:User:Polylerus – Own work (Vector drawing based on Image:Profanity.JPG), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3332425

We often use the phrase “four-letter word” to refer to cuss words that shouldn’t be said in polite company. Occasionally, we have our own words that we personally consider to be four-letter words. (Such as “BIPA.”)

There are some times when we resign ourselves to the fact that “tech” can be a four-letter word also. But there’s actually a good reason for the problems we have with today’s technology.

Tech can be dim

Just this week I was doing something on my smartphone and my screen got really dim all of a sudden, with no explanation.

So I went to my phone’s settings, and my brightness setting was down at the lowest level.

For no reason.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

– Arthur C. Clarke, quoted here.
From https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202613

So I increased my screen’s brightness, and everything was back to normal. Or so I thought.

A little while later, my screen got dim again, so I went to the brightness setting…and was told that my brightness was very high. (Could have fooled me.)

I can’t remember what I did next (because when you are trying to fix something you can NEVER remember what you did next), but later my screen brightness was fine.

For no reason.

Arthur C. Clark, by ITU Pictures – https://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/16636142906, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64344486

Was Arthur C. Clarke right? And if so, WHY was he right?

Perhaps it’s selective memory, but I don’t recall having this many technology problems when I was younger.

The shift to multi-purpose devices

Part of the reason for the increasing complexity of technology is that we make fewer and fewer single-purpose devices, and are manufacturing more and more multi-purpose devices.

One example of the shift: if I want to write a letter today, I can write it on my smartphone. (Assuming the screen is bright enough.) This same smartphone can perform my banking activities, play games, keep track of Bredemarket’s earnings…oh, and make phone calls.

Smartphones are an example of technologial convergence:

Technological convergence is a term that describes bringing previously unrelated technologies together, often in a single device. Smartphones might be the best possible example of such a convergence. Prior to the widespread adoption of smartphones, consumers generally relied on a collection of single-purpose devices. Some of these devices included telephones, wrist watches, digital cameras and global positioning system (GPS) navigators. Today, even low-end smartphones combine the functionality of all these separate devices, easily replacing them in a single device.

From a consumer perspective, technological convergence is often synonymous with innovation.

From https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/definition/technological-convergence

And the smartphone example certainly demonstrates innovation from the previous-generation single-purpose devices.

When I was a kid, if I wanted to write a letter, I had two choices:

  1. I could set a piece of paper on the table and write the letter with a writing implement such as a pen or pencil.
  2. I could roll a piece of paper into a typewriter and type the letter.

These were, for the most part, single purpose devices. Sure I could make a paper airplane out of the piece of paper, but I couldn’t use the typewriter to play a game or make a phone call.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1216813

Turning our attention to the typewriter, it certainly was a manufacturing marvel, and intricate precision was required to design the hammers that would hit the typewritter ribbon and leave their impressions on the piece of paper. And typewriters could break, and repairmen (back then they were mostly men) could fix them.

A smartphone is much more innovative than a smartphone. But it’s infinitely harder to figure out what is wrong with a smartphone.

The smartphone hardware alone is incredibly complex, with components from a multitude of manufacturers. Add the complexities of the operating system and all the different types of software that are loaded on a smartphone, and a single problem could result from a myriad of causes.

No wonder it seems like magic, even for the best of us.

Explaining technology

But this complexity has provided a number of jobs:

  • The helpful person at your cellular service provider who has acquired just enough information to recognize and fix an errant application.
  • The many people in call centers (the legitimate call centers, not the “we found a problem with your Windows computer” call scammers) who perform the same tasks at a distance.
By Earl Andrew at English Wikipedia – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17793658
  • All the people who write instructions on how to use and fix all of our multi-purpose devices, from smartphones to computers to remote controls.

Oh, and the people that somehow have to succinctly explain to prospects why these multi-purpose devices are so great.

Because no one’s going to run into problems with technology unless they acquire the technology. And your firm has to get them to acquire your technology.

Crafting a technology marketing piece

So your firm’s marketer or writer has to craft some type of content that will make a prospect aware of your technology, and/or induce the prospect to consider purchasing the technology, and/or ideally convert the prospect into a paying customer.

Before your marketer or writer crafts the content, they have to answer some basic questions.

By Evan-Amos – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11293857

Using a very simple single-purpose example of a hammer, here are the questions with explanations:

  • Why does the prospect need this technology? And why do you provide this technology? This rationale for why you are in business, and why your product exists, will help you make the sale. Does your prospect want to buy a hammer from a company that got tired of manufacturing plastic drink stirrers, or do they want to buy a hammer from a forester who wants to empower people to build useful items?
  • How does your firm provide this technology? If I want to insert a nail into a piece of wood, do I need to attach your device to an automobile or an aircraft carrier? No, the hammer will fit in your hand. (Assuming you have hands.)
  • What is the technology? Notice that the “why” and “how” questions come before the “what” question, because “why” and “how” are more critical. But you still have to explain what the technology is (with the caveat I mention below). Perhaps some of your prospects have no idea what a hammer is. Don’t assume they already know.
  • What is the goal of the technology? Does a hammer help you floss your teeth? No, it puts nails into wood.
  • What are the benefits of the technology? When I previously said that you should explain what the technology is, most prospects aren’t looking for detailed schematics. They primarily care about what the technology will do for them. For example, that hammer can keep their wooden structure from falling down. They don’t care about the exact composition of the metal in the hammer head.
  • Finally, who is the target audience for the technology? I don’t want to read through an entire marketing blurb and order a basic hammer, only to discover later that the product won’t help me keep two diamonds together but is really intended for wood. So don’t send an email to jewelers about your hammer. They have their own tools.
By Mauro Cateb – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90944472

(UPDATE OCTOBER 23, 2023: “SIX QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU IS SO 2022. DOWNLOAD THE NEWER “SEVEN QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU” HERE.)

Once you answer these questions (more about the six questions in the Bredemarket e-book available here), your marketer or writer can craft your content.

Or, if you need help, Bredemarket (the technology content marketing expert) can craft your content, whether it’s a blog post, case study, white paper, or something else.

I’ve helped other technology firms explain their “hammers” to their target audiences, explaining the benefits, and answering the essential “why” questions about the hammers.

Can I help your technology firm communicate your message? Contact me.

Bredemarket logo

Bredemarket Work Samples, the Video Edition

I can’t share work samples that I created for Bredemarket clients, because they are ghostwritten “works for hire” that are not publicly attributed to Bredemarket.

(For the same reason, I can’t share most work samples that I created for my previous employers.)

But I CAN share work samples that I created for…Bredemarket.

The video containing this image can be found on various Bredemarket properties.

Actually, you can search through the entire Bredemarket website and social media outlets and find them.

Or you can just watch the video below, which summarizes everything.

Bredemarket Work Samples, August 2023.

Blog About Your Identity Firm’s Benefits Now. Why Wait?

As content creators accelerate information generation and distribution, content consumers demand information NOW. Perhaps my prediction of five-minute content creation hasn’t occurred—yet—but firms need to distribute their messages as fast as possible.

OK, maybe not as fast as Brazilian race car driver Antonella Bassani, but fast enough. Fair use, from https://www.racers-behindthehelmet.com/post/first-historic-pole-position-and-podium-for-antonella-bassani-in-porsche-cup-brasil. Photo credits: Porsche Cup Brasil.

This Bredemarket blog post discusses a rapid way for identity/biometric firms to communicate the benefits of their solutions and capture their prospects’ attention immediately.

  • Blogging provides the rapid content generation your identity/biometric firm needs.
  • Benefits are essential in your blog post to help convert your readers.
  • Bredemarket can generate a benefits-laced blog post for your identity/biometric firm…with no learning curve necessary, allowing you to distribute your message quickly.

Why blogging?

While my consultancy Bredemarket creates identity content in a variety of customer-facing formats, including white papers, case studies, and e-books, one of my favorite ways to write about identity is via blog posts.

From https://bredemarket.com/2023/08/08/catching-financial-fraudsters-with-physical-evidence/

Why?

  • Blog posts provide an immediate business impact. It’s easier to create a blog post than it is to create a downloadable document. If Bredemarket needs to generate content for its self-marketing, I can get a blog post out in two hours, if not sooner. For a breaking news story, your company’s blogged take may hit your prospects before they’ve even heard about the breaking news story in the first place.
  • Blog posts are easy to share. You can’t just post your blog content and let it sit there. While over 200 people subscribe to the Bredemarket blog, that means that almost 8 billion people will never see it. I increase my viewing odds (slightly) by resharing my blog posts to my hundreds of additional followers on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms.
  • Blog posts are easy to repurpose. Once people have read your blog post, your work is not done. It’s easy to repurpose blog content into other forms. For example, I created an e-book from a blog post.

Why benefits?

However, if your identity/biometric blog post merely consists of a list of features of your product or service, then you’re wasting your time.

From https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2017/08/scientists-automate-key-step-forensic-fingerprint-analysis. Credit: Chugh et al., Hanacek/NIST.

If your post simply states that your new latent fingerprint station captures print evidence at 2000 pixels per inch, most of your prospects are going to say, “So what?”

On the other hand, if your post talks about how your latent fingerprint station’s high capture resolution benefits your prospects by helping experts to solve crimes more quickly and getting bad people off the street, then your prospects are going to care about your product/service—and will convert from prospects to paying customers.

Why Bredemarket?

That little tip about benefits vs. features is just one of numerous tips that I’ve picked up over my many years as an identity/biometric blog expert. And you can benefit from my ability to start writing immediately because I require no learning curve. My 29 years of identity/biometric expertise comes in handy when your firm requires identity blog post writing.

OK, perhaps it’s an exaggeration to say that I can start writing immediately. Before I type a single word, we need to ensure a common understanding of why we’re writing this blog post. If you want to know how we achieve this common understanding, read the e-book I mentioned earlier.

If you are ready to purchase my Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service to create a blog post (or other short content) describing the benefits of your identity/biometric product or service, then we should start talking sooner rather than later.

Bredemarket logo

How Bredemarket Works

Bredemarket logo

(Updated question count 10/23/2023)

I’m stealing an idea from Matthew Mace and adapting it to explain how Bredemarket works.

What am I stealing from Matthew Mace?

Matthew Mace is a freelance content writer who recently posted the following on LinkedIn:

Do you need a freelance content writer but don’t know what to expect?

I created a “work with me” pdf that explains what I do and how I can help you.

From https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewmace-contentmarketing_cycling-running-wellness-activity-7094675414727450624-8U_Y/

His post then explains what is included in his “work with me” PDF. If you’d like his PDF, send him a message via his LinkedIn profile.

But what if I want to know how to work with Bredemarket?

Glad you asked.

After reading Mace’s LinkedIn post, I realized that I have a bunch of different online sources that explain how to work with Bredemarket, but they’re scattered all over the place. This post groups them all the “how to work with Bredemarket” content together, following an outline similar (yet slightly different) to Mace’s.

And no, it’s not a stand-alone PDF, but as you read the content below you’ll discover two stand-alone PDFs that address critical portions of the process.

Question 1: Why would I work with Bredemarket?

As you’ll see below, “why” is a very important question, even more important than “how.” Here are some reasons to work with Bredemarket.

By Federal Bureau of Investigation – https://washingtonian.com/2016/11/24/the-fbi-opened-its-crime-lab-here-in-dc-back-in-1932, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128508441
  • You require the words to communicate the benefits of your identity/biometrics product/service. I offer 29 years of experience in the identity/biometrics industry and am a biometric content marketing expert and an identity content marketing expert. I have created multiple types of content (see below) to share critical points about identity/biometrics offerings.
  • You require the words to communicate the benefits of your technology product/service. I have also created multiple types of content to share critical points about technology offerings.
  • You require the words to communicate the benefits of a product/service you provide to California’s Inland Empire. I’ve lived in the Inland Empire for…well, for more than 29 years. I know the area—its past, its present, and its future.
  • You require one of the following types of content. Blogs, case studies / testimonials, data sheets, e-books, proposals, social media posts / Xs (or whatever tweets are called today), white papers, or anything. I’ve done these for others and can do it for you.

Question 2: Why WOULDN’T I work with Bredemarket?

This question is just as important as the prior one. If you need the following, you WON’T want to work with Bredemarket.

  • You require high quality graphics. Sorry, that’s not me.
I did not draw this myself. Originally created by Jleedev using Inkscape and GIMP. Redrawn as SVG by Ben Liblit using Inkscape. – Own work, Public Domain, link.
  • You are based outside of the United States. Foreign laws and exchange rates make my brain hurt, so I only pursue business domestically. But depending upon where you are, I may be able to recommend a content marketer for you.

Question 3: What are Bredemarket’s most popular packages? How much do they cost?

Here are the three most common packages that Bredemarket offers.

By Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel – [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2407244

Note that these are the standard packages. If your needs are different, I can adapt them, or charge you an hourly rate if the need is not well defined. (But as you will see below, I try to work with you at the outset to define the project.)

If you follow the link above for your desired package and download the first brochure on each page, you’ll get a description of the appropriate service. The pricing is at the bottom of each brochure.

Each brochure also explains how I kick off a project, but the procedure is fairly common for each package.

Question 4: What are Bredemarket’s working practices?

When I work with a client, I hold a kickoff to make sure that we have a common understanding at the beginning of the project.

The first seven questions that we address are critical. In fact, I wrote an e-book that addresses these seven questions alone.

  1. Why?
  2. How?
  3. What?
  4. Goal?
  5. Benefits?
  6. Target Audience?
  7. Emotions?
Go to https://bredemarket.com/2023/10/22/seven-questions-your-content-creator-should-ask-you-the-e-book-version/ to download this e-book.

But that’s not all that we address in the kickoff. There are some other lower-level questions that I ask you (such as the long and short form of your company name).

Once we have defined the project, I iteratively provide draft copy and you iteratively review it. The number and length of review cycles varies depending upon the content length and your needs. For example, I use up to two review cycles of up to three days each for short content.

Eventually I provide the final copy, you publish it and pay me, and both of us are happy.

Question 5: What about samples and testimonials?

Because I usually function as a ghostwriter, I cannot publicly provide samples or identity my clients. But I’ve written yet another e-book that anonymously describes some sample projects that I’ve performed for clients, including a testimonial from one of them.

Go to https://bredemarket.com/2023/04/16/four-mini-case-studies-for-one-inland-empire-business-my-own/ to download this e-book.

Question 6: What are the next steps to work with Bredemarket?

If you believe that I can help you create the content your firm needs, let’s talk.

Or if Matthew Mace’s content services better fit your needs, use him.

Three Key Ways to Receive Bredemarket Information

Are you considering contracting with a marketing and writing service?

Would you like to know more about Bredemarket’s marketing and writing services to provide the right words for identity/biometrics, technology, and local B2B firms?

Would you like multiple options to learn about Bredemarket?

This post is ONLY intended for people who want to stay up-to-date with information from Bredemarket. If you have no such interest, you can skip reading this post and I’ll “give a couple of minutes back to you.”

There are a number of ways to get the latest Bredemarket information, but these three are probably the most important.

Bredemarket blog

To subscribe to the Bredemarket blog and get the latest information directly from Bredemarket:

The Bredemarket blog contains over 400 posts on marketing, writing, identity and biometrics, technology, and California’s Inland Empire. It also lets you know how you can use Bredemarket’s marketing and writing services for your company.

LinkedIn Bredemarket page

To subscribe to the LinkedIn page and see the latest content from Bredemarket, and special content from Bredemarket’s market-oriented LinkedIn pages:

I’ve found LinkedIn to be a valuable source of information, and much of the third-party information I find on LinkedIn is reshared on the Bredemarket LinkedIn page and its market-oriented “showcase” pages on identity, technology, and local business. (You can follow those three pages also.)

Bredemarket mailing list

To subscribe to the mailing list and receive special private content in advance of everyone else:

I’m revitalizing the mailing list to let those with a keen interest in Bredemarket know about my future plans.

The Difference Between Identity Factors and Identity Modalities

(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)

I know that I’m the guy who likes to say that it’s all semantics. After all, I’m the person who has referred to five-page long documents as “battlecards.”

But sometimes the semantics are critically important. Take the terms “factors” and “modalities.” On the surface they sound similar, but in practice there is an extremely important difference between factors of authentication and modalities of authentication. Let’s discuss.

What is a factor?

To answer the question “what is a factor,” let me steal from something I wrote back in 2021 called “The five authentication factors.”

Something You Know. Think “password.” And no, passwords aren’t dead. But the use of your mother’s maiden name as an authentication factor is hopefully decreasing.

Something You Have. I’ve spent much of the last ten years working with this factor, primarily in the form of driver’s licenses. (Yes, MorphoTrak proposed driver’s license systems. No, they eventually stopped doing so. But obviously IDEMIA North America, the former MorphoTrust, has implemented a number of driver’s license systems.) But there are other examples, such as hardware or software tokens.

Something You Are. I’ve spent…a long time with this factor, since this is the factor that includes biometrics modalities (finger, face, iris, DNA, voice, vein, etc.). It also includes behavioral biometrics, provided that they are truly behavioral and relatively static.

Something You Do. The Cybersecurity Man chose to explain this in a non-behavioral fashion, such as using swiping patterns to unlock a device. This is different from something such as gait recognition, which supposedly remains constant and is thus classified as behavioral biometrics.

Somewhere You Are. This is an emerging factor, as smartphones become more and more prevalent and locations are therefore easier to capture. Even then, however, precision isn’t always as good as we want it to be. For example, when you and a few hundred of your closest friends have illegally entered the U.S. Capitol, you can’t use geolocation alone to determine who exactly is in Speaker Pelosi’s office.

From https://bredemarket.com/2021/03/02/the-five-authentication-factors/

(By the way, if you search the series of tubes for reading material on authentication factors, you’ll find a lot of references to only three authentication factors, including references from some very respectable sources. Those sources are only 60% right, since they leave off the final two factors I listed above. It’s five factors of authentication, folks. Maybe.)

The one striking thing about the five factors is that while they can all be used to authenticate (and verify) identities, they are inherently different from one another. The ridges of my fingerprint bear no relation to my 16 character password, nor do they bear any relation to my driver’s license. These differences are critical, as we shall see.

What is a modality?

In identity usage, a modality refers to different variations of the same factor. This is most commonly used with the “something you are” (biometric) factor, but it doesn’t have to be.

Biometric modalities

The identity company Aware, which offers multiple biometric solutions, spent some time discussing several different biometric modalities.

[M]any businesses and individuals (are adopting) biometric authentication as it been established as the most secure authentication method surpassing passwords and pins. There are many modalities of biometric authentication to pick from, but which method is the best?  

From https://www.aware.com/blog-which-biometric-authentication-method-is-the-best/

After looking at fingerprints, faces, voices, and irises, Aware basically answered its “best” question by concluding “it depends.” Different modalities have their own strengths and weaknesses, depending upon the use case. (If you wear thick gloves as part of your daily work, forget about fingerprints.)

ID R&D goes a step further and argues that it’s best to use multimodal biometrics, in which the two biometrics are face and voice. (By an amazing coincidence, ID R&D offers face and voice solutions.)

And there are many other biometric modalities.

From Sandeep Kumar, A. Sony, Rahul Hooda, Yashpal Singh, in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education | Multidisciplinary Academic Research, “Multimodal Biometric Authentication System for Automatic Certificate Generation.”

Non-biometric modalities

But the word “modalities” is not reserved for biometrics alone. The scientific paper “Multimodal User Authentication in Smart Environments: Survey of User Attitudes,” just released in May, includes this image that lists various modalities. As you can see, two of the modalities are not like the others.

From Aloba, Aishat & Morrison-Smith, Sarah & Richlen, Aaliyah & Suarez, Kimberly & Chen, Yu-Peng & Ruiz, Jaime & Anthony, Lisa. (2023). Multimodal User Authentication in Smart Environments: Survey of User Attitudes. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
  • The three modalities in the middle—face, voice, and fingerprint—are all clearly biometric “something you are” modalities.
  • But the modality on the left, “Make a body movement in front of the camera,” is not a biometric modality (despite its reference to the body), but is an example of “something you do.”
  • Passwords, of course, are “something you know.”

In fact, each authentication factor has multiple modalities.

  • For example, a few of the modalities associated with “something you have” include driver’s licenses, passports, hardware tokens, and even smartphones.

Why multifactor is (usually) more robust than multimodal

Modalities within a single authentication factor are more closely related than modalities within multiple authentication factors. As I mentioned above when talking about factors, there is no relationship between my fingerprint, my password, and my driver’s license. However, there is SOME relationship between my driver’s license and my passport, since the two share some common information such as my legal name and my date of birth.

What does this mean?

  • If I’ve fraudulently created a fake driver’s license in your name, I already have some of the information that I need to create a fake passport in your name.
  • If I’ve fraudulently created a fake iris, there’s a chance that I might already have some of the information that I need to create a fake face.
  • However, if I’ve bought your Coinbase password on the dark web, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I was able to also buy your passport information on the dark web (although it is possible).

Therefore, while multimodal authentication is better tha unimodal authentication, multifactor authentication is usually better still (unless, as Incode Technologies notes, one of the factors is really, really weak).

Can an identity content marketing expert help you navigate these issues?

As you can see, you need to be very careful when writing about modalities and factors.

You need a biometric content marketing expert who has worked with many of these modalities.

Actually, you need an identity content marketing expert who has worked with many of these factors.

So if you are with an identity company and need to write a blog post, LinkedIn article, white paper, or other piece of content that touches on multifactor and multimodal issues, why not engage with Bredemarket to help you out?

If you’re interested in receiving my help with your identity written content, contact me.

Three Levels of Engagement With Your Content Creator

(This post addresses something that I already announced last week to the Bredemarket mailing list. If you are already subscribed to the mailing list, then you can skip this post. If not, (1) subscribe via the http://eepurl.com/hdHIaT link, and (2) read the post below to catch up on what you missed last week.)

There are three ways that your firm can engage with your content creator.

  • On one extreme, your firm can hire the content creator as a full-time employee. This gives you the benefit of content creator availability at any time (or at least during office hours; don’t make TOO many 3:00 am calls to your employees).
  • On the other extreme, your firm can contract with the content creator for a single project. Maybe a blog post. Maybe a white paper. Maybe a tweet. Maybe a proposal responding to a Request for Proposal (RFP).

These extremes satisfy most firms. But a few firms—perhaps yours—need something between these two extremes.

The Drawbacks of Per-Project Content Creation

There are three potential issues with engaging content creators on a per-project basis.

  1. The first issue is work flexibility. If you engage a content creator to write a blog post for you, you get that work done easily. But when you need something else, you need to re-engage the content creator under a separate project.
  2. The second issue is budget predictability. Sure, only engaging content creators on a project-by-project basis helps you save costs (to some extent), but it’s very hard to predict what your future costs will be. Do you think you’ll need two new white papers four months from now, or five months from now.
  3. The third issue is consultant accessibility. You may approach a content creator for a project that you need, only to find that the content creator is completely booked for the next few weeks.

Is there a way to ensure work flexibility, budget predictability, and consultant accessibility—short of hiring the consultant as a full-time employee?

Announcing the Bredemarket 4444 Partner Retainer

My new offering, announced last week to the Bredemarket mailing list, is a retainer offering that allows you to use Bredemarket for ANY writing task, up to a set number of hours per month. In effect, I’m embedded in your organization to serve you as needed.

By Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel – [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2407244

Within the hours you select in the partner retainer contract, Bredemarket can create any content you need—blogs, case studies / testimonials, data sheets, e-books, proposals, social media posts / Xs (or whatever tweets are called today), white papers, or anything.

In addition, the retainer hours are discounted from my usual rate, so you save money that you would have spent if you contracted with me separately for multiple projects.

How can you learn more?

To learn more how the Bredemarket 4444 Partner Retainer works,

  1. Visit the Bredemarket 4444 Partner Retainer page.
  2. Download the brochure at the end of this post.

And if you have questions on any other matter:

Bredemarket 4444 Partner Retainer (August 2023)Download

Is the Funnel Consideration Phase Quantitative or Qualitative?

From Venn Marketing, “Awareness, Consideration, Conversion: A 4 Minute Intro To Marketing 101.” (Link)

The picture above shows a simple sales funnel example. The second of the three items in the funnel is the “consideration” phase.

  • In that phase, those people who are aware of you can then consider your products and services.
  • If they like what they see, they move on to conversion and hopefully buy your products and services.

But how do prospects in the funnel consideration phase evaluate your offering as opposed to competitor offerings? Is it truly a quantitative and logical process, or is it in reality qualitative and emotional?

Quantitative consideration

For purposes of this post, let’s assume that there are two competing companies, Bredemarket and Debamarket, who are fighting each other for business.

OK, maybe not literally. I have never boxed in my life. By Royal Navy official photographer – http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//31/media-31189/large.jpg This photograph A 29806 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25124750

Second, let’s assume that Bredemarket and Debamarket offer similar services to their prospects and customers:

  • Blog posts
  • Case studies
  • White papers

Finally, let’s assume that a big government agency (the BGA) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for blog/case study/white paper services, and Bredemarket and Debamarket are the two companies competing for the award.

Source selection

Now I’m not a big-time pre-acquisition consultant like Applied Forensic Services, but I’ve been around long enough to know how pre-acquisition consultants work—especially when working with big government agencies like BGA.

A pre-acquisition consultant will develop a Source Selection Plan (SSP). In competitive procurements such as the one in this example, the SSP will state exactly how proposals will be evaluated, and how the best proposal will be selected.

Here is the U.S. Government’s guidance on Source Selection Plans. (link)

SSPs can be very complex for certain opportunities, and not so complex for others. In all cases, the SSP dictates the evaluation criteria used to select the best vendor.

Michael Ropp of RFP360 has published a very simple example of how a particular group of proposal responses may be evaluated.

The weighted scoring approach breaks down your RFP evaluation criteria and assigns a value to each question or section. For example, your RFP criteria may consider questions of technical expertise, capabilities, data security, HR policies and diversity and sustainability. Weighted scoring prioritizes the criteria that are most important to your business by assigning them a point or percentage value. So your weighted scoring criteria may look like this: 

  • Technical expertise – 25%
  • Capabilities – 40%
  • Data security – 10%
  • HR policies – 10%
  • Diversity and sustainability – 15%
RFP360, “A guide to RFP evaluation criteria: Basics, tips and examples.” (Link)

Individual question evaluation

In most cases the evaluator doesn’t look at the entire technical expertise section and give it a single score. In large RFPs, the technical expertise section may consist of 96 questions (or even 960 questions), each of which is evaluated and fed into the total technical expertise score.

For example, the RFP may include a question such as this one, and the responses from the bidders (Bredemarket and Debamarket) are evaluated.

QuestionBredemarketDebamarket
96. The completed blog post shall include no references to 1960s songs.0.8 points awarded.

While many Bredemarket blog posts comply, “How Remote Work Preserves Your Brain” does not.		1.0 points awarded.

Debamarket fully complies.
Example evaluation of a proposal response to an individual RFP question.

Final quantitative recommendation for award

Now repeat this evaluation method for every RFP question in every RFP category and you end up with a report in which one of the vendors receives more points than the other and is clearly the preferred bidder. Here’s an example from a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposal source selection process. (And you can bet that a nuclear agency doesn’t use an evaluation method that is, um, haphazard.)

From U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “FINAL EVALUATION RECOMMENDATION REPORT FOR
PROPOSALS SUBMITTED UNDER RFP NO. RQ-CIO-01-0290
ENTITLED, “INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES AND SUPPORT
CONTRACT (ISSC).”” (link)

So what does this example show us? It shows that L-3 Communications/EER received a total score of 83.8, while its closest competitor Logicon only received a score of 80. So EER is the preferred bidder.

So in our example, BGA would evaluate Bredemarket and Debamarket, come up with a number for each bidder, and award the contract to the bidder with the highest evaluation score.

Quantitative recommendation for the little guys

Perhaps people who aren’t big government agencies don’t go to this level of detail, but many prospects who reach the consideration phase use some type of quantitative method.

For example, if the (non-weighted) pros for an item under consideration outnumber the cons, go for it.

“What are Pro and Con Lists?” (link)

Five pros and only three cons. Do it!

All quantative, objective, and straightforward.

If people really evaluate that way.

But is consideration quantitative?

Now of course the discussion above assumes that everyone is a logical being who solely evaluates based on objective criteria.

But even Sages such as myself may deviate from the objective norm. Here’s a story of one time when I did just that.

As I previously mentioned, I had never written a proposal response before I started consulting for Printrak. But I had written a Request for Proposal before I joined Printrak. For a prior employer (located in Monterey Park), I worked with an outside consultant to develop an RFP to help my employer select a vendor for a computer system. The questions posed to the bidders were not complex. Frankly, it was a simple checklist. Does your computer system perform function A? Does it perform function B?

The outside consultant and I sent the final RFP to several computer system providers, and received several proposals in response.

  • A few of the proposals checked every box, saying that they could do anything and everything. We threw those proposals out, because we knew that no one could meet every one of our demanding requirements. (“I can’t trust that response.”)
  • We focused on the proposals that included more realistic responses. (“That respondent really thought about the questions.”)

As you can see, we introduced a qualitative, emotional element into our consideration phase.

According to Kaye Putnam, this is not uncommon.

Qualitative consideration

Humans think that we are very logical when we consider alternatives, and that our consideration processes are logical and quantitative. Putnam has looked into this assertion and says that it’s hogwash. Take a look at this excerpt from Putnam’s first brand psychology secret:

Your brand has to meet people at that emotional level – if you want them to buy. (And I know you do!)  

Findings from several studies support this, but one of the most seminal was outlined in Harvard professor Gerald Zellman’s 2003 book, The Subconscious Mind of the Consumer. Zellman’s research and learnings prompted him to come to the industry-rocking conclusion that, “95 percent of our purchase decision making takes place in the subconscious mind.”

From Kaye Putnam, “7 Brand Psychology Secrets – Revealed!” (link)

But how can the subconscious mind affect quantitative evaluations?

While logic still has to play SOME role in a purchase decision (as Putnam further explains in her first and second brand psychology secrets), a positive or negative predisposition toward a bidder can influence the quantitative scores.

Imagine if the evaluators got together and discussed the Bredmarket and Debamarket responses to question 96, above. The back and forth between the evaluators may sound like this:

  • “OK, we’re up to question 96. That’s a no brainer, because no one would ever put song references in a BGA blog post.”
  • “Yeah, but did you see Bredemarket’s own post that has multiple references to the song ‘Dead Man’s Curve’?”
  • “So what? Bredemarket would never do that when writing for a government agency. That piece was solely for Bredemarket.”
  • “How do you KNOW that Bredemarket would never slip a song reference into a BGA post? You know, I really don’t trust that guy. He wore two different colored shoes to the orals presentation, a brown one and a black one. Someone as slopy as that could do anything, with huge consequences for BGA communications. I’m deducting points from Bredemarket for question 96.”
  • “OK. I think you’re being ridiculous, but if you say so.”

And just like that, your quantitative logical consideration process is exposed as a bunch of subconscious emotional feelings.

How does qualitative consideration affect you?

As you develop your collateral for the consideration phase, you need to go beyond logic (even if you have a Sage predisposition) and speak to the needs and pain points of your prospects.

Yes, pain.

Spock is behaving illogically. Jayenkai, “Pain – Star Trek Remix.” (link)

Here’s a example from my law enforcement automated fingerprint identificaiton system (AFIS) days.

  • If your prospect is a police chief who is sick and tired of burglars ransacking homes and causing problems for the police department, don’t tell your prospect about your AFIS image detail or independent accuracy testing results. After all, 1000 ppi and 99.967 accuracy are only numbers.
  • Provide the police chief with customer-focused benefit statements about how quickly your AFIS will clean up the burglary problem in the town, giving residents peace of mind and the police department less stress.

If you can appeal to those emotions, that police chief will consider you more highly and move on to conversion (purchase).

Can I help?

If your messaging concentrates on things your prospects don’t care about, most of them will ignore you and not shower you with money. Using the wrong words with your customers impacts your livelihood, and may leave you poor and destitute with few possessions.

Remember what I said about pain points? By Unknown author – Library of Congress[1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6237178

If you need a writer to work with you to ensure that your written content includes the right words that speak directly to your prospects, hire…Debamarket!

Oh wait. Debamarket is fictional.

OK, talk to Bredemarket then.

Awareness Calls to Action

Blog posts are transitory things, reflecting the views of the author at a particular point in time. Those views can change as the world evolves, or as the author evolves.

Take the author who wrote the following statement in late 2022: “Posts for awareness don’t need CTAs (calls to action).”

The author who wrote that statement was…um, it was me.

Can I get a re-do on that one?

What I said in December 2022

The quoted statement above is from a section in the December 2022 blog post “Does Every Blog Post Need a Call to Action?“

Incidentally, I still believe that you don’t need a call to action in EVERY blog post.

Some will argue, “Well then why did you write it?”

To answer that, here’s some of what I said in that December 2022 blog post.

Candy Street Market, 110 W Holt, Ontario, California

Take my post from last Saturday, “Candy Street Market is coming.”

This post simply talked about a new candy store in Ontario, California, but never talked about Bredemarket’s content creation or proposal writing services.

So why did I write a post that doesn’t directly lead to business?

For the awareness….

(I) am concentrating more on serving local firms in California’s Inland Empire….But the locals need to know that I’m here.

From https://bredemarket.com/2022/12/04/does-every-blog-post-need-a-call-to-action/

What I’m saying in July 2023

While perhaps it’s valid to say that the Candy Street Market blog post didn’t need a CTA (although some would dispute that), I myself have written other “awareness” blog posts and content that DID need a CTA.

(UPDATE OCTOBER 23, 2023: “SIX QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU IS SO 2022. DOWNLOAD THE NEWER “SEVEN QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU” HERE.)

For example, take another blog post that I wrote in December 2022, “Six Questions Your Content Creator Should Ask You: the e-book version.” It didn’t end with a request to contact me. It didn’t attempt to move the reader down the funnel from awareness to consideration. The blog post merely said that there are six questions.

But it did have a “download” CTA.

While the CTA didn’t in and of itself move the reader to consideration (and hopefully to conversion), it did make them, um, more aware. For those who followed my CTA and downloaded the e-book, they learned why their content creator should ask “why” and other questions. And by the time they got to page 13 14, they saw this:

For some of you, this e-book has helped you to decide on the questions that you will ask your preferred content creator, or the questions that you will ask yourself before you create your own content.

But for others, you might be asking how Bredemarket can help you create content. As I said earlier, you’re probably not ready to contract with me yet. We have to talk first.

If you’re interested in Bredemarket’s services, contact me via one of the methods listed at the https://bredemarket.com/contact/ URL.

From “Six Questions Your Content Creator Should Ask You.” Go here to download.

So THAT’S where I moved the reader on to the consideration phase—AFTER they had read the blog post AND the e-book.

But while they were still on the blog post, I assumed they were still in the awareness phase.

By Steve simple – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7749648

Summing up

Here’s the TL;DR version:

  • The Candy Street blog post was an awareness blog post that didn’t need a Bredemarket-focused CTA, because it only alerted people of Bredemarket’s existence.
  • The Six Questions e-book blog post was an awareness blog post that DID need a Bredemarket-focused CTA, because I wanted them to download and read the e-book and THEN move on to consideration.
  • I’m going to update the old blog/CTA blog post to refer to THIS one.
  • I may change my mind again.

As for the CTA to THIS blog post, there isn’t one—yet. This post was written for a purpose that I will reveal shortly.

Which Content Should You Create First?

So you’ve decided that you are going to create some content for your business. But which content type should you create first? Audio? Blog post? Case study? Social media post? White paper? Video? Something else?

Designed by Freepik.

Now I could charge you $96.96 and present a really complex 96-step way to choose the appropriate content to create for your specific needs.

(A few of you see what I did there. That probably doesn’t help my so-called problem.)

But coming up with a complex content creation matrix is silly, because selecting a content type isn’t that hard. (This post does have a content creation matrix, but it’s easy to understand and pretty straightforward.)

The first question

What is the first question you have to answer before deciding which content to create?

First, you need to look at your online presence and see which outlets you have, and which ones you don’t have.

  • Do you have a website?
  • Do you have a blog?
  • Do you have social media accounts? If so, which ones, and which types of content do they support? (Threads, for example, supports text, image, audio, and video content.)

If you don’t have a certain outlet, then that makes your decision a lot easier.

  • For example, if you have social media outlets but don’t have a blog, then don’t worry about creating blog posts (unless you have LinkedIn and want to create LinkedIn articles). You’re not going to create blog posts on Instagram or Threads or Twitter (unless you’re a blue check person).
  • Similarly, if you’re not on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, videos are less important. (Although a lot of services support video.)

Create content for your outlet(s)

So now that you know which content outlets you have, and which you don’t, you can create content that is supported by your outlets.

Here’s a handy-dandy table that suggests the content types you can create, depending upon your online presence. These are suggestions, not hard and fast rules.

Content TypeWebsiteBlogSocial Media With AudioSocial Media With ImagesSocial Media With TextSocial Media With Video
AudioYes
BlogYes
Case StudyDownload
Social Media PostYesYesYesYes
VideoYes
White PaperDownload

Some of these are fairly obvious (yes, if you have a blog you can create blog posts), but it helps to say them.

Don’t worry about the content outlets that you don’t have. If you don’t have a blog today, don’t worry about creating one just so you can write blogs. Go with what you have.

(And if you don’t have ANYTHING right now to promote your business, then the easiest thing to do is to create some type of social media account: Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever. They’re free, and it’s easy to create content for them.)

As I said above, these are suggestions, not hard and fast rules. For example, the table above says that case studies and white papers are best if you have a website from which prospects can download documents. But some social media services allow you to embed documents (such as case studies or white papers) into your social media posts.

Think about what you’ve got, and create for it.

Repurpose

And once you’ve created the content, don’t be afraid to distribute it on other channels, or even to repurpose it on other channels.

  • Have you uploaded a great video to YouTube? Embed the video in a blog post.
  • Did you write a great blog post? Repurpose it as a downloadable document. (That’s what I did.)

You may choose to only issue a specific piece of content using a single content type. But if you feel like repurposing the material for other content types, go for it.

Don’t be afraid to fail

Finally, don’t be afraid to create content, even if it’s not perfect. I’ve (re)committed myself to video, and spent yesterday creating multiple videos for multiple outlets. Two of the videos that I created ended up having problems…but I left them up anyway, and learned in the process.

I figure that the more content that I create, the better that I will get at it.

You will find that the same holds true for you.

Do you need help with textual content?

Now when you are ready to create content, do you need someone to help you create it?

I can help you with certain types of content.

(Not video. If you need a video pro, contact Loren Feldman at 1938 Media.)

But if you need help with the text for blog posts, case studies, white papers, and the like, I can help you. Especially if your text involves biometrics, identity, or technology. Contact me!

Which Content Should You Create First? (the video version)