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If you want me to create yours, talk to me. https://bredemarket.com/mark/
(Grok)
Tag Archives: content marketing expert
The Wildebeest Obviously Needs a Snack
It’s time for my (usually) once-a-month edition of Bredemarket’s LinkedIn newsletter, “The Wildebeest Speaks.”
And I revisited a topic that I originally visited in December 2023, but hopefully with a new perspective.
Go to LinkedIn and read the latest edition of my newsletter, “Who Are Your Hungry People?” It is at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-your-hungry-people-bredemarket-xiafc/
The Silent Type
“It’s OK. The competitor isn’t talking, so we can say anything we want.”
But what if “the competitor”…is YOU?
Get in the content conversation: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/
(Imagen 3)
How Do You Maximize Impact For the RIGHT Awareness?
It’s not enough for your company’s prospects to know who you are, but it helps. But you can do more than that…with Bredemarket’s help.
Who are you?
I just searched for the leading software providers in a particular category. This isn’t unusual. If someone wants to purchase software, they will often conduct their own research before letting themselves be pestered by salespeople.
My category search turned up several software packages.
It DIDN’T turn up numerous others in that category.
So a whole bunch of companies are already at a disadvantage, and there’s a good chance that their competitors are going to take their money because the software buyer won’t even think of purchasing from them.
The software buyer has no AWARENESS of these other software packages.
The Bredemarket website has an entire page on awareness, in which I make the following point:
“Two discussions of this three-step sales funnel are provided by Venn Marketing and Walker Sands (the latter of whom throws in things that happen AFTER the purchase, engagement and advocacy).
“Both sources define awareness as the first step in the funnel, and its purpose is to (drumroll) simply make prospects, um, aware that you and your product/service exist.”
Obviously there are other things you need to do to end up with a happy customer, but you’ll never get a happy customer if it doesn’t even know about you during the prospect stage.
Awareness of what?
Now there are all sorts of ways to raise awareness, but some are better than others.
- I previously linked to the story of Beatrice’s rise and fall, in which the fall was illustrated by the infamous “We’re Beatrice” campaign. The tagline? “We’re Beatrice.” What did the tagline mean to prospects? Absolutely nothing.
- I knew of another company that was slightly more successful, but not much. Instead of saying “We’re (COMPANY NAME),” they loudly proclaimed “We’re a Unicorn.” This was back during one of the periods of heated market acquisitions. But what difference did the company’s unicorn status mean for its prospects? Not much. If you’ve raised a billion dollars, I only care if you promise to give me a couple of million of it.
- Here in Southern California, Honda car dealers have banded together to produce ads about the “helpful Honda people.” Unfortunately, the ads have nothing to do with cars, the products these commercials are supposed to be selling. What difference does a Honda dealer’s helpfulness make? Unless your cat is stuck in a tree, not much.
It’s not enough for your company’s prospects to have awareness about you. They need to have awareness about how you can solve their problems.
Only then will you make an impact.
Raising awareness
Perhaps your company needs to raise awareness of your solutions to your prospects’ problems.
Bredemarket can work with you on this, asking questions and even engaging in…um…WOMBAT to produce impactful content for your company and its products and services.
So that your prospects know about you.
Then we can work on the next steps, consideration and conversation.
Book a free appointment to talk to me: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/
(All pictures from Imagen 3)
Five Musical Facts, Two Musical Opinions, and What This Has To Do With Collaboration
I’m a member of a local Facebook “news” group, and the group just emphatically stated that expression of opinions is NOT allowed in that group.
Because facts are free of bias. (Supposedly. I should address that topic in another post.)
Because this post includes two contentious opinions, it’s no surprise that I will NEVER share this post in that local news group. Their loss.
Actually the post is off-topic for the news group anyway. But as you will see, it is entirely on-topic for Bredemarket. I’ll explain, after I discuss a couple of songs and their singers.
Two Facts and One Opinion About “Girl from the North Country”
“Girl from the North Country” is a Bob Dylan song, which he started writing in 1962 while in England. The song was recorded in New York in 1963 and released that same year on the album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.”
But I don’t care about THAT version of the song.
I care about Dylan’s cover of his own song, released several years later on the 1969 album “Nashville Skyline.” But Dylan had a special guest on this album: Johnny Cash.
Here are two facts about the 1969 version:
- Bob Dylan has a distinctive voice.
- Johnny Cash has a distinctive voice.
These are facts, not opinions, since I am not casting a value judgement on whether they are any good at singing. For the record, I love Bob Dylan’s solo songs, and I love Johnny Cash’s solo songs.
Now my opinion: the 1969 version of “Girl from the North Country” is an unmitigated disaster, because the distinctive voices do not blend at all.
If you’ve never heard this version of the song, let me provide a play-by-play account.
- The song begins with Dylan and Cash strumming their guitars, accompanied by a backing band of Nashville stars. (Not Starrs.)
- Dylan then sings the first verse, in a lower key than his original version, and the listeners were introduced to the newest version of Bob Dylan. Shed of a rock band, he has not returned to his early folk days, but appears in a new version of a peaceful, satisfied country crooner. More versions of Dylan were to follow.
- Then we get the second verse, in which Johnny Cash picks up the story about the girl. Cash himself appears in a new guise, having moved beyond the Memphis rockabilly sound and the horn-infused “Ring of Fire” sound. Cash now entered a period in which he associated with people such as Dylan who were leap years away from both traditional country and the newer countrypolitan sound. Cash, like Dylan, would continue to travel all over the musical map, gaining fame at the end of his life by covering Nine Inch Nails.
- Back to 1969. After Cash sings the second verse, Dylan returns to sing the third. Everything is going fine so far.
Then (again, in my opinion) all hell breaks loose at the 1:52 mark in the song, because now the two sing together.
Sort of.
Cash starts singing the fourth verse, Dylan joins in a second later, and then they kinda sorta sing the words of the fourth and fifth verses at kinda sorta the same time, with some harmonizing—some intentional, some unintentional when they couldn’t hit the notes. Hear the result on YouTube.
Now I will admit that my negative opinion of the Dylan-Cash duet on “Girl of the North Country” is not universal. A high school friend who shall remain anonymous (just call her “Editor Extraordinaire” and old school Rick Dees fan) thinks this version is charming. I find it amusing in a not-so-good way.
As far as I’m concerned, this collaboration didn’t work.
Which brings us to Christina Aguilera.
Three Facts and One Opinion About “Birds of Prey”
In 2010 Aguilera released her sixth album, “Bionic,” a massive 18-track album featuring a more electronic sound and numerous collaborations with Nicki Minaj, Sia, Linda Perry, and others.
But I don’t care about THAT version of the album.
I care about the Deluxe edition, with an even more massive total of 23 tracks.
One of which was co-written and produced by the (then) four members of the UK band Ladytron. As OC Weekly (R.I.P.) documented at the time, Aguilera was a fan of the quartet:
Ladytron followers were startled to learn that Christina Aguilera was not only a fan, but had also already worked with the band on a variety of songs to be released in the near future.
“We went in with no expectations; the whole thing was a massive surprise,” explains Wu. “But it was incredible. She was so musically talented, a vocalist who really knows her voice. The first takes sounded really amazing, and while we’d made demos, it was only when her voice was on them that it all came to life.
One of the songs was “Birds of Prey.” Not to be confused with “Bird of Prey” or “Sunset (Bird of Prey),” the Aguilera-Ladytron version builds upon the usual Ladytron vocal delivery from Helen Marine and Mira Aroyo by adding Christina Aguilera to the mix.
Which brings me to my three facts about this song:
- Christina Aguilera has a distinctive voice, with a four-octave range that she frequently exercises to the fullest.
- Helen Marnie has a distinctive voice, featured as the light “singing voice” of Ladytron.
- Mira Aroyo has a distinctive voice, whose spoken word delivery blends with Marnie’s in many classic Ladytron songs. (For example, “Seventeen.”)
In my opinion, this vocal collaboration—unlike the Dylan-Cash one mentioned earlier—works out beautifully. Aguilera naturally opens the song (it’s her album after all), but as the song progresses you hear Marnie lightly chiming in and Aroyo whispering, building up to the closing of the song. Hear it here.
Again, this opinion is not universal—Aroyo in particular is an acquired taste—but the combination seems to work.
But what do “Girl from the North Country” and “Birds of Prey” have to do with B2B sales—whoops, I mean collaboration? And Bredemarket?
The art of collaboration
Bredemarket’s services are built upon the principle that I work together with my clients. My process includes a lot of references to “Bredemarket and you,” because we are both involved in every step, from the seven questions I address at the beginning to the iterative drafts and reviews that occur throughout.
In effect, we both co-pilot the content.
But that isn’t the only way to manage a project, as I noted in June 2023. There are two others.
The first approach is to yield all control to the expert. You sit back, relax, and tell your content marketing consultant to do whatever they want. They provide the text, and you pay the consultant with no questions asked. The content marketing consultant is the pilot here.
The second approach is to retain all control yourself. You tell the content marketing consultant exactly what you want, and exactly what words to say to describe your best-of-breed, game-changing, paradigm-shifting, outcome-optimizing solution. (That last sentence was painful to write, but I did it for you.) The content marketing consultant follows your exact commands and produces the copy with the exact words you want. You are the pilot here.
So which of these two methods is the best way to create content?
As far as I’m concerned, neither of them.
So if you are ready to collaborate on content, learn about Bredemarket’s “CPA” (content-proposal-analysis) services.
You can be Christina if you like.
Repurpose Intelligently
The wildebeest speaks all over the place.
Repurpose intelligently.
If you need help generating content for your company’s blog and social channels, Bredemarket can help.
Justin Welsh on Being Boring
(Imagen 3)
I’m not the only one who grips my keyboard. On Saturday, Justin Welsh wrote “The hidden power of being boring.” Excerpt:
If you ask me, success isn’t about unlocking secrets — it’s about doing the boring stuff, day in and day out….
I write. I write every single day. Even when I don’t feel inspired. Even when nobody seems to care. And even when it feels like I’m talking to an empty room. I’ve now written for over 2,100 consecutive days without missing.
But of course, that’s not what people want to hear.
Tomorrow
Bredemarket offers marketing and writing services to firms who need help, or who don’t have the time to craft their own content.
Talk to Bredemarket…today! Visit https://bredemarket.com/contact/ or https://calendly.com/bredemarket.
Are Your Prospects Invisible?
Maximizing Event ROI with the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service
When your company attends events, you’ll want to maximize your event return on investment (ROI) by creating marketing content that you publish before, during, and after the event.
This is how you do it.
Including:
- The three keys to creating event content.
- How Bredemarket’s service can help you create all the event content you need.
- The two things (first, second) you need to do NOW, well before your event.
And I’ll spill a couple of secrets along the way.
The first secret (about events)
I’m going to share two secrets in this post. OK, maybe they’re not that secret, but you’d think they ARE secrets because no one acknowledges them.
The first one has to do with event attendance. You personally might be awed and amazed when you’re in the middle of an event and surrounded by hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of people. All of whom are admiring your exhibit booth or listening to your CEO speak.
But guess what?
Many, many more people are NOT at the event.
They can’t see your exhibit booth, and can’t hear your speaker. They’re on the outside, TRYING to look in.
And all the money you spent on booth space and travel and light-up pens does NOTHING for the people who aren’t there…
Unless you bring the event to them. Your online content can bring the event to people who were never there.
But you need to plan, create, and approve your content before, during, and after the event. Here’s how you do that.
Three keys to creating event-related content
Yes, you can just show up at an event, take some pictures, and call it a day. But if you want to maximize your event return on investment, you’ll be a bit more deliberate in executive your event content. Ideally you should be:
Planning your event content
Before the event begins, you need to plan your content. While you can certainly create some content on a whim as opportunity strikes, you need to have a basic idea of what content you plan to create.
- Before the event. Why should your prospects and customers care about the event? How will you get prospects and customers to attend the event? What will attendees and non-attendees learn from the event?
- During the event. What event activities require content generation? Who will cover them? How will you share the content?
- After the event. What lessons were learned? How will your prospects and customers benefit from the topics covered at the event? Why should your prospects buy the product you showcased at the event?
Creating your event content
Once you have planned what you want to do, you need to do it. Before, during, and after the event, you may want to create the following types of content:
- Blog posts. These can announce your attendance at the event before it happens, significant goings-on at the event (such as your CEO’s keynote speech or the evening party launching your new product), or lessons learned from the event (what your CEO’s speech or your new product means for your prospects and clients). Blog posts can be created relatively quickly (though not as quick as some social media posts), and definitely benefit your bottom line.
- Social media. Social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn can also be used before, during, and after the event. Social media excels at capturing the atmosphere of the event, as well as significant activities. When done right, it lets people experience the event who were never there.
- E-mails. Don’t forget about e-mails before, during, and after the event. I forgot about e-mails once and paid the price. I attended an event but neglected to tell my e-mail subscribers that I was going to be there. When I got to the event, I realized that hardly any of the attendees understood the product I was offering, and were not the people who were hungry for my product. If I had stocked the event with people from my e-mail list, the event would have been more productive for me.
- Data sheets. Are you announcing a new product at an event? Have the data sheet ready.
- Demonstration scripts. Are you demonstrating a new or existing product at the event? Script out your demonstration so that your demonstrators start with the same content and make the points YOU want them to make.
- Case studies and white papers. While these usually come into play after the event, you may want to release an appropriate case study or white paper before or during the event, tied to the event topic. Are you introducing a new product at an industry conference? Time your product-related white paper for release during the conference. And promote the white paper with blog posts, social media, and e-mails.
- Other types of content. There are many other types of content that you can release before, during, or after an event. Here’s a list of them.
Approving your event content
Make sure that your content approval process is geared for the fast-paced nature of events. I can’t share details, but:
- If your content approval process requires 24 hours, then you can kiss on-site event coverage goodbye. What’s the point in covering your CEO’s Monday 10:00 keynote speech if the content doesn’t appear until 11:00…on Tuesday?
- If your content approval process doesn’t have a timeline, then you can kiss ALL event coverage goodbye. There have been several times when I’ve written blog posts announcing my company’s attendance at an event…and the blog posts weren’t approved until AFTER the event was already over. I salvaged the blog posts via massive rewrites.
So how are you going to generate all this content? This brings us to my proposed solution…and the second secret.
The second secret (about Bredemarket’s service)
The rest of this post talks about one of Bredemarket’s services, the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service. For those who haven’t heard about it, it’s a service where I provide between 2,800 and 3,200 words of written text.
“But John,” you’re asking. “How is a single block of 3,200 words of text going to help me with my event marketing?”
Time to reveal the second secret…
You can break up those 3,200 words any way you like.
For example, let’s say that you’re planning on attending an event. You could break the text up as follows:
- One 500-word blog post annnouncing your attendance at the event.
- Three 100-word social media posts before the event.
- One 500-word blog post as the event begins.
- One 300-word product data sheet prepared before the event and released on the second day of the event.
- One 500-word blog post announcing the new product.
- Three 100-word social media posts tied to the new product announcement.
- One 500-word post-event blog post with lessons learned.
- Three 100-word social media posts after the event.
For $2,000 (as of June 2024), you can benefit from written text for complete event coverage, arranged in any way you need.
So how can you and your company receive these benefits?
Read about the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service
First, read the data sheet for the Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service so you understand the offer and process.
Contact Bredemarket…now
Second, contact Bredemarket to get the content process started well BEFORE your event. Book a meeting with me at calendly.com/bredemarket. Be sure to fill out the information form so I can best help you.
Alternatively, you can
- Email me at john.bredehoft@bredemarket.com.
- Contact me at bredemarket.com/contact/.
But don’t wait. If your event is in September…don’t contact me in October.
Bredemarket 