“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)
Tag Archives: content marketing
RACI WOMBAT Talk
Earlier this month I posted a revelation:
I don’t want to reveal Bredemarket’s secret process, so I’m just going to call it WOMBAT. Not that WOMBAT is unique to Bredemarket; far from it. Many companies use WOMBAT.
And many companies don’t use WOMBAT. In fact, they abhor WOMBAT and call it stifling. (Emotion words. Geddit?)
But I’ve found over the years that if you don’t use WOMBAT, there’s a very good chance that you’ll break things.
And who catches hell? The consultant. “Why did you do what we asked you to do? Now look at the mess you made!”
So out of a sense of fear and self-preservation (geddit?), there are times that I’ve secretly used WOMBAT and not told my clients I’m doing it.
Well, I’m going to reveal one component of WOMBAT in this post because I’m surprised that I haven’t already discussed it.
But there’s a risk involved, because once I discuss this component, there are about five people in the world who will immediately know what my WOMBAT is. But luckily for me, none of them read the Bredemarket blog, so my secret is safe.
(Speaking of risk, the racy—not RACI—wombat image was created by Imagen 3.)
RACI
As some of you undoubtedly figured out, I’m going to discuss RACI: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
Assume for the moment that Bredemarket grows beyond its sole proprietorship origins and becomes a multinational employing thousands of people. At some point I’ll be sitting in my luxurious executive suite, nibbling on caviar, and I’ll bark out an order:
“Write a blog post about a wildebeest amusement park!”
Now the blog post won’t just magically happen. And because the fictional Bredemarket is a huge enterprise, it will take more than one person to make it so. Perhaps four, perhaps more, perhaps fewer. Here’s how Bob Kantor at CIO defines Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed:
Responsible: People or stakeholders who do the work. They must complete the task or objective or make the decision. Several people can be jointly Responsible.
Accountable: Person or stakeholder who is the “owner” of the work. He or she must sign off or approve when the task, objective or decision is complete. This person must make sure that responsibilities are assigned in the matrix for all related activities. Success requires that there is only one person Accountable, which means that “the buck stops there.”
Consulted: People or stakeholders who need to give input before the work can be done and signed-off on. These people are “in the loop” and active participants.
Informed: People or stakeholders who need to be kept “in the picture.” They need updates on progress or decisions, but they do not need to be formally consulted, nor do they contribute directly to the task or decision.
Personally, there may be cases when you only want a single person to be responsible for the work. But I agree that only one should be accountable.
Applying RACI
Using my ludicrous example, one (or more) people will be responsible for writing the wildebeest amusement park blog post, a single person (presumably one of my junior vice presidents) will be accountable for approving it, and various entities will be consulted for feedback (and, in the ideal world, may actually provide feedback). Then there are a few people who will be informed about the project, merely to roll their eyes at the whole thing.
Regardless of the process you institute, whether it is my super-secret WOMBAT process or something else, RACI responsibilities will help tremendously. Here’s another quote from Bob Kantor at CIO:
Having managed and rescued dozens of projects, and helped others do so, I’ve noted that there is always one critical success factor (CSF) that has either been effectively addressed or missed/messed up: clarity around the roles and responsibilities for each project participant and key stakeholder. No matter how detailed and complete a project plan may be for any project, confusion or omission of participant roles and responsibilities will cause major problems.
And some Accountable person approved what Kantor said.
Reapplying RACI
And this also affects Bredemarket’s content, proposal, and analysis work. For example, let’s look at the proposal that I recently helped a Bredemarket client win.
- Two of us were jointly responsible for completing and submitting the proposal: myself, and a person at the client company. Yes, I know what I just said about preferring that only one person be responsible, but the federal agency in question would not let me submit the proposal; someone from the client had to do it.
- This second person was the one who was accountable for the submission of the proposal.
- There were several people who were consulted regarding this proposal. I cannot reveal their roles, but let’s just say that all of them were…um…critically important.
- Then there were a few people here and there who were informed of the proposal progress.
Perhaps Bredemarket can work on a project with you. Let me know. https://bredemarket.com/cpa/
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)
CPA?
Compelling CONTENT Creation
Winning PROPOSAL Development
Actionable ANALYSIS
Bredemarket’s “CPA” marketing and writing consulting services for identity and technology firms.
Schedule a Free 30 minute content needs assessment:
Make an Impact!
The sequel to my “Impact?” short:
Make an impact with your technology company’s content, proposals, and analysis.
Work with Bredemarket to make it happen.
Bredemarket’s “CPA” page:
Impact?
Over Archetyping Your Brand
You’ve probably seen the joke posts in which someone details a stupid accomplishment, but for the LinkedIn audience.
The same holds true for brand archetypes. Whether your company is a sage, maverick, hero, or something else, you can easily go overboard in aligning with the archetype.
I asked generative AI to rewrite a piece of text for the sage archetype. After reading the result, I am now convinced that you should not only prohibit generative AI from writing the first draft, but you should also prevent it from writing the second.
Seriously.
“The wisdom of the Sage tells us that true strength lies in knowledge, not just its acquisition, but its unwavering protection.”
Um, no. I’m not going to sell security software like that.
But the exercise was not a complete failure. As I reviewed the non-person entity output, I found one word that I liked.
One word.
Which is better than no words at all.
But if you want words for human beings, let me know.
(Images from Imagen 3)
On Marketing Personas
(Imagen 3)
Marketing personas are like NIST biometric tests.
They’re not real.
Use them with caution.
This part isn’t in the video:
Yes, I know that marketing personas are representations of your hungry people (target audience) that wonderfully focus the mind on the people interested in your product or service. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, a software purchase is not greatly influenced by a non-person entity’s go-to coffee shop order.
Or whether the purchasing manager is 28 or 68.
So don’t go overboard in persona development.
That is all.
Except for the Bredemarket content-proposal-analysis promo.
P.S. Dorothy Bullard’s article can be found here.
Should Thought Leadership Content Adopt a Single Point of View?
(The Cyrkle “Red Rubber Ball” 45 rpm single cover; fair use)
How should thought leadership content present its arguments?
It depends.
Thought leadership content
Let’s say that you’re a content marketing consultant creating thought leadership content for one of your clients. Furthermore, the client works with two types of rubber balls: the old-fashioned gray ones, and the new red ones.
Now let’s say the content describes moving from the old to the new rubber balls, and you list (perhaps in the manner of a sage) all the reasons why you may want to make the move.
Should your thought leadership piece also say why you may NOT want to make the move?
It depends.
Why to only discuss one point of view in a single piece of content
Perhaps the best way to attract your hungry people (target audience) is to convey a single message.
In my example, your single message may be that gray balls are so prehistoric, red balls are hot, and you should go red.
Clear. Unencumbered. Persuasive.
Why to discuss multiple points of view in a single piece of content
Alternatively, your hungry people may want to consider all the facts.
Returning to my example, your thought leadership piece may list all the reasons to switch from gray to red rubber balls, then list all the reasons why NOT to make the switch.
Now this is a REALLY sage-like move.
You could still recommend to go red, but at least your hungry people were exposed to the alternative (and ultimately rejected) view.
Did you see what I did here in this post? I could have written a straightforward post that said to only talk about one point of view. But then I chose to include this section that advocates a second point of view.
But now I’m going to put on my maverick mask and offer a THIRD option.
Why to discuss multiple points of view in multiple pieces of content
Why not do both? Why not write one piece with one point of view, and a second with the opposite point of view?
In my example, you would write focused pieces about “going red” and “staying gray.” Each self-contained piece is clear, unencumbered, and persuasive. Yet the totality of your thought leadership embodies the complex nuances of cases where there is no one right answer.
And there’s an added benefit for content marketing consultants who write thought leadership pieces for their clients.
If you write two pieces of content rather than one, you (may) collect two fees.
Follow the money.
Speaking of which, Bredemarket can write one or two thought leadership pieces for YOUR firm.
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.
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