Tag Archives: product marketing

Friday Deployment, Brittany Pietsch, and Marketing to “Thirsty People”

As you may know, I dislike the phrase “target audience” and am actively seeking an alternative.

By Christian Gidlöf – Photo taken by Christian Gidlöf, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2065930

So far the best alternative to “target audience” that I’ve found is “hungry people,” which not only focuses on people rather than an abstraction, but also focuses on those who are ready to purchase your product or service.

But I just found an instance in which “thirsty people” may be better than “hungry people.” Specifically, for the Colorado spirits company Friday Deployment, which engages in product marketing in a very…um…targeted way. Including the use of a micro-influencer who is well-known to Friday Deployment’s thirsty people.

Heads up for regular Bredemarket blog readers: the “why” and “how” questions are coming.

Why are Friday Deployment’s “thirsty people” technologists?

Why does Friday Deployment aim its product marketing at technologists?

The website doesn’t elaborate on this, but according to LinkedIn, company owner Rishi Malik is also the VP of Engineering for Varo Bank (an active user of identity verification), and Malik’s history includes two decades of engineering experience. That’s enough to drive anyone to drink, on Fridays or any other day.

From https://fridaydeployment.co/

Presumably because of this background, Friday Deployment’s product marketing is filled with tech references. Here’s a sample from Friday Deployment’s web page (as of Friday, February 2, 2024).

It was inevitable. The tree is out of date, the history is a mess, and you just want to start your weekend. Maybe you just do a quick little git push --force? Maybe someone already did, and you now get to figure out the correct commit history?

From https://fridaydeployment.co/.

But that isn’t the only way that Friday Deployment markets to its “thirsty people.”

How does Friday Deployment’s marketing resonate with its thirsty people?

How else does Friday Deployment address a technologist audience?

Those of you who are familiar with LinkedIn’s tempests in a teapot realize that LinkedIn users don’t spend all of their time talking about green banners or vaping during remote interviews.

We also spend a lot of time talking about Brittany Pietsch.

TL;DR:

  • Pietsch was an account executive with Cloudflare.
  • Well, she was until one day when she and about 40 others were terminated.
  • Pietsch was terminated by two people that she didn’t know and who could not tell her why she was terminated.
  • This story would have disappeared under the rug…except that Pietsch knew that people were losing their jobs, so when she was invited to a meeting she videorecorded the first part of the termination, and shared it on the tubes.
  • The video went viral and launched a ton of discussion both for and against what Pietsch did. I lean toward the “for,” if you’re wondering.
  • And even Cloudflare admitted it screwed up in how the terminations were handled.

Since Friday Deployment’s “thirsty people” were probably familiar with the Brittany Pietsch story, the company worked with her to re-create her termination video…with a twist. (Not literally, since Pietsch drank the gin straight.)

@brittanypeachhh

Not every day is a good day at work. But every day is a good day for gin. Check out fridaydeployment.co.

♬ original sound – Brittany Pietsch
From https://www.tiktok.com/@brittanypeachhh/video/7330646930009410862.

Well, the product marketing ploy worked, since I clicked on the website of a spirits company that was new to me, and now I’m on their mailing list.

But let’s talk alcohol age verification

The Friday Deployment product marketing partnership with Brittany Pietsch worked…mostly. Except that I have one word of advice for company owner Rishi Malik.

With your Varo Bank engineering experience, you of all people should realize that Friday Deployment’s age verification system is hopelessly inadequate. A robust age verification system, or even an age estimation system, or even a question asking you to provide your date of birth would be better.

Bredemarket can’t create a viral video for your tech firm, but…

But enough about Friday Deployment. Let’s talk about YOUR technology firm.

How can your company market to your thirsty (or hungry) people? Bredemarket can’t create funny videos with micro-influencers, but Bredemarket can craft the words that speak to your audience.

To learn more about Bredemarket’s marketing and writing services for technology firms, click on the image below.

Drive content results with Bredemarket Technology Firm Services.

Sugar Pie Honey Bunch

Sorry, but all this discussion about Friday…well, I can’t help myself.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0.

And Rebecca Black, who actually has a very fine voice and sounds great when she’s singing non-inane lyrics, has engaged in a number of marketing opportunities herself. See if you can spot her in this ad.

The Pros and Cons of Discriminating Your Product by Quantifying Your Benefits

Some firms make claims and don’t support them, while others support their claims with quantified benefits. But does quantifying help or harm the firms that do it? This pudding post answers this question…and then twists toward the identity/biometrics market at the end.

The “me too” players in the GCP market

Whoops.

In that heading above, I made a huge mistake by introducing an acronym without explaining it. So I’d better correct my error.

GCP stands for Glowing Carbonated Pudding.

I can’t assume that you already knew this acronym, because I just made it up. But I can assure you that the GCP market is a huge market…at least in my brain. All the non-existent kids love the scientifically advanced and maximally cool pudding that glows in the dark and has tiny bubbles in it.

Glowing Carbonated Pudding. Designed by Google Bard. Yeah, Google Bard creates images now.

Now if you had studied this non-existent market like I have, you’ll realize from the outset that most of the players don’t really differentiate their offerings. Here are a few examples of firms with poor product marketing:

  • Jane Spain GCP: “Trust us to provide good GCP.”
  • Betty Brazil GCP: “Trust us to provide really good GCP.”
  • Clara Canada GCP: “Trust us to provide great GCP.”

You can probably figure out what happened here.

  • The CEO at Betty Brazil told the company’s product marketers, “Do what Jane Spain did but do it better.”
  • After that Clara Canada’s CEO commanded, “Do what Betty Brazil did but do it better.” (I’ll let you in on a little secret. Clara Canada’s original slogan refereneced “the best GCP,” but Legal shot that down.)
Designed by Google Bard.

Frankly, these pitches are as powerful as those offered by a 17x certified resume writer.

The quantified GCP

But another company, Wendy Wyoming, decided to differentiate itself, and cited independent research as its differentiator.

Wendy Wyoming Out of This World GCP satisfies you, and we have independent evidence to prove it!

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, as part of its Pudding User Made (PUM, not FRTE) Test, confirmed that 80% of all Wendy Wyoming Out of This World GCP mixes result in pudding that both glows and is carbonated. (Mix WW3, submitted November 30, 2023; not omnigarde-003)

Treat your child to science-backed cuisine with Wendy Wyoming Out of This World GCP!Wendy Wyoming is a top tier (excluding Chinese mixes) GCP provider.

But there are other competitors…

The indirect competitor who questions the quantified benefits

There are direct competitors that provide the same product as Wendy Wyoming, Jane Spain, and everyone else.

And then there are indirect competitors who provide non-GCP alternatives that can substitute for GCPs.

For example, Polly Pennsylvania is NOT a GCP provider. It makes what the industry calls a POPS, or a Plain Old Pudding Sustenance. Polly Pennsylvania questions everything about GCP…and uses Wendy Wyoming’s own statistics against it.

Designed by Google Bard.

Fancy technologies have failed us.

If you think that one of these GCP puddings will make your family happy, think again. A leading GCP provider has publicly admitted that 1 out of every 5 children who buy a GCP won’t get a GCP. Either it won’t glow, or it’s not carbonated. Do you want to make your kid cry?

Treat your child to the same pudding that has satisfied many generations. Treat your child to Polly Pennsylvania Perfect POPS.

Pennsylvania Perfect remembers.

So who wins?

It looks like Polly Pennsylvania and Wendy Wyoming have a nasty fight on their hands. One that neck-deep marketers like to call a “war.” Except that nobody dies. (Sadly, that’s not true.)

  • Some people think that Wendy Wyoming wins because 4 out of 5 of their customers receive true GCP.
  • Others think that Polly Pennsylvaia wins because 5 out of 5 of their customers get POPS pudding.

But it’s clear who lost.

All the Jane Spains and Betty Brazils who didn’t bother to create a distinctive message.

Don’t be Jane Spain. Explain why your product is the best and all the other products aren’t.

Copying the competition doesn’t differentiate you. Trust me.

From https://www.yourgreenpal.com/blog/is-there-an-uber-for-lawn-care

The “hungry people” (target audience) for THIS post

Oh, and if you didn’t figure it out already, this post was NOT intended for scientific pudding manufacturers. It was intended for identity/biometric firms who can use some marketing and writing help. Hence the references to NIST and the overused word “trust.”

If you’re hungry to kickstart your identity/biometric firm’s written content, click on the image below to learn about Bredemarket’s services.

Drive content results with Bredemarket Identity Firm Services.

The Bredemarket Rule of Corporate Tool Adoption

(12/7: Thanks for catching the typo, Orlando!)

Whoops, I forgot something.

Bredemarket hasn’t proposed any rules.

This may not seem to be a significant gap to you, but it is to me.

I’ve proposed rules on my prior platforms, but haven’t proposed one from Bredemarket. Here’s a list of some of the “Empoprises Rules” I’ve proposed in the past. My favorite:

The Phineas-Hirshfield score measures, on a scale of 0 to 100, the probability that someone will ask exactly what the Phineas-Hirshfield score is.

From https://empoprise-bi.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-is-your-phineas-hirshfield-score.html. The Phineas-Hirshfield score is copyright 2012 by John E. Bredehoft.
Phineas T. Barnum. By unattributed – Harvard Library, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47588191

Time for me to make a cryptic LinkedIn post. Although now that I’m sharing the secret here, I’ll have to lower the score to 89.

Bredemarket’s first rule

But before I share my revised Phineas-Hirshfield score, I need to share the first Bredemarket Rule, the Bredemarket Rule of Corporate Tool Adoption. (Copyright 2023 Bredemarket.)

In any organization, the number of adopted tools that perform the exact same function is always in excess of one.

In other words, if there’s someone in your organization who is using an iPhone, there is someone else in your organization who is using an Android phone.

Phone wars circa 2011. From https://semiwiki.com/general/868-who-is-winning-the-cell-phone-wars/

Or someone has a Mac, and another person has a Windows computer.

Or someone has one brand of software, while someone else has the competitior brand.

Even if an organization dictates that everyone will use a single tool, there will be someone somewhere who will rebel against the organization and use a different tool.

By Alberto Korda – Museo Che Guevara, Havana Cuba, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6816940

Three reasons why the Bredemarket Rule of Corporate Tool Adoption is true

Here is why this rule is true:

  1. Except in very rare circumstances, there are always multiple tools that perform the exact same function.
  2. Except in very rare circumstances (Bredemarket being a counter-example), organizations are made up of multiple people.
  3. In all circumstances, different people have experienced different realities and therefore like different things.

For example, on Wednesday morning I attended a Product Marketing Alliance-sponsored panel discussion in which one of the panelists mentioned that Asana was a valuable tool that helps product marketers get work done.

Another panelist was a Monday user.

Presumably the first panelist was exposed to Asana at one point and liked it, while the second panelist was exposed to Monday and liked it.

Or, since the panelists were from two different companies, maybe each company standardized on one or the other. Or maybe the departments within their companies standardized on a particular tool, but if you poll the entire company, you’ll find some Monday departments and some Asana departments.

Multiple tools in a single department

Even in the same department you may find multiple tools. Let me cite an example.

  • Several of the people who were in the Marketing department of Incode Technologies have since left the company, and I’m working with one of them on a project this week.
  • I had to send a PDF to him, and was also going to also send him the source Microsoft Word document…until I remembered from our days at Incode that he was (and I guess still is) a Google Docs guy.
  • (As I’ve shared previously, I’m not a Google Docs guy except when a client requires it.)

Even brute force will not invalidate the Rule

Of course, there are times in which an entire organization agrees on a single tool, but those times never last.

My mid-1990s employer, Printrak International, was preparing to go public. The head of Printrak determined that the company needed some help in this, and brought several staffers on board who were expert in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs).

One of these people took the role of Chief Financial Officer, preparing Printrak for its IPO and for two post-IPO acquisitions, one of which profoundly and positively impacted the future of the firm.

Along the way, he established the rule that Printrak would become a Lotus Notes shop.

By Ndamanakis – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126610779

For those who don’t remember Lotus Notes, it was one of those Lotus-like products that could do multiple things out of the box. And because the CFO was the CFO, he could enforce Lotus Notes usage.

Until the CFO left a couple of years later to assist another company, and the impetus to use Lotus Notes dropped off significantly.

And that, my friends, is why my former colleagues in IDEMIA aren’t using HCL Notes (the successor to Lotus Notes and IBM Notes) today.

So how do you settle the Tool Wars?

Do you know how you settle the Tool Wars?

You don’t. It’s an eternal battle.

In the case of Bredemarket, I can dictate which tools I use…unless my clients tell me otherwise. Then the client’s word is law…unless there’s a compelling reason why my tool should be used instead of the client’s tool. In Bredemarket’s 3+ years of existence, I haven’t encountered such a compelling reason…yet.

Just be flexible enough to use whatever tool you need to use, and you’ll be fine.

You’re Doing It Wrong™: One Piece of Collateral Isn’t Enough

If you create a single piece of collateral for your product or service and say that you’ve completed your job, “you’re doing it wrong™.”

Product marketers and content marketers know that you’re just starting.

John Bonini on content vs. channel

John Bonini advises that you separate the content from the channel.

What most companies practice is not actually content marketing. It’s channel marketing.

They’re not marketing the content. They’re marketing the channel.

From LinkedIn.

You can express a single thought on multiple channels. And as far as I’m concerned, the more the merrier.

Me on “expert” advice on social media channel adoption

Incidentally, that’s why I object to the “expert” advice that I master one social media channel first before branching out into others.

If I adopt that strategy and ONLY market on LinkedIn and ignore Instagram and TikTok, I am automatically GUARANTEEING that the potential Instagram and TikTok audiences will never hear about my offer.

“How I Expanded 1 Idea into 31 Pieces of Content”

I’ve expressed my thoughts on this social media “expert” advice before:

The latter post, entitled “How I Expanded 1 Idea into 31 Pieces of Content,” described how…well, the title is pretty self-explanatory. I created 31 pieces of content based on a single idea.

Create Technology Content That Converts

The 31 pieces of content, published both through the Bredemarket channels (see above) and via my personal channels (including my jebredcal blog and my LinkedIn page), all increased the chance that SOMEONE would see the underlying message: “Your prospects don’t care about your technology.” Each piece of content was tuned for the particular channel and its target audience, ensuring that the message would resonate.

By Christian Gidlöf – Photo taken by Christian Gidlöf, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2065930

As I often say, repurposing is good.

Speaking of repurposing, I’ve already adapted the words above and published them in four different ways (this is the fourth)…and counting. No TikTok video yet though.

Can Bredemarket help you repurpose or create content?

And if I can do this for me, I can do this for you.

Bredemarket can help you create content that converts prospects and drives content results. Why?

If you’re sold on using Bredemarket to create customer-focused messaging (remember: your prospects don’t care about your technology), or even if you’re not and just want to talk about your needs, there are three ways to move forward with your content project. Or you can just join the Bredemarket mailing list to stay informed.

  • Book a meeting with me at calendly.com/bredemarket. Be sure to fill out the information form so I can best help you.
From calendly.com/bredemarket. 
Bredemarket logo

Product Marketers vs. Product Managers vs. Content Marketers

I’ve performed product marketing since 2015 (arguably earlier), and I performed that other similar-sounding role, product management, from 2000 to 2009. The two roles certainly have similarities such as customer focus, but they may be different.

Or may not. There’s no standard job description for a product marketer, and product marketing needs vary between companies.

From https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-product-manager-and-a-product-marketing-manager/

I say more about this, and about the responsibilities shown in the survey above (including the fact that the majority of product marketers are also content marketers), in a LinkedIn post (not an article) that I published on my personal profile today.

From https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jbredehoft_productmarketing-productmarketingmanager-activity-7106038118264307712-spfw/

The 22 (or more) Types of Content That Product Marketers Create

(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)

(Updated blog post count 10/23/2023)

I mentioned something in passing in Bredemarket’s recent go-to-market post that I think needs a little more highlighting. So here is a deeper dive into the 22 types of content that product marketers create. (Well, at least 22. I’m probably missing some.)

And by the way, I have created all 22 of these types of content, from blog posts and battlecards to smartphone application content and scientific book chapters. And I can create it for you.

Taylor Swift "22" single cover.
By “22” (Single by Taylor Swift) on 7digital, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39857014

“But John,” you’re saying, “Don’t you know anything? Content is created by content marketers!”

Read on.

The NON difference between product marketing and content marketing

If you consult with the experts, they will tell you that there is a distinct division between product marketing and content marketing, and that they are two entirely separate disciplines.

Janus, two-headed.
By Loudon dodd – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7404342

Why is it that so many business-to-business (B2B) marketers confuse product marketing with content marketing?

Because it requires a lot of discipline. That’s why.

B2B marketers who get it right understand the difference between these two fundamentally different types of marketing, what their purposes are and how to use them correctly.

From https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/08/27/is-your-business-confusing-product-marketing-and-content-marketing/?sh=2edf86f51d88

There certainly is a difference—if you work in a firm that enforces strict definitions and separation between the two.

U.S. - Mexico border.
No dark sarcasm in the blog post. By US Border Patrol – Department of Homeland Security, United States Border Patrol http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/photos/sand-dune-fence.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11951642

Some firms (especially startups) don’t have the luxury to enforce such definitions. They don’t have separate teams to create awareness content, consideration content, and conversion content. They have one team (or perhaps one person) to create all that content PLUS other stuff that I’ll discuss later.

One-man band.
sin, a one-man band in New York City. By slgckgc – https://www.flickr.com/photos/slgc/8037345945/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47370848

For example, during my most recent stint as a product marketing employee at a startup, the firm had no official content marketers, so the product marketers had to create a lot of non-product related content. So we product marketers were the de facto content marketers for the company too. (Sadly, we didn’t get two salaries for filling two roles.)

Why did the product marketers end up as content marketers? It turns out that it makes sense—after all, people who write about your product in the lower funnel stages can also write about your product in the upper funnel stages, and also can certainly write about OTHER things, such as company descriptions, speaker submissions, and speaker biographies.

Creating external content and internal content

Man holding a huge pencil.
Designed by Freepik.

And when you find a “you can pry my keyboard out of my cold dead hands” person, you’ll naturally want to get them to write other things.

As a result, I’ve written a ton of stuff over my last 29 years in identity/biometrics. It didn’t take a great leap for me to self-identify as the identity content marketing expert and the biometric content marketing expert (and other expert definitions; I’m an expert in creating expert titles).

I’ve compiled a summary of the types of content that I’ve created over the years, not only for Bredemarket’s clients, but also for my employers at Incode Technologies, IDEMIA, MorphoTrak, Motorola, and Printrak.

Not all of these were created when I was in a formal product marketing role, but depending upon your product or service, you may need any of these content types to support the marketing of your product/service.

It’s helpful to divide the list into two parts: the external (customer-facing) content, and the internal (company-only) content.

10 types of external content I have created

External content is what most people think of when they talk about product marketing or content marketing. After all, this is the visible stuff that the prospects see, and which can move them toward a purchase (conversion). The numbers after some content types indicate the quantities of pieces of collateral that I have created.

  • Articles
  • Blog Posts (500+, including this one)
  • Briefs/Data/Literature Sheets
  • Case Studies (12+)
  • Proposals (100+)
  • Scientific Book Chapters
  • Smartphone Application Content
  • Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, Twitter)
  • Web Page Content
  • White Papers and E-Books

Here’s an video showing some of the external content that I have created for Bredemarket.

Bredemarket Work Samples, August 2023. Previously posted at https://bredemarket.com/2023/08/14/bredemarket-work-samples-the-video-edition/

9 types of internal content I have created

While external content is sexy, internal content is extremely important, since it’s what equips the people inside a firm to promote your product or service. The numbers after some content types indicate the quantities of pieces of collateral that I have created.

  • Battlecards (80+)
  • Competitive Analyses
  • Event/Conference/Trade Show Demonstration Scripts
  • Plans
  • Playbooks
  • Proposal Templates
  • Quality Improvement Documents
  • Requirements
  • Strategic Analyses

And here are 3 more types

Some content can either be external or internal. Again, numbers indicate the quantities of pieces of collateral I have created.

  • Email Newsletters (200+)
  • FAQs
  • Presentations

Content I can create for you

Does your firm need help creating one of these types of content?

Maybe two?

Maybe 22?

I can create content full-time for you

If your firm needs to create a lot of content types for your products, then consider hiring me as your full-time Senior Product Marketing Manager. My LinkedIn profile is here, documenting my 29 years of experience in identity/biometric technology as a product marketer, a strategist, and in other roles.

Or I can consult for you

But if your firm needs a more limited amount of content and can’t employ me on a full-time basis, then you can contract with me through my consulting firm Bredemarket. For example, I could write a single 400-600 word blog post or short article for you.

Or 2 blog posts/articles.

Or 22 blog posts/articles. (The more the merrier.)

Do you need these services?

Authorize Bredemarket, Ontario California’s content marketing expert, to help your firm produce words that return results.

Bredemarket logo

And yes, I know this post had two separate calls to action. What do you expect from a guy who thinks product marketers are content marketers?

And here’s one for the Swifties. No, it’s not “Taylor’s version.” But we all know that she is the only person who can reconcile differences between so-called standards bodies, since any standard Swift champions will become the de facto standard.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgFeZr5ptV8

Quick Thoughts on Product Positioning

I’ve already talked about product launches in my recent On “Go-to-Market” post, but having worked in product marketing for some time, I know that there are a lot of tasks that your firm has to perform even when you’re not launching a new product.

One of those tasks is product positioning. And it’s important.

Product positioning isn’t quite as complex as global positioning (a factor of authentication, by the way). By Paulsava – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47209685

Six questions for product positioning

There are some complex ways to define product positioning, probably even at the level of Shipley 96-step complexity. But when I can, I gravitate for the simple.

Here’s how I define product positioning:

(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.)

  • Why your product (or service) exists.
  • How your product benefits your customers.
  • What your product is (but note that I asked the first two questions before this one).
  • Other facets of your product (goal, benefits, target audience—if this is new to you, catch up by reading my e-book on the six questions your content creator should ask you).

Why the questions matter

If your product suddenly disappeared from the world, would your target audience (or, in marketing-speak, personas) care?

Would your target audience be just as happy with the competitive offerings, or would the target audience lose out if your product’s distinctive benefits were suddenly no longer available?

Choose one (food) to go forever. Reproduced at https://josephmallozzi.com/2020/10/01/october-1-2020-lets-chat/

There are a number of popular memes that ask you to remove one popular food from a list of foods. What would happen if, instead of asking about pizza and tacos, you asked your target audience about your product and eight others? Would your product survive the cut, or would your prospects happily dump it?

Position your product so that it always remains top of mind for your prospects.

  • Answer the questions above.
  • Create content that is focused on the customer (not focused on your firm).
  • Create content that explains benefits (not features) to your prospects.

How Remote Work Preserves Your Brain

I remember the day that my car skidded down Monterey Pass Road in Monterey Park, California, upside down, my seatbelt saving my brain from…um…very bad things. (I promised myself that I’d make this post NON-gory.)

Monterey Pass Road and South Fremont Avenue, Monterey Park, California. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0586679,-118.1445677,19z?entry=ttu

I was returning from lunch to my employer farther south on Monterey Pass Road when a car hit me from the side, flipping my car over so that it skidded down Monterey Pass Road, upside down. Only my seat belt saved my from certain death.

(Mini-call to action: wear seat belts.)

By The cover art can be obtained from Liberty Records., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25328218

Now some of you who know me are asking, “John, you’ve lived in Ontario and Upland for the past several decades. Why were you 30 miles away, in Monterey Park?”

Well, back in 1991, after working for Rancho Cucamonga companies for several years, I ended up commuting to a company in Monterey Park, California, at least an hour’s drive one way from my home. Driving toward downtown Los Angeles in the morning, and away from downtown Los Angeles in the afternoon. If you know, you know.

After I left the Monterey Park company, I consulted or worked for companies in Pomona, Brea, Anaheim, Irvine, and other cities. But for most of the next three decades, I was still driving at least an hour one-way every day to get from home to work.

And it’s not just a problem in Southern California. By B137 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48998674

As I’ll note later in this post, some people are still commuting today. And for all I know I may commute again also.

I learn the acronym WFH

That all stopped in March 2020 when a worldwide pandemic sent all non-essential personnel at IDEMIA’s Anaheim office to work from home (WFH). Now there were some IDEMIA employees, such as salespeople, who had been working from home for years, but this was the first time that a whole bunch of us were doing it.

Some of us had to upgrade our home equipment: mesh networks, special face illumination lighting, and other things. And now, instead of having a couple of people participating in meetings remotely, ALL of us were doing so. (Before 2020, the two words “Zoom background” would be incomprehensible to me. After 2020, I understood those words intimately.)

This new work practice continued after I left IDEMIA, as I started Bredemarket, joined Incode Technologies for a little over a year, and returned (for now) to Bredemarket again.

The U.S. Marine Corps supported WFH (for certain positions) in 2010, long before COVID. This image was released by the United States Marine Corps with the ID 100324-M-6847A-001 (next). This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.العربية ∙ বাংলা ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ English ∙ español ∙ euskara ∙ فارسی ∙ français ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ Nederlands ∙ polski ∙ پښتو ∙ português ∙ slovenščina ∙ svenska ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ 简体中文 ∙ 繁體中文 ∙ +/−, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23181833

WFH benefits

There are two benefits to working from home:

  • First, it preserves your brain. Not just from the horrible results of a commuting automobile accident. For the last three-plus years, I’ve gotten more rest and sleep since I’m not waking up before 6am and getting home after 6pm. And I’m not sitting in traffic on the 57, waiting for an accident to clear.
  • Second, it provides the best talent to your employer. Why? Because it can hire you. I just spent over a year working for a company headquartered in San Francisco, and I didn’t have to move to San Francisco to do it. In fact, when my product marketing team reached its apex, we had two people in Southern California, one in England, and one in Sweden. None of us had to move to San Francisco to work there, and my company was not restricted to hiring people who could get to San Francisco every day.

But that doesn’t stop some companies from insisting on office work

In-office presence controversy predates COVID (remember Marissa Mayer and Yahoo?), and now that COVID has receded, the “return to office” drumbeat has gotten louder.

Laith Masarweh shared the story of a woman who, like me, is tiring of the L.A. freeway grind.

So she asked her boss for help–

And he told her to change her mindset.

“That’s just life,“ he said. “Everyone has to commute.”…

All she asked for was some flexibility, and he shut her down.

So he’s going to lose her.

Laith Masarweh, LinkedIn. (link)

Now I’m not saying I’ll never work on-site again. Maybe someday I’ll even accept an on-site position in Monterey Park.

But I’m not that thrilled about going down Monterey Pass Road again.

In the meantime…

…since I’m NOT full-time employed, and since my home office is well equipped (I have Nespresso!), I have the time to make YOUR company’s messaging better.

If you can use Bredemarket’s expertise for your biometric, identity, technology, or general blog posts, case studies, white papers, or other written content, contact me.

From https://open.spotify.com/track/2BPEPkeifa5LoOg2Cq9bkx

Which Words Should Your Marketers Use? My Four Suggestions.

I’ve talked about the words “why,” “how,” and “what” and their relation to writing, but I haven’t talked about the word “which.”

Not in relation to sandwiches, but in relation to words.

If you are a marketing executive, you know that the words you use in your marketing content can make or break your success. When your company asks employees or consultants to write marketing content for you, which words should they use?

Here are four suggestions for you and your writers to follow.

  1. Your writers should use the right words for your brand.
  2. Your writers should use the right words for your industry.
  3. Your writers should use words that get results.
  4. Your writers should be succinct.

Your writers should use the right words for your brand

Your company has a tone of voice, and your writers should know what it is. If you can’t tell them what it is, they will figure it out themselves.

Your company has a particular writing style—hopefully one that engages your prospects and customers. Regardless of your writer’s personal style, they must create copy that aligns with your own style. In effect, they put on a “mask” that aligns the words they create with the words that your company needs.

Your writers should use the right words for your industry

Similarly, your company provides products and services in one or more industries, and your copy must align with the terms those industries use, and the way industry participants express themselves.

For example, a writer who is writing content for the biometric industry will use different terms than a writer who is writing content for art collectors because of the differences in the two target audiences.

  • Biometric readers (the people, not the devices) care about matching accuracy measurements, such as those compiled by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in its Face Recognition Vendor Test, or as measured in agency-managed benchmarks. (Mike French’s example.) They often respond to quantitative things, although more high-level concepts like “keeping citizens safe from repeat offenders” (a public safety-related benefit) also resonate.
  • Art collectors care about more qualitative things, such as not being scared of handing over their dream to a commissioned artist whose work will inspire affection. (Well, unless the collector is an art investor and not an art lover; investors use different terminology than lovers.)

So make sure your writers get the words right. Otherwise, it’s as if someone is speaking Italian to a bunch of French speakers. (Kaye Putnam’s example.) Your prospects will tune you out if you use words they don’t understand.

Your writers should use words that get results

There is one important exception to my suggestions above. If your company’s current words don’t result in action, quit using your current words and use better ones that support your awareness, consideration, conversion, or other goals.

If you start talking about your solution without addressing your prospect’s pain points or problems, they won’t know why they should care about your solution.

For example, let’s say that the message you want to give to your prospects is that your company makes wireless headphones.

So what?

The prospect doesn’t care about wireless headphones per se. The prospect cares about the troubles they face with tangled cords, and how your company offers a solution to their problem of tangled cords.

Features are important to you. Benefits are important to your prospects. Since the prospects are the ones with the money, listen to them and talk about benefits that change their lives, not how great your features are.

Your writers should be succinct

I have struggled with succinctness for decades. I could give you countless examples of my long-windedness, but…that wouldn’t be appropriate.

So how do I battle this personally? By creating a draft 0.5 before I create my draft 1. I figure out what I’m going to say, say it, and then sleep on the text—sometimes literally. When I take a fresh look at the text, I usually ruthlessly chop a bunch of it out and focus on the beef.

Now there are times in which detail is appropriate, but there are also times in which a succinct message gets better results.

Selecting your content marketer

If your company needs employees or consultants to write marketing content for you, make sure they create the right content.

If your company’s views on content creation parallel my own, maybe I can help you.

If you need a full-time employee on your staff to drive revenue as your personal Senior Product Marketing Manager or Senior Content Marketing Manager, take a look at my 29 years of technology (identity/biometric) and marketing experience on my LinkedIn profile. If you like what you see, contact me via LinkedIn or at jebredcal@gmail.com.

If you need a marketing consultant for a single project, then you can reach me via my Bredemarket consultancy.

Applying the “Six Questions” to LinkedIn Self-promotion

(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.)

I’ve previously talked about the six questions your content creator should ask you. And I eat my own wildebeest food. I used the six questions to create a self-promotion blog post and LinkedIn post.

But since you care about YOUR self-promotion rather than mine, I’ll provide three tips for writing and promoting your own LinkedIn post.

How I promoted my content

Before I wrote the blog post or the LinkedIn post, I used my six questions to guide me. For my specific example, here are the questions and the answers.

QuestionPrimary AnswerSecondary Answer (if applicable)
Why?I want full-time employmentI want consulting work
How?State identity and marketing qualifications, ask employers to hire meState identity and marketing qualifications, ask consulting clients to contract with me
What?Blog post (jebredcal), promoted by a personal LinkedIn postBlog post (jebredcal), promoted by a Bredemarket Identity Firm Services LinkedIn post
Goal?Employers contact me for full-time employmentConsulting prospects contact me for contract work
Benefits?(1) No identity learning curve
(2) No content learning curve
(3) Proven results		(same)
Target Audience?Identity companies hiring Senior Product Marketing Managers and Senior Content Marketing ManagersIdentity companies contracting with content marketing consultants
For more information on the six questions, see https://bredemarket.com/2022/12/18/six-questions-your-content-creator-should-ask-you-the-e-book-version/.

You’ll notice that I immediately broke a cardinal rule by having both a primary goal and a secondary goal. When you perform your own self-promotion, you will probably want to make things less messy by having only a single goal.

So based upon these responses, I created…

First, the blog post

The Bredemarket blog is primarily to promote my consulting work. I have a different blog (jebredcal) to promote my full-time employment (or attempts to secure full-time employment).

Because the primary goal was to secure full-time employment, I posted to jebredcal instead of Bredemarket.

From https://jebredcal.wordpress.com/2023/06/24/top-3-bredemarket-identity-posts-in-june-2023-so-far/

After the introduction (pictured above) with its “If you need a full-time employee” call to action, I then shared three identity-related blog posts from the Bredemarket blog to establish my “biometric content marketing expert” (and “identity content marketing expert”) credentials. I then closed with a dual call to action for employers and potential consulting clients. (I told you it is messy to have two goals.)

If you want to see my jebredcal post “Top 3 Bredemarket Identity Posts in June 2023 (so far),” click here.

Top 3 Bredemarket Identity Posts in June 2023 (so far)

So how did I get the word out about this personal blog post? I chose LinkedIn. (In my case, hiring managers probably aren’t going to check my two Instagram accounts.)

Second, the LinkedIn post

I often reshare my Bredemarket blog posts on various Bredemarket social media accounts. In this instance I only reshared it on LinkedIn, since that’s where the hiring managers are. While I shared the blog post to my Bredemarket Identity Firm Services LinkedIn page (since the post talked about identity), my primary goal was to share it to my personal LinkedIn feed.

It was simple to write the LinkedIn text, since I repurposed the introduction of the blog post itself. I added four hashtags, and then the post went live. You can see it here.

From https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jbredehoft_top-3-bredemarket-identity-posts-in-june-activity-7078560381207543808-9UUT/

And by the way, feel free to like the LinkedIn post, comment on it, or even reshare it. I’ll explain why below.

Third, the “LinkedIn Love” promotion

So how did I promote it? Via the “LinkedIn Love” concept. (Some of you know where I learned about LinkedIn Love.)

To get LinkedIn love, I asked a few trusted friends in the identity industry to like, comment, or reshare the post. This places the post on my friends’ feeds, where their identity contacts will see it.

A few comments:

  • I don’t do this for every post, or else I will have no friends. In fact, this is the first time that I’ve employed “LinkedIn Love” in months.
  • I only asked friends in the identity industry, since these friends have followers who are most likely to hire a Senior Product Marketing Manager or Senior Content Marketing Manager.
  • I only asked a few friends in the identity industry, although eventually some friends that I didn’t ask ended up engaging with the post anyway.

I have wonderful friends. After several of them gave “LinkedIn Love,” The post received significant engagement. As of Friday morning, the post had acquired over 1,700 impresions. That’s many, many more than my posts usually acquire.

I don’t know if this activity will directly result in full-time employment or increased consulting work. But it certainly won’t hurt.

Three steps to promote YOUR content

But the point of this post isn’t MY job search. It’s YOURS (or whatever it is you want to promote).

For example, one of my friends who is also seeking full-time employment wanted to know how to use a LinkedIn post to promote THEIR OWN job search.

Now you don’t need to use my six questions. You don’t need to create a blog post before creating the LinkedIn post. And you certainly don’t need to create two goals. (Please don’t…unless you want to.)

In fact, you can create and promote your own LinkedIn post in just THREE steps.

Step One: What do you want to say?

My six questions obviously aren’t the only method to collect your thoughts. There are many, many other tools that achieve the same purpose. The important thing is to figure out what you want to say.

  • Start at the end. What action do you want the reader to take after reading your LinkedIn post? Do you want them to read your LinkedIn profile, or download your resume, or watch your video, or join your mailing list, or email or call you? Whatever it is, make sure your LinkedIn post includes the appropriate “call to action.”
  • Work on the rest. Now that you know how your post will end, you can work on the rest of the post. Persuade your reader to follow your call to action. Explain how you will benefit them. Address the post to the reader, your customer (for example, a potential employer), and adopt a customer focus.

Step Two: Say it.

If you don’t want to write the post yourself, then ask a consultant, a friend, or even a generative AI tool to write something for you. (Just because I’m a “get off my lawn” guy regarding generative AI doesn’t mean that you have to be.)

(And before you ask, there are better consultants than Bredemarket for THIS writing job. My services are designed and priced for businesses, not individuals.)

After your post is written by you or someone (or something) else, have one of your trusted friends review it and see if the written words truly reflect how amazing and outstanding you are.

Once you’re ready, post it to LinkedIn. Don’t delay, even if it isn’t perfect. (Heaven knows this blog post isn’t perfect, but I posted it anyway.) Remember that if you don’t post your promotional LinkedIn post, you are guaranteed to get a 0% response to it.

Step Three: Promote it.

Your trusted friends will come in handy for the promotion part—if they have LinkedIn accounts. Privately ask your trusted friends to apply “LinkedIn Love” to your post in the same way that my trusted friends did it for me.

By the way—if I know you, and you’d like me to promote your LinkedIn post, contact me via LinkedIn (or one of the avenues on the Bredemarket contact page) and I’ll do what I can.

And even if I DON’T know you, I can promote it anyway.

I’ve never met Mary Smith in my life, but she says that she read my Bredemarket blog post “Applying the “Six Questions” to LinkedIn Self-promotion.” Because she selects such high-quality reading material, I’m resharing Mary’s post about how she wants to be the first human to visit Venus. If you can help her realize her dream, scroll to the bottom of her post and donate to her GoFundMe.

Hey, whatever it takes to get the word out.

Let me know if you use my tips…or if you have better ways to achieve the same purpose.