Posts Tagged ‘competitive positioning’

Jul

Messaging Strategy: For Web Content Are You Speaking Your Customer's Language?

written by Scott Olson

One of the biggest mistakes I have seen in startups is the desire to message and brand their unique differentiation instead of messaging around an evolving industry category. A good indicator to startups falling into this trap is if you ever hear “we don’t have any real competition.” You would think that this type of mistake would have been solved by now, but a company’s strong desire to deliver unique value can easily lead them into this trap.

If you are falling into this trap it is absolutely critical that you address it sooner than later. Why? Because today you are no longer finding your customers, they are finding you. Information overload has diminished the effectiveness of traditional mediums of marketing like advertising and direct marketing campaigns. Today, with the growth of importance of social media, more than ever, web content rules. If you are messaging around your unique differentiator instead of standard industry terms, you significantly diminish your chances for customers to find you. (more…)

Tags: competitive positioning, marketing strategy, messaging strategy, startup marketing, web content
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Jul

Social Media is a Conduit – Web Content Rules

written by Scott Olson

MindLink Marketing is officially open for business this week and I couldn’t be more excited about working with technology companies to address their strategic marketing needs. As I have been reaching out to companies, inevitably the conversation circles around to social media and what their strategy should be to utilize this increasingly important medium. Universally, companies recognize that social networking sites are changing the way that they should be interacting with prospects.

Unfortunately, for many companies they have not been able to get past the very tactical step of establishing a company presence. They put up a LinkedIn corporate site, a facebook site, establish a corporate blog (which typically has a flurry of posts and then tapers off to inactivity), maybe even set up a YouTube account and post a few videos. Then they hit a roadblock. What next?

It is important to understand that social media is simply a new and highly effective medium for distributing a company’s original content. Good social media strategy always should begin with a web content and messaging strategy. I just engaged with a client and our discussion focused on the following important items:

Thought leadership – how will their content strategy support thought leadership in their industry
Competitive positioning – how will their content build a case for prospects prioritizing capabilities that emphasize their strengths and highlight competitors weaknesses
Customer needs – what key needs are they addressing for prospects
Search marketing – what key words need to be consistently used in the content they create
Messaging strategy – what are the top messages that they want to weave into all of their posts and documents
Key markets and market drivers - what markets are most important to them and what motivates their purchasing decisions, i.e. regulatory requirements

Only after walking through their strategy for web content and messaging did we begin to approach how that would be distributed through coordinated blog posting, tweeting, blog responses, pay per click campaigns, LinkedIn group postings, etc. If your company is exploring a social media strategy, think first about how you will be able to create fresh, consistent and relevant content to get the best results. Once you know what content you will create and who will create it then think about how you will distribute that content through a variety of social avenues.

Tags: blog, competitive positioning, marketing strategy, messaging strategy, social media strategy, web content
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Jun

Best Practice B2B Blogging? Think Micro White Papers.

written by Scott Olson

I have had a lot of recent discussions about the value of business blogs and how a company should maintain those sites. It seems that companies are finally moving past the misconception that blogging for businesses should be limited to responses to news or blogs on well established sites. People are understanding now that corporate blogs are all about fresh and relevant content for their buying industry and are critical both for search marketing and establishing thought leadership.

Once people understand that content is king, what should that content be? I like to think of blogs as micro white papers for businesses. They are a fantastic mechanism to establish a point of view on a topic and expertise in an industry. Here are some suggestions for content that is relevant across most organizations:

Is your company facing a competitive topic that continues to come up for both direct sales and channel? Stake your competitive point of view in a blog. Often a blog about why your approach to a particular problem is a great way to get that message in front of customers and partners.
Blog about key sales drivers and customer pain points. For example; is your business compliance driven? Blog about your thoughts on the latest regulatory changes.
Blog about key insights from recent industry events. Make sure that at every show you attend you create entries that speak to both the most popular topics at the show as well as any research you can do on your own in the form of show floor surveys or expert interviews.
Does your product offer something new? Don’t blog about your product, blog about how new approaches are changing the way your customers address their existing problems.

What to avoid? The sales pitch. Keep your blog conversational and informative and use it to both establish technical expertise and drive search marketing. Blogs are one of the best ways to consistently help your optimal customers find you.