Part 6 of a series on Robert Bly's book, The Content Marketing Handbook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RBAIu4mGq8

Transcription

Number six function of content marketing.

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

We're going through number six, out of the nine functions of content marketing, as delivered by Bob Bly from his book, The Content Marketing Handbook.

It's all in the first chapter is really good stuff. This is number six.

So these are functions of content marketing, or what content marketing can do for you.

The sixth point he makes us that educates the market and that a lot of people don't focus as much on the content in content marketing. But if you focus on educating your market, you're going to bring them to being better buyers, when the time comes.

He mentioned that one marketer of content marketing software was first to integrate their CMS with analytics, ecommerce and other applications. But the market did not yet understand the benefits of this integration.

So the marketer published a white paper explaining them with good results.

So you can educate your marketplace in terms of telling them why you do the things you do, why certain features exist, why a feature becomes a benefit, why all these things are, or why you're better than your competition.

You can do this in a longer format when it comes to content marketing, which is the really cool thing about content marketing, that's when you're talking only specifically about what it is that you're offering, let alone if you're offering any type of help whatsoever.

I'm trying to think of who it was off the top of my head, there was a famous a product that was available in the grocery stores.

I don't know if it was Kraft or someone like that. It was a common thing, especially back in the 60s and 70s, where they would offer recipes.

So they'd have full-page ads, it was nothing but a recipe that happened to use their ingredient. But it hadn't didn't say anything about why they had the best mustard or anything else.

It just said, here's another great thing you can do with our mustard, and with a great recipe that they can run off with.

They can use a different mustard if they want to. But that's not the point. The point is that you delivered it, and the fact that you delivered it, it's going to give you a lot more attention than if you just delivered a straightforward, plain, ugly advertising that everybody always puts out.

So hopefully that makes sense.

It's just it's another little wrinkle of content marketing. As you get to know this a little better, you can see where it fits with what you're planning on doing or what you're not planning on doing.

That's a big piece of where we're going to be moving forward from here on out because I'm going to, I'm putting together a kind of training that's about the best, that's the only term I've used for it so far, because there's a million different things you can call it.

Some people call on courses or trainings or webinars or seminars or what have you. I just want to stick with the training until I have my full title and everything. I've got a training coming out all about content marketing.

The main goal of it is to help those of you who are wondering whether content marketing is right for you or not.

I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time focused on the people who it's...

Part 5 of a series on Robert Bly's book, The Content Marketing Handbook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsFDe7OFl6k

Transcription

Number Five function of content marketing.

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today we're going we're continuing our process of digging through the nine functions of content marketing, as outlined by Bob Bly, The Content Marketing Handbook.

Great book. And this is in the first chapter, it goes through these nine things, and I've been going through it one at a time with you. This is the fifth one.

So we're talking about content marketing.

We're talking about producing marketing on a regular basis, that has some type of substance to it that has the content it has information and or entertainment.

So it has value to the consumer unto itself, besides the fact that it has a marketing message attached to it. Okay, that's content marketing.

So let's talk about the fifth way that he discusses here.

He says that establishes you as the expert.

Alright, I know a little bit about this, I wrote a whole chapter in my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business, which you can get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com.

But if you're just talking about content marketing, he has a really good twist on this.

Because of course, it totally establishes you as an expert.

I like what he says, here's his publishing content on your industry niche, or area of specialization helps position you as a recognized authority in your field, and prospects would rather buy from knowledgeable experts than ordinary salespeople.

Simple right?

But here's the extra part that I think really hits it.

He talks about the fact that just the fact that you're going out, and you're committing yourself to doing this on a regular basis, and honestly, I highly recommend you have somebody in your organization work on producing daily content.

He says, just because you do that you will become better at everything else that you do. And you are going to, you're going to deliver better on the other end, because you've put forth the initiative.

Here's a really good point.

He says, it should not be solely the marketing team's job to generate all the material in your content marketing efforts, account managers, SMEs, and even long term clients and site visitors can be engaged to help create great content.

You see this could be really a full on effort. And there's a million different places you can come up with content we've done, we've discussed that quite a bit here. But we'll be discussing more.

I've got my new training that's going to be coming up that you'll be able to plug into where we're going to dig into some of these ideas also.

But that's it establishing you as the expert, the fact that you're setting out to do that, you will become more of an expert, your company will become more of an expert, because you'll be forced to look at what you normally offer in a million different ways.

Because that's what content marketing kind of forces us to do. It forces us to have to say it a million different ways on a regular basis.

By doing that, you end up learning your craft a whole lot better, and end up you will naturally get better.

So that's it's a really cool concept,

Part 4 of a series on Robert Bly's book, The Content Marketing Handbook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_U58ARO59I

Transcription

Number four function of content marketing.

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today we're covering number four of the nine functions of content marketing, as outlined by Robert Bly in the Content Marketing Handbook. Great book. I was just covering this small section in the first chapter. But I think it really draws to a lot of the ideas of what content marketing actually does for you.

This one's a deceptively simple one.

So the first three just is a quick review of the nine functions.

Number one is to say it sets the specs.

Number two, it makes the prospect beholden.

Number three generates more inquiries.

What number four is, is it gets you, new customers. Now, I know a lot of people think that that should be the main function of everything wholesales. But sales have so much in sales and marketing has so many other facets to it.

Getting the initial new customer isn't necessarily the only thing you should be focused on. But content marketing helps do that.

One of the ways it does it, and he discusses this briefly and in a handful paragraphs is it differentiates you from everybody else, rather than just providing a sales pitch.

What content marketing can do for you is it gives more information it and in that process, it allows the potential customer the prospect to trust you.

There's a trust being built in that process, regardless of what you say, or whether it's even true.

But if it rings true, if it sounds authoritative, you can that you can receive a new customer because you have, especially depending on what it is that you're selling. Okay, with a product service.

Some things don't take that much research. But if especially if you're in a highly competitive realm, it makes a big difference in order to get the new customer by having unique content.

And that doesn't matter whether he mentions in here about having a blog, or having an email, email list, or what have you.

And he says, don't just don't just focus on sales, focus on content as well.

I really like Ben Settle's approach. It's really a lot, I think of why I designed these vlogs the way I do is because what been settled teaches is to have both in every post.

So you make sure you at least do something to encourage people to do something in a positive direction, hopefully to actually purchase something.

But even if it's even if it's just getting involved in some way, and then also having a sizable amount of content or infotainment, or what have you adapted in there some way and he teaches that through email.

But it doesn't matter what form of content that you're putting out there. What matters is, is that it has a substance.

If it has substance, you can get new customers that way, which is a really, it's a it's a great function. Like I said, deceptively simple.

But when you compare it with everything else that he's outlining, especially in the next, in the next five functions, you'll see how these things all tie together. So stay tuned for that we're going to be going over number five tomorrow.

As I mentioned, you should always have some type of a pitch in your material at least somewhere,

Part 3 of a series on Robert Bly's book, The Content Marketing Handbook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpNzA5SzBEA

Transcription

Number Three function of content marketing.

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today we are in the third part of a mini-series that we're doing. This was an excerpt from a Robert W. Blys book, The Content Marketing Handbook.

He had written, The Copywriters Handbook, which is a best-seller. Very, very popular, but one that people always make reference to. And what we're talking about is the nine functions of content marketing, as put together by Bob Bly.

And we're on number three. These are the functions of content marketing, these are the things that it does for you, and how it functions, how it works behind the scenes, why it works, in a sense.

Let's go through number three, I think he put this so well together in here I am, I'm just going to read this paragraph to you real quick.

Number three, is called generate more inquiries, generate more inquiries.

This is the third function of content marketing. He says a lead generating promotion with the free content offer can produce more than double the responses, the same campaign without the free offer.

Okay, good content marketing, is that effective by publishing new and relevant content on your digital channels. Doing so often you can increase the likelihood of new customers finding out about your business, IT services and the value you bring them.

Plus prospects are more likely to return to your website, when they know you frequently add fresh content. Okay, generating more inquiries.

So what's that mean?

What's that mean is that the whole process of having a business of offering something, you're either offering products, services, or somewhere something in between or both, and you are offering it on a regular basis, you're looking for more people that are going to fit your ideal customer or client patient, what have you, no matter what, that's what you're looking for, okay.

If you have an offer, if you have a way for them to get, especially free content is what he's referring to.

Just initially, if you have the ability for them to inquire, to be able to find out more for you, for them to be able to raise their hands as a lead to you and business terms.

We say you lead, meaning somebody that could lead them to becoming a customer or client, what have you.

If they can raise their hand, if you can get their information in exchange for content for information for them for information, entertainment, what have you for them, you've got another inquiry.

The more inquiries you have, the more likely you can have more customers.

And the more people that are out there educating themselves about you, the less people who are out there educating themselves about your competition, or any other option that they might possibly have, including ignoring whatever problem they're looking to overcome, right.

So that's what it's all about.

That's a huge piece of content marketing and he puts it in just a different way, this whole book is very much it, he has a very unique way of writing.

He finds a way to put things in just different ways, a lot of times he's repeating himself throughout this book, because content marketing is a very simple concept. But he keeps saying it in different ways.

Part 2 of a series on Robert Bly's book, The Content Marketing Handbook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV5uTXIwwZs

Transcription

The number two function of content marketing.

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today we're here outdoors and the sun's gone down. But we still have enough to have a little talk here tonight put on a little bit of a show.

This is the book Content Marketing Handbook by Robert Bly.

I'm going through the nine different functions of content marketing that he outlines here and his first chapter of the book. And it's really good stuff.

The second one I'm going to go through today with you real quick, he says, so these are, what these are, is these are the reasons why content marketing works, so to speak.

The second one is that it makes the prospect beholden. And so if you're thinking of a prospect, a prospective customer, prospective client, what have you. This really comes from it, he points to Robert Cialdini, he's influenced book Influence The Psychology of Persuasion.

If you've never read that, it's considered a classic nowadays, in terms of pointing out a handful, and putting a whole lot of background to it, but point out a handful of reasons why people buy, it doesn't have every reason, but it has a couple of very strong reasons.

And one of them is this, it's been kind of put out there as the law of reciprocity, that you get a reciprocal behavior, if you give, you can get as long as what you're giving is valued enough by the person that is receiving it.

And so you see all these people online, especially you see it a lot online, you see, you know, free book offers, you know, even for physical books, where you just pay shipping and handling, the free reports, free training, free this, free that.

The whole idea is that you get something of value, and you feel the need to reciprocate, you feel the need to go the next step and either purchase something of a higher value, or to take whatever the next suggested step is.

That's a huge piece of content marketing, especially if, if you're talking that the piece of content marketing didn't cost very much or cost hardly, or is completely free, and doesn't have to be free.

But that is one of the most common things that you see used out there. And he says that there's a good quote that he has in here from one of his newsletter subscribers, he says, this is from Richie.

He said, This is just a short note to say, I really enjoy your emails, I can tell when they are commercials, but I don't mind them. Because you generally give me worthwhile information.

I believe that is why you're successful.

When I receive useful information and free emails, I'm more likely to purchase additional information.

And that's just a person putting into words what a lot of us go through even subconsciously.

Now, the funny thing about the law of reciprocation and Ben settle has brought this up before and other people have brought it up is that it's not a guarantee, it's not an absolute, you know, just because you're giving something of value doesn't mean it's going to be seen as valuable by the person receiving it.

It doesn't mean that they're going to reciprocate it, a lot of it depends on who it is that you're speaking to who it is you're given to, and whether they actually value it and whether they're actually going to use it.

Thoughts on Robert Bly's book, The Content Marketing Handbook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aACds6YJk9E

Transcription

One function of content marketing.

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today I'm going to be taking a little excerpt from Bob Bly's book, The Content Marketing Handbook. This came out in 2020.

Bob Bly or Robert W. Bly has been around for a while. He's a famous copywriter and marketing consultant.

I mean, if you haven't, if you aren't aware of this guy, he's put out a million books.

He understands content marketing because he's been doing it long before it has been commonly called Content Marketing. And he shows it in this book, this book is like, it's like a textbook, or an encyclopedia for content marketing, if you will.

I can spend time giving you a review about the book another time, I wanted to cover this one piece that I just love in here called the nine functions of Content Marketing. And today, I'm going to cover his first one.

I'm going to go through and I'll cover all of these, but I'm going to separate them out through different episodes. So the first one I want to go through.

And he says that these are basically the reasons for doing content marketing, these are the functions these are things that content marketing can provide for you.

One way is to set the specs is what he calls set the specs.

So it's a way of defining what customers or clients or potential customers and clients should be looking for.

Here's how he puts it I'm going to read you this piece here.

It says, content marketing can educate prospects on what features functions, and capabilities they should look for in buying a particular type of product or service.

Now, because you've presented your criteria, and a white paper or another medium that looks like useful information, not a sales pitch, readers absorb and accept your guidelines, and then they use the specifications you've set.

So you can come out with this, why you see oftentimes reports and other things offered by people who actually offer the things that you're helping them to buy, which is it's an interesting way of doing it.

You would say, Well, what does that actually work?

Yeah, it works. This is because who else is helping them to look beyond just hey, pick me, pick me.

I mean, who else is not saying that?

This is giving reasons this is giving criteria, you're setting the specs for them to be able to purchase by and you're setting them in a way that puts you in the best light, obviously.

So the the paragraph here he says, You say you sell motionless mixers.

One of the products I helped a market at Coke engineering, you're offered in your ads that you offer in your ads, a booklet called seven things to look for once specified.

When specifying motionless mixers prospects, read it and use your criteria when they look to purchase motionless mixers, and whose mixer fits all seven criteria perfectly.

Okay, you can define it, you can define what they should be looking for. And if they actually take those, and it has to make sense.

You can't just say well, they want to have blonde hair. And now that you know, it has to make sense.

But if you make sense, and they say yeah, that makes sense,

Thoughts on consistency and standing out with your business messaging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPON_24zFS8

Transcription

Content marketing is about consistency.

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I'm a Business Investor, and then one of the big things that I help businesses get into nowadays is more content marketing. Because we're seeing such good results from it over the long run of a business.

I mean, it's just huge, just being able to stand out.

Just that alone is such a major difference. I was having this discussion with my family over the weekend and my dad said, he said, it really is about standing out.

I would say the same thing content marketing.

If it does nothing else, it helps you to stand out from anyone that you consider competition.

It speaking of competition, I should know I wrote the book on competition, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof your business. This is a piece of content marketing.

I know some people disagree with that definition. But in my mind, this is a piece of content marketing, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business, it is something that's very useful.

It's a book unto itself that would be useful to you, if you're looking to overcome competitive forces in your business, you get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com.

I think it's a piece of content marketing, depending on who's defining it, though, because it's very, it's a very loose definition at age. Both online and offline started as an online as and offline magazine adage.

They had an article that I saw recently where they were saying that it just because it has, it has value just because it's content, things like ebooks and certain other books are not really content marketing.

Then I thought that was kind of interesting way to find it, I looked a little deeper. And they said that content marketing is about consistency.

That's definitely a point that I would say content marketing is less about an an actual event, or a specific tactic of the day, as it is about an overall strategy that you're moving forward with. That you're, it's always available. It's always available to people.

So a podcast, like the one you're watching or listening to right now, a blog, a lot of these are closer to the definition of content marketing and the way that this particular writer was discussing.

I don't have that article right in front of me, but it's in the back of my mind. So I wanted to bring it bring the idea to your attention, that consistency is so powerful, because it builds on itself. It allows you to be seen, especially if you're really good about getting out there with whatever your consistent messages, whatever your consistent media format is.

All those are extremely important and if you don't have that consistent factor, it content marketing is not as powerful it does not have what I mean, by definition doesn't have the staying power.

It doesn't have the lift that you get over time and the compounding effect that you get off of it. So as you're researching content marketing, definitely keep your mind wide open.

But but definitely keep in mind what your long term consistent pattern is going to be with it because that's going to make the biggest difference for you. I have a new training that is going to be coming out soon to be a live training that you'll be able to participate in. Stay tuned for that.

Brian shares thoughts from a conversation he had with a friend about a lost opportunity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBngZFPEh3k

Transcription

What if $1.5 million slipped through your fingertips?

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today I received a text from my friend over on the other side of the country. And he's waiting for this because he knew make a good talk for us here.

And he said, What would you do if 1.5 million slipped through your fingertips?

I said, did this happen to you, you know, what have you?

So he said, Just happened to me today.

So I said, Well, let's talk.

So we talked and got on the phone, and started chatting about it and it was a very interesting story. In a sense, he had a, a business project lined up with a good sized client, and really had something that was going to work out over a long period of time, and was going to come out to a pretty good size amount, somewhere around 1.5 million altogether.

He was excited about it, he was interested in it, it was new for him. And so there were some elements that he had to add on to make it really run. But he didn't have doubts that he'd be able to produce this right.

It's very interesting, because it reminded me of something that happened recently, with our property management company, we had a similar deal where we had we had, it seemed like everything was lining up.

All that was necessary were a few elements that we weren't used to having. And I'm gonna tell you what those elements are in a second, that we didn't have connected, we didn't have it linked up quite yet.

But we said, hey, you know, if you just give us time, we'll be able to work this out.

Well, what happened to my friend is what happened to us is that at the last minute, even though it looked as though everything were happening, the client ended up going with somebody else, they ended up going with somebody that appeared to have all those elements already in place.

We think the same thing happened on the we're not certain was anything happened with this property management deal. So that's these are the things that occur when you're not quite ready.

Now, what are the elements, the elements are simple concept that I talk about a lot here, and comes back to that concept of being relationship reliant. So being relationship reliant is huge.

The elements that were missing, were the right people, we didn't have all the right people in place to be able to take on a project that big, but it made sense, it would work with the right people in place, and was no doubt that we could find the right people.

My friend, he knew he could find the right people to he knew all he had to do was have it all set up.

What really needs to occur is if you want to go that direction to begin with, you have to have the relationships already in place. So that when someone says, can you make this happen, you say, yes, I've got the people lined up, I've got everything worked out, I can make this happen.

You have to have that type of confidence.

Hopefully, you have to already have those contacts ready to go. But you have to have the confidence that it's as good as done. So another situation in my other business.

So my investment business, one of the things that we're going to be doing a whole lot more is we're producing a whole lot more content.

Yup, this is episode 1,100 and it's the longest title we've ever had for a show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziR5Hl6MxE4

Transcription

Does content marketing happen before, during, or after the customer cycle?

Hi, I'm Brian Pombo. Welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

This was a question that came to me as I'm putting together an initial training for content marketing. It's kind of a beginner's training to kind of get the business owners and people managing businesses to contemplate whether content marketing is right for them.

So what is content marketing, content marketing, and I've worked with a bunch of different definitions, I'm trying to craft one made up of all the different ones, because I haven't found one that really hits it directly.

What I would say just off the top of my head is that content marketing is a form of marketing that has content, no, what it has is it has a very significant amount of information, and or entertainment, that provides value.

So within the marketing itself, you are getting value, or you have a value-oriented thing that has marketing attached to it.

So as far as the company is concerned, it's marketing. But as far as the person looking at it, taking it in reading it listening to it, they are getting some form of value from it being all the entertainment end information end, or hopefully a little bit of both.

So that's what I call content marketing.

Now, where does Content Marketing Land, if you took Dean Jackson's concept, if you look at the lifetime of a customer, and he calls it the before, during and after unit.

The before unit is before they become a customer, so everyone out there who has never been a customer of yours, they're in the before unit, and you have a certain way of handling people that aren't a customer yet.

Then you have the during unit and those are all the people that are currently customers, or recently customers, depending on how your how your, your basis that how the customer function is in your business.

But that's the during unit, and then there's the after unit. And that's when they're no longer a customer, or they haven't been a customer for a certain period of time. So you got before, during and after.

So where does Content Marketing Land?

Well, initially you think, well, it's marketing.

So it happens before, this is for the new people coming in, right?

But then it started occurring to me, I'm like, wait a second, really, you need to market to your current customer base very much.

So you have to have pieces in there. That is marketing, even a lot of what you sell, has may have elements of marketing that markets the next thing or the next service. Because you always want people to be able to ascend, right.

And then after, you're still gonna want to market to people, which is very uncommon.

Nowadays, people, most businesses do not focus much on this. But you still want to market to the people after they've already gone to try and bring them back to coax them back in to find out what's going on with them and to keep in contact.

So content marketing really affects all those areas, it never goes away. And certain elements of content marketing never go away.

So for example, if you know anybody that is heavy into content marketing, maybe they do a regular social media posts, or they do a regular podcast, or regular email blast,

Thoughts on "early testing times" when attempting to find your way in worklife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUXzyZkno6g

Transcription

When planning won't help.

I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo. Live.

I was having a talk today with my friend Patrick and we were he was discussing some things going on in his life and discussing. And he had mentioned that a lot of the strategies and planning and this type of thing we talk about here on this show doesn't really apply.

It's funny, I haven't talked about it for a while but I can get really bogged down in the details when it comes to the conversations we have here and how to go about getting what you want, planning things and everything else.

In reality, I'm a very unorganized person.

And I have gotten slowly started to get good at the things that I've always been worse at, if that makes any sense.

In fact, a whole lot of my business direction has been in the areas that I was horrible at to begin with. Those tended to be the areas that I wanted to learn more about. Because I was drawn to those areas, including the areas of marketing, areas of just the ideas of business structure, and business strategy, and planning, and all that stuff.

These are all areas that are not natural to me and, in fact, earlier today, I was watching a talk by some gentlemen that are real pros at Search Engine Optimization.

I remember, I actually started out in my own business, in the area of search engine optimization that was really the beginning of this tour that took me into marketing, you could watch one of my videos, or podcasts out there about the five excruciating Steps to Becoming a Business Strategist.

And that was before I was referring to myself even as an investor.

So this was this long journey, and I could have easily stuck with…not easily, I could have stuck with search engine optimization. But I was drawn in a different direction in a more broader direction and the specificity of that while I understand it, I never stuck with it. Really got to the details deeper than where I currently was at where I was at that time.

So I moved on, and got more and more involved in the areas that were not natural to me.

Because of that I ended up in this area of investing that I never thought I'd ever end up in. But it's been this, it's been this very unique flow.

I'm at a point now, where I, I finally, finally, to be perfectly honest, finally I am I understand more about what I'm doing and where I'm going than ever before.

Now, there will always be surprises. No doubt next year, I'm going to be in a totally different place than I can ever imagine myself right now.

But it took a whole lot of experimenting and trying things in different directions and thinking, well, maybe I'll go this way.

And maybe I'll go that way and trying things out and experimenting really fast, but not really long in any particular area.

When you don't focus long in any particular area, you don't necessarily have successes that everyone else sees.

In my mind, even the failures are success and that's tough because everyone else sees it as failures.

I don't see myself as being a failure up until now. But I see, I see a little success here and a little success there.

Then I see this point in my life where all these different things are inter intermingling and coming together and pointing a...