The CMA Podcast Show with Chris Marr

We have a problem. When I speak at events and to people all over the world about content marketing, they do not understand how important marketing is in the buying decision process. They don't understand how important content marketing is for sales, and therefore they don't invest enough resource into marketing. We need to change our perspective. I want you to see content marketing as a sales conversation. In this episode I lay out the case for content marketing and sales to work together, and share with your some clear examples that prove how content marketing truly is a sales conversation.

Are you a perfectionist? If you are shaking your head and saying no to yourself, I'm willing to bet you that there are times in your life when you are a perfectionist, but you just don't know it...yet. That's my aim with this episode - to help you identify your perfectionistic tendencies, and overcome them. Or at least to become more self aware of perfectionism in your own life and work. Perfectionism manifests itself in so many different ways, some are obvious and some not so obvious, and not only is it important to recognise it in yourself, but in others too. Perfectionism can be destructive and become a major barrier between you, your work, your relationships and the impact you want to make on the world. Let's discuss it and see if we can learn something.

Most people see a 'blog' as something mostly meaningless where you share company news, updates, awards you've won and other vaguely interesting insights that having nothing to do with how your potential customers making buying decisions. It's for this reason why business people and marketers a) don't value the time and resource invested in 'blogging', which is directly related to b) not getting the results they want - traffic, leads and sales. A blog isn't a blog, and we need to change how we look at it. In this episode I discuss how we can reframe what a 'blog' is and start to understand how a blog is a truly powerful sales tool that will grow your business.

I can recall the very first training session I ever delivered back in early 2000’s - I was thrown in at the deep end and told to deliver health and safety training to my team. I didn’t know what I was doing. And although I learned a lot about facilitation simply by getting on with it, I’d say I’ve learned a lot more in the past few years compared to the last 15 about how to maximise learning and action with a workshop. There are a few people close to me are going to be facilitating more workshops going into 2019, so I thought it was time to share a few of the major things I do to make sure we create as much impact as possible with our workshops.

We’re all happy when we’re in the spotlight. We’re all happy when we’re the one that’s winning. But, how do you behave when it’s not your turn? In this moment I believe you can really tell a lot about a person. So let’s unpack the lesson and see if there’s room to develop our empathy for others, and change there way we react when it’s not our turn.

I look at dozens of articles a week as part of my job as a teacher, and there a few things that crop up frequently that I’d like to be done with forever. Specifically to do with how we structure and approach our content. That’s a pipe dream of course, as these issues will still crop up from time to time, but I’d like to bring the level of quality up so that we can have time for teaching other things. My job as a teacher is to help you do your best work, so let’s look at the current major challenges we’re having when structuring blog articles. I've picked out 9 common areas and what we can do to improve them and get better results.

Writing and talking about your competitors in your content and on your website might seem like a ridiculous concept. Right now you might be thinking that it’s down right crazy to even consider this as part of your marketing strategy. Bear with me. Let’s see if I can help you change your mind and get you thinking of some different ideas for your content. There are times when it makes sense to write and talk about your competition. Especially if the content will improve the sales process for your prospective customers and clients. In this episode I talk through some of the barriers to this idea of writing about your competition, followed by a few examples from the work that Cara Mackay is doing over at Gillies & Mackay, and finish up with some additional ideas to get you thinking about what you could do for your organisation or your clients.

In this episode I share with you a personal reflection of the training I’ve received from Marcus Sheridan over the past 4-5 years, and how this has had a dramatic impact on how my public speaking and teaching skills.

Have you ever struggled to get someone to buy into your ideas? Have you ever been frustrated because other people can’t see the opportunity you can see? One of the major challenges that stops marketers and business people from making progress with content marketing is getting buy-in from the people you work with. In every workshop I’ve ever facilitated, and every talk I’ve done…when I ask people “what will prevent your success with content marketing?” Buy-in is always in the top 5 reasons. It’s a real problem, challenge and general frustration for people that believe in content marketing, and can’t get people to support them. In this episode I discuss how to overcome the challenge of getting buy-in by changing your approach so people will adopt your ideas.

Marketing is perhaps the fastest changing landscape in business today. It’s no wonder that we feel overwhelmed and frustrated with all the new technology, applications, platforms and methods for communicating with our prospects and customers. In the age of inevitable and continual change, how is it possible to know exactly what you need to do every day to not only attract the best customers for your organisation, but to also ensure that you remain relevant into the future?