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Talking Content Marketing – With Marcus Sheridan

‘Talking Content Marketing’ welcomes speaker, author and content marketing advocate, Marcus Sheridan.

Marcus has become a voice for brands to find their position in their marketplace and how content marketing plays its role in changing a mindset and infusing this approach into businesses.

Lets look at what it means to make a stand and become more useful to your audience.

Six questions, six answers, lets get down to it…

How valuable do you see a blog as a platform to offer opinion, make a stand and to be useful?

Although I’m not crazy about the word “blog” itself, the answer is yes, a “blog” section of a company’s website is a great place to teach, inform, help, and communicate with the masses–specifically those persons who have a problem the company can solve. In the information age, the majority of companies need and should embrace this reality, otherwise they may very well end up being left behind.

Are customers the best content source in terms of listening and providing content topics/stories with answers?

Incredible content marketing strategies are not built on tools, especially “keyword” tools. Sure, tools help, but nothing compares to the consumer– a real person with real questions and problems and a way of thinking and saying things. The great divide between the companies that are tremendously successful with content marketing versus the ones that are not comes down to ones ability to keenly think, act, talk, and feel exactly as a customer or prospect would.

Have we built social up as King Kong where we really need to focus on a hub that we have complete control over i.e. our blog, our website, our email?

Not sure I fully understand the question to be honest with you. But to make a point, “control” is a big, big deal. Business owners that don’t have at least some control over their website or social channels are like the artist with no paint brush— in big trouble. Bottlenecks that slow down one’s ability to add content to their website or social channels are a tremendous hindrance to digital marketing success and is a big, big problem for many businesses.

Is the role of brands to become more like teachers in the quest to differentiate from the competition?

Often times, yes. I don’t think it’s Coke’s job to become a teacher, but for the most part, customers have questions and are thirsting for someone to answer (honestly and transparently) those questions. Because over 90% of all businesses do not do this well, “teaching” alone can be, as Godin would say, a “purple cow” for any business.

HubSpot’s Joe Chernov’s stated that “It’s up to the “influenced” to decide if you are influential” Is it becoming too easy for people to self proclaim that they are the expert?

It is true that self-proclaimed experts are more plentiful than ever. This applies to any industry and any field. But the cream generally rises to the top, and those that are “fake” experts will eventually be exposed by their performance in the marketplace.

Your Slideshare ‘33 Laws Of Content Marketing Success‘, what is the top law that you would suggest everyone to have etched onto their desks, walls, wrists?

“They Ask, You Answer” is huge. As mentioned earlier, everyone has questions. Most businesses don’t take the time or care enough to answer them.

If you try to sound smart, you will look stupid—In the information age, we all have a BS meter when reading things online that quickly causes us to judge what we’re reading, who wrote it, and whether or not it applies to us.

Insourcing is HUGE. Most companies rely solely on their marketing department to answer customer questions (online) and handle the digital messaging of the company. This is a HUGE mistake in my opinion, as it’s much smarter to utilize the existing staff intelligence to produce useful content, be it text or video.

Thanks to Marcus for his time and participating. To find out more from Marcus’ world:

Follow Marcus on Twitter: click here

Visit ‘The Sales Lion:’ click here

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