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Inbound Marketing Model

So we're going tio switch gears a little bit still in the strategy realm quite frankly and really that's everything is today now some of you may not necessarily relate to what we're going to talk about the topic of content marketing as strategy per se because I don't think people have really packaged it that way but I really think that again it's much bigger than do I have a blogger I put out a newsletter really is a strategic part of your business how you think about these messages now that we're going to communicate and all the various forms and when ways in which we package that communication now for today I'm going to focus on kind of the big picture you know how to look at it you know why content so important we're going to talk about a couple elements online and offline quite frankly that I believe are essential elements as part of your content strategy but where we're going to talk tomorrow morning actually about content as it relates to the things they online tool ls so the blo...

gging in the newsletter and the various things that we're kind of used to talking about these days but today it's really more the framework of why marketing or why content so important and really how to really think about that I think you know one of the things that's a real challenge I think for a lot of business owners is that I think most people have given into the fact that they need to be, you know, producing it doesn't matter what they make or sell that that content can actually drive people to buying your products and services and and for a lot of people is really an expectation that that that they're going to come to you and they're going to find, you know, solutions and they're going to find free ways for them to kind of dip their toe in the water and learn more about you, you know that that that don't involve a sales call percent so that's really, I think why this has become such an essential element search engine optimization, social media, some of the things we're going to talk about tomorrow are really all driven in my mind by your ability to produce valuable education based content. Now one of the real challenges, of course, with this is that it's probably the hardest one of the hardest things that or at least most time consuming elements of marketing today. So let me just ask you guys, for we get start because I know you had lunch I don't want don't want like the chocolate cake, you know, malays toe, you know, to set in a little bit here tell me a little bit of sense of just and we just even go around the room, what that that idea of what is content me into your business what do you producing now and feel free to say I'm doing nothing that's okay too you know? So it was started back um well for us the content marketing we are the idea is that we have to give something away so that they know who we are right and the we can build trust and build that relationship and so we're in the process right now of creating our give away, which is a many course that hopefully what we're trying to do is give them a taste that they're like wow, I'm getting good stuff here but also feel like I need more, you know, give them the opportunity tio identify what they're missing too so that they can get and hopefully get a sense of how you're different, you know? I mean that's a lot of this too because you know when when we just look at the typical marketing speak that we put him brochures and things I mean, I think I said this earlier all it really does is kind of demonstrate how were the same so ryan you want to talk product description is obviously content, but what else are you doing? Yeah, not a lot I think I do the blawg is my main coming down that generator and kind of walk through people through the product design process so if I'm developing a new product I try to speak to that as it's coming out kind of leading up to like why I chose a vegetable tanned leather over across I'm dan because as more body kind of explain that educate the consumer and kind of build up to that actual product launch I saw a pbs special on tanning and it's you know, it's ah it's pretty fascinating process you know, you just think of take the leather and you know, put us put a stain on it but it's a lot more complicated it's pretty crazy, sir um our blogger is definitely the bulk of the content on that kind of gives us a chance to sort of showcase our knowledge base so the purposes that we're giving away these training tips injury prevention type stuff on building trust that way on dh that's really the extent of our goal is just try to keep fresh content up there all the time okay? So mostly online yeah it's not exclusively okay, yeah the blogger who kind of knows this recent all right I see a lot of people floundering and they don't even though they're not really even aware that they're floundering, so the idea for me I think is to point out that there's a problem and allude to a solution but what format does that take place that would be the block okay are you doing is that we're growing log and um then I share my log on facebook and then my facebook other stops and I share my facebook on my personal site so I try and tie them all together and but with different different material to so um I probably let you guys all finished, but so far you're all really identifying distribution of content nobody's really identifying content at least from a strategic standpoint other than well yeah, I write blockbuster right? I think sir you pride came closest to you know, they were talking about what it was and why it had value and so so that's what we're really going to cover ok, so I have ah, I will do articles like why choose custom photography or what toe where articles like that kind of content yeah yeah yeah that's also that's what you maybe I should have interrupted you guessed sooner than that, but that's that's really what that's what we're starting to get harder we don't do much right now, but when we've been trying to when we haven't enhancement send it to some people in in the travel space that that do right for blood, right? But that's mostly kind of announcement he yeah right ok, we really don't do much ok, not very much I just I know I need to do it. I tell every one of my clients you have to do it, I set it up, so I just set up a system so that I can syndicate it. Part of what I wanted to learn from you today was how it is that you're so prolific in your content production. Well, I will reveal it, but I'm just telling you, it's zero to do it's frightening, but what I do, you know, so I will tell you that kelly, you wantto add anything to that, what you do? Sure, I participated in a number of different types of content, and I think, you know, the rial learning path with content is creating content around your core business objectives because, you know, a lot of what I see is creating content for the sake of content. You know what it needs to drive people through that marketing hourglass and so looking at it in that sort of strategic sense, such a tremendous point, in fact, I would contend. That a lot of people they're producing content and really getting you know kind of frustrated with this idea of all I've got a pretty actually need produce less and it just needs to be as you said it needs to be tied to business objectives and needs to have very strategic approach to why would benefit somebody why somebody would use it to find you and I think that when we start kind of looking at objectives what we're trying to accomplish with our content I think that it takes some of the pressure off I mean I will tell you that I it's a single greatest tension point you know, for a lot of small businesses because they have just been told content content content on dh so now they're like well you know does that mean I have to block every single day you know about you know something and that causes a lot of tension are you getting anything from from the land of oz the land of us ah lyle williams says that they produce events do you consider that you know I actually do consider that content that's a great great point I mean in some cases it's it you know it may be a direct it may actually be a product but it certainly can be I mean I do free webinars we do you know in person events I mean that could really be seen as you know, pure content and obviously, it can cross over into the product, you know, category, I mean, there are a lot of people that sell a ticket to an event that the does deliver content, but the contents actually the product as well, there's also to kind of conversations going on, one about podcasting, whether those are still popular, whether those air still a good way to produce your content and then also about recycling content. There's a lot of conversation about how many times can you should you, etcetera? Well, I'll talk about both of those kind of briefly today until the tell those people come back tomorrow because I'm going to hit both of them both of those topics in the content realm. But from a podcasting standpoint, you know, part of the term podcasting two thousand five, two thousand six was like it was kind of the next block, right was like, oh, now we've everybody's starting to syndicate content. They're using this technology, so why not stick audio files on there? And people can subscribe to those the next generation was vey blog's video blog's let's stick video on there on day kind of then social media took everybody's attention and everybody started twittering and it's, like podcasting became, you know, really out of fashion. There's a riel I've always been a proponent first off it's just a nisi way to produce another form of content audio content that you the did you can get interviews you khun do things you know that you can't really dio necessary I mean I do I've been podcasting every week since two thousand five and I mean I get great people on my show that will come and talk about their new book and captured and produces incredible another form of content it's really taken off again I mean, I don't think anybody really cares what it's called but the idea of producing audio content that people can subscribe to has really taken off again because apple you know, actually makes the podcast listening. Ap actually is a is a default on the on the, you know, the the last couple of operating system so all of a sudden there's a whole new world of people discovering podcasting again. So so the short answer that really is yes it's a great form of content. But don't worry about what you call it or having used to be like that was going to be a radio show, you know is like I have to have so many listeners it's just a nice easy way toe create another form of content and then the second question was about how much you can reuse content I don't you know if you're just strictly going to republish the same log post once a month or something you know obviously I don't think that's a very good use taking a syriza bloc post and turning them into any book is a great use that someone can download taking a two block post and rewriting them and submitting them to your local paper to run you know has contributed contents a great reuse taking a presentation that you've given and having a transcript of that so recording it so now you create a video version of it and you create a transcript so you've got a printed version of those to me are really great ways to repackage or repurpose content as opposed to just repeat okay so let's get into you know what is content exactly again I think as demonstrated by you guys I think a lot of the default is on blogging okay so I'm producing content right but content correctly produced thank you kelly based on your objectives for your business is a tool to build trust okay we already established that it is the you know trust is probably the most important tool so how to content you know how you do what you do how you get a solution how somebody can you know you mentioned training tips or not get injured you know how you actually create incredible setting you know four to get the right kinds of pictures you know what to feed your baby so that they don't throw up all over the night of that never happened reviews of you know of that that people make of your products and services and of your company built trust testimonials articles that you've placed in third party publications I can't tell you you know, whether they be a guest blogged post or in your local you know, hometown you write a column for your local hometown community paper you know, those are all ways that you can take content you're producing and really focus on building trust content that educates I really think that you know, you mentioned that you're really not producing that much content and I think that you're in one of those fields that that that you really do have to educate I think that you know chris obviously you know people have to understand what your whole process is about they have to understand even I mean, you have to do a whole bunch of teaching about what great water even his you know, I mean so you know, you have you know, unfortunately you have then you have no choice in my opinion you know, but to educate but I think a lot of us really have the opportunity to really write, you know, through a newsletter or through workshops or through some sort of demonstrations or frequently asked questions you know, running surveys of our clientele and publishing that kind of content that's all the kind of stuff that people are really looking for so that they can be educated about your industry about how you're different about the solution, what it's going to look like for them and I think that that so often now people are looking for proof they want almost try the solution or they want to see that it's worked for somebody else before they really want to engage you content is a tool to actually create engagement I think that that's one of the things you know from a trust standpoint is actually having people on facebook that I want to talk to you that one ask you questions that want to participate is part of the community actually having your existing clientele producing content for you. You know, one of the greatest greatest opportunities for engagement is to actually have your thrilled customers, you know, doing, you know, like I could see a video of, you know, somebody you know, unboxing their guitar case that they their gig bag that they just got, you know, and do you have some of those right? Do you have? Yeah, I mean that's that is unbelievable content really encouraging, you know, our customers to actually participate in the production of content is a huge, huge piece I told you guys about that that net promoter scrawled give you a couple on this particular slide. I'll give you a couple really very practical sort of tactical things that you can do. So we use a form tool called wufu it's. Just a service you can sign up for makes it really easy to build forms. So if you wanna ask questions, you want to have customers submit things. I mean, you can just add it embedded in your website. So remember that, um I asked you to do that on a scale of one to ten. How how likely is it that you would refer our business? Okay, well, you can actually sample wufu form that just asked that question, so every customer who buys from you could get that former you could send it out an email whatever. However you want to do it and the tool will actually, if they answer seven through nine or seven through ten, it might send them to a page. It says all that's awesome would you do? Would you mind giving us a testimonial? They could just do it automatically six through four sends a new page. It says please tell us where we screwed up we want to do better than that and three through one you could actually have it send you a text message says somebody's really not happy I mean so you can use some of these tools I use is it to you know the way that I really like to view it is a way to get automatic testimonials so you're you kind of automate that process but it's also almost a customer service tool as well so you find out when people aren't happy video success stories you really if there's really almost no reason now why you're not getting your customers on talking about how thrilled they are talking about you know, doing videos of a project that you've done obviously you know when somebody talks about the results they've gotten because they know they won the cross country meter, you know, whatever you're you're working with them on, you know, those that kind of content really needs to be an essential part of how you're thinking about content really getting your customers engaged it some in many ways it's much more believable than you're in combination with all the education and things that go on as well then really just your traditional content because when people are able to do is kind of see themselves you know, see their situation you know, there have that problem where they have that challenge or they're trying to win a cross country state title and so it really allows them to kind of bring them so it's like proof but then they also are able to kind of almost put themselves inside that another one if you if you have customers that you can bring together, this is a great way to collect a whole bunch of content on and that is to actually holding a video what I call testimonial party so have some sort of an event if you can again this obviously applies mostly local businesses, but running some kind of an event higher ahh video crew I would suggest any of the fine people here could probably handle it or, you know, you might find some college art institute, you know, guys that are studying, you know, film, but, you know, hire some folks to come in and actually set up a little booth on the side and, you know, after a couple glasses of wine, don't do that with the babies, but but I didn't don't do that with the student athletes, I gotta bail these disclaimers, but ask them to take over and talk about just, you know, ask him they want a video, you know, message just about, you know, their experience of working with you on didn't capture a whole bunch of it an event like that because a lot of times content production comes down to just being able to get it all done, so run that out you can, of course, after another way to make any more beneficial to them actually offered a have the film crew right fire, you know, given five minutes to record their own message, they will video this will send it to you embedded on your website run a commercial for your own business I was thinking with an online presence you could hold some kind of contests like if you can't get everybody together like a local business, you could hold some kind of contest where they send videos and then they get something and then you can get a ton of testimonials. Yeah, absolutely. So you want to throw that out to the are you getting some responses on that? What are people doing to get their customers involved in content production? Are you hearing anything for people on that let's throw that out there kind will start seeing them in a little could you're right, you're absolutely right in some cases just holding in fact, I don't know if all of you did, but a number of you when you applied for this process submitted video and so, you know, I think more and more people have be it on their phone or, you know, in the in the computer, on the laptop or some everybody kind of has that capability now so really giving them the ability there's a tool also that I have used called male view so it's male and envy you that actually allows you to embed a player or or I'm sorry recorder video recorder on your site so you could actually send somebody to a page they have to have a camera on their computer because obviously it's going to start their camera but they can actually record their own video and then it saves it you get to keep it and it just gives you some code you can embedded on your sites you can really make the process pretty darn easy that is very, very cool with that hand while I can imagine getting creative life folks out there to be that that awesome you can create pages during this and you could actually have video questions coming in will be really cool you can actually use a google hangout now for that as well yeah, yeah I'll do webinars yeah so I'm gonna talk about that tomorrow another one of my favorites google hangout live to youtube is a really great uh function for creating content archiving content broadcasting content so we're starting to get david m who I know runs a kind of a trophy program our trophy company makes, he says I run a photo contest that the winner gets a free trophy of mine has been great we've got daryl who says we invite them to ask questions during our life teleconferences, teleconferences, air, then transcribed and posted on our web site and we have other wufu lovers it's such a great tool just makes makes a task very how about you guys anything, anything you've done that are seen done that in that category of customers creating content with and for you it's like we've got some work to do in that okay alright do let me ask you a different white do you do you see the value in why that you know I want it does a couple things every time I've done it the customer becomes a huge evangelist you know they're like look my pictures on the web site my videos on the web site so they almost like they really get you know excited about it you know, I've had customers over the year that you know we're you know like I mentioned remodeling contractor you know we'd go in and the couple would like do a tour of their house you know and all this stuff and I mean you could just see how excited they were it's just such compelling content and you know, it used to be kind of hard to produce it's just not really that harding more I mean they're just so all these tools come on we're going to something sir oh I thought that's where you go ok, I do have a hand up and that is for a mere in in the chat room who says, but how could I know which format my customers want well that's a great question on dh the answer is they want it off right? I mean, which is part challenge but I think it's also part opportunity for those of us in the content field and what I mean by that is I have people that that listen in fact when when a couple of my books have come out the it's a different publisher for the audio content and so sometimes usually because I record the audio myself in a studio and so I'm a little behind schedule sometimes the audio book comes out about thirty days later and I can't tell you how many e mails I get from people saying, hey, I'm going to buy your book I'm really, really excited but it's got to be in on audio I mean that's just the only way I consume, you know books and so you know, I think the message to me is really loud, clear people want to consume the way they want to consume. Now you will have markets that probably lean towards certain types of content being better, certain types of formats being better, but I think that for most markets having written content, audio content, video content, content they can consume on their phones I mean all I think we have to think in terms of producing it in a lot of those formats and when I start talking about more of the online content production tomorrow I will definitely hone in on that really tightly on some of the ways that we could repurpose and reuse content. All right, so we've got a couple more just a quick read, kate says instagram campaigns are great for customer created content great and then jen c h, c t we asked all customers to send pictures back to us in our apparel we post on our web site and social media sites and they love it. Yeah, awesome, you know, I had somebody, and again, this wouldn't necessarily customers, but I thought this was really interesting if you have a you know, a brand or recognizable, you know, you could do this as an author say with the book, for example, but I thought this was really interesting. You're familiar with fiver. If I v r r if I v rr dot com, you can post a you can actually ask people to take pictures and send them your product and ask him to take hundreds of pictures of your product around san francisco, for example, you know, in landmarks in san francisco and, you know, probably invest about eighty bucks in it, you know, on a on a really bad day right on and so there's a lot of really creative things you can do from that standpoint um one of my favorites and again this is of warning here we're going to get a little geeky with the technology, but I think that how many of you feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of content you feel the need to consume right? I mean, I'll do I think I certainly our customers do and I think one of the content strategies really is to get good at filtering content, aggregating content and being a a you know, an industry leader and saying, hey, here's, the five things you should read this week you know, I know that you're busy I know that you're really slammed with all these other people trying to give you stuff but here's the digest you know, here's the snack size content um I I switched my I put out a newsletter every week and a couple years ago I switched to a format where I just republished abstracts of about six or seven articles that I think people find interesting I always promotes from my own content as well, but I get tremendous feedback from people saying, you know, we just really appreciate that because it's a real quick scan we can decide if we want to read it you know that anything you tell us is good is, you know, it's pretty good stuff and so you know, I think in terms of how you might actually use some of the process technology that's out there, the ability to re tweet, you know, following, you know, following experts in your industry and then just re tweeting, you know what they put out there or at least, you know, sharing what they put out there, they're actually some nice tools storify is a good example of the tool that actually allows you to create pages topic pages, and then just they'll suggest some things on the topic, but you can also go out there and find all kinds of content that other people have written about a topic and just aggregated and bring it all together, and then you can actually embed that on your web site as well. News als is another great tool that I really like, and he w s l e dot com same idea, instead of necessarily subscribing to blog's, you can actually subscribe to people it's networks. So you could say, here are ten, you'll hear ten journalists that I want to follow, and I want to know, you know, anything that they write, for example, so instead of just getting, you know, block content, you can actually it's not just what they write it's actually what they might be sharing in their social networks, so you really have the the ability to so so for example, let's say you I wanted to work in several industries you know, the construction industry in texas for example you know you could you know or the or the water industry and text you could start actually aggregating everything that people are saying maybe around the country and producing a newsletter with very little work that was just the abstracts of everything that's been written in you know, in that very you know, niche topic and use that as you know, something that people would see is really valuable because again we're all really overwhelmed all right? So that was kind of my romp through and hopefully did I raise sort of the the level of what content really is and how important it is from a strategic standpoint because that was really that was the primary point really and kind of that that aspect of it do you send the newsletters to a mailing list or do you publish them on your blog's for subscribers street because I would find it hard to drive people teo without sharing it on a format like crease book I wouldn't really have anyone read it without kind of shoving it at them I guess well, so shoving it at them approach is actually one that at a necessity sometimes like you said you've got already even network in facebook but what if you were inviting people on facebook to come back and subscribe to your newsletter the email and again we'll get into depth in this tomorrow, but the idea behind content is content will become can become not a broadcast vehicle but an attraction vehicle, right? So that you are producing content lots of forms. I mean, one of the best when I talk about advertising the the most effective use of advertising and promote content. So if we run ads, say in facebook for my company, you know, we will be promoting an e book or will something free of workshops something like this that we want to promote because we're not we know that people will be attracted to that they want to get that they'll get on our email list, and then we will have lots of opportunities to then sell them something once we've earned that right. Ok, so but I'll get into really into depth tomorrow about this whole idea of lead capture and how it really has to be. It has to be a central part of your content strategy, you know, and that's, you know, that's, that's, probably the single greatest message that, you know, that goes along with that system approach is that all this stuff has to be integrated on, but all kind of works together, and when you get all the pieces built, it gets a lot easier. So along those same lines, neither london says, I've noticed that duct tape give away a lot of free resource is on their sites that something that's kind of been underscoring all of this there's no mention of paying for any of this content. Are you suggesting that we give it all away for free? Yes, I am. I am the universe will rain down on you with money, if you do know all right, that's, maybe a little simplistic, but the I'm not suggesting that you give it all away, they are suggesting that you and when we get into our next session about the hourglass, I'm suggesting that you use it as a way to lead people no like trust tribe I repeat refer content is a huge part in how you're going to get those first three, four, five, six stages on dso a lot of what we have to do is we have to build this foundation, it's never going to be a stand alone if all my business did was give away content, I wouldn't have a really good business model now what I but but all of my content and I'm not saying that that what that means is if you subscribe the next day, you're going to get buy from me. But all of my content that we produce and that I'm suggesting and be part of the marketing hourglass for you you has an objective some of it is just to educate to get subscribers to get people to read, you know, share my content because they think it's good to build the value in the brand, but a great deal of it has a very specific awareness component, a very specific lead generation component, a very specific lead conversion component, and even after somebody buys, I use content as a customer service to sew. All of all of this content fits together in that hourglass is why we really have to kind of cover it so deeply in this session because it's it's like the foundation for the house I know that's, a really worn out metaphor, but but everything we're going to build tomorrow and the next day when we get in the lead, all the online stuff and lead generation conversion hinges a great deal, in my opinion, on your ability to produce content that people finds valuable here's how I would like you to think about your business from a content standpoint, a strategy think in terms of yourself, and I think that every business to some degree is a publisher, no matter what you make, what yourself we have to kind of have that that publisher model or that publisher mentality now what that means is that again trying to get at this idea of, you know, contents not just mohr block post but that for example when I write a book I have to decide here is the primary thing I want people to think about this book or here's you know, the thesis the primary thesis for this book so then I go ok, what are all the chapters that that need to be in that and so actually organize my aa book and I also I think in terms of content for a business that is organized around these foundational theme, these major themes okay? And when we talk about seo search engine optimization tomorrow what I'm really talking about is, you know, the types of themes that people are looking for, right? We have to identify you know, what is the content that people are looking for as it relates to your business, right that's a key component of it because if we're just writing stuff that we thinks really cool, you know, that's probably not going to meet our objectives, right? So we have to understand fully, you know, what kind of content are people looking for? You know, again in my business they want to know how to grow their business than they want to know all the various elements of that I want to know about referrals I want to know about social media so so these become chapters if you will in the body were about every body of work, then we create an editorial calendar um and again I keep coming back to this but I'll talk about this more tomorrow but we have a very set plan for what kind of content we're going to produce and when and we come up with themes and if it's very much into that, you can't get it all done this week so you know, map it out have a plan for building this body of work, you know, we look up at the end of the year and we've got seventy books created we've got, you know, three hundred block post we had I mean, but it's all built around like a magazine, you know, we want to have a theme a month, you know, we want to have we want to be thinking in terms of ok what, you know, what author could we have on our show? Because we know in three months we're going to be talking about that so it's all built around trying to build this this you know, mo mentum around certain teams and it's really quite frankly it's the approach that for some of you that read a lot of my content it's it's the approach that we take that causes a lot of people say I don't know how you produce all this, you know we produce it all because we have a plan, you know, waking up on monday morning and wondering what to write on your block does not scale here it just doesn't right? And so when you have a plan you khun delegate a lot of this stuff you can find people that would love to write some of this content for you that would love to answer questions you can engage your customer community and producing content you know, when you look at the overall plan of what you're going to structure, so the three pieces of your content foundation that I want to cover two of them in depth today um and then as I said, really, when we start tomorrow to get into the it's going to be the front end of the online presentation as well ok, the first one is something I call your marketing kit, okay? And this is a workhorse tool that I have used for years and I think it's a great way for you is before I really before online everybody was producing online content. I had people producing marketing kids on dh it's really a great way for you to think about content that you actually might produce, you know, online now when I first created it a marketing kit was a tool that went the pocket folder and it gave lots of information about you know in all the categories of information I'm going to talk about it's still a legitimate used today in many cases you have somebody that's going to come to you face to face and they want you know they want paper you know, still it's it's obviously decreasing there certainly are people that want you know pdf forms and they want you know, everything sent to them via email on dh so I think we are in that window where in some cases you need to have both in some businesses you may have been able to go paperless in terms of marketing materials completely but it doesn't negate the need for having this delivery vehicle in my opinion where when somebody says, hey I am I want to know more about your products and services and how you're different and so they've done their research they found you via blawg post they've looked around they would subscribe to your newsletter and now they're thinking, hey, I'm considering you you know, for a purchaser I'm considering engaging you you know there needs to be that that vehicle in my opinion that says ok here's everything you need to know now that you're in that sort of mindset of actually making a purchase so it's it's kind of the decision stuff okay? So you know the first realm of researches you know, have you are there any ax murderers in your business? You know, do you? I mean, you said it's kind of that, like, can I put you on the short list? Right? That's? Kind of the first realm of business that we all do online now. Then we switch gears and we started thinking, ok, now I'm in purchase mode. I mean, decision mode, you know, what kind of information do I need to find for that? And that's really, what the marketing kit is all about. The second piece they don't want to really dive into is what I call the point of view. He book. Okay. E book, you know, it's another one of those terms that has changed over the years, you know? And now it's just a digital book format, but can be a pdf can be delivered via amazon. I mean, it's just, you know, it's elektronik format that that reads a lot like a book, but it doesn't have to be a book. It could be five pages. It could just be a way for you. So when we're talking about that talking look a lot of the ways I talk about people the point of view e book is that we take the talking logo and we turn it into twenty pages so it's like ok explained to me now how you're different. So for us, the seven steps to small business marketing success, which many of you have probably downloaded viewers out there, we're offering for free if you just go to the duct tape marketing dot com creative live page that's our point of view, that's my system that is expanded into twenty if you want to know how we're and if you want to know what you're going to get essentially, if you hire us, you're going to find that in this book that I have now has been downloaded over three hundred thousand times on dh it is, you know, how people people come to know duct tape marketing, but it's also a way for me to say this is what we stand for, you know, this is what we believe in. This is our methodology, andi I think that that's a part that for a lot of businesses is really missing, you know, there is no distinct methodology, there is no distinct point of view. There is no, you know, here's how we're different in the expanded view, you know, the here's exactly how we get you the result is what that essentially adds up to andan the last piece of your content foundation then and again this will be tomorrow morning's first session is really than your themed online content what you know what is the strategy then for how to take you know all of this material put it online and start you know start with this publishing point of view for everything you do online. So any questions right there in the in the where we're headed so some of this will be I used off lines of this be used online and I know some of this air kind of new concepts but well, just just a statement from blue who says john you produce a lot of content but you also have a staff what do you think is more realistic for at one person shot oh pulled the staff card you know what? Um there's no question I will say that the plan, the plan and the strategy of what you're going to produce makes you much more efficient right once you are efficient and once you and I I started producing every word of it myself let's, let's start there you know, in about fifteen hundred block posts and you know, maybe I started getting some help so start there start producing yourself but there are so many incredible I'm going to give you a whole list tomorrow so many incredible resource is very inexpensive resource is forgetting content at least started and produced by people that very quickly can write content that I would never suggest that you just hire people there five dollars in article you know kind of content production but you deaf there definitely are people that can put five hundred words together that you can then make your own you know with very little work and I'll share some of those resource is there are virtual assistance that there are journalists that you are no longer working for you know, some of these newspapers that used to have hundreds of journalists working for them there are a lot of avenues for getting content done here's the key you have to tie it to your objectives it has toe alter may be leading to paying off right I mean, I I can spend as much time as I want producing content now because it pays me to do so right? And I'm not suggesting that you'll ever get to that point, but I think that if you figure out what's the highest payoff way for us to produce content then you can start investing in along the same lines j perkins says john, do you republished third party content on your web site or email links leading to their website? Um the simple answer is yes to both of those now I re published in several ways I have guessed once a week on thursdays so tomorrow morning wake up looking my block it will be written by somebody other than me so I allowed guests post content it's it's actually a very I'll tell you the strategic reason I do it it takes a little load off we still have editorial standards so it's not just come on down, fill out the form and hit send we have editorial standards but what does a cz those people typically link to their own content on my site so it generates actually back links, you know, for my site so it's an s e o play as much as it is a content play do I linked to other people? I linked to other people's stuff all the time that's to me that's that's sort of the dna of blogging in a way is that it? You know, a lot of what I write in on my block if I'm talking about a service, I'm talking about a book I'm talking about somebody else who said something you know, I always like to it always. And I think that that makes her much richer experience people want they don't want you to talk about this great new tool and then have to go find it. I don't think anyway that's my my take on smiling to it now in my newsletters, I actually will republish other people's abstracts of their block content I will absolutely credit this is where this came from and here's the link to go read the full story something I'm struggling with a little bit as I create like r e book or you know that sort of thing is how much do you give away like you have your seven steps and you know, I don't want people to feel like, oh, I got everything I need how do you manage that? You're giving them enough that they feel like they want more yeah, well here's my take and I know that there are there are some really highly technical businesses out there that you know, they they do have some sort of secret sauce and they pull certain levers and make things happen, you know? But most of us really don't you know and the reason I say that is because I want I believe that the people who will become our best clients I don't want to know how to do what I do they want to know that I know how to do it on dh so the people that want the free book to say oh good, I can go do it myself I would never want to work with them anyway, right? I shouldn't say never but probably not an ideal client anyway and so I err on the giving away side because I think that I think that it can be disingenuous to kind of go the here here here's a little bit here's a little bit you know pay me and I'll give you the rest on dso you know, and then the other side of that too is it's all about execution, you know? I mean, I can give people incredible ideas in fact there are lots of people that use the duct tape methodology, you know, out there in there, you know, in their practices you know, whether I know about them or not and you know, I'm I'm actually I'm not I'm not suggesting people should do that I'm actually ok with that because I think I think they're actually spreading the word, you know? I mean, I don't I don't authorize it or anything, but I don't, you know, try to prosecute people for it either, so I really I think give it away um all right, so what's the marketing kit look like to me and again I'll go back to the old days when I was producing this all on paper it was a it was a pocket folder that had these some configuration of these eight or ten elements and I think that they are just as valid today as they were, you know, before we put everything online because I think that a part of the beauty of this is the structure of the content how you use this content, how you deliver this content will be different for your businesses, and I'll go in. Teo most of these, most of these air pretty obvious what there are there's a couple that are maybe a little bit unique. So the first one is something I call a case statement, anybody working non profit? Do any work in nonprofit was a very, very common for nonprofits and that's where I got this I idea very, very common for nonprofit agencies to produce a case statement, and essentially it was the here's our case for why you should give us money, right, or why you should support our mission on dh I think, really a lot of our business is basically the same thing here is the case, you know, for why you should give us money or support our business, and so I really like that format because it kind of it kind of forces of format, and again, I'll get I'll get into what the components of of what I think a good case statement could look like, and again thinking while you're going through this think in terms of how you could use this offline, how you could use this online, how you could deliver this is a pdf, so I'm not really suggesting a format fort as much as thinking through the type of content that you are the type of exploration you need to do to produce this content a different summer is really just ah eh a statement about how we're different here's what we do that's different here is what we do that unique here's our approach that's unique on and again these things typically were one page or less if you've developed client persona is not always been a lot of cases somebody being able to read about you know here's who we get a great result for you know it allows them to kind of say, oh that's me you know I fit into that that you know you're describing me you know I must be a really good fit for you obviously you need to at some form in some place described your products and services right? So people know what they're buying they know what the packages are they know how things fit together that would be different for everyone success stories you know, a lot of people used to call them case studies, but again I just like to I like to produce content that highlights your customers and it could it could be for portfolio or it could just be, you know, photos of ah finished project or it could be just you know, the results that, uh your client received your story for most small businesses and it's really funny ten years ago when I used to talk about how you needed to put your personal story into your business you know I had a lot of put ten years ago people were still sent item it's all very professional you know and of course now we going facebook and tell everybody what we had for lunch you know so you know the gig's up on that right? So you know the idea of sharing your personal story I think is a great kind of trust building and not in a way that just says here's you know, I was born on a tuesday you know it was noon it was chilly that day but in a way that actually delivers some value you know what? How does your story relate to you know your purpose to your passion to you know why you started this company andi I think that that I think every single one of you in fact I'm going to come back and asked put some of you on the spot probably has that story and the question is are you using it as a way for people to connect obviously proof do you have results? Faa cues are great it's just another way you know frequently asked questions it's just another way for people to digest it you know, a lot of times the and and again, you know some of this comes about because we all have different learning styles. You know, some people have proof example, my wife's with me on this trip, and so, you know, we're in town, we don't really know very well and, you know, so she pulls up the google maps and she is like, I have to have the turn by turn, you know, I just need to tell me where to turn, and I'm like, that doesn't make any sense to me it all show me the math. You show me the picture of, like, ok, got it right and it's because, you know, we consume content in much different ways, and I think our customers are very much the same in that same boat. So some people, they just have a question or two, they want to check it off the list, right? Some people want the long video. Some people want to read the entire story. Some people just want to connect with your story. So the to the a person's question earlier in this session, when they were asking about how, you know, do you have to put it in different forms? I mean, I think a lot of it has to do with that people want to consume it in the way that they want to consume it. Um checklists you know, another another really kind of cool marketing tool is if you've developed some processes for actually how you make sure that the work gets done and how you make sure that the results get delivered that could be some really cool content because your competitors and a lot of cases aren't doing it, you know, either they're not you know, you have a better system, you have a better process on dso actually documenting here's everything that goes in tow us getting you a finished product or a us getting you a great result and this is the checklist that you know, our customer service or our technicians actually use to get you the result. It's actually kind of cool content and then obviously articles you've written or articles that people have written about you again third party proof really, really great content. Okay, so let me stop there questions about just the marketing kitten general going to go into depth on particularly a couple of the things like the case statement that maybe aren't as clear but any questions about just the marketing kid itself we did have one or two questions. First of all, boston bob says the marketing kit actually sounds like the recipe for a great website like pretty much everything you wanted a website is there let's see what the question was, what is the difference between the proof and the success story okay, sure. Eso first that first point he's absolutely right in any sort of stole the punch because that is not really but that's definitely where I'm headed right? Okay, this is you know, whatever the delivery vehicle this is a structure for how to tell me beautifully about your business that's what it is so whether you use it as a structure, a website or it's a something you hand to somebody when they come visit your office so great so so a success story to me that there probably a lot of similarities a success story would be more of you know, here's the problem this person was having, you know here's what they what we recommended, you know, here's the result they got and a lot of times for me proof actually fits more into like measured results you know? So here you know, here are three people's performance and how it improved you know, for example so that probably could be the same dependent upon your business this success stories read more like a story. You know, proof reads more like, you know data that makes sense. Yeah, so when you started going into this I mean the whole content theme seems so overwhelming but if you kind of look at it like this it seems like as you go through this process you end up having a lot of different pieces of content and uh which makes it much less overwhelming after yeah, absolutely the first step in this I mean, I think the content you know, the nice thing about all of this is like here's phase one you can take face to face three and you know, ramp it up to make it is complicated you want you can start adding people to help, you know, produce content but this is the foundation you're right and and the nice thing is for a lot of businesses even this this foundation is such an improvement in terms of really communicating what the business does. I think this is very I think key because you know, I've known about the whole content thing in my business we have plenty educational content put out there uh but just being able to like you say the foundation and then eat away and, you know, finally accomplished something, but now you're building something and then you have your strategy that could build on top it's right then that's why I started here, you know, way net, you necessarily gravitated to all the online content producing things and I am as I've said about twelve times not going to get to that tomorrow, but I wanted to give you this foundation because I think it's an important place to start so thank you for acknowledging that and and for you know, for recognizing that any more questions just another another comment from noodle on it who's a regular here and I just love that but your user name but who says could be dot dot dot a system s so you know going back to what we started the day with saving yourself save yourself time energy and money um planning out your content question no question so this does you know that's probably good place for me to throw that this does build this is like legos right tio extent and so that's why we spend so much time on the path that we're going down on dh that's why we'll try to wrap it up you know, on the third day to say ok, you know now you've got all of the lego pieces you know, stack up right so and you know, lego is a trademark registered you're like just say it all right? So let's talk about this case statement idea because remember I talked about this a great tool for nonprofits, right? Okay, so the idea is they're actually it's kind of a form you to this and I think you know, great copyrighting actually follows this formula out of time so you know, the first thing is to actually state kind of here's the challenge here is what we know you're struggling with ok? Because we know who you are and again that's obviously it's got to be put in your words um but imagine if that challenge that problem that you know whatever it is you want accomplish one away so you paint the bay a better picture here's what if your day looked like you had control what if you were able to work on just the projects you wanted to work on you know what if you were actually able to to you know to be seen you know as a leader in your business right paint the picture that we know is really the result there after and then you've got to take him back down again to some extent look we know how this happens you know we understand we've been down this path with a lot of people right? We understand how you got here okay? So that's so so so you understand these air each like paragraphs or two paragraphs or you know whatever that's kind of following this formula right here's the challenge we know you're facing imagine a better you know if it were fixed imagine what life would be like if you didn't have that challenge anymore we know how you got here and then of course what if there was a solution and punch line is you're the solution right? What you have is the solution and then some called action and that called action in this piece really in many cases is download ari but take our free evaluation um you know call to set a time where we could discuss I mean, whatever you want to do for you, whatever is appropriate for your business but the rial key is that imagine this is being your home page as and again in a lot of cases you're home page needs to be people came there to buy a product or they need to see your products and services but imagine if this was a pretty central part of your website that that you were able to really talk two people about I mean that you understand what their challenges you understand how it could be better you understand how they got there and here's how they could fix it is really in many cases we have found that that that formula just really allows you connect with people that are they do fit, you know, all of those things they are having that challenge they do want effects so this is this is where we get into sort of creative writing, right? So this is the kind of thing where a lot of times people early on was how do we get this done? You know, in a lot of times I would just I would just if you don't feel like you're creative writer just speaking to, you know, talk about what you see is the challenge is talk about what you've seen the better picture is for people who have gotten the results just speaking and then give it to somebody and let them you know, anybody who's got any journalist training we'll take that in about thirty minutes turning it into a seven hundred word document even though they don't know a thing about you or your business right? So it's not really that and probably get that done for thirty to fifty dollars in some cases so it's really does don't don't overcomplicate this you know, the scariest thing the most small business owners see is you know is a blank word document right it's the scariest scariest thing that you know that shows up on their computer so you know don't stress out about that your story um mr rogers one of my mentors um was I want my favorite quotes it's hard not to like someone wants you know their story and I think that's true even people that you thought you were going to dislike you know and you thought you should dislike you know and then you hear their story you hear where they came from, you have like a common connection or you you understand why they are like they are because you heard their story and I think that the power of that is is so so effective in terms of marketing and again not in a manipulative way but but certainly in a way that you know letting our guard down and sharing you know, our personal stories um you know really classic classic stories you know who I am you know what I do what our vision for this company is you know, the examples of times when our values have been tested on dh put into action lessons that you've learned along the way you know why you believe that this is your approach is the right approach I mean those just or you know I'm going to pick on you rhyme because you actually had the most sort of product product business and a lot of you know, a lot of people think in terms of content they naturally think service businesses you know, big project businesses or a natural but you know why you the story of why you choose what you choose why you got into I'd love to hear this certain fact kind of put you on the spot sure just from there about from from from right there why do you why would you start this visit I just sucked at everything else career wise you know I wanted to make something that wasn't on the market so I started fiddling around with it in my apartment I thought ok maybe I can scale that's like a figure out of business so it was really from doing something I enjoy designing and uh not being able to do really anything else very well ok does that there's some form of that story appear on your website uh yeah okay, because again I think people really I'm guessing that that some of your customers really connect with with that same feeling of not that I sucked it everything but that's saying feeling of you know, I was sort of not fitting in other places that led me to doing what I really should be doing yeah, you get a sense that you're doing what you should be doing right now oh yeah yeah and you didn't before, right? I mean, I think that really powerful people people connect with that feeling you're great you're shaking your head? Are you doing what you should be doing right now? Yeah, I used to work in computers and was tied to a phone all day long sign out of my phone to use the restroom and I wanted to be passionate about what I did and so I quit and went back to school it's really security to do but I'm doing what I should be doing and so could that would would you make that part of your story? Um if I could whittle it down to a short story yes and I put you, can I embarrass you? What do you what do you say? I didn't think about that it's not a challenge you sent in with your video oh man my video so so just for the audience out there that may not know you know of the students as we call them submitted videos just to say hey here's what I want to be here here's why I'm going to be a great student um and I really loved you so thank you is that my love that because he kept telling me mom you need to do it again you're saying on you look like a crazy woman and so my thirteen year old son was my editor that day and I did I was totally here eat and but that's me on and certainly I b flat out I will flat out tell you that that's why you're here today is because your story was so really honest I mean you actually kids so here's the bursting part she said I'm sorry I look like crap you know my kids were running all over the place that I know it's the end of the day and have a you have two kids three kids two for four years and it was just like oh lord we have got to give this gal a three day vacation no but it actually was really the honesty of you know maybe you would never put that on your website you know because it's maybe too honest now but but I think that that was a really a great example of I think people want to see who we really are and you know obviously there are limits to that but, you know, I think it's a I think it was really great thank you. I think where it's helpful is that people really do want to buy from people and if we can hear those stories that's where there's some level of influence there and something that people can identify with, especially in a social world today, you know, necessarily want to buy from a company we want to know about the people that were buying from and that's where I think the story has value, what you think about, like, described, you know, faceless corporation, right a moment pop, you know, all about the people or lack thereof well and the thing about stories so so the story of your own story, you know, is really is really a starting point, but, you know, our customers tell themselves stories, right? And they so it's really this I keep coming back to this this idea of it's really an entire narrative that were really a weaving so it's. So the part of who you are is the starting point. But, you know, there are four core stories that I talk about, you know, you your passion, you know, should be one of the stories that you're able to tell why you do what you do should be one of the stories the value proposition how that's connected to the business I mean that that could be a story and should be a story personality stories you know how why why it is that this business you know, the quirks of this business of that that make it something fun and playful and convenient and, you know, the kind of things we we attribute tio personalities, you know, those are, you know, it's it's, not just one story it's really the idea of telling stories that's an important part of marketing on by, you know, think back about how how often you can take you know, I didn't even know the term gray water, you know, until I started reading your stuff, but so so you know, don't be too impressed when I start throwing out lingo, but but but you know, the idea that you could take something and explain exactly how it works and the engineers in the room will go that spring that's really and everybody else to go one day saying, right, but if you told a story about, you know, somebody's somebody's, you know, journey to, you know, to really, you know, move into the future by, you know, having this tool that allowed him to do exit mean that a lot of times you can take something that's really complex and simplify it in a store. You can certainly take stuff that people remember on. Dh put it in a story and, you know, we I mean, think about when we're all learning in grade school, right? They use stories, you know, teach us, you know, a lot of the important lessons. And I think it really does apply tio to, you know, to marketing certainly does anybody want anybody have a passion story they want to share? If I can you put your hand up before, like, I was going to talk about how it's amazing you put your story out there and you write your about us page and how how many people do read that? And then they do come and read your story, and then when you go out and meet him like they already know you and you already have some place to start on to talk about, and then so just amazing in terms of our passions, business partner and I, we met serving in the peace corps and the peace corps, living on rainwater is what drove us into this. And so simply just put up our story on r about us, page, and I can't tell you how many times our customers have been like what is so amazing. Yes, you know, I wantto feel that same way I want to do something like that. And that was that was a beautiful example of that. Because I think, you know, it fits in, you know, so incredibly, you know, I have I'll tell you one. I'm not sure which story this is. Where if it's in, but one of the time when I really first decided I was going to only exclusively work with small businesses, andi think it, you know, again, it really does lead to that. What I started off today with about, you know, my why, it's, my passion is I did some work for a company in kansas city. Ah, major telecom. We'll leave it at that. Um, and they I don't remember what the work was, but it was a very least pretty small project. Unless it was in the two thousand five hundred dollars, sixteen range. You know, andrea, I'll tell you the reason I remember that is because, uh, about ninety days later, when they decided to pay the invoice, um, I got a check for two hundred fifty six thousand one hundred fifty, some in change. And, you know, if there have been one more zero on it, I might have, you might have wolf a little bit but instead I called him up and I was like, you know, obviously somebody made a big mistake and of course then they went they sent me off through this entire process of what I had to do to get this check back to them and if I didn't do it in ten days it was like are you kidding me so you know it really it if I'd said it already you know, it was really the point where I decided you know, in my business career that I was really only going to work with people that you know, that I could look in the eye that I could you know that I knew that when they wrote that check you know, they were making a decision about the results I got it wasn't just really going to be you know, this this faceless thing and so that's really I mean, I tell that story a lot because it really does mean a lot of people are like gas here you know? You really you really like the small business owners and you're absolutely right it it is a big part of my story quite question from the rainy day store should you have been negative in dear story like they started as a hobby and then lost their business and had to recreate their ebay store so they could survive and pay bills now that's great but I think there's no question that people I mean obviously you have to decide how much you want to disclose but there's no question that adversity is a tremendous story aside because a lot of it has a lot of it has to say, you know what you've overcome, you know, t get to where you are and I think that's a very compelling story I had a client that the gut shot, you know, on a job site and, you know, all this lot will frankly did lose his business for a period of time, almost lost his life on dh he rebuilt his business and became the president of his trade association. I mean, just incredible story and he would you know, he would tell that story because it was a lot of, you know, it became, you know, he left out the gory details, but it became a really significant, you know, part of, you know, here's where we've been, so I I think I think it could be very, very effective. Can I just share one story from online passion story? Okay, and this is from ronnie, who says I went backpacking in southeast asia, fell in love with cambodia and wanted to come back home and find a way to help I filled my backpack with their beautiful scarves to raise money for an ngo there and they were a hit back home, so I've turned it into a business and now work with weavers there in cambodia to make scarves and for each one sold would give a uniform to a child back in cambodia so that they can attend school. Well, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing. Let me just share this last one. So I talked about this idea of I believe everybody should have this point of view e book, you know, for us, it's the seven steps, but it really outlines your methodology or you're what I call killer technology now, technology might not be bits and pieces in a computer. It might actually just be the way you get somebody a result, you know, for us, you know, the marketing hourglass, for example, is kind of a killer technology for us, or at least it's an innovation that people really take note of the the essence of, you know, the result that you get for people, the pain and the gain that you know, that they're going to get, you know, the again it could take many forms, you know, the you know, typical thing is the seven steps you must do or the seven steps you must avoid, but I will tell you that particular piece for us has been such a foundational piece you know, we obviously have variations of it. All my consultants use it. I give presentations, have given presentations on it, like my consultants use it as kind of their lead generation tool. And to me, you can take it beyond that. We probably have a eight or ten, you know, e books that we use for lead capture, but but those air just ones that now people trust our content, they want to get more of it. Right? But but really, having this one document that you can use as a riel, you know, well, a lot of times, people not such a glamorous ways call it a bait piece, but you know, something that people want to come to, you find out more. They want to give you their email address on dh, so that that they can start in many ways a relationship with you. But it's not just fluff it it really is it's it's, kind of like the term paper, you know, for your business, it's the thesis for your business. And I think that I think that it's essential that you have a a methodology. So, you know, regardless of what you do, that you're able to say here's, how we get you the results that you're able to outline that and not only here's how we get through the result but here's how you know that approach is different and why it matters to you now any book again I'll just end on is you know, a very broad term it can be a five page pdf it can be you know, three diagrams that you know that you could deliver a certain way the biggest thing is that it really goes into to depth for that person that is considering engaging you're considering a purchase and they wantto they really want to understand you know maura about your business and again it can be you know, ryan in your case it could actually be just a hole you know, dissertation about leather and the qualities of leather and why leather is you know, throughout history why leather has been such an important material to use you know, for you know, for the there was types of products, you know? And I think that I think that would actually be you could sprinkle in products and services you know, at the end of our e book of course there's all kinds of ways that you can learn mohr and that that that might say, hey, if you like the sea book, you know, here's how you can here's how you can buy a product I mean, so it doesn't have to just be pure information, but I think that that it's another foundational piece to go along with your marketing. Renee has a quick question about the best style of your story. Third person, first person what you recommend? I don't think there is a best, you know, I mean, I would I would probably default to first person, but I think for a story, I think sometimes third person, maybe you'd reserve that for your bio or something. You know, john is a bubble blah, but I think I think I now you work it's tricky with first person, of course, is does it become the company's story, you know, at some point, too. So, you know, sometimes people have to transition, so it was I I and then it has to become, and then it becomes a sort of collective we or, you know, so you do have to kind of pay some attention to that. But if you're really just telling if this rene is ah, single, you know, business or a small business and she's the owner, I like first person. Thank you. Okay, so I have, uh, information that I give potential customers, and then I have information that I give people. Once they've booked with me before their sessions, so would that all the considered a market part of the marketing kid you know I think it probably could be I think you're going to use it in different ways I mean when I talk about sales conversion I would really call what you describe I would call the first part of that the marketing kit and I would call the second part of that your new customer kit or your customer kit okay so there's definitely a place for content that orients a customer that says here's where we agreed upon today use what I need from you here's how to get the best result you know I mean so that kind of education and frankly it's a really really great tool I'm glad you're doing it because I think they're you know there are a lot of businesses that just say ok you know show up on tuesday and it's like well what I wear what I do you know on dso now having that just is really a nice professional touch okay glad to hear you've been putting into action well he's been learning here okay so a question from tierra how should we determine what to share where how do we differentiate what should be in the block post versus an e book again if you could clarify that ok, so so the marketing kit to me is kind of that sweet of material so andi, I think in a lot of I mean those could be individual what I would call more static pages even if it's in wordpress those would be pages that that you know you want to be permanently there and available on maybe in your main navigation or it would be a any book you know, download our marketing kit you know that that's a very legitimate use as well for the marketing kit now the so when we when we talk about it and we'll bring it together you know tomorrow more about you know, the block content should be reserved maurine a lot of ways for expanding you know, on all the themes that might be in your e book so like for example my e book my foundational e book seven steps I don't really change that that much I mean that's content that I that I wrote and maybe we updated some a little bit but then I expand on it through blogged so if one you know one of the things is the marketing hourglass or one of its lead generation trio the steps that I showed you this morning we'll write all kinds of content on my block post about various aspects of lead generation but they all sort of final back into you know that that core piece anymore questions in here so we had one from amir and just kind of briefly summers I think he writes basically about bodybuilding for skinny guys right and that's kind of his his passion but as he's gotten much more into it, he's kind of shifted into marketing ideas and techniques and path on the path that have followed and started writing about that, but marketing was never his passion. So do you need toe have that passion? You know, what's funny is some of the most successful businesses that I've come across say they don't do any market, right? Because they have been so tuned to think that marketing is this marketing speak, you know, copyrighting getting people tio do something they don't want to do, you know, it's hard selling on, but really the most effective marketing is none of that it's just being who you are telling your story, writing, you know, providing content that people feel is valuable, that they feel gets them, you know, information that they want, so I don't think you ever have to say I'm all of a sudden I'm passionate about marketing I think you have to understand that it's important, important function and system in the business, but, you know, I don't I think what he described, you know, that's what's funny is his marketing is effective marketing, and I think that's where the, you know, sometimes the sort of the belief about what marketing is actually is what needs to be changed. Tell us about what s o s soap on screen. If you go to duct tape marketing dot com for its last creative live, we have a little page there waiting just for you on day that we will offer you you can sign up for my weekly newsletter if you wish on doing so well are also going to give you ah, copy of that seven steps to marketing success. So it's our our foundational e book, but we also have another offer for you that worth about two hundred fifty dollars. We will give you the opportunity to have to fill out a form and tell us about your business. Tell us about what you're doing in your marketing, and we will then match you up with the duct tape marketing consultant, and they will spend time on the phone with you going over that getting and I giving you some of the ideas like what we've talked about today and really the promise to you is that they will give you three solid suggestion a t end of that of something that you can do pretty much right away in most cases toe to see some improvement, so it will very much be worth you're tough. Absolutely so we've been hearing about this marketing hourglass all day and what are we going to do when we come back? We'll so we are going to dive deeply into you know I've touched the surface on it right? So we're gonna dive deeply into marketing hourglass and show you all the different ways that can be used show you how to apply it kind of globally and sort of on a micro level and really from you guys we we really want to start hopefully I've got the wheels turning in your head so I'll give you assignment or during the break start thinking about you filling your marketing our boss so what are you doing for no, what are you doing for like what are you doing for trust and we're going to actually give you some some little posted stickies andi, we're going to bring up on the board here we're gonna put a big version of the marketing hourglass up here and we're going to take those and start sticking him up as you fill them out we're going to we're going to put him on the board and then we'll shit and we're going to ask the the internet audience to share theirs in, you know in that as well and we're just going to build this giant market hourglass and amazingly what you're going to find is for a lot of you is some of this some of the same things obviously you'll have your own little twist on it you know and it will be your own personal one but a lot of the things that you could do in each of those categories will be very similar so it's kind of a time for group learning and of the folks out there in internet land to jump in and build their marketing hourglass too that is wonderful so I want to briefly tell you a very short story about us here at creative live a few years back mr craig swanson, the founders creative life had this this binder that was called the duct tape marketing system and this was like, way, way early on and he had this binder that as he started creating businesses he would use the foundation of creative live is based on this system what it was that that craig used to grow us from sitting in a tiny room where the producers would sit on a couch behind her sit on the floor behind the students while can I was sitting there with giant headphones on because we can hear ourselves otherwise to where we are right now with a second studio in san francisco one back and keller in seattle that's based on the techniques that we've been talking about today if you look back through what we've just talked about much of it is very, very familiar talked about giving away content most of you were probably watching this right now for free. We talked about using strategies to engage your customers and get them to provide content for you. I'm pretty sure that when we come back from break, we're going to be giving away a prize that many of you submitted quotes via twitter for all of these techniques that john has been teaching work. If you want to see the proof, looking at your monitor right now, this is how it works, and I love so much that john is providing this system that's, how I work. I want to know step by step, I want to know, okay, what do I do, then? What do I do next? And I don't know why I'm doing it. That's. What we're laying out today is this foundation, and over the next two days will be going deeper into the tactics of how you actually implement all of these strategies that you're creating today.