“The problem with marketing is that they don’t know what content we really need in the field, and 90% of the time I don’t have what I need for a specific customer.”

Anonymous Salesperson

“The problem with sales is that we produce a crazy amount of content for them, but we have no idea what they find useful, what they’re sharing with customers or what’s really moving the needle on deals.”

Anonymous Marketer

There’s a growing chasm between marketing and sales

Marketing creates content for the field. Sales teams need content but can’t find it, and don’t have what they think they need for their deals. The feedback never makes it to marketing. Marketing keeps creating more content that is off the mark. Sales keeps getting more and more frustrated. Deals stall. Rinse, recycle, repeat.

It’s a constant cycle that I’ve seen first-hand. And, no amount of phone calls, Salesforce notes or feedback process can fix this problem. It needs technology to make the cycle more transparent, the content more accessible and relevant, the feedback loop more evident and the salesperson more effective at moving deals along with the help of situationally-perfect content.

That’s why we created Spark

Spark is a mobile tool that gives sales teams the content they need to help them close deals – when they need it, where they need it. It’s the newest addition to our portfolio of solutions built on top of our widely-adopted Content Cloud content marketing platform. And, it’s game-changing for our customers who want to arm their sales teams with content on demand to help them close deals.

Spark is the next step in an evolution of sales enablement solutions

We purpose-built Spark to solve big content problems in sales and marketing organizations. We were of course aware of all the sales enablement solutions that came before it. It’s a hot category because of the high demand for better systems to distribute content to the field, and it’s a very expensive problem if that content isn’t accessible.

What we’ve found, however, is that almost all the solutions available today are just solving a fraction of the foundational problems that organizations face when it comes to enabling their sales forces with content. They help solve the accessibility problem by making content available on mobile devices, but they don’t begin to solve the bigger problem – ensuring that salespeople have the right story for any customer situation. Not just the right piece of collateral, but the most effective story to move the deal along.

Spark is a comprehensive solution for companies who want to tackle all the problems that make sales enablement such a tricky and expensive challenge. It is what we believe to be the next generation of solutions built to empower large sales organizations. Here’s a brief history of sales enablement solutions, which will help you to understand why we think it’s such a big deal.

• 1959: The Xerox machine creates efficient content distribution

This amazing invention solved the problem of distribution of content. For the first time ever, marketing teams could create sales material and give to their sales people en masse. The sales binder was a huge step forward in the industry!

• 1984: The Laptop computer brings portability to content

When the laptop first arrived to market (well, actually years later once the graphics became more sophisticated), salespeople finally had a digital way to present material. Combined with the projector (which arrived much later in the 90’s), they could more easily support new content when they received quarterly content updates on floppy disks from marketing.

• Early 1990’s: The VPN creates content accessibility

Giving employees in the field access to firewall-protected content stored on the company’s file servers was a big deal (and still is for many companies who haven’t adopted newer cloud-based technology). Although clunky and not user friendly (ever tried to log into a VPN with a key fob?), this new tech made content more accessible in the field and began to create a stronger connection between marketing updates and sales utilization.

• Mid 2000’s: Cloud storage systems make content convenient to store and access

Box, Dropbox, Google Drive – all amazingly powerful cloud-based systems for companies to store their content. And, for many companies, they represented freedom from the clunky VPN, and more convenient access to files through user permissioning. Cloud storage systems provide high value to organizations as they shed their expensive server infrastructure, but have been bastardized to become sales enablement systems for many. But, really, they aren’t solving the sales enablement problem, and were never really meant to.

• Early 2010’s: “New” school sales enablement tools improve mobility of content

According to chiefmartec.com, in the past two years alone, around 20-30 new “sales enablement” startups have emerged. In looking at them, almost all are focused on solving two primary pain points: 1. Make content easier to find in the field; and 2. Allow salespeople to use their tablets and mobile phones to access content. These solutions have advanced the field considerably, and are a huge step forward from cloud storage systems. But, they all fall short of solving the really expensive, deeper and more foundational problems that Spark now solves.

• March 26, 2015: Spark makes content more powerful, more accessible, more measurable and more effective

Spark has an incredibly rich feature set that connects marketing and sales teams in a way that other solutions do not. The reason for this is our roots in content marketing and our focus on building technology that fundamentally helps our customers to engage with their customers in unique and meaningful ways. Spark builds on that history, and provides amazing benefits to organizations looking to see meaningful performance improvements across their sales and marketing organizations:

• Better content ROI transparency: CRM integration for personalized experience and content-to-close analytics
• More well-prepared salespeople: Internal-only content for training and meeting prep
• More effective content for any sales situation: Marketing-curated content “playlists” for the most common sales situations
• Greater flexibility for solution sellers: Sales-curated, marketing-controlled playlists for unique sales situations
• More shared learnings in the field: Trending playlists for transparency and collaboration amongst reps
• Better informed salespeople: Curated news feed and UGC to keep the field current on industry current events
• More immediate value for prospects: Native email and texting for instant delivery of content to prospects

Learn more about Spark here. In the meantime, enjoy this 2-minute video that brings the new tool to life.

The post Meet Spark: A Content-First Approach to Sales Enablement appeared first on Thismoment Content Marketing Blog.

Very soon I will board a plane bound for Orlando with my family — yes, we’re headed to Disney World. On the surface there’s nothing remarkable about this trip or my planning process: it’s a family trip, I made the reservation online, received an email confirmation and now we wait for our departure date. Then, out of the blue, things got exciting. So exciting, in fact, that my experience brought about a glimpse of the future of one-to-one content marketing, and it was beautiful.

One-to-one content via snail mail?

What was this magical moment?

Direct mail.

Yes, direct mail.

But, not just any direct mail, personalized direct mail relevant to my family and our vacation that eventually moves us to an online and mobile experience.

Sure, we’ve all seen the glories of mail merge and one-off customized printing, it’s not terribly new, but when you receive it, and it’s about you, it makes an impact. My mini book had a custom cover, reservation information, info about my hotel (not all of the others), info about each of the parks, and, most importantly, it’s all about MY TRIP.

Brilliantly, they move me from the book to the website with the promise of customizing “My Disney Experience.” Once online I can order MagicBands and reserve attractions ahead of time via FastPass+. Disney is allowing me to use technology to customize my vacation, right down to what ride I want to experience on what day and at what time. From there, I am asked to download an app for my mobile phone that will make all of my plans available once I begin traveling.

What future Disney visitor wouldn’t love this experience?

Three one-to-one content tips from Disney

It comes as no surprise that Disney and team are brilliant marketers. So brilliant, in fact, that this one experience gives all marketers a few lessons about how to harness content and technology to build one-to-one content marketing campaigns that work – really well.

• Build excitement: Let’s face it; Disney is not a cheap vacation. Generally, when you make reservations for a trip, you receive a nothing more than a generic email confirmation. As time passes many think about the money spent, maybe search online to find things to do, but if excitement is building it’s because the customer is building it on their own. By providing custom touch points filled with useful and exciting content, unique to my family post-purchase, Disney is helping to build excitement. It works, and it’s brilliant.
• Personalize: All customers are unique, have different needs, especially in travel. Since this is not a one-size-fits-all world, what I need for my trip is different from just about every other person. Disney knew that and delivered a book that is unique to my trip. Rather than sending a generic 40-page book that explains ALL hotels, and all attractions, Disney sent a book that was specific to my hotel and my reservation details. I received all the information I need in a custom 15-page book. It works, and it’s brilliant.
• Be Helpful: Most people don’t often travel, and most people don’t go to Disney parks on a regular basis. As such, the experience can be very overwhelming, and in some cases stressful. By sending this book, connecting to a custom online experience and urging use of an on-the-go app with every last detail, Disney is eliminating some of the anxiety that comes with travel. And more than that, they are making the experience of planning time and attractions fun and interactive. One of the key pillars of content marketing is to ALWAYS to be helpful. Everything content marketers do should be designed to serve the customer, not market to the customer. In the case of Disney, every bit of information is designed to help my family on our journey to Florida. It works, and it’s brilliant.

What this means for the rest of us

Of course, not all of us have the marketing budget of Disney or a product as exciting as the “happiest place on earth.” So, what are we to do with these one-to-one content lessons from Disney?

If you break it down, it becomes clear that what Disney has done to support one-to-one marketing is pretty simple:

• They created a repository of content
• They gathered all of my travel details (dates, hotel package, etc.)
• They selected content based on my travel details
• They sent it to me in the form of a personalized book that drives me to an online experience

Imagine how powerful this model would be if a salesman held these tools in the palm of their hand. If they could marry the needs of their customer with content and send it in real-time, exactly when it’s needed to whatever device makes sense. That salesman would have the ability to create one-to-one sales materials on-the-go.

The good news is that they can; it’s a product and its available now. In the spirit of full disclosure, it’s a Thismoment solution and we call it Content on Demand. But that is not the point of this article. The point of this article is to promote the power of thinking differently.

How so?

This model works for any industry; the key is content, data and technology to marry the two into a deliverable piece of content that will truly mean something to ONE customer. In the end, any purchase, be it a trip sold to an individual or software sold to an enterprise, is about the purchaser.

As marketers we need to:

• Stop thinking solely about how we serve a broad audience and start thinking more about how we can serve the individual customer
• Pay just as much attention to post-sale as we do pre-sale
• Explore beyond the obvious channels
• Think about how to tie content to other teams within the organization

Taking a page out of the Disney playbook, we need to ask ourselves how we can transform our marketing strategy into exciting, useful and helpful content aimed at helping ONE customer. If we do this, we will create powerful connections like the one Disney created with me, and in the end, that’s what it’s all about, creating connections that build experience and long-term advocacy.

Ok, now it’ time for me to book my ride on Space Mountain, they still have that ride, right?

The post Disney’s One-to-one Content Points to the Future of Content Marketing appeared first on Thismoment Content Marketing Blog.

One lazy Sunday afternoon, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and realized that the majority of the content I “follow” is fashion-related. And, the producers of that content aren’t my friends or people I know, but rather famous fashion bloggers. I found myself caught in a trap of never-ending engaging fashion content, beauty tips and information on the latest trends.

I started thinking about fashion bloggers, have they appeared in recent years or have they been here for a while? Some may say their popularity is a new fad that will diminish, is that true? And more importantly, should brands think seriously about finding ways to work fashion bloggers into their content marketing and influencer strategies?

I’m sure all marketers know the terms “opinion leaders,” “influencers” and know about “turning customers into brand advocates.” But, I am not sure if all marketers acknowledge how much influential power fashion (and other) bloggers have over their target audience.

How influential are fashion bloggers?

• Vogue, the 100+-year-old fashion magazine, has 3.5 million followers on Instagram.
• Chiara Ferragni, a fashion blogger, known as “The Blond Salad,” who started her blog five years ago, has 3.2 million followers. (And, she had more followers than Vogue when I first checked five months ago.)

An independent fashion blogger has as much influence, based on numbers, as a respected 100-year-old fashion powerhouse, and it doesn’t end there.

According to Fashionista, a number of bloggers have signed contracts with prestigious brands as a result of their fashion content creation and overall influence.

Emily Schuman (Cupcakes & Cashmere), for example, signed a deal with Estee Lauder, and Susie Lau (Style Bubble) cooperates with H&M, Urban Outfitters and Gap on several campaigns and projects.

They create powerful content and brands are noticing. 

How and why your customers engage with bloggers?

It’s all about influence and trust:

• According to Ninja Metrics, “5-10 percent of social media users are responsible for 60 to 80 per cent of influence.”
• Stokberger-Sauer & Hoyer reports, “opinion leaders represent a powerful group in the marketplace because they can influence consumers via word of mouth.”

For this reason, the influencer’s role is undeniably important because they have significant influence on the pre and post-purchase behaviour of customers.

Especially in beauty and fashion industry, customers tend to follow number of bloggers at once to see what is trending. The most popular blogs with the highest number of followers work as so-called “hubs” in the blogosphere and have the highest influence on followers.

The influencing power of bloggers lies in the engagement with consumers. They trigger conversations and are credible because they are “one of us.” They aren’t top models, but girl/boy-next-door types that are trustworthy. And, the similarity between reader and blogger makes a big impact on the final purchase decision.

A good fashion blogger also adds value and expertise because he or she discovers, evaluates, compares and introduces products to a wide audience. And the blogger also helps to explain how the products can be used to achieve a particular look.

Fashion blogger turned journalist?

Elle, a massive lifestyle magazine, recently hired an independent blogger to “bring life” to their online blog. Fashion brands pay high prices to have bloggers sit in the front row at their fashion shows. And, beauty brands send products to bloggers directly to encourage them to test and evaluate.

A shining example of a blogger that made her hobby into a profession is Zoella, a beauty “vlogger” from the UK with more than 7 million YouTube subscribers. In November 2014, she published her first novel “Girl Online,” and recently launched her very own product line, Zoella Beauty Range, in cooperation with Superdrug, the health and beauty retailer in the UK.

As you can see, influencers are the amplifiers for the voice of a brand. Through their own social media channels, they spread the message to multi-million-strong-target audiences that are hungry for information.

Sounds great, but…

What does this mean for my brand?

Bloggers (beauty, fashion and beyond), hold the power to shape public perception of everything, including your brand—challenging you to determine how your work with them will help your brand become an integral part of their online conversations. There are many paths to help influencers shape their message, with your brand included, and regardless of the path you choose, it will require content.

While I am biased, I believe the best path to success is equipping bloggers with interactive, engaging on-demand content streams (we call them playlists). Thanks to solutions like Content On Demand, brands can put the right information into the hands of influencers quickly and efficiently.

In the time it took me to research and write this article, the list of people I follow on Instagram increased by 15 fashion bloggers, and I went to check out Zoella’s Beauty Range to Superdrug and I am sure I’ll be buying more than I really need!

The post Fashion Bloggers, the Perfect Example of Influencer Marketing Potential appeared first on Thismoment Content Marketing Blog.

Before we start, let’s have a quick poll. Question 1: How many of you made a New Year’s resolution connected to one of the following: healthier living, losing weight, improving your fitness or eating habits? (My guess is more than a few people raised their hands.) Question 2: How many of you belong to a gym that complements these goals with great fitness marketing? (My guess is very few hands raised.)

I quickly researched and learned that four out of the top five New Year’s resolutions people in the UK made for 2015 were health-related. And, Forbes recommends “maintain a health and fitness regimen” as resolution #2 on its list for 2015. I gave up on making such promises to myself and instead, I try to set my fitness goals throughout the year.

However, as a marketing professional and sports enthusiast, I pay extra attention to fitness marketing and new campaigns that appear shortly after the holidays. I know that they aim to attract new customers to sign up for a gym membership based on their New Years resolution fitness goals. The message is usually pretty simple: sign up now and get results quickly!

As good as this sounds, this approach works neither for the customer, nor for the gym, over time. We all know that in order to achieve our goals, we need to go an extra mile. What might be surprising is that the fitness industry has a great opportunity through content.

Content marketing and fitness marketing. The long-distance run (with obstacles)

Fitness centers often struggle with a high drop out rate shortly after January ends. What should they offer to customers in order to retain their business and change them into brand loyalists and advocates? Content.

We know that 90% of consumers want more content from their favorite brands, and we also know exactly where and how most customers want to receive content, mobile. According to Flurry by Yahoo, use of mobile and apps for health and fitness skyrocketed by 62% in 2014.

As a member of an always-on generation, I like to measure my personal fitness performance, compare and share results with friends via one of my devices and search for tips online. You will probably understand my disappointment when, after my last session with a personal trainer in London, I was sent away with a piece of paper containing sketches of the exercises I should do on my next visit. Of course, the paper was lost, and I found myself online trying to find some of the exercises he sketched.

This was a truly user-UN-friendly approach.

I go to a personal trainer to get a professional advice, great tips about diet and a workout routine. I do not want a sketch; I want engaging content effortlessly sent to me, when I need it, on the device I choose. It should include detailed descriptions of the exercises, recommended heart rate zones, maybe even a suggested Spotify playlist and recipe for a post-workout smoothie.

Sounds great, right?

Is this too tall of an order? Not at all!

You might think this too much to ask. It’s not. To prove my point, within 10 minutes I created a fully customized playlist using the Content Cloud Content on Demand solution and sent it to myself via text message.

(You can review the playlist here)

The biggest advantage is that I was able to source and mix both earned and owned content to create the best possible mix of content. The playlist is easy to customize and can be tailored to the needs of every single customer depending on their individual goals. It can seamlessly include visual images, short descriptive videos, tweets of encouragement, interesting blog posts or press articles.

Wouldn’t it be great if my gym and trainer had done the work for me?

Empower your reps with content for more personalized experiences

What I’ve described above would be easy for a trainer to create and would work just as well for countless other industries. Content marketing has changed the landscape of brand marketing and digital advertising, so why hasn’t it done the same for rep enablement in fitness marketing? Provide representatives with better, smarter, real-time, mobile content, and you can change occasional/short term customers into your most loyal brand advocates.

Tips for building personalized fitness marketing content:

• Empower your employees with a tool that allows them to effortlessly curate, source and manage content that has already been created by users (UGC). Find authentic content to attract more customers.
• Be a storyteller. Find out what your customers are looking for and share stories that engage and motivate with the right messages. In sports, success stories of others can work miracles.
• Mix UGC with your own branded content to create original, personalized experience, while also creating a chance to promote other parts of your business, such as group training classes, wellness sessions or consultations with a nutritionist. Don’t forget that your representatives are the voice of your company; make sure that user-generated and rep-selected content is mixed with the branded content.
• Learn from your results. In marketing, data collected from customers allows you to improve your performance, generate valuable insight into their engagement and determine what works best and where to improve.

I once heard that in fitness you can only improve what can be measured. Set realistic goals, measure results and don’t forget that the greatest success in both fitness and fitness marketing will come to those who take their routine a step further.

Now, that sounds like a New Year’s resolution I can get behind.

The post It’s Time for a Digital Transformation in Fitness Marketing appeared first on Thismoment Content Marketing Blog.