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7-Figure Small with Brian Clark
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
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Technology Translated
The Digital Entrepreneur
The Missing Link
The Showrunner
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Youpreneur with Chris Ducker
Zero to Book
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer
hosted by Sonia Simone

Q&A from Twitter, Independence Day Version!

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Previous Episode:The Difference Between Mindset and Wishful Thinking More Episodes Next Episode:A Quick, Enjoyable Way to Sharpen your Vision, Goals, and Values

All Episodes:

July 25, 2016

The 2 Points of Clarity that Will Make You So Much More Productive

July 18, 2016

Launching Your First (or Next) Digital Product

July 11, 2016

A Quick, Enjoyable Way to Sharpen your Vision, Goals, and Values

July 4, 2016

Q&A from Twitter, Independence Day Version!

June 27, 2016

The Difference Between Mindset and Wishful Thinking

June 20, 2016

Things I Love / Things I Hate #4: Trade Secrets, Transparency, and Lemonade Stands

June 13, 2016

Should You Swear on Your Blog?

June 7, 2016

Up All Night to Get Lucky: Sonia’s in a New Documentary!

May 23, 2016

The Context of a Successful Content Strategy: The Harpoon and the Net

May 16, 2016

My #1 Time Management Tip: Don’t Multitask; Compartmentalize

May 9, 2016

The 7 ‘Escape Pod’ Principles (Help Me Write My Book!)

May 2, 2016

Things I Love / Things I Hate #3: Nerdy Nummies and Crummy Content

April 25, 2016

Leadership, Categories of One, and Purple Rain

April 18, 2016

Make Better Mondays! 6 Minutes to a Happier, More Productive Week

April 11, 2016

5 Idea-Generating Techniques We Use on the Copyblogger Team

April 4, 2016

Blog or Podcast? 5 Questions to Help You Decide

March 28, 2016

Two EQ Hacks: A Nifty Trick for Making Big Changes, and How to Handle Hurt Feelings

March 21, 2016

Things I Love/Things I Hate about Health & Fitness Marketing

March 14, 2016

A Simple, Powerful Creativity System to Capture and Generate More Ideas

March 7, 2016

Anniversary Edition! On Finding Your Stubbornness and Going the Distance

February 29, 2016

Q&A: Cornerstone Content, Creativity, and the Future of Our Businesses

February 22, 2016

Getting to Freedom and Business Clarity: A Conversation with Sonia Thompson

February 15, 2016

New Mini-Series: Things I Love / Things I Hate

February 8, 2016

Getting Clear on your Metrics and Benchmarks: The 3 Lenses to Look Through

February 1, 2016

The Untethered Society: Scary or Liberating? (Or Both?)

January 25, 2016

Deep Creative Focus, the Long Haul … and, Yes, David Bowie

January 11, 2016

Motivation and Creativity: A Conversation with Mark McGuinness

January 4, 2016

Vision and Goal-Setting for Your Digital Business

December 21, 2015

Encore: How to Avoid Getting Sucker-Punched by Internet ‘Facts’

December 14, 2015

To Craft Content Marketing that Works: Avoid Silly Fads … and Do this Instead

December 7, 2015

How to Work from Home: Getting Stuff Done when No One is Looking Over Your Shoulder

November 30, 2015

5 Work Habit Hacks from 12 Creative Geniuses

November 23, 2015

Encore: Productivity for Flakes, Head Cases, and Other Natural Disasters

November 16, 2015

What You Need to Know about Guest Posting

November 9, 2015

7 Straightforward Steps to Superior Blog Posts and Podcasts

November 2, 2015

Self-Help for Business Owners: Useful or Useless?

October 26, 2015

The 7-Minute Content Makeover

October 19, 2015

7 Commandments of Professionalism for Content Marketers

October 12, 2015

Staying Grounded on the Road to Success: A Conversation with JB Glossinger

October 5, 2015

Minimalism, Success, and How to Be a Big Shot

September 28, 2015

Finding the Balance Between Pragmatism and Your Ideals

September 21, 2015

What Happens at the Crossroads of Content and Social Media

September 14, 2015

But Facebook Doesn’t Work For … (waily waily)

September 7, 2015

Marketing for Writers and Other Creative Souls

September 1, 2015

How to Turn Bad News into Happy Customers

August 25, 2015

How to Avoid Getting Sucker-Punched by Internet ‘Facts’

August 18, 2015

Bringing More Emotion into Your Writing — From the Inside Out

August 11, 2015

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Rainmaker.FM Digital Business Podcast Network

August 4, 2015

My Favorite Tools of the Trade for Writing, Content Planning, and Creative Collaboration

July 28, 2015

How Long Will It Take for My Business to Start Making Money? And Other Impossible Questions

July 21, 2015

5 Things I Learned from Minecraft about Community, Ecosystems, and Business

July 14, 2015

Call to Action: The Awesome Power of Asking for What You Want

July 7, 2015

A Question of (Writing) Voice: How to Strengthen It, How to Shape It

June 30, 2015

Deviance, Obsession, and Sharing Your Gifts with the World: A Conversation with Bill O’Hanlon

June 23, 2015

Is Hypersensitivity the New Fascism?

June 16, 2015

Q&A: Duplicate Content Worries, and Other Questions from the Audience

June 9, 2015

Business and Marketing for Artists and Creative Workers, Part Two

June 2, 2015

Business and Marketing for Artists and Creative Workers, Part One

May 27, 2015

The 3 Types of Trolls You Meet Online (and How to Deal with Them)

May 19, 2015

The 7 Circles of Belief that Drive Customers to Your Business

May 12, 2015

The Difference Between B2B and B2C Marketing (and Other Questions)

May 5, 2015

Annie Pratt on Resilient Leadership: How to Build a Smart, Agile Business by Crafting an Incredible Team

April 28, 2015

How Not to Be a Dirty, Rotten Spammer

April 21, 2015

4 Deep Marketing Questions (with Answers!)

April 14, 2015

How to Uncover What Your Audience Wants to Buy: An Interview with Ryan Levesque

April 7, 2015

Productivity for Flakes, Head Cases, and Other Natural Disasters

March 31, 2015

8 Harsh Truths about Social Media (and 1 Pretty Awesome One)

March 24, 2015

3 Juicy Marketing Questions Answered

March 17, 2015

How to Strengthen Your Talents

March 3, 2015

The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Business, Part 2

March 2, 2015

The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Business, Part 1

July 4, 2016

Q&A from Twitter, Independence Day Version!

The keys to good sponsored content or native advertising, content for B2B organizations, and how to make connections with the big-audience content publishers …

It’s Independence Day in the U.S., and time for a Q&A! And no, those things aren’t really related at all. πŸ™‚

In this 25-minute episode, I answer questions on:

  • Techniques for writing sponsored content (or native advertising) that doesn’t feel like an ad
  • The differences (and similarities) in writing content for B2B or B2C organizations
  • The two key emotional drivers for most B2B customers
  • Looking for the “fuel for the fire” in a B2B company, and how that informs your content strategy
  • Strategies for making connections with someone who has a bigger audience than you do

Listen to Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer below ...

Q&A from Twitter, Independence Day Version!Sonia Simone
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The Show Notes

  • Demian Farnworth on Empathy Maps: A Complete Guide to Crawling Around Inside Your Customer’s Head
  • And Demian again on How to Use Customer Experience Maps to Develop a Winning Content Strategy
  • My ebook on Effective Content Promotion (included with your free MyCopyblogger registration)
  • MediaPress Studios on sponsored content and native advertising
  • Andy Crestodina’s epic Periodic Table of Content
  • Sharon Liu’s tweeted question
  • Shikhashikz’s tweeted question
  • Ifeanyi Okolo’s tweeted question
  • Glen Allsop’s tweeted question
  • I always love it when you say Hi or ask your content, marketing, business, or mindset question over on Twitter @soniasimone!

The Transcript

Sonia Simone: Greetings, superfriends! My name is Sonia Simone and these are the Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer. For those who don’t know me, I’m a co-founder and the chief content officer for Rainmaker Digital.

I’m also a champion of running your business and your life according to your own rules. As long as you don’t lie and you don’t hurt people, this podcast is your official pink permission slip to run your business or your career exactly the way you think you should.

Note: Links to extra resources are in the Show Notes!

Thanks to everyone on Twitter who asked a question for this episode!

Sharon Liu ‏@SZL14

@soniasimone What are some fun ways to write sponsored content that sounds less ad-y?

— Sharon Liu (@sharonzix) June 22, 2016


@soniasimone What are some fun ways to write sponsored content that sounds less ad-y?

This is a super fun question — sponsored content, or “native advertising,” or as we called it when I did a lot of them, “advertorials” have been around for a long time. So as is so often the case, the “hot new thing” is something that’s been around for a long time.

A little research tells me they are not the same thing — technically sponsored content is pure content that’s designed to build brand authority. Mediapress studios defines sponsored content this way:

This is strictly editorial. Sponsored content is not brand-biased and focuses on informing rather than convincing their target audience. The strategy behind this is to become a thought leader in the industry, and increase the value of the brand. If the audience goes to that company for advice, maybe they’ll buy their products as well.

Copyblogger would be an example of this, and we call this an “authority content” model. Basically, show up and be super smart and useful on your topic.

Mediapress studios: http://www.mediapressstudios.com/blog/native-advertising-vs-sponsored-content

Native advertising is more that traditional advertorial — it’s an ad, but the tone, voice, and layout are designed to blend into the publication so you can’t tell it’s an ad.

The key to making both of them work is actually the same — you start with the call to action that you want to work toward, and you keep that in mind, but then you sort of squish that part of your brain down and think more like a creative writer or a journalist.

What are the legitimate reasons for going with this particular company, product, or service? What do they, in fact, actually do well? What kinds of buyers are an excellent fit? Who would genuinely benefit from taking the desired call to action?

The only way I know how to do these is if you as a writer truly do believe 100% in the product. So you want to choose your clients — or your employer — accordingly, and only work for companies you think are doing something extraordinarily well.

For an advertorial, the key really is to blend — so if it’s a research-heavy publication, then you need some solid, credible numbers and data. If it’s a more lifestyle publication, then look at the way they use language — what do the verbs look like, how many adjectives are we talking about. Match the voice and the approach.

Hope this is helpful! This was a fun question. πŸ™‚

Shikhashikz ‏@Shikhashikz

@soniasimone in today's world,do you think only content matters n Concept of b2b n b2c has vanished away?its all about b2p ( people)

— Shikhashikz (@Shikhashikz) June 21, 2016


@soniasimone in today’s world,do you think only content matters n Concept of b2b n b2c has vanished away?its all about b2p ( people)

This is a question I’m always very happy when people ask. The fact is, it’s always been B2P. When you’re creating B2B — business-to-business — content, versus business-to-consumer, you have to figure out who the stakeholders are — which is just corporate-speak for who’s involved in making the decision you’re trying to get to.

We have a bit of a mythology that when people are at work, they’re somehow more rational and aren’t influenced by emotion. But of course that’s not true at all — and in fact, some of the new brain research is showing us that the kinds of thinking we label as “emotions” are crucial to all human decision-making.

If you think of your own work experience, work is a very emotional place. The emotions are different at work — frankly, fear and status are very highly represented there in most companies. Fear of losing your spot in the hierarchy, and desire to gain a higher one.

But it still comes down to understanding what moves your audience — getting into their heads, empathizing with their complex emotional states, and then understanding their complete customer experience so you can use content to make the path easier to walk.

We have some posts on Empathy Maps and Experience Maps that I think may be useful, I’ll include them in the show notes.

Ifeanyi C. Okolo ‏@pass4lifeltd

@soniasimone how does a B2B company write intermediate content for clients?

— Ifeanyi C. Okolo (@pass4lifeltd) June 21, 2016


@soniasimone how does a B2B company write intermediate content for clients?

This obviously leads right into the earlier question — and again, it’s one that I think is excellent when people ask.

This gets to something that not enough B2B organizations do — they forget who it is who fuels the fire. Somewhere, no matter how esoteric your B2B, there’s a customer who pays for something. A consumer, or a citizen or community resident or taxpayer if you’re talking B2G.

The whole chain needs to know what that person needs. The whole chain needs to make that person successful, so that the entire chain of organizations can be successful.

So if you write point-of-sale software for retail stores, you need to understand the experience of the customer who buys from that store, not just the store owner or even the store employees. If your software makes it hard for the eventual customer to buy, then your product is stealing fuel from the fire.

That insight is how you start to make decisions about what content, if any, you create for those folks, and what it will look like. It’s really the Empathy and Experience Maps all over again, but you just have kind of a chain of maps depending on the specifics of your organization and their relationship to that core customer.

Glen ‏@ViperChill

@soniasimone What's the best way someone who hasn't connected with you before could get the attention of you and Brian πŸ™‚

— Glen (@ViperChill) June 29, 2016


@soniasimone What’s the best way someone who hasn’t connected with you before could get the attention of you and Brian πŸ™‚

Glen Allsop is a very cool guy, relatively young and has lots of energy and is a great implementer.

In my experience, there are two super strong strategies. The first is, if you can swing it, to meet people in person, ideally at small events. So SXSW can be a ton of fun, but it gets hard to really connect there.

Nobody goes there any more, it’s too crowded.
-Yogi Berra

The parties are massive and loud, the event is so spread out.

Small events, on the other hand, let you spend more quality time with a few people, and that’s what you want. So, you know, cough, we have one coming up in October. And obviously I am biased, but it’s awesome. Truly.

But you probably encounter other small events as well. I’ve certainly had some fantastic conversations at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit, although that’s grown a lot. I’m sure it’s still terrific, though. Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker’s event SOBCon was legendary for this, and in fact it’s where I met Brian Clark and Chris Garrett face to face for the first time, and other fantastic folks as well.

Look for events that are structured to allow for quality interactions between the attendees — and ideally with the speakers as well.

The other super strong strategy is to do something epic. So I will never forget meeting Andy Crestodina, who I met face to face at a larger event, because when I met him he put his Periodic Table of Content Marketing into my hand, and it was incredibly beautifully produced, very smart, a clever concept executed beautifully.

The easiest way to do “something epic” is to have a killer content platform, so have an outstanding blog or a wonderful podcast or a great video series.

Strategy #3 isn’t quite as powerful as the first two, but it makes an impression, and that’s just show up and be nice, and if you can, be useful.

Drive someone to the airport. Leave thoughtful and interesting comments that go beyond “Nice post.” Engage meaningfully and thoughtfully in social media. This is like vitamins for your networking strategy. It just makes it work a lot, lot better.

If you get known for being nice, everything else you do gets a halo from that. And I will tell you straight up, if you’re not nice — or, this is really fatal, if you’re nice to me but you’re rude or mean to my team — then you pretty much have to cure cancer and bring about world peace before I want to talk to you.

I have an ebook on content promotion that goes into some of this in a little more detail, it’s free with the My Copyblogger library.

The final thought on that is — people with big audiences have a lot of people who want to connect with us, and it’s always interesting to me how many folks with big audiences are introverts. So it will probably take some time and you want to try to be patient. Also, observe where folks are easy to find. I tend to be very easy to connect with on Twitter and blog comments, and very hard to connect with via cold emailing or LinkedIn.

Patience and a sense of humor are wonderful. People aren’t trying to give you the cold shoulder and they don’t think they’re better than you are — they just have a lot of communication flying in at them and if they’re introverts, that can get really overwhelming and exhausting in a hurry.

I totally get taking it personally when someone doesn’t respond, and I’ll tell you right now, I go in and out, and sometimes I get slammed and I don’t respond to people I really, really wanted to reply to. They get to the bottom of the inbox screen and my distraction ruins all my good intentions. As much as you can, try to assume that they’re just overloaded, they don’t really think they’re “superior.”

Thanks for the smart question, Glen. πŸ™‚

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Comments

  1. Hashim Warren says

    July 6, 2016 at 9:13 AM

    Love this, Sonia!

    Can I also answer Glenn…with Glenn’s own content?

    Networking is important, but people ignore the power of connecting and partnering with up and coming folks. As Glenn wrote years ago:

    “While there aren’t really any rules to this, you’re more likely to form a partnership with someone who is on a similar experience and blog size level as you.” http://www.viperchill.com/fast-blog-growth/

    In other words, spending your time trying to get Sonia and Brian’s attention is a bit of a waste. It’s better to connect with the NEXT Sonia and Brian.

    Two other quick points:

    1. I’ve been Brian’s customer for years but my “cold” email to him still didn’t get answered. Hey, if he’s as busy as I am I understand why! So take Sonia’s advice with a grain of salt. πŸ™‚

    2. Brian first launched Copyblogger by cold emailing big names. I launched a career blog through cold contact to people for interviews. I believe in cold contact if what you have to offer or ask for comes at the right time for the other person.

    Reply
    • Brian Clark says

      July 8, 2016 at 11:37 AM

      I must have missed that email. Happens a lot, not just with you. πŸ™‚

      Reply
    • Sonia Simone says

      July 8, 2016 at 2:20 PM

      The inbox struggle is real. πŸ™‚

      The thing I described where I have absolute intention to answer an email and then it gets pushed below the fold and I turn into Dory? Yeah, that.

      Reply
    • Sonia Simone says

      July 8, 2016 at 2:21 PM

      BTW, I agree, cold contact can absolutely work if the timing is right — and if you don’t have an attitude of entitlement about it, that helps massively.

      Reply

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