Tag Archives: information

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Level Up Your Thought Leader Cred

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Being a thought leader is a vital ingredient in a Freelancer’s recipe for a B2B content marketing strategy that moves the needle. In fact, establishing yourself as a credible thought leader is foundational to building a thriving Freelance client list. Freelancers must recognize that business acumen, lived experience and data you share with content followers, some of whom are prospects and clients, is a valuable strategic asset. What you know and how you express your knowledge is the core of your Unique Selling Proposition and the engine that drives your ability to deliver solutions that produce results and convert prospects into paying clients.

Many independently employed professionals label themselves an “expert in the field and thought leader,” but few do so with a carefully considered sense of purpose that leads to an actionable outcome—like persuading a hesitant prospect to become a client. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace that’s populated with cautious prospects who’ve lengthened B2B sales cycles and pushed your next paid invoice farther into the future, it is imperative to distinguish yourself from those whose “thought leadership” amounts to checking the box and calling it done.

Tickling a handful of marketing metrics doesn’t prove that you’re a credible thought leader, either; click bait posts and articles are only eye wash and audiences recognize it. True connaisseurs of thought leader content track business impact (vs. 63% overall) and 51% track brand authority (vs. 38% overall) to assess how audiences really feel about their content. They measure the relevance of their thought leadership with insightful metrics:

  • Audience engagement — views, downloads, shares (80%)
  • Business impact — lead generation, pipeline influence (63%)
  • Audience feedback — client/prospect feedback, sentiment analysis (40%)
  • Brand authority — speaking/media opportunities, publication citations (38%)

Furthermore, connaisseurs publish their thought leadership on marketing channels that provide an audience of B2B prospects who are serious about obtaining useful information. If you are not currently publishing on these channels, as well as getting out in front of a live audience every once in a while, add these items to your thought leadership promotional activities.

  • LinkedIn (76%)
  • Email newsletters (54%)
  • Speaking events, webinars (52%)

Those who “get” the power of thought leadership know that the information they present may be used by audience members who are either familiar with or contending with a particular challenge. The insights and info you present as a thought leader is used to support responsible decision-making, whether in the moment or in the near future. Therefore, the goal of savvy Freelancers is to produce credible, possibly innovative and reliably useful thought leadership content that followers and other readers or viewers will notice and remember. Below are thought leadership ingredients you can use to develop your recipe for success.

1. Solve a problem readers will recognize

Effective thought leadership is born of a vexing problem that is urgent—an emerging risk, a stubborn and mysterious challenge or failing, or even a misunderstood opportunity. The most perceptive and confident thought leaders will dare to step outside the usual narrative or practice and provide a perspective the audience hasn’t heard before and use it as a launchpad for potentially effective solutions. Does your thought leadership content inspire your audience make smarter, braver, decisions, or help them to avoid a potentially costly error, or problem they may not have considered?

Thought-leadership content that presents insights and information that helps decision-makers perform not as mere functionaries but as leaders who know how to keep the mission-driven goals of their organization in the forefront builds trust and separates you from competitors. To achieve that, thought-leaders must be aware of what audience members need to know now—before a competitor tells them first.

2. Present thought leadership content with an out-of-the-box idea

Defining the problem is where thought leadership starts and proposing an innovative way to perceive and address it is what gets thought leader content noticed. A true thought leader is provocative, one who reveals an “aha” moment that makes a new way of looking at things both credible and memorable. Create thought leadership content that challenges conventional wisdom or reframes a common problem in an unexpected way—and show your audience that you understand the problem and how it can be solved.

To stimulate your creative spirit, you may want to employ an Artificial Intelligence tool to rev up your brainstorming. You’ll have to experiment to find the right prompts that help you discover intriguing, but credible, possibilities for topics that answer questions for readers and reveal what they consider to be an emerging concern. AI can also help you frame your approach to the topic and provide suggestions as to which narrative threads might be included in your content. Also, use storytelling to shape your content, as it is usually the most relatable way to communicate with your audience—and they’re more likely to retain the info you deliver.

A concise overview of a case study or references to insights gleaned from user generated content that’s appeared on your company’s social media accounts are excellent sources of lived experiences that are provided by your very own followers. You can also discover topics to explore as well. Let AI help you start the brainstorming process by showing you topics that your audience are likely to find relevant and then build your case with real time source material that might reflect both your own experiences and that of your clients.

3. The best thought leadership content is in the trenches

When scouting for source material, keep in mind that residents of the C-Suite may not give you boots-on-the-ground perspectives or stories that reveal out-of-the-box perspectives or possible solutions that bring “street cred” to your thought leader content. Clients and colleagues who have a customer-facing role are better positioned to provide you with the most interesting topics, experiences and insights that bring authenticity to your narratives. You want reports from those who notice shifting customer behavior, for example, and other grass-roots experiences that bring a rawness and depth to your thought leader content and makes it relevant to a wide audience.

4. Thought leader content is considered useful

Good thought-leader content earns attention by delivering relevant information. That doesn’t mean checklists or how-tos—but it does mean clarity and ideas that make a subject that is complex feel as if it can be navigated and understood. When your followers and other readers finish your article and let the information you provided and hit the save and/or the forward button, that will verify your status as a thought leader. Useful content helps readers do things like:

  • See a risk they hadn’t considered
  • Argue for a decision internally
  • Convince the audience to take action
  • Shift the mental model audience members were using

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©nobelprize.org (L-R) Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Simon Johnson of MIT and James Robinson of University of Chicago in Chicago, IL

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Meeting Primer: Make Every Minute Matter

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So you’ve decided to call a meeting. Maybe you and your client’s team are due for an update/ check-in; or has an unexpected glitch created a project roadblock that demands a problem-solving strategy? Let’s look at the bright side—-has what appears to be an opportunity revealed itself and the purpose of your meeting is to verify that the opportunity is not a mirage and deciding how to proceed?

Oftentimes, a meeting means a decision must be made. When it comes to meetings one thing is certain—the purpose is always about finding the way forward, where you’re going and how you’ll get there. Moreover, there are always action items to follow-up on.

Meetings have a checkered history; there is an unfortunate tendency to deviate from the agenda and get lost in the weeds. Salvation is within reach, however, when the convener—you!—thinks through the key components of the meeting so that you will enable the meeting to both fulfill its purpose and leave the participants feeling energized, engaged and effective.

Agenda

It is your job as meeting convener to create the conditions for a successful meeting. Begin by identifying the purpose of your meeting—must potential solutions to a problem be explored, or must the team determine strategies that will advance a certain goal? Once the meeting purpose is confirmed, the convener will then consider which information and/or actions will be needed to support the meeting purpose and inform the creation of the meeting agenda—which will be the meeting journey roadmap. To create the agenda, allow yourself to do some some free association thinking to get a mental picture of what must be discussed and resolved.

Attendance

Next, decide who should attend, as well as those who perhaps for political reasons you would be wise to invite. There may be certain stakeholders or power brokers who must be in the room (or in virtual attendance), whether you want them there or not. Those on the must-invite list could be a net-positive, however; you may be able to convince one of the VIP attendees to troubleshoot, green-light, recruit allies, approve funding, or somehow advance your vision of what needs to happen.

Following the list of heavy weights, you’ll be free to draw up a list of those who should attend, who you want to attend, because they have the subject expertise and insight that will benefit the meeting purpose. Finally, there are those you should ask to attend because they know how to get things done and can be trusted to carry out important action items—and just as valuable, if there’s a vote taken, they’re with you!

Bear in mind that there may be stakeholders /VIPs who simply appreciate receiving info regarding the outcome of your meeting, but they do not need or want to attend. If someone doesn’t need to be there, offer them alternatives, such as asking them for pre-meeting input or sending them a follow-up meeting summary. Fewer attendees mean more-focused conversations—and ultimately better outcomes.

Use the “Five W’s”—who, what, where, when, and why—to generate the participant list. Who needs to be there? What, if any, special information should you bring in resources to support the conversation (meeting handouts or presentation slides? What information can drive decision-making and needs to be shared and what is just a distraction and doesn’t need to be included?

You must also consider the most inclusive and welcoming format for the meeting—in person or virtual? It’s entirely likely that your meeting will be hybrid and it will be necessary to design logistics that will make those who attend virtually feel fully present.

Engagement and participation

As you know, the best meeting outcomes are achieved when you bring together participants who have the means and motive to contribute something relevant to the proceedings. Lackluster participation in meetings weakens the result by reducing collaboration, hampering decision-making and eroding team unity. How can you encourage more fruitful engagement? Step One is to create an agenda that directs attention to the core purpose of the meeting, whether check-in, problem-solving, or decision that must be made, or opportunity to exploit.

Start by clarifying expectations for the meeting and participants by outlining some of the supportive behaviors you want to see in your meetings. For example, you might emphasize mutually supportive behaviors such as nonjudgmental communication, collaborating to tackle challenges together, sharing of resources and information. It’s also helpful to offer team members different ways to contribute—for example, allow for written input before, during, or after meetings. Giving those who are typically less vocal a structured role can help empower them to speak. When participants know that their insights and wisdom are valued, they’ll find the motivation and courage to speak up and they have the potential to perhaps bring an unexpected idea or perspective that will greatly improve the outcome and relevance of the meeting.

Finally, make every minute count and don’t run over. Set meetings for the shortest time necessary, not by default increments like 60 minutes. Honoring to the agenda and ending on time helps people sustain focus, reduces frustration and communicates to everyone that your meetings are worth attending.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Siphosethu Fanti/peopleimages.com for Adobe Stock

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Summer Reading 2025

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Professional development is like getting regular exercise and maintaining a balanced diet—a gift you give to yourself as you strive to become a successful business owner. When thinking of professional development, conferences sponsored by professional associations or skills building courses held at a college may come to mind but think again—professional development is available in a variety formats. Among the most accessible and affordable methods to obtain professional development can be found in books.

Reading has traditionally played an important role in the development of successful business owners and leaders. When you open a book, a world of ideas, information and insights will be there to enlighten you. You’ll find lessons and experiences that can be critical to your growth as a business owner and leader, shared by authors who give first-person accounts of how they overcame challenges and found success. The books you read can teach you how to sharpen your business acumen and use your newfound proficiency to propel your business forward. The practical knowledge contained in a typical business-themed book can result in your discovery of actionable insights that can become competitive advantages, from refining your decision-making prowess to bolstering your effectiveness when working with teams.

In today’s fast-paced and endlessly-evolving business landscape, continuous education is not only beneficial, it’s essential; but in the age of information overload, it may be difficult to find time to read when you devote the majority of your time to operating your business. Furthermore, you may feel too overwhelmed by the process of researching and identifying topics that will be most useful or interesting to you—the business books genre is a wide field. With those realities in mind, I am happy to share with you a selection of books curated to appeal to Freelance consulting professionals and also business owners or leaders. I hope that one or more titles will interest you. First, here are suggestions that may help you find time to read this summer (and beyond!).

  • Schedule. Like scheduling time for any important task, specifying your reading time will help you choose a convenient time and make it easier to honor your commitment to professional development. Consider reading after dinner, to lend a “relax and unwind” vibe to your reading. You may find the 8:00 – 11:00 PM time slot, three or four nights a week, a great way to wrap up your day.
  • Formats. Especially if your commute is 45 minutes or longer, or your fitness routine is self-directed and not in a class format, consider listening to audio books and/or podcasts as your method to obtain professional development. When in transit or working out, insert your headphones and tune in to an interesting book or program that expands your knowledge, builds skills and enhances your performance as a business owner or leader.
  • Topics. There are many business-themed titles published each year, but it is inevitable that only a select few will appeal to you. Reading book reviews of titles that grab your attention—in the business section of your local newspaper, in the Wall Street Journal or other nationally known newspaper, in Kirkus Reviews , or Goodreads—to winnow potential reading choices as you discover and evaluate titles and authors that may appeal to you and maintain your motivation to read and learn. Below are 10 books to cue up on your Summer 2025 reading playlist.

Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business (2019) Paul Jarvis

Online-tech veteran Paul Jarvis, whose A-list clients include Microsoft and Mercedes Benz, describes the advantages of running a “company of one,” whether as an independent Freelance professional or as an autonomous, corporate employee. Jarvis has most emphatically not bought into the “grow or die” ethos and prefers instead to operate as a “lean and agile” entity. Jarvis explains how running your one-person shop enables you to both achieve a work-life balance that works for you and, just as importantly, enables you to avoid the need to navigate a potentially suffocating corporate hierarchy and sometimes poisonous office politics. In your little empire, you can work efficiently. Jarvis has learned that smart entrepreneurship isn’t about size—it’s about building a better business that works for you.

 Company of One details a refreshingly original business strategy that’s focused on a commitment to being better instead of bigger. Jarvis has discovered that staying small results in maintaining the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life as you avoid the headaches and complications that are inherent in traditional growth-oriented business. With this groundbreaking guide, you’ll learn how to set up your shop, determine your desired revenues, manage unexpected crises, keep your key clients happy and find self-fulfillment as you do.

Competing in the Age of AI (2020) Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

Here’s a book that is an excellent resource for business owners and leaders whose organizations currently use, or are considering, Artificial Intelligence powered tools in their operations. The authors have produced a useful guide to the realities of doing business in today’s digital landscape and present actionable insights into how introducing AI-driven operating models can enable businesses to achieve scale and scope at an unprecedented rate.

Iansiti and Lakhani show how reinventing a business entity around data, analytics and AI removes centuries-old constraints on scale, scope and machine learning advantages that have traditionally restricted business growth. Recent examples of companies such as Amazon and Google demonstrate how AI-driven processes vastly improve the ability to scale, when compared to traditional data analytical processes, and allow massive scope increase, enabling companies to straddle industry boundaries and create powerful opportunities for machine learning—to drive ever more accurate, complex and sophisticated predictions that make business strategy becomes a new game.

The authors also outline the inherent risks associated with AI and offer recommendations for rethinking current operating models; they also examine the responsibilities that the introduction of AI requires of its users. Finally, Iansiti and Lakhani are transparent about the potential societal impact of AI and point out the potential for algorithmic bias, privacy concerns and cybersecurity threats, along with the need for responsible AI development and governance.

How To Talk To Anyone About Anything (2021) James W. Williams

James W. Williams has written a refreshingly honest, easy-to-follow guide to meeting and greeting and initiating conversations that’s tailor-made for an era when many meetings and even networking opportunities are regularly held in virtual format. As a result, the only avenue to connect with colleagues and attempt to parlay fleeting interactions into deeper connections is hobbled by a computer monitor. Engaging communication skills are increasingly recognized as a powerful and influential competency. 

While some are born with a silver-tongued gift of gab for many, communication aptitude must be developed and nurtured. Williams’ advice is likely to bolster the social acumen of even the most shy and introverted among us, the wallflowers who feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable when attempting to navigate business-slash-social gatherings. If you’ve ever felt awkward in the midst of a meet & greet, or unsure of what to say after an introduction has taken place, this book will show you how to access your communication potential and learn to become a confident conversationalist.

How to Talk to Anyone About Anything provides a user-friendly roadmap that will enable you to practice, grow and eventually shine in social and professional situations. Active listening, small talk and storytelling are situations that the author discusses, as is how to develop the fine art of appearing approachable to your fellow guests when you’re standing alone and wondering if you’ll talk with anyone. Readers will appreciate the many good examples that provide teachable moments and make this book ideal for professionals and social learners alike. Williams’ book is a great soft-skills business resource, that will be a great help to those who struggle with small talk, pitching to clients, or relationship-building within your team. The insights are perfect for occasions where first impressions and informal conversations can open the door to business-enhancing or career-building opportunities.

10X Is Easier Than 2X (2023) Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Call this book a must-read for ambitious business leaders. When the mission is to level up business growth, here are insights that give an eye-opening perspective on how to achieve exponential, rather than incremental, growth. This no-nonsense read can give business leaders and owners actionable insights into scaling their businesses rapidly, leveraging technology and resources more effectively and positioning their entity to stay ahead—of the competition and customer tastes—in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Businesses leaders often aim to achieve progress, for example, and may focus on doubling their results year over year. However, Sullivan and Hardy argue convincingly that aiming for tenfold growth is not only feasible but also more practical and rewarding. As they see it, going for 10x requires letting go of 80% of your current life and going all-in on the crucial 20% that’s relevant and high-impact.

Readers will find practical strategies and mindset shifts that inspire you to break through limitations and achieve exponential growth. The authors emphasize the power of thinking bigger, setting audacious goals and taking massive action. For business owners and leaders, this approach is invaluable as it encourages innovation, pushes boundaries and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Acting Up: Winning in Business and Life Using Down-Home Wisdom (2019) Janice Bryant Howroyd

“Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally” is the core message offered by author Janice Bryant Howroyd, who grew up in a family of 11 children. Here she discusses the principles and techniques that she used to build a multinational staffing agency. The author guides readers through questions of leadership, risk-taking, developing confidence and networking, among other topics.

Howroyd also emphasizes the significance of data-driven and strategic business decisions as she simultaneously encourages readers to take a holistic approach to making the most of both their professional and personal lives. The author addresses as well the topic of diversity from the perspective of a black female entrepreneur and urges readers not to define her by demographics. In sum, Howroyd shares in her book the values she lives by and continues to represent: that of a leader who works for good, for growth and for innovation, for her family values and for the same ideals upon which she founded her company—that success is transferrable.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan (2018) by Allan Dib

“The most common way small business owners decide on this (marketing and advertising) is by looking at large, successful competitors in their industry and mimicking what they’re doing. In reality, this is the fastest way to fail and I’m certain it’s responsible for the bulk of small business failures.” Now you know why this book is included in the reading list!

In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation revolution that makes creating a marketing plan uncomplicated and fast—it’s literally just a single page! By creating and implementing that one-page wonder, you’ll have an effective marketing plan that you can put into motion. Dib understands that small business owners (and Freelance professionals as well) trying to jumpstart their marketing often don’t have adequate resources—money, time, or expertise—provided by employees or Freelance consultants—that big businesses do. The author has devised a credible alternate path that shows how you can create a basic marketing plan to help steer your business in the right direction and, as Dib himself says, puts you on “the fastest path to money”.

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working (2025) Dan Heath

Reset offers a guide to fixing what’s not working in your business operations—in systems and processes, organizations and companies and even in our daily lives. Author Dan Heath provides real-world stories and actionable insights that can empower you to create lasting change in your organization—and maybe in your life, as well.

What if you could somehow learn to unlock forward movement and achieve the progress that matters most to you, without the need for more resources—like money and connections? Heath shows how, with the same relationships you have and the same financial resources you can access, it is possible to reconfigure the circumstances and bring dramatically better outcomes to your life. Yesterday, you were stuck. Today, you can reset.

The author explores a framework for getting unstuck and making beneficial changes that matter. Heath says that the secret of success is to find the leverage points—places where a bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Do that and you can rearrange your resources and activate those pivotal points. Heath also points out that to even experience the feeling of progress can be a leverage point that can accelerate the arrival of the positive change you desire.

The 48 Hour Start-Up: From Idea to Launch in One Weekend (2016) Fraser Doherty

This can’t be done, you say? Well, author and serial entrepreneur and Scottish citizen Fraser Doherty MBE (who was awarded the honorific title Member of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements) begs to differ. In his book, Doherty provides actionable advice on how to identify and shape a viable business idea that is ready to launch in only two days. Doherty’s reasoning behind the 48-hour deadline is simple—he argues that prospective entrepreneurs (aka wantrepreneurs) spend too much time and energy obsessing over the “perfect idea”. The time they waste waiting for the “perfect idea” to appear is time that could be used refining and adapting that business idea for customers who could actually use it.

The book is helpful with the initial decisions that aspiring entrepreneurs must consider when starting a business. In his considerable experience, Doherty has found that launching a business does not have to involve complicated financial projections, elaborate presentations, or extraordinary innovation. A simple, well-executed idea is what it takes to launch and sustain a successful enterprise and Doherty has done it more than once—the first time while still in his teens. 

Doherty also emphasizes that before you invest significant time and resources, quickly reality-test your idea with potential customers and conduct basic market research. The process will help you gauge market demand for your product or service, assess your main competitors, identify and address potential problems early on and, in general, refine your product or service based on the uncensored feedback received from potential customers.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy (2011) Richard Rumelt

It is a given that developing and implementing strategy is the primary task of a leader—whether military leader, business leader, baseball manager, or tennis coach. The definition of a good strategy could be expressed as a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, author Richard Rumelt asserts that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy buzzwords, motivational slogans and financial goals with “strategy.”

Rumelt displays an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology and history to expose and clarify the often-muddled thinking that is the foundation of too many so-called strategies and his book details a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategies that will be effective in the real world.

The book helps readers to recognize and avoid the trap of bad strategy and guides them to adopt good, credible, action-oriented strategy that honestly acknowledges and responds to the challenges that businesses encounter. Rumelt cautions readers that strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision, or planning; rather, strategy is a coherent, action-backed plan supported by a rational argument.

Rumelt emphasizes that strategies are often confused with goals and visions and points out that a plan is what sets strategies apart from goals and gives you a clear idea of what is necessary to succeed. To evaluate and decide which strategies are suitable for your organization, the author says it is necessary to confirm whether you have the resources to implement your strategy and, in addition, ensure that your strategy fits with your current situation. The actions need to fit with your present circumstances and work together to give you the best possible advantage. After this, you’re well on your way to a faultless strategy implementation.

The Courage To Be Disliked (2018) Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

Strictly speaking, this book is not a business book. One might consider it as an accelerator that gives the determination to push forward with a desire to launch a business entity or achieve other important goals. Kishimi and Koga present their book as a dialogue between an older philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five enlightening and thought-provoking conversations the philosopher, who happens to draw from the theories of Alfred Adler, a late 19th- and early 20th- century psychologist and thought leader in that discipline (along with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and B. Fred Skinner), explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own life, free from the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. The wisdom that the philosopher reveals is deeply liberating and enables his pupil to develop the courage to change and to ignore the limitations that others, or even the pupil himself, may use to control him.

The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance, yet it is not without controversy; certain of authors’ premises you may find shocking or, at least, unrealistic. Still, the book is, at its core, about reclaiming your power and using it to shape the life that is meaningful to you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Beli_photos

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Create Content That Delivers

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You will agree that the internet is the leading source of information and entertainment for everyone on Earth who has connectivity. The global data and business intelligence platform Statista reports that in 2025 5.56 billion, approximately 65% of the world’s population, has internet access. To nearly every business entity on the planet, that means about 5.34 billion potential customers—many of whom are too young to launch a buyer’s journey, but some of whom might influence purchases their parents make—are available to receive online marketing information.

While the vast majority of the world’s internet users will become the customers of only a select few brands, the wide acceptance of digital communications gives marketers everywhere the green light to create and post a vast amount of marketing information and the digital space is now awash in content of every type—audio, video, images and text. Audience appetite for content, whether information or entertainment, shows no signs of abating. The number of digital content websites and platforms continues to proliferate and invite contributors to produce still more content, all of which beckons viewers, listeners and readers to show some love and click here, please!

Content saturation of the internet is an inevitable phenomenon. According to the nationally known content marketing expert Neil Patel, nearly 40 % of enterprise companies plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year. Freelance solopreneurs and smaller business entities will likewise continue, or perhaps increase, their content marketing activity as well, but the dominance of content presented by the multinationals can easily cause the comparatively modest content produced by small entities to be overwhelmed as if by a riptide. Freelancers are understandably frustrated with this occurrence. How can you become more visible when your content must swim with the whales—and sharks?

It’s a vexing problem for sure but there is a commonsense strategy, one that plays to your strengths and demonstrates resourcefulness and creativity. The best response to content saturation is to activate your problem-solving ability and devise a strategy that guides you to create content that not only resonates with your audience, but also positions you to gain and maintain the attention and loyalty of your target audience. Whether your information is intended for social media posts, or focuses on developing and promoting content featured in your webinars, weekly blogs, or monthly newsletters, be reassured that content perceived as valuable will be acknowledged and followed by your target audience. It’s just about guaranteed that content featuring information that is specific, practical and actionable will result in a loyal and thriving audience who will regard you as a trusted expert. So, your mission as a content producer is to learn what is meaningful to your readers, listeners and/or viewers and let their priorities guide your content development and distribution strategies.

Educate yourself by reading articles that discuss from local and national perspectives developing trends, pending legislation, competition, opportunities and other updates in your field. Producers of relevant content must also be consumers of relevant content! If producing content figures prominently in your marketing strategies (and I know that it does), you may find one or more of the following five suggestions able to enhance the value of your marketing content and also position your content to bring in a healthy ROI—which might include establishing you as a thought leader.

Relevant, realistic and relatable information

Content that your audience considers to be relevant and practical is more likely to be valued, implemented and shared. Gaining a reputation as a reliable and respected source of content by your audience will incline them to become your followers or subscribers. Content that your viewers, listeners, or readers consider potentially actionable and known to be trustworthy can also encourage loyalty to you, your content and your organization and may persuade some to become your customers. To create content that’s considered useful and trustworthy, and resonates with your audience, you must stay ahead of emerging trends in your industry and be aware of and responsive to the evolving preferences, priorities and concerns of your customers.

Actions are easy to implement and afford

Your audience should be able to envision the usefulness of the actions or strategies your content recommends, even if only a minority of them is prepared to implement your ideas now or in the near future. Individual circumstances will dictate what audience members decide to do, but any advice put forth in your content must inspire confidence.

Furthermore, your content should not recommend actions or strategies that involve implementation costs that many would consider expensive. I’ll go so far as to say that the average B2B content viewer is looking for ideas that can, with a minimum of time and fuss, be used to grow their customer list, streamline business operations and either save or make money—practical advice that can be implemented at no cost or low cost. While business expenses are inescapable, content creators win more fans by recommending actions that demonstrate recognizable value and are accessible and affordable to the majority of the audience.

Your content is your own creation

Rather than doing a copy/paste of another’s work, content creators should value their lived experience—victories won and battles lost, resilience found, the worries of sleepless nights and sudden inspirations—and share those stories with your audience in ways that will be interesting and useful to them. Producing content is usually time-consuming, but that is the price of authenticity and it is worth it. To give yourself a starting point for your creative process, search for trending topics in your field, or comment on an aspect of the most frequent internet search questions related to your marketplace sector that were made over the past week.

Links to expert 3rd party support

In this post I’ve referenced marketing expert Neil Patel and the global business information platform Statista. Demonstrating to your readers/listeners/viewers that key points of your content are supported by recognized nationally or globally respected thought leaders gives them reasons to trust and value the recommendations and insights offered in your content.

Avoid confirmation bias

Content that is valued and popular is shaped not by the creator’s preferences, but by the readers/viewers/listeners in the audience. A common tactic used to help creators avoid confirmation bias is to simply ask audience members what they want to see and hear now, so that you can ensure the relevance of your content. Every few months, you might create a short survey that encourages content viewers to express what matters to them. In a four or five question survey, you can also slip in one or two audience demographic questions—Are you self-employed or an employee? What is your main area of expertise?—and begin to build an audience persona, which will enable you to heighten your responsiveness to your audience.

  • Social media polls Your preferred platforms provide a convenient means to create and send a survey that will help you learn more about your audience. Social media platforms make it easy for you to engage and more effectively communicate with audience members by providing fully customizable forms that help you expand your reach and even grow your base of followers. Polls are equipped with analytical tools that will give you information on your audience’s age group, location, profession and more.
  • Online and email surveys. The most important part of conducting online surveys is knowing what you want to learn from each question, and to keep questions short and easy to answer. You can also create email campaigns to survey your existing client base and gain valuable insight about them. For a very basic customer survey, ClickInsights sets up a one-question, one-click email survey; create a more extensive survey at Survey Monkey.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © A Tokyo soba noodle delivery in 1956. Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images

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“Upload Photo Here” B2B Gets Personal

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Creating B2B marketing content that brings in leads and builds your brand is a real challenge! Bound by (real or imagined) expectations to appear “business-like,” B2B content creators are known to merely deliver the info that decision-makers need—the what, why, when, by whom and how a product or service is used, topped off with a serviceable call-to-action. The particulars will be in there but the end result is usually content that’s dry and impersonal. It doesn’t reach out and touch, it checks off the boxes.

If developing B2B marketing content is your responsibility, keep in mind that the decision-makers you aspire to influence are actually human. They laugh, they get bored, get frustrated, curious and (sometimes) inspired. They are busy, if not overwhelmed, and it takes something special to get their attention and win their trust. Your target audience responds best to content that is fresh, unexpected and shows that you understand what’s important to them.

Maybe you’re ahead of me and already have a guerilla marketing campaign in the works, as was discussed in last week’s post? But once the guerilla sizzle has grabbed audience attention, back it up and bring the steak. Your next move is to convert the buzz into confidence and trust that leads to loyal relationships. You achieve that by knowing your clients and using that knowledge to develop content and other means of communication that demonstrates you have their priorities and needs on your front burner. Below are factors to keep in mind and actions you may decide to take as you re-examine your B2B marketing strategy and prepare your organization for the start of a new year.

Personalized customer profiles

To figure out how to sell your products and/or services, you must know the goals and priorities of your prospects and have an idea of what might worry them, too. Accurate and updated client information is among your most valuable resources; data can be collected in quick-and-easy, nonthreatening ways, on your website or social media platforms. In exchange for a prospect’s name, contact info, business name and category, you may offer free 15 minute video consultations, free copies of your case study, or a free link to the webinar on which you made a guest appearance info. Inbound marketing tactics, spotlighted by a tempting call-to-action, not only moves prospects through the sales funnel, it also functions as a portal for client info.

Beyond basic contact info, a review of previous client or prospect interactions with your company will reveal more detailed info, including the purchasing history of current and lapsed clients, their buying preferences, concerns and the amount they spend. Get to know your target audience by understanding their unique preferences and help yourself to retain clients, make more sales and reduce churn rate. Clients and prospects are what a mailing list is all about; it’s members represent potential sales revenue for your company. Consider the following questions as you build customer profiles.

  • Who is a window shopper and who is researching with a goal of buying? Have you designed a “try before you buy” option available to undecideds, or is it effective to initiate a face2face or video meeting to show undecideds how your solution will solve problems and achieve objectives that matter to them?
  • Who are they buying for? Is the prospect an end-user and stakeholder, who influences the purchasing decision, or is the decision-maker, who may not directly use the product or service, doing the shopping?
  • After they complete a purchase, what kind of follow-up support, including info on the optimal use of the product or implementation of a service, would the new client appreciate?

Purpose-driven content

Companies are re-evaluating how they deliver their marketing messages and many now feel that creating purpose-driven marketing content is integral to being seen as relevant to potential buyers. The more you know about the goals and buying behaviors of your prospects, the more successful you’ll become in selling to them. You want information that guides you to describe, price, deliver and provide after-sale support for your product or service in words and actions that are quickly understood and strike the right chords with the target audience and in so doing, earn their trust and confidence. Consider the three phases of the buyer’s journey:

  • Discovery phase: What do prospects see when they conduct a Google search of your entity? What links appear in the results and what story is told about your products/ services and brand?
  • Consideration phase: How is your company represented when a prospect or client engages with your social media and other content? What platform links, articles, images and websites appear?
  • Conversion phase: How does your brand show up when a client transacts business on your website? What action do you want your client to take beyond making a one-time purchase?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © The Richard Avedon Foundation. Supermodel China Machado (born Noelie da Souza,1929-2016), photographed by Richard Avedon in New York, NY for the November 6, 1958 cover of Time Magazine’s 100 Women of the Year issue.

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Eyes On the Competition

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As was noted in three or four recent posts, business data and other forms of business information, which may consist of the observations and predictions of researchers, journalists and other experts, have always been an essential resource for business owners and leaders. As we move through the 21st century, data-driven decision-making, enabled by powerful software programs and artificial intelligence, has become the hallmark of responsible business management.

Chief among the market research that every successful business owner or leader must do is assess the competitive landscape in his/her marketplace. Questions you’ll want to find answers to include:

  • Who sells products and services similar to your own?
  • Who are their customers?
  • What is the estimated size of their market?
  • Who dominates, how and why?
  • How do the marketplace leaders attract and retain customers?
  • What is their price range?
  • How successful are they?
  • Can you launch your venture alongside these competitors and achieve sustainable success?

Mapping your competitive landscape also includes identifying direct competitors, meaning companies whose services and products closely resemble your own and indirect competitors, that is, those whose products and services present an alternative choice within a similar price range that can be sold as a potentially satisfactory solution. Understanding the difference between direct and indirect competitors can be simplified by comparing the process to shopping for a Valentine’s Day gift.

The chocolate shops are all direct competitors, with price as a potential differentiator, because chocolates are more or less interchangeable. The same can be said for florists. But chocolate shops and florists are as well one another’s indirect competitors within a similar price range because for $50.00, you can buy either a nice bouquet or a nice box of chocolates.

Start your investigation with a key word search using terms commonly chosen to describe your company’s products and/ or services to see who appears and how they rank. Whoever makes it into the top 10 are the most successful of your competitors. You can also check out member lists at the business and professional groups you’ve joined (yet another reason why business associations are a good investment). Visit the websites of the top 4 or 5 competitors in your search, along with their social media pages and Yelp reviews.

Make note of speaking engagements made by the principals—-host organization and topic, along with company participation in local charity events and business awards and nominations received. If successful competitors have done any of those things, don’t be ashamed to follow with a me, too.

Popular products and services

Knowing what sort of products and services are best-sellers for your top competitors is tremendously useful intel and will enable you to make smarter decisions about building your solutions and making your prospect’s hot buttons blink.

So try to figure out what competitors sell the most, what sells the least for them and what’s somewhere in the middle. Keep the best sellers in mind as you design your services, perhaps adding a differentiating something extra to create more value in a way that’s affordable for you, or that you can sell at a premium.

Finally, watch for what gets revised and what gets dropped. Notice how products and services are described and positioned and, if possible, priced. Learn from competitors’ mistakes.

Leadgen strategies

Absolutely, spend time analyzing the website landing pages and social media accounts of your major competitors. You want to know how they keep their pipelines filled and how they persuade prospects to remain on the buyer’s journey. What informational goodies and special offers have they sprinkled into their TOFU, MOFU and BOFU ( top, middle and bottom of the funnel)?

You may find the inevitable free-for-the-price-of-your-email-address e-book or highlights of a keynote speech delivered at a popular conference. You’re looking for inspired, desirable content choices that you hadn’t thought of, so you can offer something similar as a way to engage prospects and stimulate lead creation.

Blog and newsletter content

Pay attention to topics that are most often covered and those that are infrequently discussed. Notice also if certain topics are spotlighted during particular months. Observe which types of posts are often shared on social media and note which platforms are most often used (and which ones used the least). Your objective is to help yourself plan a content marketing strategy that features topics of interest to prospective readers and simultaneously support the premise that you are a reliable source of good information and a capable professional.

If you’re feeling more curious, use a traffic analysis tool to search for the blog-related URLs in the Top Pages list. Analyze their unique page views and visits, conversions, traffic sources ⁠— make note of all the data that’s presented. Publishing a respected blog or newsletter could become an integral building block of your success. .

Selling points

What objectives emerge as the core purpose, the main problem-solving motivation, that your competitors speak to when communicating to prospects—on their website and social media platforms, in case studies, and testimonials and in their newsletters and blog posts? What do they aim to help their customers achieve when making the case to do business with them? What descriptive language is used? Also, what benefits do they emphasize to persuade prospects to reach out to them?

Moreover, what competencies do your competitors trumpet as a valuable resource that their clients prize and prospects desire? Is it a specialized academic degree, skills certifications, prior work experience and/ or prestigious client list?

Call-to-Action

What you want to know is how competitors sell their CTA. “Buy now” and “click here” are phrases you can think up on your own. The purpose of this research is to see examples of (presumably effective) CTA pitches, both the give-away info and what is said to create an appetite for it. The information offered should be something that prospects are likely to find useful, or somehow interesting and for some items they’ll be willing to surrender their email address to obtain it.

A free 30-minute phone conversation with you or a team member that will allow serious prospects to get insight and answers about how your products and services might help them achieve a goal or solve a problem should make a tempting offer. Click the link to learn more about effective CTAs (gotcha!):

https://freelancetheconsultantsdiary.wordpress.com/2021/04/06/a-call-to-action/

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Krystle (L, Linda Evans) and Alexis (Joan Collins) were eternal rivals and fierce competitors on the prime time soap opera Dynasty (ABC-TV 1981-1989)

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Ask Better Questions

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“Be a good listener,” Dale Carnegie advised in his 1936 classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. “Ask questions the other person will enjoy answering.”  Effectively asking questions is a big part of a leader’s job. Good decision-making is based on information we obtain by asking the right questions. Making a sale, including handling objections, is also supported by effective questioning.

Many of us hesitate to ask questions, unfortunately. Sometimes it’s because we don’t want to be perceived as intrusive. Other times,  we worry that our questions may be viewed as silly and make us appear incompetent.  On the other hand, one might assume that more information is not necessary.  In every instance, an opportunity to obtain valuable information is lost.

Alison Woods Brooks, an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Business School who teaches Negotiation and is affiliated with the Behavioral Insights Group and Leslie K. John, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, understand that effective questioning is a skill that can be honed to make our conversations more productive.

The two offer guidance on the best type of questions to ask, tone of voice to use, the sequence of questions and how to frame the questions.  The best approach for a given situation depends on the goals of those in conversation.  Is the discussion  cooperative (e.g., relationship-building or accomplishing a task together) or  competitive (the parties seek to uncover sensitive information from each other or serve their own interests), or some combination of both? Brooks and her research team employed human coding and machine learning to identify four types of questions:

  • Introductory questions (“How are you?”)
  • Mirror questions (“I’m fine. How are you?”)
  • Full-switch questions (change the topic entirely)
  •  Follow-up questions (solicit more information)

Follow-up

Although each question type flows naturally in conversation, follow-up questions have special power. Follow-up questions signal to your conversation partner that you are listening, that you care and that you want to know more. People interacting with a conversation partner who asks lots of follow-up questions tend to feel respected and heard. According to Leslie K. John, “Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding.” Plus, follow-up questions don’t require much thought or preparation and usually come naturally to the questioner.

Yet be advised that no one likes to feel interrogated. Furthermore, closed-end questions tend to yield one-word answers. Open-ended questions counteract that effect and for that reason, they can be particularly useful in uncovering information or learning something new. In fact, they are wellsprings of innovation—which is often the result of finding the hidden, unexpected answer that no one has thought of before.

Sequencing

If the goal is to build relationships, opening with less sensitive questions and escalating slowly seems to be most effective.  In a set of studies (the results of which went viral following a write-up in the “Modern Love” column in the New York Times), psychologist Arthur Aron recruited strangers to come to the lab, paired them up and gave them a list of questions.  Participants were told to work their way through the list, starting with relatively shallow inquiries and progressing to more self-revelatory ones, such as “What is your biggest regret?”

Pairs in the control group were asked simply to interact with each other. The pairs who followed the prescribed structure liked each other more than the control pairs. This effect is so strong that it has been formalized in a task called “the relationship closeness induction,” a tool used by researchers to build a sense of connection among the participants.

Tone

People are more forthcoming when you ask questions in a casual way, rather than in a terse, official tone. In general, an overly formal tone is likely to inhibit people’s willingness to share information.

Group dynamics

Conversational dynamics can change profoundly depending on whether you’re chatting one-on-one with someone or talking in a group. Not only is the willingness to answer questions impacted by the presence of others, but members of a group tend to follow one anothers lead. In a meeting or group setting, it takes only a few closed-off people for questions to lose their probing power.  Conversely, if even one person starts to open up on a topic, the rest of the group is likely to follow suit.

Art of the response

Conversation is a dance, a mutual push-and-pull. Just as the way we ask questions can facilitate trust and the sharing of information so, too, can the way we answer them. Answering questions requires making a choice about where to fall on a continuum between privacy and transparency.  How should I answer this question? Assuming that I answer, how forthcoming can I afford to be? What should one do when asked a question that, if answered truthfully, might reveal a less-than-flattering information, or put one in a disadvantaged strategic position?

Each end of the spectrum—fully opaque and fully transparent—has benefits and pitfalls.  In negotiations, withholding sensitive information (e.g., that your alternatives are weak) can help you secure better outcomes. At the same time, transparency is an essential part of building meaningful connections. Even in a negotiation context, transparency can lead to value-creating deals; by sharing information, participants can identify elements that are relatively unimportant to one party but important to the other—the foundation of a win-win outcome.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: The Dating Game, 1965- 1973 (ABC-TV)

 

 

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Storytelling Made Simple

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“What would be useful for my audience to learn and how can I package this lesson or bit of information in a compelling story format?“—Travis Bernard, content marketing guru at TechCrunch, the leading technology industry blog based in San Francisco, CA

Whaddaya say we learn how to put together a good story for your marketing content? Some people are natural storytellers and others aren’t, but it’s always useful to develop and hone the art of storytelling when one is a public speaker and that includes Freelancers, business owners and sales professionals who must speak with prospective clients to generate sales or billable hours.  Your story need not be long and elaborate.  In fact, a concise narrative will be more memorable and impactful.

Your content marketing story will describe a client experience journey.  The story will feature three main characters—the hero, the villain and the mentor.  The story will have a beginning, middle and end.  A call-to-action, when you encourage your content reader to act on the information that you’ve shared, will be the story’s epilogue.

The hero of the story will have a problem to solve or avoid, a challenge to overcome, and that is the goal.  The hero will be waylaid or deceived by the villain, that is, an obstacle that is preventing him/her from achieving the goal.  The hero must seek knowledge and guidance from a mentor during the journey and that is your role, storyteller friend.

Act I is when the hero acknowledges that there is a problem to solve.  There is a goal to achieve and an effective solution will be necessary.

Act II will describe the magnitude of the problem and the failures of various less than stellar solutions that the hero has tried and discarded (homegrown remedies or competitive products).

Act III is where you come in, the mentor who helps the hero make sense of the possible solutions and explains how your product or service can resolve the matter.  The hero agrees to adopt your product or service and the problem is resolved.  The hero looks like a genius to his/her superiors and colleagues.

The Epilogue features the call-to-action, when you show the content reader how to obtain an effective solution for his/her goal, a solution that will overcome the challenge and make the content reader look like a hero to the higher-ups.

Be advised that the hero of the content story is never the product or service.  The hero of the story is the protagonist, s/he who takes action and moves the journey forward to its triumphant conclusion.  The client is always the hero of the story.  You, the storyteller and possessor of expertise, serve as a mentor, to ensure that the hero will prevail and achieve the goal.  Your product or service supports the hero by overcoming the challenge and enabling achievement of the goal.

The purpose of your content/ story is to persuade the reader to act upon the information that you’ve delivered.  Integral to persuading the reader is to build trust in you as a mentor/ expert and confidence in the solutions that you recommend and provide. You may be able to persuade content readers to give your post a Like, or share it with others.  The ultimate validation is when content readers are so confident in your proposed solution that they click through to your website shopping cart or contact you to ask questions about how you might handle a project.

Finally, you’ll need a specific story to tell (and eventually, you’ll have two or three more). Without naming names, your content/ story will the based on a client who has successfully used your product or service.  If you will tell your company’s brand story to promote awareness, your content story will illustrate why company founders were motivated to form the venture and include mention of the mission, values and guiding principles.

Client experience journey content stories, or your company’s brand story, can be included in your blog, social media posts, white papers, videos and so on. You’re sure to find that they help prospects envision their own circumstances and how your products or services can be useful.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: Portrait of Clementina Maude (circa 1862) taken by her mother, Lady Clementina Hawarden (Viscountess Hawarden of England, 1822-1865)

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The Data Driven Payoff

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Because the February-March session sold out,  I have been invited to reprise my three-part workshop  “Become Your Own Boss: Effective Business Plan Writing”  at Boston Center for Adult Education 122 Arlington Street Boston MA on three Mondays,  May 9, 16 & 23 from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM.  For more information or to register please visit http://bit.ly/becomeyourown59  or call 617.267.4430.

As Freelance consultants,  we know that information is nearly as valuable to us as our skill set.  Information leads us to make smart decisions about all aspects of business: what services to offer,  identifying target client groups,  determining a profitable business model,  understanding how to market our services,  gaining a competitive edge.  That good information is integral to all that we do comes as no surprise,  but until now there was no scientific evidence to support that belief.

New research done by Erik Brynjolfsson,  economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Business,  Heekyung Kim,  graduate student in economics at MIT Sloan School and Lorin Hitt,  economist at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business proves that good information really does put money in your pocket.

The three studied 179 large businesses and found that when decisions enacted were based on reliable data,  companies achieved a 5+ % higher productivity level than businesses that relied more on “experience and intuition” for decision making.  The higher productivity could not be attributed to other factors,  such as the use of more sophisticated technology.

In the study,  data driven decision making was not primarily based on merely collecting data,  but was closely linked to how the data was utilized.  In the April 24, 2011 New York Times,  Mr. Brynolfsson stated that business decisions based on data and analysis “have huge implications for competitiveness and growth”.

Thomas Davenport,  professor of information technology and management at Babson College in Massachusetts supported the conclusions reached regarding data driven business decisions in a book written with Jeanne Harris and Robert Morison, “Analytics at Work: Smarter Results” (2010),  concluding that companies that rely heavily on data analysis are likely to outperform those that do not.

The big question is,  which data do we choose to collect and analyze and how do we best apply it?  Curating data is big business.  “The biggest change facing corporations is the explosion of data”,  said David Grossman,  technology analyst at Stifel Nicolaus in the April 24 NY Times.  “The best business is in helping customers analyze and manage all that data”.

How does a Freelancer decide what to do with data available to us?  I propose that data presented here would guide readers with excellent proficiency in mathematics and possessed of an advanced degree in the subject to become data analysts!  All others might take a look at our P & L statements and examine gross revenue and fixed and variable expenses and analyze how much it costs to generate income and what can be trimmed to make the bottom line better.

Speaking of revenue,  do some research on the services that your target clients are contracting for these days.  Are you retaining clients and signing new ones, too?  How does your 2Q 2011 active client roster compare to 2Q 2010?  Do you need to tweak your business model to maintain your competitive edge,  or might it be wiser to seek a strategic partnership?

To help figure things out,  do a free online search of Google’s Key Word Tool or Wonder Wheel and type in a descriptive phrase of your core service.  How many prospects in your locale are searching for what you sell?  Next,  type in a phrase that describes the service you think might interest clients and see how many local searches it gets.  There you have it,  data driven analysis to guide your business decisions.

Use Google Analytics to track hits to your website and report which pages receive the most attention.  You can correlate that data to the number of follow-up requests you receive and  the conversion of that follow-up to new business.  Make further use of that data to evaluate the efficacy of your website and learn how you can enhance this important marketing tool.  Will adding multimedia to your website be useful?  Or will adding pages to give more information do the trick?  Or maybe you should just simplify the text and clarify and strengthen your message?  Listen to the data and find your answers.

Thanks for reading,

Kim