Sustainable Content

Transcript

Opening

Hello, I'm Kerry Guard and Welcome to Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders.

Welcome back to season 10. Hope you've enjoyed my conversations with Lavanya Ganesh, Peter Zaballos, and Shane Whelan, or maybe you skipped around and heard from Rachel Jordan or Stephen Shapiro. As a reminder, we dropped our full season of episodes Netflix style. You can binge or jump around either way; there's no need to wait week after week. Enjoy listening your way.

In this episode, I chat with Lisa McDermott, VP of Marketing at Acqueon. When Lisa and I talked, she was working at Core Dial, which is interesting because it's a business that relies solely on partners. Marrying the business model with Lisa's view of marketing and content makes for a new and exciting conversation I haven't had before, so I'm super excited to share it with you. Let's take a listen.

Conversation

Kerry Guard: Lisa, thank you for joining me on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders.

Lisa McDermott: Hi Kerry, thanks so much for having me.

Kerry Guard: Oh, I am so excited to have you, especially given where we come from. We just figured out that we kind of broke down the street from each other. So that's fun.

Lisa McDermott: I love that, the Delco connection. I had no idea. I'm so glad you told me.

Kerry Guard: So good. So if our Philly comes out guys, sorry, not sorry.

Lisa McDermott: I'm sure well,

Kerry Guard: Lisa, before we dive into the heart of our conversation today, why don't you give our listeners a little preview of your story? What do you do? And how did you get there?

Lisa McDermott: Yes. Okay. So right now I'm the Vice President of Marketing for Philly-based SaaS platform and cloud communications platform. It’s an awesome company and I've been here for just under four years, running the marketing organization. Prior to that, you and I probably have some similarities, because prior to working inside, I was on the agency side of the world, or in the agency side of the world. I spent eight years at a full-service digital marketing agency in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where I went to school, and for the last decade, I've been completely and fully immersed in the world of marketing. I think that I have a pretty well-rounded view of B2B and digital marketing from both the agency kind of mind frame as well as the client-side of the world. The perspective I bring to the table, or the way that I'm able to kind of analyze and approach challenges and opportunities of all kinds, is like picking and choosing from all kinds of experiences across that agency and client-side realm.

For the past four years, I have been running marketing integrated, digital inbound, content, and traditional marketing print, you name it, on an affiliate basis platform. It's been awesome and It's been a ride through COVID and remote work and all the fun that's come along with that. I'm sure I'm not the only one that says this, but COVID actually created some pretty incredible opportunities for our company, just helping our partners and helping them help their customers navigate this new landscape using cloud communications and so forth. So that's where I am now, in a nutshell.

Kerry Guard: Yeah! That's really helpful, and having listened to a few episodes, you're talking to your audience of people who are in your boat, and this is great. Before I dive into more around content and figure out how to find the right messaging around some of these things that aren't all that, they don't sound fun on paper, but with the right approach. Before we get there, Lisa, what would you say is one of your biggest challenges right now?

Lisa McDermott: Oh, wow. There are so many but good challenges, right? Like, challenges are fun. I think challenges are what make this job especially in the marketing world, because it's fast-moving, and there's just always something new to learn, tools, and new technology. Challenges across the board are kind of what keeps me motivated and, I think, creates high-performing teams, but like housekeeping and putting on how we are going to make a 2022 awesome hat. The challenges that come to the top of my mind are like the prioritization of how to allocate resources because there are so many ways to grow and so many growth opportunities for our company right now. We don't have customers, we have partners. So if I use the word "partners," it's because we sell exclusively through a partner channel, so we have opportunities within partner success, like how to make our current partners more successful in retention and delight mechanisms. We have growth opportunities in partner acquisitions, how do we find more sweet spot partners, how do we sign more, how do we bring higher quality partners to the table so that production is faster, higher, and so forth once they sign. And then also, marketing within my company serves the pillars of thought leadership and brand; how do we strengthen our brand, how do we create a position of thought leadership and credibility and higher imputation in the industry, among analysts, among partners, and potential partners, and so forth, trying to figure out that we're a fairly lean and capable team. If you look at the total ecosystem of growth opportunities and where we need to focus our energies, it really becomes a matter of prioritization. If you prioritize incorrectly, you can spend a lot of time kind of barking up the wrong tree or working on stuff that seems incredibly meaningful, funny, and enjoyable, but it doesn't necessarily get you closer to the goals of the company, department, or individual contributor. Taking a step back and looking at where we are right now, in terms of our goals, where we want to go, and how we are going to allocate, and I don't mean to just be like monetary resources, a lot of it comes down to the allocation of human resources. With so many hours in a day and employees on your team who are going to focus on the right mix of resource allocation, I would say that's sort of the nut that I'm working on cracking towards the end of the year and going into 2022.

Kerry Guard: Yeah, resources are definitely a struggle to not feel it. And especially, you mentioned that you're doing so many things across so many channels, too. Being a lean team, trying to balance not just digital, but traditional and grow just you're not alone and that is definitely no strong feat, for sure. What would you say is like a 2022 challenge that you're looking forward to? I'm sure you've had the challenge this year. A little bit, if not the whole time, like I said, you've been balancing all of these channels. What would you say to those who are listening? Have you found, like, one tidbit to throw out there to our listeners about how you've navigated this challenge?

Lisa McDermott: Yes. Well, I think I'm pretty lucky in that the organization that I'm with has incredibly defined, top-level company goals, and they're the guiding light for everything that we're working on. I mean, it's actually fairly simple, just looking at what the trajectory is that we're trying to map out, from the top-level down, what we're trying to accomplish and never veering away from that because it's really tempting to get really excited about the new shiny objects and the new sales pitch and all the emails that come in all day from vendors that are trying to get me to explore a new piece of technology or new integration or some better way to track metrics. I mean, there are so many fun things that you want to go down rabbit holes. You could go down rabbit holes. I mean, you could spend your entire day and week just exploring opportunities and new shiny objects that could probably be very awesome. However, it's really time-consuming and not necessarily a great use of time. Not getting distracted, I think, would be my tidbit, kind of keeping your eye on the prize, even though it's not always like the sexiest, most fun way to operate if you constantly look towards the things that we, as a company, want to do now, next quarter, next year, and what are the defined things that we said we were going to get done, that we wanted to get done, and that we have to get done, is it new customers, recruitment, or is it focusing in on the customers that we do have and really exploiting some growth opportunities that we know are on the table, like, what are those things, and never veering away from those as a guiding light to figure out where to allocate the resources and what to work on and what project to take on or which one gets pushed to the side. Because there's always going to be something new, fun, and exciting that has the ability to, or the easy ability to take your focus of what really needs to be done. Not getting distracted but also, like, we're humans, we want it, we like shiny new objects, it's fine! And especially in marketing, we work in such a fun industry and in such a fun space, that I think we'd be doing ourselves a disservice to not let ourselves get excited and explore and investigate. So, carving out a day or a week, or saving some hours, just to go down rabbit holes; I mean, I like to geek out a little bit, and I know a lot of my colleagues do as well. I know I'm not alone in this. Like, if I tried to just ignore all this stuff I'm being constantly confronted with, I'd probably be bummed out, but also I'd be missing out on learning a lot of things about a lot of cool potential opportunities. And they just go on, like a little email folder that I want to look at when the time presents itself, and I allow myself space in the day to do that. Otherwise, I think the job could get really mundane and just maybe kind of lose its luster. So just don't get distracted. Focus on what is going to move the needle, and then when you have a little bit of time, go down those rabbit holes, take a call with a new vendor, open up an email someone sent you, watch a video, read a blog, like do those things. They're so important, but don't let them distract you.

Kerry Guard: I love that! If we do get bombarded, I feel like my LinkedIn is always blowing up with the newest, shiniest tools to help drive the needle all the time. But I feel like if you're not careful and switch systems, you end up sort of losing. So, I like what you're saying where you got to keep your eye on the prize, like what you're trying to accomplish to find those opportunities to try that new, shiny object.

Lisa McDermott: I mean, that's what I have found really helps me because there are only so many hours in the day and, like, time is the great equalizer. And I think that there's probably so much value in so many of these companies' integrations, tools, and just new techniques, right? I mean, there's so much value in all of it. But sometimes it's focusing in on the stuff you already have and figuring out how to really optimize and capitalize on the value that lies within some of the things you're already doing or optimizing processes that have already been created, but could be elevated a notch to really help the company succeed or help your team succeed. Sometimes, the best opportunities are right at your fingertips, and distraction can take you away from things like low-hanging fruit that are really just right in front of you for the taking.

Kerry Guard: So I'm okay. We're gonna launch into the main event here. Thank you for sharing your challenge. That's always so helpful when aligning with our audience of who's listening, but we also want to allow people to walk away with more stuff to feel excited about more shiny objects, so to speak. But also, what's really cool about this conversation we're about to have is that it's not that shiny at all, it's actually things people can go do, hopefully starting in 2022, to make their content even better.

Lisa McDermott: Yes.

Kerry Guard: Yes.

Lisa McDermott: Gotta love the content.

Kerry Guard: Content. Yeah! I feel like it's where everything is. I mean, I feel like we've always, especially we're an SEO agency and you've been on the agency side. So I feel like we've always sort of shown up from the mountaintops that content is king. But I feel like people are finally on board with not only knowing that content is king if he was always known that but like, how to actually go make it happen. Do you feel that shift in the universe?

Lisa McDermott: I do. I know, I think we talked about this previously, when we were first chatting about coming from the agency side of the world, we were kind of first into having our eyes wide open to the opportunity of content marketing and the necessity of it, maybe even more than the opportunity, and so it was almost like rosy lenses or rose-colored glasses, or almost having a skewed perception that the whole world was on board with this way before they really were. And I'm glad that I was early on that train, and I'm sure you're really glad about that, too. But yeah, the world caught on and now it's not nice to have, it's a must-have. And I think most businesses, many businesses, get that now. I'm sure a lot of them kind of feel behind the eight ball a little bit, or maybe like they're playing catch up because I feel like once you realize that content marketing is the future, it looks like the present and it's also the future. It can be a little overwhelming to realize how many other companies, including lots of competitors, are already doing it and thinking, "How am I going to get into this game?" How do I start? "I'm just realizing this now, or should I have been doing this five years ago? Where do I start? ". Yeah, I think the world's on board with that, and I don't know about you, I kind of think that COVID, like, accelerated the adoption of the belief that content marketing is critical, because, like, the ability to just face-to-face, other than zoom, but the ability to just be out there in the world went away overnight for us. And so everything became so digitalized, just by necessity. And I don't know, I feel like that certainly tapped into just people's minds being opened, or made aware of the content being so incredibly important and creating, well, not just creating content, but like good content, you know what I mean?

Kerry Guard: Well, yeah, I think Google has ensured that because, given its updates around content and the importance of it, not only having it wrong, or regular cadence, but also being really meaningful. Yeah, there have been some updates lately that have definitely shown light there. In terms of content, because I feel like initially when we say content a few years ago, people would think their brains would immediately jump to a blog, I would need to produce blog posts, and it's like, not anymore. Right? It's so much bigger, so much bigger than luck. So, in your definition and your expertise Lisa, can you tell us what content means to you?

Lisa McDermott: Yeah, absolutely. So, in my world, and the way I guess, in my utopia of how I would love to see the business world, regarding content, the creation of materials that help a buyer or an audience consume, learn, want, and desire in a better, more meaningful way. I don't necessarily think it should be all about lead generation. I think there's obviously a huge alignment between lead generation and content, of course, but I think even taking a step back from lead generation, like the higher level of demand generation, and getting your head around the concept that we as consumers are human beings with lives, we're smart, we have priorities, and we have limited time. And how do I, as a marketer, create, whether it's a blog or a video or an infographic or a datasheet or a social media post, whatever it is, how do I create something that truly adds value in a meaningful way to the person I'm trying to connect with, because the opportunity to speak live with a person during a sales process or to interface lives in any way, I mean, those opportunities are so limited for many, and they're just not scalable, right? People resources aren't necessarily your most scalable resources in most businesses. How do we use content to become this living, breathing component of the company to let it serve as a voice so that we can help create demand and create value for the people that we're trying to connect with. I feel like if that's the approach that's taken to developing content versus how do I rank, how do I come up first in the search results or pages, how do I generate a lead or conversion from this thing, but like, thinking about it from the lens of how do I add value, and how do I help educate, so that way, when that person is ready, and the demand has been created, and they're ready to engage in a sales process, so much of the work, at the beginning levels, maybe it's already been done. The buyer's mind is open, it's curious, it's full of desire, it's full of need. They're coming to the table knowing things about your product, brand, service offering, or whatever it is. That makes the conversation much more human. That's, that's what I think content is.

Kerry Guard: I love that idea. It really makes me think about a lot of what I feel like people are saying, and I think this is because I completely created an echo chamber around myself. I feel like I've gotten lucky, and I'm talking to people who are all saying the same thing, including yourself. But it's got to be useful like it. We live in a world now where even B2B customers are consumers, and they shop like them and they want to make their own decisions. And that comes with a lot of research, and you can't just tell your story, or make it all about you as the brand, you really have to be useful to say. It almost feels like you're giving away your secrets, it's really hard. But the more transparent you are and the more you give away in that respect, I feel like the more you earn trust.

Lisa McDermott: Okay, so agree with that, Kerry. Your spot on that trust piece is just, I think, fundamental to the whole sales process.

Kerry Guard: Yeah, so the content of that is that handshake that you're creating, the virtual handshake like that's where the world has gone and it's scary. I know, for B2B customers, making this leap from lead gen, like you're talking about Lisa, to demand gen does not lead gen at all. You're not there to get all of your content; it's got to be out there and searchable and in as many, I don't want to say many, because I don't want to overwhelm everybody, but as many consumable ways as possible, from video to audio to text, so that you're meeting people where they are. It's so hard, it's so big,

Lisa McDermott: It's so big, and it can seem so overwhelming, especially if you're a small business or business with a lean team. Like, I mean, a lot of our partners, don't have marketing departments, right? Or if they do, they have one person who maybe does it all. I mean, while I have the luxury of having worked with large teams of agencies or having an awesome department behind me at a high growth SaaS company right now, I'm fully aware that a lot of businesses out there, like, don't have those luxuries of a writing team, an editing team, and video editors on staff. That's maybe few and far between for a lot of companies. And so I think there are things and ways that you can be effective with content without letting all of the things that go along with content overwhelm you like there are ways to scale it back and there are ways to start smaller but effective.

Kerry Guard: So you're talking about your partners and to your point there about them not having a marketing team and how you're trying to support your partners. His content is part of that? Like, not so much that you're necessarily giving them content. Let's get very meta very quickly. I'm sorry, the audience should get a sense of, like, your creativity. You're going to create content for them on how to create content, like I imagine that they do need it as partners. They themselves have to create content. So what is that scalability piece that you're talking about? What's that starting point that you give, the recommendation that you give to your partners on how to get them started with it?

Lisa McDermott: Yeah, that's such a great question. So we do, and I think it's a pretty awesome thing that we do. We set up our partners with a package of custom content to get them started, which we call new partner starter kits, and we create customized branded material for our partners to really help them hit the ground running. Because if you are a smaller team, or a smaller company, and you have to choose between "Do I focus on sales?" or "Do I focus on marketing?" I think a lot of companies are going to focus on sales, right? Because the revenue is what keeps the lights on. So we want to make it as easy as possible for our partners to just hit the ground running hard and we give them custom marketing assets, datasheets, and ebooks that we've created to help them, and so forth. Infographics, video content, things that we brand for them with their logo. I love that we do that, and we've gotten such awesome feedback from our partners that it's been an incredibly valuable resource for them. But beyond that, like to your point, Kerry, we have to educate our partners and businesses on how they can be effective in creating content on their own, because once they get their head around it, once they wrangle the process and figure out how to do it for themselves, like sold, lead the horse to water, help them drink, whatever. But that's the gold right there, helping our partners tap into it and allowing them to do it on their own.

And here's what I would say at the kind of baseline if you're thinking about content for the first time where you're kind of just getting started. Create one or two, maybe three, but really one or two killer pieces of content. Spend some time thinking about, I think, the pain points that you're trying, or that you're able to solve for your customers. Think about what it is that we solve for our customers. What are the things that they're up against, the challenges that are keeping them awake at night? What are the reasons that customers are coming to us, buying from us? Why are they picking up the phone and calling or searching for us? What are those things and creating content around the pain points that you're most skilled at, or most proven to help solve, and then creating a nice juicy piece about it, whether it's a website page, blog, pillar page, or just a nice piece of content, and then repurpose the heck out of it. Turn it into all kinds of tidbits for social media posts, turn it into an infographic, turn it into a small video that someone can just record, take a paragraph from it, and have someone talk to that paragraph and maybe even like, dive into it a little bit further in their own human way. On the video, if you start out with one or two pieces of just meaty content, and I think any business has a lot to say, right? Like, it doesn't have to be the most profound well written, like it doesn't have to be a novel that could be on the New York Times bestseller list, just say the thing that you would say to a potential customer about why they should be working with you, or how you can help them, like say those things in a piece of content, and then turn that one thing into as many smaller pieces of content that you can possibly spin out. And I feel like people are blown away when they actually do that exercise. And they realize how much can be created just from that kind of one general train of thought. And that's something anyone can do, carry, like, you can create an entire year's worth of content, arguably with some creativity. But you could create an entire year's worth of content marketing from two or three really solid, fundamental core pieces for your business, and the best part about those core pieces is that they tend to be evergreen. I remember when we created an ebook back in 2012. When I was with my former agency, I wrote an ebook called "Seven Signs Your Website is Sad." sabotaging your sales or something like that, we got leads from that piece of content for 789 years. And that's what I'm talking about, like evergreen, because that's your authenticity, right? If you create content about really, truly, what you do fundamentally well, how you help solve pain points and challenges for the world, and then turn that into all kinds of digestible, smaller tidbits for various channels, that stuff doesn't go away, unless you completely change your business model, or if your audience does, or the world flips upon its head, and the demographic of who you serve and their pain points totally change. Those things could happen, but if you generally have the same service offering, or an evolving service offering, and the same business model, that stuff never loses its value. So the time that you invest in creating it is a time that pays off in dividends for years to come.

Kerry Guard: I love what you're saying in terms of the human element. You mentioned it a couple of times. I'm paraphrasing in my own words, but what I'm hearing you say is not trying to be perfect, or to sell something, or to have a script necessarily ready, but to just speak about your experience of it, and why this is really helpful, and just being really human about it.

Lisa McDermott: I'm a big believer in the human experience being the key to marketing and business success. I am an empath and I love exploring the world of the human experience and how it relates to business and understanding what makes people tick, because I think there's this temptation, or maybe an unconscious thing that we do as marketers, where we can view our audience as a buyer, right? But that's so doing a disservice not just to the company, but also to the person on the other end of that transaction, or experience. Because we're buyers, and we're consumers, and all of those things we're so much more than that. That's only one small little facet of who we are as human beings, and we have a lot going on in our lives outside of what's happening at work. One of the books that I recently picked up was ''The Marketing Rebellion" by Mark Schaefer, based on your recommendation, Kerry. And I think he just so eloquently talks about this. The brands that are tapping into people and the human element of people and not just treating people as someone who's going to buy something from me, do something for me, or help my business succeed, the brands that are treating people are the brands that are winning. And for the longest time, I felt like content and inbound marketing had this very pure core, but it got a little tainted. I mean, that's just my personal experience with just thinking about content and lead generation in the same breath. You couldn't even say one without the other, and I don't think that's the right way to look at it because the human experience is diminished or devalued. I guess you could say it's not diminished, necessarily, but it's devalued. People buy on emotion and engage with a brand on emotion. If you can tap into the emotional connection, even if it looks like "I'm in SAS," it's not like I'm selling this as a heartfelt product, but any business can tap into their audience's human element. If you can figure out how to do that, then your content is not going to sound the same as everyone else's. It's not going to be scripted. It's not going to be corporate jargon and acronyms. It's going to be something that when someone reads it, they say, "Oh, wow, this company gets me. They understand what I'm going through. I feel like I would enjoy working with them to help me solve the thing that I need or do the thing that I need. " And like you said earlier, it's trust. When you tap into that human element of content, you build trust at the ground level and in my opinion, a business engagement that's built on the basis of trust is going to last longer and be more successful than engagement that isn't. I mean, trust is critical, especially as the world gets more digitalized. It's hard to figure out who you can and can't trust, what brands mean, what they say, and what brands are just kind of smoking mirrors and saying things that sound good, but don't really mean it. If you can establish trust with someone through your content, you are like, leaps and bounds ahead of the game.

Kerry Guard: It's just that it certainly helps the sales team.

Lisa McDermott: Totally yes, and salespeople get such a bad rap. I love sales teams. I love working with our sales guys. Sales and marketing, in my opinion, are just like two peas in the same pod. They're so closely connected, but for some reason, sales guys get the bad rap, and marketing doesn't really get the bad rap. People have such a perception of salesfolks and it's an incorrect perception. Salespeople just kind of get the crappy end of the stick.

Kerry Guard: Oh, yes. Sales has come a long way, and they feel like that human element has really come through when you meet the right salespeople and you're like, "Oh, yes, this is what I'm supposed to feel like," I think as marketing and sales continue to partner and as the content leads with that transparency and empathy, I feel like there's less barrier for them to just show up and be people. And then just make that human connection and humans buy from humans.

Lisa McDermott: Yeah, great.

Kerry Guard: So yeah, content is what breaks down those barriers and builds that trust. I totally agree. I love what you're saying in terms of how to do it and not feel overwhelmed, starting with one or two really solid, in-depth pieces of content that can live beyond the written page. And oh, Lisa, this was so good. I hope that everybody feels so inspired where to take their content in 2022 and how to get started and get over the hump. Thank you. Thank you for joining me. Before we close, I do have my people's first questions. Are you ready?

Lisa McDermott: I think so.

Kerry Guard: Okay, first one for you. Have you picked up any new hobbies? This last year and a half, two years during the pandemic?

Lisa McDermott: I did. Oh my gosh, yes, I'm sure everyone did. I developed a love for paddleboarding and bought myself a paddleboard. We lived right near a lake for eight years. I literally never went there once and really just have enjoyed so much getting out of the house and my whole family paddleboards and kayaks now, so that's been just such a breath of fresh air literally. I also started coaching my daughter's soccer team. So prior to working remotely, my commute round trip was like two-plus hours a day. So gosh, I didn't even have an opportunity to do something like that. Yeah, I'm an assistant soccer coach now for four, five, and six-year-old.

Kerry Guard: Oh, that's so cute. Alright, one question for you. We are remote now and I don't think that's going anywhere, but getting together in person is still critical, even if it's just a few times a year. So if you could be in the room with your team right now, walking the floor and hanging out, What song would you want playing to set the vibe?

Lisa McDermott: I love that question. I love music so much. That's so hard. I knew you were going to ask me this and struggled. Okay, so, like in old school Coldplay, probably, like yellow clocks. You know, that era of Coldplay, I think, is just such a vibe. But I'm really into a band right now, like Rüfüs Du Sol. They're I think from Australia or New Zealand or somewhere super fun like that, anything by Rüfüs Du Sol. Right now it's just a really good zone out, getting a vibe, just focusing and it just sets a good tone, like if I ever have the opportunity to work with my team in an office again, that will be blaring on the speakers.

Kerry Guard: I’ll look it up. Do you have a favorite song that I can add to our Spotify?

Lisa McDermott: Yes. Oh my Gosh, Underwater or Treat You Better titles.

Kerry Guard: I will. Awesome. All right, last question for you. The world is opening up and people are traveling now, which feels foreign and scary and weird, but it's happening. And if you could go to anywhere in the world, please so without any challenges which let me tell you having traveled in the middle of the pandemic, there are many. Let's assume that they don't exist right now. Where would you go and why?

Lisa McDermott: Oh my gosh, I would go to Amalfi Coast, Italy, like those amazing exotic places that have been on my list. And I really want to take my kids right before I got married. My grandma, who was like a world traveler, just such a classy lady. I asked her, "Where should I go on my honeymoon? If you could explore one place again, where would you go? "’ And she said, "The Isle of Capri. I love the Isle of Capri "and I never got there, and it is so high on my list that the minute I can go, I'm heading there with my whole family. I want to spend time there and explore.

Kerry Guard: I'm gonna go look up pictures. That sounds amazing. I'm closer. I don't want to say like real close but I'm closer.

Lisa McDermott: I know you're probably gonna get there before I do.

Kerry Guard: I won't let myself. You will tell me all about it and then you will give me your itinerary and I will go copy it and it will be glorious.

Lisa McDermott: I'll do it, deal.

Kerry Guard: Yeah. Lisa, so good. Thank you so much for joining me.

Lisa McDermott: Thank you so much for having me, Kerry. I really enjoyed it.

Outro

That was my conversation with Lisa. The Philly accent was strong. Sorry, not sorry. It was so nice to talk to someone from home. She made me feel at home for a bit and being the holiday season when we talked. This meant so much to me, small world. That's why I love this podcast so much, the variety of people who have joined me is eclectic, beautiful, and worldwide. Hopefully, you feel inspired to hit the ground running with content. Google is making it more important than ever and not just having content, but quality content. It also feels big and resource-intensive and it is! Thank you Lisa for giving us some key ways to just get started.

Mark Schaefer joined me a few months back where we talked about The Marketing Rebellion, his book. But his most recent book, the accumulative advantage, talks about momentum and how you create it, which is to just get started and then stay consistent and iterate. Overtime results will compound and momentum will flow. So just get started. Content is one of those examples that have a cumulative advantage when you start to New Start early, New Start often. And then you're consistent with it and you iterate on getting better and better and more quality over time. It's going to compound into results from traffic to intent to conversion. So if you haven't thought about your content strategy as a whole, just get started.

If you're interested in podcasting, podcasting is a great way to create cumulative content and I'd be happy to chat with you on how I run this podcast and what I've learned and some of the tips and tricks so that you can hit the ground running faster. It's also great to just have some amazing conversations along the way. You can email me at kerry@mkgmarketing.com, and we'll set up a meeting. I look forward to meeting you.

Lisa, if you're listening thank you for your continued support and for joining us it meant so much to connect with somebody from home and to talk about something I'm so passionate about in terms of marketing and content. And thank you for listening to Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders, the podcast that helps brands get found via transparent measurable digital marketing. I'm your host Kerry Guard, and until next time.