Attention Deficit

One of the biggest challenge we see companies facing in the lower middle market is getting attention.

The explosion of companies in any one segment, all under pressure to grow, has created a sea of "me too" noise for our Buyers.

Their natural response to this noise is to tune it out.

Which is why this environment is being described as the "Attention Deficit Era."

So how do we, as Founders/CEOs, need to structure our organization to produce content that captures attention?

What is "Content?"

Before we answer that, we need to develop a common understanding of "content."

In the realm of Go-to-Market, "content" is most often thought of as blog posts and other forms used for awareness building and demand capture.

But as our friend Mary Keough points out, we should instead be focusing on "high impact" content that is most often the purview of Product Marketing.

This focus on "high impact," differentiated content (product pages, feature descriptions, use case pages) would have you believe that Mary is taking a (somewhat myopic) product marketing approach to content.

But, Mary has a unique role at a growing software company that focuses on the industrial design segment.

She is head of both Content Marketing -AND- Product Marketing!

This provides her a more holistic perspective on the capabilities required to develop high-impact content.

Mary points out the typical shortcomings of relying too heavily on Product Marketing for content production, namely the concept of "Pillars," which the Content Marketing side uses as a framework to keep the core Strategic Narrative constantly in view.

Mary's ownership of both Content and Product Marketing is unique, however, we believe this will be a growing solution to the attention deficit era, because it forces organizations to merge the best of traditional content marketing with the solution-focus of product marketing.

How is your team structured today? The most common approach we see in the lower middle market is:

• Content Marketing - primarily responsible for SEO (keyword) focused blog post development and some light research for the development of the occasional white paper (that lacks depth).

• Product Marketing - most often in-service to Product. As Mary describes above, typically dominated by what we want to say vs. what our customers need to learn.

Getting to Depth

It seems simple, but when you write down what is actually happening with content development, the lack of depth becomes apparent.

Is this because we don't have the right people in the seats? Maybe, but more often its a result of the systems into which we've placed these people.

One of the advantages of pursuing a more holistic approach to content is that it facilitates getting to a deeper level of understanding of the customer's problems, dynamics and catalysts.

Mary describes this process here.

Side note: In a few weeks, as part of our series on Strategic Content, we will be hosting Gia Laudi of Forget the Funnel, who literally co-wrote the book on Customer Insights.

The Building Blocks to a Highly Productive Content Engine

Mary points out the primary "secret" to her success hiding in plain sight.

The Messaging Pyramid.

In our experience, it is far too common to hire people into roles, set them out to produce "content," without providing them the proper foundation from which to work.

Mary shared with us that everything she creates (or helps create) starts with their Messaging Pyramid.

• POV - What is the Company's Point-of-View on the Market as a whole and the trends that are causing major shifts that require companies competing in that market to respond? This must be developed by the Leadership Team!

• Strategic Narrative - What is our approach to addressing this major shift and for whom? Why do we believe our approach is the best method? This must be developed by the Leadership Team (especially Product).

• Use Cases - How have our Ideal Customers (the "for whom" from above) solved for this major shift, with our product/service as part of the solution. Pro Tip: These are NOT testimonials!

• Product (Features and Benefits) - How the specific elements of our products come together to achieve the outcomes described above in Use Cases.

The "Attention Deficit Era" is forcing us to reexamine how we structure our companies to produce Content (with a capital "C") that is perceived as relevant and high value by our Ideal Customer Profile.

It's likely going to require reallocating resources to get it right, but now more than ever, Content is literally the "fuel" of our GTM Engine.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather be using Jet Fuel!

See you next week!