Thank you guys very much for tuning in. My name is Lucas Stacey, I am with Quantum Dynamix. We are currently Facebook livestreaming in the Ware Center for Insight marketing conference, courtesy of Greenfish Labs. They are sitting to my right so give those guys a nice hello, thank them very much. We are going to be answering any of your questions that you may have during this live stream. So, feel free to ask away and we’ll be monitoring those and try to ask some of the questions you guys may have.
To my right here I am joined by our keynote presenter, Ann Handley of MarketingProfs, world’s chief content officer and wall street journal bestseller of Everybody writes. So, Ann what’s your first impression of Lancaster so far?
My first impression is that the couches here are very big.
[laughs]
I don’t fit on this I don’t how to… it’s uncomfortable, it just looks ridiculous.
I think you’re doing great.
He looks good, I don’t – I can’t do this.
Well the beauty about streaming in 360 is that everybody gets to decide which angle is really the most comfortable for …
Right I thought I should do the mermaid.
[laughs]
Like the girl on the Rolling Rock bottom.
Now you are just having a cozy conversation. Yeah, perfect!
So, we are creating some content. I know that’s your wheel house, so what are some of the things that you recommend people checking out our live stream to consider when they are generating some content for themselves?
So first of all, think about your story. Like who are you? Why do you exist? What are you all about? I think any great content really comes out of, you know, a place of authenticity. In marketing that word authenticity is tossed around a lot to the point where it becomes almost meaningless. But to me you know, when I talk about the word authenticity as a marketer it’s about as a business, as a person, as an entity, it means you know, who are you really? Why do you exist? What value do you offer people, your customers, your audience? So, think about why you exist and then why you exist in the context of their lives.
So, you are thinking about that context in people’s lives. That’s always the real tricky concept, because I think people understand that they need to write something people care about, but how do you actually find out what that information is that people are trying to bring more of?
I mean you get to know them really well. I think a lot of us have this notion of who our audience is, and every so often as marketers we would go to personas for our audience for example. But in my mind, it starts with really getting to know your customers at you know a sort of a whole different level. Today I am going to be talking about having pathological empathy for your customers and what’s that mean? It means don’t just have a sense of who they are, you know, who their persona is. Don’t just sort of target personas or you know a sort of composite or something, but think about one person that your particular content is designed to help. Think about who that one person is who could really benefit from your marketing. In my mind, the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing. As my friend Tom Fishburne says, you know, he said it feels like something people want that will help them. And so, I always think about marketing from that point of view – from that vantage point.
Wonderful. If you guys are just joining us we are Facebook streaming live in 360, make sure you are moving that smartphone around checking out all these beautiful people to my left and my right. We are sitting…
You guys need to look more excited.
[Laughs]
That’s right we are readjusting on this couch right now.
They don’t look awkward in their seats.
So, we are with Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer for MarketingProfs and we are sitting inside the Ware Center here for the Insight marketing conference. When you were just answering that last question, you said the word persona a lot.
And I think that is extraordinarily important and something that a lot of companies and businesses are not implementing in their marketing strategies. Do you mind giving just a little bit more insight on how you would develop a persona and what that really means? How you cultivate that in your marketing strategy?
Yeah. I mean to me, really a persona is essentially a composite look at your ideal customer. So, it is thinking about, you know, who do you serve? Very often you don’t serve everybody, right? For example, these couch makers serve larger people. I mean that’s a ridiculous example.
Sorry. Not wider…
[Laughs]
So, I don’t want to spoil anything for the keynote this evening, but what’s a little bit of information kind of a peep behind the curtain? What can we expect during the marquee event…
First of all, I’ve heard that this is kind of a quiet audience here, so I expect a lot of laughter. I want to hear some real “guffaws” you know what I mean, very …
I don’t know what you mean, what’s a “guffaw”?
[laughter] a “guffaw” like a [guttural laugh]. This guy.
So yeah, so I think closing keynote is such a great spot because, you know, I just can have fun. I feel like people have been saturated and learning all day. This is a fantastic conference – of what? Three tracks going on I think at once. So, tons and tons of learning going on, tons of information, and so my job is kind of easy in a sense that I am just going to show up and give people a little bit of inspiration, a little bit of education, and really just have fun this afternoon so that we can then go out and drink.
[laughs]
It can always be really draining when you come to an all-day conference like this.
And people are just dumping so much information on you. It is hard to synthesize what’s important, what’s not. Do you have any recommendation for how people can pick apart the most important things for them and apply it?
Yea, I mean when I go to conferences I think about two things. Number one,
I go to sessions that I feel like speak to me, right? So, you know because I am a content person, I would tend to go to a content session. But alternatively, at the same time, I also like to go to sessions that I know nothing about. So, for example, for me I would go to a session on say data mining or go to something on AI, you know? The great thing about going to conferences like this, you can use it to sort of expand your mind a little bit, even if it is nothing that you are going to take back and use in your daily job. I just think there’s such value in hearing other people’s perspective, other people’s points of view.
No, I couldn’t agree more and if you guys are unable to attend the conference and watch us today, we will be livestreaming the 2:55pm VR session. It’s a great way to learn something new, that maybe you do not know anything about.
Thank you guys very much for hanging out with us! Stay tuned – we are going to have a couple of more livestreams throughout the day, as well as the 2:55pm VR panel discussion. Thank you guys very much for hanging out, we’ll see you soon.
