Tired of the same results? Are you brave enough to stand out from the crowd? During this 30 minute webinar, we'll reveal how brands like Unify, Cxense, and Oracle differentiated themselves with a content marketing strategy. Sign up if you think you've got what it takes.

1. DARE TO BE
DIFFERENT

2. PAUL LANG
& ALISTAIR NORMAN

3. The age old problem
Standing out of the crowd you have to be different & consistent
The 2 biggest issues facing B2B marketers today
TP & CMI research 2017
DIFFERENTIATION IS AN
AGE OLD PROBLEM

4. GLOBALIZATION IS DRIVING COMMODITIZATION

5. Beautiful accounting software

6. 204M
Emails sent
48k
Apple app
downloads
+416k
Tinder swipes
+61k
Hours of music
on Pandora
8,333
Vine videos
4M
Google search
queries
227k
Tweets
+347k
Whats app photos
2.46M
Shared content on
Facebook
3,472
Pinterest images
pinned
1400
New blog posts
$83k
Amazon sales
216k
Instagram photos
+23k
Hours of Skype
72
Hours of new video

7. /100/1007
AVOID BEING ONE OF THE 70%
CONTENT MARKETING USUAL SUSPECTS
WHO DON'T HAVE A PLAN.

8. Either A Brand Is Different Or It Is Dead
In today’s world, everyone is searching for the same best practice. Everyone benchmarks against each other. And everyone optimizes
their communications plans. Everyone is copying each other. And so their brands are becoming clones.
EITHER A BRAND IS DIFFERENT
OR IT IS DEAD

9. . Sameness Strategy Threatens Brands
Our gut instinct as marketers is to go with what is working, because everything in the corporate rewards system is geared towards that:
lack of risk appetite; the quest for short term results; even performance incentives. The irony for brands of course is that the more you
embrace what works for others, the less likely those ideas are going to work for you.
SAMENESS STRATEGY
THREATENS BRANDS

10. The End Of The Unique Selling Proposition
Brands need to fashion their products round their viewpoints rather than looking to drive preference around their features. And that’s
led me to wonder whether, as strategists, our goal is no longer to position brands in relation to function but rather to platform brands as
promoters of a worldview, even a world change. In essence, to ditch the Unique Selling Proposition in favor of the Unique Brand
Perspective – an outlook on the world, and a hope for the future, that drives everything the brand does.
THE END OF THE UNIQUE
SELLING PROPOSITION

11. Is Brand Differentiation Still Possible?
There’s a shift of focus: from big picture, broad brush disruptive market plays to a new era of personalized, specific, individualized small
plays. In the new world of the quantified self and the emerging Internet Of Everything, brand differentiation today is really about what a
brand does for “me” not how it revolutionizes whole swathes of a sector.
IS CONTENT DIFFERENTIATION
STILL POSSIBLE?

12. ➔ Nearly half (40%) of marketers think
their content is about the same as that
of their competition in the industry.
➔ 32% of marketers don’t have a
strategy in place to differentiate
themselves from the competition
➔ 69% of marketers think that the main
barrier to differentiation is planning.
SO WHAT'S OUR EXCUSE?
WE DON’T HAVE
A PLAN!

13. ➔ 78% measure their differentiation
success through lead generation
results. Compare that to 35% of
customer retention.
➔ 31% of marketers don’t use audience
data as a tool to differentiate and 34%
of those marketers believe it’s difficult
to even access that data.
WE DON’T HAVE THE
RIGHT DATA!
WE NEED TO USE THE RIGHT
DATA TO TAKE ACTION

14. ➔ 70% of the audience say they improve the customer experience by
differentiating their content and brand. Only 45% said is was to
differentiate from the competition.
➔ 68% of B2B companies have no idea of how good or bad their customer
experience actually is.
➔ Only 7% of marketers believes their brand’s consistency across audiences
and channels is “excellent”.
WE NEED TO DELIVER A
CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE.

15. HOW CAN WE ANCHOR OUR
DIFFERENCES? HOW DO WE
GET BUY-IN TO DARE TO BE
DIFFERENT?
1) Plan to be different?
2) Make your brand story aspiring & linked to your values.
3) Make your story engaging & full of conflict
4) Innovate to make small differences.
5) Commit to consistency across the whole customer experience?
1
2
3
4
5

16. HOW DO WE PLAN TO BE DIFFERENT?
AN EDITORIAL METHODOLOGY
HOW CAN WE INTERPRET
THE WORLD AROUND?
HOW CAN WE CREATE A
PURPOSE FOR OUR IDEAS?
HOW CAN WE CREATE A
SENSE OF CONTROL?
HOW CAN WE BE
REMEMBERED?
HOW CAN WE GET
PERSONAL?
1

17. 2

18. 3

19. /100/100
HOW DO WE INNOVATE TO BE DIFFERENT?
4

20. DATA INNOVATION
LEADERBOARD
4
HOW DO WE
INNOVATE TO BE DIFFERENT?
Add a Chatbot
to the website
Change
landing
pages to new
templates
25
5

22. /100/10022
● No definition of success
● No documented strategy
● Campaign driven
● Less than 20% of budget
● Have no or basic personas
● Focus on quantity
● Opinion driven improvement
● Focus on content production
● Owned by 1 or 2 individuals
● 1 or 2 channel promotion
● Limited resource
● No Automation
● Clearly defined success measures
● Documented strategy
● Managed as a continuous business process
● More than 50% of Budget
● Deep continuous updated persona
intelligence
● Focus on the experience
● Data driven improvement
● Full organizational buying
● Multi-channel promotion
● Multi-skilled team (internal & external)
● Use automation tools
LOWER MID UPPER MID UPPER
STRATEGYTACTICS
TOE IN WATER ALL IN
HOW DO WE EXECUTE CONSISTENTLY?
LOW
5

23. /100/100
Customers come for
content but stay for
community.
THE LANGUAGE OF.
LEADERSHIP...

24. ➔ Anchor your brand with content
that reinforces your purpose.
➔ Plan to be different with a
strong creative editorial
process.
➔ Ensure innovation is not just a
“big idea” but many “small
ones” driven by data.
DON’T BE A ONE HIT WONDER
➔ Commit to a business process
of delivery to achieve
consistency.
➔ Know that the whole is
experience is greater than the
individual parts.

25. CTA on a customer experience audit &
dare to be different conversion asset
Tomorrow People’s CX audit.
Do you have differentiated content and a stand-out
customer experience? Dive into our CX audit to find out.
A few short questions could be the difference between
grand or bland. Give it a shot…
On a scale of 0-10, we’ll ask you to rate your capability
against some key statements that will ascertain whether
or not you’re equipped to deliver a great CX.
● 0-4: Low capability and poor CX, with no strategic
drivers
● 5-7: Moderate capability, with some strategic CX
intent
● 8-10: Full capability, with a clear CX strategy in
place
We’ll then send you a personalized report with our
assessment, along pointers for improvement and
recommendations to smash your CX targets.

27. What really counts is not how unique you are but how unique people think you are.