Catching Big Fish: How We Attract Major Clients 🎣

Heeey there,

Today we’ll talk about how we’ve been attracting so many sizeable accounts lately that we’ve had to set up a waiting list.

No cap, fellow kids. 🧢

But first…

It turns out that while putting your flat on Airbnb does get you some fairly easy side money…

(given that you live in a country where setting up Airbnb doesn't require weeks of paperwork)

…you should check what dates you make available or you might end up with people booking your place when you’ve planned to be sleeping in it👇

This is the kind of quality tips I can provide you in life lessons. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Almost as valuable as my marketing knowledge.

BUT

> Do let me know if you are looking for a place in Dubai. 😅

I promise I won't be in the apartment!

Now back to marketing stuff 🤙

Today's newsletter is partly about us missing last week’s episode.

We have received so much fan mail demanding that we NEVER miss one again…

And when I write fanmail I mean threats too. Mostly threats really.

Anyway, let’s focus on how you can create inbound demand with content.

Wait.

I know that sounds like the most obvious thing ever… and to an extent it is.

But, while all the gurus are telling you to create as much content as possible to catch some fish 🎣 »

Is that truly the best route to take?

Topic Of Today:

• Why It’s Not Just About Consistency 🤓

• Our Experience With Occasional Consistency 🤙

• What We Do Now & What We Work On To Add To it 🚀
  

Why It’s Not Just About Consistency 🤓

One of the key elements of catching inbound interest in content creation is consistency.

That is not only true, it is also a reasonably easy concept to grasp.

The more people see your “stuff” the higher the chance of them recognizing your authority.

Not to mention the more likely that you’ll pop into their minds the next time the need for a service like yours is mentioned by Dave from sales in a board meeting.

Data-based marketing motions are great and necessary.

We love them too, so much so that from next week we’ll run a 4-5 week series on something closely related to that.

Yet with some of your content, you won’t be able to measure their effectiveness precisely.

In that sense, consistency is not simply about creating content regularly.

It is also about creating content regularly with the knowledge that for a while it could seem senseless.

…and that is where the point that it’s not simply about consistency comes in.

Without quality, consistency won’t do you a lot in the long run.

Our Experience With Occasional Consistency 🤙

So as per the intro, for a few months now we’ve been receiving interest from some rather major accounts. Mostly through our website’s form, and some through direct outreach on social.

Coincidentally we’ve started producing content semi-regularly 1-2 months prior to the raising interest.

One of the key elements of our content production is this newsletter, Connecting The Dots.

As you’ve likely noticed… the newsletter is based on our own case studies and marketing experience with our clients.

While producing content based on your own experiences may sound rather obvious, we believe that it has contributed massively to the positive feedback.

It is by no means perfect.
We are constantly thinking of ways to enhance it.

But what it is, is relatable. Instead of writing about marketing in general, we consciously select topics that we’ve experienced ourselves.

At times it means that we feel like we are running out of ideas, but while luckily that is not true, it also means that we have to put more effort into creating value.

This in turn then means that what we do put out is something that is:

• Reflective on our experiences

• Relatable for other marketers

• Relatable for business leaders

• Not simply l’art pour l’art content

Consistency is very important.

However, if we were to create consistent yet low-quality content that is simply regurgitating the same marketing advice that you can find with a simple Google search »

It most likely won’t result in high-quality inbound prospects.

What We Do Now & How We Work On To Add To It 🚀

As a starter, we don’t do much yet.

By that, I don’t mean to contradict my previous points. We don’t necessarily need to create a new content piece every day for success.

What I mean is that we are not consistent to a level where previously I would have expected the type of interest that we are receiving.

What we are doing is reusing are content ideas in multiple forms.

As you know we are writing a newsletter each week (well…).

We then repurpose this content into the form of carousels and post these carousels on LinkedIn.

We also occasionally comment on the posts of smart marketers and business leaders and reach out to invite them to our podcast.

The ideas we talk about in our comments are also mainly reflective of the topics we discuss in our newsletters and social posts.

The podcast is also called "Connecting The Dots".
There too, we aim to connect the dots between marketing motions and bottom-line revenue.

The difference is, that while in our newsletter we talk about our own experiences, in the podcast we are untangling similar stories from our guest’s experiences.

When it comes to repurposing the podcast, so far, we've only been cutting short, engaging bits from the episodes and posting them on LinkedIn.

However, we plan to do much more, like:

• segmenting the newsletter audience to send more accurate content to smaller segments,

• utilizing referral-based campaigns for the newsletter,

• posting the full podcast episodes on Youtube, Soundcloud, and from there to all major podcasting platforms and so on.

We've also started experimenting with AI-based platforms to create bite-sized clips from the podcast episodes that we may post to platforms like Instagram, Facebook stories, and TikTok. Linkedin even.

Since not everyone is actually reading all the newsletters they subscribe to, plus sometimes it is much easier to listen to content during your morning routine or commute…

We've set up an internal podcast with a different purpose [from CTD].

In this, we will feature internal conversations that focus on marketing & business-related news, marketing tactics & strategies we find interesting, and case studies from our own work.

We'll of course also repurpose the internal podcast into:

• our newsletter,

• short clips,

• carousels for social

• and who knows what else.

We are also planning on setting up Resources on our site where we'll store our best-performing content pieces (may that be a newsletter, a LinkedIn post, a podcast episode, etc.).

Actually, we will probably store all content pieces that we deem nice enough there, because again: you can’t precisely determine which content piece tipped the balance that resulted in a prospect reaching out to you.

You can of course always ask.

Just check the hybrid attribution approach that Chris Walker always talks about.

But most likely you still won’t be able to zero in on which content piece was crucial and which was Meh.

Basing all your decisions solely on “hard data” when it comes to producing content can result in throwing otherwise relevant pieces out.

A lot of what happens with your content is not trackable.

Take Dave from sales as an example.

When he brings you up, mentions you to Susie the CFO, or shows his screen, shares your content in an internal Slack channel etc...

Most of that you won’t be able to track, yet it might just result in Dave reaching out to you at the end of the loop.

Why do we say that?

Because almost every one of the accounts that have reached out to us has mentioned that they’ve been seeing our content, and that is what led to them reaching out.

While we plan on doing much more with internal marketing, what's obvious is that even at the low intensity we've been able to produce content, that has brought in a lot of interest from rather large accounts.

We like to think that is a result of quality.

LinkedIn posts worth reading this week:


1. Does Inbound Marketing Still Work?
Peter Caputa's (CEO of Databox) post on the effectiveness of inbound marketing from personal profile

2. SaaS Companies With Great Content
Key ingredients of creating great content + a bunch of examples.

3. 6-step Content Repurposing Flow
Create 3 months’ worth of content from 1 content idea.