Content Marketing, Engineered Podcast | TREW Marketing – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Haven't figured out what your New Year's Resolution is yet? Consider leaning into AI adoption in 2025. Steve Cunningham shares how you can become the Hero of AI adoption at your company. 

In this episode, David Schneer, a body language expert and CEO of Merrill Research, discusses the significance of qualitative research in today's changing landscape. He emphasizes the importance of understanding body language in research, the shift to virtual methodologies post-pandemic, and the intersection of AI with qualitative insights. David also shares personal stories from his journey of writing his book, 'Backbone: Surviving the Road Less Quantified,' and offers advice for marketers navigating technical fields.

Takeaways

• Qualitative research is essential for understanding consumer behavior.
• Body language plays a crucial role in interpreting responses during research.
• AI technology can enhance qualitative research by analyzing micro-expressions.
• Qualitative research should focus on depth rather than just surface-level data.

Resources

• Connect with David on LinkedIn
• Connect with Wendy on LinkedIn
• Get the Book: Backbone: Surviving the Road Less Quantified
• Related Episode: Communicating Through Body Language With David Schneer
• Related Episode: Understanding the Technical Buyer: 2024 State of Marketing to Engineers Report

 Haven't figured out what your New Year's Resolution will be? Consider leaning in to AI adoption in 2025. Stave Cunningham shares how you can become the Hero of AI adoption at your company. 

n this episode, Wendy Covey interviews Steve Cunningham, co-founder of Simple Academy, discussing the evolving landscape of AI adoption in businesses. They explore the changing attitudes of business leaders and employees towards AI, the stages of AI transformation, and the importance of creativity in marketing roles. Steve shares insights on implementing AI in organizations, the future of AI with agents, and how individuals can adapt and learn in the AI age.

Takeaways

• Understanding the stages of AI transformation can help individuals adapt.
• Creativity can be enhanced through AI tools in marketing roles.
• Companies need leadership buy-in for successful AI implementation.
• Learning in the AI age should be hands-on and practical.
• Using AI effectively can provide a competitive advantage in careers.
• Training AI on specific company data can enhance its usefulness.

Resources

• Connect with Steve on LinkedIn
• Connect with Wendy on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Simple Academy
• Register for the Industrial Marketing Summit
• Related Episode: AI Strategies and Tools for Industrial Marketers
• Related Episode: How We're Using AI Tools for Content Marketing

Chris Peer, the author of The Great 8 Pillars: ROI-Driven Marketing for Manufacturing Companies joins us on the podcast this week to walk through all eight pillars and share what he thinks the most important are for industrial marketers. We talk about how to structure marketing operations for success and how to get in front of leadership with the right data that is meaningful to grow your influence within the organization and demonstrate the impact marketing can have.

We also talk about the need for frameworks and processes so that you can have a repeatable model when you launch campaigns. We talk about value proposition and of course your MarTech stack and how AI factors into this equation. 

Takeaways

• ROI is crucial in marketing and should be the focus of marketing operations.
• A strong value proposition, messaging, and branding are essential for differentiation and attracting customers.
• Content creation and AI are major obstacles faced by marketers in the industrial sector.
• To get executive buy-in, marketers should demonstrate the impact of marketing on revenue and align marketing strategies with organizational goals.
• Measuring and reporting on the right metrics is key to gaining executive support and demonstrating marketing effectiveness.

Resources

• Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
• Connect with Wendy on LinkedIn
• Register for the Industrial Marketing Summit
• Read The Great 8 Pillars: ROI-Driven Marketing for Manufacturing Companies
• Related Episode: Creating Your Manufacturing Marketing Foundation
• Related Episode: How Honest and Strategic Marketing Let to Rapid Growth 

 Award-winning ABM strategist shares his decade-long journey with ABM and advice for getting started or improving your programs. 

Joe Quinn, Senior Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Manager at Salesforce-Tableau and former ABM Leader at NI (National Instruments) has spent the past decade learning, inventing, measuring, and improving on all things ABM. Joe and his team at NI were recognized with an ABM Program of the Year award by the Flip my Funnel organization, and he's tasked with scaling ABM marketing efforts at Salesforce-Tableau.

Many companies may think they need to be doing ABM given how buzzy it is in our marketing world, but here are a few criteria Joe suggests using to assess whether or not your organization is ready for ABM:

• Are there dedicated sales resources to named accounts? Are those accounts tiered?
• Is executive leadership on board with ABM? 
• Is there a salesperson (or salespeople) willing to devote time and energy as a partner with marketing?
• Does the company recognize and support resource tradeoffs between volume-based lead generation versus strategic relationship development?

If all signs look positive, Joe suggests a multi-phase ABM framework with associated metrics, including account research and prioritization, content development, tailored tactical execution, and closed-loop reporting.

During the episode Joe shares some of his award-winning ABM tactics, including case study briefs, customized LinkedIn introductions from Account Managers, and contact acquisition. We also touch on the role of technology to help enhance, automate and measure ABM initiatives -- and when these should and should not integrate into the CRM or other platforms in use.

For show links and more, visit the Content Marketing, Engineered podcast blog

 https://bit.ly/CMEPodcast 

Learn more about TREW Marketing

 https://www.trewmarketing.com 

Order the book! Content Marketing, Engineered

 https://bit.ly/contentmktgeng

 Coming up through the technical ranks to leading a business, how do executives ramp up and keep up with inbound marketing? 

Matt Eurich, COO of Genuen and former President of WTI, is an engineer with a business mind. As he moved up the ranks from engineering to business leadership, he knew that the company's approach to marketing had some gaps.He thought that perhaps those gaps would be addressed by a once-every-three-year website project. He laughs now at the old him who just didn't know what he didn't know, and credits his trusted partnership with TREW for bringing him and the organization along to where they are today.

During the episode you'll hear how, over a decade, WTI went from a trade show and brochure website approach to a holistic inbound marketing model where content investment made the greatest impact. He describes some of his a-ha moments and tools that were most helpful to keep things on track, such as a marketing scorecard and content editorial calendar. 

You'll also learn that WTI's high-performing marketing program helped raised its valuation when seeking to be acquired and what happened next to the WTI brand and other entities that were acquired. 

His advice to other technical leaders? Find a strategic marketing partner and trust them and their process. Even if some of what they bring to the table sounds odd at first (you'll hear him poke fun at persona development), trust in your marketing partner and their proven experience. (Spoiler alert: he now thinks personas are one of the best things that has ever come out of marketing planning). 

For show links and more, visit the Content Marketing, Engineered podcast blog

 https://bit.ly/CMEPodcast 

Learn more about TREW Marketing

 https://www.trewmarketing.com 

Order the book! Content Marketing, Engineered

 https://bit.ly/contentmktgeng

 The Google Adwords platform has grown tremendously in sophistication. Are you keeping up? 

Glenn Schmelzle, Founder and VP of Lead Generation for Marketing What's New, is laser focused on helping B2B companies get the most out of Google Adwords. He sees marketers make the same mistakes over and over, and one of those is a lack of focus on content. By not creating quality content both in your ad itself and on your website, even the most thoughtful execution of an Adwords campaign will fall flat.  He also encourages marketers to plan their content along the funnel, and consider where their ad falls along the buyers journey in order to inform content and calls-to-action.

By applying AI, Google continues to make significant changes to which advertising campaigns are accepted, how ads appear, who they appear for, and what the ad says. During the episode, Glenn fills us in on how the platform has evolved and big changes that are afoot for 2022. Some of these changes have introduced more complexity for the marketer, but also better performing ads through context and relevancy. 

Glenn is the podcast host of The Funnel Reboot, a show that shares strategies from leading marketers. 

For show links and more, visit the Content Marketing, Engineered podcast blog

 https://bit.ly/CMEPodcast 

Learn more about TREW Marketing

 https://www.trewmarketing.com 

Order the book! Content Marketing, Engineered

 https://bit.ly/contentmktgeng

David Schneer is a Ph.D., CEO, and Body Language Master Trainer at The Merrill Institute. Through conducting qualitative focus groups in the electronics industry for 30 years, he recognizes that each and every one of us are surrounded by communications contradictions. David became passionate about helping business professionals and other interested folks (hello parents of teenagers!) discern someone's truth through body language. 

During the episode, David quizzes me about common body language myths, such as reading someone from an expression or a handshake, and figuring out when someone is lying. He also provides practical advice on how to facilitate effective communications in the workplace, such as creating a comfortable environment. We also discuss how to read body language via Zoom, when only a portion of someone's body is in view.  

Viewer note: our Zoom video feed cuts out around 18 minutes into the episode, but the audio file sounds great. Our apologies for this technology hiccup.

For show links and more, visit the Content Marketing, Engineered podcast blog

 https://bit.ly/CMEPodcast 

Learn more about TREW Marketing

 https://www.trewmarketing.com 

Order the book! Content Marketing, Engineered

 https://bit.ly/contentmktgeng

 Learn where to invest and pitfalls to avoid when crafting your 2022 marketing plan. 

Lisa Beets, Research Director for the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), conducts seven primary research studies annually, and one of her favorite focuses in manufacturing. This is in part to her days with Penton Media focused in HVAC, but also recognizing the need for data in this unique industry. 

During the episode, Lisa walks me through CMI's Manufacturing Marketing report and we discuss several datapoints that jumped out to us both, such as:

• 51% are challenged by overcoming a traditional sales and marketing mindset
• 51% struggle with creating valuable content as opposed to sales-oriented content
• 75% were asked to do more with the same resources in 2021
• 65% expect their 2022 content marketing budget to increase over 2021
• Marketers cited videos produced the best results for content marketing, with 53% citing how-to videos as the leading format
• When it comes to organic social platforms, LinkedIn came out on top as both the most popular at 93% and best at producing results.
• Facebook was the top paid social platform used at 76%, though LinkedIn produced the best results beating out Facebook by 8%
• The top ways to measure content performance were web-centric, including 73% citing website traffic and 69% citing website engagement

We concluded that there was a close synergy between the CMI Manufacturing Marketing Report and the TREW Marketing & Global Spec State of Marketing to Engineers report, and that both are helpful for marketers to educate and advocate for content marketing with internal leadership.

The 2022 State of Marketing for Engineers Research Report summarizes the survey results of more than 800 engineers and technical professionals from a variety of industries, including manufacturing, automotive, energy, electronic components, semiconductor, and aerospace/defense. 

TREW Marketing and GlobalSpec recently released our 5th annual study of how engineers and technical buyers seek and consume information to make purchase decisions. In this episode, Christian Haight joins host Wendy Covey to walk through some of the major findings from the report, including:

• Engineers value a company's technical expertise and responsiveness over price and company values 
• 83 percent of engineers are willing to fill out a form in exchange for technical content
• 73 percent of engineers listen to work-related podcasts throughout their week, a 33% YOY increase
• Engineers prefer YouTube and LinkedIn over other social platforms

For show links and more, visit the Content Marketing, Engineered podcast blog

 https://bit.ly/CMEPodcast 

Learn more about TREW Marketing

 https://www.trewmarketing.com 

Order the book! Content Marketing, Engineered

 https://bit.ly/contentmktgeng

Understanding the context of why and who makes all the difference when writing for engineers and technical buyers.

Adam Kimmel, Principal Technical Content Writer at ASK Consulting, spends his days boiling down highly technical information into consumable content targeted to specific audience personas. During this episode, we covered a ton of ground -- from what behaviors make a technical writer successful to how to extract the right information from subject-matter experts. 

Aside from the numerous nuggets of advice, what struck me most about this episode is one word that kept creeping in throughout our discussion: context.

When interviewing a subject-matter expert (SME), it's important to contextualize why a solution is significant and where it fits into the broader market landscape. Data is great, but the context of why the data is significant (e.g. competitive comparisons, etc.) helps to demonstrate value and build preference. 

Your audience needs to first care about a topic, then be enticed to go deeper and learn more. Understanding the context of where your content piece fits into the buyer's journey helps you to position the material at the right technical level and build upon information served elsewhere. 

For show links and more, visit the Content Marketing, Engineered podcast blog

 https://bit.ly/CMEPodcast 

Learn more about TREW Marketing

 https://www.trewmarketing.com 

Order the book! Content Marketing, Engineered

 https://bit.ly/contentmktgeng