Previewing The People-First Advantage [Part 2]

Content Marketing has become too transactional and generic. 

“Create content that converts” has become a mantra of the masses. 

Here’s the problem: great content doesn’t convert. We have the data to prove it. 

In our most recent trends report, The State of Gated vs. Ungated Content, we analyzed over 300,000 pieces of content. Through this analysis and our ability to integrate with customers’ CRM, we found that the average time between a content touch point and a conversion (a deal going closed won or closed lost) is … 162 days. 

Even more, during those 162 days, the average number of pieces of content any one contact engages with is 2.2. 

Content doesn’t convert. Your team, your product, or your process converts. 

Great content educates and or entertains. It builds a relationship with your audience. It builds trust. Great content connects.

Your brand will have a head start when buyers are ready to engage. 

That’s why I get so excited when I see content built for this purpose—to educate and to entertain. 

The People-First Advantage by the TACK team is a perfect example of this. 

It includes 175 insights, lessons, and reflections on creating better customer experiences and driving growth with people-first GTM. 

I was fortunate to dig into Mark Kilens’ insights and preview two relevant chapters to what we’re building at The Juice. I’ve shared the second preview below, but whether you’re a leader, growing into leadership, or just want to lean into the people-first movement, check out the entire eBook for insights that will educate and entertain. 

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[Chapter 7] The Modern Marketer: GTM Reimagined

I empathize with marketers. It’s always been a difficult role. The task is to make the mysterious magic of marketing feel more black and white, more measurable. It’s a challenge in “good times.” Layer on macroeconomic turbulence, shrinking budgets, slow buying cycles, and shrinking teams…it’s moved from magic to miracles. It was great to view the optimistic future state of marketing from the TACK team. 

Once again, here are my three takeaways from this chapter: 

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1. “Word of mouth screenshot play.”

I love this one but it also, admittedly, troubles me a bit. Like many others, we at The Juice don’t do a good enough job of highlighting social proof. We get a lot of it, we share it in slack, we absorb the endorphin hit, and then we’re on to the next thing. 

Mark highlights the importance of social proof and gives you tactical tips on better infusing it into your business—including word-of-mouth screenshot play. 

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2. “Don’t wait any longer to set up self-reported attribution”

There’s no better ongoing example of the challenge marketers face than attribution. Stop making it so hard on yourself and let your prospects do the reporting for you! Just ask. Yes, it might take slightly more data reconciliation but it’s worth it to get it straight from the source. It’s so simple, I’m going to give this one away, “A really straightforward thing you should do literally right now is add an open text field to your demo form or the form on your bottom-of-funnel offer that asks: ‘How did you hear about us?’”

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3. “The old way of automated lead nurture doesn’t work well anymore…” 

…In fact, it’s probably damaging the reputation of your brand.” Mic drop. Yes! Inbound content marketing, gated content, lead nurture programs all worked when not everybody was doing them. They became ubiquitous, everyone started doing them, and now buyers know them when they see them. These are shining examples of not being people-first. Mark offers a great example of how to do lead nurturing the modern, people-first way. Take note. 

These are only two of 12 great chapters that can help you shift your business into the people-first GTM motion. It educates and entertains. It’s great content. Check it out for yourself at the link below. 

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These are just three takeaways from one of the 12 chapters. See the full eBook, The People First Advantage, here.

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