Archives for posts with tag: Learning

What I’ve Learned About Blogging

January 13, 2020 //
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It’s blog number 999 for me, but this is not an emergency. Instead, as I stand on the precipice of a 4-figure blog post career, I want to share what I’ve learned about this art form, or is it a science?

Of course, I’ve never been an example of the classic blogger, someone who writes to build a following. That was never my intention; rather, I’ve revelled in the joy and discipline of a regular write-up. This means that I’ll offer none of the lessons on acquiring readers, SEO, ideal blog length, influence, following people that follow you, that kind of thing.

No, this is what I’ve found over the years on the content alone, these 5 observations:

  • The one-off posts that come from something I come into contact with take longer to do, but are more fun because I don’t know where they’ll end up
  • The work-related blog post series on things to do with marketing, sales and general business are less fun because I know where they’re going but they’re more valuable to the readers
  • The blog post series which are not really series but posts grouped together to get me over a creative hump are the least valuable, and I apologise if you’ve had a sub-standard experience wading through them. At least you never have far to wade
  • If you sit down in front of your laptop needing to write a post but you don’t have a topic, it can be tough. The best thing to do is to let your mind wander where it wants and something will emerge. It doesn’t always have to be the light bulb moment that you must jot down for a future topic; sometimes you have to grind them out, crank them out
  • Fifthly, and perhaps most importantly, every single blog post is a mini product, a mini product of you, even if you’re not trying to sell your products, or services, or company. It’s your output, so it’s you. You’re giving away yourself, and in the course of repeatedly doing this you amass a body of hopefully honest work that can become something greater than the sum of each individual post. Even though sometimes you’re a slave to the schedule, to that standard of discipline I talked about, try and make every one a good one, the best it can be in the time you have

 

 

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing

Childhood Curiosity

May 7, 2018 //
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Childhood curiosity is a wonderful thing. That wild-eyed wonder as young children find out how basic stuff hangs together, what makes it tick. ‘But why, Daddy?’ is the constant question. Sometimes our curiosity gets us into trouble, but most of the time it’s a natural, healthy response to our environment so we can better navigate it.

In marketing and sales, curiosity serves us very well. When we stay curious we’re accepting that we don’t have perfect knowledge, and we’re always looking to fill out the picture and build our understanding. When we understand something better – our customer, product or market – we’re more effective at marketing to it, selling it.

The other day I was waiting to pick up one of my kids from a lesson and started reading the sleeve notes of a CD I was listening to in the car. As I was reading it I started to wonder what their creative process was, whether they started with lyrics first or a melody, and how they put the two together, or whether they collaborated from scratch and the thing came together naturally. Just what are the creative processes for music and who uses which ones, I mused.

As working adults, it’s not so much childhood curiosity as childlike curiosity that we should maintain, to stay fresh, close, and engaged to things.

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Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales

The Seventh B2B Product Launch Process Step

February 26, 2016 //
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Well, we executed the plan. We completed the sixth step of the B2B product launch process.

Now it’s time to see how we did. The seventh B2B product launch process step is to manage the outcomes of the project.

It’s important to manage the outcomes and compare them with the requirements and targets we set earlier in the process. One of the common mistakes is to move onto the next shiny toy and not review performance, so that you learn from your mistakes, celebrate the high points and be better the next time.

In managing those outcomes, it’s important to be fluid. In some areas you’ll have satisfied your requirements, and in some areas you won’t. If you nailed every target, then you probably weren’t ambitious enough.

A fluid approach helps you understand the poorer areas of performance. Did you fail to accurately capture your customer’s needs, or did you interpret their feedback wrongly? Which areas of the business did not deliver to target? What are the lessons learned?

A ‘lessons learned’ meeting, which should be a collaborative rather than a finger-pointing or scapegoat-finding exercise, is a great way to close out the project and feed the lessons – requirements, scheduling, resourcing, delivery – into the next project and across the business.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy