I’ve been away for too long. I know that. The last post published on this blog more than a year ago. That’s like forever in internet terms. And while the reasons for this were valid, I still feel somewhat guilty and would like to explain myself.

I’ve started blogging several years ago as a pastime. At that time, I was working as a marketing and business development manager at a small startup and wasn’t quite happy with what I was doing. Being one of the first employees in a startup is fun yet frustrating- you take on huge risks, the rewards (if there ever will be any) are small compared to the founder, and, what I’ve found harder than most is that if you are not part of the organic founding team (usually comprised of 2-3 people) you are cut off the decision making process. The founders are, for all intents and purposes, sole rulers of their small kingdom.
For me that was very difficult and disappointing. I shifted to startups from large companies just because I wanted more independence and more involvement. What I’ve found that I’ve just switched between a large to a small wooden box. From that frustration, and the will do something that I could own, I started blogging. Initially on LinkedIn and after some time, feeling comfortable enough- on this blog. After blogging for a while I felt confident that I could actually perform this consistently, and to a high standard. I then thought- why not make this my job? So I talked to some people I’ve known who had marketing needs but didn’t have anyone “in-house” to cater for them- maintaining a blog, social media presence, creating presentations and documentation. I signed some clients and then notified my employee I was leaving. As relations with the company’s management were not on the good side (seeing we were both frustrated) they were happy see me go. So I started consulting a growing number of companies, mostly small startups, and was quite good at it. With some clients I’ve developed tighter relations and they asked me to work there as part-time CMO (2 days a week), which provided me with steady income. I limited this type of engagement to one at a time (it’s hard enough to manage the entire marketing operation of one company, doing it for 2 would be too stressful), and performed a myriad of side projects on the side. This mixture was fun and engaging, but also quite difficult to manage (having multiple deadlines, dealing with clients in different countries) and very tiring. For times, it felt like I’ve traded having one boss for having half a dozen. Money wad good, but the hours were long, and any slack I’ve created throughout the day I had to pick up late at night- working until 2 am was the usual.

Then, about a year ago, a company I’ve been working with asked me to join the team full time. At first, I hesitated, but I slowly warmed up to the idea of having a steady income, not having to keep a funnel full of potential projects, not having to deal with multiple clients. In addition, I was promised a meaningful position and freedom- I was to create the brand, maintain it and serve as brand ambassador. That may not sound like a lot, but after delivering countless pieces of content- some of which published at the most prestigious publications under someone else’s name (usually, the CEO of the startup I was working for), I felt like I needed some recognition. So after much back and forth we finally concluded and I joined the company full-time as VP Marketing. It was fun at first, but after some time the crack began to show. After freelancing for 2 years (and having a freelance mentality for many years prior to that), I was suddenly asked to maintain office hours,  hour and progress reports, attend company and management meetings. I was expected to be “one of the gang”- eat together, go for drinks after work, engage in watercooler small talk. I really liked most of the employees there, but could never bring myself to actually engage with them- I was it as a place of work, and as my work was mainly with people outside the organization (Media, analysts, potential clients, freelances I’ve contracted) – I really felt no need to do the extra mile and befriend people. I slowly drifted away, and after working there for 10 months we decided to part ways. We are still on good terms and I wish the company and the founders the best of luck and great success. 

 So now I’m back in the freelancing game. I didn’t plan it (just as I didn’t plan to be an employee), but I sense that this who year might have been what I’ve needed to focus myself and my goals going forward. I realize I’m not very good at being a full-time employee (unless I’m one of the founding team) and that going to work for another company (and I’ve had some offers) would most certainly have similar results.

I have made a great effort to maintain relationship with potential clients throughout this period, so I’m not worried about getting work again.

What I haven’t done is to maintain this blog, and for that I’m truly sorry. No matter how much I write for others, and even for my “company self” (and we’ve had great success in doing so- with over pieces I’ve written published on mainstream media in just over 6 months), it’s not the same as writing privately. So I promise to myself to keep writing here and publish original, personal content. I might even take it to the next level someday and write my own book- but this would be the topic of another blog post.

Thank you for reading this far, I hope you come back in the future. I promise this won’t be the last piece you will find here.

Recently I’ve prepared and delivered a bunch of hand-written cards to celebrate Jewish New Year. This is nothing new of course. It’s rather a traditional custom, even considered antiquated by some.

I mean- why go through all the trouble of going to the shop, buying a printed card, writing a personal note, mailing it and waiting for the recipient to respond?

I think that most people underestimate the power of personalization. It’s true that in today’s work this is common knowledge, and every marketer knows that to achieve maximum impact she should try to personalize the message to the client. But how personal does and email or text message feels? My guess is that most of us get these “Happy holiday” emails now and then, and just gaze at them and delete. The truth is that people understand the effort you’ve put into delivering them an actual, physical object. Even if it’s just a card, and even if it just says “Thank You”, it’s much more meaningful than any form of electronic correspondence. More than what is written in the note, it actually says to the recipient- “I’ve been thinking of you”. And that is greatly appreciated.

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Recent funding round of Quora left no doubt- it means business. Raising round D of $85 million Series meaning Quora is now worth around $1.8 billion.

With 190 million monthly users, most of which are active and considered quite intelligent, this is a great source for inbound marketers.

I have been using for some time now and find it surprising not many do. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Find answers to questions that bother you
  This may seem trivial, as it’s the goal of this platform. But if you have any marketing or market related question, Quora would be the best place to get professional answers. This could be very helpful as a marketer in general, as well as provide specific insights you may need for a campaign.
• Market research- This isn’t as obvious, but you can learn much about the market, potential users’ behavior and sentiment on this platform. All you need to do is ask
• Competitive analysis- Here you’ll need to be more subtle, but in many areas people discuss pros and cons of specific products, which you can learn a lot from.
• Content research: you can easily understand what’s bothering people and which topics are left unanswered by searching for a answer and seeing how many people asked such questions, how many people follow these questions and topics and what it the general quality of these answers. Generate your content accordingly and don’t forget to ask/ answer and link back to it. You’d be helping people get the information they crave and gain traffic to your publication.
• Thought leadership
  Quora has an option to host a blog, but it could be difficult to maintain in parallel to the blog of a brand you are trying to promote. Instead, be an authentic voice and position yourself as an  authority on topics which are relevant to your business.
• Traffic- Answer questions:
  This is what we’re really here for. If you can answer someone’s question, provide helpful details AND link back to your site you can create a constant traffic stream back to your site. Be helpful and subtle, Quora forbids you from simply pasting post written elsewhere or simply pasting links to external sites.
• and some more traffic- ask questions
  Asking questions drives traffic, engagement and positions you as a thought leader.
  Here’s one example of a question I’ve asked on Quora that keeps sending people to my site, 2 years later: https://owntrepreneurship.com/2016/05/16/how-one-post-generated-tremendous-traffic-to-my-blog/
• Incorporate Quora search, question and answering into your routine content creation process:
  I’ve incorporated it into my social media published routine- I ask a “leading” question regarding every new post I publish, and add the post link in the questions’ details.
• Don’t forget to share on social media
  Quora answers and questions are easily shared on Social media, and these tend to get nice traffic (don’t forget to include .@quora and #Quora in your tweets).

 Beware of one caveat- Quora does not allow to open company profiles, so all this activity will be conducted under your own name. Make sure you adhere to Quora rules and etiquette (yes- there’s an answer for that as well: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-major-policies-and-guidelines-on-Quora)

 BTW- here’s my Quora profile: https://www.quora.com/profile/Yotam-Gutman-2

You get this every day as a freelancer/ entrepreneur – bombardments of emails, messages and calls. It used to be though but manageable, but nowadays it’s become worst. Not because there is more of, but because these messages are distributed across multiple communication channels.

Multi-channel communication stress

So every time you think you are done replying to all the import emails you check your Facebook and see your inbox is full there. Skipping to LinkedIn – again, many unread messages. And your phone only makes it worse- WhatsApp, text messages and an odd (perhaps a tribute to the 90’s ? ) voice mail you haven’t checked in 3 months.

Oh, and there’s that thing the phone is actually made for. Calls. But most of the come in at a time you are unable to answer, so they become missed calls which you should now return.

And there’s a different etiquette for each communication channel, too.  It’s ok to respond to an email a few hours after you got it, but if you start a WhatsApp/IM conversation and queue for some time the other side gets pissed- why aren’t you answering.  

And Even Email, the form of communication invented to save time and make communicating across the globe effortlessly, is difficult for us freelancers, who use anything between 2-5 email address at a time.

Do it like the Navy

So after battling with this difficulty for a while, I decided to go back to my root. Back when I was at the Naval Academy we were taught how each in operational includes a Communication chapter. It lists all the frequencies, participating units and code names. It also list the Communication preferences for each entity during the different phases of execution.

For instance- a Surface vessel should try to communicate first using SATCOM (less chance of it being intercepted), then other means and finally HF frequency, which can be triangulated and disclose the vessel’s location to the enemy (don’t worry, this isn’t top secret stuff, it’s common knowledge since WWII). For us tactical officers, in charge of our ship’s communication, this little table was like a bible. We would memorize it, copy it and paste it around the comms room, bridge and literally anywhere where someone could pick a handset and send a transmission.

And since everyone in the fleet knew these rules, you had no misunderstanding and grief over who contacted who and in what channel.

Communication preferences for contacting me

So here’ my Communication preferences. If you want to reach me, please start from the top and if you don’t get a response quick enough move to the next option.

1. Email
2. WhatsApp
3. LinkedIn messenger
4. Text Message
5. Call
6. Tweeter IM
7. Google Hangouts
8. Skype IM
9. Voicemail (only if older than 40)
   

And if you really want my attention – let’s meet Face to Face (but make sure you schedule it via Email. It listed right here : Yotam’s email

Conventional wisdom tells us that a blog is an anchor for all content marketing activities. It is where you publish content with the hope of driving traffic to your site- which will somehow miraculously convert into signups or leads.

But sometimes, a blog is not available. The company’s website might not have a blog, or it could be under construction. I’ve had the misfortune of working with companies where this was the state throughout my entire engagement. So what do you do then? Giving up on content as a strategy seemed lazy and shortsighted, so I improvised. And I’ve learnt some helpful tips that might help others too.

Pick an alternative blogging platform

No Blog? No problem? Medium is an excellent blogging platform, that allows to start blogging right away and enjoys an in-house crowd and as easy to distribute or share as any native blog. In addition, there are industry- specific blogging sites (for instance- InfosecIsland , informationsecuritybuzz) that are vying for guest writers (sometime they allow only novel content, which means that even if you have a blog you can only publish original content there). These do not require any setup- you simply submit the text (via email) or upload it an that’s it. These sites enjoy very relevant traffic and also share and promote your content via their social channels.  

Use Social as your blogging platform

LinkedIn Pulse allows to publish very long, content-rich (visuals, videos, links) posts. In addition to being extremely easy to edit and publish they also guarantee native audience and exposure that most blogs can only dream of. Easy to share within and outside the platform, this ensures very good visibility and reach.

Some people use Facebook in the same manner, and enjoy similar benefits (although the target audience is different and long text posts on Facebook are not as appealing to read as on LinkedIn).

Leverage guest blogging and partners blogs:

If you work with partners you can provide them with content they can post on their blog- they will be more than happy to from two reasons- they need quality content and you will help them sell your product, which is what they ultimately desire. Similarly, many industry blogs accept guest post and provide with backlinks and credit, and they will be willing to reciprocate once you have a blog.

Use PR and media publications

If you are lucky enough to have a PR agency or access to media, you can use it to show your stuff to the world. Many industry media outlet accept guest post and thought-leadership pieces (they are more willing to do so via a PR agency they are familiar with then through cold email, but even if you don’t have one it’s worth a shot). The upside (other than seeing your pieces published by someone else, which is always nice) is that they are perceived as more prestigious and professional than self-generated posts.   

Guidelines and best practices 

However, posting on external platform is not the same as post on your home turf.  Here are some best practices you might like to consider:

1. Speak in one voice
   On a company blog you can choose if you publish under “the company” or a specific function; CEO, VP Marketing, etc.
   When publishing elsewhere it will be usually done using a specific person- the company’s CEO LinkedIn account (you can read all his “posts” in the following link) , for instance. So the piece needs to be written in a first person voice and suite his personality. As the content creator you must make sure he or she are comfortable with the article they have “written” (this might sound funny, but I ghost-write for a startup CEO for many months and people were so certain it was his own work they applauded him frequently ).
2. But consider some diversification
   A single person can only write (or have solid opinions) on so many issues, so, from time to time write as the head of sales, product or R&D. It will make things look more authentic (and they too, will reap the praises for your writing!)
3. Amplify the same way you would for your own post
   That’s right, tweet it, FB it, post it in places like stummbleupon and Reddit . The same as any blog post.
4. Consider the peculiar nature of the platform
   If your posting on LinkedIn, maintain a more professional and traditional approach than on Facebook.
5. Engage
   People will “Like” and comment or your post (which they never will on your blog)- so use it to create real conversations and convert them into actual leads.

 Summary

 Publishing quality content without a blog is a challenge, but once you’ve mastered it you can use it even if you do have a blog. For instance, I publish mostly on Owntrerenuership.com, but from time to time will post on LinkedIn- it gets more exposure and helps build my audience.

We are all digital marketers, and we perceive the older generation of marketers as old, outdated dinosaurs. marketing

The traditional marketing conventions; a physical booth at a  tradeshow, printed brochure, mail (that’s right, as in actual mail, not email)  seem to have passed from this world.

But sometimes, it makes sense to go back to the roots, go offline and old school. Not for ordinary marketing activities, the ones we carry out for our customers.  No, I reserve this high value, high impact, resource- heavy approach to marketing the one thing I care about the most- myself. So several months ago, just before the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana (Jewish new years’) I’ve done something I haven’t done in a decade. I sat down and wrote a letter. It wasn’t a lengthy piece, nor an informative one. It was more of a greeting card/ thank you note combo. I bought 10 greeting cards and envelopes and wrote a thank you / happy New year note to all my clients.

I included ones I’ve stopped working with a while ago and ones I was talking to on a daily basis. I wrote that I wanted to thank them for trusting me with managing their marketing activities (even if it was brief, and ended long ago).

The process was harder than I thought. First, I had to write down the text a word document (just to make sure I don’t miss anything and don’t make any gross spelling mistakes). 

Then copy this to the paper, seal the envelope, glue a stamp, walk to the nearby mailbox (which was hard to find) and mail these. 

The actual act of writing a note, word for word, took me forever. My handwriting was never a pretty sight and it has deteriorated over the years to this ugly mess. Still, I wanted people to be able to decipher what I wrote so put great effort into writing. I delivered half of these envelopes myself. 

I didn’t trust the mail service to deliver these on time, and I also wanted to see the expression on people’s faces when I showed up at their doorstep and handed them a hand written note.

That proved to be amusing and rewarding indeed– most people were surprised , even baffled when I handed them the envelope, but when they opened it and read they lit up, smiled and thanked me.

I think it’s the combination of the effort, attention and the physical object that laid in their hands which made all the difference. I have never received a response so warm to an email, I can tell you that.

So if you haven’t done so yet, grab a pen and a piece of paper, some decorated card and a nice looking envelope and start writing. 

It’ll feel awkward at first but after the first letter it will get easier. The effort shouldn’t “cost” you more than 2 hours, but the benefits you can reap will be huge:

1.      Positioning

You will forever be remembered as the guy who cared enough to write a note. If that’s not a great positioning for a marketer I don’t know what is.

2.      Care

You showed (in actions, not words) that you care about your clientele.

3.      Rekindle older leads

You can actually use this activity to touch base with old leads. Who knows? they might be so impressed by the effort they will hire you again.

4.   Creativity and confidence

Everyone is trying to be cool, innovative and novel. But going old-school proves you have guts and creativity. It’s so easy just to send a mass email with some stock image, but you are going to do more.

Try it this holiday season. Even if the card arrives after the holidays it will still delight and impress your clients. After all – isn’t this what marketing is supposed to do?