One of the most significant periods of my life was the three years I studied under the world’s greatest business consultant, Peter Drucker. Dr. Drucker is known as the father of modern management, but he also contributed to the creation of marketing as a professional discipline, wrote extensively about entrepreneurship and innovation, and is generally regarded as the greatest business philosopher of all-time.

There is not a single day that I don’t hear his voice in my head as I work through customer problems. His advice has become the foundational pillars of my work and in many respects, my life.

But there is one piece of advice he gave me that is remarkably useful to me in this overwhelming world of change, and I think it will help you, too. Let’s reveal that today.

Immersed in the problem

I studied under Dr. Drucker while pursuing an MBA at the Claremont Graduate University. He had retired from most of his professional life and devoted his time to mentoring students in the business school that now bore his name.

He would sit on the edge of a desk with a carafe of coffee and talk about his books. It was impossible to outline his talks as he took us on a jagged journey through his life and the fascinating people he met along the way.

Dr. Drucker taught us through the Harvard case study method. We were assigned a long text detailing a complex business problem. Over weeks of classes, we would dissect the issues from every angle. As business leaders, our tendency was to try to solve the case and resolve the problem.

And that’s when Dr. Drucker would go nuts.

It’s not about the right answers

This class was filled with experienced leaders eager to display their intelligence and insight by “solving” the case study.

Nothing irked Dr. Drucker more.

“The people in this case study have been working in their business for 30 years or more,” he would say. “What makes you so arrogant to think that you can solve the problem when they can’t? Your job is not to have the right answers. Your jobs is to have the right questions.”

This might be the most important advice of my professional life and informed how I approach all my business consulting assignments. I approach business problems very humbly because I am never the expert in the room. Why would I have the right answers?  However, I can guide people to the right questions — the real key to a resolution.

I’ve found that most leaders have the knowledge and insight to solve their problems if they know where to find an answer.

Relevance of the right questions

The marketing world is far too complex to be an expert in everything. I’m not sure you can be an expert in anything! However, you must be immersed enough in the day’s issues to ask the right questions. You have to have a sense of what is possible.

I think curiosity is the most important soft skill for marketers today. For me, asking the right questions is not just a prerequisite to effective consulting. It helps me become a better author, speaker, and teacher.

Asking the right questions is also the true heart of all great content creation. If you put the work into finding the right questions, great content will surely follow.

Jay Acunzo and I just dropped a fun podcast episode demonstrating the opportunity to ask the right questions. We challenged each other to pose questions that the other person had never been asked before. And it worked! I invite you to have some fun with us and enter a world of challenging questions.

All you have to do is click here >

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 305

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now, any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post You don’t need to have the right answers if you have the right questions. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve given hundreds of speeches all around the world. Many kind people come up to me after my talks and thank me for some new insight or learning. But here is one phrase I’ve never heard: “I really loved that pie chart.”

People don’t normally respond to data and graphs during a speech. They don’t go back to the office telling people about the awesome Pareto Diagram they saw at an event.

People retain and share stories. People will come up to me, even years after an event, and tell me about one of my stories they fondly remember.

Every successful professional salesperson, marketer, or keynote speaker knows that effective storytelling is the best way to create a lasting, memorable, emotional connection with an audience. And when you craft that one story that truly captures your passion, expresses your values, and drives h0me your point in a memorable way, you have something special — the signature story.

In the latest episode of The Marketing Companion podcast, I cover the art and science of the signature story with Jay Acunzo. Jay has spent much of his career studying this craft and this is a fun and enlightening episode you won’t want to miss.

In this recording, each of us tells a favorite signature story and then dissects its essence to reveal why it works. In my story, I reveal why an audience literally gasped when they heard it for the first time.

You won’t want to miss this. You just have to click here to listen:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 299

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

The post The signature story: Your critical marketing asset appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

When it comes to my content projects, am I a coward or a genius?

This is an internal debate I have when considering my content strategy. It goes like this …

I have three main content projects:

1. A blog I’ve populated with content at least once a week for 15 years.
2. A podcast now in its 12th year (never missed an episode)
3. Marketing-related books (counting all editions, 16 since 2010)

I have been a model of consistency.

But when I look around the industry, my colleagues are stopping and starting content projects all the time. Limited edition podcast series. A small video series. Or completely abandoning major content assets and starting over.

And I wonder if I am missing something. Am I boring, or am I consistent? Am I stuck, or am I focused? Am I in a groove or stuck in a trough?

When do you know it’s time to stop and start over, or when it is time to start at all?

This is the debate I have with my friend Jay Acunzo, who has stopped and started many newsletters, podcasts and video series over his career. In the new episode of The Marketing Companion, we explore the psychology and business benefits of starting and stopping your content projects. Click here to listen!

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion episode 287

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post The art of starting and stopping content projects appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

When you’ve been around as long as I have, you’re bound to have a sizable blooper reel of embarrassing business mistakes!

And when you combine Jay Acunzo and me on this topic, you’ll have a bounty of embarrassing moments. I thought it would be fun and different to have an entire show devoted to our most embarrassing business mistakes. We all make them, but rarely talk about them, so let’s change it up.

So, here it is. I don’t want to spoil the fun with any clues, so go ahead and dive in. Warning: The embarrassing business mistakes get crazier as the show goes on! Enjoy!

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion episode 281!

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

The post My most embarrassing business mistakes revealed appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Nobody studies the creative process more than my friend Jay Acunzo. We have had a back and forth debating about the various frameworks and blueprints out there for content success — including our own — and we’ve wondered whether these guidelines can be applicable to anyone. Is there a Unified Theory of Content Success?

And more important, can anybody achieve content success?

• In this new episode of The Marketing Companion, Jay begins by defining “the premise” — the what and how of the content — that creates a space that is “defensible.”
• We refer to an “x and y” framework to help people create a unique premise.
• The unique role of frustration (and even anger) in content excellence. Great content is often a journey toward change.
• Jay also attacks people focused on strictly solutions and tactics as a not very effective strategy. I suggested that many marketers have fallen into that trap and are among the worst content creators anywhere.
• I cover my “RITES” framework — creating content that resonates, is interesting, timely, entertaining, and superior.

And then the ultimate question … can anybody achieve content success the answer is “maybe.” You won’t want to miss this fascinating discussion!

Click here to listen to Episode 279

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Jay Acunzo recently gave a great presentation to our RISE community about his podcast creation process. He’s offering this free to you here. 

Please support our wonderful sponsors who bring this content to your inbox.

Bravo for Brevo!

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

Build Your Brand with the Architects

Introducing a research-first podcast that builds revenue, not condos — The Marketing Architects!  Keep up with the biggest marketing trends and news through discussions based in marketing, psychology, and economics research. Along the way, learn about marketing accountability, category leadership, brand-building, and much more. Featuring a team of experienced marketers whose blueprints for success are marketing strategies that have actually been proven to work.

Illustration: The Passion of Creation by Leonid Osipovich Pasternak

The post A Unified Theory of Content Success: Can anybody create effective content? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I don’t know of a person on earth who has studied the art and science of content creation more than Jay Acunzo. Not only is Jay an extremely accomplished writer, podcaster, and producer, he’s a very gifted teacher. And the lesson many of us need right now is all about staying relevant as a creator.

AI is nipping at our heels — and perhaps our careers — and Jay and I riff about our personal strategies to stay relevant in the AI Era.

In the new episode of the Marketing Companion podcast, you’ll hear:

• Helpful and actionable prompts to connect you to your audience needs
• The one act of courage needed to transcend information density
• Ideas to identify a sustainable “angle” in a crowded market
• A simple formula for naming the problem you solve for your customers

… and more!

Our shows are always a brisk 30-minutes and packed with lots of cool information! Click here to tap into some new ideas about staying relevant as a creator!

Click to hear Episode 273

Resources mentioned in this show:

Jay’s Creator Kitchen program

Mark’s personal branding book KNOWN

The personal branding master class

Illustration courtesy FreePik.com

The post What is the “gist” of you? Staying relevant as a creator appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

If anybody can comment on the AI threat to creativity, it would be Jay Acunzo. Jay is literally a student of creativity. He lives it, breathes it, and documents his thinking on creative processes in his newsletter and podcast.

And he’s not worried about the threat of AI. He recently wrote:

The problem isn’t that bots will replace marketers. The problem is that marketers are acting like bots.

A ton of people are worried AI will replace them, or at least replace their work. I’m not. A ton of people are scrambling to incorporate these tools into their work. I’m not.

AI does not pose a problem to me. AI also does not SOLVE a problem I have in my writing or other content.

Problem is … I disagree with him.

I think you’ll enjoy the latest episode of The Marketing Companion as we debate the true AI threat to creativity and the creative process.

Jay discusses three distinct aspects of the creative process and thinks AI might only chomp into one of them.

On the other side, I contend that the creative process doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and it is irrelevant if the resulting art doesn’t resonate with an audience … and AI could dominate that.

In fact, I depict a probable future where AI effectively responds to our deepest content desires with an endless stream of dopamine-inducing images and videos. If you think TikTok or YouTube is addictive, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

I hope you’ll tap into this fascinating discussion and explore ideas about content, marketing, and the true AI threat to creativity.

Click on this link to hear Episode 267

This conversation is sponsored by The Creator Economy Expo (CEX)

CEX May 1-3, 2023 is the must-attend experience for content creators interested in building and growing their content-first businesses without relying on social platforms. Join 500+ bloggers, podcasters, authors, newsletter writers, speakers, coaches and consultants, freelancers, and YouTubers at THE learning and networking event for content creators. To get $100 off your ticket, please use the code SCHAEFER100.

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe on iTunes
• Listen to us on iHeart Radio
• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

Original illustration created by Mark Schaefer through MidJourney

The post A profound discussion on the AI threat to creativity appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Too short for a blog post, too cool to ignore, here are ten short observations on the marketing world worthy of your attention. Starting with … my first revenue from ChatGPT!

1. Revenue from ChatGPT

I just earned my first revenue from ChatGPT when a new client found me by searching for “top 10 marketing experts.” I tried this myself, and the list would shuffle on each query, but I was usually in the top ten. Also, I had friends try this in Europe, and the same names came up, all of them Americans by the way.

Why is this first revenue from ChatGPT significant?

1. Not only was this the first revenue from ChatGPT, but this might also be the first business that came to me via a search engine other than Google! It makes you reconsider the role of SEO in the ChatGPT world.
2. Microsoft is investing $10 billion in OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT. Microsoft owns Bing. Remember Bing?
3. Google has its own AI — perhaps the most powerful in the world — waiting in the wings. When will they unleash it on the world?

By the way, I assure you that I am NOT one of the top ten marketing experts in the world. Just in my own circle of friends, I can easily name ten people smarter than me. However, I have an effective personal brand, and that is everything in this world.

2. Building on that idea …

ChatGPT and other AI bots present an existential threat to many creators. I have shouted from the rooftops for years that working on your personal brand and the meaningful, emotional connection with your audience is the ONLY thing that can save you.

Here’s another lesson in personal branding.

One of the things I teach about in my Personal Branding Master Class is the importance of paying attention to qualitative data as a measure of your progress.

How do you know you are becoming “known?” This is an essential question, and the answer is not always found in a quantitative measure like revenue.

Keep a sharp eye on qualitative measures of success like:

• People finding you and asking questions
• Invitations to be a guest on a podcast or video
• Kind words about your content in a social media post or tweet
• Higher levels of engagement and social shares of your content

These are all signs you are becoming “known.” As long as this is happening, keep going!

It’s the same for me. I watch for qualitative signs of success. This week, I was mentioned in an article on The Drum alongside luminaries like Scott Galloway and Martin Lindstrom. I was asked to be on a Pew Research Futurist Panel with several Internet Hall of Fame pioneers. Could that have happened five years ago? No. These are important signposts of progress and leading indicators of future commercial success.

The personal branding journey is never over for any of us.

3. Evil uses of ChatGPT

A common “black hat” SEO technique was to scrape excellent content from other websites and re-publish without permission to drive ad sales on a crappy site. As Google improved, it detected these frauds and penalized the culprits.

I recently discovered a tricky new use of AI. The bots scrape original content and then use ChatGPT to re-write the copy just enough to make it seem like it’s original! Here’s a screenshot of my original post:

And here’s the AI-modified version:

The AI re-write is not very good, but it doesn’t have to be. It only has to be Google-sufficient to build authority and attract eyeballs to this site. The only way I discovered this is because my friend John Espirian was mentioned in the article and he got an alert that his name was being used in an article.

Where corruption can occur, corruption will occur!

4. The story of my life

5. My go-to application

When people ask about the best apps I use on my job, I have a boring answer: Excel spreadsheets and WordPress!

However, I am also a huge fan of SEMrush. I am NOT a paid “influencer” for the platform, but I just honestly love it because it saves me time and money. Three ways I use it nearly every day:

1. Detailed competitive research for my clients
2. Reports on content and keywords that inspire content plans
3. Analysis of my website performance with detailed action plans. Years ago, I used to pay $500/month to a person just for this one report!

6. But I LIKE my dance moves …

This week I had a great conversation with Dana Malstaff. Dana is a true business visionary and I devoted an entire chapter to her in my book Belonging to the Brand.

She was talking to me about where she publishes content and in regard to TikTok said, “I want to be known for my brains, not my dance moves.”

Now Dana knows there are deep layers to TikTok and it is an important social media channel. But she is just one person creating content for her entrepreneurial business and she knows that WHERE you show up and HOW you show up are important.

Similarly, my Marketing Companion co-host Jay Acunzo announced this week that he is leaving Instagram. I hate that because Jay is an entertaining storyteller, but he explained it is taking too much time and distracting from his core business.

To have an effective online presence, you have to be great, and you can’t be great in five places. Be intentional about where you spend your time.

7. An important lesson in one photo

Carrying the “where you show up” discussion even further, this ad should inspire discussions on several levels.

I think this is amazing. Sir Elton is creating relevance within a new generation.

8. What happened to voice marketing?

A few years ago, many were claiming that voice-activated bots were the next big commerce platform, emphasizing the importance of Amazon’s Alexa and Echo.

This is one of the big mysteries of the marketing universe: Why Alexa and other voice assistants never rose above the level of voice-activated clock radios. I mean, Siri still spells everything wrong, and I haven’t used Alexa in two years. I recently just remembered that I had one.

Amazon just announced a 10,000-person layoff, and apparently, this has hit the Alexa team heavily. News accounts reported that Alexa has little developer activity or commerce usage any more.

There is SO MUCH progress on AI and audio applications. How did this fail so badly? Is this a case of bad timing? Bad marketing? Or was Alexa just a bad idea? Would love to hear your views on that.

9. Keeping in touch with all of you!

Last month I opened up my calendar for any blog reader who wanted to talk to me. For two days, I met amazing people in back-to-back 20-minute meetings. It was SO MUCH fun!

If I had to point to one theme of these discussions, it would be “relevance.” How do we stay relevant amid this hurricane of change? Keeping up with this crazy rate of change is on a lot of minds.

I loved spending time with so many interesting people from around the world, and I will probably open up my calendar again in the summer. In the meantime, anybody can sign up for an hour to talk to me about their business problems. I’m always accessible to you.

10. An insight on viral

I’ve been blogging every week since 2009 and had my most significant “viral hit” last month. Although I first posted this article on my blog, for some reason, it really took off on when I posted it on Medium. The article:

20 Entertaining Uses of ChatGPT you never knew were possible

Here is the lesson. This work was created by a collaboration of friends from my RISE community, not an AI bot. I am certain this post would never have achieved its viral status if I had written it alone or composed it with ChatGPT prompts.

Humans for the win!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration generated by MidJourney

The post I just earned my first revenue from ChatGPT and other observations appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I don’t believe there is anybody who thinks more deeply about the content in our lives and how it works and moves in the modern world than Jay Acunzo.

In the new episode of The Marketing Companion, we combine trends with insights to speculate about the content marketing of the future and how it may have little to do with the content, and everything to do with the person creating it.

“Marketing teams shouldn’t just be creating content, they should be creating creators.”

There are vast implications here for every marketer and organization looking to make a mark on the world with content. An unmissable episode!

All you have to do is click here to listen:

Click on this link to listen to hear Episode 258

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe on iTunes
• Listen to us on iHeart Radio
• Find us on Google Play
• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

Illustration generated by AI through MidJourney

The post Content Marketing is no longer about the content appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.