Tag Archives: Content marketing

by | May 30, 2012 · 12:52 pm

Like it? Share it…

I’ve had some thoughts rattling around in my head recently, thinking about how the cultural subtleties of Asia Pacific impact the ability for people to be successful in social media. It started when I asked some leading digital media folks who their favourite business bloggers were in AP, apart from me of course :) . Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) the majority said they predominantly followed US bloggers… On the one hand, I understand it’s hard to get word out in Asia Pacific because it is a vast region and cannot be packaged up together, especially with so many languages in play; on the other hand, I think it has a lot to do with traditional culture.

I’ve had many conversations with people in this region about the way Americans do things. Oftentimes Asians find the US high-five-pat-yourself-on-the-back style very confronting – it’s just not the way things are done in these parts. However, when social media – specifically blogging – took off, I believe it was this very aspect of American society that turned bloggers into mega stars. As a general rule, Americans are terrifically supportive of folk – especially in business. When someone you know writes a blog, you tweet it, G+ it, Facebook it, etc… because that’s what it’s all about – supporting each other to be successful. I really enjoyed this aspect of American society when I lived in Boston and NYC about 12 years ago. It’s lovely because it feels like everyone has your back.

In Asia, it’s not like that. People are more understated and humble. Don’t get me wrong, Asians are certainly not quiet or conservative, they’re just not loud and in your face. It’s hard to explain, but it’s different here and when you bring social media into the mix, I think these cultural aspects are having a big impact on people succeeding (or not) in Asia. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people who said I started blogging, but couldn’t get any support so I gave up. I feel devastated when I hear this. It’s a HUGE effort to blog, not just making the time to write it, but putting yourself out there in the public domain, so the thought that people aren’t “making it” because they’re not getting support is tough to hear.

But it’s true. I started blogging in 2006 (a family type blog) and got very serious about it just over two years ago, with three very different blogs in the market today. To start with, I got a few friends saying they loved it, keep it up and that was it, but I kept going, linked one of my blogs into a global community, created two Facebook pages, and essentially just kept at it no matter what – because that’s what I want to do, write for a living, so I suppose I’m more motivated than most. Slowly, slowly people are sharing my blogs, digital publishers are picking them up and republishing them, and between all of my blogs, I’m close to 40,000 hits. That’s good for me. But it’s been a long, slow process and I certainly haven’t done everything I can to get greater exposure because I just don’t have the time. I’m also not the type of person who is going to ask people to promote me – it’s just not me and all along I’ve been hoping that people will do it because they like what I’m doing. In Asia, that’s not enough.

So a few ideas for everyone reading this, whether you blog or not – and if you blog, perhaps share this with everyone you know as a kick in the bum to get them sharing your work? I’d love to see Asia Pacific being more successful in this genre, but we’ll only get there if we support each other.

My tips:

  • If you read a blog and you like it – share it with your community – please don’t tell me you don’t have time, it’ll take you a minute and trust me, the blogger will be eternally grateful to you for taking the time to do this for them. Remember there are lots of platforms to share it on, so do the lot when you get a free moment. My sharing typically goes to:
  • If you know you are going to launch a blog in the near future, start sharing other bloggers work now on your social networks – that way, when your time comes, they’ll support your blog – supporting gets supported
  • Create a community of support around you with other bloggers like yourself trying to build a profile. Share each other’s work with your communities whenever you can and help each other out. I’ve got a great small community and we all share each other’s work, but someone has to start the sharing for others to follow. This is a really important tip for individual/SME bloggers. Feel free to Tweet your blog to @sajeideas and I’ll be sure to retweet it
  • Bloggers in big companies definitely have an advantage over individuals and SME bloggers, but not always. My suggestion, find out who your company bloggers are and actively support them. The best way is to sign up for their blog and when it’s emailed to you, make sure you take a minute to send it out on your social networks – especially if you like it. Also support individual/SME bloggers, because it’s harder for them to do this and run a business. I suggest find out who’s writing on your industry and if you like them, actively support them
  • Write comments on people’s blogs whenever you can take the time. If you like what they’ve blogged about, tell them. If you’re not so keen or don’t agree, that’s fine, but be respectful and offer an alternative point of view – comments are definitely appreciated because sometimes you feel like you’re sending your work out into the stratosphere and it’s just disappearing… But don’t be an arsehole – there really is no need for that at all. You don’t agree, fine, but be kind
  • This is not just about blogging – there are plenty of other ways you can support the people you respect in a social world. For example like G+ and Facebook fan pages, put them in your Twitter lists, like LinkedIn company pages, etc… How many “Likes” a page has gives it credibility and it’s no skin off your nose to like a page. In the last few days, three friends have sent new Facebook pages to me to like. Even though I may never use their services, I like every request I get, because I know how it feels to get support – numbers matter!
  • There’s another type of social person – those who share lots of awesome information but don’t create their own original content. I love these people because they give me great fodder to share. Certain people are consistent in sharing great stuff, so I always try to acknowledge them – even in small ways with a comment. Therefore I suggest why not say thanks, an awesome article BEFORE you share it? It’s a great way to make them feel that what they’re doing is worthwhile and they’re giving you great information too – to read or to share
  • What have I missed?  

But there is something in it for you too. One way to build your professional profile is to share the great information doing the rounds, because if you build a reputation for sharing great information, over time, people will read what you share because they value what you read. So AS IT IS GOOD for you TOO, how about making sure bloggers and content creators in Asia Pacific are part of your sharing agenda?

We all know we are living in a social world where people share information to their communities from very different mediums. I think this new social world is great for everyone, and it’s a way to give thought leaders in Asia Pacific a voice on the global stage. There’s AMAZING things going on in this region, how about we all work towards supporting the business story tellers?

Do you agree we need to do more to support our own? Well SHARE this! :)  

Cheers

Andrea

 

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by | May 15, 2012 · 12:31 pm

5 Tips for Identifying Your Perfect B2B Content Partner

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of seeing my first article published on Content Marketing Institute. Here is a link to the original article “5 Tips for Finding Your Perfect B2B Content Partner.” I put this together because things are changing so rapidly in regards to content becoming a priority, that perhaps this advice might be timely for companies looking to embark upon or improve content marketing effectiveness? The article is copied below for easy reference.

I hope it’s useful and please, do let me know what you think?

By the way, if you like what we write about, we share our blogs and other interesting industry blogs/articles that may be of interest to you on our Facebook page, so why not give us a “like”?

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

5 Tips for Identifying Your Perfect B2B Content Partner

By Andrea Edwards

For the past six or so years, I’ve worked exclusively as a business writing partner with some great companies in the Asia Pacific region. My customers span a variety of sectors, with a focus on IT, digital media, and professional services. It’s a lot of fun, wonderfully challenging, a great professional evolution, and I am very passionate about it — it’s all I want to do.

The most important lesson I’ve learned so far is that a successful writing partnership requires a deep level of intimacy with customers. A professional writer no longer just delivers static brochures or web content. Writers today are ghost writing blogs, conducting executive interviews, creating more personal customer success stories, and more. As such, when I work with my customers, I need:

  • To understand how they speak and think
  • To challenge them on some of their ideas to build out strong value arguments
  • To make them work hard with me to find the story, because their idea may form a great starting point, but it might not be compelling enough to get their readers to act
  • To get them to stand back and ask the question: Will my audience be interested in this? Does it address their pain points?
  • And sometimes I need to educate them, because what they think is important might not be that interesting to their customers. It can be sensitive stuff.

Unless both parties understand and appreciate the essential role that great chemistry and mutual respect plays, it can be tough to create the perfect partnership between content provider and client.

Content is a human business, and sometimes you just don’t gel with every potential business partner. Very rarely I have experienced a personality clash — those situations where you meet someone and there’s tension for no apparent reason. It happens, right?

But more often than not, it comes down to a clash of working styles. I want my customers to stand out and be amazing. However, when I work with people who have an intrinsically conservative style (i.e., preferring to use formal language), are very set in their ways, or are not open to new ideas and ways to succeed, I sometimes find it to be a challenge to work together successfully. Conversely, if my writing style isn’t conservative enough for a particular industry or person (which is ok, too), our partnership just isn’t going to be a good strategic fit.

Based on this, it occurred to me that some guidance on how to identify the perfect content partner for you and your business could be helpful. With everyone claiming content to be the new “king of marketing”, it has become a priority; but to really win, you need to acknowledge the “queen of marketing” — context, and its related considerations.

Content and context are now firmly elevated to a strategic position in marketing (with some forward-thinking companies creating the role of CCO to reflect this), so here are five tips to help you identify a great writing or content partner that can deliver both content and context:

  1. Look for good personal chemistry. It is vital to get on with your writing partners. Much of today’s written output will require you to work very closely together — getting inside each other’s minds, and challenging each other, when appropriate. You want to work with writers who can bring out the best in you and your business. Are they going to be a pleasure to work with? Are they capable of capturing your spirit or your company’s essence? Are they curious and intelligent? Are they open and inspired? If you want some insight about these considerations right from the start, consider asking potential new content partners to submit a writing test: Ask them to interview you on any subject you are both familiar with, and see how they proceed, as well as what they produce (both aspects are important). Sometimes you’ll just know if someone is right or wrong, but if you’re in the middle, or want to be sure, a writing test can be a good tactic.
  2. Find out where their passions lie. Look for someone who is a passionate business storyteller, excited about your company, and can reflect your message and passion in what they produce. It’s is one of those things that should be very obvious when you meet someone, but there can be talented content professionals whose passion is understated, so it’s best to rely on examples of your writers’ work, rather than personal impressions, when evaluating passion. Read their testimonials, ask for feedback from members of their network, and make sure their style and natural voice indicates that they would be a good fit for your team. You can also look at their broader body of work — the blogs they write (on any topic), other published articles, cross-published blogs, the way they use social media, etc., to get an idea of what they are passionate about. If they are able to express their passion in these areas, the chances are they have learnt some valuable lessons your business will benefit from.
  3. Find a strategic marketing thinker. Work with a content partner who understands the overarching marketing and messaging strategies of your company, and understands how important this is to everything you are trying to achieve as a business. The ultimate goal is to have this messaging subtly wrapped into all content developed. For example, I’ve been working with a young and up-coming IT monitoring company, NetGain Systems. One of their key messages is they provide reassurance to customers by tracking IT performance 24×7 – it’s always on, in the background, tracking for problems and sending alerts, which means customers don’t have to worry about IT performance and can get on with more strategic work. Understanding this message, I interviewed one of their customers and shaped the interview to get the CIO to talk about the key message in his own words. He admitted he sleeps better – a powerful endorsement, especially for the IT monitoring industry. So make sure your potential writer knows what your core messages are, and has strong ideas for helping them come through in their writing. Writing professionals who understand the messaging dimension of business are worth their weight in gold and will be able to create even more powerful content for you.
  4.  Look for a proactive professional. You need someone who has great ideas and is familiar with the emerging issues in your industry that they can develop stories around. The best sign you’ve found a great writing partner? The very first time you meet, they’ll come up with a bunch of great ideas for stories — and this is before they have been briefed about your business and goals. A great writer can see story opportunities everywhere, and while they may not be on the money with every idea initially, you know they will be once they’re in. A pro-active and creative professional will be constantly on the pulse with new ideas, angles and approaches. They will feed your content channel months in advance, as well as alert you to topical news that must be acted on immediately. In an always-on world, this is an essential quality and means you can be reassured the quality of your content is taken care of.
  5. Watch out for “yes” people. If you want to do something amazing, don’t work with writers who will blindly follow your lead and say yes to every idea. Your writing partner should be free to challenge you every step of the way, and everything they produce should exceed your expectations. Find people who listen to what you want, but are capable of surpassing it – look for people who can deliver the wow factor. If they can wow you, they can wow your customers and prospects. The key skill your writer must demonstrate is an understanding of both your company’s goals AND what is important to the prospects the information is intended for. A yes person will only see your company’s goals. How do you find them? Look for people who have serious experience and credibility behind them. They may be a little more expensive, but they will be worth every cent. However, don’t overlook talented and eager new writers – both offer great skills in the content mix.

A great writer is a valuable partner that can reap big rewards for your business — as long as you choose the right one, you’ll get compelling content and experience a natural synergy that is sure to lead to great results.

I hope this helps. If you have any additional ideas for finding the right content partner, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Bio:

Andrea has worked in communications all over the globe for 20 years, and her focus now is to follow her passion – writing. A gifted communicator, strategist, writer and blogger, Andrea is MD of SAJE, a digital communications agency, and The Writers Shop – a regional collaboration between the best writers in Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore since 2003, follow her on Twitter @sajeideas, Facebook, LinkedIn, or her blog.

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by | April 25, 2012 · 2:22 pm

Digital Success in Asia Faces Unique Challenges

SAJE’s first customer when we launched back in 2006 was Alvin Chan. At that time he was Regional Marketing Manager, Public Sector, Technology Solutions Group, Asia Pacific & Japan for Hewlett-Packard. After HP, Alvin moved to a senior marketing role with Thomson Reuters, and is currently taking a short hiatus while he works out what’s next for him. Always one of my favourite customers (he’s a smart professional and a really nice guy), Alvin has the unique combination of deep IT experience, and the insight of working within the knowledge industries. We caught up recently because I believe Alvin has a very unique perspective on achieving digital success based on the cultural intricacies of Asia Pacific as a region.

Alvin is a big advocate of digital media, but before a company does anything, he believes you must have a holistic and attainable digital strategy, implementation plan, along with a clear responsibility assignment matrix (or any form of accountability matrix) as critical building blocks to ensure success. He also believes there can be no shortcuts in the implementation process either.

“Many companies are not clearly defining their strategy and implementation plan, and are taking too many shortcuts which lead to disasters, such as McDonald’s recent Twitter fiasco – a great lesson for all of us.”

Alvin suggests that organizations need to be prepared to embrace both positive feedback and negative criticisms, and have robust infrastructure and resources (such as customer service & public relations) to address them. He believes that what makes an organization successful with its digital strategy is the ability to appropriately act on all customer feedback swiftly.

“Giving meal vouchers for negative feedback is lame; there must be a deeper thought process – by demonstrating to the customer that something is being done. Also providing a timeline for resolution, when appropriate, is an important element to delivering impeccable customer service. Why have a digital feedback channel if an organization is not prepared to act on it? This applies to businesses of all sizes.”

For organizations with a global footprint, Alvin suggests that having a local market focus is a fundamental part of succeeding as well.

“Multinationals must define a holistic digital strategy which encompasses local markets, especially for Asia and the EMEA region. Segmentation by sub-region such as South-East Asia, North Asia, China & Greater China, and the Indian continent are common for most organizations, typically mapping these territories to how their business groups and sales teams are organized internally. Unfortunately, customers are not organized in the same way – they are multilingual, multicultural and they all demand a direct channel of interaction. So these considerations, including financial commitments, have to be studied thoroughly as part of the digital media strategy development and planning process.

“Digital success will be achieved when your customers can interact, participate, and be heard by your brand globally, while your company is mindful of assimilating with local cultures and customs.”

Alvin Suggested Three Core Planning Areas

  1. “Global Reach with Local Flavour – especially for global companies, these organisations need to provide a global platform for everyone to participate, but they must also ensure it is flexible enough that local flavours unique to local customs and cultures can co-exist. The importance here is that the organization must be committed to set aside resources (people and financial budgets) to execute, sustain, and enhance their digital media platform to ensure they are consistently engaged with their customers.
  2.  “Product Diversity – another layer of complexity exists for companies with a large portfolio of products and/or services, and offers them into different markets globally. The questions that must be addressed are: who will drive the digital strategy? Is it driven at the corporate level or the business unit level?  What about the regional and local teams? Where are the synergies and where are the leverage points? It is crucial that the organization identifies a clear owner (who has overall accountability) for the organization’s digital strategy, and establishes an accountability matrix of its various internal stakeholders (business units and country teams) to participate in the development of the strategy and implementation plan. These efforts require resources, commitment and collaboration, and if an organization is serious about succeeding in it’s digital strategy, there are simply no short cuts.
  3.  “Accountability Matrix – the collaboration and accountabilities could include, but are not limited to:
    1. Corporate Communications/Branding – accountable and responsible for outlining communication and branding governance, establishing guidelines and enforcing global governance. This group develops the corporate digital strategy framework by consulting and partnering with business heads, the corporate CIO, and local markets/country leadership teams
    2. Corporate CIO – is accountable for establishing robust IT support infrastructure and processes so that the business teams can execute specific communication strategies and marketing promotions that adapt quickly to market forces and competition
    3. Business Unit and Country Leadership Teams – typically comprised of Heads of Business; Heads of Sales, Marketing & Communications; HR Head; and Finance Head. They are accountable for directing the individual business units’ communication and product promotion strategies, staffing requirements, and budget plans. These rollout strategies should be based on market segmentation, product mix, etc – all of which are aligned to the corporate digital strategy framework

“This obviously looks like a lot of work, but I believe it is vital. It also requires commitment at all levels and follow-through. The keyword is follow-through.”

However, there are big stumbling blocks to social success specific to this region:

“In Asia there’s a concept – saving face. This is a very real aspect of Asian society, and it’s a social nuance that must be considered in an organisations’ social thinking. Outside of Asia, many cultures struggle to understand the importance of this concept, but here, saving face is a core aspect of society – no one wants to be exposed to the risk of failing in public. Asians tend to be more introverted, but this is changing. If you remember events and conferences in this region 15 years ago, Asians would hardly put up their hands to ask a question, because they were afraid to be embarrassed in public. With that said, they would make a beeline for the presenter during tea breaks and after the event – so they had questions they wanted to ask. Digital media and the proliferation of social channels provides a platform for opinions and criticisms to be aired at the speed of light, and is changing this trend.”

Another social nuance that hinders digital success is the presence of corporate hierarchical power. There’s an excellent article published recently that addresses this uniquely Asian cultural phenomenon if you missed it.

“Because of these cultural considerations, the baby boomer generation tend to be more conservative about digital media – a new age communications platform – and are wary of the risks. However, the younger generation tend to have very different views, and their creativity is often being stifled. Young professionals are often passionate about new media, and are eager to exploit it to benefit their organizations and their own career path; therefore if organisations can embrace this enthusiasm by putting in place a robust, well planned, well executed digital strategy (with commitment to sustainability and future enhancements), we will see creativity and success never before seen in this region.”

Customer Service in Asia must Change when Applied to a Digital World

Relating to the retail industry, Alvin suggests: “digital media is culturally opposite to how customer service has traditionally been done, which is highly transactional – a short term ‘do-the-deal-today’ style. Asians tend to follow their managers lead and are often, for fear of negative repercussions from superiors, regimentally “following the rules” without fully appreciating their customers’ real issues and needs. They seem to be obsessed with short-term compliance with policies and don’t fully understand the concept of delighting the customer. Essentially they’d rather be “compliant” than being aware of the risk of losing a customer or the store’s reputation should a negative experience go viral. After all, the loss of sales and the store’s reputation does not have a direct and immediate impact on their salary or job security – for now anyway. Getting reprimanded by their superior for not following the rules, and the inability to speak-up (referenced in the HBR article above), however, have a direct and immediate impact. These social nuances and attitudes must change to provide world-class customer service. The challenge here is – will Asian senior leadership teams be prepared to overhaul their “traditions” and become a little more open to progressive change?

“There are so many interesting encounters I’ve had personally with customer service in Asia, but a more notable one that had an immediate impact resulting in a loss of customer loyalty must be this one with Mont Blanc.  This is what I learned recently. A friend bought a wallet from Mont Blanc for her husband last Christmas. The wallet wasn’t exactly what he wanted and he decided to return it and upgrade it for a more expensive one. However because he was busy, her husband wasn’t able to return to the store within the return policy period. In an example of a typical customer service engagement in Asia, he was told he couldn’t return the wallet because it had been more than seven days. They did not even entertain the thought of him upgrading to a more expensive one. The store has now lost a valuable customer who is very annoyed and disappointed with the Mont Blanc brand – a brand he has been loyal to for many years.

“With the proliferation of digital channels today (including this blog) this incident – now in the public domain – could impact a much broader potential customer base, which in turn, tarnishes Mont Blanc’s brand reputation. That’s how it works today.

“This uncompromising service, which is so common in Asia, demonstrates a lack of foresight. When you lose a customer, it takes a lot more effort to get them back. Digital media takes this challenge wider.

“Another classic example, which I encountered many years ago (long before digital), was this: a very senior and prominent politician in Asia had personal printer issues. His IT support staff were called in, and realising they couldn’t fix the problem; they made contact with the manufacturer’s call centre. It went to an outsourced centre, and the person on the phone insisted on the warranty number. The warranty and product number were not easily obtainable, and the support executive refused to provide any help, despite being told who the printer belonged to.

“Fortunately the senior IT officer of the prominent politician was a personal friend of mine, and he reached out to me for help. Me being a responsible Business Development Manager back then, I made a phone call to the Head of Customer support, and within 10 minutes, the printer manufacturer’s field support staff was on-site to rectify the problem. Could you imagine a situation like this today and the outage going viral?

Today, frustrations like this end up on the Internet for everyone to see – just like the SAJE blog you wrote on SIA, and as a Singaporean, I’m glad that SIA revamped their digital platform to create a better experience for their customers. With that said, every customer is important, and every customer has power – it’s important to remember that.”

If you Want to Succeed in Digital Media, you Must:

  1. “Have a realistic, holistic and achievable digital strategy and implementation plan; establish a set of clear deliverables and owners; and foster an environment and culture for collaboration and active participation
  2. “Be committed and follow-through – senior management must be convinced and committed; adequate resources must be allocated to sustain continuity; and business stakeholders need to appreciate it’s a journey and follow-through each step of the way
  3. Be customer centric – take on board and act on criticisms and customer issues; ensure appropriate resources (such as customer service & PR) are in place to address them, and address them well.

“Western firms doing business in Asia need to understand and appreciate Asia’s cultural and social etiquette. For example, I heard an interesting story of a western Internet search firm launching its new office in China. They celebrated this auspicious launch by giving their employees alarm clocks. They didn’t realize that the gift of a clock symbolises a death wish. A cultural lesson learned.

“With that said, Asian firms have different challenges, and Asian companies must overhaul some of their cultural traditions to stay competitive.”

In Wrapping up, Alvin Suggested Engaging Market Leaders in Digital Media Strategy for Strategic Counsel

However be cautious when engaging marketing & communications agencies who tout their services and expertise, because many are just implementers – they will follow what their clients tell them to do.  They often rely on their clients to provide the strategic direction, and offer no value in helping them develop their digital strategy.

“If an organization is seriously looking for help in developing their digital strategy, be selective in engaging an agency, ensure you engage one that can provide strategic counsel, but also one with the courage to think outside the box and challenge you, the client.”

Finally, “learn from organizations that have failed, and understand what went wrong – there are a lot of priceless lessons to be learnt.”

There’s a lot of terrific advice from Alvin in this interview, really honing in on some specific aspects relevant to succeeding in Asia, and we both hope it helps companies still struggling to harness the power of digital media.

Any experience or expertise you’d like to share?

Cheers

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

PS if you like what you read, please do share it. Alternatively, if you know someone who’d enjoy it, pass it on. You can sign up above to get our blogs directly on email; you can like us on Facebook and get them in your feed; connect with me on LinkedIn; or follow SAJE on Twitter @SAJEIdeas. Come on, show us some love!

 

 

 

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by | March 26, 2012 · 3:44 pm

Why Blog?

I recently wrote a blog on blogging – I Know I Should be Blogging But, definitely very topical as a strategic social tool in Asia right now. It also seemed to attract a lot of interest, including an acknowledgement on Michael Brenners’ B2B Marketing Insider Blog “The Top 5 Reasons People Don’t do Social,” which was very much appreciated. Thanks to my fellow writer Mark McClure for bringing it to Michael’s attention.

Since writing that blog, I’ve been thinking about the specific reasons professionals should blog and have included them here today, because the reality is, if you’re great at what you do, you should be blogging – whatever field you are in. I’ve already talked about the reasons why professionals are holding back, and there are many more to mention, BUT one thing I want to highlight:

Every company in the world is full of amazingly talented and intelligent people who are experts in a particular area in their industry; and that knowledge is worth sharing with the world. One of the best ways to share this knowledge is to blog, as a blog allows you to reach a depth that other social tools don’t allow.

The roles where I believe blogging is essential include:

  • Any customer facing executive – because they know what the customer cares about and can write to address those issues – which is what it’s all about these days
  • All senior executives should be blogging. Bill Marriot of the Marriot Group is considered one of the most famous corporate bloggers in the world, and he is a shining example for all executives. In today’s digital world, leaders of business must personalise their voice, be accountable to customers, communicate directly with customers, etc… – blogging is a perfect vehicle to do that
  • Any professionals who are excellent in their field and want to share knowledge and best practises with their industry, as well as to build their profile and credibility with a broader community

So why blog? Here’s a start on the individual benefits for professionals who want to blog…

  • An opportunity to establish yourself as an expert and the go-to person in your field
  • A forum to teach, educate, share and inspire others in your area of expertise
  • The ability to secure more promotion opportunities in your company as you raise awareness of your skills and build your credibility
  • An opportunity to build your professional community around the world, as well as an opportunity to build your professional social profile – something very important these days
  • It increases your chances of being invited to speak at relevant industry events
  • It’s a platform to generate direct customer engagement
  • An opportunity to write for other digital media sites, as well as have your blogs republished on relevant industry sites – further building your profile and credibility
  • An opportunity to have blogs published in the media – which is good for you and your company. Additionally you build your profile to become a valued media resource in your field
  • Build your audience by inviting other experts in your field to guest post on your blog, which makes your blog even more valuable. Most guest bloggers will also promote their blog to their extended network, which is good for you
  • Individual blogging content is great for wider company social campaigns
  • You can even use a blog to change career paths – especially if you blog about the new field before you make the move  - this way you’ve already built credibility
  • It puts a personality to the face/name
  • It’s a conversation starter

Finally, and I know this one is a bit tricky, but we should be honest here. Today, everyone needs to take care of their own careers because a job for life is rapidly becoming a rare animal. Therefore blogging is a great tool to generate greater career opportunities for you. I appreciate that this is a core reason why companies have a fear of letting employees blog, but the reality is; good people are always headhunted and blogging does not increase the chance of people leaving. Instead of worrying about this, I believe companies should be more focused on ensuring a culture where great talent wants to stay and giving them the freedom to blog should be part of that. It’s definitely a HR and retainment tool when employees really want to do it.

Any more you can think of? I know I didn’t get them all.

Please remember that if you are blogging on anything relevant to your company, it’s important to factor in the broader company strategy and work in-line with that. If you do, your company will help you succeed. If your company does not have a social policy in place, perhaps you can be part of the team that gets one together, including policies and guidelines? There are plenty of examples to reference these days.

I am a believer in blogging (I’ve got three blogs now) and on many occasions I meet with fellow professionals and say you should be blogging. They know they should and I hope they do. I find it one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done, and as a small business owner, it’s vital to my marketing as well – what better way to show the world my knowledge than through this channel?

Good luck to those blogging – and if you’re new – be patient, be passionate, be current, be relevant, be real, and always always write to the audience you want to influence… You’ll work it out :)

Cheers

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

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by | February 22, 2012 · 2:26 pm

Tablet Strategies for Content Marketing?

IDG Connect recently launched a white paper entitled “iPad for Business Survey 2012” which highlights global trends for its 60 million users world-wide. Specifically focused on useage trends with business and IT professionals, 51% of IT decision-makers say they “always” use their iPad at work, with a further 40% saying they “sometimes” use it at work. In Asia Pacific, the useage figures are significantly higher than the rest of the world, with 90% of business and IT professionals buying less physical information – books, newspapers and DVDs. The three areas where the iPad is used intensely for work-related activities are Web browsing, reading and news consumption.

The important statistics coming out of Asia:

  • Social media useage on iPads is very high, while useage for personal and work related communication (primarily email) is very low
  • Asian professionals are “more likely” than global peers to say their iPad has “completely” or “partially” replaced a laptop or PC
  • Asian professionals are fully engaged by the iPad’s powerful effects on content consumption patterns. Nine out of 10 Asian professionals say they have purchased fewer newspapers and books since taking delivery of an iPad
  •  Considering the high useage by Asian IT and business professionals, surprisingly only 10% of employers supply iPads to employees (compares to 24% worldwide)

But ANZ is quite different…

  • Only 40% see their iPad as a complete or partial replacement for a laptop (compared to 64% worldwide)
  • Professionals in ANZ are also far less interested in using iPads as substitutes for PCs
  • Levels of useage on the move are the lowest in the world

The conclusions?

  • IT and business professionals certainly use their devices at home (which is the global norm) but they also use their devices in a similarly intensive way at work
  • They also use them on the road more frequently than other iPad users
  • The three predominant text-based/work related useage areas, as mentioned above, are Web browsing, news consumption and reading – now considered the “killer apps” to have transformed the iPad into a viable business tool
  • Connectivity seems one of the biggest issues and a striking finding is that with 79% always using their iPads on the move, but not many going online (only 40% incorporate 3G), users are reading previously side-loaded or downloaded documents
  • What kind of documents? Excel, Word, and PPT files, as well as “must-read” PDFs like vendor whitepapers

So the question is this – does this open up significant possibilities for technology marketers? And in Asia Pacific, considering the high useage statistics compared to the rest of the world, should a mobile content strategy be a higher priority if it isn’t already? Obviously a discussion on tablets goes beyond the iPad, as other locally-grown tablets (e.g. Samsung Galaxy) gain traction in this region, which I expect are also utilised at the highest rates in the world.

This research supports a lot of “ideas” being discussed in marketing circles these days, but one aspect is really important – it defines the how and when customers and prospects consume information. Therefore, to ensure marketers are maximizing on this opportunity for mind-share, a mobile content strategy is certainly vital – especially in Asia.

As IDG Connect summarises, “the prospect of gaining access to decision-makers who are in reading (or lean-back) mode while at home or on the move between locations, is intriguing. At the very least it deserves further investigation.”

Apart from all of the other implications this research brings to the fore – like advertising – is it likely to change the way you deliver content? And do you expect to increase the frequency of your high value content and how you market it?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. It’s certainly going to be a hot focus area for marketers moving forwards. Maybe Asia can lead this one?

Cheers

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

PS if you like what you read, please do share it. Alternatively, if you know someone who’d enjoy it, pass it on. You can sign up above to get our blogs directly on email; you can like us on Facebook and get them in your feed; connect with me on LinkedIn; or follow SAJE on Twitter @SAJEIdeas. Come on, show us some love!

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by | February 15, 2012 · 11:44 am

A Creative Valentine’s eDM

Hi everyone, I’ve been a bit quiet in SAJE blog-land of late, but that’s a good thing because it means I’m busy. I will try and ramp things up again as lots to share. In the meantime, this eDM was issued yesterday for Valentine’s Day and I thought it was a really creative idea, especially in such a typically conservative industry. UK-based Green-tech supply landscape, grounds maintenance, forestry and agriculture markets with products that protect, enhance and improve plants and their environment. Nice idea huh?

Just sharing the love.

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

PS if you like what you read, please do share it. Alternatively, if you know someone who’d enjoy it, pass it on. You can sign up above to get our blogs directly on email; you can like us on Facebook and get them in your feed; connect with me on LinkedIn; or follow SAJE on Twitter @SAJEIdeas. Come on, show us some love!

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by | December 2, 2011 · 1:25 pm

SAJE Officially Launches “The Writers Shop”

Audience Diaspora

We’ve never shared any SAJE news on our blog, but today we’re so excited about what we’re doing, we figured it was worth sharing. We’ve been building this concept and community for months now, and today, we launch The Writers Shop - an innovative collaboration between some of Asia’s brightest business communication and writing professionals, primarily to address the growing regional need for quality marketing and social content.

I’ve copied the press release below, and if you want more information, there’s a PPT on SlideShare that goes in to more detail. At some point soon, we’ll include a Web page here on this site… but that will have to wait for another day.

Please do share with anyone you think might benefit from such an innovative and creative group of strategic writers.

Cheers

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

A Virtual Team of High Class Content Creators Come Together to Feed Asia’s Social Machine 

Singapore, 2nd December 2011 – SAJE, a team of genuinely smart and creative business folk, today are launching The Writers Shop – an innovative collaboration between some of Asia’s brightest business communication and writing professionals, primarily to address the growing regional need for quality marketing and social content.

Centrally coordinated through SAJE, The Writer’s Shop is a virtual team that delivers quality content for the full spectrum of corporate communication needs including: strategic social media content, blogs, marketing, Web and internal communication.

Andrea Edwards, Managing Director of SAJE said, “Asia continues to lag the rest of the world in the standard of its social engagement, and strategic content marketing remains in its infancy. The majority of global companies operating in Asia rely heavily on head offices for content which isn’t always localized or relevant to this region. Additionally, local companies are not investing in the right content to invigorate their brands, engage their customers and compete on the global stage.

“The Writers Shop has been developed to assist Asian organizations address these challenges by providing high value, high quality and high impact content for any communication platform.” 

Edwards said that all Writer’s Shop practitioners have longevity and depth of experience in their key fields which span journalism, public relations, internal communication, market research, consulting and marketing content creation – some having more than 25 years in the business.

“This is the culmination of a vision, as well as a lot of passion, to deliver to businesses in Asia Pacific the best written content in the market,” she said.

The Writers Shop is a one-stop-shop for those in the B2B space needing thought leadership content to enhance their customer engagement. It is the high end written material needed to engage with customers and prospects throughout the sales cycle. Working with customers on projects, or as an extension of their sales and marketing team, The Writers Shop is a perfect model to help Asian organisations translate their vision and product/service benefits into prime content delivered via a variety of channels.

This type of content would include thought leadership whitepapers; powerful case studies; interviews with well briefed senior executives that lead to high impact content, executive blogs, opinion pieces, new concept positioning papers, Website refreshes and much more.

“Since launching SAJE in 2006, several customers have told us that Asia is lacking deeply experienced content creators who also understand business strategy and the needs of customer audiences,” said Steve Johnson, Commercial Director, SAJE. “The Writer’s Shop is a concept whose time has come and we are very proud to be launching it here in Singapore today.”

 “The Writers Shop collaborators are highly experienced in providing great content creation services, as well as providing strategic advice that will make our customers’ messages stand out from the competition. We can undertake individual projects or we can work with our customers on defining their entire content strategy, partnering with them to completion.”

For more information on The Writers Shop and detail on our writing team, please do take a look at our deck on SlideShare. It’s all there. Additionally, if you think anyone would be interested in our services, we’d appreciate you sharing our news.

About SAJE

SAJE are a team of seriously smart and experienced business professionals who work with our customers to excel at communication, marketing and sales strategies for Asia Pacific. Focused on revitalising our customer’s stories and taking them to market in new and interesting ways, SAJE helps customers evaluate their business, revitalise their offerings and then takes them to market. Established in Singapore in 2006, with an Australian office opening in 2009, SAJE has gone from strength to strength, delivering high quality services to customers right across Asia Pacific. Customers, small and large, past and present, include Hewlett-Packard, NetGain Systems, Cisco, Seatronics, Elmich Asia, Intel, Microsoft, Qais Consulting, Springboard Research, Zelda Recruitment and more. Headquartered in Singapore, SAJE serves the entire Asia Pacific region from this central business hub.

PS if you like what you read, please do share it. Alternatively, if you know someone who’d enjoy it, pass it on. You can sign up above to get our blogs directly on email; you can like us on Facebook and get them in your feed; connect with me on LinkedIn; or follow SAJE on Twitter @SAJEIdeas. Come on, show us some love!

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by | October 31, 2011 · 1:48 pm

Writing an Awesome Case Study

I’ve been a bit slack on the blogging front of late, but managed to get in a holiday to Holland, which was much needed. One of the things I was thinking about when away is writing great case studies; because so many companies issue case studies that just don’t do them justice. I’m also sure most do not get the desired results – aka winning new business. Essentially I believe there is a lot of money being wasted on sub-standard case studies, so I thought I’d add a few thoughts that I hope help people refocus on what is necessary. Great case studies are great fuel for ALL marketing efforts after all.

The basic information in a case study remains:

  • What was the business problem your customer was facing?
  • Why did your company stand out in the selection process? What were the decision making parameters?
  • What benefits have they experienced?
  • What were the lessons learnt?
  • More plans for the future?

Obvious right? BUT the important thing to make it really powerful – it must be focused on the customer experience throughout and focus on the business benefits achieved. This is usually where most companies make mistakes – and I’m including the biggest companies in the world here – they get too focused on themselves, pushing their brand and solution/product every step of the way – when it should be about the customer and the business benefits they gained. You’ve got to tantalise, and you don’t do that by talking about yourself.

However, I believe there is another aspect to writing a successful case study that needs to be factored into the timeline. This might seem like a time consuming addition to the process BUT if you do this, what you create will be more impactful than anything you have ever done. After all, you usually get one chance to interview a customer, so make it count.

BEFORE you interview a customer, get the writer, marketing and sales/relationship manager together to discuss:

  • What solution/product the customer has installed/purchased, and why
  • ANY problems encountered along the way and how they were handled
  • Any feedback – positive or negative – from the customer to date, and how it was handled
  • The business benefits you understand the customer has experienced since adopting your solution/product
  •  The key messages you want to get across in the case study, for example:
    • This solution/product significantly improved our CRM processes
    • We’ve been able to increase output by 20% since adopting this product/service
    • We can take our service to market faster because of this solution/product
    • This solution/product gives us real peace of mind
    • We can more effectively market ourselves and measure ROI because of this solution/product
    • And so on

Understanding what you want to achieve with a case study before you write it is absolutely vital. You’ve got to get your customer to speak this language and the way to do this is to prepare the writer beforehand. If prepared, they can lead the customer to the conclusions you want to highlight.

If you can integrate this step into the process, then you will have a case study that is so much more powerful than sending a writer in blind. The writer MUST know what you want to get out of it from a messaging point of view and they must understand the business benefits you want to communicate. So make sure you give them that and invest in smart, business savvy writers to get the real results you need to win. Also, get them face-to-face – it is ALWAYS better. Hard to do in Asia I know, but you’ll appreciate the investment.

The most important thing is defining what business benefits you want to get across to help your sales team sell. That’s what it’s about after all.

Cheers,

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

PS if you like what you read, please do share it. Alternatively, if you know someone who’d enjoy it, pass it on. You can sign up here to get our blogs directly in your Inbox; you can like us on Facebook and get them in your feed; connect with me on LinkedIn; or follow SAJE on Twitter @SAJEIdeas. Come on, show us some love!

 

 

 

 

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by | September 29, 2011 · 3:29 pm

Appetite for Content

I was forwarded this Infographic and it speaks for itself. Based on UK research prepared by Base One in the Buyersphere Report from May 2011, it describes how B2B buyers are getting hungrier for information, and how the content “fillings” are changing. If you click through to the link (click on the graphic) and then double click on the image, you can read the content in this inforgraphic more effectively. It is hard to read as it is, but a lovely representation of the information don’t you think?

But if you haven’t got time, I’ve done it breifly below. It seems that year-on-year B2B targets are significantly increasing their preferences for content via:

  1. Facebook
  2. Twitter
  3. LinkedIn
  4. Blogs
  5. Online events
  6. Press advertising
  7. Direct mail
  8. Industry press
  9. Web search
  10. Supplier Websites

Unchanged:

  1. Other social media vehicles

Reduced:

  1. Events / seminars – although I don’t think this is right for Asia Pacific
  2. Word of mouth – but isn’t that what social media is as well? I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong…

I just thought it was worth sharing.

Cheers,

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

PS if you like what you read, please do share it. Alternatively, if you know someone who’d enjoy it, pass it on. You can sign up here to get our blogs directly in your Inbox; you can like us on Facebook and get them in your feed; connect with me on LinkedIn; or follow SAJE on Twitter @SAJEIdeas. Come on, show us some love!

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by | September 22, 2011 · 1:03 pm

IDG Connect Survey – Local Vs Global Content in Asia Pacific

I’ve been meaning to make a few notes about IDG Connect’s recent survey on global content trends, specifically in relation to Asia Pacific. One thing I have noticed is that many global and local companies in this region are struggling to justify increased content spend, and when available, rely on global content.

The good news – compared to other regions, Asia Pacific IT decision makers are appreciative of global content, BUT the need for local content is strong and cannot be ignored. According to this survey:

  • 74 percent of professionals interviewed want local content
  • 79 percent are unable to find it

No one is ignoring the growth potential in this region because let’s face it – all eyes are on Asia. However, it is the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) getting the most attention, as combined, they are expected to overtake the US in GDP in 2012. For those of us in AP, we also see growth and development across some other very exciting markets, including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, with Singapore as the central hub – so it’s definitely all happening around these parts.

But companies have to engage customers, and as I believe content is the ‘gold dust’ of social businesses these days, this research highlighted some great points marketing execs can take away and ponder.

Highlights

  • 72% of global IT professionals find whitepapers extremely useful –  with specific sub-regions in Asia Pacific at 74 percent in Asia (North and South), 57 percent in ANZ and 64 percent in the Indian sub-continent
  • Local content needs can be quite simple with “modest amounts of localisation” suggested to “enhance engagement”- I’d suggest include, at the very least, some local case studies within a global whitepaper for extra impact and breaking stats up by regions/countries
  • Asia Pacific business/IT decision makers were most enthusiastic about vendor content with 94% wanting/needing/appreciating it – that’s the highest in the world and shows a hunger for knowledge/education
  • While IT professionals in North America have a strong preference for thought leadership, it seems that currently  in AP, analysis and statistics is the preference, although ANZ stands with North America in having a thought leadership preference
  • ANZ has a strong preference for local content, whereas AP has a combined local and global preference – with that said, when asked for content preferences in all regions of the world, local content wins every time
  • Engagement is a challenge, and this challenge can be met by giving audiences what they need – great local content
  • Back to the BRIC countries – they “possess a striking appetite for vendor content of all types.” Their desire IS for knowledge on how domestic and global competitors are using IT, so delivering relevant global AND local content is vital for success. Professionals in the BRICs are frustrated because they can’t find relevant content. To engage them in conversation, great content is a smart first step

Research Infographic

I found this research timely as it backs up a lot of what I and other professionals in this region know is true. The challenge I constantly see with the global players in the AP IT space is dedicating budget for local content development. For smaller regional businesses it’s a challenge of where to dedicate tight marketing budgets, as developing high value content can be expensive. However, it doesn’t need to be an extensive exercise. Integrating high value local content –such as case studies within whitepapers – is a really great and cost effective place to start. 

Let’s face it: an IT decision maker at a hospital in the Philippines is hardly going to gain a lot of value from a case study about a hospital in Austin, Texas. But another hospital in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, or Indonesia is certainly going to be closer to the mark and more relevant to them.

How is your company going with its local content strategy? Has your business increased local content budget for AP? Let me know?

Andrea Edwards

Managing Director

SAJE

PS if you like what you read, please do share it. Alternatively, if you know someone who’d enjoy it, pass it on. You can sign up here to get our blogs directly in your Inbox; you can like us on Facebook and get them in your feed; connect with me on LinkedIn; or follow SAJE on Twitter @SAJEIdeas. Come on, show us some love!

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