Transcript
WEBVTT
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Looking for a guaranteed way to create
content that resonates with your audience? Start
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a podcast, interview your ideal clients
and let them choose the topic of the
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interview, because if your ideal clients
care about the topic, there's a good
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chance the rest of your audience will
care about it too. Learn more at
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sweet fish Mediacom. You're listening to
be tob growth, a daily podcast for
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B TOB leaders. We've interviewed names
you've probably heard before, like Gary vanner
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truck and Simon Senek, but you've
probably never heard from the majority of our
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guests. That's because the bulk of
our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors.
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Most of our guests are in the
trenches leading sales and marketing teams.
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They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting with
tactics, they're building the fastest growing be
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tob companies in the world. My
name is James Carberry. I'm the founder
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of sweet fish media, a podcast
agency for BB brands, and I'm also
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one of the CO hosts of this
show. When we're not interviewing sales and
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marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from
behind the scenes of our own business.
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Will share the ups and downs of
our journey as we attempt to take over
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the world. Just getting well?
Maybe let's get into the show. Welcome
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back to be tob growth. I'm
your host for today's episode, Travis King.
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Here at sweet fish media. I'm
joined today by Phil Mobili, who
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is the head of research, arch
and tenant experience at Building Engines Inc.
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Phil, what is up, my
friend? What's going on? Hey,
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Travis, I'm doing all right.
How about yourself? I'm doing good,
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you know, can't complain, living
another day, right. Yeah, yeah,
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well, thanks for having me on, of course. So, yeah,
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let's let's let's dive right in.
Today you're going to be sharing a
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little bit about how you use research
to generate thought leadership content for positioning,
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Lea Gen and PR opportunities. But
before we get into that, you know,
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I'd love for you to share with
listeners a little bit about yourself and
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what you and the team at building
engine are up to these days. Yeah,
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sure, so I'll start with building
engines. We are a software provider,
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software as a service, and we
serve the commercial real estate industry.
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So our platform is active and over
two billion commercial square feet right now.
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We help our clients more smoothly operate
their facilities. We help them automate a
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lot of the processes and then,
crucially, we serve as the link between
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a building management team and the tenants
and the occupants that are in the space
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that that those building management teams own
and operate. So that's what our software
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does. My role in the company, I we're sort of two hats day.
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Today I lead our tenant experience development
team, so any part of our
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software platform that the tenant occupants interact
with, that that's what my team works
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on. But then also I'm head
of research and that role is more geared
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toward producing thought leadership content that we
use for marketing and legend, like you
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were mentioning in the introduction. Awesome
and I find it's super interesting that,
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as a researcher, you have an
integral role in the marketing department, because
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not, it's not oftentimes you find, you know, marketing department has their
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own internal research expert that can go
dive and find all the golden nuggets from
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all the different resources and places that
you're able to get to. Yeah,
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and it's interesting because there's a tie
to a software product management role as well,
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and that we are doing research all
the time on what our users want
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and need and where the gaps are
from technology perspective in the marketplace. So
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you know, it is unique,
I think, particularly in our sector,
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the industry, but it also makes
a lot of sense. There's a lot
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of synergy there between what I do
on the product side and on the marketing
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side. Got It. So I
mean I'd love for us, you know,
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dive right in and kind of could
you tell us a little bit about
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how you know, how does it
work like? What's the process like when
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it comes to research and, you
know, generating ideas for different thought leadership
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content that you guys are using?
The thing about good research is that you
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want to start with what do you
want to be able to say at the
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end of this? Right, you
begin with the end in mind. I'm
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usually that starts with a solid hypothesis. So, in other words, you
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don't necessarily want to just go collect
all the possible facts and start boiling the
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ocean. You really want to have
a goal. So a couple of examples
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that we've used in our research.
One was we had a hypothesis, based
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on understanding our clients, that a
successful commercial real estate management team operates their
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buildings maybe a little bit differently than
those they're less successful, and so we
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did some research. That became what
we call the commercial real estate operations report,
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and in that report we examined the
whole realm of commercial real estate operations,
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from Preventive Maintenance and service request management
to technology and communications and staff management
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and the whole mine yards, and
from that research we were able to essentially
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prove out our hypothesis that, yes, the buildings that are the most successful
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in terms of having the highest rents, having the highest occupancy, that's how
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the building to make money. So
the ones that do that the best,
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they really do practice different operational techniques
and engage in different operational best practices and
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those things differentiate them in the market
place. So that report has been valuable
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to us not only to just show
hey, look, we're thought leaders,
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but to do something a little bit
for provocative, to provide new insight to
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our existing clients, of course,
but also to prospects. Another example of
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that is we have somewhat of a
different and provocative take on the tenant experience.
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There's a lot of movement, particularly
in the technology space, in the
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commercial real estate industry toward mobile APPS
and trying to get tenant occupants to engage
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with and use mobile APPs, and
our take on that is that we are
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a little bit skeptical of that.
We're not sure that's the way tenants really
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want to interact with their building and
the management team there, and so we
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did some research into that as well. That resulted in what we call the
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tenant experience gap report, and in
that piece of content we were able to
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again prove out this hypothesis and identify
that, you know, what the building
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management teams understanding of what the tenants
will want and what they're expecting in terms
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of experience and communication and interaction it's
really different than what the tenants themselves are
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expecting and what they're hoping to get
from the management team. So, you
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know, you asked a question about
how these come about. Well, they
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come about with having a position or
having a hypothesis, in our case,
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something that we look at maybe a
little bit differently than the industry, and
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so the research helps you bear that
out and it also helps you make some
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noise. So we will talk some
more about how we've been able to use
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those pieces, I'm sure. Oh
yeah, and it's funny that you say
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that, because I was actually in
my tenant APP earlier today and it's interesting
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how they have it laid out and
they, you know, expect their tenants
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to go in here and actually find
updates the things, when it's just another
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platform that I need to figure out
my login for and remember a password for.
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And then even once you get in
there, it's not like the Uis
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a hundred percent up to date.
And I'm like, no, I totally
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understand where fiels coming from, because
I definitely have this pain point as a
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tenant right now. Yeah, and
I and I this is not really the
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purpose of this call, but just
use for some context. I mean our
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position is essentially that apps can look
nice and feel great, but it's hard
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to get people to use them,
and so where we really see the ten
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and experience going is where most of
the rest of our lives are going,
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which is through messaging. Right.
So you know, if I could get
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an update, or submit a service
request or register a visitor all through an
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AI enable text messaging APP or text
messaging bought, then we think that's a
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win, and so that's sort of
where we're going in a product direction,
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and we're doing that because of the
research that we did and to hey,
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this is what tenants really want to
do anyway. So, you know,
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number one, the research ended up
supporting our product vision, but also helping
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us tell the story of this is
why we're going in this direction and this
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is why it's better and this is
why you should listen right. No,
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I really value that and I think
it's something that a lot of commercial real
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estate operations companies should aspire to think
about it in thinking about where their customers
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are headed. Because, I mean, as as we're kind of going into
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kind of next phase of the conversation, my my next thought is is thinking
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about, you know, some of
the ways that other betb marketers can leverage
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these sorts of methods and their organizations
to kind of take back something that they
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can use, you know, from
you know, your research or from your
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from your process. Yeah, sure. So what we have done as a
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starting point in terms of output is
to put together really well produced, well
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written research reports and we've engaged,
when necessary, external people to help us
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design, to help us copyright.
You know, we have some internal capabilities
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in the data analysis piece, so
we were able to do a lot with
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that ourselves, but where we didn't
have the expertise, we found it and
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produce some high quality pieces that make
really great leave behinds. We have found
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that they get very senior level eyes. It's an easy you know report like
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that as an easy thing to take
with you on an airplane ride, for
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example, or a train ride,
and so we get feedback that, hey,
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you know this or that senior leader
in this sort that real estate company
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saw your report and really enjoyed it
and now they want to have a conversation.
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So that that's one thing. But
beyond that, when you have a
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wealth of information that you've collected through
research, you can also turn that into
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a lot of different kinds of content
pieces as well. So we've put together
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blog posts. We have pitched and
placed by lines in trade publications, but
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I did that just last week.
In that we have put on our own
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webinars. We have participated in industry
organizations and their educational output. We've had
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speaking engagements. I went to Shanghai
in September this year to present some of
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the findings from our turn experience gap
report. So that was an amazing opportunity
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both for me personally and for the
company. So it's the kind of thing
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that you do invest in to produce. But once you do that, it's
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not that the content is evergreen,
but it does have a fairly long shelf
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life and you can get lots of
smaller content pieces out of it that didn't
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you can use to push forward across
a variety of different platforms. Hey,
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everybody, logan with sweet fish here. You probably already know that we think
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action and casted dot US growth.
That's sea steed dot US growth all right,
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let's get back to the show.
Sounds like a smart plan to me.
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Yeah, like a lot of times
marketers struggle with figuring out ways to
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repurpose content and doing, you know, one off something that might not be
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able to be, you know,
reused or transformed to a different sort of
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platform. And you guys are doing
a really, really well and taking,
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you know, that pillar piece of
content and being the research and then figuring
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out different ways to disseminate that content
across multiple different channels, whether it be
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webinars, Yep, blog posts,
podcasting, whatever the channel that you guys
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decide. But yeah, and I
can give you sort of a concrete example
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of that from the tenant experience gap
report. I mean, part of the
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question that we wanted answer as well. What is the tenant experience anyway?
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How are we defining that? In
our industry? It's a term that gets
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thrown around, but it's vieused very
loosely and people don't really define that in
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a disciplined way. So our full
report alludes to that. But then we
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came back and created a supplemental presentation
about, okay, well, here's what
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this actually means and here's what it
means for you and what you should do
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about it. So we've been able
to give that presentation in a variety of
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different form formats and forums, but
then we also were able to break the
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presentation itself down into three or four
different blog posts that we were able to
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publish. So there's really been a
cascading effect from the full research to a
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presentation based view of it to breaking
it down even smaller into, you know,
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by size, chunks that are consumable
in platforms like Linkedin and our company
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blog and even some industry trade magazines. Nice. Thanks so much for that
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concrete example. I think that'll be
super helpful for the listeners, especially when
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it comes down to figuring out how
they can implement this research in their own
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companies. And then one final question. Why do you believe research is a
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great method for other marketers in there's, you know, respective roles. Yeah,
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I mean there's there's a lot of
reasons. I mentioned that we've been
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able to get our research in front
of senior eyes. I think a lot
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of the reason for that is that
it is of course it's motivated toward increasing
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our brand awareness and generating leads for
us, but it also does provide real
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value for our more market place,
whether or not their clients right. So
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if you're trying to get in front
of those decisionmakers eyes, they'd rather read
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something that's interesting to them and that
adds value immediately then just a simple sales
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pitch. So that's that's one reason. I think another is it really helps
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with positioning the company. You know, I mentioned our commercial real estate operations
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report. The scope of that report
certainly included the aspects of operations that are
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software enables, but it was also
broader than that and so, from a
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positioning standpoint it tells the marketplace building
engines is not only a software provider,
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but we are experts in this market
and so therefore, by implication, you
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can trust us to design and maintain
and serve software because we understand the entirety
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of operations in the challenges that you
are market places are facing. So it's
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very helpful from a positioning standpoint and
I think it's you know, if you
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can invest in the capability to produce
something like that, it does pay dividends
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down the road. Got It well, Phil this has been such a such
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an amazing and information and insightful episode. So listeners just want to, you
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know, wrap it up and,
you know, number one, some key
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takeaways that I just learned. Always
start with a solid hypothesis. Leverage research
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reports so that you can use them
to then transform the initial content into multiple
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different pieces of micro content. And, you know, finally, research reports
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actually provide real value for the marketplace, whether or not they're your ideal clients,
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and it's also a very helpful way
for you to get in front of
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decision makers. So, Phil thanks
so much again for hopping on today and
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sharing some of these insights with us. And, you know, as we
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wrap up, you know, this
has been a great conversation. If listeners
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want to stay connected with you or
follow up to ask any questions on this
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topic, what's the best way for
them to connect with you? Yeah,
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00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:11.000
great questions. So I my email
address at building engines is it's P mobly,
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00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:17.029
PMO Belley at building enginescom. You
can also find me on twitter at
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Hilarious rets either. Those will get
in front of me pretty quickly. Thanks
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so much for we really appreciate being
on the show today. It's been a
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00:17:25.349 --> 00:17:30.259
pleasure. Drafts, I appreciate it. We totally get it. We publish
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a ton of content on this podcast, and it can be a lot to
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00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:37.779
keep up with. That's why we've
started the BETOB growth big three, a
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no fluff email that boils down our
three biggest takeaways from an entire week of
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episodes. Sign up today at Sweet
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