Executive Branding…makes a big difference

Executive Branding…makes a big difference

Driving on a freeway in Nashville…

I was startled to see one of the best advertisements I’ve seen in 2023.

On a moving truck.

Chuck Wicks, entertainer and business owner.

Turns out the truck is from a Nashville franchise of Black Tie Moving Company. The guy is Chuck Wicks, country music singer and owner of the franchise.

For me, the startling thing about this ad is that it’s for a moving company. And it’s a pic of a real live principal of the company.

I don’t know about you, but I seldom see cool advertising on the freeway. And I sure never see anything cool and memorable from a moving company.

So I did a deeper dive on Black Tie’s marketing to see what it could teach. Here’s what I found:

1. Positioning. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a moving company advertise a differentiated experience that potential customers can place on their ladder of experiences and preferences.

2. Positioning statement: “First Class Moving Experience”. With four simple words they created an intriguing reflection on the brand.

3. Credibility. They make liberal use of the Inc. 500 and Forbes brands. And they should. They are all over their website, social media, advertising, moving trucks, et. al.

Black Tie Moving Company website form.

4. More credibility. A quick look at their reviews quickly turned up one that’s very positive, memorable and helps polish the company’s community service image:

5. Even more credibility. In addition, Black Tie is the fastest growing privately held moving company in the U.S., with a 3-year growth rate of 1180%. [according to their LinkedIn profile]

Why focus on credibility?

It’s all about the competition. According to the BBB, more than 10% of moving companies have an F rating. Which means even more have a D or C rating. To compare, all companies in all industries have an average 2.7% of F ratings. Read the report here.

I don’t know about you, but I’d at least like to have a B-rated company handle my move. All things factored, I’d be happy to pay extra for an A-rated company.

Well synched marketing…

Kudos to Black Tie’s marketing team for synching so many elements well.

Positioning, brand, advertising, social media, executive profiling and more.

And it’s not just executive profiling either. It’s rank-and-file profiling, which says that whoever’s in charge cares about their employees.

In summary, here is what Black Tie’s marketing team has created:

 

  • a GPS that maps prospective customers to Black Tie’s ‘why us, why now’
  • a memorable narrative that causes something to happen in the minds of their audience
  • a hook by which an audience will place Black Tie on their ladder of experiences and preferences
  • a trusty loom that has transformed mere threads into a colorful tapestry that prompts people to think ‘tell me more’.

Props to the entire Black Tie Moving Company team.

I can do this…

I offer multiple solutions for executive and company profiling.

Would love it if you checked them out!

Personal Branding for Executives

Need easy system for B2B content?

Need easy system for B2B content?

Use mine.

Your easy system for B2B content is available right here. Free. Not gated.

What works?

The best content focuses on a single, current industry hot button. For this, look at industry news and what jumps out.

Trending Examples in May/June 2023

  • Meta hit with $1.3 billion fine related to data privacy. Bad news sells. If you’re in (or near) a data-related vertical, you can generate weeks of content with this.
  • The sad state of unicorn valuations. If you’re in (or near) finance, capital or entrepreneurship this could be a great way to share your domain expertise.

Golden Rule for content creation…

Your content must help someone do their job better.

But take it a step deeper. What tangible benefits could be realized from consuming your content?

  • Less worrying, better sleep
  • Promotions, bonuses, salary increases
  • Increased job security

That’s why you’re creating!

You need an easy system for B2B content.

Happy man relaxing after marketing audit

Show your credibility first…your solution can wait

Remember, you’re promoting your credibility…not your company or solution. You are showing (not telling) your domain expertise, and your awareness of current trends and their implications.

You are building credibility for yourself, which dovetails nicely with what you’re selling. To whom do buyers turn when they’re in-market? Credible people.

Next steps to an easy system for B2B content

Creating truly intriguing tech & SaaS content is not difficult. Think through this short exercise, jotting down a few bullet points.

 

  • Background: usually a recent trend in your industry, vertical or market space around this topic.
  • Current challenge: a tech or SaaS challenge is almost always framed around wasted effort and/or money. Or reducing headaches significantly.
  • Your experience: “we’ve seen this happen with some customers”.
  • Your recommendation: Consider taking these steps.

Example – content for IT professionals

Your firm sells file management software to certain verticals. Here’s how you would create a piece for an enterprise data storage audience.

Background: Industries using large volumes of rich data for complex workflows are growing petabytes of unstructured data, which must be stored and retrieved on demand. Industries like oil and gas, entertainment, life sciences, and software development. End users cannot access the files they need without engaging their IT departments. This leads to soaring storage and IT costs for those companies.

Challenge: Data storage costs are skyrocketing and overburdened IT staffs need a way to push file management down to the business user. Allowing end users to determine what, when and where to archive data for later retrieval will help migrate data to lower cost storage and save time and expense for IT teams.

Frustrate IT pro, used to illustrate article on easy system for B2B content.

Your Experience: Today, we are seeing interesting software solutions that solve this problem beautifully. With ROI focused architectures, these solutions are ideal for companies with complex workflows using rich data files.

Your Recommendation: Take a look at solutions that offer cloud file management across multiple storage locations. Create a bullet list that, of course, highlights your expertise without ever mentioning the name of your company or product.

 

What will be your content consumer’s conclusion?

There’s no longer a mandate for IT departments to keep adding costly near term storage. Nor is it necessary for IT teams to bear the labor brunt of mediating between business users of data and storage archives.

Offer your audience next steps:

  • review the number and types of requests IT has received from end users
  • estimate the costs of answering these requests
  • use a break-even model to see if a 3rd party solution could save money

With those simple bullet points you have an outline for an article. And you’re on the way to creating top tech or SaaS content marketing.

What’s next?

Once you’re happy with the bullet points it’s time to write the article or delegate to someone else. If you delegate make sure it’s someone with domain expertise! Otherwise, you’ll spend more time educating the creator than it may be worth.Cartoon Snoopy on top of his doghouse typing

For written posts aim for 1,000 to 1,500 words. That’s when search engines take your content seriously.

Next, look at what you’ve created and think of a headline that grabs attention and boosts SEO.

Potential headlines for this article could be:

  • Overwhelmed By Unstructured Data? Here’s Good Medicine.
  • Need Relief For Your IT People?
  • The Unstructured Data Tsunami. Here’s How To Manage.

Final thoughts

Finally, notice how easily this can be tailored for different verticals. With search-and-replace editing, you now have insightful content for:

  • life sciences
  • entertainment
  • oil & gas
  • software development

You also have a solid foundation for a video or podcast!

Mike Harris on BRX Business Radio

Mike Harris on BRX Business Radio

Mike Harris on BRX Business Radio

Nashville Tech Scene vs. Silicon Valley

Nashville, TN, is growing its tech scene fast, but Nashville tech companies still have a ways to go. Mike Harris compares on BRX Business Radio.

https://businessradiox.com/podcast/coachthecoach/harriscmopartners/

In this podcast interview, I offer perspective as a tech and SaaS Chief Marketing Officer who lived and worked in California for many years.

All of my work is with tech companies, then and now. And I’m always happy to work with Nashville tech companies.

I love living in Nashville and I am excited to see how much the tech scene is growing and improving.

This may be a good listen for Nashville’s tech community and regional development executives.

Bits, bytes and biscuits!

Why is Mike Harris on BRX Business Radio?

BRX hosts business podcasts in cities across the USA. They reached out to me after hearing another podcast I had done about SaaS Marketing Mastery.

Nashville Tech Companies, view of Nashville Tennessee.

Nashville Tech Companies

Nashville’s historic prosperity includes healthcare, banking and commercial real estate.

Today, Nashville tech companies are paving the way for a whole new generation of prosperity including jobs, talent and strong investments.

In this podcast, I talk about how Nashville has many of the ingredients necessary to grow its tech community but they need to add cohesiveness.