by John Hall
Praise for
John Hall and Top of Mind
“John’s got his finger on something here—something important. Anyone interested in communicating effectively through content would do well to embrace the audience-centric approach outlined in Top of Mind.”
—ERIC HELLWEG, managing director at
Harvard Business Review
“Top of Mind is a critical and powerful tool to catapult yourself into relevance in a noisy, competitive world. Get it now, and leverage your content like never before.”
—JEFF HOFFMAN, cofounder of
Priceline and ColorJar
“With Top of Mind, John breaks down the last barriers between executives and content marketing. We accept that business is about relationships, and it’s time we embrace the fact that the right content at the right time can make those relationships (and your company) stronger.”
—EVAN GREENE, CMO of The Recording Academy
(The GRAMMYs)
“John Hall says that success ultimately comes down to creating meaningful relationships—in business and in life. I couldn’t agree more. Buy this book to get his prescription for exactly how to do it.”
—ANN HANDLEY, chief content officer of
MarketingProfs and author of Everybody Writes
“This is the playbook for how to make yourself memorable online. Top of Mind is useful, practical, and vital. Highly recommended!”
—JAY BAER, president of Convince & Convert
and author of Hug Your Haters
“An absolute must-read for any professional or company seeking to build influence and lead their industry.”
—Forbes.com
“Potential customers can’t do business with you if they don’t even know who you are. John Hall’s essential new book shows you how to powerfully connect with your audience, even in today’s crowded marketplace, so the right business opportunities come to you.”
—DORIE CLARK, author of
Reinventing You and Stand Out
“I am a longtime admirer of John’s knack for connecting people in meaningful—sometimes life- and career-changing—ways. The idea of ‘shifting from self to the people who matter’ is something he practices personally and professionally, so all ideas in the book are authentic and tested. Top of Mind contains John’s simple, yet powerful, secret to success. Readers will be grateful he shared it!”
—GINA McDUFFIE, CMO of VER
“Here it is, a business guide to engineering serendipity! Top of Mind is a relationship guide for the digital age. Whether you’re building a business or accelerating your career, John Hall’s clever concept and smart insight will transform the way you communicate. Move over, Mr. Carnegie; John Hall teaches anyone how to win friends and
influence people—at massive scale.”
—ANDREW M. DAVIS, founder of Monumental
Shift and author of Brandscaping
“Top of Mind is a must-read for any business professional who wants to understand how to break through the noisy and competitive landscape of today’s digital, social, and mobile world. As an innovative and successful entrepreneur, John Hall shows us how anyone in any type of business can use their existing knowledge and expertise to become top of mind, reach potential customers, and grow their business.”
—MICHAEL BRENNER, CEO of Marketing Insider
Group and author of The Content Formula
Copyright © 2017 by John Hall. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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To all the writers, editors, and other creatives
behind many of the best pieces of content
who don’t get the credit they deserve
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
1 HOW YOUR CONSUMERS ARE CHANGING
2 WHAT CONSUMERS ARE LOOKING FOR IN BRANDS THEY TRUST
3 BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS BY HELPING OTHERS
4 BEING TRANSPARENT AND LIKABLE
5 REMAINING CONSISTENT AND BOOSTING FAMILIARITY
6 BROADCASTING YOUR MESSAGE THROUGH CONTENT
7 MY JOURNEY
8 THE GOLDEN RULE OF COMMUNICATION
9 BEYOND THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT
10 POPULATING ALL STAGES OF THE CONSUMER JOURNEY THROUGH STRATEGIC DISTRIBUTION
RESOURCE LIBRARY
NOTES
INDEX
FOREWORD
ONE OF MY business heroes is Professor Don Schultz at Northwestern University. I was introduced to Don’s work when I first began my career in the publishing industry nearly 20 years ago. When most marketers and thought leaders were talking about the 4Ps as critical to marketing, Don was talking about one thing: communication as differentiation.
Professor Schultz—known today as the father of integrate
d marketing—said that our competitors can copy everything we do as an organization: they can copy our products, our services, our processes. The only thing they can’t copy is how we communicate.
Just think about that for a second. In my journeys, the majority of enterprises I meet with are focusing on everything BUT their communications. In this age of massive technological change in which artificial intelligence and instant communication are becoming the norm, those few companies that communicate valuable, consistent information in an authentic manner win.
It really is that simple.
Sure, I love to read books about automation and new ways to segment and target an audience, but if it doesn’t lead to a behavior change in that audience, it’s all for nothing. This is the exact reason why you need to take this book and hold it tight against you (I’m not kidding).
So before you crack this baby open and change your stars, consider these questions:
Am I delivering real value to my customers every day outside the products and services that I offer?
Do I understand the real needs and pain points of my customers and prospects?
If my customers are having a significant problem, would they think of and contact me first?
Do my customers like and trust me?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, this book will be a refresher. But in my experience, less than 1 percent of all companies can answer these questions in the affirmative. Take all the other marketing BS away and these are the questions that really matter. Make getting to “yes” on these questions a priority.
How are you delivering real, tangible value to your customers in how you communicate? That’s what matters … now and 50 years from now.
Just remember, people don’t care about your products and services; they care about their needs. If you can’t have a conversation with them about their pain points, you’ll never get them to consistently buy from you.
Start that conversation today by diving into this book. I promise you it will change your stars forever.
JOE PULIZZI
Founder of the Content Marketing Institute
Bestselling author of Epic Content Marketing and Content Inc.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BEN LOSMAN, YOU are truly one of the most talented writers with a creative mind who expertly shapes words to tell a more engaging story.
To the amazing team of women who helped edit and craft this book to be the best version it could be:
Nickie Bartels
Natalie Slyman
Taylor Oster
Kelsey Meyer
Casey Ebro
To my family and friends, I believe you are at your best when you surround yourself with amazing people in your personal and professional life. I can honestly say that I am truly blessed.
INTRODUCTION
YOU’RE SITTING AT your desk when, for some reason, you find yourself thinking about your best friend from fifth grade. You realize that it’s been years since you last spoke. Just as you begin tripping down memory lane, feeling guilty about losing touch with someone who was, at one time, so important to you, an e-mail arrives in your inbox. The first lines read:
Hey, I know this might sound weird, but I was just sitting here at work when you popped into my mind out of nowhere. I can’t believe it’s been so long! How’ve you been since fifth grade?
I don’t care how jaded or cynical you are—when you’re randomly thinking about someone and that person’s name suddenly materializes in your inbox, you’re going to experience a moment of childlike wonder. For a full second or two after that e-mail appears, you’ll contemplate whether you can control space-time with your mind. (Once you realize how ridiculous that sounds, you’ll focus on more plausible questions, such as whether you’re being Inceptioned.)
As humans, we’re fascinated by coincidences like this one because they are filled with possibility. Carl Jung believed that such moments of synchronicity reveal hidden truths about the universe. Others interpret coincidence through the lens of religion, spirituality, or science. Even the most skeptical interpretation—that an unexpected yet meaningful occurrence merely represents a statistical improbability—is still based on the desire to find an explanation.
When the person you’re thinking of suddenly appears, is it a message from the universe? Or is it simply random chance?
I have no idea. What I do know is that there is tremendous potential in the statement “Oh, my God! I was just thinking of you!”
In fact, most of my success in business—and in life—hinges on that phrase and the magical feeling that comes with it. Because if you can get the right people to think of you at the right times, you can accomplish great things.
We process an incredible amount of information every second. So many of our judgments and decisions, from the strategic to the mundane, come down to the information we can call to our conscious minds in an instant. By ensuring that you are top of mind among the people in your networks making those important decisions, you are positioning yourself for success.
For example, let’s say you run a software development company. If potential clients are already thinking about you at the moment they begin looking for a vendor that can deliver software that meets their needs, you are at a distinct competitive advantage. Unlike competing companies that are trying to cut through the noise and the clutter and the trust barriers that slow down sales and partnerships, you are already on top of the potential clients’ mind—and that’s powerful.
It isn’t enough to come to their mind as just another vendor, though. You want them to view you as a partner and a resource that they value and trust. And there, at the intersection of timing and trust, is your opportunity to influence decision makers.
Apply this scenario to current and potential partners, investors, media contacts, and employees. Imagine the impact that widespread top-of-mind status can have on your growth.
In this book, you’ll learn how to engage and position yourself on top of the minds of the people who matter most—so that whenever opportunity arises, they’ll already be thinking of you.
Not long ago, I sent an e-mail to the CEO of a midmarket firm wishing him a happy Thanksgiving. This wasn’t someone I knew particularly well—he and I had met only once, and we had never had a real conversation—but within half an hour, I’d received a reply.
“John, total coincidence. I was literally just thinking about you. My team and I are about to discuss the keynote for our conference next year, and I think you should be the speaker. Interested?”
Strange, right? Was this the universe itself endorsing me as a candidate for this conference’s keynote speaker? Maybe. I mean, after all, the only thing I did to elicit an invitation was wish him a happy Thanksgiving.
But my “Happy Thanksgiving” e-mail didn’t really come from out of the blue. I had sent this man personal greetings on every public holiday for more than a year; this was simply the first time he had responded.
Later, I discovered that he was a regular reader of my Forbes column on leadership, content marketing, and online PR—and he was especially fond of the article in which I named his company’s conference as one of the most important of the year. And, finally, he had actually seen me speak a few months earlier at a different conference.
Over time, my diverse branding efforts had helped me make my way to the top of his mind. That’s not to imply that every time he closed his eyes, he saw my face. (And, truthfully, I probably wouldn’t accept an invitation from such an individual.)
In all seriousness, he probably wasn’t even aware that he had been thinking about me. I imagine it went something more like this: Picture his brain as an office. Because he had regularly been seeing my name attached to things he liked (my columns, the conference speech I gave, and genuine holiday greetings), I wasn’t tucked away in a folder at the bottom of some dark subconscious filing cabinet; I was at the very top of a pile of memories that lay just beneath his conscious mind. When it came time to do the
mental work of finding a keynote speaker for his conference, I was one of the easiest memories to retrieve.
See? Nothing as mysterious as the forces of the universe; nothing as manipulative as Inception. All I had to do was be myself and treat him in a way that I’d want to be treated, and everything fell into place.
Sure, this is a simple example, but it represents the essence of this book—as well as my entire business and personal philosophy. I’ve learned that when you make life better for other people and treat them with respect, they appreciate you. And because they appreciate you, they think about you. Cultivate appreciation, and it becomes opportunity.
In this book, you’ll learn how to create opportunity for yourself personally and professionally by developing top-of-mind status among those who matter most to you.
Chapters 1 and 2 describe the major shifts in today’s consumer landscape and why a top-of-mind strategy is essential for achieving competitive advantage for any audience. Chapters 3 through 5 explain how to build an authentic, transparent, and consistent personal brand that serves others just as well as it serves you—because if your brand isn’t genuine, it’s a liability. And in Chapters 6 through 10, you’ll learn how to enrich the lives of your target audience, whoever it’s made up of, through high-quality digital content that builds trust and creates meaningful human connections between your brand and the world.
Through years of experience practicing this philosophy, I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to become top of mind, and I’ve come to rely on content to help me scale my efforts.
You can practice any number of tactics with a top-of-mind mindset, such as your personal interactions or one-on-one communications with different members of your audience. But these habits aren’t scalable. You have only so much time in a day or a week or a year, and you can be in only one place at a time. You cannot possibly interact personally with each individual member of your audience with whom you’d like to build trust. It’s just not physically possible.