Back in October of 2012, I had a very lengthy video chat with Mark McClure, who is a freelance white paper and case study writer based out of Japan. He wanted to get my opinion on content marketing and how it relates to the VAR world, but using video format instead of just trading e-mails. We worked out a time we could both be available to sync up and out of that, he was able to create 18 short videos of our conversation.
While the overall purpose of the talk was around content marketing, it dealt with a lot of general VAR topics as well. Here is a link to Mark’s post covering these videos, and I am also linking to each of these videos as well on this page. Please excuse the occasional gaps in audio. We were several thousand miles away from each other, and the Internet doesn’t always give you a reliable stream when separated by that kind of distance. Mark was kind enough to post transcripts of these videos on his site.
If you watch all the videos, and yes, there are 18 of them, you might hear some things you disagree with. You might also nod your head in agreement as well. In any event, I ended up watching a few of these videos tonight, and realized I never posted these on my blog.
Maybe there are some value in them if you live the VAR life, want to work for a VAR, or just want to hear one man’s opinion. This was a no fee chat, so I am not promoting these videos for any sort of monetary gain either.
The Videos
In the interest of giving proper credit, I should point out that the video descriptions are from Mark. Each video link will take you to his website where the transcripts are available in case any of the audio is not clear. I should also point out that I did enough talking to where my mouth was pretty dry, hence the various lip licking.
You’ll also hear him reference the post I wrote that led to this video chat. You can find that here: The Burden of Pre-Sales.
Video 01: Introduction (2m 5s)
This video explains what’s covered and introduces ‘content marketing’ in an IT Sales context
Video 02: Matthew Norwood Introduction (0m 26s)
Pre-Sales IT Engineer, Matthew Norwood, says hello.
Video 03: About Content Marketing (0m 53s)
An IT Sales Engineer’s definition of b2b content marketing.
Video 04: Buyer Personas (1m 22s)
How do ‘Buyer Personas’ in the IT VAR workspace?
Video 05: Prospect Education (4m 31s)
Are prospects and customer more educated in today’s Internet-enabled world than in the days of faxes and dead tree marketing?
Video 06: White Papers (1m 49s)
Matthew mentions the white papers he finds useful as a (technical) pre-Sales IT engineer.
Video 07: Case Studies (3m 29s)
How are case studies (aka ‘customer success stories’) of interest to IT VARs?
Video 08: Printed Versus Digital (2m 14s)
Why prospects rarely ask for or print out IT data sheets in a digital world?
Video 09: B2B Technology Conferences (2m 24s)
Tech conferences and lead generation – do they go together?
Video 10: The Pre-Sales IT VAR Experience (5m 58s)
Would you want to buy anything from someone who knows nothing about the product they’re selling, and even less about competitors’ products?
Video 11: HP and Content Marketing (7m 00s)
Discussing Hewlett Packard, content marketing, and the joys of design guides
Video 12: IT VARs and Content Marketing (2m 26s)
Corporate blogs, social media outreach, content marketing strategy – all the buzz words and more!
Video 13: Social Media (6m 17s)
Social media meets busy VAR staffers. And why is Twitter so useful?
Video 14: Social Media Censorship (4m 32s)
If your company’s blocking social media, watch this video.
Video 15: Millennials (3m 17s)
Are Millennials the generation pushing BYOD in the workplace?
Video 16: Corporate Blogging (2m 45s)
Why do so many corporate blogs bore visitors?
Video 17: Personal Brand Marketing (8m 57s)
Building a ‘personal platform’ online intentionally, or as a welcome by-product of connecting and sharing.
Video 18: B2B Video Case Studies (8m 57s)
Is video as a tool that can help get a tech vendor’s message across?
Closing Thoughts
What do you think? Anything you disagreed with? Do videos like these help any? I’m sure Mark would love to hear feedback from you as well.