Chris Brogan is the president of Chris Brogan Media, offering business storytelling and marketing advisory help for mid to larger-sized companies. Chris is a sought after keynote speaker and the New York Times bestselling author of nine books and counting
Mr. Brogan has spoken for or consulted with the biggest brands you know, including Disney, Coke, Google, GM, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker, Titleist, Scotts, Humana Health, Cisco, Sony USA, and many more.
Forbes listed Chris as one of the Must Follow Marketing Minds of 2014, plus listed his website as one of the 100 best websites for entrepreneurs. Statsocial rated Chris the #3 power influencer online.
1. Chris, as an influencer in digital transformation, what do you think are the biggest challenges for business when it comes to evolving from traditional marketing practices to modern practices? Because some companies tend to cling onto the traditional practices and cannot quite comprehend when a transition is to be made.
I feel like companies keep misunderstanding that digital is another kind of real life. Online isn’t some weird another world. More so, it’s some people’s preferred channel, and so if companies treat it like a chore or something they give to their nephew to manage, they’re missing out on where the lion’s share of customer experience opportunities are happening.
2. Other than the outbound or inbound sales, what is the other sales techniques a product engineering company or similar company should use in acquiring their potential clients?
Sales professionals have so much freely available information now that people willingly post it all over Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and elsewhere. If you wanted to sell to me, you can Google “Chris Brogan” and find mountains of information to help warm up an otherwise cold call. Further, a salesperson always loves a good piece of marketing material to share with a customer. Why settle for a white paper or a brochure when you could have a video, or an interview series with happy customers, and on and on. Amazing content marketing opportunities definitely make for great sales products.
3. Based on your expertise, what are the different social media platforms that a services company should focus on to reach out to their audience?
There’s no particular social media platform that’s better than others. People mistakenly feel that because LinkedIn focuses on business, it’s the one. But no. Plenty of prospects come from Twitter and Facebook also. Companies need to consider a YouTube presence. YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world. Is your product or service represented there? There’s so much opportunity.
4. Over the years a lot has changed, do you think the advancements in digital marketing, such as the budding and existing social networking platforms have made us more or less social?
How humans interact is so much different than before social networks. Here’s one of my favorite examples: if I’m on a business trip and I’m at a Marriott in downtown Houston, before social networks, I had basically my phone contacts as my only potential way to meet potential prospects or partners while on the trip. With social, I can search for people on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and try to drum up a few more meetings while I’m in town.
5. Will you be visiting CES 2020? Do you think it’s a platform for product engineering companies to broaden their brand? What do those companies have to focus on at the event?
I’m missing CES2020, but the event is a very viable place for engineering companies to attend if they have a consumer-facing product. The “C” is for consumers, so something massive in the B2B space doesn’t often get a lot of visual coverage. At the event, you have to realize that CES2020 has become a media event more than a buyer event. The goal is to get the story out there, told well, and in a way that brings people further along the chain.
6. How can companies that don’t have a Trade Show Booth, market to an audience at the show? What are the strategies you would suggest they use prior to the show such that they meet their potential audience at the show or brand themselves better in CES without a booth. Also, what social media strategies should they adopt?
Similar to my Houston story above, I’d say scour Twitter ahead of time and look for media people who are going and see if you can set up a demo time. The whole goal is to get more demos and coverage. Check Instagram as well. Less likely, LinkedIn.
Thank you Chris! We are especially grateful to receive such knowledgeable insights & information about Digital Transformation. But most of all, Thank you for being a part of our interview series, looking forward to more such eventful collaborations!
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Ricky : is a content strategist, who has an unparalleled dedication to building productive and engaging website content that attracts traffic and increase search engine rankings. If not typing furiously on his keyboard, Ricky is constantly learning ways to enhance search traffic acquisitions
