Focus Your Content Marketing with Steve Pockross
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
Release Date: 03/01/2021
What to Do If Your Brand Sucks with Ernie Harker
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“If you start off on the wrong foot and your brand isn't in line with the attitudes or personality of the brand, there's confusion.” Or, to put it bluntly, your brand sucks. That's the title of strategist Ernie Harker's new book. We discuss how to ... not build a brand that sucks this week on the On Brand podcast. About Ernie Harker is a creative branding mastermind. He recently published Your Brand Sucks, a book that reveals why most companies get branding wrong and reveals the secrets he has used to assist dozens of companies define a clear image and personality for their brands. One...
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Measuring Brand Dominance with Jonathan Tuttle
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“Good things take time to build.” In his work as Founding Director of the digital marketing agency Revenue Ascend, Jonathan Tuttle helps brands of all shapes and sizes build good things. How do you know if something in marketing is good? Measurement and ROI—and we spent a lot of time talking about best practices and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Jonathan Tuttle Jonathan Tuttle is the Founding Director of Revenue Ascend, a leading digital marketing agency based in Chicago. The firm is focused on driving new growth and generating measurable ROI. The agency was designed to...
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Building a Social-First Brand with David Brickley
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“People want to interact with people—not brands.” David Brickley has been helping brands interact with their people through his agency STN Digital and his two podcasts Business of Social and Entrepreneur Wrap. This week he joined me as a guest on my podcast to talk about how to build a social-first brand. About David Brickley After working with his first-ever client, Kobe Bryant, David Brickley used that as motivation to launch STN Digital in 2013, and has since grown an award-winning team of some of the best talent in the industry. STN Digital is an expert at launching brands and...
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The Art of Visual Storytelling with Dan Roam
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“We are profoundly visual creatures. We respond to what we see more than anything else.” Dan Roam has spent his career helping people master the art of visual communication and storytelling. His books from Back of the Napkin to his latest, The Pop-Up Pitch, help organizations and individuals put this system into action. I couldn't wait to discuss all of this with him this week on the On Brand podcast. About Dan Roam Dan Roam is the author of five international bestselling books on business-visualization and communication clarity. The Back of the Napkin was named by Fast Company, The...
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Choosing Your Customer with Jonathan Byrnes
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“In the old days, branding was a very broad thing. Today it's picking your spot.” Jonathan Byrnes knows a thing or two about building a profitable brand for the long haul. He's a Senior Lecturer at MIT, founding partner of Profit Isle, and the author of two books and numerous HBR articles. He's also my guest this week on the On Brand podcast. Enjoy! About Jonathan Byrnes Jonathan Byrnes is founding partner and chairman of Profit Isle, a highly successful MIT spin-off SaaS software company that helps organizations increase profits by 10–30 percent using its profitability analytics and...
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Qualitative Research in Branding with Duane Varan
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“A lot of the assumptions we make are bad assumptions.” When it comes to making assumptions, sometimes we marketers can't help ourselves. To avoid this, we need to ensure that we have a good mix of both quantitive and qualitative research. Dr. Duane Varan is a leader in the field of qualitative research and was my guest this week on the On Brand podcast. About Duane Varan is CEO of both MediaScience and HarkConnect. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Australian Prime Minister’s Award for University Teacher of the Year, and is a global pioneer in developing new...
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How Native Ads Build Better Brands with Dan Greenberg
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“If you can design triggers into the thing someone’s already doing, you make advertising even more impactful.” Expanding the definition of advertising to include more human-centric and respectful ideas has been at the heart of Dan Greenberg’s work as CEO and founder of Sharethrough and as a leader in the native advertising movement. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Dan Greenberg is the CEO and Founder of Sharethrough, the largest independent native advertising platform that powers in-feed native ads for publishers...
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What the Pandemic Means for Brands with Emmanuel Probst
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“The pandemic has forced brands to change the way they communicate and the way they operate.” As a research professor, author, and VP at Ipsos, Emmanuel Probst spends a lot of time studying, teaching, and writing about consumer behavior. His latest update to Brand Hacks provides brand builders with a useful compass for navigating the increasingly challenging world we find ourselves in. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. About Emmanuel Probst background combines over 15 years of market research and marketing experience with strong academic achievements....
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Why Conflict Is Critical in Storytelling with Norman Bell
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“Storytelling is in the air for business but why is that? Why is it so important?” These questions and more were at the very heart of my interview with Norman Bell, author of The Story Powered Speaker, this week on the On Brand podcast! About Norman Bell is a storytelling and presentation coach, award-winning speaker, theater and film actor, and author of the book, The Story Powered Speaker: How to Own the Stage, Enchant your Audience, and Grow Your Business Using the Magical Power of Storytelling. Norman is passionate about helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs and organizations...
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Branding Through Science and Story with Jenna Arkin
On Brand with Nick Westergaard
“Consumers seek authenticity and they’re getting better at weeding out the greenwashing the brands that don’t have the people, story, and heritage behind them.” As the Vice President of Innovation at green cleaning brand ECOS, Jenna Arkin’s work sits at the intersection between science and creativity. This week on the On Brand podcast, she joined us for a discussion on this innovative brand’s story, differentiation, communicating science, and more. About Jenna Arkin , Vice President of Innovation at ECOS, uses her unique background in both chemistry and design to innovate safer,...
info_outline“First, amplify what you’re doing really well and consider new channels. Second, if things aren’t going well you’ll need new channels!” This was Steve Pockross’s answer to my question about how marketers can know when new channels make sense to add. As CEO at Verblio, helping marketers focus their content marketing is the focus of his work. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast.
About Steve Pockross
Steve Pockross brings more than 20 years of startup, Fortune 500, and nonprofit experience to his role at Verblio. As CEO, he applies leading marketplace and SaaS principles to provide a high-quality, fast and flexible content creation platform. Steve was part of the early management team at gig economy pioneer LiveOps, growing the company into the largest crowdsourced contact center in the world. At LiveOps, Pockross served as vice president of business development and strategy, and also spearheaded the creation of the award-winning LiveOps Foundation. He also served in marketing, strategy, and operational leadership roles at Tendril, Western Union, Marketing Technologies Group, and HSBC.
Episode Highlights
How are content marketers juggling everything today? “I don’t know how.” But Steve knows how to help. “Be good at one thing and expand from there.” He credits Rand Fishkin’s T-shaped model in helping him do this.
Where can you focus your content marketing? “First, look at your audience and where they are. Then ask what they like. Finally, consider what you like talking about.”
On rebranding. Over the past few years, Steve worked through an extensive rebranding of Verblio. In working through the yearlong process, the branding consultant they worked with noted, “What I’m giving you—Verblio—is an empty vessel. You will infuse it with meaning.” Steve shared how they work to do this with a story bridging the gap (?) between Hubspot and Burning Man!
What brand has made Steve smile recently? “I’m going to go with Wistia again,” Steve came back to a favorite brand he’d discussed earlier in the show (we’ve had Chris Savage and Kristen Craft as guests on On Brand). Why the smiles? “Their clever customer service emails.”
To learn more, go to Verblio.com and check out their podcast.
As We Wrap …
Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.
On Brand is sponsored by my book Brand Now. Discover the seven dynamics to help your brand stand out in our crowded, distracted world. Order now and get special digital extras. Learn more.
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