July 19, 2023 • 18 mins
Ever feel like your digital marketing efforts are scattered all over the place? I'm here to share a groundbreaking concept called marketing containers that will revolutionize your approach to content marketing, enhancing your strategies and optimizing your resources. Encapsulating my professional experiences and insights, I'll reveal why these containers are the future of strategic marketing and how they connect with my fifth book and the SES framework I introduced to you in episode #326.
Let's shape your marketing campaigns and overall operations in a more organized, strategic way with marketing containers. I'll guide you on creating these containers and subcontainers, helping you prioritize your digital marketing activities and increase efficiency. I'll illustrate this with an example of content buckets - a unique way to create containers for each product and its associated keywords for SEO, PPC, content creation, and social media ads. And here's a fun challenge: come up with your own marketing container strategy and you might just get a shoutout in my upcoming book! Get ready to streamline, strategize, and supersize your marketing success!
Learn More:
- Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon
- Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon
- Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/
- Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo
- Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/
- Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
- All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
With so much to do in digital content, influencer,
social media marketing, how doyou know when to stop?
How do you know where to stop?
How do you know if what you aredoing, you should be doing or
you should stop doing it?
I want to give you some advicefrom my upcoming book on the
concept of marketing containers.
(00:21):
I'm going to introduce this forthe very first time on this
next episode of the DigitalMarketing Coach Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Digital social media content, influencer marketing,
blogging, podcasting, vlogging,tick-tocking, linkedin, twitter,
facebook, instagram, youtube,seo, sem, ppc, email marketing
there's a lot to cover.
Whether you're a marketingprofessional, entrepreneur or
business owner, you need someoneyou can rely on for expert
(00:52):
advice.
Good thing you've got Neil onyour side, because Neil Schaefer
is your digital marketing coach, helping you grow your business
with Digital First Marketing,one episode at a time.
This is your Digital MarketingCoach and this is Neil Schaefer.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Hey everybody, this is Neil Schaefer, your Digital
Marketing Coach, and welcome toepisode number 328 of this
podcast.
If you are new here, thispodcast has 50% guest interviews
with experts, authors, peoplethat I know you're going to
learn from because I'm learningfrom as well as well as solo
episodes sharing my experiencesand work both as a fractional
(01:42):
CMO and as the founder of theDigital Entrepreneur Mastermind
Group, digital First.
You can find out more about myservices in joining this group,
because we do currently have anopening at neilschaefercom slash
CMO or slash membership.
But, as I said in my lastepisode, number 326, where I
(02:02):
introduced the SES framework, Iwant to dig a little bit deeper
into some core concepts that Iwant to teach in my next
upcoming book.
In fact, as you listen to thisepisode, I am actually in Berlin
, germany, meeting with mydevelopmental editor to really
well create my own containersfor the book, and that's one of
(02:26):
the reasons I'm recording this,because I know it's going to
help me better containeverything in the book.
Because, as you know, withdigital there is so much you can
do.
Now, if you're a hugeorganization with huge resources
, lots of budget, lots of people, you can throw this at
everybody and just sit back andmeasure and optimize.
But if you are a smallerbusiness or have more limited
(02:47):
resources, you really need toknow where to strategize, and
this is where I would like tointroduce to you today this
concept of containers.
I would say we need containersin life in general, but I think
we need them especially when itcomes to marketing and
especially when it comes to allthings digital marketing.
So let me explain where thisconcept came from and put
(03:11):
yourself in my shoes.
As a fractional CMO, I work withorganizations of a lot of
different sizes, but I tend towork with companies that don't
have a sophisticated marketingdepartment.
They're normally smallercompanies, small business owners
, startup business owners,entrepreneurs but they work with
me because they want asophisticated, modern, optimized
(03:32):
marketing infrastructure.
Yesterday and we know, you know, rome wasn't built in a day,
and this is where my concept ofcontainers comes in.
Now, this concept actuallycomes from two anecdotes from my
own professional history onebefore social media, one after
(03:53):
social media, the one before andI might have mentioned it
somewhere along the discourse ofthese few hundred podcast
episodes, but when I worked forWind River, which is an embedded
software company that is nowowned by Intel.
Well, intel bought them out afew decades ago.
Actually, one of my mentors wasa vice president of business
development at the headquartersin Alameda, california, named
(04:15):
Kurt Shacker.
I really don't know whathappened to Kurt after that.
I heard he went to Israel.
Never heard from him afterwards.
But anyway, at our bigquarterly corporate event he
went to the whiteboard and hesaid look everybody, and there
were a few hundred people in theroom and we were talking
strategy for the next fiscalyear.
And he says from my perspective, it's almost equally important
(04:36):
to decide what doesn't go into astrategy, then to decide what
does go in.
In other words, if we candecide what is not strategic, it
makes it a lot easier for us tounderstand what is strategic
and to manage that going forward.
And I love, love, love thatanalogy and I've kept it to my
heart even today.
You know this meeting wasprobably 20 years ago but it's
(04:58):
still deep in my memories andreally in my DNA as a marketing
professional.
The other anecdote really isn'tan anecdote.
I am writing my fifth book.
My fourth book actually cameout about 10 years ago, called
Maximize your social, and inthat book I introduced the
concept that I'm sure you'veheard others talk about since
then.
I don't know if I was the first, I never heard of it before.
(05:19):
I wrote about it but theconcept of content buckets I use
this concept.
I often use it in my teachings,but with clients as well.
Let's put all of our content inthe buckets, separated by
categories, products, and thenlet's measure each of those
buckets, manage them separatelyand then optimize according to
buckets.
So, as I create more contentfor my upcoming fifth book and
(05:43):
as a follow-up to my previoussolo episode, number 326, which,
if you haven't listened to I Ialmost recommend you listen to
that first.
But it was all about this SESframework and I think that this
concept of containers actuallygoes hand-in-hand with that
framework.
So I want to better definethese containers and better
understand how useful they canbe for your marketing.
(06:05):
And yes, there will be homeworkat the end of this episode and
it won't be a long episodeeither, because part of my
writing this book is I really,really want to simplify and dumb
down all of this overly complexdigital marketing stuff,
because it doesn't have to bethat complex, all right.
So the SES framework Is anexample of creating one big
(06:26):
container, this framework.
Let's consider it a containerand then we're pulling three
smaller containers inside themthe search, the email and social
and that Everything we do indigital has to fit into one of
those three things.
In this way, we can decide whatwe need to do and if something
is not included in thosecontainers, we can determine if
(06:48):
it is or it is not part of ourstrategic efforts.
If it is, we need to create acontainer for it.
So, for instance, the SESframework is pure digital, so it
doesn't include traditionalmarketing.
For instance, physical eventsFor B2B companies.
Physical events are huge, right, great way to generate leads,
especially before COVID, but Ithink they're on the return now.
(07:11):
So there's an obvious overlaphere, because when you promote
these events, you are going tobe using email and obviously you
are doing the event to generateleads, which you're also going
to be using email for as well,so the event becomes a lead
magnet.
You also have the S, which youwant to make social media a huge
part of what you do, and thisincludes influencer marketing in
(07:31):
terms of your speakers who youinvite to attend, et cetera, et
cetera.
So, physical events there'sthis obvious overlap with the E
and the S.
But if physical events generate50% of your leads and 25% of
your sales, then you might wantto have an SESE framework, right
?
Or SESE set of containers whereE becomes a fourth container
(07:51):
because it's that strategic.
If it's not that strategic, thenit's not going to have its own
container and it's only going tobe used as a way to generate
more leads, for your email, togrow your list and more activity
, more engagement withinfluencers right, and therefore
it lacks the strategicinitiative because it doesn't
have its own container.
So if you make a container forevery important part of your
(08:15):
strategy, then you want to makesure you contain both budget and
activity within it.
If someone wants to dosomething outside of it, you
need to push back, because partof a strategy is also deciding
what not to do.
If there is no place for it inthe container, then you
shouldn't be doing it.
If there's no budget for it,then obviously you shouldn't be
(08:35):
doing it as well, because youneed to be focusing on why you
created that container in thefirst place.
Now, containers can be veryinclusive as well.
If SES for social media andInstagram threads comes along,
then yes, that's part of the S,so it can be inclusive if new
things come along, as long asit's within those containers
Like, where does crypto fit?
(08:56):
Where does web three fit?
Where does NFT fit?
And this is sort of thestruggle that I had and that
many had, with how to includethat in your marketing.
You're not creating a containerfor a new technology.
We're not creating a containerfor AI, but obviously AI is
gonna help us throughout our SESframework.
It is not a strategy of initself and a lot of people get
(09:16):
obsessed with AI.
In fact, someone mentioned whenI published on my LinkedIn this
SES Framework podcast episode.
Someone said hey, neal, are yougonna create an AI prompt to
create an SES framework for acompany?
And I said for me, first of all, I don't wanna become a prompt
engineer and that would requireme to create a separate product,
(09:37):
a separate tool.
But for me, it's less about theengine.
I'll hire a mechanic to work onthe engine.
I am worried more about whereI'm gonna go and how I'm gonna
get there, if that makes sense.
So I don't like to get lost inthe weeds and AI is a great
example where you could get lostin the weeds and it urge you
not to.
Okay, that was a littledigression, but I think it's
important and very timelybecause there's just so much
(09:59):
talk about AI.
I think it's cooled down alittle bit, but we're seeing a
new group of not early adoptersbut mass market begin to adopt
it and have new questions aboutit.
So it is starting to mature asquickly as it really emerged on
the scene with chatGPT and GPT-3.
All right.
So containers also allows tobetter prioritize our actions.
(10:20):
Once we know the limits of whatwe are trying to achieve.
It is a finite number of thingswe can do and we can get a
better grip on our activities.
Once again.
I created this concept becausethere's so much you can do in
digital.
Let's decide what we're gonnado, put it in containers and
then prioritize amongst thecontainers right.
In the same way, we can createsubcontainers for each container
(10:44):
to further strategize.
In such a way, you can see how,for instance, a paid social
container, which is part of thesocial container so a paid
social subcontainer, mightinclude subcontainers for each
social network, ad camp, adplatform right.
And then each campaign mightbecome its own subcontainer that
(11:05):
subcontainer but if you followthis instruction I know it
sounds complex I think if youput it down on paper and you
drew lines between containersand subcontainers.
The whole idea is you are goingto get a 360 degree look into
all of your marketing activitiesand your group of containers
and subcontainers and mine aregoing to look different.
The only thing that might bethe same is the SES containers
(11:28):
and maybe some of the largersubcontainers within them.
But if you're B2C, if you'reB2B, if you focus more on
organic influencer marketing andTikTok versus paid Facebook and
Instagram ads, obviously thesubcontainers are going to be
different, but it's within thesame S container, right?
So another way of usingcontainers is the same way as
using content buckets acontainer for each product and
(11:51):
associated keywords for SEO, payper click, content creation,
social media ads, et cetera.
Now I have a client that hasmaybe 20 different products.
What are the money makers, whatare the ones that we want to
strategically push, and that'sonly great containers for those,
so that we do not have any paidmedia or content creation
(12:11):
around those other products thatare not strategic right now,
right?
So once you've decided on thepriority, the strategic
importance of each product, youcan prioritize on keywords and
then all of the digitalmarketing activities to follow
within these containers.
So in such a way, you canfunnel all of your digital and
content and influence and socialmedia marketing efforts into
(12:33):
containers and subcontainers.
It's almost like these, likeLego building blocks, right, but
the Lego world is finite.
Assuming that you just buy oneLego set, it's just within that
box.
And that's what I want you toremember here, and you want to
make sure that all of youractivities are aligned with a
container, and if not, you arewasting your time in budget,
(12:54):
unless you make this strategicdecision to create a new
container for it, like theexample, physical events.
So in this case, you will haveto figure out which containers
whatever thing you knew thatdoesn't fit in it, what should
it reside in and whatsubcontainers it might have if
it needs them.
So I know that this might soundcomplex, but the idea behind
(13:14):
these containers is to makesense of all the things that are
possible and to contain themwithin walls, within barriers,
within silos, so you understandwhat is necessary and therefore
you can both strategize andoptimize and apply budget and
resources container by container.
So by placing walls around allthese various activities in this
(13:35):
analogy that I call container,you can better strategize,
manage and ultimately measurethe effectiveness of every
dollar spent for each container,whether it be for an internal
resource and agency expense orpaid media spend.
So let me ask you what are yourstrategic containers?
Assuming you bought into my SESframework of search email
(13:59):
social, what are your bigsubcontainers within each of
those?
Is it by product?
Is it by strategic keywordbased on customer personas?
Well, that's your homework andyou know what.
If you were to illustrate whatyour containers and
subcontainers look like, I'dlove to see them and maybe I'll
(14:20):
feature them in my new book.
You can send them to me, neilat neilshaffercom.
You should know how to spell myname by now, but it's N-E-A-L.
I am the real Neil atneilshaffer-s-c-h-a-f-e-rcom.
I would love to get feedbackand in fact, I really want to
make you my podcast listener.
That is investing 10, 15, 20.
(14:41):
And when I do some interviews30, 35, 40, 45, even an hour you
know 60 minutes of your timeinto this relationship.
I really want you to becomepart of this new book and I want
to feature you.
I want to feature your casestudies, your success, but it
starts with this homework thatI'm giving you right now.
So, if you're up for it, I willgive you feedback for free and
(15:01):
maybe, if I'm really compelledby what I see.
We can get a Zoom call, I'llgive you some free consulting
and maybe that'll become part ofmy book.
So this is my very first attemptat explaining this concept.
See, I need to now geteverything out of my head on the
paper and the developmentaleditor helps me create my own
containers and define whatcontainers that I should have in
(15:24):
this book.
For instance, I've already beenshopping the book idea around a
few publishers and one of thepublishers says hey, you don't
have a chapter in your table ofcontents about mobile marketing.
To me, everything is mobilefirst.
Digital first marketing is alsomobile first marketing because
that's how we use digital mediatoday.
So I don't need a dedicatedchapter about it because it's
(15:45):
included in everything that wedo right as marketers.
So therefore, that is one piece, one container that I decided
not to include.
It's not even a subcontainerbecause it's just an integral
part of everything.
So that concept of containersis giving me tremendous help to
make my own writing effectiveand to keep me in my lane for
(16:07):
each of these containers that Ineed to deliver to you so that
you can better understand thisapproach that I have to digital
first marketing.
So I hope this makes sense andI would love your feedback,
whether you feel it hits themark or it doesn't.
And, obviously, if you writethe homework, please I would
love to see it and if you needhelp writing it, I'd love to
give you that help.
So if you're up for it, let meknow.
(16:27):
Let's get on a call.
Well, I'm gonna be in Berlinwhen you hear this, so you might
have to wait a week or two, butwe'd love to see your work.
Oh, everybody, that's it forthis episode of your digital
marketing coach podcast.
As you can tell by my offer tohelp, my DNA is really helping.
You know, I have one particularfractional CMO client.
They lack some resources.
(16:48):
I'm going around interviewingpeople with different technical
and different capabilities thatthis company can add to their
team, and when I talked to oneperson today who's a Shopify
developer and I said this client, this agency, just left a lot
of bad blood, can you believewhat happened here?
And I just wanna help them.
And the Shopify developer saidyou know what, neil, I'm the
(17:10):
exact same.
I just wanna help businesses, Ijust wanna help people.
That is what drives me, that ismy DNA, that is what fuels me,
that gets me passionate when youcan't see me waving my arms
around as I'm doing right now infront of the microphone.
That is my driving factor forwhy I do the podcast, and I
would love to know if this ishelped to you and if you feel
that this concept of containerscan help you.
(17:31):
But you want a little bit of myhelp.
Please reach out to me.
Once again, neil atNeilShaffercom.
Until the next episode, this isyour digital marketing coach,
neil Shaffer, signing off.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
You've been listening to your digital marketing coach
.
Questions, comments, requests,links.
Go to podcastneilshaffercom.
Get the show notes to this and200 plus podcast episodes at
neilshaffercom to tap into the400 plus blog posts that Neil
has published to support yourbusiness.
(18:04):
While you're there, check outNeil's digital first group
coaching membership community Ifyou or your business needs a
little helping hand.
See you next time on yourdigital marketing coach.
With so much to do in digital content, influencer,
social media marketing, how doyou know when to stop?
How do you know where to stop?
How do you know if what you aredoing, you should be doing or
you should stop doing it?
I want to give you some advicefrom my upcoming book on the
concept of marketing containers.
(00:21):
I'm going to introduce this forthe very first time on this
next episode of the DigitalMarketing Coach Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Digital social media content, influencer marketing,
blogging, podcasting, vlogging,tick-tocking, linkedin, twitter,
facebook, instagram, youtube,seo, sem, ppc, email marketing
there's a lot to cover.
Whether you're a marketingprofessional, entrepreneur or
business owner, you need someoneyou can rely on for expert
(00:52):
advice.
Good thing you've got Neil onyour side, because Neil Schaefer
is your digital marketing coach, helping you grow your business
with Digital First Marketing,one episode at a time.
This is your Digital MarketingCoach and this is Neil Schaefer.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Hey everybody, this is Neil Schaefer, your Digital
Marketing Coach, and welcome toepisode number 328 of this
podcast.
If you are new here, thispodcast has 50% guest interviews
with experts, authors, peoplethat I know you're going to
learn from because I'm learningfrom as well as well as solo
episodes sharing my experiencesand work both as a fractional
(01:42):
CMO and as the founder of theDigital Entrepreneur Mastermind
Group, digital First.
You can find out more about myservices in joining this group,
because we do currently have anopening at neilschaefercom slash
CMO or slash membership.
But, as I said in my lastepisode, number 326, where I
(02:02):
introduced the SES framework, Iwant to dig a little bit deeper
into some core concepts that Iwant to teach in my next
upcoming book.
In fact, as you listen to thisepisode, I am actually in Berlin
, germany, meeting with mydevelopmental editor to really
well create my own containersfor the book, and that's one of
(02:26):
the reasons I'm recording this,because I know it's going to
help me better containeverything in the book.
Because, as you know, withdigital there is so much you can
do.
Now, if you're a hugeorganization with huge resources
, lots of budget, lots of people, you can throw this at
everybody and just sit back andmeasure and optimize.
But if you are a smallerbusiness or have more limited
(02:47):
resources, you really need toknow where to strategize, and
this is where I would like tointroduce to you today this
concept of containers.
I would say we need containersin life in general, but I think
we need them especially when itcomes to marketing and
especially when it comes to allthings digital marketing.
So let me explain where thisconcept came from and put
(03:11):
yourself in my shoes.
As a fractional CMO, I work withorganizations of a lot of
different sizes, but I tend towork with companies that don't
have a sophisticated marketingdepartment.
They're normally smallercompanies, small business owners
, startup business owners,entrepreneurs but they work with
me because they want asophisticated, modern, optimized
(03:32):
marketing infrastructure.
Yesterday and we know, you know, rome wasn't built in a day,
and this is where my concept ofcontainers comes in.
Now, this concept actuallycomes from two anecdotes from my
own professional history onebefore social media, one after
(03:53):
social media, the one before andI might have mentioned it
somewhere along the discourse ofthese few hundred podcast
episodes, but when I worked forWind River, which is an embedded
software company that is nowowned by Intel.
Well, intel bought them out afew decades ago.
Actually, one of my mentors wasa vice president of business
development at the headquartersin Alameda, california, named
(04:15):
Kurt Shacker.
I really don't know whathappened to Kurt after that.
I heard he went to Israel.
Never heard from him afterwards.
But anyway, at our bigquarterly corporate event he
went to the whiteboard and hesaid look everybody, and there
were a few hundred people in theroom and we were talking
strategy for the next fiscalyear.
And he says from my perspective, it's almost equally important
(04:36):
to decide what doesn't go into astrategy, then to decide what
does go in.
In other words, if we candecide what is not strategic, it
makes it a lot easier for us tounderstand what is strategic
and to manage that going forward.
And I love, love, love thatanalogy and I've kept it to my
heart even today.
You know this meeting wasprobably 20 years ago but it's
(04:58):
still deep in my memories andreally in my DNA as a marketing
professional.
The other anecdote really isn'tan anecdote.
I am writing my fifth book.
My fourth book actually cameout about 10 years ago, called
Maximize your social, and inthat book I introduced the
concept that I'm sure you'veheard others talk about since
then.
I don't know if I was the first, I never heard of it before.
(05:19):
I wrote about it but theconcept of content buckets I use
this concept.
I often use it in my teachings,but with clients as well.
Let's put all of our content inthe buckets, separated by
categories, products, and thenlet's measure each of those
buckets, manage them separatelyand then optimize according to
buckets.
So, as I create more contentfor my upcoming fifth book and
(05:43):
as a follow-up to my previoussolo episode, number 326, which,
if you haven't listened to I Ialmost recommend you listen to
that first.
But it was all about this SESframework and I think that this
concept of containers actuallygoes hand-in-hand with that
framework.
So I want to better definethese containers and better
understand how useful they canbe for your marketing.
(06:05):
And yes, there will be homeworkat the end of this episode and
it won't be a long episodeeither, because part of my
writing this book is I really,really want to simplify and dumb
down all of this overly complexdigital marketing stuff,
because it doesn't have to bethat complex, all right.
So the SES framework Is anexample of creating one big
(06:26):
container, this framework.
Let's consider it a containerand then we're pulling three
smaller containers inside themthe search, the email and social
and that Everything we do indigital has to fit into one of
those three things.
In this way, we can decide whatwe need to do and if something
is not included in thosecontainers, we can determine if
(06:48):
it is or it is not part of ourstrategic efforts.
If it is, we need to create acontainer for it.
So, for instance, the SESframework is pure digital, so it
doesn't include traditionalmarketing.
For instance, physical eventsFor B2B companies.
Physical events are huge, right, great way to generate leads,
especially before COVID, but Ithink they're on the return now.
(07:11):
So there's an obvious overlaphere, because when you promote
these events, you are going tobe using email and obviously you
are doing the event to generateleads, which you're also going
to be using email for as well,so the event becomes a lead
magnet.
You also have the S, which youwant to make social media a huge
part of what you do, and thisincludes influencer marketing in
(07:31):
terms of your speakers who youinvite to attend, et cetera, et
cetera.
So, physical events there'sthis obvious overlap with the E
and the S.
But if physical events generate50% of your leads and 25% of
your sales, then you might wantto have an SESE framework, right
?
Or SESE set of containers whereE becomes a fourth container
(07:51):
because it's that strategic.
If it's not that strategic, thenit's not going to have its own
container and it's only going tobe used as a way to generate
more leads, for your email, togrow your list and more activity
, more engagement withinfluencers right, and therefore
it lacks the strategicinitiative because it doesn't
have its own container.
So if you make a container forevery important part of your
(08:15):
strategy, then you want to makesure you contain both budget and
activity within it.
If someone wants to dosomething outside of it, you
need to push back, because partof a strategy is also deciding
what not to do.
If there is no place for it inthe container, then you
shouldn't be doing it.
If there's no budget for it,then obviously you shouldn't be
(08:35):
doing it as well, because youneed to be focusing on why you
created that container in thefirst place.
Now, containers can be veryinclusive as well.
If SES for social media andInstagram threads comes along,
then yes, that's part of the S,so it can be inclusive if new
things come along, as long asit's within those containers
Like, where does crypto fit?
(08:56):
Where does web three fit?
Where does NFT fit?
And this is sort of thestruggle that I had and that
many had, with how to includethat in your marketing.
You're not creating a containerfor a new technology.
We're not creating a containerfor AI, but obviously AI is
gonna help us throughout our SESframework.
It is not a strategy of initself and a lot of people get
(09:16):
obsessed with AI.
In fact, someone mentioned whenI published on my LinkedIn this
SES Framework podcast episode.
Someone said hey, neal, are yougonna create an AI prompt to
create an SES framework for acompany?
And I said for me, first of all, I don't wanna become a prompt
engineer and that would requireme to create a separate product,
(09:37):
a separate tool.
But for me, it's less about theengine.
I'll hire a mechanic to work onthe engine.
I am worried more about whereI'm gonna go and how I'm gonna
get there, if that makes sense.
So I don't like to get lost inthe weeds and AI is a great
example where you could get lostin the weeds and it urge you
not to.
Okay, that was a littledigression, but I think it's
important and very timelybecause there's just so much
(09:59):
talk about AI.
I think it's cooled down alittle bit, but we're seeing a
new group of not early adoptersbut mass market begin to adopt
it and have new questions aboutit.
So it is starting to mature asquickly as it really emerged on
the scene with chatGPT and GPT-3.
All right.
So containers also allows tobetter prioritize our actions.
(10:20):
Once we know the limits of whatwe are trying to achieve.
It is a finite number of thingswe can do and we can get a
better grip on our activities.
Once again.
I created this concept becausethere's so much you can do in
digital.
Let's decide what we're gonnado, put it in containers and
then prioritize amongst thecontainers right.
In the same way, we can createsubcontainers for each container
(10:44):
to further strategize.
In such a way, you can see how,for instance, a paid social
container, which is part of thesocial container so a paid
social subcontainer, mightinclude subcontainers for each
social network, ad camp, adplatform right.
And then each campaign mightbecome its own subcontainer that
(11:05):
subcontainer but if you followthis instruction I know it
sounds complex I think if youput it down on paper and you
drew lines between containersand subcontainers.
The whole idea is you are goingto get a 360 degree look into
all of your marketing activitiesand your group of containers
and subcontainers and mine aregoing to look different.
The only thing that might bethe same is the SES containers
(11:28):
and maybe some of the largersubcontainers within them.
But if you're B2C, if you'reB2B, if you focus more on
organic influencer marketing andTikTok versus paid Facebook and
Instagram ads, obviously thesubcontainers are going to be
different, but it's within thesame S container, right?
So another way of usingcontainers is the same way as
using content buckets acontainer for each product and
(11:51):
associated keywords for SEO, payper click, content creation,
social media ads, et cetera.
Now I have a client that hasmaybe 20 different products.
What are the money makers, whatare the ones that we want to
strategically push, and that'sonly great containers for those,
so that we do not have any paidmedia or content creation
(12:11):
around those other products thatare not strategic right now,
right?
So once you've decided on thepriority, the strategic
importance of each product, youcan prioritize on keywords and
then all of the digitalmarketing activities to follow
within these containers.
So in such a way, you canfunnel all of your digital and
content and influence and socialmedia marketing efforts into
(12:33):
containers and subcontainers.
It's almost like these, likeLego building blocks, right, but
the Lego world is finite.
Assuming that you just buy oneLego set, it's just within that
box.
And that's what I want you toremember here, and you want to
make sure that all of youractivities are aligned with a
container, and if not, you arewasting your time in budget,
(12:54):
unless you make this strategicdecision to create a new
container for it, like theexample, physical events.
So in this case, you will haveto figure out which containers
whatever thing you knew thatdoesn't fit in it, what should
it reside in and whatsubcontainers it might have if
it needs them.
So I know that this might soundcomplex, but the idea behind
(13:14):
these containers is to makesense of all the things that are
possible and to contain themwithin walls, within barriers,
within silos, so you understandwhat is necessary and therefore
you can both strategize andoptimize and apply budget and
resources container by container.
So by placing walls around allthese various activities in this
(13:35):
analogy that I call container,you can better strategize,
manage and ultimately measurethe effectiveness of every
dollar spent for each container,whether it be for an internal
resource and agency expense orpaid media spend.
So let me ask you what are yourstrategic containers?
Assuming you bought into my SESframework of search email
(13:59):
social, what are your bigsubcontainers within each of
those?
Is it by product?
Is it by strategic keywordbased on customer personas?
Well, that's your homework andyou know what.
If you were to illustrate whatyour containers and
subcontainers look like, I'dlove to see them and maybe I'll
(14:20):
feature them in my new book.
You can send them to me, neilat neilshaffercom.
You should know how to spell myname by now, but it's N-E-A-L.
I am the real Neil atneilshaffer-s-c-h-a-f-e-rcom.
I would love to get feedbackand in fact, I really want to
make you my podcast listener.
That is investing 10, 15, 20.
(14:41):
And when I do some interviews30, 35, 40, 45, even an hour you
know 60 minutes of your timeinto this relationship.
I really want you to becomepart of this new book and I want
to feature you.
I want to feature your casestudies, your success, but it
starts with this homework thatI'm giving you right now.
So, if you're up for it, I willgive you feedback for free and
(15:01):
maybe, if I'm really compelledby what I see.
We can get a Zoom call, I'llgive you some free consulting
and maybe that'll become part ofmy book.
So this is my very first attemptat explaining this concept.
See, I need to now geteverything out of my head on the
paper and the developmentaleditor helps me create my own
containers and define whatcontainers that I should have in
(15:24):
this book.
For instance, I've already beenshopping the book idea around a
few publishers and one of thepublishers says hey, you don't
have a chapter in your table ofcontents about mobile marketing.
To me, everything is mobilefirst.
Digital first marketing is alsomobile first marketing because
that's how we use digital mediatoday.
So I don't need a dedicatedchapter about it because it's
(15:45):
included in everything that wedo right as marketers.
So therefore, that is one piece, one container that I decided
not to include.
It's not even a subcontainerbecause it's just an integral
part of everything.
So that concept of containersis giving me tremendous help to
make my own writing effectiveand to keep me in my lane for
(16:07):
each of these containers that Ineed to deliver to you so that
you can better understand thisapproach that I have to digital
first marketing.
So I hope this makes sense andI would love your feedback,
whether you feel it hits themark or it doesn't.
And, obviously, if you writethe homework, please I would
love to see it and if you needhelp writing it, I'd love to
give you that help.
So if you're up for it, let meknow.
(16:27):
Let's get on a call.
Well, I'm gonna be in Berlinwhen you hear this, so you might
have to wait a week or two, butwe'd love to see your work.
Oh, everybody, that's it forthis episode of your digital
marketing coach podcast.
As you can tell by my offer tohelp, my DNA is really helping.
You know, I have one particularfractional CMO client.
They lack some resources.
(16:48):
I'm going around interviewingpeople with different technical
and different capabilities thatthis company can add to their
team, and when I talked to oneperson today who's a Shopify
developer and I said this client, this agency, just left a lot
of bad blood, can you believewhat happened here?
And I just wanna help them.
And the Shopify developer saidyou know what, neil, I'm the
(17:10):
exact same.
I just wanna help businesses, Ijust wanna help people.
That is what drives me, that ismy DNA, that is what fuels me,
that gets me passionate when youcan't see me waving my arms
around as I'm doing right now infront of the microphone.
That is my driving factor forwhy I do the podcast, and I
would love to know if this ishelped to you and if you feel
that this concept of containerscan help you.
(17:31):
But you want a little bit of myhelp.
Please reach out to me.
Once again, neil atNeilShaffercom.
Until the next episode, this isyour digital marketing coach,
neil Shaffer, signing off.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
You've been listening to your digital marketing coach
.
Questions, comments, requests,links.
Go to podcastneilshaffercom.
Get the show notes to this and200 plus podcast episodes at
neilshaffercom to tap into the400 plus blog posts that Neil
has published to support yourbusiness.
(18:04):
While you're there, check outNeil's digital first group
coaching membership community Ifyou or your business needs a
little helping hand.
See you next time on yourdigital marketing coach.
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