Steal These Ideas from Influencer Platform Traackr
Plus the Broetry of LinkedIn
Hello Gobbledeers,
A small favor I’ll ask from time to time: Although a bunch of people seem to refer to this as “your blog,” it has none of the benefits of a blog - which is to say, it’s a newsletter and, unlike a blog, I get virtually no organic traffic. In other words, none of the benefits of a blog and all of the drawbacks. Awesome.
Without any organic traffic the only way people join the hundreds of people who have already subscribed to this is to hear about it through referrals. If you know anyone who would find Gobbledy useful (or would hate it so much that they’d hate-read it), I’d very, very much appreciate if you shared.
OK, enough begging for today.
The Broetry of LinkedIn
I’ve noticed that my own LinkedIn feed has been infested with what I’ve heard is called “Broetry.” Long-ish posts, with one sentence per line. Maybe 90% written by a guy. Seems like guys in their 20s write them and the lesson is that you need to just put in the work, man! #crushit #hustle. Guys in their 30s write them and the lesson is that life is more than just work, tho it then oddly ties back to being about work.
The Content Marketing Institute people put out a primer on this format, calling it “bizarre, business-oriented free verse”:
Like every third post on my feed is one of these. And maybe half of them are of the “I’ve been so busy that I just realized that actually spending time with my children is an important activity during my day, and I’d like to share that with you and get a pat on the back for it and also the same goes for marketing attribution.” And obviously those are all written by men. Duh.
I’ve written my own here:
I find we don’t take the time to apologize to those we care about.
Our family.
Our friends.
Our coworkers.
Our clients.
I was doing the most important thing I’ve ever done today.
I was with my 3 year old at the playground.
No phone.
No Slack.
And he came up to me and said,
“Daddy, I’m sorry you couldn’t attend the marketing team offsite because you were at the playground.”
It was a great lesson for the office - Who should you apologize to today?
Any great examples of Broetry you care to share?
LinkedIn, Part 2
If we learned last week that Gartner is patient zero of gobbledy, then I realized this week that LinkedIn is the Conde Nast of gobbledy - a publishing house with the highest, most impressive nonsense found anywhere.
I’m removing names from these examples because I like being hired to do projects and I don’t like never working again.
First up - I liked this request to help fill an open role:
So it’s a Chief of Staff role that you’re going to pay like an Executive Assistant? Hm, let me see who I have in my network who has no sense of self worth.
Meanwhile, nobody is more maligned these days than CEOs, which is why I’m so happy that somebody in my feed was willing to go out there and speak up for a group that never gets any credit:
WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CEOs????????????
I’ve read this maybe, I dunno, 37 times and each time I’m struck by “in almost all cases.” Almost.
Main Story: 2 Ideas You Can Steal
Traackr - although it sounds like a Dutch DJ - is an influencer marketing platform, and if you’ve ever searched for an influencer marketing platform you know that it’s a crowded space full of companies that all pretty much sound the same. If you haven’t looked for one, you’ll just have to trust me on that (which would make me an influencer…my head is spinning.)
When skimming through the websites of various providers, you’ll have a tough time deciding whether you want to “build more valuable brands through the power of creator partnerships” or “Tell a better brand story & drive more revenue from influencers” or “[reach] your goals with influencer programs” or “[empower] Ecommerce Brands to Succeed” or other gobbledy.
Traackr takes a different approach and does two things that I wanted to point out, so that you can take these ideas and steal them, then pass them off as your own, then leave your job and get a better one, which will ultimately prove no more satisfying than the job you left, and you’ll be thinking about whether you should just move to the country and open that ice cream shop you’ve always been talking about.
Just about every SaaS company has one of these on their website:
And because everyone has that, it’s accomplishes nothing. I’ve always wondered why those logos aren’t clickable, and why don’t they direct you to a case study on those brands.
And, in turn, you might be wondering, “Wait, don’t you do this for a living? Why the hell don’t YOU do this and stop telling us what to do?” And to that I answer, “That is a fair point.”
Traackr has one of those logo blocks, but they cleverly include mini case studies on the homepage for some of their key clients:
It’s a fantastic use of the home page - The headline makes it clear what the client was trying to achieve. The quote from the CMO mentions the benefits of the platform. And the little block below that ties that benefit both to outcomes (sold out of two product lines & became #1 skincare brand on TikTok) and to specific functionality (Campaign Management) within the platform.
The other case studies on the homepage do the same thing - the headline is written with the benefits achieved and the name of the client - “Gain visibility & align with agency partners like the team at Colgate-Palmolive” and “Choose impactful influencers & prove ROI like the team at Media Bounty.”
Every software company should do this - link the logos to case studies on the homepage.
And in these case studies always tie the benefits to specific functionality within the platform, not just the platform as a whole. Seems obvious, but I never see it done this way.
I’m sure the problem is that these companies are including logos where they don’t have a case study. My recommendation - don’t use those logos. Use the logos where you have case studies. Use the headlines to call out the benefit and the client.
The second piece I wanted to point out was their Beauty Leaderboard:
One never-ending struggle for software companies is how to show the value you provide before getting someone to sign up. When a company doesn’t offer a free trial, it’ll often offer a white paper or report as a way to show that they know what they’re doing. But your buyers aren’t morons**, and they know that those reports are (usually?) self-serving nonsense. I mean, not the ones I’ve been involved with creating, obviously. But all the others.
(** If I had only one piece of advice for software marketers, it’s to put up a giant poster on the (virtual) wall of the (virtual) office that says “Our buyers aren’t morons.” So much software marketing treats buyers like they’re morons - like they’re not capable of doing any research outside of reading a white paper; like suggesting that the massive, once-in-a-lifetime global supply chain clusterf—- would be solved if only they bought a new order management solution. If your product is good, you don’t need to oversell it. Tell people why it’s good FOR THEM and why it’s better than the alternative. Overselling is offensive to buyers. They’re not morons.)
Traackr has taken a different approach, using the data they’re collecting to let prospects search for their own brand and see how its influencer program stacks up versus the competition. It updates monthly, so prospects will either come back or (as you see on the right in the image above, right where I unprofessionally cropped it) sign up to get an email with the new rankings when they’re released.
Kinda brilliant, no?
As you’re taking advantage of the lovely late spring weather, maybe take a second and think about what you could provide to prospects that both gives them value and shows the unique capabilities of your platform.
(Hint: Everyone loves benchmarks.)
I know I said Trackrr did 2 things I wanted to point out. But this newsletter is (ostensibly?) about language, and they do something pretty unusual for a software company: they write long copy blocks, while still being compelling and being specific about how they’re differentiated:
I also like that there’s a clear voice in the copy - a little casual (“Sure…”), but also clear about the product differentiators. It’s easy enough to get cute with your copy, but it’s far more challenging to be cute with the copy while also being clear about the value you’re providing.
Nice job here by DJ Traackr.
Readers’ Corner
Thanks to reader Amy B. for passing along this clear-as-day explanation from crypto-ville:
What a treat to find this today! Thank you for featuring Traackr -- the team (one of which is actual a DJ) appreciates the kind words very much. As a writer at heart, this means even more!
Apology accepted