Episode Summary
With innovations in technology, companies now have access to a global talent pool. This enables them to hire the best professionals to build new and exciting products. But, when everything is available to everyone (undoubtedly the best thing ever), it becomes challenging for businesses to stand out in competitive markets.
Therefore, companies must focus on marketing and create content that will differentiate them from companies offering similar products or services. That’s when competitive intelligence comes to the forefront.
In this episode of Rep Your Brand, Patrick Wall, the head of competitive intelligence at Imperva, joins our host Nick Bennett to discuss competitive intelligence and its role in MarTech. The two discuss content creation and what it takes for a marketer to incorporate competitive intelligence in their work. They also talk about why we should respect our competitors and the benefits of encouraging employees to build their personal brands.
Guest Profile
- Name: Patrick Wall
- What he does: Patrick is the head of competitive intelligence at Imperva.
- Company: Imperva
- Noteworthy: Patrick is on a mission to bring competitive intelligence closer to companies and pave the path for future competitive intelligence professionals.
Key Insights
- Create content to show prospects why they should choose you. Competitive intelligence is not as widespread as other roles, and few companies have departments specializing in this area. However, most companies have content creators in their marketing teams, who can also work on competitive intelligence. Patrick explains it and shares advice on how content and competitive intelligence intersect. ''When you're building content, whether ebooks or podcasts or anything else of that nature, you need to infuse it with differentiation. So when they (customers) are reading your datasheet or looking at the webinar, they understand, 'Okay, this is why I chose you.' [...] And sometimes they don't even realize that they're reading the differentiation, and that's powerful.''
- Creating content to build a personal brand and promote the company you work for. There's an ongoing discussion about whether employees should work on their personal brands and how it could harm the company they are employed at. However, like most of our guests, Patrick agrees that encouraging employees to work on their online presence and build a network also contributes to your company's growth. For instance, Patrick is active on LinkedIn and creates content for two reasons. ''I want to give back to the community. I didn't know about competitive intelligence years ago. So I want to give back to the community and build the next leaders of competitive intelligence in the next ten years. [...] When anyone builds content, they have to think about things like, 'Hey, I work for a company. So I need to make sure that my content is for my company and also for myself.'''
- If you think of personal branding as storytelling, competitive intelligence is the accompanying illustration. Content creators on a mission to build a personal brand use stories and anecdotes that their audience can resonate with and find value in. So, a personal brand is the “what” and competitive intelligence is the “why.” ''You can read all these great story books, but what makes it great are the graphics and the images; it's showing the differentiation. It's making people understand: 'Hey, there's a reason why you want to do this and look into this; what's your return on investment and value.'''
Episode Highlights
How Competitive Intelligence Plays Into MarTech
”Competitive Intelligence (CI) is seeing a revolution. There are so many more CI roles, and it’s because products are so much harder to differentiate.
It’s so easy to build a product. There are so many new technologies. And so, competitive intelligence is seeing a new boom.
And I think, within marketing, it’s huge. You have to be able to show your differentiation on your website, materials, messaging, and webinars so that people understand why you’re different and why it’s worth investing in your product over the other 10–15 products out there.”
We Need Competitors Because, Without Them, We Don’t Have a Market. So We Need to Respect Each Other
”There are a lot of people who want to crush competitors. [But] a rising tide floats all boats, so I think you need to respect your competitors. And that’s another thing […] you can learn from your competitors as well. […] Learn what they do well and where they’re falling and learn from that.”
Helping People and Giving Back to the Community Can Be Your Differentiator
”You never know who you’re going to meet and how you’re going to meet. Someone you’re helping now could be the next CMO of a massive company. And I think one of the other things is like a competitive guy — it makes you more competitive in the market.
When you build that brand and help people out, it’s giving you a differentiation. So then people are saying, ‘Why am I talking to Nick? Why am I talking to Pat? Why am I spending 30 minutes on Rep Your Brand?’ It gives you differentiation because time is the biggest competitor for us.”
