Creating a Content Community: Q&A With nDash’s Co-Founder & VP of Marketing & Community

What’s it like to build a community-based SaaS platform that focuses on creating top-notch content -- yet is also scalable? We spoke with Michael Brown and Matt Solar, the Co-Founder and VP of Marketing & Community at nDash, to learn more about their recent endeavors and visions for what’s to come in the rapidly evolving world of content marketing.

Boston Content: Tell us about nDash! Who do you help and what kinds of problems do you solve?

Michael Brown: nDash.co is a SaaS platform for marketers and agencies that want to scale the content creation process with true subject matter experts. Readers today can spot a fluff piece a mile away, so we’re trying to help brands publish authoritative content, and that can only come from writers with in-depth knowledge of a particular industry. Conversely, we’re also helping talented freelance writers earn multiple times more than they would at a content mill. 

BC: How was the company founded?

Michael: I left Applause (then uTest) in 2013 and started a content marketing agency, which grew from a one-person shop to a full-service, 10-person team in a little under two years. As we grew, the demands of our clients became too much for our in-house writers—in terms of both bandwidth and complexity. One of the biggest challenges was keeping up with the diverse expertise of our customer roster. It’s impossible to have a writer with a deep knowledge of all verticals, so I needed to find a way to cover a broad set of clients -- B2B vs. B2C, clients in entertainment and cyber-security… just massive diversity. Ultimately, we needed to find a way to scale both in terms of volume and specialization.

Having seen firsthand how the successful the crowd-based model can be, we pivoted the company focus and launched the nDash.co community-based SaaS platform that you see today.

Michael Brown, Co-Founder of nDash

BC: How are you doing? (Latest company milestones, etc.)

Michael: So far so good! It’s been just over a year since we launched the platform at HubSpot’s 2016 Inbound conference. Since then we’ve gotten great traction from brands all over the globe, as well as some Boston-based ones like DataDog, AppNeta, Mautic, and ThriveHive to name a few. The community recently surpassed the 5K mark. We’ve added new people to the team, including my former colleague Matt Solar. And lastly, we were named a finalist for the Boston MassChallenge accelerator program. It’s been a fun and eventful year!

BC: What are the top 3 trends you’re seeing in content and marketing?  

Michael: A few years back, the term “content fatigue” gained a lot of traction, but it was mostly used in reference to readers. Now it’s all about content fatigue in marketers. They’re exhausted—and it’s not all about the writing. As more content gets published, it gets harder and harder to find interesting content angles, so they’re burnt out from all of it – the writing, the research, the edits, the cadence, the ideation…the list goes on.

In response, marketers are starting to more closely align their operations to that of leading publishers. They’re realizing that content cannot be a one-person or even a one-department job – that just like the NYT, HuffPo and other publications, content needs to come from a larger network of contributors in order to stay fresh on a consistent basis.

Matt Solar: Relationships win. Despite a surge in AI and bots, I think you’ll see a lot of success for the companies that embrace some of the “old-fashioned” methods of success, namely real customer success and support. There’s a reason why LL Bean has beaten Amazon for customer support for a few years in a row. I think you’ll continue to see marketing teams increasingly embrace customer service as an extension of the brand. Some notorious ISPs have sullied the customer service practice and companies will, hopefully, revert to view customer service as a positive experience and opportunity to create a stark raving fan for your brand. Marketers will need to reflect this in the voice of their content -- regardless of its format.

Matt Solar, nDash's VP of Marketing & Community

Michael: Instagram and Pinterest have launched the category of “influencer marketing” and validated the importance of the personal brand -- phrases we’re waiting to hear uttered on Silicon Valley. Twitter, Medium, and LinkedIn have encouraged people to leverage and even quantify in the form of followers, their subject matter expertise. Nobody, yet, has addressed this opportunity for content marketing, and I predict you’ll see some jostling for this space in the next few years.

BC: What’s the best advice you can give to content writers?

Matt: First, focus on quality. We have no interest in competing on price with content mills, so the differentiation needs to be in speed (e.g. content turnaround time) and quality. Second, don’t be afraid to pitch companies! Do some research and put together a relevant, topical, and/or timely concept (again: focus on quality). When you pitch, don’t sell yourself short when pricing your content. Buyers in any market use price as an early data point and it can impact their perception of the value of the product. As Benjamin Franklin wrote, “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

BC: What’s the best advice you can give to companies related to content?

Matt: Kissmetrics recently shared a great post, “How to Outperform Sites Ranking Above You on Search Engines”. In it, they wrote that the takeaway is, “You need to produce better content for the end user than the person above you.” I’d recommend companies be cognizant of their strategy and how it balances quantity, which has diminishing returns, and quality. The strategy doesn’t need to be a zero-sum game, meaning it doesn’t need to be quality or quantity, but you should at least be executing deliberately.

We’ve seen success, both as a company and as a viewer to our customer's campaigns, of sourcing the content creation to the nDash community and focusing their internal teams on more strategic initiatives, such as building more holistic marketing campaigns across marketing and sales, and more personalized efforts for targeted accounts. We put together a content pricing guide, “What Every Marketer Needs to Know About Paying Freelancers” as a resource for getting started.

 BC: nDash hasn’t taken any outside funding to date. What has driven that decision and do you envision that will change?

Michael: We simply haven’t needed it as we were able to bootstrap getting a product to market. We’ve been approached in the past and it’s a topic we’ve started discussing internally, but I need more certainty around how we’d leverage the investment and the ROI model and assumptions before we’d move forward.

BC: What’s next for nDash?

Michael: Our mission is to build a product and brand that marketers and writers love. As part of that, we focus on the user experience throughout the lifecycle -- not in the form of adding fancy tech bells and whistles for the sake of challenging our engineering team, but a simple, clean UI through to internal processes and team support. While we do some data analysis around user behaviors the majority of product features come as a result of user feedback derived from real conversations, much like those that Boston Content is helping to facilitate.

BC: Anything else you’d like to share?

Matt: Thank you for letting us participate! We’re really excited to have the opportunity to be part of BosCon’s new growth. There’s so much fragmentation in marketing across tools, responsibilities, and internet resources that it’s great to have a centralized source where so many influencers can leverage each other’s knowledge. We had a great time at the November 28th event, and I know the entire nDash team is already ready for the next one.

nDash.co provides content creation software & services to the world’s leading brands and agencies. Visit nDash.co today to sign up for free and start building your content community.

3 Ways to Find Your Voice in Your Writing

Kaite Rosa is Senior Director of Content Marketing at Payfactors. With more than a decade of professional writing experience, Kaite has held content-focused roles at Boston-area companies including Virgin Pulse, Lionbridge, and Brafton. She has also reported for Boston-based online publication VentureFizz, and New York City-based online publications Mobile Marketer and Luxury Daily. Follow her on Twitter @kaiterosa.

Voice. It’s one of those concepts that can be especially hard for some writers to establish -- particularly when the voice you’re trying to establish is your own.

If you ask me, voice is something that’s difficult to master because we spend years writing five paragraph essays and academic research reports. Those reports are then graded by teachers high on the power of their red pens: teachers who tear through our work, X-ing out any inkling of voice or creativity in the name of academia.

Unless you were blessed with a lucky teacher or two who helped cultivate your voice as a writer, you probably spent 12-plus years stripping any and all voice right out of your writing.

But here’s the thing: a strong voice is what sets great writers and great copy apart. Establish your own tone -- I mean really nail your personal writing style -- and you immediately separate your writing from 90 percent of the garbage out there.

Ok, so we can probably all agree that a solid personal voice is a must. But how do you actually figure yours out?

1. Throw conventions out the window.

All that five paragraph essay nonsense you learned in eighth grade? Forget it. (Well, most of it.)

Sure, there are rules in writing. And some you’ve absolutely got to follow. (Like citing your sources -- always do that. Because plagiarism? Not OK.)

But, at least in my book, most of the ones we learned in grade school are made to be broken. Your blog posts don’t need to include an intro, thesis, and conclusion that reframes the key points your content covers. Contractions are totally OK to use (encouraged, in fact). And while peppering in the kinds of vocab words you only encounter in scientific research publications might have earned you extra points in college, it’s not going to make your content any stronger today. In fact, it’ll do the opposite.

See, when you’re writing for a broad audience with a variety of personas (like the one you’re targeting with that lifestyle blog or the one your software startup is marketing to), it’s essential that you convey your message in the simplest way possible.

That doesn’t mean you need to dumb things down.

It just means you need to write like you’d speak. Be direct. Use active, engaging language. Make your point in as few words as possible. And avoid corporate jargon, which can not only feel stuffy, but can bog your content down and make it difficult for readers to follow.

Do all this and you’ll not only make your content stronger and easier to understand, but you’ll also let your voice shine through in the most authentic way possible.

2. Do some character work.

Early in my career, I worked at a marketing agency where I helped businesses develop and execute their content marketing strategies. My favorite part of that role was helping new clients identify their brand style and voice -- something that many of my customers hadn’t thought about before.

“If your brand was a person, who would it be?” I’d ask. “How would she describe herself? What qualities would he have? What would your brand read on the weekends?”

One of my favorite answers came from a company that was trying to reinvent itself to engage millennials. My client had clearly thought deeply about the question, because they said, “We’re savvy. We’re experts in our industry, probably the smartest guy in the room, and we’ll tell you everything we know in a way that makes you feel smart, too. But, while everyone else is wearing suits and ties, we’re in shorts and flip flops.”

That answer blew my hair back. I remember thinking, “YES!! These people get. it.”

Like it or not, you’re a brand. And you need to identify the qualities you want to convey. Start by thinking about some key attributes you want associated with your writing. Do you want to sound academic, or should reading your copy feel like we’re catching up over your kitchen table? Are you buttoned up, or is your style more laid-back?

Jot down how you want readers to perceive you, and then hold yourself and your writing to those qualities.

3. Find your fire.

In college, I wrote a weekly column for my student newspaper. When it was first assigned to me, I seriously struggled. I had this newfound freedom to write about whatever I wanted! In whatever style I wanted!

But I was totally lost on how to do it. I kept trying to apply an unbiased, journalistic voice to my writing (the same one I wrote my five paragraph essays in), mainly because I didn’t know any other way to write. And it just. didn’t. work.

Every week, I’d try to contain my real voice, keep it closeted away and out of my content. And the more I did, the more I hated that damn column. Until one week, when a topic had me really heated. I was so up in arms that I sat down at my laptop and spent a solid hour typing exactly what was in my head on that subject.

The closet door busted open and my voice – my raw, unfiltered, really real voice – came bounding out. That was the first week where my column actually resonated with people. I know because I had students coming up to me in the cafeteria and in between classes to talk about what I wrote.

Later on, my editor at that paper helped me identify what made the column work.

“It reads like how you sound,” she said. “It’s like we’re sitting across from each other having a cup of coffee. And that’s what people want! They want to connect with the real you.”

However you go about establishing your own voice and letting it shine in your writing, this is what it really boils down to: A strong voice isn’t boring. A strong voice has personality and reflects your passion. It exudes that “something different” that makes your reader feel things, makes them think, and – above all else – makes them want to keep reading.

BLURRED LINES: What Native Advertising Means for the Future of Content

Liz Joyce has led content and marketing strategy and produced stories for brands, non-profits, and the public sector. She’s particularly interested in exploring the intersection of marketing content and media consumption. Send her a note if you are, too.

Apple is late to the game. That’s a sentence that you don’t read a lot.

In the wake of companies like Amazon and Netflix, the revered brand announced this summer that it’s jumping on the original programming bandwagon.

Essentially, this is content strategy. Original programming and other entertainment-skewed content reflects both historical television marketing strategies and the rise in native advertising across channels, from newspapers to podcasts.

We’ve come full circle: Inbound marketing is meeting editorial, fully blurring brand and message.  

Branded content is the first step, but how can we leverage these conditions in-house? We don’t have to produce high-production television shows, but we can more effectively blend editorial, entertainment-style narratives with marketing content.

Read on for five powerful lessons we can learn from what native advertisers already know -- from brands on the cutting edge of editorial marketing.

Lesson 1: Start with what you and your audience both care about.

You want to share content that relates to what’s important to your brand, but this has to overlap with what’s important to your audience. Through annual research, American Express OPEN was able to identify an emerging concern from its small business customers — an insight that became the impetus for Small Business Saturday. Mike O’Toole, president of PJA Advertising, explained how American Express successfully aligned its own story with customers’ interests:

““In their 2009 survey of small business needs, American Express found for the first time that business owners were putting promotion — help with driving business — at the top of their list. While small businesses are a huge customer segment for the company, the genesis of Small Business Saturday was about helping small retailers succeed, not opening more accounts. Small Business Saturday was not inconsistent with the company’s commercial interest — just much bigger and broader than that interest. We can all make parallels in our own markets if we look beyond the transaction to find the bigger points of alignment with our customers.””

Lesson 2: Clearly define your goal.

This is an obvious one, but always worth repeating.

Are you trying to reach new audiences and build awareness? Differentiate? Position your brand as a thought leader? Generate leads? Increase engagement? The ultimate goal of your content should be the north star that guides every decision, from message to medium.

PJA Advertising serves up another great example here. For client Red Hat, the goal was to build reputation. The solution was creating The Enterprisers Project, a “content and conversation platform” where visionary CIOs can share and discuss transformative IT business topics and ideas, supported by the editorial credibility of CIO Magazine and Harvard Business Review. With a light “supported by Red Hat” in the corner, the website acts as its own publication, serving highly relevant content for Red Hat’s target audience without pushing its products.

Lesson 3: Put the brand in the back seat.

“Show, don’t tell” is an age-old storytelling strategy. To effectively convey your message, you have to be comfortable with putting brand and product out of the spotlight. Your content will transmit as more authentic and, by extension, be more shareable. For Small Business Saturday, American Express positioned itself as the “founding partner” as opposed to owner, helping the concept spread as an organic movement which was eventually even adopted by U.S. congress.

Lesson 4: Think beyond the blog post.

Your goal and audience will help define the medium of your content, but be open to trying new formats. Branded content offers a treasure trove of inspiration here (thanks to Melanie Deziel’s Overlap League newsletter for some of these and endless other great examples!).

A New York Times piece with method offers some engagement throughout a written piece by integrating photos and responsive graphics. In an interactive from the Washington Post and Siemens, you can guide yourself through two 3D illustrated scenarios demonstrating the fallout from cyberattacks. When Bank of America’s (BoA) data showed that millennials weren’t equipped with the know-how to plan for their future, the company decided to sponsor a YouTube series, The Business of Life. Each short episode follows a talk show format and brings together experts to discuss topics in plain language, from dealing with student debt to the economy of video games. The series is present on BoA’s website, but officially produced and distributed by VICE Media, a go-to trusted outlet for its target audience. The campaign also involved a partnership with Pinterest.

Lesson 5: Have an opinion.

A piece of content that’s able to change the way an audience thinks about or perceives an issue drives more engagement, and is much more memorable. Be sure what you’re creating resonates with, represents, and builds your brand’s unique voice.

Launched off the success of its long-running True Beauty campaign — and its hallmark Sketches video — Dove is expanding its messaging and content that challenges conventional perceptions of beauty by partnering with Creative Director Shonda Rhimes to create Real Beauty Productions.

The Future of Content

We’re in a really interesting time. Brands are setting themselves up as “trusted” sources for both entertainment and information.

The nature of today’s digital media consumption makes this a ripe opportunity for content creators. Social media has made much of content gathering source agnostic, and further, according to Edelman’s Annual Trust Barometer, consumers trust businesses more than the government and the media.

Brands are well-positioned to reliably deliver editorial content, but we’ll still have to continue to ask ourselves: Where is the line between ethical informational vs. biased persuasion and promotion?

The Weight of Your Words: How to Get Paid What You’re Worth in Content Marketing

Shannon K. Murphy is a Content Marketing Strategist with 10 years of content and publishing experience, based in Boston. When she’s not teaching tech companies how to craft a cohesive strategy around personable, human content, she hones her improv chops, photographs the world, and innovates in the kitchen. Learn more on @shannonkmurphy or at LinkedIn.

Remember those carefree days of college? Hanging out on the quad during a delicious spring day feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin?

Some people pine for those lazy, laid back afternoons. Not I. Back then, I couldn’t wait to get out into the “real world” and start working. I wanted money, and I wanted clips. While in journalism school, I couldn’t help but wonder, how far could I have climbed the rungs of a publication in the four years I spent earning a degree? I felt like I was wasting time.

That sense of urgency hasn't left me. And in that way, I've always been passionate about career advocacy and advancement: learning new skills, seeking out mentors, networking at conferences. That’s why recently, when I came across the 2018 Marketing Salary Guide, which put the median salary of a web content manager at $52,000, I felt compelled to offer (unsolicited) advice.

Source: MarketingProfs

Let’s examine additional salary data:

• Bloggers make $45,000 to $70,000. Content Marketing Institute
• Nationwide, Content Marketing Managers earn approximately $73,000. Glassdoor
• Content Strategists command anywhere from $81,000 - $115,000. Curata

Wherever you are in your content career, you’re likely facing the same issue as many of your peers: how to get paid what you’re worth. You’re not average and you shouldn’t be paid an average salary! Content marketers are a perfect blend of artistic and analytical talents, bringing immense value to an organization. I could wax on about the importance of content marketing, but simply put: Every marketing touchpoint is dependent on intelligent content. So, how do you go about monetizing your value? Here’s my advice.

My First (and Last) Salary Negotiation Mistake

Like anything, negotiation is a skill, and we need to start learning early. Admittedly, I didn't negotiate well at my first job in media sales. During the exciting offer call, my manager simply stating what the salary was -- she stated it. To me, it didn’t feel open to discussion. When I deliberated as to how to proceed, she interrupted my silence with, “That is what the role pays,” in a very matter-of-fact tone.

I balked and then accepted.

Later, I was disappointed in myself. Having researched salary negotiation, I had tactics I was ready to put to use! That being said, the salary was fair, and I was lucky to work for a good manager. She educated me on the products I was selling so well, and I easily started making an additional 30% on my base in commission.

I’m not in sales anymore, but I like that green stuff. I like money. I’m not materialistic, but I enjoy the experiences that money can afford. Never be ashamed to talk money. We all have goals and money helps us meet them. I haven’t hesitated since that early moment, which has allowed me to raise my base salary by roughly $20,000 every two years.

That was my first and my last negotiation misstep, and soon, you’ll be a negotiation master as well.

Below, I’ve provided some scripts that should help you to respond to, as well as introduce the topic of negotiation while in a job transition.

How to Negotiate with a Recruiter or Hiring Manager

I love recruiters. It’s not a common sentiment perhaps, but when it comes to negotiating numbers, they're frank -- and I appreciate this. This honesty should allow you, as the content marketer, to feel extremely comfortable talking about what you want to be paid in a given role.

Your first “friendly chat” with a recruiter will be exploratory on both sides, and compensation will  be discussed. Be ready.

Do your research -- but don’t lowball yourself.

Of course research salary sites like Payscale, Glassdoor and Salary.com. What is the going rate in your area? But remember, we should all want to help content marketers earn a higher average salary, and sticking with the status quo won’t achieve this aim. Use this number as your low benchmark. Your years of expertise and complementary skill sets could make you much more valuable than crowdsourced data!

Don’t forget to also do an internal audit. What do you need to be paid to support your current lifestyle and achieve growth-oriented personal goals? Run the numbers.

Lastly, research the company. How great is their content need? Their current content savvy? By assessing their digital sales process, you can also estimate how much value content  interactions will have to the company. You want a piece of this.

Here are the scripts I promised. Recruiters will typically ask you one of two questions:

“What did you make in your previous role?”

Your Script: “I made [X] at my last job [NAME], but like anyone, I would like to improve on that number. Based on my number of years in the field and what I think I can achieve for [X company], I'd like to make [X].” (List your highest number -- you can negotiate later.)

Note: Legislators understand that being underpaid can follow you from job to job. For that reason, the above question has been made illegal in the state of Massachusetts and major metropolises like New York City and Philadelphia. Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont are considering similar laws in an effort to close the wage gap. For those Boston Content members applying for jobs outside of Massachusetts or considering remote work, remember that often recruiters expect an applicant to slightly pad their salary history or to supply a number in line with what they would like to earn in their next role.

“What are your salary requirements?”

Your Script: “I’m glad you asked. I would like to be in the range of [X] to [X] given my expertise and what I’d like to accomplish for [X] company /goals we have discussed for the business. That is what I would need to feel comfortable moving forward. Does this fit with the range for the role?”  

When applying for a job with a hiring manager, the process will be slower and discussions around compensation will be more nuanced. In fact, there is even this assumption you should take the job purely because you love it. That is silly and unrealistic.

How to Talk About Your Salary with a Hiring Manager

Inevitably, as you get further in the interview process, the hiring manager will give you some insight into how the organization works, how teams interface, and future plans for the marketing team. Follow it up with the below script:

Your Script: “Thank you for sharing this information with me. Speaking of the development of this role/growing your team, has a budget or compensation range been approved for [X role]?”

Then, wait. Silence is your friend. Don’t negate or soften your question by explaining why you’re inquiring. It’s a reasonable expectation.

The above question provides clarity, allowing you to understand the progress your potential manager has made in getting a budget approved. This process could still be underway and it’s vital for you to know if the manager is interviewing candidates but “flying blind” as to her salary limitations.

One time, a manager and I came to a mutual consensus not to work together after the budget approved did not meet my salary requirements. To her credit, she didn’t ask me to accept less. This could happen: You could price yourself out of a job. Alternatively, you would be unhappy and unhealthy in a low-paying job. Ask about the salary approval process after your first in-person meeting, ideally upon accepting to return for additional interview rounds.

Negotiation isn’t combative; it’s collaborative! Both parties are looking to make the other happy so the working relationship can start on a positive note. Go high! This is a starting point for negotiation with the expectation that you’ll meet somewhere in the middle. So come to the table with ideas, passion, and most importantly, confidence.

You may be surprised; they may say, “YES!”

Questions? Comments? Drop me a line on Twitter or LinkedIn. Better yet, stop by Boston Content’s Career Night, Tuesday, November 28th. I will be on site dispensing personalized negotiating advice. Come have a pint and we’ll role play!