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Giving Away Your Expertise IS Your Competitive Advantage

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: July 16, 2009

Erica brings up a great point about companies not wanting to share their expertise through content marketing. Why not share?

  • Sharing secrets and expertise arms customers with too much information.
  • Sharing secrets and expertise gives an advantage to the competition.

Neither are true, and I’ll tell you why.

Most companies believe that their competitive advantage is in some process, some product, some service. That’s hardly ever the case. Anyone at almost anytime can copy your process, product or service…especially today.

Your true competitive advantage rests in your communications, your marketing, your brand.

Once you realize that, giving away your “secret sauce” makes sense. Giving away your expertise and teaching your customers what you know does one amazing thing – it positions you as the expert in your industry. Once you are known by your customers and prospects as the industry expert, it will be almost impossible for any process, product or any competitive service to come between you and your customers.

Keeping your “secret sauce” to yourself does a few things:

  • Customers/prospects will never know that you are the expert in your field.
  • Customers will never share your expertise with others because there is nothing to share.
  • It gives a huge opportunity for someone else to share their secret sauce and position themselves as the industry expert.

Now what are you waiting for?

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  • http://www.google.com/profiles/charbrow Charles Brown

    I love your “secret sauce” analogy. Not only does giving away your secrets position you as an expert, it also builds a relationship with the people who learn from your content.
    Remember that wonderful teacher that changed your life? The person who educates, really educates, has the power to create lasting change in someone’s life.
    And a relationship is far better than a holding onto your secret sauce.
    Charles Brown
    http://webmarketing-coach.com

  • http://www.kranzcom.com Jonathan Kranz

    I get that all the time: “Why are you giving away your copy secrets?” Because, as you know, I’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain. Few people rub their hands greedily and say, “Ah hah! With these secrets at my command, I’ll do this myself.” Instead, they put their hands to the keyboard and shoot me an email…

  • http://theoysterproject.blogspot.com/ Daniel Oyston

    Great post and very concise on a subject that, if you discuss face-to-face with employees, can take some time …
    The other thing that content marketing provides, assuming that you house and distribute it electronically, is that it provides many inbound links and great Google results.
    Conversely, a hard copy colour print out of you latest whitepaper, posted to a key senior executive, with a little hand written note, not only ensures they see it but oozes the personal touch.

  • http://www.interactionassociates.com/ideas Patricia

    My company executives don’t understand why we give away our “secrets.” I tell them it is to establish our expertise and get people to call, and we have evidence that it works.
    But they still want to charge something – this could be a revenue stream!! is their continual cry. How can I convince them that charging $9.95 for a useful, insightful ebook is cheesy and ineffective?

  • http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

    Great question Patricia.
    Start here. What business are you in? Are you in the content business (for profit) or do you sell a product or service.
    I’m assuming that you have services to sell to customers that are much greater in value than 9.95.
    But here’s the kicker…while you are protecting your content and chasing people away by gating your content and charging for it, your competitors are sharing the same type of expert information all over the web, getting people to come to their websites to find out about their services.
    What’s more valuable? 100 customers buying your ebook at 9.95 per or 10,000 prospects engaging and sharing in your content – talking about your brand and trying to get in contact with you. That’s a business decision that needs to be made.
    Thoughts?

  • http://www.interactionassociates.com/ideas Patricia

    Joe, you don’t have to sell me on it – I am a true believer of giving away expertise to get the big sale!
    I guess the issue is my execs think that the small charge doesn’t drive people away, whereas I do. I also think it is cheesy and gives a wrong impression. It would be helpful to know if there is any data on people abandoning content when they realize it is for sale vs free. I know there is data available on people abandoning white papers when they are faced with giving a lot of contact info.

  • http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

    Understood Patricia…I was actually writing that to your executives if you wanted to pass on.
    Check out this article that has some compelling data on gated content from David Meerman Scott. If this doesn’t sell them, nothing will. http://blog.junta42.com/content_marketing_blog/2009/03/tear-your-content-walls-down-why-gated-content-might-not-make-sense.html

  • http://www.lakeland-marketing.com Kevin Alvarez

    First off, I will admit I am more of a student than a practioneer of content marketing. I am on board with this argument but I want to throw out a hypothetical, yet realistic, situation. Suppose you are new local service business starting out and have a very very small following. Your local competitor is already viewed as “the expert” (for no other reason than they were first & have a large marketing budget) within the community and has a strong following.
    In this case, I think if you were to publicly publish the “how to” of a unique service you are offering (a service your competitor is either late on or ignorant to), there is a strong possibility your more established competitor could leverage this insight.
    Agree…disagree?
    Patricia, it seems that your executives are focusing too much on the “giving away content” aspect and forgetting the marketing piece. The content alone does not benefit the business. It’s imperative the “secret sauce” is marketed in a way that achieves the campaign goals. The one thing I have learned is if the overall strategy, tactical plan and measurables are defined and discussed early in the process, resistance is minimized.
    I would love to hear your thoughts…especially how small local businesses are effectively using content marketing.

  • http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

    Hi Kevin…here’s my take. As the underdog, you are bound by no rules. You can develop free online tools for your customers that your competition hasn’t yet. You can post your photos on Flickr, create Knols on Google, presentations on SlideShare, blog, possibly develop a video channel. You could outpublish your competition. Frankly, if your competition leverages this information…I say who cares…because they aren’t going to publish what you will publish, and if they do, you can be more nimble and make decisions quickly.
    Today, being bigger and established isn’t what it used to be. There are no barriers to entry today, and publishing unlocks opportunity.
    What say you?

  • http://http:www.steve-harlow.com Steve Harlow

    Great post Joe! Content Marketing is definitly hitting the “old school” marketers between the eyes. They have a hard time grasping the concept.
    In response to Patricia, and her execs not understanding, approach them with this: How many times do you recieve direct mail peices from the local car dealership with a key inside? If you come down to the car lot, and try your key, if it starts the car, you win the car.
    So here is a company that is giving away, what, $14,000 to $ 20,000 car? Yet the traffic that the “free promotion” is driving to their dealership will result in higher sales for them over the period of the contest.
    The same holds true with your content marketing. Hope this analogy helps.

  • http://www.seonicheblogs.com/wordpress-for-membership-sites/ Les

    Another great article, people will remember you much more when you have taught them something that works for them. When you teach them the good stuff you get loyal raving fans and not just customers.