Xerocon 2016 Day One: Content, community, and clients

I would say Xerocon day one is just ending, but it’s more apt to say it’s just beginning. The keynotes and speeches have finished, the awards have literally exploded from the stage, and now we’re all getting our gladrags on for the Xerocon party where the fun really begins.

(I, of course, am quickly dashing off this blog post, because that’s what I do!)

Just wanted to share a few thoughts about Xerocon, which I’ve already proclaimed to be THE tech conference for accountants. (If you recall, I did also proclaim in 2013 that “Xero wins when it comes to online accounting systems, hands down”.  Read the post here.)

Here’s what I came away with today:

Community: The Xero community is second to none.

In some ways, you know this already when you book your ticket for Xerocon. As an unabashed Xero supporter (and customer), I have the highest respect for Xero itself, the Xero add on community, and the accounting partners who use Xero. But what I was reminded of today was that:

  • Everyone is friendly.  You can stop and chat to any person in the entire room, and they’ll cheerfully discuss the speakers, the incredible venue, the brilliant juice bar, the add-on partner they just visited, whatever. It’s such a pleasant atmosphere to be in.
  • No one has an ego.  The first morning I was here I came down to breakfast where Gary Turner and Rod Drury were about the only two people there. They welcomed me to their table and we chatted, and talked Apple watches, and Xero development, and the plans for their second breakfast with investors. (Pippin would be so proud.)  Later that day at lunch, one of the attendees of my uni day session mistakenly went into the wrong lunch room, and ended up having lunch with Rod Drury – and she didn’t even know who he was until later.  She was a bit shocked to discover this, but I was even more impressed that she didn’t know who he was because he didn’t make a big song and dance about explaining it to her. He’s a friendly person interested in those around him, whoever they are. And the whole Xero community is like that.
  • It truly is about helping – either helping accountants, or helping clients, or both. Every add-on I spoke to – ones we use, ones we don’t, ones we promote heavily to our clients and ones we haven’t heard of yet – are simply there to be of service.  That’s one of our pillars too, and we salute that.

We are ridiculously proud of our clients.

One of our clients, Carpenter Box, won the greatly-esteemed Xero Accounting Partner of the Year Award 2016.  And the event we were privileged to help them market, BITE 2015, was specifically mentioned as one of the proofs of their forward thinking, their enthusiasm for Xero, and their being recognised in this way.

For this event, there was absolutely a combined effort between the team at Carpenter Box, their own in-house marketing team, and ourselves.  And then there are the 30 plus exhibitors who attended the day and supported the event, and Xero itself which supported it.

We could not be more thrilled or proud, because it shows the power of great marketing is displayed best in combined efforts – not one person or one company or one element acting alone.

This is the principle of content marketing that we’ve been spouting for some time – that the best marketing is consistent, themed, and stackable.  That’s what Carpenter Box did, and that’s what we encourage you to do.

Read about the BITE 2015 event here.

Content marketing is absolutely the watchword for accountants.

And finally, if we do say so ourselves, ‘content marketing’ is a phrase that needs to be on the mind and plans of every accountant who wishes to move forward with their marketing.

It’s not just us saying it – Hinge Marketing proclaimed last month that content marketing is the number one trend amongst professional service firms – but we are hearing and seeing it encouraged everywhere we go, and we’re so pleased to know that the content marketing programme we’ve been building is coming into its own. Particularly at Xerocon, where the programme was launched today.

We heard it from XU magazine, with whom we had an interview on content marketing for accountants. From Rocketspark, who are regularly talking to their accountant clients about content for websites. From add-ons like Crunchboards, who have come up with content for an email marketing campaign their partners can use to promote what this tool does for their clients. And on it goes.

Well, time is ticking on, so if you’re not with us at Xerocon just now, I’ll let you go have a nosy at the Content Marketer site.  Read more

And if you are here at Xerocon, well, I’ll see you shortly on the dance floor!

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