Reality check: your customers don’t care about you or your company

Let’s get one thing straight: your customers don’t care about you. They don’t care about your company story, your awards, or even your product.

They care about themselves — their goals, their frustrations, their performance targets.

That might sound harsh, but it’s the truth. Most websites we see still talk about the business and not the buyer. In an age where your audience can find ten other Microsoft Partners, ISVs or MSPs in a minute search, attention is earned, not owed.

The script has flipped. The winners today aren’t the ones shouting about themselves — they’re the ones helping their audiences solve real problems.

And the data backs that up.

Research from a Demand Gen report found that 47% of B2B buyers view three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep — and more recent studies show that many now consume between three and seven.

What that tells us is your content is the first sales conversation. Long before your prospect books a demo, they’ve already formed an impression of your expertise through what they’ve read or watched.

So, if you’re an ISV or MSP Microsoft Partner, looking to scale, that shift isn’t optional — it’s the foundation of modern marketing. Because when your content delivers consistent, useful value, you stop competing for attention and start earning trust. Let’s look at how…

1. Find your “Sweet Spot”

Joe Pulizzi, the godfather of content marketing, calls it the “Sweet Spot” — the intersection between your expertise and your audience’s desires.

That’s where meaningful content lives.

• On one side: your expertise — the knowledge, insight or data you have that others don’t.

• On the other: your audience’s needs — what keeps them up at night.

Your job is to find where those two meet, and build your content there.

For example, if you’re a Modern Work partner, skip the technical rundown of Copilot’s latest capabilities. Instead, write something like:

“Five everyday tasks Copilot can automate for HR teams — and how to prove the time savings.”

That’s not product marketing. That’s problem-solving — and it’s the kind of content that earns attention.

Or if you’re a Dynamics 365 scale-up, lead with outcomes:

“How to cut month-end reporting from seven days to one using Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.”

That’s your Sweet Spot — where what you know intersects with what your audience actually cares about.

How to find it

A quick exercise:

1. List your top three areas of expertise (Modern Work, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, cybersecurity — whatever fits your strengths).

2. Talk to your best customers — what challenges or questions do they raise repeatedly?

3. Where those overlap is your content focus.

4. Test by sharing short insights on LinkedIn and seeing what sparks engagement.

Once you know your Sweet Spot, everything else becomes easier. You’re no longer guessing — you’re creating content with purpose.

The Content Focus Formula

A quick checklist to keep your strategy sharp

• Define your Sweet Spot — where your expertise meets audience need.
• Select your Core Channels — blog → LinkedIn → email.
• Commit to Consistency — one useful story each month, repurposed across all three.
• Refine — review what resonates and double down.

Simple, practical, and repeatable — exactly what most scale-ups need.

2. Simplify your channels — and do them properly

Most companies make the same mistake: trying to be everywhere.
LinkedIn, YouTube, podcasts, webinars, TikTok…

When you try to do everything, you end up being average at all of it.

To break through the noise, you need to be remarkable somewhere — not mediocre everywhere.

The good news? You don’t need a dozen platforms. You just need three that work together:
Your blog, LinkedIn, and email.

Your blog: your home base

Your blog is where your best thinking lives. It’s not a dumping ground for product updates — it’s where you explore your customers’ challenges and share real, practical insight.

It’s your owned space — a long-term asset that builds trust, authority, and SEO value.

Tips for making your blog work harder:

• Write for search intent, not just keywords. Ask: “What question is my reader really typing into Google?”

• Keep each post focused on one clear issue.

• End with a “next step” — another resource, a question, or a link to your newsletter.

• One great post per month beats four forgettable ones.

When you’re consistent, your blog becomes the engine for everything else.

LinkedIn: your conversation channel

If your blog is your home base, LinkedIn is your loudspeaker.
It’s where you turn your thinking into human conversation — short posts, practical tips, and real stories.

And it takes repetition.

As Joe Pulizzi says:

“People need to hear something 7–20 times before acting. Maybe even more.”

That’s how attention works. One blog post isn’t enough. You need to keep showing up — consistently, confidently, and with value.

Practical advice:

• Turn one blog post into 3–4 LinkedIn updates: a stat, a story, a quote, a visual summary.

• Get your founders, marketers and technical leads posting — people trust people, not logos.

• Post weekly.

• Don’t just broadcast — engage.

And remember: visibility on LinkedIn isn’t vanity. In the Microsoft Partner ecosystem, your network is your credibility.

Email: your direct line

Social media is rented land. Your email list is your own turf.

Email is your direct link to an audience who’ve already shown interest. It’s where you nurture relationships and build trust.

Make your emails worth opening:

• One idea per email. Keep it short, useful, scannable.

• Use a simple structure: Hook → Value → Link.

• Send monthly or fortnightly.

• Measure engagement, not list size.

Respect the inbox — and your readers will reward you with attention.

3. Strategy is about saying no

Here’s a tough question: If you stopped publishing tomorrow, would your audience notice?

If the answer is “probably not,” that’s your wake-up call.

Most organisations churn out content that adds nothing new. It fills calendars but doesn’t create connection.

The answer isn’t more. It’s less, better.

Strategy is as much about what you stop doing as what you start.

Your focus filter

Before you publish anything, ask:

• Is this genuinely useful to my audience?

• Does it align with our Sweet Spot?

• Will it make our reader think differently or do something better?

If not — skip it.

Then run a quick audit: look at your last ten posts or emails.
How many talk about your product or service?
How many address your customers’ problems?
Flip that ratio — and your results will change fast.

Measure what matters

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. But forget vanity metrics — they won’t help you justify your Co-op spend or your marketing budget.

And remember — marketing that builds trust is marketing that earns pipeline.

Microsoft’s own advice on marketing

Even Microsoft is doubling down on content-driven, value-led marketing.
The latest FY26 Partner Incentives Co-op Guidebook makes it clear:

“Partners can use Co-op funds to support eligible demand generation activities — including digital content, thought leadership, and campaign assets that drive awareness and customer engagement.”
— Microsoft FY26 Partner Incentives Co-op Guidebook (July 2025)

In other words: Microsoft is literally funding you to create the kind of content your customers actually want.

Stop marketing. Start helping.

Stop trying to make your audience care about your company.
Start caring more about them.

Find your Sweet Spot — where your expertise meets their needs.
Show up consistently across your blog, your LinkedIn, and your email.
Deliver content so useful your audience would miss it if it disappeared.

Marketing isn’t about shouting louder.
It’s about being the one voice that actually helps.

So pick one customer problem, one useful story, and one channel — and start there.
Then do it again next month.

That’s how you build trust.
That’s how you create marketing that works.
And that’s how you grow a brand people actually want to hear from.

Ready to turn your content into something your customers actually care about?

We work with Microsoft Partners and ISVs at every stage of their content journey — from first steps to full-scale publishing operations. Here’s how you can work with us:

1. Content Starter

For Partners dipping their toe into content marketing. A focused three-month engagement that gives you:

• A clear content strategy and tone of voice

• A razor-sharp audience definition

• Two months of ready-to-publish blog and social content

Walk away with a repeatable framework — and content that starts conversations.

2. Content Scaler

For Partners already creating great content, but who need to level up. We’ll help refresh your story: sharper case studies, smarter nurture emails, and consistent expert voices on your blog and LinkedIn.
It’s about refining what works — and scaling your success.

3. Content Collaborator

For scale-ups ready to go all in. We become your extended content team — from strategy to delivery and editorial cadence. Working in partnership with your in-house experts, we make sure your stories are told, amplified, and heard — regularly.

Whether you’re just starting out or ready to scale, we’ll help you build content that earns attention, trust, and Co-op investment.

Let’s talk about which approach fits your business.