💭 Some thoughts on #MarketingTwitter...
Plus how to avoid one of the most common B2B content marketing mistakes for startups
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In The B2B Bite, I break down the most interesting marketing stories into fun-size, actionable chunks to kick off your week.
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A quick note…
🌶️ “Are You Supposed to be Here?”
Hello friends! I'm writing this after spending a wonderful morning building sandcastles on the beach with my wife and daughter.
It's still only 11°C down here on the sunny south coast of the United Kingdom - "cardigan weather" is what my Gran would call it - but all the same, it's been a glorious reprieve from the months of cold, damp winter greyness we're so accustomed to. Long may it continue.
This week I want to take a slight detour from my usual sujet d'intérêt to talk about the idea of community. Namely, to address an instance of its somewhat uglier side I saw last week. Check out the tweet below from CK.
Going into the pandemic last year, I turned to Twitter after a half-decade hiatus in an effort to keep myself connected to the world. To be frank, I had low expectations. Wasn't it just the megaphone of a self-styled Emperor of the free world and memes I wouldn’t understand?
My mind was changed after my first #PopChat hosted by the awesome Brianne Fleming every Friday at 6pm GMT / 1pm EST.
Here was a group of people I could have a drink with! Maybe three! Passionate about marketing, sure, but so much more than just that. They were new parents, theatre-lovers, sneakerheads, people of faith, international, crazy about The Office, friendly, welcoming and warm.
And many of them would go on to become friends, even without us ever meeting face-to-face and living many miles away from each other.
I love counting myself a part of the wider marketing community on Twitter. It's opened up opportunities to me that 12 months ago I wouldn't have thought possible. But what makes it special is the fact that we're all more than our day jobs. And we should encourage each other to embrace that.
So what's the lesson here?
No-one should be made to feel pressure to "talk shop" - we do that enough at work
We should celebrate and embrace each other’s individuality
If you don't like what you see, unfollow and move on. As we say here in the UK, don't be a wanker
Unless you're being paid for it (and even then, really) social media should feel fun
And it's "you're" - come on, guy
📏 The 80/20 Rule in Content Marketing
Last week I was invited to host a masterclass (which is an honour, as I'd be the last to consider myself the master of anything) on the biggest mistakes B2B organisations make when building a marketing strategy from scratch.
Having been around this block a few times myself over the last decade or so, it's a subject I'm intimately familiar with. I've made a lot of mistakes, including this one - trying to create content for every platform, all the time.
How it starts…
"Should we have a blog?"
Of course, companies that have one will produce an average of 67% more leads than those that don't.
"What about a newsletter?"
Definitely, it's the most effective channel for revenue generation, by far.
"LinkedIn?"
I'm offended you even asked the question. Get out.
And on and on it goes. Next thing you know, you’re on the hook for a daily Clubhouse because “everyone’s doing it.”
As marketers, it's easy to fall into this trap. Maybe it's because we've been led to believe we need to be everywhere, all the time. Or - quite possibly - the CEO has that expectation of us. Either way, it's a dangerous road to step.
Without sufficient budget and support from our organisation to support a multi-channel approach, you risk spreading your resources too thin. This, in turn, can dilute the impact of your messaging and campaigns within the market.
This happens all the time. It's happened to me.
My advice? Double down on the channel that matters.
Especially in a start-up environment, it's often far more effective to start with dedicating 80% of your energy and resources to creating content for a single channel and the remaining 20% repurposing that same content for everywhere else.
Here's an example.
OK, but how do you decide on the channel that matters? I'd start by asking my customers one simple question.
"If I worked for you and my job was to keep you informed, where would you ask me to look?"
Ask enough clients this question and you'll quickly start to see the most common places for them to get their information. And that's where you should start.
🍴 Nibbles
Not every content marketing strategy is created equal - and that's especially true when you're trying to talk to developers. Where a CIO or CTO might need to be sold "the vision" of a product or service, their colleagues in engineering often want to get stuck in the weeds. This article from Yolanda Fintschenko is a great starting point for developing a promotional campaign to reach the modern developer.
Speaking about developers, shout out to Jake Sanders for sharing with me what I think may be the best example of B2B video content I've ever seen. MongoDB, a document-oriented database that stores data in JSON-like documents with dynamic schema, launched this interactive thriller to promote its flagship product last year. Engaging with the developer community - its target audience - was critical to its creation. Here's an excerpt from an interview with the agency that helped them do it, Giant Spoon.
"We built it in partnership with devs, we tested it with devs, and devs are helping us get the word out. Leaders at the brand are walking through the experience on Twitch, pausing to break down details—dev influencers are even easter-egged in the film."
...…and here’s my podcast
Every two weeks I sit down with a marketing leader to lean how they hit their goals by thinking outside the box - and dig into how this can be applied to other B2B businesses. Here are a few of my most recent episodes.
What it Takes to Build a Successful B2B Community w/ Christina Pashialis
Tell Me Why… You Need Pop Culture in B2B Marketing w/ Brianne Fleming
Building a 10,000 Strong B2B Email List from Scratch w/ Sean Blanda
How to Use Instagram to Promote People and Culture w/ Nicole Tabak
You can also find the B2B Better on Apple Podcasts and almost all other podcast directories.
And that's it! See you next week.