November 19, 2024 • 25 mins
These five B2B brands are pushing boundaries with innovative content.
In this episode, we’ll show you what makes their approach work and how you can apply what these brands are doing to help level up your own strategy.
Join as we discuss:
Benji on LinkedIn
James on LinkedIn
In this episode, we’ll show you what makes their approach work and how you can apply what these brands are doing to help level up your own strategy.
Join as we discuss:
- How one brand’s commitment to industry news builds authority and engagement.
- A creative approach that makes a product the star of an entertaining series.
- The secret to scripting video content that dominates a crowded platform.
- The power of personal branding on LinkedIn to amplify reach and credibility.
Benji on LinkedIn
James on LinkedIn
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five B to B companies are absolutely crushing it with
their content.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We'll show you what makes their approach work and how
you can apply what these brands are doing to help
level up your own strategy.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
James, you were recently on a pretty cool trip in
Iceland and got invited out there to speak specifically around
a lot of what we talk about on B to
B growth. So first explain just maybe a little bit
about that trip, and then what your talk was on.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So I get this DM from this guy and no,
I think it was an email. I get this email
from this guy and asking me if he can fly
me out to Iceland to speak at this event?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yes, And I like, this is fake?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You want to cruise?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Is this from a Nigerian prince?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Like?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
What is going on here? So I go back and
forth with them.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I was like, I think this might actually be legitimate.
Turns out the conference is the day before my ninth
wedding anniversary, and so he's like, hey, yeah, we'll fly
your wife out too, and so I'm like, oh my gosh,
I tell my wife, and my wife is like, spend
our nine year anniversary in Iceland. Absolutely, So my wife
and I go Todd Klausser from Audience. Plus he also
(01:16):
gets invite his on texting him and he's like, oh,
your wife's coming, So his wife come. So it ends
up being like an incredible couple strip for us. The
day after, so on our nine year anniversary, they take
us on this countryside tour. One of the one of
the marketing agency owners that was putting on the event.
His dad like runs this does like guided tours all
(01:38):
over the country, like all over this area. He's also
an actor in like Hallmark movies, so he was just
in a Hallmark movie, the.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Weirdest Crossover I did not see back.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Like he's like a f He got famous doing some
Icelandic ad that popped off in the eighties that everybody knows,
and so he's this like famous Icelandic actor. It also
loves doing guided tours. Souh. Just an incredible experience. The
first night, one of the other agency owners dad hosted
(02:10):
us in his home.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
His dad was a famous press journalist.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
In Iceland, and so you have all these photos across
the wall, like iconic moments in Iceland's history that his
dad was there for.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Wow. And so he's walking us through all the images.
Incredible meal. I mean, just the entire experience was like
super top shelf. They have a museum in Iceland.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I just think we have to either blurt that out
because I think our YouTube views are going to go
down for you saying that. But that is the wildest
this got wilder and wilder.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So anyway, incredible experience.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But I did this talk and I really talked about
five great examples of B to B content today, and
so in the prepping for this deck, we've already done
some social content on LinkedIn from this, but we wanted
to do an episode about it. This two point sixty
five billion dollar cybersecurity company is redefining what it means
to do brand journalism in B to B. So this
(03:14):
company recorded Future. They just got acquired by MasterCard. They're
doing a daily newsletter, so they cover breaches, ransomware, talking
about geopolitical stuff happening in cybersecurity. Massive commitment right to
do this kind of editorial.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
We know daily content is hard.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, yeah, been there, done that, got the T shirt.
But it's what's positioning it. I think it's I think
their media brand is in large got to be a
big consideration for the valuation they got. They got a
really premium valuation for what they were acquired for last
month in September. They do a twice weekly podcast, so
(03:55):
really high production quality scripted format, similar to what you
see a lot of media companies doing.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
They do multiple daily news articles.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So where a lot of people I think are getting
their their more high volume on like the product keywords
and AI is helping get a lot more volume out,
these guys are focusing on news stories and so one
of the things I talked about in this they actually
had a promoted story that got eleven million impressions on
(04:26):
x and two hundred and fifty thousand page views while
they spent three hundred dollars on an ad to a
news story they wrote, I think I had something to
do with Trump or the assassination attempt, or something had
to do with you know, it's the intersection of that
in cybersecurity, so it made sense for them to cover it.
But that is ohe you start thinking about using paid
(04:48):
media to get distribution for good stories that you're developing.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I think one of my questions on this one is
just like in cybersecurity, it feels like that volume could
potentially make sense. Now my knowledge is like this deep
on cybersecurity. But I'm just going to, like with breaches updates,
to commit to that level of content on it that
consistent of a basis like one, Yeah, of course we're
(05:15):
going to point it out as an example because they're
executing at a high level. But if you are applying
this to other industries with you know, now you've presented
this to in Iceland, You've talked about this a little bit,
What's what would be your takeaway for other industries? Is
it like some people should double down on this more
news type content? Is it the journalism piece? Like if
you were like recorded Future is a really good example
(05:37):
of X that people could go try. What do you
think you would say to that? Is?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I mean branded journalism is for sure what they their
bread and butter, their bread and butter, so taking what
newsrooms have been doing for decades, but applying it to
dissecting and in industry and storytelling around an industry and
they do all this. So they just got acquired for
(06:06):
two point six five billion dollars and they do their
entire brand journalism function is twelve people.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So when you look at their media brand account page
on LinkedIn, you see that only twelve people say that
they work for Record of Future News, so they might
have they'd probably pull in some support from their charger
production marketing team. But I was super impressed that a
twelve person now for this small business. Obviously this doesn't
make sense, but for I think they were doing two
(06:38):
hundred and fifty million in ARR. I think I saw
a stat So they're a you know, mid market probably not.
I don't know if they would be considered it an enterprise company.
I don't think they would be twelve people to have
this kind of an impact writing stories that are that
are getting eleven million impressions on social platforms. And you
(07:01):
can punch way above your weight if you just have
focused effort on a thing. And we've been talking about this,
pick a lane. You can win in a lot of
different ways. We've said that for years, like there's so
many ways to win in content. They have picked brand
journalism and they're just cranking it up to eleven and
(07:21):
have twelve dedicated resources to it, and they're driving results.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Because it's timeliness of their content as well, because you
can stay up on this industry if you followed just
this one thing, which is always a nice seat to
have at the table in somebody's content diet. It's like,
if I need to get cybersecurity news, I go here.
Their journalism is excellent, so it's like you're a trusted source.
But then their content distribution, the number of things coming
(07:47):
out is just wild. So that's great. The second one
on here, Lavender you use as an example basically making
the product part of the story, right, So talk to
me a little bit about why you chose this one.
We're both fans of how Lavender has executed content in
the past.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, full disclosure, Lavender's the client of ours. We did
not work on gen Verse Will, but we've we've done
some other stuff with them, and so so I but
I love talking about them. I was a big fan
of them long before they were a client of ours.
But a couple of different things here. So the gen
Verse Will series, I think does a masterful job of
(08:29):
making the product a character in the story and not
the hero, which I think a lot of B two
B companies make the mistake of making putting their product
front and center and then nobody cares and they wonder why.
But in gen Verse Will, it's a competition style show
where Gin and Will one have fantastic chemistry. They're they're
(08:49):
both hilarious and very informed.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, very big audiences on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Again, they're super smart. So their banter is one thing.
But the premise of the show is there in this
competition to see who can write the best email for
a million different scenarios.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
The sales emails, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
And then Lavender, which is a tool that helps sales
reps write better emails, grades both of their emails, and
the winner of the competition is determined by the product.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And so the product is a character in the show.
It is the judge, so to.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Speak, but doesn't even come out to a videos almost
over and is very much baked into the show like
of course you need a judge, yes, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So so the chemistry between gen and will super Smart
the production value, So Raina, I will botch your last
name if I try to say her last name.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
But she's started to.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Pop off on LinkedIn a lot. She talks about video
production and super super smart the way she edits these
videos are like four minute videos, but they're incredibly high engagement,
like you are watching from the opening banter all the
way through to the end, Like she hooks you and
(10:07):
keeps the viewer attention on those videos really high. And
so who knows what got left on the cutting room
floor there, because they obviously put an enormous amount of
effort into the post production edit of this series.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
So the concept is good because it's a game.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
The personalities are great because gen and Well worked well together,
the production quality exceptionally high. And then they're talking about
topics that were just as relevant three years ago as
they are today. So that content made sense in twenty
twenty two when they recorded it, and it will make
sense in twenty twenty seven. And what I think is
(10:45):
so great about doing content like that. Jen no longer
at Lavender, Will Will no longer at Lavin.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Other wills are there?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Raina?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
They had a lot of wills.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, Raina no longer there, but that series can still
perform for them, because if you think about Netflix, like
how many shows on Netflix are no longer filming new
seasons but people are still going back and watching.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Really good point there is. YouTube recently had like a
summit for creators and I heard JT. Barnett talking about this,
but YouTube talked about how the future of their platform
because they're seeing a bunch more activity on TVs, people
watching on TVs. They're changing their UI, like their actual
app to look a lot more. I don't want to
say this, they wouldn't say it this way, but I will.
(11:33):
It looks a lot more like Netflix, and the idea
of episodic content where you follow a creator but they
do series is just becoming the norm because YouTube is realizing,
Like people go to YouTube in the same way, if
not over the next few years, even more so than
they do go to Netflix, like they're going on their
TVs there. So why I bring that up is like
(11:54):
with gen vers Will, it doesn't matter at all that
they're gone from Lavender because of the way they set
up the episodic content. So yes, it's good evergreen like
funny Quick Punchy showcases the product and on top of
that with that series that's awesome, like funny sales enablement
content that's just barely baked in, like you could do
(12:14):
that with SMEs versus. A lot of the opposition to
starting an ongoing forever podcast is if we lose that host,
that could get a little weird. I still have objections
to that, but I think the door in is something
like Jen versus well, just create a quick series, get
them in a few episodes, showcase the product, and maybe
a less obvious in your face way. This one is
(12:35):
huge for us. We nerded out on this whole series.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
I love it all right.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So this next one is an SEO tool. But they're
also dominating on YouTube with over twenty six million views
and over five hundred and sixty thousand subscribers. So the
company is hrefs and it's an SEO tool that probably
every marketer has heard. I didn't even realize how much
they are dominating on YouTube right now. Here's what they're doing.
(13:02):
Fantastic on air talent. So sam O is the face
of the YouTube channel. Fifteen years in digital marketing. He's funny,
he's got really deep insights, a really deep understanding of SEO.
He's proven to be a credible person in this space.
(13:25):
He deeply understands the subject matter. That's an advantage in
B to B that I don't think we tap into
nearly enough is finding our subject matter experts that can
carry our content because of their depth of expertise. That
matters so much here. They have a very intentional approach
to how they title and thumbnail their content, they're opening hooks.
(13:49):
They clearly do scripted content on their YouTube videos, which
we've been talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
You have like a quote or we have a quote
on here. Is this from them that scripts are non negotiable.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yes, I think probably said this because.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
I think that is it is very smart. Scripts are
no negotiable. They force you to be intentional about delivery.
Like even if you've been watching our B to B
growth episodes, we're getting more and more intentional about how
we open because we want y'all to know, like what's coming.
We want you to know how these like the value,
Yeah it is here.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It doesn't matter if the episode is great if we
don't get you into it right, and we know that
the way you get people into it is great title,
great thumbnail, great opening hook. Their entire videos are seen
to be scripted and heavy use of b roll heavy
like they're they're optimizing for increasing average view duration and
(14:37):
as a result, you know, twenty six million views later,
they probably sold a lot of software subscriptions.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
So it's a great one. N Do you remember how
they got on your radar Because you're not seeking out
SEO content regularly, I'm just looking for great content. Examples.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, there's a there's a guy named.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Ryan.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
He used to be at Animals and he is now
at a trefs, and so I think that's initially what
got me at Ryan Law is his name, and I
did a call with him a few weeks ago or
a few months ago now, and it was right before
he had announced he was joining a trefs, and so
I think that's what initially got the momentary radar.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
But yeah, they're absolutely crushing it.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
We have two left, so take us into this next one.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, so here's the content playbook of a two hundred
and seventy two million dollar SaaS company.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
The company's clue.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Their media brand is the Compete Network, so Netflix style
content hub.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
We both loved the content Hub.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, for multiple shows all focused on serving.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
The product marketer.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So they've got a really because of their media brand,
they're able to engage both internal and external creators. So
they've got a couple folks on their team. The guy
that uses clue for clue, like is constantly analyzing their
own competitors. And then this guy Adam, who's a content
marketer on the team. They are the main co hosts
(16:08):
of their show Coffee and compete so internal, but then
they've also got a whole host of shows that are
done by external creators that are already influencers for product marketers.
And I think it's really smart to use their media
brand in this way to I think it's the smartest
(16:30):
execution of B to B influencers to instead of like
paying somebody to do a post for you on LinkedIn,
going to them and being like, hey, we want to
build a show around you. You can do it. And
I don't know what they pay, if they pay anything
for these folks, but there's tangible value to someone that
runs a network coming to you as an influencer and saying, hey,
(16:54):
we want to build a series around you. Could we
fly you up to Canada? Could we bring a crew
to you build a whole set of content like I could.
I could very much see a world where a B
to B creator who has a legitimate following goes that
is valuable enough to me, I'm not even going to
charge you for this because the content this is going
to position me as more of an expert and so
(17:15):
and I'm going to get a bunch of top shelf
content out of it that where I'm the star of
the show.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So really really interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Way to do B to B influencers just get like
doing an entire series around each influencer. They've got a
mix of ongoing shows and limited run series. So to
your point, like, you don't need to do some something
doesn't need to last forever. You can do a six
episode series on something and be self contained and that's
totally fine.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
And some topics are better for that.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, and it lives on your Netflix style site forever.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
So I think they're doing a lot of really really
smart things here. The premises for their shows are also
really interesting. So they've got some like co hosted commentary
style shows where they're just talking about what other people
are doing in this. They've got other ones where they
break down they break down comparison pages. So they're looking
(18:08):
at different companies that are like how do they compare
their product to another product? Like that's a big type
you know, content type yep, And so that's a really
interesting premise like to and focus of a series. So
they're doing a lot of a lot of things, right,
And yeah, I don't think you can talk about B
(18:28):
to B content responsibly and not talk about.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Clue formats and style changes are like things that B
to B still needs to catch up on, and they're
executing really well on where you have so much room
to play in the formats, like even gen versus, Well,
what are they choosing to do there? They're choosing to
lean into competition, They're choosing to lean into repositioning two
(18:54):
people who could just talk on this topic and do
talking head videos, but now they're literally going head to
head to make it more fun. We don't do enough
like creative ideation to just get a bunch of people
around the table and go just throw series ideas or
formats or segments, like throw some of that stuff out
there and again never start with the blank page, go
(19:16):
to chat GPT, get some series ideas. But the way
they're executing on it, to me what's interesting. And we
did a call with them was like, you are really
thinking through formats and how do we uniquely position and
brand each of these and doing both of those before
you even start something, the chances of success get so
much higher. So this is a really really good one,
(19:37):
all right. Last one here is motion.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, so they just raised a thirty one million dollar
Series B and they're crushing it with personal distribution on LinkedIn.
So they've got four people specifically on their team, none
of which are the founder or CEO, that are all
getting incredible engagement on the content that they're posting from
(20:02):
their personal profiles.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Where they all hired guns because of already having social presence,
do you know.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
No, So one of them, one of them's Libby, she's
their head of talent acquisition. The other one is James Mulvey,
he's their head of content. Travis Tyler is on the
social team. I think he's like a manager of.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
This a little bit that you want to he was
already popping off a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah yep, and then they're I'm blanking on his name.
But it's a bizdev guy.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
So all four of them getting phenomenal engagement. They're doing
creative video, they're doing memes. They're really pressing the boundaries.
When you look at what they're doing on their company page.
It's got like thirty one thousand followers on their company page.
Their content is really good on the company page, but
it'll get thirty one likes.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, engagement on company pages. You still got to drip
out content. But it's so poor.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
It's so poor.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And so they've just said, Okay, we're not just going
to settle for what our company page can get. We're
gonna truly invest in the distribution of personal profiles of
the people that work for us to get our name
out there.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
And again they just.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Raised it thirty plus million dollar round of funding. So
this stuff is working.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I appreciate that we've had a few clients come on
recently who just really understand the value of the personal
LinkedIn page specifically, but you could put that across social
If we create content for a person, the content is better.
The chances of us being able to package that in
a more interesting way that doesn't have to be like
so company branded is also better. But company's free to
(21:40):
use it still somebody that works with Yeah, so I
think thinking in that way versus what we saw for
so long was like our company's having a webinar everybody
post about said thing like that is a very company
first approach versus really thinking about your audience and the
fact that we connect with people.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Love the other thing. Motion does really well. They do
smart commentary on what big brands are doing.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, Travis is great at this.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I was phenomenal at this. I've seen James, a head
of content do this too. But when you are talking
about an ad campaign from Oatly, like motions product helps
creative strategists with ad creative, like managing all the different
variations of ad creative that you're running. So for them
talking about big direct to consumer or consumer brands and
(22:27):
what they're doing from an advertising perspective is super smart
because I care about what Taco Bell is doing with
advertising like I care about what Oatly's doing. I care
about what Ridge is doing because I'm a consum, you know,
as a consumer of those products. So them adding not
just commentary but smart commentary on like, hey, learn from
what these guys are doing allows them to ride the
(22:49):
coattails of credibility of a much larger brand and then
weave in their point of view. They also have a
weekly newsletter called Thumbstop, which is just a freaking dope
name from the newsletter, but it's and it's this really
cool combo of being specific enough while also being broad
(23:10):
enough to be interesting. So it's clearly like for creative strategists.
But I'm not a creative strategist, and I'm still really
interested in this because I'm I might not be running
you know, ad creative for our business, but it is
something that I'm fascinated by, and so I think the
way they've positioned it.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Is I think really smart.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's a very specific value though, and then when as
soon as you sign up for the newsletter, there's just
a really smart flow for them to basically get you
on a product demo. But they don't position it like
a product demo. They position it as like, hey, help us,
we want to we want to jump on a thirty
minute call with you and help you think through like
(23:58):
your creative strategy. And by positioning it that way, like hey,
we are studying what all these other brands are doing,
Like let's pressure test your creative strategy on this thirty
minute call. So it's like I'm getting you into this newsletter,
which is the newsletter. You being a subscriber to the
newsletter is going to help you and thousands of other
(24:19):
use value. But now all of a sudden, you're telling
me I can get one on one value, right, that's
contextual to my situation, and you're going to evaluate an
audit what I'm doing personally. Okay, But because they've positioned
the newsletter to be for creative strategists. They're setting up
their sales team to have some really great conversations with
(24:40):
potential buyers.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Well, this has been a really good episode. I like
that we gave five examples of brands that you can
actually now just go follow. Hey, go do your own
digging and research. And if you know of other B
to B brands that you think we should have shouted
out here, we have an ever growing list because we
want to see great B to B content. We are
automission to see more of that. We want to help
(25:03):
create it too, So love your examples. Here we talked
about recorded future Lavender, Hrs, Clue Motion. Shout out to
the great content that each of them is producing. James
take us out.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Remember whoever has the audience has the leverage. Commodity content
is the enemy personality. Led media is the way
Five B to B companies are absolutely crushing it with
their content.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We'll show you what makes their approach work and how
you can apply what these brands are doing to help
level up your own strategy.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
James, you were recently on a pretty cool trip in
Iceland and got invited out there to speak specifically around
a lot of what we talk about on B to
B growth. So first explain just maybe a little bit
about that trip, and then what your talk was on.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So I get this DM from this guy and no,
I think it was an email. I get this email
from this guy and asking me if he can fly
me out to Iceland to speak at this event?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yes, And I like, this is fake?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
You want to cruise?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Is this from a Nigerian prince?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Like?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
What is going on here? So I go back and
forth with them.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I was like, I think this might actually be legitimate.
Turns out the conference is the day before my ninth
wedding anniversary, and so he's like, hey, yeah, we'll fly
your wife out too, and so I'm like, oh my gosh,
I tell my wife, and my wife is like, spend
our nine year anniversary in Iceland. Absolutely, So my wife
and I go Todd Klausser from Audience. Plus he also
(01:16):
gets invite his on texting him and he's like, oh,
your wife's coming, So his wife come. So it ends
up being like an incredible couple strip for us. The
day after, so on our nine year anniversary, they take
us on this countryside tour. One of the one of
the marketing agency owners that was putting on the event.
His dad like runs this does like guided tours all
(01:38):
over the country, like all over this area. He's also
an actor in like Hallmark movies, so he was just
in a Hallmark movie, the.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Weirdest Crossover I did not see back.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Like he's like a f He got famous doing some
Icelandic ad that popped off in the eighties that everybody knows,
and so he's this like famous Icelandic actor. It also
loves doing guided tours. Souh. Just an incredible experience. The
first night, one of the other agency owners dad hosted
(02:10):
us in his home.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
His dad was a famous press journalist.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
In Iceland, and so you have all these photos across
the wall, like iconic moments in Iceland's history that his
dad was there for.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Wow. And so he's walking us through all the images.
Incredible meal. I mean, just the entire experience was like
super top shelf. They have a museum in Iceland.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I just think we have to either blurt that out
because I think our YouTube views are going to go
down for you saying that. But that is the wildest
this got wilder and wilder.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So anyway, incredible experience.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But I did this talk and I really talked about
five great examples of B to B content today, and
so in the prepping for this deck, we've already done
some social content on LinkedIn from this, but we wanted
to do an episode about it. This two point sixty
five billion dollar cybersecurity company is redefining what it means
to do brand journalism in B to B. So this
(03:14):
company recorded Future. They just got acquired by MasterCard. They're
doing a daily newsletter, so they cover breaches, ransomware, talking
about geopolitical stuff happening in cybersecurity. Massive commitment right to
do this kind of editorial.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
We know daily content is hard.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, yeah, been there, done that, got the T shirt.
But it's what's positioning it. I think it's I think
their media brand is in large got to be a
big consideration for the valuation they got. They got a
really premium valuation for what they were acquired for last
month in September. They do a twice weekly podcast, so
(03:55):
really high production quality scripted format, similar to what you
see a lot of media companies doing.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
They do multiple daily news articles.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So where a lot of people I think are getting
their their more high volume on like the product keywords
and AI is helping get a lot more volume out,
these guys are focusing on news stories and so one
of the things I talked about in this they actually
had a promoted story that got eleven million impressions on
(04:26):
x and two hundred and fifty thousand page views while
they spent three hundred dollars on an ad to a
news story they wrote, I think I had something to
do with Trump or the assassination attempt, or something had
to do with you know, it's the intersection of that
in cybersecurity, so it made sense for them to cover it.
But that is ohe you start thinking about using paid
(04:48):
media to get distribution for good stories that you're developing.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I think one of my questions on this one is
just like in cybersecurity, it feels like that volume could
potentially make sense. Now my knowledge is like this deep
on cybersecurity. But I'm just going to, like with breaches updates,
to commit to that level of content on it that
consistent of a basis like one, Yeah, of course we're
(05:15):
going to point it out as an example because they're
executing at a high level. But if you are applying
this to other industries with you know, now you've presented
this to in Iceland, You've talked about this a little bit,
What's what would be your takeaway for other industries? Is
it like some people should double down on this more
news type content? Is it the journalism piece? Like if
you were like recorded Future is a really good example
(05:37):
of X that people could go try. What do you
think you would say to that? Is?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I mean branded journalism is for sure what they their
bread and butter, their bread and butter, so taking what
newsrooms have been doing for decades, but applying it to
dissecting and in industry and storytelling around an industry and
they do all this. So they just got acquired for
(06:06):
two point six five billion dollars and they do their
entire brand journalism function is twelve people.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So when you look at their media brand account page
on LinkedIn, you see that only twelve people say that
they work for Record of Future News, so they might
have they'd probably pull in some support from their charger
production marketing team. But I was super impressed that a
twelve person now for this small business. Obviously this doesn't
make sense, but for I think they were doing two
(06:38):
hundred and fifty million in ARR. I think I saw
a stat So they're a you know, mid market probably not.
I don't know if they would be considered it an enterprise company.
I don't think they would be twelve people to have
this kind of an impact writing stories that are that
are getting eleven million impressions on social platforms. And you
(07:01):
can punch way above your weight if you just have
focused effort on a thing. And we've been talking about this,
pick a lane. You can win in a lot of
different ways. We've said that for years, like there's so
many ways to win in content. They have picked brand
journalism and they're just cranking it up to eleven and
(07:21):
have twelve dedicated resources to it, and they're driving results.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Because it's timeliness of their content as well, because you
can stay up on this industry if you followed just
this one thing, which is always a nice seat to
have at the table in somebody's content diet. It's like,
if I need to get cybersecurity news, I go here.
Their journalism is excellent, so it's like you're a trusted source.
But then their content distribution, the number of things coming
(07:47):
out is just wild. So that's great. The second one
on here, Lavender you use as an example basically making
the product part of the story, right, So talk to
me a little bit about why you chose this one.
We're both fans of how Lavender has executed content in
the past.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, full disclosure, Lavender's the client of ours. We did
not work on gen Verse Will, but we've we've done
some other stuff with them, and so so I but
I love talking about them. I was a big fan
of them long before they were a client of ours.
But a couple of different things here. So the gen
Verse Will series, I think does a masterful job of
(08:29):
making the product a character in the story and not
the hero, which I think a lot of B two
B companies make the mistake of making putting their product
front and center and then nobody cares and they wonder why.
But in gen Verse Will, it's a competition style show
where Gin and Will one have fantastic chemistry. They're they're
(08:49):
both hilarious and very informed.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, very big audiences on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Again, they're super smart. So their banter is one thing.
But the premise of the show is there in this
competition to see who can write the best email for
a million different scenarios.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
The sales emails, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
And then Lavender, which is a tool that helps sales
reps write better emails, grades both of their emails, and
the winner of the competition is determined by the product.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And so the product is a character in the show.
It is the judge, so to.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Speak, but doesn't even come out to a videos almost
over and is very much baked into the show like
of course you need a judge, yes, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So so the chemistry between gen and will super Smart
the production value, So Raina, I will botch your last
name if I try to say her last name.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
But she's started to.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Pop off on LinkedIn a lot. She talks about video
production and super super smart the way she edits these
videos are like four minute videos, but they're incredibly high engagement,
like you are watching from the opening banter all the
way through to the end, Like she hooks you and
(10:07):
keeps the viewer attention on those videos really high. And
so who knows what got left on the cutting room
floor there, because they obviously put an enormous amount of
effort into the post production edit of this series.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
So the concept is good because it's a game.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
The personalities are great because gen and Well worked well together,
the production quality exceptionally high. And then they're talking about
topics that were just as relevant three years ago as
they are today. So that content made sense in twenty
twenty two when they recorded it, and it will make
sense in twenty twenty seven. And what I think is
(10:45):
so great about doing content like that. Jen no longer
at Lavender, Will Will no longer at Lavin.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Other wills are there?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Raina?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
They had a lot of wills.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, Raina no longer there, but that series can still
perform for them, because if you think about Netflix, like
how many shows on Netflix are no longer filming new
seasons but people are still going back and watching.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Really good point there is. YouTube recently had like a
summit for creators and I heard JT. Barnett talking about this,
but YouTube talked about how the future of their platform
because they're seeing a bunch more activity on TVs, people
watching on TVs. They're changing their UI, like their actual
app to look a lot more. I don't want to
say this, they wouldn't say it this way, but I will.
(11:33):
It looks a lot more like Netflix, and the idea
of episodic content where you follow a creator but they
do series is just becoming the norm because YouTube is realizing,
Like people go to YouTube in the same way, if
not over the next few years, even more so than
they do go to Netflix, like they're going on their
TVs there. So why I bring that up is like
(11:54):
with gen vers Will, it doesn't matter at all that
they're gone from Lavender because of the way they set
up the episodic content. So yes, it's good evergreen like
funny Quick Punchy showcases the product and on top of
that with that series that's awesome, like funny sales enablement
content that's just barely baked in, like you could do
(12:14):
that with SMEs versus. A lot of the opposition to
starting an ongoing forever podcast is if we lose that host,
that could get a little weird. I still have objections
to that, but I think the door in is something
like Jen versus well, just create a quick series, get
them in a few episodes, showcase the product, and maybe
a less obvious in your face way. This one is
(12:35):
huge for us. We nerded out on this whole series.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
I love it all right.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So this next one is an SEO tool. But they're
also dominating on YouTube with over twenty six million views
and over five hundred and sixty thousand subscribers. So the
company is hrefs and it's an SEO tool that probably
every marketer has heard. I didn't even realize how much
they are dominating on YouTube right now. Here's what they're doing.
(13:02):
Fantastic on air talent. So sam O is the face
of the YouTube channel. Fifteen years in digital marketing. He's funny,
he's got really deep insights, a really deep understanding of SEO.
He's proven to be a credible person in this space.
(13:25):
He deeply understands the subject matter. That's an advantage in
B to B that I don't think we tap into
nearly enough is finding our subject matter experts that can
carry our content because of their depth of expertise. That
matters so much here. They have a very intentional approach
to how they title and thumbnail their content, they're opening hooks.
(13:49):
They clearly do scripted content on their YouTube videos, which
we've been talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
You have like a quote or we have a quote
on here. Is this from them that scripts are non negotiable.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yes, I think probably said this because.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
I think that is it is very smart. Scripts are
no negotiable. They force you to be intentional about delivery.
Like even if you've been watching our B to B
growth episodes, we're getting more and more intentional about how
we open because we want y'all to know, like what's coming.
We want you to know how these like the value,
Yeah it is here.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It doesn't matter if the episode is great if we
don't get you into it right, and we know that
the way you get people into it is great title,
great thumbnail, great opening hook. Their entire videos are seen
to be scripted and heavy use of b roll heavy
like they're they're optimizing for increasing average view duration and
(14:37):
as a result, you know, twenty six million views later,
they probably sold a lot of software subscriptions.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
So it's a great one. N Do you remember how
they got on your radar Because you're not seeking out
SEO content regularly, I'm just looking for great content. Examples.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, there's a there's a guy named.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Ryan.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
He used to be at Animals and he is now
at a trefs, and so I think that's initially what
got me at Ryan Law is his name, and I
did a call with him a few weeks ago or
a few months ago now, and it was right before
he had announced he was joining a trefs, and so
I think that's what initially got the momentary radar.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
But yeah, they're absolutely crushing it.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
We have two left, so take us into this next one.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, so here's the content playbook of a two hundred
and seventy two million dollar SaaS company.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
The company's clue.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Their media brand is the Compete Network, so Netflix style
content hub.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
We both loved the content Hub.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, for multiple shows all focused on serving.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
The product marketer.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So they've got a really because of their media brand,
they're able to engage both internal and external creators. So
they've got a couple folks on their team. The guy
that uses clue for clue, like is constantly analyzing their
own competitors. And then this guy Adam, who's a content
marketer on the team. They are the main co hosts
(16:08):
of their show Coffee and compete so internal, but then
they've also got a whole host of shows that are
done by external creators that are already influencers for product marketers.
And I think it's really smart to use their media
brand in this way to I think it's the smartest
(16:30):
execution of B to B influencers to instead of like
paying somebody to do a post for you on LinkedIn,
going to them and being like, hey, we want to
build a show around you. You can do it. And
I don't know what they pay, if they pay anything
for these folks, but there's tangible value to someone that
runs a network coming to you as an influencer and saying, hey,
(16:54):
we want to build a series around you. Could we
fly you up to Canada? Could we bring a crew
to you build a whole set of content like I could.
I could very much see a world where a B
to B creator who has a legitimate following goes that
is valuable enough to me, I'm not even going to
charge you for this because the content this is going
to position me as more of an expert and so
(17:15):
and I'm going to get a bunch of top shelf
content out of it that where I'm the star of
the show.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So really really interesting.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Way to do B to B influencers just get like
doing an entire series around each influencer. They've got a
mix of ongoing shows and limited run series. So to
your point, like, you don't need to do some something
doesn't need to last forever. You can do a six
episode series on something and be self contained and that's
totally fine.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
And some topics are better for that.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, and it lives on your Netflix style site forever.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
So I think they're doing a lot of really really
smart things here. The premises for their shows are also
really interesting. So they've got some like co hosted commentary
style shows where they're just talking about what other people
are doing in this. They've got other ones where they
break down they break down comparison pages. So they're looking
(18:08):
at different companies that are like how do they compare
their product to another product? Like that's a big type
you know, content type yep, And so that's a really
interesting premise like to and focus of a series. So
they're doing a lot of a lot of things, right,
And yeah, I don't think you can talk about B
(18:28):
to B content responsibly and not talk about.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Clue formats and style changes are like things that B
to B still needs to catch up on, and they're
executing really well on where you have so much room
to play in the formats, like even gen versus, Well,
what are they choosing to do there? They're choosing to
lean into competition, They're choosing to lean into repositioning two
(18:54):
people who could just talk on this topic and do
talking head videos, but now they're literally going head to
head to make it more fun. We don't do enough
like creative ideation to just get a bunch of people
around the table and go just throw series ideas or
formats or segments, like throw some of that stuff out
there and again never start with the blank page, go
(19:16):
to chat GPT, get some series ideas. But the way
they're executing on it, to me what's interesting. And we
did a call with them was like, you are really
thinking through formats and how do we uniquely position and
brand each of these and doing both of those before
you even start something, the chances of success get so
much higher. So this is a really really good one,
(19:37):
all right. Last one here is motion.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, so they just raised a thirty one million dollar
Series B and they're crushing it with personal distribution on LinkedIn.
So they've got four people specifically on their team, none
of which are the founder or CEO, that are all
getting incredible engagement on the content that they're posting from
(20:02):
their personal profiles.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Where they all hired guns because of already having social presence,
do you know.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
No, So one of them, one of them's Libby, she's
their head of talent acquisition. The other one is James Mulvey,
he's their head of content. Travis Tyler is on the
social team. I think he's like a manager of.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
This a little bit that you want to he was
already popping off a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah yep, and then they're I'm blanking on his name.
But it's a bizdev guy.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
So all four of them getting phenomenal engagement. They're doing
creative video, they're doing memes. They're really pressing the boundaries.
When you look at what they're doing on their company page.
It's got like thirty one thousand followers on their company page.
Their content is really good on the company page, but
it'll get thirty one likes.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, engagement on company pages. You still got to drip
out content. But it's so poor.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
It's so poor.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And so they've just said, Okay, we're not just going
to settle for what our company page can get. We're
gonna truly invest in the distribution of personal profiles of
the people that work for us to get our name
out there.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
And again they just.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Raised it thirty plus million dollar round of funding. So
this stuff is working.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I appreciate that we've had a few clients come on
recently who just really understand the value of the personal
LinkedIn page specifically, but you could put that across social
If we create content for a person, the content is better.
The chances of us being able to package that in
a more interesting way that doesn't have to be like
so company branded is also better. But company's free to
(21:40):
use it still somebody that works with Yeah, so I
think thinking in that way versus what we saw for
so long was like our company's having a webinar everybody
post about said thing like that is a very company
first approach versus really thinking about your audience and the
fact that we connect with people.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Love the other thing. Motion does really well. They do
smart commentary on what big brands are doing.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, Travis is great at this.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I was phenomenal at this. I've seen James, a head
of content do this too. But when you are talking
about an ad campaign from Oatly, like motions product helps
creative strategists with ad creative, like managing all the different
variations of ad creative that you're running. So for them
talking about big direct to consumer or consumer brands and
(22:27):
what they're doing from an advertising perspective is super smart
because I care about what Taco Bell is doing with
advertising like I care about what Oatly's doing. I care
about what Ridge is doing because I'm a consum, you know,
as a consumer of those products. So them adding not
just commentary but smart commentary on like, hey, learn from
what these guys are doing allows them to ride the
(22:49):
coattails of credibility of a much larger brand and then
weave in their point of view. They also have a
weekly newsletter called Thumbstop, which is just a freaking dope
name from the newsletter, but it's and it's this really
cool combo of being specific enough while also being broad
(23:10):
enough to be interesting. So it's clearly like for creative strategists.
But I'm not a creative strategist, and I'm still really
interested in this because I'm I might not be running
you know, ad creative for our business, but it is
something that I'm fascinated by, and so I think the
way they've positioned it.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Is I think really smart.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's a very specific value though, and then when as
soon as you sign up for the newsletter, there's just
a really smart flow for them to basically get you
on a product demo. But they don't position it like
a product demo. They position it as like, hey, help us,
we want to we want to jump on a thirty
minute call with you and help you think through like
(23:58):
your creative strategy. And by positioning it that way, like hey,
we are studying what all these other brands are doing,
Like let's pressure test your creative strategy on this thirty
minute call. So it's like I'm getting you into this newsletter,
which is the newsletter. You being a subscriber to the
newsletter is going to help you and thousands of other
(24:19):
use value. But now all of a sudden, you're telling
me I can get one on one value, right, that's
contextual to my situation, and you're going to evaluate an
audit what I'm doing personally. Okay, But because they've positioned
the newsletter to be for creative strategists. They're setting up
their sales team to have some really great conversations with
(24:40):
potential buyers.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Well, this has been a really good episode. I like
that we gave five examples of brands that you can
actually now just go follow. Hey, go do your own
digging and research. And if you know of other B
to B brands that you think we should have shouted
out here, we have an ever growing list because we
want to see great B to B content. We are
automission to see more of that. We want to help
(25:03):
create it too, So love your examples. Here we talked
about recorded future Lavender, Hrs, Clue Motion. Shout out to
the great content that each of them is producing. James
take us out.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Remember whoever has the audience has the leverage. Commodity content
is the enemy personality. Led media is the way
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