B2B Content Show

In this episode of the podcast, host Jeremy Shere welcomes Todd Gregory, the Regional Director for the Americas at Fifth Ring, a global B2B marketing agency. They discuss strategies for maximizing ROI from trade shows, which are often costly yet crucial for networking and business growth.Todd emphasizes that many B2B companies mistakenly view trade shows as isolated events rather than integral parts of a broader marketing strategy. He critiques the common reliance on foot traffic as a success metric, noting that not all visitors are potential customers. Instead, he advocates for creating memorable experiences that engage attendees, such as immersive booths and interactive displays.Todd shares a successful example where a company created an exclusive, intriguing booth that drew in crowds, leading to significant lead generation. He also highlights the importance of follow-up strategies post-show, including personalized outreach and nurturing leads through multiple touch points.The conversation underscores the need for companies to think creatively about their trade show presence and to integrate their efforts into a cohesive marketing plan that extends beyond the event itself. Todd invites listeners to connect with him for further insights on trade show consulting and marketing strategies.Connect with Todd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtoddgregory/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Jeremy Shere sits down with Malte Lange, CEO of Lead Your Way, to delve into the intricacies of leveraging LinkedIn for B2B marketing. Malte shares his extensive experience in online marketing, particularly focusing on LinkedIn for the last five years. Together, they discuss common pitfalls solopreneurs, coaches, and consultants face on LinkedIn and provide actionable strategies to overcome them. Key takeaways include the importance of having a clear strategy, understanding your target audience, and mixing different types of content. They also explore the benefits of combining organic engagement with paid advertising to effectively reach the right people. Whether you're looking to grow your business or deepen your connections on LinkedIn, this episode is packed with valuable insights.Connect with Malte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malte-lange/00:00 Welcome to the Podcast00:04 The LinkedIn Dilemma00:58 Introducing Melta Leng02:05 The Missing Piece in LinkedIn Strategy03:05 Developing a Solid LinkedIn Strategy03:48 Understanding Your Target Audience12:05 Creating Engaging Content16:18 Leveraging LinkedIn Ads21:09 Targeting the Right Audience22:04 Balancing Paid and Organic Strategies22:47 Leveraging Tools for Prospect Research24:52 The Importance of Personalization27:07 Scaling vs. Personal Touch29:59 When to Make the Offer32:08 Tailoring Offers to Prospects34:18 Building Long-Term Relationships38:50 Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Jeremy Shere welcomes Nick Bennett, the Chief Customer Officer and Co-founder of TACK, a media network and go-to-market firm. Nick shares his journey in B2B marketing, from being a field marketer to co-founding his own company and becoming a LinkedIn influencer. They delve into the nuances of influencer marketing within the B2B space, comparing it to B2C influencer dynamics and discussing effective strategies for leveraging influencers to grow a business. Nick also talks about his upcoming book, 'B2B Influencer Marketing,' which aims to educate on building authentic and impactful marketing campaigns. They discuss how to choose the right influencers, measuring the success of influencer campaigns, and the future opportunities in B2B influencer marketing. Whether you're a marketer or a business owner, this episode offers valuable insights into harnessing the power of influencers to drive meaningful results.Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbennett1/Check out the book!00:00 Welcome to the Show00:14 Introduction to Influencer Marketing00:51 Guest Introduction: Nick Bennett01:15 Nick Bennett's Journey02:02 Nick's Book on B2B Influencer Marketing03:09 Understanding Influencers in B2B09:07 How to Work with Influencers14:28 Finding the Right Influencers18:03 Successful Influencer Campaigns27:05 Measuring Influencer Campaign Success30:19 The Future of Influencer Marketing in B2B33:01 Conclusion and Contact Information Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the B2B Content Show, Jeremy Shere interviews Lacey Budd, the Director of Content at Customer.io, about the process and challenges of producing a comprehensive industry report with limited resources. Lacey shares insights into planning, data collection, analyzing product usage, survey data, design, and distribution. She also discusses lessons learned from their first report and improvements made for the second edition, highlighting the importance of internal collaboration and maintaining an engaging narrative in reports.00:21 The Importance of Industry Reports01:12 Guest Introduction: Lacey Budd from Customer.io01:23 Overview of Customer.io and Lacey's Role02:42 Creating a Comprehensive Industry Report03:42 Planning and Timeline for Report Creation04:44 Data Collection and Analysis06:35 Team Collaboration and Project Management11:35 Survey Data and Insights16:25 Challenges and Learnings from Data Analysis24:22 Design and Presentation of the Report28:34 Breaking Up the Page with Design Elements29:03 Learning from Last Year's Report30:53 Starting with Design Direction35:44 Internal vs. External Report Creation40:41 Team Collaboration and Morale43:00 Distribution Strategy for the Report45:09 Measuring Report Success48:11 Valuable Insights for the Audience50:03 Feedback and Improvements54:49 Conclusion and Contact Information Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Jeremy Shere sits down with Sally Lechin, the Head of Marketing at Envana, to discuss strategies for staying on a prospect's radar. Sally shares insights into her role, challenges, and strategies for building trust and engaging with prospects in the oil and gas industry. The conversation covers topics such as multi-channel marketing strategies, the importance of LinkedIn, automation and personalization, and the critical role of events in generating leads. Sally also touches on the evolution of Envana from a niche startup to a key player in the sustainability data management space, leveraging technology and deep industry expertise. This episode is a valuable resource for marketers looking to understand the complexities and best practices of nurturing long-term business relationships.00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview00:29 Guest Introduction: Sally Lechin from Envana02:44 Challenges in B2B Marketing05:27 LinkedIn Strategies for Lead Generation11:24 Tools and Tech Stack for Marketing21:51 Event Participation and Building Relationships25:21 Conclusion and Contact Information Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mastering B2B Marketing Transitions: Insights and Strategies with Haley FraserIn this episode of the B2B Content Show, host Jeremy Shere interviews Haley Fraser, the new Director of Brand and Content Marketing at Asimily, a startup focused on securing connected devices. Haley shares her experiences and strategies for successfully transitioning into new roles, especially at leadership levels, within various organizations. Key discussion points include the importance of asking questions, showing genuine curiosity, and gathering crucial feedback to understand new environments. Haley emphasizes building relationships, earning trust, and handling organizational resistance to change. They also cover aligning content marketing projects with business-critical KPIs, balancing immediate wins with long-term strategic impacts, maintaining open communication, and valuing team feedback. For new leaders, Haley advises having a clear playbook, understanding competitors, and staying engaged with key stakeholders. Connect with Haley on LinkedIn for further insights.00:00 Welcome to the B2B Content Show00:40 Introducing Haley Fraser00:59 Understanding Asimily's mission01:52 Haley's Experience in Content Marketing04:34 Challenges of Transitioning to a New Role06:23 Building Connections and Earning Trust07:49 Gathering Insights from the Organization10:32 Navigating Conflicting Opinions11:54 Identifying Areas for Improvement12:20 Navigating Organizational Change12:51 Building Relationships and Understanding Decision-Making14:00 Gathering and Implementing Feedback15:18 Balancing Priorities and Avoiding Shiny Objects18:17 Dealing with Resistance and Friction23:12 Final Advice for New Leaders24:49 Connecting and Staying in Touch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

link 1: linkedin.com/in/joannabowzerlink 2: http://www.clearvoice.comThe B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

link 1: linkedin.com/in/oklochailink2: https://wizardondemand.comThe B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our age of remote everything, the elevator pitch is a bit of an anachronism. When's the last time you pitched an idea in an elevator? But the concept is still relevant and important! If you're in marketing or sales, you need to be able to explain what you offer is a way that's succinct, clear, and compelling ... and do it in about 30 seconds or less. Now, crafting a great elevator pitch isn't exactly quantum theory ... but it's not easy, either! And in fact, according to my guest, many companies struggle to explain what they do and why it matters to non-experts. Jarie Bolander is many things ... He's head of market strategy at Decision Counsel ... the author of several books, including Story Driven Outreach ... and host of The Entrepreneur Ethos Podcast.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're all familiar with The Funnel ... We know there's a top of the funnel, a middle, a bottom ... and everything in between. The top is where we just try to make prospects aware that we exist ... And once they're in the funnel, the marketer's job, alongside sales, is to nudge them further along until they're at the bottom, where, presumably, prospects are just about ready to buy ... and we marketers do our part by supplying bottom of the funnel content to help get them over the finish line.But for my guests today, this tidy little picture is maybe a little bit too tidy. Tas Bober is founder of Delphinium Solutions, an consultancy specializing in landing page strategy for growth-stage SaaS companies ... and Lashay Lewis is founder of Authority Plug, a content marketing advisory firm.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the biggest sources of tension between marketing and sales is the quality of leads. From the point of view of sales, marketing qualified leads, or MQLs, are notoriously iffy, derived from people downloading gated content and signing up for newsletters and so on. Marketing hands these leads over to sales, thinking, we've done our part! But sales turns around and says, these leads are garbage! People who download an ebook or whatever are not necessarily in the market. We need leads that are actually ready to buy!It stands to reason that marketers could do with a better way of sourcing and evaluating leads before handing them to sales. What could that look like? My guest today is here to paint us a picture. Quincy Johnson is a senior consultant at Compound Growth Marketing, a demand generation consultancy.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In some very basic way. the purpose of marketing is to support sales. And so it stands to reason that the more marketers know about how sales actually works, the better. But marketers often have only a hazy understanding of what motivates salespeople and HOW they sell. I know that was my experience when I worked as a copywriter in the medical device industry. I actually went through sales training and did ride alongs with reps. But still, in my day to day work I wasn't really seeing things from a sales perspective. To help us better understand what marketers ought to know about how sales works, my guests today are Joel Barker and Karl Steiner. Joel is creative director and principal at Lion's Way Content, and Karl is lead writer and principle Lion's Way.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's nothing more frustrating for marketers than pouring your heart and soul into a piece of content, only to have sales reps ignore it or use it the wrong way. My guest on this episode has lots of experience dealing with this issue. He is Nick Loise, founder of Sales Performance Team, a leading fractional sales leadership and new business development firm. We talk about what causes marketers to produce content that sales people don't value or understand and what marketers can do to create content that salespeople DO value.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever thought about getting into speaking?If so, then this episode is for you. Juli Lassow, an entrepreneur, founder of JHL Solutions, and a frequent speaker. We talk about how to get started with speaking, how to overcome the fear of public speaking (right up there with death as many people's #1 fear!), how to use speaking opportunities to market yourself and your business, and much more!The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

link 1: linkedin.com/in/lewsadderlink 2: http://www.brighttail.comThe B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It stands to reason that the most effective content is content that's informed by data. Specifically, data about what customers value about a company's products and services. The better you design a piece of content to speak to the specific needs, desired outcomes, and preferences of the people you're trying to sell it to, based on what you learn from your current customers, the better that content is likely to perform. Actually doing this, though, is easier said than done. My guest today is here to share her process for infusing content with valuable product user and product lifecycle data. Ashley Litzenberger is a product and solution marketing expert and founder of Ashley Litzenberger Consulting,Link 1 linkedin.com/in/alitzenbergerhigheredThe B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Podcasting can be a great way to reach and engage an audience, create and repurpose a lot of content, and have meaningful conversations with people you want to get to know.But starting a podcast can ALSO be a powerful driver for personal growth.In this episode, Bryan Huhn, a financial advisor and host of the Affordable Freedom podcast, talks about how podcasting has helped him become more confident in meeting and having conversations with new people, becoming a better listener, and much more! The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviewing is easy, right? You just ask a bunch of questions, record the answers, and that's it. Of course, if you're a regular listener or if you know me at all, you know that's not true. Interviewing at a high level is an art & a science, involving complexities that are hard to appreciate until you encounter them. For example, people in positions of power, such as a CEO, are often very careful during interviews to not say the wrong thing. And so they lapse into corporate jargon and blandly recite the company's purpose and mission statement. As the interviewer, though, that's not what you came for. You want the real thing. But how do you get beyond the corporate facade and get the interviewee to open up?To help us unravel this puzzle, my guest is Dean Nelson, founder and director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, founder and host of The Writers Symposium by the Sea, and author the book Talk to Me: How to ask better questions, get better answers, and interview anyone like a pro.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 years ago, when I started Connversa, I built a website using Wix, the drag and drop DIY website platform. But I felt a little weird about it, because I had it in my head that REAL websites are built on Wordpress ... AND that a website I built myself just wasn't good enough. And so, after a few years, I hired a company to build me a real, professional Wordpress site. But did I HAVE to do that? Maybe, instead of paying a lot of money to get a brand new website, you can opt for hiring someone to improve your current site.To help us work through this, my guest today is Niki Clark, founder and CEO of Niki Clark Marketing.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all know that case studies are among the most useful kind of content any B2B company can have. According to the 2023 SaaS Marketing Case Studies report, from Uplift Content, SaaS marketers ranked case studies as the most valuable type of content to increase sales. Other reports have found similar results in other industries. But the Uplift report also found that only 12% of SaaS marketers are very satisfied with their case studies. So, there's apparently lots of room for improvement. To help us understand how companies can produce better case studies, my guest is Emily Amos, founder and CEO of Uplift Content.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The basic idea of content marketing is to publish stuff that's not all about your products and services but instead about your audience, their problems and pain points. At this same time, though, content DOES need to point to, or maybe gesture towards, your brand and your solution. Which can be tricky. How do you create content that's not so product and brand focused as so come across as overtly sales-y, while at the same time making a clear connection between the educational content you're publishing and your brand. To help us unpack this challenge, my guest is Dale Harrison, founder of Inforda Life Science Services, a life sciences marketing agency.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We create content with the aim of standing out and showing our audience how we're difference and valuable.But given the volume of content being published every day, that's hard to do.There's no secret silver bullet to solving that puzzle, but there are some basic principles that can guide us.Adam Robinson, founder of Strategexe and, more recently, Markexe, sheds light on what companies can do to differentiate through content.The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping business owners and busy CEOs create a month's worth of difference making content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, you have an idea for what you're sure will be a killer new business. The first thing you should do is build a website, right? I mean, how else will people be able to find you? Sure, there's still a lot of stuff you need to figure out, but you can always update the website as you go.Or, maybe not. Maybe a website ISN't the first thing you need. In fact, maybe it's more like the LAST thing.To help us unpack this, my guest is Luke Netti, a website strategist and Webflow specialist. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month's worth of thought leadership video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Demand gen.Lead gen.What do these terms mean, what's the difference, and which is more important for B2B marketers?In this episode, ⁠Deanna Shimota⁠, founder and CEO of ⁠Growth Mode Marketing⁠, talks about why b2b marketers should prioritize demand gen over lead gen and what it looks like to build a high-powered demand gen engine. Check out Dianna's podcast, ⁠The Demand Gen Fix⁠. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping you create a month's worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ChatGPT has taken the world of marketing by storm, for better and for worse. And by worse, I'm referring to all sorts of questions about privacy and the accuracy of information, intellectual property rights, deep fake technology, and on and on. In short, AI presents us with incredible and tantalizing possibilities, but also with a lot of risks, many of which we're only just beginning to understand. And if you're a B2B marketer and you're using AI or you're going to use it, you need to be aware of those risks and understand how to mitigate and avoid them and the consequences if you don't. So to help us unpack all of this, my guest today is Susan Peich. Susan is head of marketing at Monitaur, a platform that provides software that delivers responsible and ethical AI model governance from policy to proof.

One of the tenets of good copywriting is that you must have a strong "hook." Something to grab the reader's attention and keep them reading. At least, that's advice you commonly hear. But what is a "hook", exactly, and is using one the best or only way to get attention? My guest today has a problem with the concept of the "hook," and he's here to tell us why. Derek Pollard is the owner of Constellar Creative, a marketing and thought leadership agency for financial planners. Derek is also a highly acclaimed and published poet and has taught writing at the university level for many years. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping you create a month's worth of difference-making content in 60 minutes.

Back in the good old days, when interest rates were super low and money was cheap, most tech startups were in full-on growth mode, using all that sweet sweet VC money to grab as much market share as possible and worrying about profits later. But today, when access to cheap capital has dried up, those same startups have had to pivot on a dime and start making a profit! And so, marketers at those companies have had to pivot, too, while seeing their budgets cut and headcount shrink. Adapting to that new reality is not easy or simple. And my guest today is here to share his experience. Mitch Solway is a fractional CMO who works with early and growth stage startups.

Once upon a time, in the olden days, sales held the key to b2b growth. If buyers wanted to learn about a product or service, they had little choice but to talk to a salesperson and hope for the best. More recently, since the rise of the internet and social media, marketing grabbed the keys, cranking out and endless stream of blog posts and white papers and ebooks and videos to engage the large percentage of buyers who prefer to do their own research before talking to anyone in sales. Over the past few years, especially in world world of SaaS, a new contender has emerged: product-led growth. What is product-led growth, exactly, how does it work. and what roles do b2b marketers play in it? My guest today is Steve LaChance, founder of discernr, helping companies with product market fir for product led growth, and author of the book Marketing for Product Led Growth: become a company leader through credibility and empathy. Steve shares a lot of great stuff on how b2b brands can make product-led growth work to drive revenue. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping you create a month's worth of authority-building content in 60 minutes.

There was a lot of hype around generative AI when ChatGPT debuted, how it was going to replace human writers and so on. But now that the dust has settled a bit, I think there's a growing consensus that AI isn't quite ready to take over for human writers and other creators.  Which begs the question, what exactly IS gen AI good for? To help us answer this question, my guest is Brad Smith, a serial entrepreneur who owns three companies, codeless, wordable, and uSERP, all in the b2b marketing space.

YouTube is a mysterious beast. At least, it is to me. It's one of the world's most powerful search engines, yet the vast majority of videos get very little engagement. Which might be just a little concerning if you spend a lot of time and money producing video content. What keeps all of us on the video bandwagon, I think, is the vast POTENTIAL for leveraging video and YouTube as a marketing channel. My guests for this episode, Matt and Ben Tompkins, co-founders of Two Brothers Creative and co-hosts of the Midwest Mindset Podcast, are hear to demystify YouTube and to help us get the most value from it as a marketing tool. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by ⁠Connversa⁠, helping you create a month's worth of attention-grabbing content in 60 minutes.

Have you ever spent a lot of time trying to solve a problem, and you just can't figure it out, so you give up and maybe take a break to clear your head ... And then, when you're not really thinking about it, when you let your mind wander, a solutions pops up seemingly out of nowhere? That happens to me a lot. In fact, I get a lot of my best ideas when I'm not thinking about anything in particular. It's like my brain is just kinda doing it's own thing, independent of me trying to force it to do something. That state of what we might call daydreaming is known scientifically as the Default Mode Network, and it involves parts of the brain that are active when you're not focused on a specific task. In this episode, Stephanie Scheller, founder of the The Impact Authority, a marketing education firm for small businesses, and founder of Grow Disrupt, a company that designs and produces multi-sensory educational experiences for entrepreneurs with ADHD, discusses the default mode network and how marketers can use it to come up with more creative marketing solutions. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping you create a month's worth of attention-grabbing content in 60 minutes.

If you're the founder or head of marketing a b2b startup, you might see building a presence on Instagram and TikTok as a waste of time. If your audience isn't active on those platforms ... or if you're not sure if they're on those platforms, why spend time and money creating content for them? But ... is that true? Is there value in being active on Instagram and TikTok for b2b startups and, if so, how exactly does b2b marketing work on those apps? In this episode, Jake Hurwitz, founder of Thursday Labs, a content agency for early-stage startups, explains why b2b brands SHOULD be on Instagram and TikTok and how to get value on those platforms without breaking your back and doing a ton of extra work. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping you creating a months' worth of authority-building thought leadership content in 60 minutes.

As a b2b marketer in 2023, is it better to play it safe and not take risks ... Or to be bold and adventurous and break new ground? I'm guessing that most of our listeners, as well as b2b marketers generally, would agree that it's best to take risks and be bold! But that's apparently easier said than done. Because so much b2b content copies what's already out there ... in other words, plays it safe. And so, it's worth thinking about what NOT playing it safe looks like, how to do it, and why it's worth the risk. In this episode, John Miller, founder and president of the content marketing agency Scribewise and author of the book Playing it Safe Sucks: A Manifesto for courageous marketing, gets into why it's worth taking risks in marketing, what courageous marketing looks like, and what's at stake if you're not willing to take a few risks. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by ⁠Connversa⁠, helping you creating a months' worth of authority-building thought leadership content in 60 minutes.

SEO is always changing. From its earliest days, when SEO first became a thing, it was never static. But now, with ChatGPT technology increasingly being built into search engines, we're at an inflection point with SEO. As it becomes increasingly less necessary to click through to websites to get answers to questions, how can marketers adjust their SEO strategies to keep traffic flowing to their website? Is website traffic flow still a metric worth chasing? This episode's guest is here to help us explore these questions. Liam Carnahan, a content strategist, SEO expert, and owner of Inkwell Content Services, offer valuable insights about what content marketers need to know and do to get value from SEO going forward. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping you create a month's worth of authority-building thought leadership content in 60 minutes.

Thought leadership and content marketing are often lumped into the same category. But they're not the same thing. You might say that thought leadership is a type of content marketing, but it's a very particular type, and producing it at a high level requires a particular set of skills, like Liam Neeson in the movie Taken. To help us unpack the concept of thought leadership and what it takes to produce really good thought leadership content, my guest is Bob Buday. Bob is founder and ceo at Buday Thought Leadership Partners and author of the book Competing on Thought Leadership: How great b2b companies turn expertise into revenue ... and co-host of the podcast Everything Thought Leadership.

One of the biggest issues in b2b content marketing is ROI. Specifically, attributing revenue growth to to all the blog posts, videos, ebooks and other pieces of content you publish. It's hard, even damn near impossible, to draw a straight line between content marketing activity and growing the bottom line. Which can make it challenging to make the case for content marketing when it comes to budgeting and headcount. There's no magic formula or simple fix. But today's guest is here to explain how he handles the ROI issue at his company. Ira Belsky is co-founder and co-CEO at Artlist, a creative technology company providing high quality assets for video creators. Ira describes how being a bootstrapped company forced him to prioritize ROI and practice brandformance, a mashup of performance marketing and brand marketing. https://www.youtube.com/@artlist_io/featured

There been a lot of turmoil surrounding the company formerly known as Twitter, now called X. And apparently, at least some B2B brands have left the platform. If you run marketing at one of those companies, or your company is thinking about leaving the platform, you may be wondering if that's a good idea and, if it is, where you should focus your social media efforts instead. With us today to explore those question is Stephanie Schwab, founder and CEO of Crackerjack Marketing. We get into why B2B companies are leaving Twitter and how they can get more value from being active on LinkedIn. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping you create a month's worth of authority-building content in just 60 minutes.

I'm a gen Xer. When I was in the bloom of youth, being gen X was as cool as it got. But now, of course, it's been a long time since my generation has been surpassed in the coolness department ... first by Millenials, which I guess are gen Y ... and now by Gen Z! Members of the Z generation are many things, for better and for worse. One thing they definitely are is very much online, and online they are masters are the meme -- those repurposed images and video clips with witty captions that spread across the internet like a Canadian wildfire. Before long, and in some ways already, Gen Zers are going to enter the workforce in droves and occupy positions with buying power. And so it behooves content marketers to have a strategy for using memes in their marketing strategies. That's what's inspired my guests today. Jacob Nomafo and Jonah Blackburn are co-founders of LucidMeme, a company that helps brands build relationships between businesses and Gen Z through humor, using memes to capture attention and build brand awareness. Jacob and Jonah talk about why they were inspired to create Lucid Meme and how b2b marketers can use memes to engage a Gen Z audience. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a podcasting agency that helps B2B brands start podcasts to build relationships with prospects and referral partners and create better content.

We can all agree that the best content strategy is one that aligns with your growth strategy. After all, you're not creating content just for the hell of it. It's a means to an end--the end being to get the attention of prospects and, ultimately, drive growth. But that's easier said than done. Many content marketers find themselves trapped in the infamous content hamster wheel, churning out blog posts and ebooks and social posts with no clear ROI. My guest today is here to help us escape the hamster wheel! John Vetere is CEO of Vetere & Associates, a firm that works with clients through coaching and consulting, strategic marketing, and hiring, to help them grow. John offers lots of hard-won insights about how to align content strategy with growth strategy. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a b2b podcasting agency that helps brands create podcasts to build relationships with prospects and referral partners. John's Contact: 978-360-2990

B2B content marketing has been going strong for a while now. In fact, it's become so dominant that even before ChatGPT, there was a prevailing sense that there's TOO MUCH CONTENT! Now, with generative AI enabling every content marketer and their mom to crank out even MORE content at warp speed, it's harder than ever to break through the noise with content that actually gets the attention of your audience. It's enough to make you wonder ... have we reached an inflection point in the evolution of content marketing? Are we at a point where B2B brands will begin to pivot away from content marketing towards ... something else? That's the gist of a LinkedIn post that caught my eye a few weeks ago, written by Mark Evans, a fractional CMO and founder of Marketing Spark, a B2B marketing agency specializing in brand positioning and messaging. Mark returned to the podcast to discuss where content marketing is and where it may be headed. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a digital content agency that helps you create a month's worth of authority-building content in 60 minutes.

One of the best things you can do to create original content is to base it on original research. Which is, of course, easier said than done! It's not just a matter of time and money, although both are factors. It's also about understanding HOW to do research, even if just on a small scale. For example, if you're going to send a survey to your customers, how do you craft survey questions that will result in quality data? And what exactly do you do with the data once you have it? To help answer these and other questions related to doing original research, this episode features Becky Lawlor, founder and chief research and content officer at Redpoint, a company that helps B2B brands conduct original research. Becky has a lot to say about the importance of starting with clear research goals, crafting survey questions, cleaning data, and getting the most juice from the data you collect. If you want to learn how to collect the kind of data that results in great content, this episode is a can't miss! The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a content agency that helps you create a month's worth of authority-building data in 60 minutes. https://redpointcontent.com/guides/

Something I've realized recently is that I've turned into an old fogey. The fact that I just used the term "old fogey" is one sign of that! What I mean is that I'm old enough that I look at younger generations and I'm just kinda mystified. It was all I could do to get my head around Millenials and what they're all about, when here comes Gen Z, ready to take over! I have Gen Z kids, so I have some clue. They're very much online ... they spend a ton of time on social media and on their phones ... Where the existential threat when I was growing up was nuclear war with the Soviet Union, theirs is climate change. A lot of Gen Zers in the West aren't so sure about capitalism ... The list goes on. All I know is that, if you're a B2B marketer, you're gonna need to understand Gen Z and what motivates them, because before long they're going to be in the workforce in a major way. My guest today is here to help us understand Gen Z and how B2B brands need to be crafting marketing strategies aimed at them. Ian Baer is the founder and chief soothsayer of sooth, a marketing platform and consultancy that helps brands better understand how their prospects and customers make buying decisions. We drill down into what makes Gen Z tick, what motivates their buying decisions, and what B2B marketers need to know to create content that stands the best chance of converting Gen Z prospects into customers. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a thought leadership content agency that helps you create a month's worth of authority building content in 60 minutes.

There's a lot that goes into being a great podcast host. And there's ALSO a lot that goes into being a great podcast guest! Sure, you can just show up and wing it; some people are good at that. But the right kind of preparation can elevate you from being a solid or even really good guest to being a GREAT guest that podcasts want to have on their show again and again. Mike Begg is Co-founder and CEO of AMZ Advisers, a firm that helps brands and manufacturers grow their Amazon sales channel, has had lots of practice appearing on podcasts and is with us to share some tips for how to be an amazing podcast guest. We talk about pitching yourself to podcast producers and hosts; preparing to record; delivering a great performance, and much more. If appearing as a guest on podcasts is part of your marketing plan, don't miss this episode! The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a thought leadership content agency that helps you create a month's worth of authority-building content in 60 minutes.

I'm a big advocate for podcasting as a marketing channel, as you know. But I know that it can be a big lift for companies to get a show up and running and to build an audience. Podcasting is especially challenging for solopreneurs, who on top of running their business have to learn how to run a podcast and be a podcast host! Hats off to any solopreneur who can make it work, because podcasting can add tremendous value. I'm very glad to have with me today one such entrepreneur, Olivia Luper! Olivia is the founder of Lexicon Advisor Marketing, a digital marketing agency for financial advisors. Her podcast is called Get Advisorfit, where Olivia talks with financial consultants and industry experts about marketing strategy and business growth. Olivia describes her podcast production workflow and shares what she's learned about what works and what doesn't work for running a podcast as a solopreneur. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa: Create a month's worth of premium content in 60 minutes.

SEO makes me feel a little guilty. Because I know it's important and that I probably should being doing a better job on SEO. Part of my problem, I think, is that when I have looked into SEO, it feels just complicated and time-consuming enough that, and I feel just intimidated enough, that I don't do anything about it. One thing that's helped recently, though, is a discussion I had with SEO expert Kevin Roy, CEO of Greenbanana, an SEO and digital marketing agency, about the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule and how it applies to SEO. The 80/20 rule, as you probably already know, states that, on average, 80% of the output you get from a given system is determined by 20% of the input. It's useful for deciding where to focus your attention and efforts. And just like any other system, when it comes to SEO, some tactics and strategies drive more results than others. In this episode, Kevin provides the low down on which SEO tactics provide the most bang for the buck! The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa: Create a month's worth of premium content in 60 minutes.

If you had to rank content types from most valuable to least, you'd probably put video right at the top, or at least near the top. That's what most of the surveys and state of the industry reports say, anyhow. But when you start to explore video, you soon realize that it's complicated! There are different types of videos ... some work better than other for certain platforms. One of the most popular is the short-form, vertical style video -- Instagram calls them reels, YouTube calls them Shorts, Tik Tok calls them ... Tik Toks! Why is this style of video so popular? Should you be producing video shorts? If so, how does that work? To help us get some answers I had a great chat with Corey Alderin, CEO and Founder of SermonShots, a video clip production platform for Churches and other organizations. Corey has a lot to say about why short-form videos are so effective as top-of-the-funnel content, how algorithms help drive their popularity, which production and editing styles work best, and much more. If you're interested in getting into short-form video, this episode is a must listen!

We've talked many times on the show about the value of podcasting as a content marketing strategy. A big part of the value is using a podcast as a way to get to know people who can help you grow your business--potential clients and referral partners, current customers, and so on. But for those who aren't already using podcasting in this way, it might not be clear how it works ... How do you get people you don't already know to be guests on your show ... How do you turn prospects into customers if you don't actually talk about your solution on the podcast ... And how do you build on the relationships you build with podcast guests once the recording is done? My guest today is here to help answers these questions and more! She is Liat Kozuch, field marketing lead at Hyro, an adaptive communications platform for enterprise brands, and host and producer of Hyro's podcast, Patient Journey Pioneers. Liat shares the inside scoop on how she invites high-level guests on to the podcast and why they almost always say "Yes!" If you're a podcast or curious about how podcasting can get you time with anyone you want to get to know, don't miss this episode! The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a digital content agency that helps B2B brands create a month's worth of content in only 60 minutes.

If you're a content marketer, you probably know the name Rand Fishkin. He's founder of Spark Toro, and basically a go-to source for innovative ways of thinking about and doing content marketing. Anyhow, Rand published a blog post this past April titled "AI-generated content is the new floor." The post can be summed up in a single sentence: "If your content isn't better than what AI can produce, it's not worth making." I came to Rand Fishkin's article by way of another article, "The Future of Content Marketing: Five Predictions," written by Chad S. White, head of research for Oracle Marketing Consulting, and an expert on email marketing, and the author of the book Email Marketing Rules, now in it's 4th addition. Chad mainly agrees with Fishkin and takes the discussion further, arguing that while generative AI is useful in all sorts of ways, we have to be very careful to not use it in ways that rupture the trust factor that's so important in connecting with an audience and, ultimately, converting curious prospects into paying customers. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a digital content agency that helps you create a month's worth of premium content in 60 minutes.

Thinking "outside the box" can be a double edged sword. (Two metaphors packed into a single short sentence; not too shabby, eh?) Done well, defying convention can help you stand out. But thinking TOO FAR outside the box can make you seem just plain weird and untrustworthy. It's important to strike a balance. That's what Katrina Neil and Mallory Dietl, co-founders and owners of Key Grip Virtual, do to great effect with what they call "Blushies," cartoon figures they use on their website to convey the brand voice they're going after: a little whimsical, fun, but still 100% professional. In this fun episode of The B2B Content Show, Katrina and Mallory tell the story of how the Blushies came to be, how they use them to maximum effect, and how other companies can get creative and fun with their branding without sacrificing professionalism and trustworthiness. The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a boutique agency that uses the art of interviewing to position your subject matter experts as thought leaders and to showcase your special sauce.

We all know that sales-marketing alignment is crucial. Yet for many companies it's hard to get those groups aligned. Because ... It's all too easy for marketers to get trapped inside the marketing bubble and lose sight of the fact that the entire point of marketing is to enable sales For Greg Mischio, owner of and strategic director at Winbound, a B2B digital sales and marketing agency, content only works when it's designed to enable salespeople at every stage of the sales process. And that means working directly with sales teams to get their input on the kind of content they need to help deliver leads that can actually be closed. Hence Greg's concept of marketing functioning as a "digital twin" of your sales team. If you're looking for says to better align your sales and marketing functions, this episode is worth a listen! The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, a digital content agency that turns one hour of interviews with your subject matter experts into a month's worth of premium content for every stage of your sales funnel.

We all know that business communities are the bomb, right? Joining the right community can offer value in so many ways: -connecting with like-minded people -getting help with pressing problems -satisfying the need for human connection -and yes, even winning new business! But there are better and worse ways to get maximum value from communities. Lisa Apolinski, a content coach and founder of 3 Dog Write, is an expert on this. (She's also the author/co-author of several books, including Persuade with a Digital Story, Grow Your Market Share in a Zombie Apocalypse, Weathering the Digital Storm, and The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever.) In this episode of The B2B Content Show, Lisa offers tons of insights on how to make the most of being part of communities and how to make community engagement a key part of your marketing strategy. If you're interested in learning more about the value of communities for your business, this episode is a must listen! The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, offering expert interviewing services to showcase your expertise and help you stand out from the crowd.