So, you have a sales team— but you can’t seem to close with any of your potential clients OR the sales process feels particularly hard. Why? In a day and age where information on any company is available at the push of a button, it is vital to understand why content marketing drives business.
On today’s episode of “Marketing Matters,” Morgan and Sarah are discussing the key aspects of content marketing and why it is effective in the B2B business world. We’ll focus on what content is and how it can lead to sales enablement. Tune in to learn about the value that content marketing can bring to your business.
Highlights:
- Why is content marketing important to sales enablement?
- Why is having the right mix of traditional and digital media important?
- What is inbound marketing?
- How does digital and traditional content play a role in relationship building?
- Why is it important to have organic content?
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Marketing Matters is brought to you by ADV Marketing
Sarah Roberts
We’re excited to be bringing you this podcast produced by our company, ADV Marketing. ADV Marketing develops high quality and cost-effective marketing materials for a wide range of businesses. Our relationship driven business model and customized marketing solutions makes us the perfect partner for small businesses looking to grow. I’m Sarah, Creative Director at ADV Marketing. Join me here with the rest of my team on Marketing Matters every other Monday to discuss business-to-business marketing topics. Now let’s get into the episode.
Welcome to Marketing Matters a podcast where we discuss all things marketing and how it applies to your business. Welcome back guys, I’m here with Morgan, I’m Sarah and we are going to be talking about why content? Which is a pretty fun conversation because content is what we I would say specialize in or really have built an expertise around for our clients. We are going to talk about why it works and why we do it for the B2B clients that we have.
So, Morgan, let’s first start out by talking about sales enablement because when we come to a lot of our clients and we start talking about the value of content creation for B2B marketing the thing they immediately go to is sales enablement tools, which has been around for a while. So, talk to me about sales enablement, how you have seen it in the clients? Let’s take it away from there.
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, so, as we talk a lot, we work with a lot of energy clients and a lot of that is sales-driven, it’s very much word of mouth and marketing is kind of a newer trend in the industry. So, the way we approach it is that we are helping your sales team and we are shooting over the lines of defenses so that you can go in and sell. I think that is why we have such a strong analogy with that artillery, armory, infantry metaphor and if you look at any of our processes, we tie it back to that a lot, in having that archer metaphor, and all that. So, can you give us a little more on that, Sarah?
Sarah Roberts
I was about to say, I’m sure we have to go back and redefine, even though there are definitely podcast episodes where we reference this because it is so central to how we build our strategy and why it works but we will revisit it right now. So, there’s really three military metaphors going on here in marketing, which I’m really glad that marketing starts with an M because it’s like military, marketing, obviously, it’s the same because it starts with an M, but anyway. So, artillery, armory, and infantry are the three key concepts that we refer back to a lot. So, artillery is really the marketing side. Right? Because artillery usually operates from a distance, it’s weakening lines of defenses, it’s a first “attack”, we’re not that aggressive in marketing but for the sake of the analogy it is the first line of attack against the defenses and it makes the rest of the campaign easier. See there is already military lingo built into marketing, like “campaign”.
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, that is so true.
Sarah Roberts
So, there you go, we’re not the first ones that thought of this.
But anyway, that’s artillery, so that’s the marketing piece. The armory is where we will be talking about more content. That is what you can refer more to as the sales enablement tools, it’s what your salespeople are armed with. You can go into your armory or your content library and pick specific pieces of content that are really going to be perfect for the defenses that you are trying to take down. For your customers, we always say the main defenses you are thinking about are fear and confusion. So, what is going to meet those defenses and overcome them, what part of your content library is really good at defeating that?
The next part is infantry, that’s really your sales team. That is who is picking up those weapons or the content from the armory and that is who is going in after the artillery has done its job and if it’s done its job effectively then the infantry can win the war or the campaign, either one.
Morgan Hutcherson
Or the client.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, all good things. And it is a lot easier to win if you actually have weapons and ammunition, just saying, that is central to why is content marketing important or why is content important. It’s because it is the ammunition
Morgan Hutcherson
It kind of makes me think of the whole, bringing a knife to a gunfight right?
Sarah Roberts
Yes! And you can be like is your content the gun or the knife?
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, like compared to others how do you stack up?
Sarah Roberts
Wow, that’s a good one.
Morgan Hutcherson
That really just popped into my head
Sarah Roberts
We’ll just add that to the metaphor. Really there are no limits.
So, when we talk about content there is a traditional and a digital. So, what do we think about when we think of traditions and digital?
Morgan Hutcherson
Traditional is definitely more print media and physical copies in my mind. So, physical things that you are usually passing out at events and I feel like that’s a lot of what the industry has been doing for marketing is going to these events handing out a flyer or handing out a business card and I mean it’s great it has a purpose but then digital is really up and coming and that’s one of the newer trends, that’s posting on linked in, that’s creating videos, email campaigns. So really utilizing digital content, which is where a lot of people are now.
Sarah Roberts
And the use of digital, I would say, not in replacement of traditional but in addition to traditional is getting more important, for the B2B space. Digital hasn’t been completely necessary even though B2C has been seen in the rise of video and they have all the virtual reality stuff and the different activation and placements all of that is very new and upcoming and lots of new technology, but that is B2C. For B2B it has always been more relationship-based and leaned more heavily on traditional but we have seen digital play more of a role in those B2b marketing conversations just because of how our lives have evolved and how easy it is to access a video and an online demo and like distributing webinars is a thing now.
Morgan Hutcherson
I feel like LinkedIn, the time it started set the space for digital in B2B because you obviously had Facebook and Instagram and those are great for B2C but there was no digital platform for B2B. So, they were like, so everyone is on LinkedIn, it’s a new thing and that is when everyone wanted to start making content.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, if you think about it, all the same reasons that people enjoy videos and like personal content consumption, which is a weird phrase, like your personal content, but all the reasons you like video when you are scrolling through TikTok or scrolling through Instagram, that connection-based feeling that you get from videos, how you are more involved, its more interactive its more engaging. All of those apply to B2B videos too, it is more interactive, it is more engaging and all of those are important when you are having a B2B sales relationship or discussion. So excellent points.
Let’s talk about how those types work in sales conversations. So, there is having the LinkedIn piece but that is very artillery based like that’s from a distance, that’s introducing yourself that’s building awareness but that content and collateral don’t go away when you have the sales conversation, where you’re having the business lunches and you’re having where you shake hands and have coffees and all that stuff. So, with that how can you use the content in those scenarios?
Morgan Hutcherson
Well, one thing I think especially looking at the website and if they downloaded any resources, you kind of know what they are interested in so you can make sure to gear your conversations towards that. Like, I saw you downloaded a white paper on this, let me tell you a little more about this service.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, exactly. You can always bring the white paper with you, you can bring a related white paper, you can bring a brochure. It’s always nice to enter any sales conversation, which I am sure any salesperson knows, with something because it’s that reciprocity principle, you give them something, they want to give you something back, it is basic consumer behavior, very fun. So having something to give, makes it a lot easier to have that conversation.
Morgan Hutcherson
And that’s basically when your content marketing, you are the resource. You do not have to go find someone else and say “Oh I saw this magazine that had a really great article that I think you would be interested in, let’s talk about my business”. It’s like “Hey actually we have created this whole article about this topic and I think it really appeals to why you want to do business with us”.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, and it visualizes things. So, content really does play a role in all steps in the artillery part and the infantry part because it’s that armory, it’s the arrows and the swords, I guess if we are fighting in medieval times.
Morgan Hutcherson
Well, there goes that knife in a gunfight.
Sarah Roberts
That’s true maybe I need to reframe to modern-day warfare. I don’t know, I like the sword image.
Morgan Hutcherson
We need to brush up on our metaphors a little bit in, the next episode, in a few episodes. Actually, next season we’ll have some better metaphors for the military.
Sarah Roberts
We will talk about it a little more, and decide on a timeline at the very least. Okay guys we are going to come right back and more about inbound marketing a relationship building.
Morgan Hutcherson
Welcome back from the break guys, I hope you enjoyed our little short break and the little music. It’s like so satisfying to me, it’s like elevator music.
Sarah Roberts
This is true.
Morgan Hutcherson
So, Sarah, we’ve talked a little bit about sales enablement, now I want to talk about why we focus on content marketing because I feel like when people hear “relationship building” in business they immediately go to sales and not marketing, especially not content marketing. So, what have you seen with our clients and why do we do that?
Sarah Roberts
Yes, so this is a great question. So, we at ADV Marketing have built up a framework specific to B2B businesses, especially in the industrial, energy, and services space, which is a very unique niche needs market for B2B. We have built a framework using content marketing which can also be known as inbound marketing and what you need to know about inbound marketing is that it is pulling people in. It’s a pull technique so you are attracting people, whereas paid promotion and advertising are generally seen as push promotion or outbound. So that is really pushing your product or service to the customer almost when it is not wanted. So, there is a different element to that whereas inbound is very focused on value. So, from that value and content piece, I actually read a book that I really think puts this in a good perspective and it’s “Why Clients Buy” by Tom McMakin. He wrote “Why Clients Buy”, it’s a great book but it also talks about how one of the key first steps in building a relationship is just straight awareness. You can’t build a relationship with someone you don’t know about, that seems really obvious but when you really start diving into that concept, you realize nowadays, in today’s world, becoming aware of someone, so let’s take the personal context situation example, so when you first become aware of someone you’re pretty much looking at them on LinkedIn, or Facebook, or Instagram or you’re like stalking them on your social media. Figuring out who they are, and what they do, like that happens in B2B too. It happens with companies as well, there is no walking into conversations where you have no resources to background check someone on, and that information is available.
Morgan Hutcherson
Or even if you are at an event and you hear about somebody or their company, you’re going to go home and stalking them.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, especially if you’re interested and you’re like “Oh I heard about a marketing company that does B2B marketing, let me go check them out”. Our website is ADVmarketing.com for that situation. But they would go to our website, they would go to our LinkedIn, they’d see what we do what our expertise is in, what specific industries we’ve worked in, maybe we posted client case studies, things like that. You would check us out first, before walking in. That is different from 15, or 20 years ago when your only source was talking to salespeople and they were the main people giving you what you needed to know, in order to make an educated decision. Now we have reviews and we have Yelp, Google, we have all the things to check out whether people think they are good, do they know what they are talking about, there are ways to do more research. So, where you have to know someone to build a relationship, that has not changed and will never change, how we find out about people and how we find out more about them once we realize they are a thing, that has changed and that is still continuously changing to be more content driven especially through online channels. So that is a really long explanation, of why digital content as well as traditional content is playing a role in relationship building and it’s all about information.
Morgan Hutcherson
Overall people just like to stalk people.
Sarah Roberts
Yes, people want to know and they want to find out themselves. That is actually true, more people look online and do their own research instead of going to salespeople for more information.
Morgan Hutcherson
Well, so let’s say, you are stalking a company, what can you do when you get all this information?
Sarah Roberts
So, if you’re on the side, well there are two sides to that. So first there is the perspective of the buyer who is seeing all the information of the company, doing research on the company, and asking are they the right fit for me. That is the right opportunity for marketing and sales to work together to target them because they have shown interest and they are at that prime part of the funnel. The other side of that is you as a company can look into perspective buyers, find out what they like, and therefore deliver the personalized content that would be just the perfect timing when they are interested and they are considering you, then you give them that extra nudge, to be like yeah, I am going to ask to set up an introductory call with them and see what they are all about. That whole process is purely content marketing, that is content delivered to the right person at the right time, with the right library available to them, and really guiding that consumer journey, that in a nutshell is what we do.
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, it’s not just casting a net and hoping you catch somebody by this random article you pasted.
Sarah Roberts
Not in this age that’s for sure, if you’re still doing that you’re about 20 years behind.
Morgan Hutcherson
Tea
Sarah Roberts
What else do we have to talk about? We already talked about research and building relationship. I guess the only thing with that is content is a really great way to give somebody something in the sales enablement part, which is a great foot in the doorway to do that, and also looking into your perspective clients and seeing what they’ve posted because likely they have some sort of presence, their website has a presence they may even have a podcast who knows? But by looking into that you have a foot in the door in saying, “I love your podcast, and would love to talk to you more about supply chain”.
Morgan Hutcherson
What if somebody decides they want to do marketing and they have listened to our episodes on paid owned and earned media, can they do a paid ad if they aren’t doing content marketing
Sarah Roberts
I have a hot take on this, I think you are wasting your time and your budget if you do paid promotion without investing first in the organic content. Which is the content that will pop up on your LinkedIn that you don’t pay to post LinkedIn, it pops up on your website, the articles you have written. You are wasting dollars if you pay to get in front of people and have nowhere for them to land. It is really like a passive “Hey check us out” and what are they going to check out about you, you have nothing of value to share with them after they see your ad and that defeats the purpose of the ad. So don’t get ahead, whatever the phrase is about putting the cart before the horses, don’t do that. Build up your content library and make sure you know who you are talking to when you’re delivering the right content and then promote the highest value and then have a landing space for them on your website, on your LinkedIn, on a webinar, whatever it is.
Morgan Hutcherson
I agree with that.
Sarah Roberts
Thank you. I’m glad I convinced you. Well, that was nice, I don’t know if that was short.
Morgan Hutcherson
Hopefully, that was a short one, we know we’ve been doing some longer episodes, and were trying to not go on any more tangents about the history of email newsletters.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, that is true. Also, we had a Shits Creek moment in a previous episode too, that was pretty fun. Anyway, we are trying to stay on track, but that was a nice fun episode, I hope y’all found it useful. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, rate it and we will see you in two weeks, right?
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, for the finale.
Sarah Roberts
So fun, See y’all
Morgan Hutcherson
Bye, guys.
We’re excited to be bringing you this podcast produced by our company, ADV Marketing. ADV Marketing develops high quality and cost-effective marketing materials for a wide range of businesses. Our relationship driven business model and customized marketing solutions makes us the perfect partner for small businesses looking to grow. I’m Sarah, Creative Director at ADV Marketing. Join me here with the rest of my team on Marketing Matters every other Monday to discuss business-to-business marketing topics. Now let’s get into the episode.
Welcome to Marketing Matters a podcast where we discuss all things marketing and how it applies to your business. Welcome back guys, I’m here with Morgan, I’m Sarah and we are going to be talking about why content? Which is a pretty fun conversation because content is what we I would say specialize in or really have built an expertise around for our clients. We are going to talk about why it works and why we do it for the B2B clients that we have.
So, Morgan, let’s first start out by talking about sales enablement because when we come to a lot of our clients and we start talking about the value of content creation for B2B marketing the thing they immediately go to is sales enablement tools, which has been around for a while. So, talk to me about sales enablement, how you have seen it in the clients? Let’s take it away from there.
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, so, as we talk a lot, we work with a lot of energy clients and a lot of that is sales-driven, it’s very much word of mouth and marketing is kind of a newer trend in the industry. So, the way we approach it is that we are helping your sales team and we are shooting over the lines of defenses so that you can go in and sell. I think that is why we have such a strong analogy with that artillery, armory, infantry metaphor and if you look at any of our processes, we tie it back to that a lot, in having that archer metaphor, and all that. So, can you give us a little more on that, Sarah?
Sarah Roberts
I was about to say, I’m sure we have to go back and redefine, even though there are definitely podcast episodes where we reference this because it is so central to how we build our strategy and why it works but we will revisit it right now. So, there’s really three military metaphors going on here in marketing, which I’m really glad that marketing starts with an M because it’s like military, marketing, obviously, it’s the same because it starts with an M, but anyway. So, artillery, armory, and infantry are the three key concepts that we refer back to a lot. So, artillery is really the marketing side. Right? Because artillery usually operates from a distance, it’s weakening lines of defenses, it’s a first “attack”, we’re not that aggressive in marketing but for the sake of the analogy it is the first line of attack against the defenses and it makes the rest of the campaign easier. See there is already military lingo built into marketing, like “campaign”.
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, that is so true.
Sarah Roberts
So, there you go, we’re not the first ones that thought of this.
But anyway, that’s artillery, so that’s the marketing piece. The armory is where we will be talking about more content. That is what you can refer more to as the sales enablement tools, it’s what your salespeople are armed with. You can go into your armory or your content library and pick specific pieces of content that are really going to be perfect for the defenses that you are trying to take down. For your customers, we always say the main defenses you are thinking about are fear and confusion. So, what is going to meet those defenses and overcome them, what part of your content library is really good at defeating that?
The next part is infantry, that’s really your sales team. That is who is picking up those weapons or the content from the armory and that is who is going in after the artillery has done its job and if it’s done its job effectively then the infantry can win the war or the campaign, either one.
Morgan Hutcherson
Or the client.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, all good things. And it is a lot easier to win if you actually have weapons and ammunition, just saying, that is central to why is content marketing important or why is content important. It’s because it is the ammunition
Morgan Hutcherson
It kind of makes me think of the whole, bringing a knife to a gunfight right?
Sarah Roberts
Yes! And you can be like is your content the gun or the knife?
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, like compared to others how do you stack up?
Sarah Roberts
Wow, that’s a good one.
Morgan Hutcherson
That really just popped into my head
Sarah Roberts
We’ll just add that to the metaphor. Really there are no limits.
So, when we talk about content there is a traditional and a digital. So, what do we think about when we think of traditions and digital?
Morgan Hutcherson
Traditional is definitely more print media and physical copies in my mind. So, physical things that you are usually passing out at events and I feel like that’s a lot of what the industry has been doing for marketing is going to these events handing out a flyer or handing out a business card and I mean it’s great it has a purpose but then digital is really up and coming and that’s one of the newer trends, that’s posting on linked in, that’s creating videos, email campaigns. So really utilizing digital content, which is where a lot of people are now.
Sarah Roberts
And the use of digital, I would say, not in replacement of traditional but in addition to traditional is getting more important, for the B2B space. Digital hasn’t been completely necessary even though B2C has been seen in the rise of video and they have all the virtual reality stuff and the different activation and placements all of that is very new and upcoming and lots of new technology, but that is B2C. For B2B it has always been more relationship-based and leaned more heavily on traditional but we have seen digital play more of a role in those B2b marketing conversations just because of how our lives have evolved and how easy it is to access a video and an online demo and like distributing webinars is a thing now.
Morgan Hutcherson
I feel like LinkedIn, the time it started set the space for digital in B2B because you obviously had Facebook and Instagram and those are great for B2C but there was no digital platform for B2B. So, they were like, so everyone is on LinkedIn, it’s a new thing and that is when everyone wanted to start making content.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, if you think about it, all the same reasons that people enjoy videos and like personal content consumption, which is a weird phrase, like your personal content, but all the reasons you like video when you are scrolling through TikTok or scrolling through Instagram, that connection-based feeling that you get from videos, how you are more involved, its more interactive its more engaging. All of those apply to B2B videos too, it is more interactive, it is more engaging and all of those are important when you are having a B2B sales relationship or discussion. So excellent points.
Let’s talk about how those types work in sales conversations. So, there is having the LinkedIn piece but that is very artillery based like that’s from a distance, that’s introducing yourself that’s building awareness but that content and collateral don’t go away when you have the sales conversation, where you’re having the business lunches and you’re having where you shake hands and have coffees and all that stuff. So, with that how can you use the content in those scenarios?
Morgan Hutcherson
Well, one thing I think especially looking at the website and if they downloaded any resources, you kind of know what they are interested in so you can make sure to gear your conversations towards that. Like, I saw you downloaded a white paper on this, let me tell you a little more about this service.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, exactly. You can always bring the white paper with you, you can bring a related white paper, you can bring a brochure. It’s always nice to enter any sales conversation, which I am sure any salesperson knows, with something because it’s that reciprocity principle, you give them something, they want to give you something back, it is basic consumer behavior, very fun. So having something to give, makes it a lot easier to have that conversation.
Morgan Hutcherson
And that’s basically when your content marketing, you are the resource. You do not have to go find someone else and say “Oh I saw this magazine that had a really great article that I think you would be interested in, let’s talk about my business”. It’s like “Hey actually we have created this whole article about this topic and I think it really appeals to why you want to do business with us”.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, and it visualizes things. So, content really does play a role in all steps in the artillery part and the infantry part because it’s that armory, it’s the arrows and the swords, I guess if we are fighting in medieval times.
Morgan Hutcherson
Well, there goes that knife in a gunfight.
Sarah Roberts
That’s true maybe I need to reframe to modern-day warfare. I don’t know, I like the sword image.
Morgan Hutcherson
We need to brush up on our metaphors a little bit in, the next episode, in a few episodes. Actually, next season we’ll have some better metaphors for the military.
Sarah Roberts
We will talk about it a little more, and decide on a timeline at the very least. Okay guys we are going to come right back and more about inbound marketing a relationship building.
Morgan Hutcherson
Welcome back from the break guys, I hope you enjoyed our little short break and the little music. It’s like so satisfying to me, it’s like elevator music.
Sarah Roberts
This is true.
Morgan Hutcherson
So, Sarah, we’ve talked a little bit about sales enablement, now I want to talk about why we focus on content marketing because I feel like when people hear “relationship building” in business they immediately go to sales and not marketing, especially not content marketing. So, what have you seen with our clients and why do we do that?
Sarah Roberts
Yes, so this is a great question. So, we at ADV Marketing have built up a framework specific to B2B businesses, especially in the industrial, energy, and services space, which is a very unique niche needs market for B2B. We have built a framework using content marketing which can also be known as inbound marketing and what you need to know about inbound marketing is that it is pulling people in. It’s a pull technique so you are attracting people, whereas paid promotion and advertising are generally seen as push promotion or outbound. So that is really pushing your product or service to the customer almost when it is not wanted. So, there is a different element to that whereas inbound is very focused on value. So, from that value and content piece, I actually read a book that I really think puts this in a good perspective and it’s “Why Clients Buy” by Tom McMakin. He wrote “Why Clients Buy”, it’s a great book but it also talks about how one of the key first steps in building a relationship is just straight awareness. You can’t build a relationship with someone you don’t know about, that seems really obvious but when you really start diving into that concept, you realize nowadays, in today’s world, becoming aware of someone, so let’s take the personal context situation example, so when you first become aware of someone you’re pretty much looking at them on LinkedIn, or Facebook, or Instagram or you’re like stalking them on your social media. Figuring out who they are, and what they do, like that happens in B2B too. It happens with companies as well, there is no walking into conversations where you have no resources to background check someone on, and that information is available.
Morgan Hutcherson
Or even if you are at an event and you hear about somebody or their company, you’re going to go home and stalking them.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, especially if you’re interested and you’re like “Oh I heard about a marketing company that does B2B marketing, let me go check them out”. Our website is ADVmarketing.com for that situation. But they would go to our website, they would go to our LinkedIn, they’d see what we do what our expertise is in, what specific industries we’ve worked in, maybe we posted client case studies, things like that. You would check us out first, before walking in. That is different from 15, or 20 years ago when your only source was talking to salespeople and they were the main people giving you what you needed to know, in order to make an educated decision. Now we have reviews and we have Yelp, Google, we have all the things to check out whether people think they are good, do they know what they are talking about, there are ways to do more research. So, where you have to know someone to build a relationship, that has not changed and will never change, how we find out about people and how we find out more about them once we realize they are a thing, that has changed and that is still continuously changing to be more content driven especially through online channels. So that is a really long explanation, of why digital content as well as traditional content is playing a role in relationship building and it’s all about information.
Morgan Hutcherson
Overall people just like to stalk people.
Sarah Roberts
Yes, people want to know and they want to find out themselves. That is actually true, more people look online and do their own research instead of going to salespeople for more information.
Morgan Hutcherson
Well, so let’s say, you are stalking a company, what can you do when you get all this information?
Sarah Roberts
So, if you’re on the side, well there are two sides to that. So first there is the perspective of the buyer who is seeing all the information of the company, doing research on the company, and asking are they the right fit for me. That is the right opportunity for marketing and sales to work together to target them because they have shown interest and they are at that prime part of the funnel. The other side of that is you as a company can look into perspective buyers, find out what they like, and therefore deliver the personalized content that would be just the perfect timing when they are interested and they are considering you, then you give them that extra nudge, to be like yeah, I am going to ask to set up an introductory call with them and see what they are all about. That whole process is purely content marketing, that is content delivered to the right person at the right time, with the right library available to them, and really guiding that consumer journey, that in a nutshell is what we do.
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, it’s not just casting a net and hoping you catch somebody by this random article you pasted.
Sarah Roberts
Not in this age that’s for sure, if you’re still doing that you’re about 20 years behind.
Morgan Hutcherson
Tea
Sarah Roberts
What else do we have to talk about? We already talked about research and building relationship. I guess the only thing with that is content is a really great way to give somebody something in the sales enablement part, which is a great foot in the doorway to do that, and also looking into your perspective clients and seeing what they’ve posted because likely they have some sort of presence, their website has a presence they may even have a podcast who knows? But by looking into that you have a foot in the door in saying, “I love your podcast, and would love to talk to you more about supply chain”.
Morgan Hutcherson
What if somebody decides they want to do marketing and they have listened to our episodes on paid owned and earned media, can they do a paid ad if they aren’t doing content marketing
Sarah Roberts
I have a hot take on this, I think you are wasting your time and your budget if you do paid promotion without investing first in the organic content. Which is the content that will pop up on your LinkedIn that you don’t pay to post LinkedIn, it pops up on your website, the articles you have written. You are wasting dollars if you pay to get in front of people and have nowhere for them to land. It is really like a passive “Hey check us out” and what are they going to check out about you, you have nothing of value to share with them after they see your ad and that defeats the purpose of the ad. So don’t get ahead, whatever the phrase is about putting the cart before the horses, don’t do that. Build up your content library and make sure you know who you are talking to when you’re delivering the right content and then promote the highest value and then have a landing space for them on your website, on your LinkedIn, on a webinar, whatever it is.
Morgan Hutcherson
I agree with that.
Sarah Roberts
Thank you. I’m glad I convinced you. Well, that was nice, I don’t know if that was short.
Morgan Hutcherson
Hopefully, that was a short one, we know we’ve been doing some longer episodes, and were trying to not go on any more tangents about the history of email newsletters.
Sarah Roberts
Yeah, that is true. Also, we had a Shits Creek moment in a previous episode too, that was pretty fun. Anyway, we are trying to stay on track, but that was a nice fun episode, I hope y’all found it useful. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, rate it and we will see you in two weeks, right?
Morgan Hutcherson
Yeah, for the finale.
Sarah Roberts
So fun, See y’all
Morgan Hutcherson
Bye, guys.
