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Category: Marketing

The Top 5 Ways I Use ChatGPT For B2B Marketing

There’s rightly been a lot of hype over the past two years on generative AI and how it can increase productivity and automate parts of your work. You can find countless articles and videos on how to use ChatGPT to come up with business ideas, create content, code, and more. But I think it is a real danger to over-rely on using AI at this stage, it can do amazing things, but the work needs to be carefully checked by a human for accuracy, plus, people are already starting to be able to recognize AI-generated content so it likely needs to be rewritten with a human touch if you have it create complete blog posts or articles.

The key to success is to utilize AI strategically for what it’s good at, but still use some good ol’ fashioned elbow grease to fine-tune the output. In this article, I’m not going to share how to get rich or write a book with AI, but I am going to share real actionable use cases that marketers and others can implement today that save time and produce good results, without compromising the quality of your work.

Brainstorming
ChatGPT is pretty decent at brainstorming with the right prompt, but you will need to be specific to get good results. I find that often the ideas are either too similar with small variations, or on the opposite end, completely out there and not in line with what your original idea was. You need to give a detailed prompt with clear parameters. Pro tip: You can customize ChatGPT by providing some baseline information that it will use when relevant for all your prompts. This saves you from providing background info for each prompt. I suggest you save several versions depending on what you plan on using it for. For work, you can include a description of your target audience, value proposition, and other relevant details that it can pull from.

Research
Rather than searching and visiting many sites you can ask ChatGPT and get the information you need. I do suggest you be very careful with this though, as it can generate incorrect information, so I usually only do this for topics I am already familiar with and will be able to recognize inaccuracies. I find it is very good for thought exercises, and exploring concepts and theories that I have and want to talk through. These may not be important or valid enough to discuss with another person, but using ChatGPT allows me to articulate and flesh out my thoughts and get decent feedback.

Summarizing
This is one of my favorite use cases for ChatGPT. As marketers, we are often creating multiple pieces of content for a single campaign. For example, for a webinar, you may need a description for the landing page, another one for an invitation email, text for a social post, another for direct invites, etc. ChatGPT is very good at helping you come up with different versions, as long as you have a solid version for it to work off of. Again, you need to be precise in your prompt (tone/style, word count, channel, etc) and edit the output, but you can definitely save time in most cases.

Photo by Mojahid Mottakin on Unsplash

Outlines
It is much more useful to use ChatGPT for creating outlines for content like blog posts, rather than having it write the whole thing. You will probably still need to edit and clean up the output (it tends to generate extremely long section titles for example) and ensure everything is compelling and makes sense. So using ChatGPT for outlines can be useful, but until you get used to it, you may end up spending more time fine-tuning than if you just did it yourself. I often have it spit out several versions and then pick and choose what I think would work best.

Repurposing
This is another strong contender for my favorite use case. If you want to repurpose content, turn a blog post into an infographic for example, ChatGPT is very good at pulling out the highlights and formatting them in a way that is good for your new content. You just have to be very exact with your prompt, like telling it not to add anything new. One example of this is when I used an AI transcriber to get a text file of a webinar, and then used ChatGTP to turn that into an article. There was still a lot of work for me to do, I had ChatGPT summarize the talk first and order the key themes into sections, then I went back and expanded on each one, then took those points and wrote an article-style post from it instead of bullet points. But it still saved me probably 4-5 hours of work by using AI instead of doing everything myself.

In conclusion, I think it is important for marketers to start using AI if they don’t want to fall behind. As with any new technology, there will be early adopters and then it will become mainstream and accepted by almost everyone. We are still in the early adoption phase for marketers using ChatGPT in their daily work, so now is the best time to get started. Just don’t fall into the trap of trying to let it do your work for you or you’ll end up with subpar results and be a worse marketer. I hope you try these 5 use cases and let me know how else you use ChatGPT in the comments!

If you liked this post, you may like to read My Simple 5-Step Process For Creating Great B2B Content.

February 29, 2024
The Weekend Wind-Down #1 – February 25, 2024
Hello friends! I’m starting a new project today and am excited to share it with you. I’ve long been a fan of Tim Ferriss, first from his podcast, then books, and over the last few years, his weekly newsletter “5-Bullet Friday”. Tim provides a short curated list of everything from book and music recommendations, to gadget suggestions, poems and quotes to ponder, and more. I love the format of short bite-sized points of interest that are easily digestible and don’t take a lot of time to read.

For my version, I wanted to deliver some value on Sunday evenings as the weekend is winding down and we are preparing for a new week. Especially after having my first kid, weekends can be a blur of activities, errands, and trying to fit in relaxation. We’ve all felt the “Sunday Scaries” when it gets to be late in the day and we wonder where the weekend went. This newsletter will be my way of ending your Sundays with a small dose of valuable curated content: personal and career growth tips, interesting things to ponder, and more. The topics will change from week to week, but in general, I will stick with some core areas that I am focused on in my life, so if you’re anything like me, I think you’ll find it useful. I look forward to taking this journey with you!
1. How I’ve been utilizing ChatGTP this weekend
  I found out that the mobile app has a conversation mode with real-time two-way voice chat. I’ve started using this to practice speaking, answering questions, roleplaying networking, or other times I want to improve my communication. It even transcribes your speech afterward so you can see how many umms and ahs you said! I don’t think you need to learn how to be a “prompt engineer” or take courses to learn how to utilize ChatGTP and other AI tools, it’s more important to think of use cases that benefit you and then improve how you interact with the AI so you get better results.
2. What I focused on this weekend to improve my work
  Planning agendas for syncs and 1:1s! If your calendar is anything like mine, you have a bunch of recurring 1:1s scheduled throughout your week. I’ve committed myself to sharing an agenda with a list of topics to cover before the meeting. This allows me to organize my thoughts and gives the other person a chance to prepare for our meeting. Something basic that I have done on and off, but I believe being consistent about it will really help my meetings be more productive!
3. What I listened to this weekend
  This January Recap Episode of The Time Ferriss Show had a ton of great clips and sparked the idea for this newsletter. The highlight for me was Chris Beresford-Hill‘s discussion on how to come up with great ideas. I found this quote particularly valuable “Time kills all deals, for sure, and it kills momentum and it kills energy.” when discussing making decisions quickly.
4. What I read this weekend
  beehiiv shared the average open rates for all emails sent on their platform in 2023 in this blog post. It was an astonishing 38.7%! I honestly haven’t heard of them before, but with that kind of success, I’m definitely going to pay more attention to what they do and how they help marketers.
5. My most gratifying moment of the weekend
  A friend from the gym where I train jiujitsu, muay thai, strength training, etc. who is earlier in her career, happened to receive a new job offer right before our training session started. She immediately asked for my opinion on the role and company. It was an honor to be able to offer her my view and see that she valued my opinion. Most of us should reflect more on how far we’ve come and realize our experience is valuable and worth sharing with people younger than us.
6. The most interesting post I saw on LinkedIn this weekend
  Wes Kao shared this post on Grammarly’s 2024 State of Business Communication Report and how much miscommunication happens for marketers during their work. Highlights: “Marketers spend 26 hours/week on written communication, which is the most of any team surveyed.” and “Marketers spend 49% more time than the average knowledge worker responding to written communication from others, which is more than any other function.”
That’s all for this week, I hope you had a great weekend and will have an even better week ahead!

-Nicholas Braman

Note: My goal is to eventually move this newsletter to email format which will land in your inbox every Sunday evening (Singapore time). Subscribe here if you want to receive this by email after I make the change.
February 25, 2024
4 Key Trends For Successful B2B Marketing in 2024

Introduction

The year 2024 promises a continuing evolution in the landscape of B2B marketing as businesses gear up to embrace the integration of advanced technologies and a heightened reliance on data-driven insights. At the forefront of this transformation is the pervasive influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), fundamentally altering the way marketers approach analytics, attribution, and content creation. In this article, I’ll go into the key facets of this evolution, exploring the rise of AI in B2B marketing, as well as other key trends I plan to focus on to take my marketing efforts to the next level over the year.

1. Utilizing AI for Marketers

AI has been a hot topic for a while, but really came into its own over the past year plus, after the public release of ChatGTP. There’s been plenty of scare-mongering articles about AI taking over jobs, but in my opinion, it is the marketers who embrace AI the earliest that will continue to thrive and stay ahead of the curve. Learning to utilize AI to supplement our existing skills and expertise is key to future-proofing your career and workflows. We need to be evolving with AI, rather than avoiding or shunning it. I’ve started using ChatGTP and other AI tools for all kinds of tasks from transcribing interviews to summarizing lengthy text, brainstorming, and more. This saves me time and allows me to focus on more strategic work that elevates our marketing team’s results.

We are all in the learning stages of how to best use AI tools, even though many people are promoting themselves as experts, we are all just starting on this journey. I think it is important for everyone to get hands-on and figure out the best use cases for their own strengths, weaknesses, and daily work flows. It is also vital to learn the limitations of these AI tools and not rely on them without checking their work and modifying it to sound more human and maintain authenticity and brand voice. To fully harness the potential of AI, marketers must integrate these tools into their workflow thoughtfully. In 2024 AI will play a pivotal role in streamlining processes, enhancing creativity, and delivering content that speaks to the audience in a personalized manner for those marketers that learn to leverage it in the right ways.

Photo by Mojahid Mottakin on Unsplash

2. Challenges in Data Analytics and Attribution

Analytics and attribution have been challenges in every role I’ve had and will continue to be an area where B2B marketers can get ahead of the competition if they put a concentrated effort into optimizing these areas. Marketers must grapple with ensuring that the contributions of various touchpoints are correctly assigned and so they can optimize marketing spend and improve ROI. This is a key collaboration point between sales, business development, and marketing teams and success here will help both teams make better strategic decisions and deliver stronger results.

From the marketers I’ve talked to, and within my own experience, currently, most marketing teams are struggling with just getting accurate data to make manual insights. But one area I hope makes progress in 2024 is the integration of AI in marketing automation platforms and CRMs. I can’t wait until these systems can collect, organize, and interpret the data effectively to derive actionable insights with minimal human input.

I will be working on utilizing the AI tools available not only to overcome existing challenges but also to harness the true power of data for strategic impact. The year 2024 holds the promise of a more efficient, insightful, and collaborative future for marketers ready to navigate the challenges and embrace the opportunities presented by the integration of AI in data analytics and attribution.

3. Influencer Collaboration in B2B Marketing

While influencer marketing has long been associated with B2C, it’s gaining traction in the B2B space in 2024. B2B marketers are recognizing the value of collaborating with industry experts, thought leaders and influencers to amplify their brand messaging. Strategic partnerships with influencers can help businesses build credibility, reach a broader audience, and create authentic connections within their industry. This trend involves identifying key influencers in the B2B space and developing meaningful collaborations that go beyond traditional advertising to include thought leadership content, co-hosted events, and joint product promotions.

I first used an influencer for a Microsoft 365 promotion in 2017, and while the results gained were mostly vanity metrics then, this trend has continued to gain steam. Over the past few years, I’ve focused more on gaining customer advocacy and demonstrating social proof to my prospects with good results. I believe one key difference from B2C influencer marketing is the need to find people who love your solution and work on their personal brand, rather than providing someone who already has an audience and convincing them your solution is great. I’ve working on this by providing speaking opportunities, nominating them for awards, having them participate on panels and at roundtables, and more. Continuing to grow these relationships and collaborate with leaders in my target audience community will be key to long-term success.

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

4. Leveling Up In-Person B2B Marketing Events For Increased Engagement

The last trend I see for B2B marketing in 2024 is the need for improving in-person event experiences. In early 2022 when face-to-face events started again after the pandemic I was surprised by how eagerly they were attended. I think people were eager for that form of interaction and starved for networking and human interaction after two years of lockdowns and virtual engagement. However, starting last year I saw that start to slow down, almost as if people burned themselves out going to events and weren’t interested in attending so many. It didn’t help that many organizations, mine included, went all-in on events, and got used to high attendance rates and hungry participants.

Going into next year, I predict that it is not going to be enough just to book a bunch of conferences and show up with some notebooks and pens. Marketing teams will have to rethink their event strategy and the formats they use if they want to get attendees and continued engagement. Not only will it be important to be extremely strategic about which events to invest in, but marketers will also need to be creative in the content they deliver and the interactions they have. Last year I pushed for an increase in small-scale roundtable discussions over large conferences and next year I will be doing even more to move away from slide presentations to more interactive sessions, I think if they want to stand out, other marketing teams will need to do the same.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as we look ahead to the landscape of B2B marketing in 2024, it is evident that embracing the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just a trend but a necessity for staying competitive. While the initial learning curve exists, the key lies in thoughtful integration, understanding the tools’ limitations, and maintaining authenticity. The marketers who proactively engage with AI, experimenting with its applications and learning from hands-on experiences, are poised to thrive in an era where data-driven insights and creative augmentation become indispensable.

Finally, the trends of influencer collaboration and reimagining in-person events underscore the evolving nature of B2B marketing. Building authentic relationships with influencers and adopting innovative event formats are keys to success in 2024, as marketers navigate an environment where credibility, engagement, and strategic creativity take center stage. In embracing these key trends, B2B marketers can position themselves for a future marked by efficiency, insightfulness, and creative success.

December 28, 2023
Best Strategies for Dealing With a Bad Boss

There’s an age-old cynicism about having a bad boss that has resulted in countless memes, jokes, TV show plots, and more. But the truth of the matter is, whether you have a great or horrible boss, it is in your best interest to impress them and do your best to make them appreciate you and your work. You should be actively thinking of ways to make your boss see your value, actually even more so if you think they are a “bad” boss. I’ve had amazing bosses and truly awful ones in the course of my career, and frankly, I wasn’t able to keep to this goal all the time. But now, with a lot of working life under my belt, I think those of you who are struggling with bad bosses can learn from some of the lessons I’ve learned and strategies I’ve developed.

Don’t take things personally
If you really do have a bad boss, you and everyone else around you probably knows it. Sometimes it may feel like you are being singled out or taking the brunt of the criticism, but try not to take it personally. This isn’t about you, it’s about them. It can be frustrating when you are working hard and doing your best, but your boss doesn’t recognize it, it may even feel like your co-workers and other leaders won’t notice either because of all the criticism you are taking. But more than likely they do appreciate your good work, it is just hard for them to stick their neck out on your behalf.

If you are able to let the criticisms and way your bad boss treats you go it won’t take such an emotional toll on you. In fact, you may be able to see it as a positive, if your boss didn’t see you as capable, or even as a threat, they likely wouldn’t pay so much attention to you at all. Or on the other hand, if they treat everyone the same way, then it really isn’t personal and you can let it go. At one of my jobs, I got yelled at by my boss on my second day, she was explaining how a system worked to me and I asked a follow-up question using standard industry terminology. She instantly started berating me and acting like I was stupid because that wasn’t the phrasing they used at this company. I felt horrible for a long time afterward, especially because this happened in the middle of a sea of cubicles and I thought everyone else agreed with her and thought I wasn’t an idiot. It wasn’t until later when I became closer to some other colleagues that they told me how ridiculous she was being and I shouldn’t feel bad.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Rise above the noise
With a bad boss, or in any toxic workplace, it is easy to get bogged down in petty drama that doesn’t matter. Especially if you are junior, you can get pulled in many different directions and now know where you should be putting in your efforts. I’ve found that it is best to pick one or two areas you know you can make measurable and visible impact in and focus your efforts there. Do the minimum to do what is required in other areas, but make a bet on these keystone projects and be sure to see them through to a successful conclusion.

If you have chosen the right projects, other teams and leaders will see your success, and even if your boss resents it, you will have accomplishments under your belt and have gained good experience. If you can combine this with the last strategy of making your boss look good, then it will be a win-win for everyone and may even start to turn the tide of your relationship with them.

Become indispensable
This is good advice even if you have a great boss, but if you have a bad boss it becomes even more important. And this doesn’t just mean kissing ass and becoming a lackey for your boss. But become a trusted indispensable partner for the teams you collaborate with as well. Honestly, there are enough bad workers in the world, it doesn’t take much to be someone people love to work with. Be polite, respond on time, be proactive, don’t shove responsibilities off on others, bring ideas and your expertise to the able, and you’ll already be far ahead of most people.

If you become seen as someone who is reliable and indispensable to getting things done in your function, even your bad boss won’t be able to get in the way of you being recognized by the overall team. Of course, it also helps to build the relationship with your boss as well, with both bad and good bosses I have done things like going the extra mile to help them with urgent projects, stepping up to do things that don’t fall under my scope and made sure to deliver what they need. You don’t want to be walked all over by a bad boss, but sometimes by doing a little more at the right time, you earn their trust and ease the relationship bit by bit.

Photo by CoWomen on Unsplash

Adapt to them
This is also actually true for both bad and good bosses, but much more vital for the poor ones. Jocko Willink has said “Sometimes you just have to play the game.” and I completely agree. If your boss has some request that isn’t logical or there is a better way, you have to judge which battles to fight, and a lot of the time it isn’t worth it to be right, it is easier and helps your relationship more just to do it the way they ask.

I think this is also really important in a more general sense of your boss’ working style and priorities. In my last two roles, I went from a boss who was very big picture-oriented, they didn’t care how I got things done as long as they were done correctly. And the projects they were attracted to were big and ambitious, things that would be highly visible and make a splash. My next boss was extremely detail-oriented and wanted to know everything down to the tiniest element. They were also super conservative and wouldn’t give the go-ahead for any initiative that didn’t have an almost 100% chance of success. Going from these two extremes took me a lot of time to adjust to, but when I was finally able to adapt to the new boss our working relationship got a lot better and we were both happier.

Make your boss look good
This can be painful, especially if you and your boss really don’t like each other, but it might be the most important strategy. This can be little things, like when you are talking to people about your projects, use “we” instead of “I”, even if your boss or coworkers didn’t do anything on it. I also have made it a point in several of my roles to find awards and recognitions I would put my boss up for, I tried to make them look good by giving them PR opportunities in media, having them highlighted internally, etc. This also may be harder if you have a bad boss, but it feeds their ego, which is the source of a lot of problems for toxic managers. In the end, if your boss looks good, you end up looking good too. And even if they don’t admit it out loud, they will see you are making efforts to up their status and will appreciate it.

With all this being said, sometimes when the boss is bad enough, you just have to cut ties and get out of there. But I believe with these strategies a lot of “bad boss” relationships can be improved enough to at least make them tolerable to the point you can keep progressing in your career and experience even if you are stuck in that role for a while. If you liked this article, click here to read about The Worst Career Advice I’ve Ever Heard.

September 19, 2023
The Biggest Mistake Marketers Make

The biggest mistake I see marketers of every seniority and industry make is killing their productivity, wasting resources, and causing massive amounts of frustration. The mistake is not listening to their customers. It often comes in the form of falling in love with an idea or campaign and spending tons of time perfecting all the aspects before launching and then… crickets. Prospects and customers aren’t responding, there’s no engagement, but they worked so hard and love their work so much, it must be able to be fixed. So they rework the copy, create some new visuals, throw more money into promotion, and still the traction isn’t there. So they find another metric to justify the success of the campaign, building awareness, number of impressions, evergreen assets for use down the road. But they can’t admit to themselves that it was a failure because they never listened to their customers in the first place.

As a creative it’s easy to fall in love with an idea, and once you’ve poured your heart and soul into the work, sunk cost fallacy kicks in, and it is too painful to imagine that the idea may have been flawed in the first place. Even with market research, years in your industry, and engaging with your customers regularly, not every campaign will hit. Learn to fail fast. It is better to realize that the idea isn’t working than to waste more time and effort for minimal results. Try running a pilot program, a scaled-down version of your great idea first, something that doesn’t take a lot of time or money to set up, and then if it is successful, build out the big beautiful campaign of your dreams.

Your customers and prospects vote with their feet, their clicks, and the time spent reading or watching what you’ve created. Listen to them. Don’t let your ego trap you into a campaign that has no chance of success. Once you’ve seen that the results aren’t there, learn your lesson and move on. As the famous Nelson Mandela quote goes, there’s no failing, you either win or you learn. Don’t kill your own chances of learning by holding on too tightly for too long. The next time your campaign isn’t performing how you want don’t make the biggest mistake other marketers make, instead of blaming which image you chose or the exact right headline, take a step back and ask yourself, have I really listened to my customers?

September 4, 2023
5 Ways to Get The Most Out Of Marketing Interns

Over the course of my career, I’ve had the chance to mentor interns in several different roles. I’ve also had full-time employees reporting to me, but I feel the role of mentoring interns is a bit different, so today I want to dive into the lessons I’ve learned and the best ways I found to make their internships productive for both of us. In Singapore, it is common for university students to have multiple internships of 3-6 months before they graduate, so it can be a great way to supplement your team while you are in the growth phase. Longer internships are definitely better, but if you follow these lessons, you can feel great even about shorter time frames.

Utilize their strengths
Although interns don’t come in with much work experience, they do have transferrable skills from school that you can put to use on day one. I’ve found that research and writing projects are especially good to start with because not only will the intern be able to learn about your industry and solution at the same time as doing the work, it is also an easy kind of project to monitor and provide feedback on. I’ve had all of my interns research and write blog posts as some of their first tasks, and eventually, they even came up with topics I hadn’t thought of before. Competitor research was another area that I had interns work on, and since something like a battlecard has a fixed format, it is easy for them to replicate.

Let them try a variety of projects
I’ve heard from my interns that in some experiences, they get tasked with doing the same thing, like data entry for the whole internship. That’s not an ideal situation for anyone. First of all, if they are bored and feel under-utilized, they won’t be motivated to do good work. Secondly, you should be fair to your interns and give them a chance to learn new skills while they work with you, not just pass off work that no one else wants to do. Thirdly, as interns are new to the working world, neither of you knows what their strengths are or what they might excel at. I had one intern who I started having edit videos, and even though she had never done it before, ended up doing an amazing job.

Leverage their new perspectives
Interns come in with fresh eyes and a different outlook than other employees. If you play your cards right, you can translate that into new ideas and ways of doing things that break the mold of what you’ve already been doing. Since it will likely be the first time they are doing a lot of tasks, they can come up with out-of-the-box ideas that we have blinders to, just because “it’s always been done that way”. In one of my roles, we had a lot of customer queries coming in, we had a system in place to rotate the responses, and it worked well enough, so we hadn’t bothered to improve it. After a few weeks on the job, a new intern came to me with an idea to streamline the process and make everything more trackable, after working out a few kinks with her, we gave it a shot and it worked great.

Provide guidance, not instructions
When you’re experienced at doing something, it is hard not to tell someone you are mentoring exactly what to do step-by-step. But doing that isn’t going to get you the best results, and it isn’t good for your intern’s development either. It is much better to provide the goal, the parameters of what you need the outcome to be, some suggestions on how to get started, and then let them go to work. Check in regularly to answer questions and provide feedback if needed, but don’t micro-manage, let them figure things out on their own. During the pandemic I had an intern who I tasked with creating paid ad campaign reports, I showed her an example of what I had been using, let her spend some time on training resources, and told her how I was using the reports, and sent her off. Within a few iterations, she had more comprehensive and readable reports than before, and we were able to make some critical decisions based on what they showed.

Create opportunities to work with different teams
I view an internship as a two-way street, you are getting the benefit of an extra pair of hands without the cost of another headcount, and they are getting experience and exposure in a role they wouldn’t qualify for full-time. I feel I owe them the opportunity to see different parts of the business and learn how other teams work, not just keep them stuck in a marketing bubble. This will help them later on in their career and may even change their career path. In marketing there are always good opportunities to collaborate with sales, business development, product, and customer teams. By having interns involved in projects with some of these teams they will not only be able to better understand how marketing impacts the business, they will also see what other functions they might be interested in, and give those teams fresh perspectives as well!

So these are the best lessons I’ve learned about making marketing internships most beneficial for both sides. I hope you learned something and have success with your future interns!

September 1, 2023
My Simple 5-Step Process For Creating Great B2B Content

Creating content has always been one of my favorite aspects of being a B2B marketer. It hasn’t ever been the main focus of any of my roles, but I have always done some content creation as part of my work, and I believe every good marketer should make it part of their repertoire of skills. Whether it is writing a blog or social media post, creating a video, planning a presentation or event, or designing an infographic, I’ve come up with a 5-step process that makes it easier and delivers the best results. I’m going to share that process with you today, plus a bonus step, that will make your next content creation your best yet!

Step 1: What is my goal?

To create a good piece of content, you need to start with the end in mind. Your goal could be to educate, entice, or convince your audience. Or it could be something more broad like to get as many views as possible or get them to sign up for something. The goal you choose will help to refine your topic, what format you use, your tone of voice, the length of the content, and many other elements. It is important to start with this step before doing a lot of work, or you may have to start all over again.

Step 2: Who is my audience?

Determining who your audience is will help you create content that resonates with them and has the most impact. Are you creating for a highly knowledgeable audience or laymen who don’t have any background on the topic? What age or seniority are they? That will influence your tone of voice and the language you use. This also extends to deciding where in your funnel your audience is. Will it be the first time they are seeing your content or do they already know all about you and are in the decision phase? Once you decide which audience you are targeting, you can cater your content to be more valuable to them.

Step 3: What is my topic?

This is the step that most people start with, but I believe you will produce better content if you wait until you answer the first two questions before you pick your topic. Sure, you may have a broad idea of what area you want to cover, but the details of the subject, how you will frame it, and exactly what info you will include should only come at this stage. If you haven’t gone through the first two steps before you pick your topic, decide on an outline, and start creating, you’ll either end up with content that doesn’t meet your or your audience’s needs or you’ll have to spend a lot of effort redoing things.

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina 🇺🇦 on Unsplash

Step 4: What do I want them to do next?

This step will help you craft your narrative and call to action. But driving your audience towards the next step isn’t as simple as throwing in one sentence at the end of your article or linking to another resource. The entire piece of content should be shaped to push them towards the next step that you think will benefit them the most. Remember, this isn’t about you, but about them taking away value from your content and wanting to learn more about how you can help them.

Step 5: How am I going to promote this?

I don’t think most marketers will forget this important step, but it is easy to just go through the motions without really strategizing how to best promote this particular piece of content. But you should really think about the best way to promote your content to your audience to meet the goal you have set in the previous steps. This will also affect the creation process and give you a head start once you are ready for promotion. If you work within a big marketing team, not all campaigns or assets will be promoted on every single channel the company owns. Determining where and how you will deliver the content will help you cater it to best suit where it will be published.

Bonus step: How can I turn this content into other formats?

You may have noticed one step missing in this process, deciding what format you are going to create your content in. That’s because I believe it doesn’t matter which one you start with, you should be creating all your content in multiple formats. Leverage the work you’ve put in to create your content and deliver it in different mediums. People prefer or learn best from different ways, some people would like to read, while others are more visual. So take advantage of this and make an impact with as much of your audience as possible. For example, I’ve turned this article into an easy-to-read infographic below!

I hope you will try these steps next time you are creating content and see how it improves your process and helps you deliver more value to your audience!

August 26, 2023
15 Content Marketing Lessons From Cooking

Great Lessons I Learned In The Kitchen

I’ve always loved to cook. Cooking is a mixture of science and art and I enjoy creating something that has so many factors affecting the outcome. When I cook, I usually end up with a decent meal, but there’s always something I learn through the process to do better the next time. While cooking a nourishing chicken soup last week, I realized that many of the lessons I’ve learned over the years can be applied to content marketing. Both use creativity, measurements, technical abilities and innovative thinking. The similarities don’t end there, read on for some great marketing lessons and take a look at my corresponding Slideshare for beautiful food pics and condensed lessons.

15 Content Marketing Lessons I Learned From Cooking from Nicholas Braman

#1 – Context Rules

Almost everyone agrees BBQ tastes better outside, turkey and stuffing are best on Thanksgiving, and popcorn is irresistible when eaten in front of a movie. The time and place of eating certain items makes them extra tasty. The same goes for content, we need to promote our products in the right place and time for our work to have the maximum effect on customers. Make sure you vary content depending on where in the sales funnel your audience is and on what channel they will see it on.

#2 – Balance Is Best

Traditionally in Chinese cuisine there are five flavors that should be included in every meal: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and spicy. Although people generally aren’t that strict now, chefs all over the world agree that a variety of flavors, textures, and ingredients make the most amazing meals. Make sure to include a combination of content types, even in the same piece, to get the best results.

#3 – Engage Your Audience

I find that food tastes better when I’ve been involved in the preparation. Get everyone to participate with discussion and feedback so your audience is more invested in your content.

#4 – Use The Right Tools

Although you don’t always need gizmos and gadgets to cook great meals, having a wide range of tools gives you freedom to create more spectacular dishes and speeds up the cooking process. There are tons of tools available to help you with image creation, social sharing, analytics, and everything else. Check out the post “29 Tools To Enhance Your Business Blog” from Social Media Examiner for some great additions to your arsenal.

#5 – Quality and Consistency Matter

Many people have one or two dishes they are great at cooking, it’s much harder to be adept enough to cook three awesome meals every day for years on end. Consistently create amazing content to build a loyal following.

#6 – Too Much Of A Good Thing Gets Boring

Sometimes we get hooked on a food or dish we really love and eat too much of it. Eventually we eat so much of the same thing, we get tired of it and don’t want to eat it anymore. Keep your content fresh and interesting by varying content types and topics so your audience always comes back for more.

#7 – Simplicity Works

Sometimes the simplest preparations taste the best. Presenting important ideas in a simple and straightforward manner can have a bigger impact than busy graphics and complicated charts or animations.

#8 – Presentation Is Key

We eat with all our senses, so food that looks better, tastes better. Content that looks amazing is more engaging and easier to digest. It may be a common best practice, but taking a little extra time to flush out your content can pay huge dividends. For example, articles with images get 94% more total views (Jeff Bullas).

#9 – Use What You Have

Awesome meals can be created in less than ideal situations, or with fewer ingredients than you’d like to have. I often use leftovers to create a great breakfast. The same principle can be applied to content marketing. Re-purpose content to get the most out of what you already have on hand.

#10 – It’s Good To Be Bad

It’s alright to indulge in some fried or cheesy goodness. Creating a less serious piece of content, or using “hacks” like pictures of kittens or babies is okay sometimes. We all need a “cheat day” once in a while and the change of tone will catch your audience’s attention.

#11 – Get Everyone Involved

Cooking is more fun and efficient when you have help. Other departments of your company can be great sources of content and expertise. Find coworkers outside of marketing to contribute to your content and give your audience a change of pace. If some aren’t comfortable writing or designing on their own, interviews or slide decks can be a great way to get them involved.

#12 – Be Prepared

Professional cooks and chefs are able to cook quickly and precisely in part due to the fact that all their ingredients are prepped and ready to go before the actual cooking begins. Organizing your files and research in a clear and easy to use system will speed up your content creation and allow you to concentrate on creativity and execution.

#13 – Plan Ahead

When I cook I often look at several recipes before choosing one or mixing them together. When you follow recipes you learn from other’s experience and can concentrate more on creativity and improvisation instead of figuring out what the next step is. Create a content calender and study industry leaders and best practices to take your marketing to the next level.

#14 – Spice Things Up

Spices create deep flavor profiles and turn ordinary dishes into extraordinary ones. Spice up your content by including things like quotes, charts and links to deepen its impact.

#15 – Think Outside The Box

The best chefs use creativity and innovation in their ingredients, cooking methods, and presentation to stand out from the crowd. Experiment with all aspects of your content marketing to draw and keep your audience’s attention.

Content marketing and cooking both take creativity and technical execution to get the best results. Both are easy to learn, but hard to master. The next time you are working on a Slideshare or vlog, think about how you can improve the result with skills you’ve learned while cooking and the result will turn out beautifully, maybe even a la mode with a cherry on top!

August 26, 2023
Thriving in B2B Marketing: 5 Functions and What I Enjoy About Them

Having been in tech/SaaS marketing for 8 years I have worn many hats and used a variety of strategies and tactics to build marketing campaigns and support my sales team to build pipeline and grow the business. As I reflect on the different areas I realize that these 5 are the most distinct and all have different aspects that make me love my work. If you are just starting your career in marketing, or are planning your progression and what areas you want to get experience in next, hopefully, this will be useful to you. Of course, depending on the size of the organization and the scope of the role, most marketers will be doing some work in all of these areas. So let’s dig into it!

Content Marketing

What is it?

Most B2B marketers won’t be dancing on TikTok or Instagram, but there is still a wide range of useful content to get in front of your target audience. This could be whitepapers, ebooks, videos, presentations, webinars, case studies, podcasts, and blog posts. All of these assets support your funnel and allow prospects to learn more about the problems you solve and your solution as they consider your product more deeply.

What do I enjoy?

What I enjoy about content marketing is that you need to really understand your customer, what their pain points are, what considerations or concerns they might have, and what they are looking for in a solution. You also need to develop thought leadership content that attracts people before they even know what your solution is, you don’t want to be shoving a sales pitch down their throat the first time they are exposed to you. It is a great challenge to come up with really good content that allows you to attract customers and gently lead them to the conclusion that you can help them.

Example:

My favorite piece of content that I have produced was a research report based on a survey of over 400 IT leaders across APAC. The report gave IT service providers (my target audience at the time) insights into their customer’s thinking, what they were investing in, what support they sought from IT service providers, where they thought improvements or new offerings could be made and more. This was a new challenge for me to develop as we had to design the survey to get the data we needed, and then make key insights that were valuable to the readers from that. The end result was a completely original report that the readers wouldn’t be able to get from other sources.

Channel Marketing

What is it?
In the tech world, the ecosystem of partners, alliances, and resellers is complex. But ideally, these partnerships are to everyone’s benefit. The solution providers get more exposure to new customers, and the customers get access to complimentary solutions that help their businesses. Channel marketing at its best can bring to light synergies and deepen the impact you can have on your customers. This is often in the form of co-branded campaigns, joint events, and event content developed together that shows why if someone is using one of your solutions, they will get even more benefits from integrating a partner solution.

What do I enjoy?

Channel marketing allows you to get out of your bubble and see the bigger picture from your customer’s point of view. Every organization has a tech stack where they are using many different solutions for different parts of their business and sometimes it’s easy to become ultra-focused on your own product and forget there’s a wider world out there. I also love that you get to work with fellow marketers from other organizations, collaborating and learning from each other can be really refreshing and give you new ideas for other areas of your marketing.

Example:

I participated in a joint marketing program by Microsoft and a group of resellers as an advisor. This program was great because although everyone was offering Microsoft solutions and in competition with each other, the collaboration, teamwork, and pooled resources made the ROI better for everyone than if they had done things on their own. We were also able to experiment with new tactics like influencer marketing that we wouldn’t likely have done otherwise.

Photo by Carlos Muza on Unsplash

Digital Marketing

What is it?

Digital marketing didn’t start at the beginning of the internet revolution but has gradually evolved as free-to-use platforms like Google search and Facebook needed to bring in revenue and the sheer number of users made it possible for business of all kinds to get their ads in front of their target demographics. With the amount of time most people spend in front of screens these days, it is essential for businesses to utilize these platforms

What do I enjoy?

The bottom line with digital is that everything is measurable, you can see exactly what is working and what isn’t. It takes some work to set things up correctly, but when done right you can see all your metrics at a very granular level. It’s also easy to pivot and split test digitally, and you can optimize your campaigns easily as you go. With offline ads, it’s almost impossible to measure the impact and it takes much longer to make any changes.

Example:

In a previous role, I was working on a new product launch and leading the entire paid ad strategy and execution. I decided to try a new platform I’d never used before, Reddit, in addition to the standard LinkedIn and Google campaigns. This turned out to be the best-performing platform and really demonstrated to me how important it is to keep testing and trying new things.

Event Marketing

What is it?

This one is self-explanatory, but in B2B marketing, events can run from small workshops and training sessions, webinars, big exhibitions and conferences, executive roundtables, hosting customers at sporting events, and anything else you can imagine.

What do I enjoy?

For me the best part about events is getting to know your customers, I’m not in meetings with customers every day, so events are really a chance for me to get to know my target audience better. I can then bring that knowledge and understanding back to help shape my other marketing campaigns. It’s also fun to be creative with events and make them memorable for the attendees.

Example:

The biggest event I have run was a 2-day conference with over 500 attendees and 20 sponsors. I was in charge of the full spectrum, from the planning and pitching to sponsors, to logistics/venue/food, arranging the content and track sessions, driving registrations, and everything in between. It ended up a huge success and led to an even bigger event in the following years for the first time in our region.

Field Marketing

What is it?

Field marketing can mean different things depending on the organization, but in my past two roles, it has meant I’m the mini CMO for my region. I’m in charge of the marketing strategy, budget, plan, and execution for everything. Depending on the team structure there are other people supporting you either in the region or often at a global office with product marketing, operations, analytics, etc. But the field marketer is the person who needs to localize the marketing strategy and coordinate with the other teams.

What do I enjoy?

As a field marketer it is vital to work hand-in-hand with the sales team, marketing and sales depend on each other for success. I enjoy this because I can see my direct impact on pipeline generation and new customers and really know that I am helping to grow the business. I also enjoy aligning my marketing strategy with the GTM plan and making sure all of the marketing activities I’m doing are working together.

Example:

At the end of one year, we had a huge shift in direction from a global level on what types of customers we were going to go after. It meant a lot of changes in all aspects of our marketing strategy and the need to be perfectly in line with who the sales team wanted to target. But by working closely with them and adjusting our plans we were able to bring in even better results than the previous year.

So that’s very briefly what I enjoy about these 5 areas of B2B marketing and how they contribute to me looking forward to work every day. There are so many areas and things I didn’t touch on in this article, but that’s why I enjoy marketing so much, there’s a huge variety in the work I do. I think it’s important to be a well-balanced marketer with experience in many areas, but deeper expertise in some. And I look forward to continuing to grow my expertise as time goes on!

August 26, 2023