Remarkable Content with Ian Faison Remarkable Roundup: Winning B2B Content Strategies from G2, Deel and Beyond
It’s easy to feel like you’re on your own lonely marketing island. You’re so focused on what you’re doing that your process starts to feel stale. Wouldn’t it be helpful to hear how other marketers are driving sales?
Especially if those marketers are at companies like G2, Deel and Gigster; successful names in B2B that know what works, and are pushing the envelope for what B2B content could look like. That’s what we’re bringing to you this week.
In this episode, we’re wrapping up Season 3 by highlighting the winning content strategies from top B2B brands. You’ll leave with new ideas and insights to use on your very next campaign. So all aboard, we’re getting you off that lonely island on this episode of Remarkable.
About our guests
Kim Courvoisier, Senior Director of Content Marketing at Lob
Gillian Jakob Kieser, Director of Content Marketing at CircleCI
Anja Simic, Director of Content Marketing at Deel
Martha Aviles, Vice President of Marketing at Gigster
Palmer Houchins, VP and Head of Marketing at G2
Meghan Barr, VP of Brand, Content and Communications at ZoomInfo
Johann Wrede, CEO at Emburse
Chris Sheen, Director of Content and Social at Celonis
Jérôme Robert, CMO and Chief of Staff at Tenable
What B2B Companies Can Learn From Season 3 of Remarkable:
- Provide some free, valuable content to your audience. It proves that your product is worth the investment and helps you establish domain authority. Gillian Jakob Kieser, Director of Content Marketing at CircleCI says, “When we were smaller, we were really banking on utility. So we invested a lot in single pieces of content that people would share because there was nothing better than it. So once you saw it, you would have to pass it on. An example is our team open sourced our entire competency matrix and wrote about how we developed it. And that's a document that is like five years old and it's an open Google doc. Every time I go on there, there's still like 12 Anonymous Raptors on there using the content. And that was worth it because they've become tools. And that's been a great marketing strategy.”
- Create content for people at different points in the buying process. Your content should look different for people who are just exploring their options vs. people who are ready to make a purchase. Anja Simic, Director of Content Marketing at Deel says, “The readiness to purchase is very important when you think about content marketing.” She says you can think of it like the marketing funnel. “Top of the funnel content is informational, it's educational. It's a lot of articles or listicles, and lighter content. Closer to the middle of the funnel, your content needs to be a bit more product heavy. It needs to talk about specific solutions, specific questions that your prospects may have. But not all of it has to be salesy and pushy, because they're just considering. They're exploring their options. And then the very bottom of the funnel is where you really push them over the edge. They're really thinking about it. They're considering your product, and know enough about it.”
- Make something different. Get away from the B2B content formula. Jérôme Robert, CMO and Chief of Staff at Tenable says the risk in making something outside-the-box is overstated. He says, “Notably in an industry where marketing, the marketing practices are very mature and very identical from one company to another, there's very, very little downside in standing out, in doing something that is entirely different.” He says, “Worst case scenario, it’s not going to get a lot of engagement. But I don't think anyone would laugh at you or discard you as a company because you did something different. I think people respect the originality, the boldness, in doing something entirely different.”
Quotes
*”A lot of what we think about with content marketing is how do we show a bit more of the heart behind what we do? How do we make us not just a brand, but show that there's a real company and people behind that? If you are choosing a provider, you're actually going to choose those guys, you're going to bet on them.” - Chris Sheen, Director of Content and Social at Celonis
*”Without trust, you can't do business. And today, buyers are really sophisticated. If we don't produce excellent content that genuinely seeks to inform, educate and help the customer, then they're just going to ignore it and they're going to go somewhere else. If you can create content that authentically seeks to inform and to add value, then you start to move into the trusted advisor quadrant.” - Johann Wrede, CEO at Emburse
*”We are all bombarded with content every day. And so we try to cut through the noise and provide content that can help our audience do their jobs better. That's the overarching goal of everything that we create.” - Meghan Barr, VP of Brand, Content and Communications at ZoomInfo
Time Stamps
[0:58] Introducing the Season 3 Roundup! Content strategies from…
[1:22] Kim Courvoisier from Lob
[2:38] Gillian Jakob Kieser of CircleCI
[4:38] Anja Simic of Deel
[7:17] Martha Aviles of Gigster
[8:28] Palmer Houchins of G2
[10:39] Meghan Barr of ZoomInfo
[12:09] Johann Wrede of Emburse
[16:44] Chris Sheen of Celonis
[19:37] Jérôme Robert of Tenable
Links
Listen to the full Season 3 episodes, featuring:
Kim Courvoisier, Senior Director of Content Marketing at Lob
Gillian Jakob Kieser, Director of Content Marketing at CircleCI
Anja Simic, Director of Content Marketing at Deel
Martha Aviles, Vice President of Marketing at Gigster
Palmer Houchins, VP and Head of Marketing at G2
Meghan Barr, VP of Brand, Content and Communications at ZoomInfo
Johann Wrede, CEO at Emburse
Chris Sheen, Director of Content and Social at Celonis
Jérôme Robert, CMO and Chief of Staff at Tenable
About Remarkable!
Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.
In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.
Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.