In this episode of the podcast, host Jeremy Shere welcomes Todd Gregory, the Regional Director for the Americas at Fifth Ring, a global B2B marketing agency. They discuss strategies for maximizing ROI from trade shows, which are often costly yet crucial for networking and business growth.

Todd emphasizes that many B2B companies mistakenly view trade shows as isolated events rather than integral parts of a broader marketing strategy. He critiques the common reliance on foot traffic as a success metric, noting that not all visitors are potential customers. Instead, he advocates for creating memorable experiences that engage attendees, such as immersive booths and interactive displays.

Todd shares a successful example where a company created an exclusive, intriguing booth that drew in crowds, leading to significant lead generation. He also highlights the importance of follow-up strategies post-show, including personalized outreach and nurturing leads through multiple touch points.

The conversation underscores the need for companies to think creatively about their trade show presence and to integrate their efforts into a cohesive marketing plan that extends beyond the event itself. Todd invites listeners to connect with him for further insights on trade show consulting and marketing strategies.

Connect with Todd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtoddgregory/

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In this episode, host Jeremy Shere sits down with Malte Lange, CEO of Lead Your Way, to delve into the intricacies of leveraging LinkedIn for B2B marketing. Malte shares his extensive experience in online marketing, particularly focusing on LinkedIn for the last five years. Together, they discuss common pitfalls solopreneurs, coaches, and consultants face on LinkedIn and provide actionable strategies to overcome them. Key takeaways include the importance of having a clear strategy, understanding your target audience, and mixing different types of content. They also explore the benefits of combining organic engagement with paid advertising to effectively reach the right people. Whether you're looking to grow your business or deepen your connections on LinkedIn, this episode is packed with valuable insights.

Connect with Malte: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malte-lange/

00:00 Welcome to the Podcast

00:04 The LinkedIn Dilemma

00:58 Introducing Melta Leng

02:05 The Missing Piece in LinkedIn Strategy

03:05 Developing a Solid LinkedIn Strategy

03:48 Understanding Your Target Audience

12:05 Creating Engaging Content

16:18 Leveraging LinkedIn Ads

21:09 Targeting the Right Audience

22:04 Balancing Paid and Organic Strategies

22:47 Leveraging Tools for Prospect Research

24:52 The Importance of Personalization

27:07 Scaling vs. Personal Touch

29:59 When to Make the Offer

32:08 Tailoring Offers to Prospects

34:18 Building Long-Term Relationships

38:50 Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts

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In this episode, host Jeremy Shere welcomes Nick Bennett, the Chief Customer Officer and Co-founder of TACK, a media network and go-to-market firm. Nick shares his journey in B2B marketing, from being a field marketer to co-founding his own company and becoming a LinkedIn influencer. They delve into the nuances of influencer marketing within the B2B space, comparing it to B2C influencer dynamics and discussing effective strategies for leveraging influencers to grow a business. Nick also talks about his upcoming book, 'B2B Influencer Marketing,' which aims to educate on building authentic and impactful marketing campaigns. They discuss how to choose the right influencers, measuring the success of influencer campaigns, and the future opportunities in B2B influencer marketing. Whether you're a marketer or a business owner, this episode offers valuable insights into harnessing the power of influencers to drive meaningful results.

Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbennett1/

Check out the book!

00:00 Welcome to the Show

00:14 Introduction to Influencer Marketing

00:51 Guest Introduction: Nick Bennett

01:15 Nick Bennett's Journey

02:02 Nick's Book on B2B Influencer Marketing

03:09 Understanding Influencers in B2B

09:07 How to Work with Influencers

14:28 Finding the Right Influencers

18:03 Successful Influencer Campaigns

27:05 Measuring Influencer Campaign Success

30:19 The Future of Influencer Marketing in B2B

33:01 Conclusion and Contact Information

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In this episode of the B2B Content Show, Jeremy Shere interviews Lacey Budd, the Director of Content at Customer.io, about the process and challenges of producing a comprehensive industry report with limited resources. Lacey shares insights into planning, data collection, analyzing product usage, survey data, design, and distribution. She also discusses lessons learned from their first report and improvements made for the second edition, highlighting the importance of internal collaboration and maintaining an engaging narrative in reports.

00:21 The Importance of Industry Reports

01:12 Guest Introduction: Lacey Budd from Customer.io

01:23 Overview of Customer.io and Lacey's Role

02:42 Creating a Comprehensive Industry Report

03:42 Planning and Timeline for Report Creation

04:44 Data Collection and Analysis

06:35 Team Collaboration and Project Management

11:35 Survey Data and Insights

16:25 Challenges and Learnings from Data Analysis

24:22 Design and Presentation of the Report

28:34 Breaking Up the Page with Design Elements

29:03 Learning from Last Year's Report

30:53 Starting with Design Direction

35:44 Internal vs. External Report Creation

40:41 Team Collaboration and Morale

43:00 Distribution Strategy for the Report

45:09 Measuring Report Success

48:11 Valuable Insights for the Audience

50:03 Feedback and Improvements

54:49 Conclusion and Contact Information

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In this episode, host Jeremy Shere sits down with Sally Lechin, the Head of Marketing at Envana, to discuss strategies for staying on a prospect's radar. Sally shares insights into her role, challenges, and strategies for building trust and engaging with prospects in the oil and gas industry. The conversation covers topics such as multi-channel marketing strategies, the importance of LinkedIn, automation and personalization, and the critical role of events in generating leads. Sally also touches on the evolution of Envana from a niche startup to a key player in the sustainability data management space, leveraging technology and deep industry expertise. This episode is a valuable resource for marketers looking to understand the complexities and best practices of nurturing long-term business relationships.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

00:29 Guest Introduction: Sally Lechin from Envana

02:44 Challenges in B2B Marketing

05:27 LinkedIn Strategies for Lead Generation

11:24 Tools and Tech Stack for Marketing

21:51 Event Participation and Building Relationships

25:21 Conclusion and Contact Information

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Mastering B2B Marketing Transitions: Insights and Strategies with Haley Fraser

In this episode of the B2B Content Show, host Jeremy Shere interviews Haley Fraser, the new Director of Brand and Content Marketing at Asimily, a startup focused on securing connected devices. Haley shares her experiences and strategies for successfully transitioning into new roles, especially at leadership levels, within various organizations. Key discussion points include the importance of asking questions, showing genuine curiosity, and gathering crucial feedback to understand new environments. Haley emphasizes building relationships, earning trust, and handling organizational resistance to change. They also cover aligning content marketing projects with business-critical KPIs, balancing immediate wins with long-term strategic impacts, maintaining open communication, and valuing team feedback. For new leaders, Haley advises having a clear playbook, understanding competitors, and staying engaged with key stakeholders. Connect with Haley on LinkedIn for further insights.

00:00 Welcome to the B2B Content Show

00:40 Introducing Haley Fraser

00:59 Understanding Asimily's mission

01:52 Haley's Experience in Content Marketing

04:34 Challenges of Transitioning to a New Role

06:23 Building Connections and Earning Trust

07:49 Gathering Insights from the Organization

10:32 Navigating Conflicting Opinions

11:54 Identifying Areas for Improvement

12:20 Navigating Organizational Change

12:51 Building Relationships and Understanding Decision-Making

14:00 Gathering and Implementing Feedback

15:18 Balancing Priorities and Avoiding Shiny Objects

18:17 Dealing with Resistance and Friction

23:12 Final Advice for New Leaders

24:49 Connecting and Staying in Touch

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If you have a dog, you know that we tend to treat dogs like people. Furry, barking, chewing, slobbering people ... But you know what I mean. We know dogs aren't the same as people, but their behaviors and personalities are so aligned with human behaviors and emotions that we treat them like people. Anyhow, I bring this up because I came across a LinkedIn post the other day about what you can learn from dog training about training and leading people.

The author of that post is my guest today! Joanna Bowzer is director of marketing at ClearVoice, a content production partner for brands of all sizes.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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I think most B2B marketers would agree that it's important for a company's leaders to be visible on social media, sharing ideas and stories. But most CEOs and other leaders don't have time to write articles and LinkedIn posts and such, and so the task falls to a copywriter, who does some research and, ideally, interviews the CEO and then tries to write something in their voice. The degree to which this process works to produce content that comes across as authentic and impactful depends on the skill of the writer, of course. But it also depends on the collaboration between the writer and the CEO, specifically the degree to which the writer is able to help the CEO articulate their thoughts and shape them into a coherent piece of content.

To explore the ins and outs of this collaboration, my guest is Oleksii Klochai, founder of Wizard on Demand, a content marketing firm for technical products and services.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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In our age of remote everything, the elevator pitch is a bit of an anachronism.

When's the last time you pitched an idea in an elevator?

But the concept is still relevant and important!

If you're in marketing or sales, you need to be able to explain what you offer is a way that's succinct, clear, and compelling ... and do it in about 30 seconds or less.

Now, crafting a great elevator pitch isn't exactly quantum theory ... but it's not easy, either!

And in fact, according to my guest, many companies struggle to explain what they do and why it matters to non-experts.

Jarie Bolander is many things ... He's head of market strategy at Decision Counsel ... the author of several books, including Story Driven Outreach ... and host of The Entrepreneur Ethos Podcast.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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We're all familiar with The Funnel ...

We know there's a top of the funnel, a middle, a bottom ... and everything in between.

The top is where we just try to make prospects aware that we exist ...

And once they're in the funnel, the marketer's job, alongside sales, is to nudge them further along until they're at the bottom, where, presumably, prospects are just about ready to buy ...

and we marketers do our part by supplying bottom of the funnel content to help get them over the finish line.

But for my guests today, this tidy little picture is maybe a little bit too tidy.

Tas Bober is founder of Delphinium Solutions, an consultancy specializing in landing page strategy for growth-stage SaaS companies ... and Lashay Lewis is founder of Authority Plug, a content marketing advisory firm.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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One of the biggest sources of tension between marketing and sales is the quality of leads.

From the point of view of sales, marketing qualified leads, or MQLs, are notoriously iffy, derived from people downloading gated content and signing up for newsletters and so on.

Marketing hands these leads over to sales, thinking, we've done our part! But sales turns around and says, these leads are garbage! People who download an ebook or whatever are not necessarily in the market. We need leads that are actually ready to buy!

It stands to reason that marketers could do with a better way of sourcing and evaluating leads before handing them to sales.

What could that look like?

My guest today is here to paint us a picture.

Quincy Johnson is a senior consultant at Compound Growth Marketing, a demand generation consultancy.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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In some very basic way. the purpose of marketing is to support sales. And so it stands to reason that the more marketers know about how sales actually works, the better. But marketers often have only a hazy understanding of what motivates salespeople and HOW they sell. I know that was my experience when I worked as a copywriter in the medical device industry. I actually went through sales training and did ride alongs with reps. But still, in my day to day work I wasn't really seeing things from a sales perspective.

To help us better understand what marketers ought to know about how sales works, my guests today are Joel Barker and Karl Steiner. Joel is creative director and principal at Lion's Way Content, and Karl is lead writer and principle Lion's Way.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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There's nothing more frustrating for marketers than pouring your heart and soul into a piece of content, only to have sales reps ignore it or use it the wrong way.

My guest on this episode has lots of experience dealing with this issue. He is Nick Loise, founder of Sales Performance Team, a leading fractional sales leadership and new business development firm. We talk about what causes marketers to produce content that sales people don't value or understand and what marketers can do to create content that salespeople DO value.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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Have you ever thought about getting into speaking?

If so, then this episode is for you. Juli Lassow, an entrepreneur, founder of JHL Solutions, and a frequent speaker. We talk about how to get started with speaking, how to overcome the fear of public speaking (right up there with death as many people's #1 fear!), how to use speaking opportunities to market yourself and your business, and much more!

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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Buyer personas are a staple of any b2b marketing playbook, for obvious reasons. They give marketers a target to aim at and provide insight and guidelines for how to engage prospects and convert them into customers. The problem, though, is that buyer personas are based on information about, well, buyers, which at any given time comprise only around 5% of your total market. What buyer personas typically DON'T take into account are the whopping 95% of your market that's not in buying mode. Would it not make sense to ALSO create personas for that large segment of your market that isn't ready to buy?

This insight led today's guest, Matthew Lewsadder, to write and publish a book on the topic: Buystander Personas: How to gain breakthrough insights into out of market b2b audiences, create massive demand for your brand, and win where others aren't competing.

Matthew is also founder and CEO of Brighttail, a B2B demand marketing agency.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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It stands to reason that the most effective content is content that's informed by data. Specifically, data about what customers value about a company's products and services. The better you design a piece of content to speak to the specific needs, desired outcomes, and preferences of the people you're trying to sell it to, based on what you learn from your current customers, the better that content is likely to perform.

Actually doing this, though, is easier said than done.

My guest today is here to share her process for infusing content with valuable product user and product lifecycle data. Ashley Litzenberger is a product and solution marketing expert and founder of Ashley Litzenberger Consulting,

Link 1 linkedin.com/in/alitzenbergerhighered

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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Podcasting can be a great way to reach and engage an audience, create and repurpose a lot of content, and have meaningful conversations with people you want to get to know.

But starting a podcast can ALSO be a powerful driver for personal growth.

In this episode, Bryan Huhn, a financial advisor and host of the Affordable Freedom podcast, talks about how podcasting has helped him become more confident in meeting and having conversations with new people, becoming a better listener, and much more!

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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Interviewing is easy, right? You just ask a bunch of questions, record the answers, and that's it. Of course, if you're a regular listener or if you know me at all, you know that's not true. Interviewing at a high level is an art & a science, involving complexities that are hard to appreciate until you encounter them. For example, people in positions of power, such as a CEO, are often very careful during interviews to not say the wrong thing. And so they lapse into corporate jargon and blandly recite the company's purpose and mission statement. As the interviewer, though, that's not what you came for. You want the real thing. But how do you get beyond the corporate facade and get the interviewee to open up?

To help us unravel this puzzle, my guest is Dean Nelson, founder and director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, founder and host of The Writers Symposium by the Sea, and author the book Talk to Me: How to ask better questions, get better answers, and interview anyone like a pro.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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4 years ago, when I started Connversa, I built a website using Wix, the drag and drop DIY website platform.

But I felt a little weird about it, because I had it in my head that REAL websites are built on Wordpress ...

AND that a website I built myself just wasn't good enough.

And so, after a few years, I hired a company to build me a real, professional Wordpress site.

But did I HAVE to do that?

Maybe, instead of paying a lot of money to get a brand new website, you can opt for hiring someone to improve your current site.

To help us work through this, my guest today is Niki Clark, founder and CEO of Niki Clark Marketing.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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We all know that case studies are among the most useful kind of content any B2B company can have. According to the 2023 SaaS Marketing Case Studies report, from Uplift Content, SaaS marketers ranked case studies as the most valuable type of content to increase sales. Other reports have found similar results in other industries. But the Uplift report also found that only 12% of SaaS marketers are very satisfied with their case studies. So, there's apparently lots of room for improvement.

To help us understand how companies can produce better case studies, my guest is Emily Amos, founder and CEO of Uplift Content.

The B2B Content Show is brought to you by Connversa, helping busy CEOs and business owners create a month’s worth of difference-making video content in 60 minutes.

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