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B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Eric Schwartzman
47 episodes
2 months ago
Join host Eric Schwartzman (who ran RevOps at $1B company) for a weekly audio masterclass on how B2B marketers use the latest tech to generate, qualify and convert leads to revenue. Show blog: https://www.ericschwartzman.com/blog
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All content for B2B Lead Gen Podcast is the property of Eric Schwartzman and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Join host Eric Schwartzman (who ran RevOps at $1B company) for a weekly audio masterclass on how B2B marketers use the latest tech to generate, qualify and convert leads to revenue. Show blog: https://www.ericschwartzman.com/blog
Show more...
Marketing
Technology,
Business,
Careers
Episodes (20/47)
B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Search Engine Optimization Secrets from Senior SEO Strategist Juliette van Rooyen
In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, search optimization expert Juliette van Rooyen talks about how to get internal linking right, how to deal with keyword cannibalization, the easiest way to crawl one’s own site, some pointers in hiring the best developers for your website, and more.



Juliette is the founder and head of SEO services at VR Squared, and has worked within client-side and agency environments in London and Cape Town for the past 15 years.















As part of her SEO consulting in extremely competitive industries, she creates global SEO strategies that involve local SEO strategies for over 50 regions and more than ten languages and also solves technical SEO issues that affect key page performance.



Contextual Linking



While Juliette didn’t initially plan to get into SEO consulting, she naturally gravitated toward that path. Originally a developer, she felt that trying something different would be a breath of fresh air. “Given that I was used to working with code, over time, I've kind of naturally transitioned towards the more technical side of SEO, where utilizing code and understanding how it all works is a massive asset,” she shares.



SEO for Site Architecture




https://youtu.be/9LCaHx1hOw4
Full Video Interview



On the topic of internal or contextual linking, Juliette mentions that it begins with your main navigation section. According to her, it can go both ways. Some businesses only link to their top-level pages, which doesn’t help people who want to navigate to more valuable content assets on the site. On the other hand, it’s also possible to overwhelm your audience with too many links. 



“One of the big things that help to ensure that you're getting it (SEO) right on an ongoing basis,” says Juliette, “is to crawl your sites.” The easiest way to do this is using a site crawler like Screaming Frog, which Juliette has used for over a decade. A deep crawl would be particularly useful for enterprise-level sites.



In terms of finding and hiring the right developer for SEO projects, Juliette had this piece of advice: “Honestly, the best way to find someone good is to reach out to other people who are your connections in the industry; everybody knows someone else who's doing what they do.” 



She added that word-of-mouth recommendations have been efficient when looking for a developer. And while the really high-end developers may be out of reach for small businesses with limited budgets, plenty of excellent developers work specifically with WordPress. ”Having professionals to do what they do best frees you up to do what you do best — and to actually sell your products.”



SEO to Minimize Keyword Cannibalization




https://youtu.be/58XFsFF85Z4




Keyword Cannibalization and Web Page Quality



Juliette also talks about how to deal with keyword cannibalization on your website. Keyword cannibalization is what happens when there are multiple pages on your website trying to rank for the same keyword.



With resources such as SEO Tools for Excel, Juliette and her team can discover and manage keyword cannibalization with ease. “It doesn't matter how big or small your site is; there are often ways for you to consolidate that you've not considered,” she says. “Keyword cannibalization is a great signpost to say, ‘Guys, you've got a lot here.”















Naturally, improving webpage quality is another significant concern for SEO consultants.
Show more...
3 years ago
44 minutes 37 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
SEO Consulting for Enterprise Clients with Nick Wilsdon
In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, digital marketer and strategist Nick Wilsdon talks about the enterprise SEO strategies of major brands, working with SEO consultants, why big changes at Google could make or break your search engine visibility, and more.



Nick Wilsdon is the co-founder and CEO of TorquePartnership, a company that provides digital consultancy and search engine optimization advisory programs to enterprise clients. A keynote speaker, blogger, and contributor to industry publications such as The Drum, Reuters, and The Moscow Times, Nick Wilsdon is passionate about digital performance, integrated digital marketing campaigns, and joining up the dots.







Advertisement











Enterprise SEO vs Small Business SEO



According to Nick, there are major differences in how enterprises and small businesses approach SEO. Small businesses, for instance, are more focused on link building, whereas enterprises are more focused on the technical side of SEO since they deal with considerably larger websites. Enterprise SEO is B2C SEO. Small businesses serve consumers and other businesses, but it's fair to say that most SEO B2B campaigns are launched on behalf of small businesses. “Link acquisition isn't really as important for them,” Nick reveals. “They've got the authority. Usually, the thing that's holding them back is tech, SEO, and implementing that.”



Nick also mentioned that to get a decent SEO strategy up and running for an enterprise, there’s a complex process that involves a lot of tweaking, fixing, and approvals. “There's a lot of process and politics behind that, to get those things fixed. That takes a huge amount of strategy and thinking to push that through those organizations kind of.”



SEO at Scale




https://youtu.be/Y48wU7S2mbY




Another key difference is the sheer scale of enterprise SEO, a problem that small business SEO strategies don’t have to deal with. Even the seemingly simple act of making SEO changes must take the different teams and interests of the organization into consideration; Nick says that this often requires a “very strong business case” to justify those changes. “It involves [the specialist] understanding the commercial nature of the business, far more than most of the technical SEOs. So you have to have a balance between your technical knowledge, but also an understanding of what the business is trying to do and what the objectives are through the business.”



Value of Soft Skills in Enterprise SEO



That’s why soft skills are important for people working in SEO: Being an expert on the nitty-gritty of SEO can only take you so far. “If you can't convey the value of what you're trying to do to senior stakeholders, then you're never going to move up in your career, and you're never going to make these kinds of projects land.”



Nick also took the time to emphasize the importance of internal linking, whether for enterprise sites, small business sites, or any other type of online business site. “Those internal links are absolutely fundamental,” stresses Nick, “and you should always be thinking, ‘If [I] have highly linked pages, and [I’m] going out with something that does attract links, where am I linking to internally from that page?”




https://youtu.be/bXLk91CDAZ4




Ironically, this is the aspect of SEO that’s often overlooked, according to Nick. One example is how when an internal link goes dead and goes to a 404 page, it no longer transfers any equity to your site. “As a small business owner, what are you doing to recover those links coming into your site?
Show more...
3 years ago
48 minutes 55 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Revenue Attribution in Marketing and Sales Analytics with Steffen Hedebrandt
In this episode we go deep into revenue attribution with Steffen Hedebrandt, chief revenue officer and cofounder at Dreamdata.io in Copenhagen, Denmark, an expert in digital revenue attribution, purchase intent and user tracking.



But before we get into the interview, here are some revenue attribution basics...



What is Revenue Attribution?



Revenue attribution is the aspect of marketing and sales analytics that allows businesses to understand how different digital touchpoints contribute to revenue generation. It involves identifying and assigning value to each interaction a customer has with a company, helping organizations optimize their marketing funnel so they can allocate their resources efficiently.



Revenue Attribution Models



To excel in revenue attribution, marketers need to employ advanced analytics tools and platforms, align with their sales teams, and stay up to date on industry trends. Revenue attribution requires an understanding of data analysis, customer behavior, and marketing strategy. The best revenue attribution models help businesses allocate their budgets, improve their ROI, and make data-driven decisions for growth marketing.




First-Touch Attribution: This model attributes all the revenue to the first interaction a customer had with the company. It's valuable for understanding how initial marketing efforts contribute to conversions.



Last-Touch Attribution: In contrast to the first-touch model, this one assigns all revenue credit to the last interaction before a conversion. It's useful for recognizing the final touchpoints that directly lead to a sale.



Multi-Touch Attribution: This model is more complex and assigns value to multiple interactions throughout the customer journey. It acknowledges that customers often interact with a brand multiple times before converting.



Linear Attribution: Here, revenue credit is distributed evenly across all touchpoints in a customer's journey. It provides a balanced view of how each interaction contributes to the final outcome.



Time-Decay Attribution: This model assigns more value to interactions that occur closer to the conversion point, recognizing that some touchpoints have a more significant impact as the purchase decision nears.



Custom Attribution Models: Many businesses create their own attribution models tailored to their unique customer journeys and industry-specific factors.




About Steffan Hedebrandt



Steffan serves primarily on B2B digital marketing agencies. His services help clients nurture leads through the sales cycle to a decision point, which hopefully results in a sale. As a result, he thinks a lot about keyword intent. The specific term someone searches says a great deal about there likelihood to complete a purchase. And this interview, he shares his formula for keyword intent strategy.



Does a lot work helping SaaS companies with 15-500 employees. He targets marketing directors and says direct sales in the fastest channel. Or you can try to capture the highest intent by purchasing traffic from very specific channels like Capterra or G2, where visitors are very far down the purchase funnel, essentially comparing competing services to each other, which is among the strongest indicators of intent to purchase because the buyer has already invested a lot of time and energy into researching a product category.



Anonymous vs. Authenticated User Tracking



Marketers are starting to appreciate the difference between anonymous and authenticated user tracking. Anonymous user tracking platforms like Google Analytics track devices,
Show more...
3 years ago
42 minutes 49 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
PR Agency Leader Michael Terpin on Promoting Cryptocurrency and ICOs
In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, cryptocurrency investor, entrepreneur, and public relations executive Michael Terpin shares insights into the challenges of promoting cryptocurrency through public relations efforts, the critical issue of data protection and security – particularly in the context of telecom companies like AT&T. Terpin recounts a personal experience in which he falls victim to SIM card swapping fraud, leading to the theft of his cryptocurrency assets. Terpin's subsequent legal action against AT&T highlights the importance of robust security measures in safeguarding not only cryptocurrency but also individuals' personal information and digital identities. He calls for regulatory changes and enhanced data protection practices within the telecommunications industry, and share insight on promoting ICOs, and other way of promoting cryptocurrencies.



About Michael Terpin



In 2013 Michael Terpin co-founded BitAngels, an investment network for blockchain technology startups and the first angel network for bitcoin and digital currency startups with 500 international investors. In 2014, he founded Transform Group, a bitcoin and blockchain marketing and PR firm headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which promotes initial coin offerings (ICOs). More on that latter. Terpin also runs CoinAgenda, the leading conference series connecting mainstream investors with blockchain and cryptocurrency investors.



Before we get into Michael Terpin's interview, let's cover some cryptocurrency marketing basics...



What is an ICO?



Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a fundraising method commonly used in the blockchain and cryptocurrency startup industry to raise capital. Some ICOs are handled by the actual startups minting the new cryptocurrency. And sometimes they hire a PR firm.



In an ICO, a company or project issues a new cryptocurrency or token to investors in exchange for traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum or fiat currency. These tokens represent a stake or utility within the project's ecosystem. ICOs gained popularity as a way for startups to secure funding quickly, but they have also faced regulatory scrutiny due to potential risks and fraudulent activities.



It's essential for investors to conduct thorough research and due diligence before participating in an ICO, as the cryptocurrency market can be volatile and risky.



What is Fiat Currency?



Fiat currency is a type of currency that a government has declared to be legal tender for transactions within its jurisdiction. Unlike commodity money (such as gold or silver), which has intrinsic value, fiat currency has no inherent value and is not backed by a physical commodity. Instead, its value is based on the trust and confidence that people have in the government and the stability of its economy.



Examples of fiat currencies include the US Dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), Japanese Yen (JPY), and many others. These currencies are used for everyday transactions, such as buying goods and services, paying taxes, and settling debts. Central banks and governments have the authority to issue and regulate fiat currency, including controlling its supply through monetary policy measures like interest rates and money printing.



Fiat currencies are the most common form of currency in the world today and are essential for the functioning of modern economies.



Cryptocurrency Marketing and PR Tips from Michael Terpin



Terpin thinks the term "cryptocurrency" is not be entirely accurate, as most governments treat it more as property or a commodity than traditional currency. He suggested that "crypto commodities" might be a more suitable term.
Show more...
3 years ago
44 minutes 26 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Tech Stacks for RevOps with Jen Spencer
Smartbug’s Chief Revenue Officer and RevOps analyst Jen Spencer talks about her recent benchmarking report on the convergence of inbound marketing and revenue operations (RevOps): a survey of 200-plus revenue leaders that includes a RevOps framework for how best to adapt to these trends.



Rev Ops -- or the alignment of technology and processes to support the collaboration of marketing, sales and customer success efforts -- has become increasingly popular as companies look reorganize to support the full customer lifecycle.







advertisement











We also talk about RevOps strategies and the kinds of apps that most businesses are using and how that will change moving forward, the importance of integrated technology to most companies, and why cross functional collaboration is the new competitive advantage.




https://youtu.be/eQ_ETGnZZPI




In this RevOps Tech Stack podcast:



01:27​ What is RevOps or revenue operations?



03:23​ Smartbug’s survey on revenue operations, digital marketing, sales and customer success.



05:06​ What is a tech stack?



06:46​ Defining small business tech stacks.



10:23​ All-in-one tech platform solutions vs. best-of-breed stacks.



14:29​ Interoperable stacks and retaining customer data.



17:20​ The meaning of digital business, and how to build one.



20:04​ Trends in CRM and integrating best-of-breed stacks across marketing, sales, and customer success.



21:52 HubSpot versus Salesforce: Which solution is right for you?



24:12 Cross functional integration as a competitive barrier to entry.



27:43 How account-based marketing creates a more unified customer experience.



29:25 How customer account data helps sellers create raving fans.



32:02 RevOps metrics for measuring marketing and customer success correctly.



34:08 Why cross-functional collaboration matters in the modern enterprise.
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3 years ago
37 minutes 16 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
SEO for Everyone with Yoast CEO Marieke van de Rakt
With 30% marketshare, WordPress is the world's most popular content management system (CMS) on the Internet today. Unsurprisingly, plugins designed to work with it, especially those that use the freemium business model to convert free to premium subscribers, also enjoy tremendous popularity and loyalty from their users.



In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, sociologist and digital maven Marieke van de Rakt PhD talks about the intricacies of running an SEO company, technical aspects of SEO consulting, how the pandemic has affected businesses, and more.



SEO Consulting Philanthropy




https://youtu.be/GOsfcDWEULM
Full Video Interview



Marieke is the CEO of Yoast, a popular WordPress plugin used by more than 11 million people to make their website easier for Google to index. Armed with a PhD in Social Sciences, she is focused not just on Yoast’s growth, but also the company’s online SEO training academy, which offers free and premium subscriptions. 



Yoast’s SEO business growth (and keeping up with Google)



Yoast offers both a free version and a paid (premium) version with added features for site maintenance, site structure, and other SEO essentials. And for a plugin such as Yoast that works with WordPress — a content management system built on open source, public domain software — the premium version serves as the support system that allows the free version to keep being operational. “If you have an SEO plugin for 11 million sites, and you're not making any money off of it, that's not possible anymore,” Marieke explains. “So I think it's in the best interest of the whole WordPress community that we make money from it, so that we can give back to the people.”



In order to keep up with Google’s changes, Yoast maintains a close relationship with the internet giant. This involves maintaining constant communication with Google, or at least its relevant departments. “I don't see Google as one company,” shares Marieke. “They're so big that they don't know everything.” 



There are certain limitations, though. A major algorithm change, for instance, is not something Yoast can immediately address until the team fully understands the extent of the changes. “So it's a lot of conversation and a lot of testing. And that keeps us up to speed.”



SEO Consulting Mission of Yoast




https://youtu.be/yD3A3Q-arg0
Full Video Interview



Reinventing the idea of SEO for small business



With approximately 400 million small- and medium-sized businesses in the global economy, Yoast has only really penetrated less than one percent of that ever-growing community. According to Marieke, their focus on WordPress is likely the biggest deterrent toward growing their market share. 



Marieke says that Yoast is currently in the process of tweaking Yoast SEO for other platforms aside from WordPress. However, she also notes that such ventures are unlikely to scale as big as WordPress, which holds the lion’s share of the CMS market. However, she still thinks that there’s plenty of room for Yoast to grow, even if it’s just within WordPress. “There are a lot of challenges — and a lot of people who can build a website start with WordPress, which is good.”



Many small businesses have yet to take the leap towards the digital business game, which Marieke attributes to the inherent difficulty in putting together a WordPress site, as opposed to how easy it is to just create a Facebook page or an Instagram account. “On a website, you own your own stuff, and you have everything on your own domain. WordPress makes it the easiest part to get; the thing going on that it's yours,
Show more...
3 years ago

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
B2B Growth Marketing with Blitzscaling Ventures Founder Chris Yeh
In this episode, writer, investor and entrepreneur Chris Yeh talks about B2B Growth Marketing – which he calls Blitzscaling: The Lightning Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies in a book he wrote with Linkedin CEO Reid Hoffman on scaling B2B ventures – which explains how companies like Amazon, AirBNB, and Uber use a very specific set of offensive, competitive strategies that prioritize speed over profitability to achieve massive scale at incredible speed.



We also discuss how Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos is blitzscaling at Amazon, Uber's growth scaling strategy, and racism in the venture capital community.



B2B Growth Marketing (aka Blitzscaling) Podcast




What is Blitzscaling? (Spoiler Alert: It's B2B Growth Marketing on steroids!)



Significance of network effects in Blitzscaling



How network effects create winner-take-all markets





https://youtu.be/IctAOlXuv-A
Full video interview: https://youtu.be/QOJFEnvUduQ




The difference between fastscaling and Blitzscaling



Difference between B2B growth marketing and B2B marketing





https://youtu.be/j-Sez4lsjfE
Full video interview: https://youtu.be/QOJFEnvUduQ




Which startups can afford to ignore efficiency



Dangers of out-of-control growth



Uber Blitzscaling growth marketing strategy



Racism in the venture capital community





https://youtu.be/VzqzqwqON9U
Full video interview: https://youtu.be/QOJFEnvUduQ




Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos



Industry vs. Growth Marketing Experience 



How Yeh decides which startups to invest in
Show more...
3 years ago
39 minutes 22 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
How To Stack Marketing Technology with Scott Brinker
In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, Scott Brinker, vice president of platform ecosystem at HubSpot and editor at Chief MarTech talks about stack business value with marketing technology.



Brinker is also chair of the MarTech Conference and an MIT Sloan School of Management graduate.



He launched Chiefmartec.com 13 years ago to explore the intermingling of marketing and technology before B2B customer journeys were well understood and before the concept of B2B content marketing funnels or B2B lead generation evolved.



The site, whose name is an abbreviation of the “Chief Marketing Technologist” job title, covers the latest digital marketing news and produces its own trade show.



What are Martech Stacks?




https://youtu.be/7caLHsCnR3I




Though he’s still very invested in Chiefmartec, Scott spends most of his time at Hubspot, which became prominent a few years ago by investing in B2B content marketing.



“We found that pivot point where people were going more and more to the internet to make decisions about who they wanted to do business with, the whole shift from outbound sales and heavy advertising budgets to a model that would attract customers by publishing content that was useful to them, would show up in Google and social networks,” Brinker says.



Although they have enterprise clients, Hubspot is seeing the most growth in the midmarket, so they’re not just marketing to a CTO persona. They’re selling directly to founders and entrepreneurs as well.



Since then, Hubspot has become a full martech stack for marketing, sales, and customer service, with around 700 third-party app partners marketing SaaS applications to integrate with their platform. Scott celebrates the explosion of the Hubspot ecosystem, but he also sees it as a big challenge.



“Sure, I can buy all these specialized tools, but do I get them to work together? My mission at Hubspot is to help solve that problem by saying, ‘Ok, Hubspot is at the center of your stack, we’d like to work with all those companies that have out-of-the-box integration, so you just don’t have to think about that, you just plug them in and they work,” he says.



Integrated Marketing for Small Business




https://youtu.be/PGYkv9CMEcQ




One of the big changes brought about by Hubspot is giving many small businesses the chance to use advanced digital marketing tools. But how can a small start-up spec its stack, get a scope study going and minimize risk?



“A small business that is new to this should not read my blog, it will only distract them and freak them out”, Scott says with a smile. Not surprisingly, he suggests resorting to Hubspot instead. “It does so much out of the box and it provides such good educational materials. It’s just the way to go,” says Brinker.



He says that while much of the digital marketing tech is cool, when you’re optimizing the web experience with content marketing, search engine optimization, and email marketing, the real work is the actual content creation and lead qualification.



Brinker says Hubspot minimizes the risk of winding up with a Frankenstack. Still, like anything else in the software world, successful deployments rely on how well you gather data across different functions, fine-tune the customer experience, and customize your workflows.



But for the right customers, Hubspot’s integrated sales, service, and marketing applications are an off-the-shelf revenue operations stack worth looking into.



Listen to the full interview with Scott Brinker,
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3 years ago
38 minutes 31 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Ecommerce Marketing Agencies Pivot as Google Ends Cookie Support with Eric Best
In this podcast which will be of interest to Ecommerce marketing agencies, I spoke with SoundCommerce CEO Eric Best, a 20-year commerce vet who's worked at Amazon and Liberty Interactive.



He was CSO at CommerceHub through its IPO, CEO and founder at Mercent, and cofounder at Impresys, Emercis, and MindCorps.



In this interview, he talks to us about why some website marketing companies outperform, how he approaches ecommerce marketing and how Google’s plans to eliminate cookies will change website marketing strategy.





How small business is adapting to direct to consumer ecommerce marketing





What small business marketers are doing right, and what they’re doing wrong





Optimizing for Customer Lifetime Value





2 common failure points when it comes to measuring and optimizing ecommerce marketing campaigns





Measuring omni channel customer journeys that take place on multiple websites and devices



Impact of consumer privacy laws like CCPA and GDPR on digital analytics



Google’s planned elimination of cookie support, after this. Stay with us.





How Google’s planned elimination of third-party cookie support will change digital marketing





Likelihood of Section 230 reform and holding social networks accountable for engagement-based amplification




Subscribe to the B2B Lead Gen Podcast.
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3 years ago
31 minutes 58 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Boutique Public Relations Agency COO Katie Kern on Diversity and Inclusion
In this episode, Katie Kern, COO of Media Frenzy Global, a public relations agency with offices in Atlanta, and London, discusses Clubhouse, the Meghan Markle Oprah Winfrey interview, the #BlackWomenatWork hashtag, Billie Holiday, alternate realities, diversity, inclusion, and much, much more. She’s an expert at getting press coverage for her clients.



Kern started as a retail coordinator at Reebok, and after that she started her own PR agency specializing in fashion and lifestyle brands. Next, she became a partner at Media Frenzy. Reebok was her first job after graduating from college, “and it was a great, great launching pad for me, I got to work with many global brands. I couldn’t ask for any more from a learning standpoint. I was managing millions of dollars in retail marketing budget.”




https://youtu.be/CHjCao_v8qM




Kern says she’s bullish on the potential of Clubhouse as a B2B content marketing tool, having recently hosted a mixer on the nascent audio service for a client involved with SXSW. “I’m more of a listener than I am a host. I like to go and just kind of listen to what people has to say”, she explains. Clubhouse can be used as a virtual event platform, which is especially useful these days. “People can go in and invite speakers to come in and speak on various topics,” Kern says.



Regarding the Meghan Markle-Prince Harry interview, Kern thought, “It was done really well, and it was done by the right person.” But with respect to the Crown, she said they handled the situation poorly. “They should have been advocating for Megan, apologizing for how they made her feel,” Kerns says. She also explains why the hashtag #BlackWomenAtWork went viral during the interview.




https://youtu.be/d22kHIiGZNA
Full Video Interview



There's a different sense of what’s real in the black community than what’s real in the White community, she pointed out. “It really took the murder of George Floyd to awaken people”, she emphasizes. “I have gone to HR on numerous occasions, saying that I had been mistreated, microaggressions, and I’m not an oversensitive person”. In many of those instances, she was told she was overacting. Her message to White America is that racism still festers and inhibits African Americans, particularly in the workplace. Rather than roll your eyes, “Believe black people,” she says.



Regarding the film United States vs. Billie Holiday, Kern says she enjoyed the music, but remarked that what Holiday went through is not really that surprising for her perspective. “I didn’t find her story to be unique, because when I look back at a lot of other black performers in that day, their situation is not any different.” But she said that in addition to standing her ground, she was struck by Holiday’s self-confidence in the value of her artistry. “It’s so important to know that you’re valued, and there are so many people who want to bring you down, who don’t think very much of you, but I felt in that moment, watching, that she knew what her worth was.”




https://youtu.be/aeKaQGCzqsQ




To hear the full interview with this content agency professional, scroll up and use the audio player at the top of this blog post to play the podcast. And subscribe to future episodes here.



If you’d like to support this podcast, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here.
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4 years ago
36 minutes 28 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines with Marketing Analytics Consultant Katie Robbert
Katie Robbert is the CEO of Trust Insights, a marketing analytics consulting firm. She is Google Analytics certified, with a Master of Science in marketing and technological innovation, and has years of experience in SEO and data analytics. 



In this episode, she talks about Powering Modern SEO with Social Media Data, a white paper her team developed with Talkwalker, a social media analytics and media monitoring platform, that spoke about powering modern SEO and content marketing through data from social media.



As Katie pointed out, we may not realize it, but we’re doing the hard work for Google to train its AI to understand audio and visual information. Consider Google Photos, for instance. Whenever Google Photos asks us to identify or categorize a photo, we’re helping them train their algorithm, and they can apply that logic to their test data sets.



SEO for Small Businesses




https://youtu.be/qf1ao1hNv9I




Search Quality Rater Guidelines



Google’s Search Quality Rating Guidelines highlight the importance of having high-quality main content, meaning the content you specifically wrote about the topic, which is found in the main section of your page (and not, say, the sidebars or navigation panels).



When it comes to fact-checking and determining the accuracy of online content, it’s easier for Google to check for historical and scientific accuracy than it is to check for truth, which still can’t be algorithmically verified.



Katie mentions another potential issue, “New, cutting-edge research is always the hardest for an algorithm such as Google to understand because again, it needs that test data, that historical data, to say, ‘Yes, this is a thing.’” An example of this is Google Scholar. Without any precedent in the form of existing studies or previous mentions, Scholar will have nothing to validate new research against, and will struggle with it (regardless of whether it’s accurate or not).



Trademarking and Zero Click Searches 



On the subject of trademarking B2B content marketing materials, context matters. Not every use of a trademarked phrase counts as infringement. For example, Katie mentions her friend Gini Dietrich, who developed the PESO (paid, earned, owned, and shared media) model for communicators. According to Katie, she constantly has to contact companies using the term without giving her due credit. “It's just being aware of the source of a term.”



Hashtags, however, are a different matter. Casual terms are up for trademarking, which specific “internet influencers” have taken advantage of. “They are constantly trying to trademark certain phrases, casual phrases that we all use all the time, so that every time somebody uses them, they get paid some sort of fee for us using that term,” explains Katie.



B2B Content Marketing Agencies




https://youtu.be/iUdwMwtlnEY




And that's where it starts to get into that ridiculous area of trademarking terms and phrases, and then what you as an SEO person can do about getting around that.” If you want practical guidance on how NOT to infringe on intellectual property rights and how to protect trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks and patents, and respect the intellectual property rights of others, check out my free course on Digital Intellectual Property Rights Management.



In our previous interview, Katie talked about Google Passages, and how it can take away views from a website. Passages are just one of the many parts of the Google ecosphere that help it keep users within its “bubble.” As Google doesn’t want users to exit the experience,
Show more...
4 years ago
35 minutes 13 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Growth Marketing Playbook with Ray Wang
The shift to digital was hastened by the lockdown. But are B2B growth marketing ops professionals adopting technology at the expense of personal interaction? And is B2B growth marketing strategy tempting us to disregard the human side of building relationships with business customers?



In this episode, bestselling author and keynote speaker Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research – which studies disruptive business and exponential technology trends – shares his growth marketing playbook.



Ray Wang on B2B Sales and Marketing




https://youtu.be/uSfcwTK62u0




Account Based is Outpaced



From a B2B perspective, account-based marketing is overblown. B2B marketers are tired of over building their stacks. Why overcomplicate things when you can manage a couple of thousand prospects just as easily on a spreadsheet?



We have so many tools for connecting with audiences. There's sales enablement platforms, vertically integrated stacks, marketing technology stacks, and even tools for managing B2B keywords and b2b networking sites, but they aren't even large enough to become unmanageable.















“Everybody talks about, ‘Hey, we got this ABM problem. We're spending millions.’ I'm like, ‘Why are you spending millions?’ Have you totally missed the point of relationships and marketing and account-based approaches?” says Ray.



He also emphasizes the importance of both the digital and the human elements in building relationships. Getting rid of one aspect and focusing entirely on the other isn’t an approach that would work in all situations. In the B2B customer journey, interpersonal relationships matter more.



Ultimately, it depends on your brand’s identity, the image you shape through your B2B content marketing agency, and your target market’s preferences. “Both are going to be important; offering choices are important,” said Ray. “But let's figure out what the problem is that we're trying to solve first, and then we can figure out you know which technology is to apply.”



Geographic Relevance of Artificial Intelligence



As artificial intelligence (AI) gets better, whoever can get more data and more scale who will emerge at the top.



Ray explained that only countries with access to high-quality data can deliver signal intelligence, which is built on the dynamic feedback loops that bring everything together. B2B marketing pros are bound to have questions and concerns about when to automate fully or whether to augment machines with humans to ensure precision decision-making in AI. “You have got to have humans in the process,” stressed Ray, “and there are places where humans make a lot more sense, and it's where decision-making gets a lot more complicated.” 



Ray Wang on AI in Digital Marketing




https://youtu.be/K-ztfMXZE5Q




We know why content marketing is important for b2b and that the more informational and educational content you publish to align with the various stages of the marketing funnel, the more discoverable you are, so long as your B2B content is topically relevant to your prospective buyers, as Robert Rose explained in a previous episode of this podcast.



But the reason that AI is Ray added that because China has the ability to aggregate more data and has a larger population (privacy concerns and surveillance capitalism notwithstanding), it gives the nation an edge when it comes to making AI smarter. Still, the dangers of automated autocracy aren’t an excuse to stay out of ...
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4 years ago
23 minutes 14 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Best Podcasts with HotPod Newsletter Founder Nick Quah
What makes the best podcasts great is a subjective question with no real answer. In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, benevolent journalist Nick Quah – who has been covering the business of podcasting in 2015 – talks about the elements of the best podcasts, the search for niche podcast audiences, the basics of podcast marketing, his opinion of Clubhouse, the benefits of podcasting, whether or not he’d work for Courtney Holt at Spotify if they made him an offer, and the differences between Boise, Idaho and Kuala Lumpur. 



Nick Quah, the founder and publisher of the HotPod newsletter, syndicated by Harvard’s Nieman Lab, covers the latest developments in the podcasting business. HotPod Insider is a twice-weekly paid version of his newsletter that you can subscribe to here. He is also the host of Servant of Pod, a podcast about podcasts that he does with LAist studios, and a contributing writer to New York Magazine's Vulture. 



Reporting on the Podcasting Business at HotPod




https://youtu.be/Gc1pVLjA3M4




Covering Podcasting at HotPod



Born and raised in Southeast Asia, Nick had the opportunity to come to the United States to study for college, first at Wesleyan and next at the University of Chicago. Over the last 13 years, he’s gained some interesting perspectives on business and life from both sides.



Regarding the abundance of cutting-edge Southeast Asian talent on gig sites for visual design, Nick mentions the status of developing countries as emerging economies, an increased interest in getting into the creative arts, and, of course, the reduced labor cost of outsourcing. “There are deep, deep, inadequate inequities and severe criticisms and questions about globalization,” says Nick. “But that is the world that we have.”



Nick Quah of HotPod's Favorite Podcasts




https://youtu.be/o-hy16MEjRQ




Best Podcasts According to Nick Quah of Hot Pod



As for the question of what makes the best podcasts great, Nick had this to say: “There are the shows that are built for mass consumption, and there are shows that are for niche consumption. I think the core idea is the same: It’s that you're making something that should be worthy of somebody's time, and that can be expressed in many different ways.”



According to Nick, a podcast worth listening to needs to either solve a problem in someone’s life to justify its existence in someone’s stream of the day, regardless of length or subject matter. “We only have 24 hours in a day, only so much of which we're awake, only so much of which that we are free to consume media experiences or do whatever we want to do, as opposed to we have to do so. On a very fundamental, elemental level, it is the thing that needs to justify its existence and give some value to the person listening to it, whether it's information or it's a good story well told.”



Nick also stresses that there’s no “one size fits all” strategy behind the best podcasts. “If the goal is the audience size, there are multiple strategies to achieve that outcome. And the strategies are just what they are, which are plans and ‘we'll see whether that works out’. What you could have executed, tactics — that’s a strategy.”



Best Podcast Marketing Strategies




https://youtu.be/4qNO3J_bMdM




For Servant of Pod, Nick works with a small team of producers at LAist Studios who get together and figure out interesting hooks or topics to discuss. If you’re interested in the business of podcasting, it’s a great podcast. I’m a regular listener and he gets amazing guests. Nick and his team come up with a target list of who to ...
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4 years ago
28 minutes 45 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Unveiling Google’s Search Quality Guidelines Insights: Exclusive Interview with Trust Insights CEO Katie Robbert
Trust Insights CEO Katie Robbert Shares New Keyword Research Strategy



In this exclusive podcast interview with Trust Insights CEO Katie Robberts, we discuss how Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines impact search engine optimization strategy.



As businesses seek more effective ways to connect with their target audiences, innovative methods for unearthing pertinent keywords are vital. Rather than relying solely on conventional keyword research tools, modern strategies call for a multifaceted approach. One such approach involves tapping the power of subject matter expertise through meticulously audited social media data.



This dynamic approach enables businesses to delve deeper into the psyche of their audience, deciphering the true language and interests that resonate with their buyers. By scrutinizing the conversations, trends, and sentiments prevalent on various social platforms, marketers can pinpoint keywords and topics with genuine relevance.



This approach goes beyond conventional keyword discovery techniques. It uncovers the nuances of audience preferences and establishes a foundation for content that not only ranks well, but also strikes an emotional chord with the hearts and minds of its intended recipients.



In this era of Google's Search Quality Guidelines, the fusion of expertise and data-driven insights has become the compass leading businesses toward a more meaningful and competitive online presence.



Katie Robbert on SEO for Google Passages




https://youtu.be/LcuCrp0YMQs
Watch the Full Video Interview



Katie Robbert runs a marketing analytics consulting firm in Boston called Trust Insights. Through her extensive experience in SEO consulting and data analytics, she built and grew multimillion-dollar lines of business in the marketing technology, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries. Katie Robbert and her team partnered with Talkwalker, a social media analytics and monitoring platform, to develop a white paper on using social media data to power modern SEO.



According to Katie Robbert, many people are just “putting in the bucket of basic SEO research” through keyword planners and tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush. This approach, while effective, limits the user to search terms that their target audience might be using instead of reflecting the actual language and conversations they’re having online.



Using Talkwalker’s social media export capabilities, the team obtained conversational, qualitative data sets from different social media channels to figure out the standard terms and phrases that people were saying – and this got them very different results from what their straight keyword research yielded.



Katie Robbert on Keyword Discovery through Social Media Monitoring




https://youtu.be/E5qt-D_gAyc
Watch the Full Video Interview



Through a process that relies on artificial intelligence called topic modeling, Katie Robbert and her team processed the conversational data, figuring out commonalities and similar terms people were using for specific topics (for instance, “latte with extra foam” or “espresso” whenever people would talk about coffee). Katie shares that while there’s plenty of open source code for topic modeling, you’d have to do some coding yourself to have a good topic modeling tool - which was what Trust Insights did when they developed their proprietary version.



Ranking for Competitive Keywords



A great example of this approach is processing conversational data from Reddit forums. This is possible through an API, which serves as a tunnel linking the place you want to extract data ...
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4 years ago
29 minutes 24 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Cybersecurity Risks of Digital Marketing with Daniel King
What’s the best way for digital marketers to conduct B2B lead generation without falling prey to malicious data breaches, ransomware-driven DDoS attacks, and other deceptive, criminal money-making schemes? 



In this podcast, Daniel J.W. King, Chief at IBM Security Command and a Former Officer in the US Cyber Command, discusses digital marketing and lead generation from a cybersecurity standpoint. 



Average Cost of a Data Breach




https://youtu.be/9_uWyqHrKg4
Full video interview: https://youtu.be/clypYU1_IfQ



Cybersecurity risks are no different than other business risks. Business leaders must stop flagging data breaches and malware attacks as IT problems. Cybersecurity threats as a business problem that can affect your entire IT ecosystem, causing crippling loss. 



Now that countless businesses are going digital, threats are bound to increase. When that happens, it’s natural for organizations to fail due to a lack of preparedness. So, it’s essential to focus on improving these core skills to mitigate cybersecurity risks when you accept data from lead forms into your digital marketing stack.  



Securing Data Against Intrusions




https://youtu.be/fWIq6_WZpno
Full video interview: https://youtu.be/clypYU1_IfQ



Combatting Cyber Threats 



Interactive elements such as data collection forms and clickable social media buttons can create numerous cybersecurity threats because they allow others to insert outside data into your tech stack. Here’s what you should do to minimize the risks.




Identify your crown jewels and protect them - Billing, accounting, and product data are under constant threat, so organizations focus on securing those data assets first.





Know your systems - If you have it, threat intelligence allows businesses to mitigate against future malware attacks. Businesses with evidence-based knowledge about everything inside their systems are better prepared to scale their digital presence. 





Have a plan to recover - People, processes, and technology can solve significant business problems. A cybersecurity compliance clause in partner contracts can save money and protect data.  





Appoint a retainer-based cybersecurity expert - A retainer cyber expert can offer immediate sensitive consultation and help improve the business’ scalability without increasing overheads. Secure these resources in advance so you’re ready for the worst scenario.




Daniel also discusses the risks of using marketing technology to publish web forms for B2B lead generation that can be compromised through injection attacks, whether or not businesses should worry about China’s potential AI dominance, injection attacks, input validation, building an online community while eliminating cyber threats, and preventing bot attacks. 




https://youtu.be/5qjbT8ejlVU
Full video interview: https://youtu.be/clypYU1_IfQ



Check out the full podcast to gain a fresh perspective on cybersecurity in digital marketing.  
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4 years ago
40 minutes 47 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
How Brian Dean of Backlinko Grew His Traffic in the Ultra Competitive World of SEO Blogs
Brian Dean is founder of Backlinko, a website that offers next-level SEO training and link-building strategies, sharing free tips through a website, YouTube channel, and email marketing that are designed to make a market for online courses he sells. 



He started his company in 2013, but it took three before his traffic started to pick up. Now he does roughly half a million unique visitors per month. Here’s what changed.



“When I started, I was really focused in quantity over quality,” Brian says, “because I was in a super-competitive space”. Back then, there were already a lot of SEO and marketing blogs, so he had to compete against giants like Hubspot and Neil Patel. 



When he realized just putting out content wasn’t working, he decided to start producing massive guides that were well-designed to help him stand out from the crowd. They were expensive to make. But he looked at it as an investment. When he found it hard to scale, he started hiring more people, mostly gig workers, to get the job done. He still writes all the text himself, but he’s built a team around his content production. 



Finding Good Gig Workers on Upwork and Fiverr




https://youtu.be/G_at1IIJ5RY




Brian’s advice is not to make your instructions that detailed. It’s better to give people the result and let them figure out how to produce it. So, rather than spell out detailed instructions on Fiverr and Upwork for his gigs, he posts links to the finished product and lets candidates use those to guide what they are trying to produce. He’d rather have someone who can deliver the result than someone who needs a lot of instruction. He recommends hiring many people for the same job and seeing who performs best.



Ranking Google Passages




https://youtu.be/sNaOgHmVFYw




Soon, Google will introduce passage indexing, which Brian describes as the search engine making long pages on a website discoverable as segments or “passages”, which can rank individually. This will make it easier to find sections inside long-form content without having to scroll and scan for what you’re looking for in a long-form post. Brian invented the skyscraper technique, so optimizing long-form content is particularly important to him. “It’s essential now to divide long-form posts into clear sections, which was always a best practice because it’s good for readability.”



That being the case, is it a good idea to have a table of contents index at the beginning of your page with links to each passage or section? Brian hesitates to call it a must-have, but he believes it’s helpful for users nonetheless. Unfortunately, there is no Wordpress plugin for that. You have to code those links by hand.



One of the areas I always struggle with is measuring traffic from my email marketing to my site. I do my UTM links manually with Google Campaign Builder. Is there a better way to go? Brian says that your email service provider will tell you how many people clicked on your link, but other than that, if you want accurate email metrics to show up in Google Analytics, you have to set up your UTM parameters for all your links manually.




https://youtu.be/ftyFLxYY3sA




In terms of Brian’s favorite Digital Marketing stack, his front is still Wordpress, but he recoded his backend with next.js, which is a JavaScript framework much faster than PHP. But he warns that implementing this type of solution takes pretty good technical skills.



For more information about his favorite tools and how to create great online courses and newsletters, check the full conversation, which was loaded with interesting tips.
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4 years ago
31 minutes 4 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Shows ‘Infodemic’ Threatening Recovery
In this special episode of the Earned Media Podcast, I talk to Edelman Executive Director of Intellectual Property Tonia Ries about the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer. 



We are living through a raging infodemic and a pandemic simultaneously. The survey suggests that the Trump Administration and the GOP’s war against science has culminated in a crisis of confidence that threatens to prolong the coronavirus public health emergency.



Trust Trends Over Time 




https://youtu.be/M9UcrzDhI0k




“In tweets to their followers, the political leaders of the U.S., Brazil and Mexico diminished the importance of masks and social distancing to accelerate reopening their economies; these nations now are among those leading the world in COVID deaths,” wrote Richard Edelman, who has served as President & Chief Executive Officer of the public relations firm since 1996, in his essay about the findings.



Fifty-seven percent of Biden voters say they trust the media, versus just 18% of Trump voters. The polarization is so extreme that 57% of Americans say they believe the U.S. is in the “midst of a cold civil war.” There’s so much politically motivated false information out there, people don’t know where to turn. “As a result of this daily diet of distortions and counter-factual narrative, we no longer believe our leaders,” writes Richard. 



Trust in Institutions




https://youtu.be/si3-IBajUIc




Top Survey Findings:




Trust in traditional and social media as sources of general news and information are at all-time lows.



Things have gotten to the point that over half of the people surveyed are worried that journalists, government leaders and business leaders are all purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations. 



People don’t know who to trust. All sources are viewed with suspicion. So bad information is not only contaminating the information ecosystem, it is also starting to make people doubt good information.



People who are not careful consumers of information are less likely to be willing to get vaccinated and to aid the government in contact tracing.



Employers have a key role to play in addressing the infodemic due to the high levels of trust they have with employees who distrust the news media.  




After surveying respondents in more than 28 countries, the report finds trust in journalists, government, and business leaders at an all time low. More than half said they think that journalists and leaders are purposely misleading people on a regular basis. This crisis of credibility has brought us to the point where most people don't know where to turn for accurate information anymore. 



Trust in Media







Poor media hygiene -- which the report defines as relying on social media for news, not verifying headlines by clicking through and reading the actual story before amplifying it by liking or commenting and engaging in online echo chambers -- is threatening to prolong our recovery by discouraging a large enough percentage of the population from getting vaccinated, which will keep us from achieving herd immunity. As a result of the infodemic, inoculation hesitancy is too high. Just one 1 in 4 of the survey respondents practice good media hygiene.



Trustworthy Information







Respondents who said they verify the accuracy of news they share on social media before amplifying it were also 11 points more likely to be vaccinated against coronavirus than people ...
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4 years ago
28 minutes 19 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Converting SaaS Trials from Organic Search with Ahrefs CMO Tim Soulo
Tim Soulo is CMO at Ahrefs, an industry-leading keyword research tool. With nearly 10 years of experience in SEO and digital marketing, Tim speaks at conferences around the world and publishes content on the Ahrefs Blog.



He’s also authored SEO research studies and digital marketing guides. In this interview, we discuss AI, domain authority, and conversion rate optimization.















Ahref’s has been upgrading their hardware and investing in AI, because “it really does give you and edge.” As big data processing gets easier, search engines will get “smarter and smarter, being able to factor in more ranking factors and blend them in a more sophisticated way.



So basically, the word ‘more’ is what AI means to SEO.” While everything will be more complicated, hopefully, it will be more useful, too. But Ahrefs needs more processing power, which means more hardware on the backend, to get there.



While neural networks that make decisions in specific scenarios aren’t that intelligent, Tim doesn’t see that as a limitation for Google when it comes to applying AI to its search algorithm. On the other hand, the raw amount of data that must be processed is a real challenge.




https://youtu.be/ZgyZzIPrIhc




Ahrefs is currently working on a metric that calculates how hard it would be to rank for a search query based on how many backlinks the top ten pages have. This has to encompass hundreds of millions of queries, which is hard enough to factor for backlinks. The formula demands exponentially more processing power.



In their page quality rater’s guidelines, Google uses “Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness” to rate the quality of webpages. Tim says that no one’s quite sure about how Google exactly defines “authority”, but it’s probably not as simple as the number of backlinks a given page gets.




https://youtu.be/ZgyZzIPrIhc




Tim speculates that the algorithms also factor in how many times authors are mentioned on other pages, or how many people search their names, follow or write about them on social networks. But no one knows how Google prioritizes these signals.



In terms of which online outlets SEOs should be pitching, Tim says, “it boils down to what you have to say, and is the publication that you want to get a link from interested in that?”



Regarding domain authority, Tim reflects that Ahrefs’ approach is somewhat removed from that concept, stating that the rank boost you get from backlinks doesn’t come from domain authority, but from page authority. For instance, if you publish at TechCrunch and nobody reads or links to it, that page will have very low authority. 




https://youtu.be/IZCzBOsdBw8




There are no shortcuts to creating content that withstands the test of time. But consistently valuable content is the goal. Slow and steady wins the race. When it comes to leveraging AI, the lack of regulations around digital privacy in China means they have more data to inform algorithms than we do in the west. So I asked Tim if he thought the Chinese would dominate in AI. For his answer, listen to this podcast on SaaS marketing through SEO.



If you want to support this podcast, rate and comment on us at Apple Podcasts here. 
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4 years ago
40 minutes 21 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
5 Content Marketing Tips from CMI’s Robert Rose
If you don’t think your content is reaching its full potential - or you’re wondering how to build a sustainable B2B content market strategy that regularly brings in qualified leads - then you’re going to enjoy these tips from Robert Rose, the Chief Strategy Advisor at Content Marketing Institute. 



Not only is Robert with CMI, he’s also the Founder and Chief Troublemaker for The Content Advisory and a 3-time best-selling author.



Needless to say, he had some compelling ideas on building a content marketing strategy for B2B lead generation.



Which leads us right to the question:



What is a content marketing strategy?



A content marketing strategy is defined as a plan to build a committed audience through consistent content that educates and inspires. Sounds simple enough. 



But not all content creative strategies are created equal. In fact, each one needs to be tailored to your unique business model. 



Robert’s 5 content marketing tips for startups and B2B businesses







1. Start with problems, not products



Many brands engineer a product and hand it off to marketing, hoping they can sell it.



That puts the solution before the problem.



You will be more successful if you reverse engineer your products based on a proven customer need. 



First, get to know your customers’ problems inside-out before making your next offering. Sometimes, they may not even know what their true problem is. 



But getting to the true core of what they need will make you much more successful in the long run. 



2. Focus on building an audience 



If you are creating scatter shot content marketing assets like blog posts or infographics that aren’t cohesively connected to a broader topic, you won’t attract anyone. 



It would be like publishing a magazine that covers a completely different topic every issue.



The best content marketing strategies are not necessarily campaign-focused, but they do have to be category-focused to connect with a target buyer over time. 



3. Be willing to change 



You wouldn’t take a race car driver seriously if he said, “I don’t want to change race cars, I just want to win the race.” It’s the same with your website content. You can’t think, “I don’t want to change my site, I just want to show up first.” 



Change. Test new things. Think of your website as something that is constantly evolving. 



4. Value quality over quantity



“Why won’t one amazing white paper suffice for the entire year?,” asked Robert.



Is it because it didn’t work? Are we tired of our own content? Do we think we need a different piece for every marketing effort? 



Firstly, each resource should not be limited to one-time use for a campaign. You should be creating in such a way that each individual piece makes the overall collection of content on your site more valuable.



Second, if you keep making more, more, MORE, you run the risk of sacrificing quality. The best content marketing tip I can give is to focus on quality - even if that means cutting back on quantity.



5. Sell solutions



Most of your B2B customers have already decided they need a change. It’s your job to sell them on the fact that your digital content marketing framework is the best one.  



Write a white paper with step-by-step,
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4 years ago
1 hour 3 minutes 41 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Data-Driven Decision Making with Klue CEO Jason Smith
Our guest is 5x start-up entrepreneur Jason Smith. He's the CEO of Klue, a competitive intelligence platform used by Cisco, Dell, and Hootsuite. They’ve raised $19M in venture funding so far. 



Jason is the Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner, and Klue was off to great before the pandemic hit. He quickly realized they needed to raise another round of funding to survive. 



The problem was he could only do it through video conferences, which everyone advised against. But he had no choice. So he went for it. And he learned that pitching investors on Zoom meetings had some advantages.




https://youtu.be/rWbpGMUEWQc




Remote meetings eliminated the need to travel back and forth, so he could meet with more investors in less time. Plus, Zoom brought in a surprising level of humanity. You don’t usually see kids with sock puppets in the boardroom, but when you’re working from home and the schools are closed, everyone understands because we’re all in the same boat.



For the first time in a long time, it was no longer all about data-driven startups. The data was still crucial, but there was a genuine human connection that didn’t always exist in the conference room. But that doesn't mean he didn’t get grilled on his numbers,



For those unfamiliar software-as-a-service startups like Klue, whether you’re an enterprise sales or product-led startup, one of the most critical numbers investors want to know is monthly recurring revenue or MRR. 



To be attractive to investors, SaaS startups have their own unique set of requirements.  Whereas investors considering a B2B online marketplace would be looking at growth on the supply and demand sides, SaaS investors are interested in net customer growth. “You’ve got to prove that customers care about what you have enough to keep paying. And that will be reflected in your MRR,” says Jason.



The other thing they’re looking at is churn. You have to distinguish new customers from departing customers. You’re looking for overall expansion. That’s the net. New customers are fewer departing customers.



If they like what they bought, they’ll stick around. But if they’re saying ‘I overbought, and I want less now,” that’s a negative. Some customers may be around for a while and then leave, which also causes a reduction in MMR. 



What is Klue?



“Klue is a competitive intelligence solution. We’re trying to understand what your competitors are up to,” says Jason. 



The complexity comes from scripting the analyzed company - What’s happening on their website, what are they doing on Twitter, profiles on their employees, pricing, etc. 



The other side comes from analyzing the client – Emails and Slack conversations about the competitor or rich text notes they’ve put into their CRM. “We combine everything we find from the external web and internal data into one continuously updated activity dashboard on what they’re doing.”



Klue uses unstructured data – more challenging than financial data – to create competitive intelligence profiles, competitor analysis templates, and target customer research that helps B2B tech companies generate and close more deals.



Eighty percent of the data that’s currently generated inside companies is unstructured. This data comprises rich text, voice-to-text translations, SMS messaging grits, Slack conversations (in Slack, podcasts, etc.), and other forms of natural language, which Klue analyzes with AI technology for competitive differentiation. 



AI is moving from understanding images to understanding words.
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4 years ago
30 minutes 57 seconds

B2B Lead Gen Podcast
Join host Eric Schwartzman (who ran RevOps at $1B company) for a weekly audio masterclass on how B2B marketers use the latest tech to generate, qualify and convert leads to revenue. Show blog: https://www.ericschwartzman.com/blog