5 PERFECT Examples of B2B Content

5BDB companies are absolutely crushing it with their content. We'll show you what makes their approach work and how you can apply with these brands are doing to help level up your own strategy. James, you were recently on a pretty cool trip in Iceland and got invited out there to speak specifically around a lot of what we talk about on B2B Girls. So first explain just maybe a little bit about that trip and then what your talk was on. So I get this DM from this guy and no I think it was an email. I get this email from this guy and asking me if he can fly me out to Iceland to speak at this event. Yes, and I like this is fake. You want a cruise. This is from a Nigerian prince. What is going on here? So I go back and forth with them. I was like I think this might actually be legitimate. Turns out the conference is the day before my ninth wedding anniversary. And so he's like hey yeah we'll fly your wife out too. And so I'm like oh my gosh I tell my wife and my wife is like spin our nine year anniversary in Iceland absolutely. So my wife and I go Todd Clauser from Audience Plus. He also gets invited so I'm texting him and he's like oh your wife's coming so his wife comes. So it ends up being like an incredible couple's trip for us. The day after so on our nine year anniversary they take us on this country side tour. One of the one of the marketing agency owners that was putting on the event his dad like runs this does like guided tours all over the country. Yeah, like all over this area. He's also an actor in like hallmark movies so he was just in a hallmark movie. Weird as crossover. I did not see back to like he's like a fake he got famous doing some Icelandic ad that popped off in the 80s that everybody knows. And so he's this like famous Icelandic actor but also loves doing guided tours. So just an incredible experience. The first night one of the other agency owners dad hosted us in his in his home. His his dad was a famous press journalist in Iceland. And so you have all these photos across the wall like iconic moments in Iceland's history that his dad was there for. Wow. And so he's walking us through all the images. Incredible meal. I mean just the entire experience was like super top shelf. They have a museum. Hi, son. I think we have to either blur that out because I think our YouTube views are going to go down for you saying that but that is the wildest. This got wilder and wilder. So anyway, incredible experience. But I did this talk and I really talked about five great examples of B2B content today. So in the prepping for this deck, we've already done some social content on LinkedIn from this. But we wanted to do an episode about it. This $2.65 billion cybersecurity company is redefining what it means to do brand journalism in B2B. So this company recorded future. They just got acquired by MasterCard. Yeah. They're doing a daily newsletter. They cover breaches, ransomware, talking about geopolitical stuff happening in cybersecurity, massive commitment to do this kind of editorial. We know. Daily content is hard. Yeah. Yeah. Been there done that. Got the t-shirt. But it's what's positioning. I think their media brand is in large. It got to be a big consideration for the valuation they got. They got a really premium valuation for what they were acquired for last month in September. They do a twice-weekly podcast. So really high production quality. Scripted format similar to what you see a lot of media companies doing. They do multiple daily news articles. So we're a lot of people I think are getting their more high volume on like the product keywords. And AI is helping get a lot more volume out. These guys are focusing on news stories. So one of the things I talked about in this, they actually had a promoted story that got 11 million impressions on X and 250,000 page views. Because they spent $300 on an ad to a news story they wrote. I think I had something to do with Trump or the assassination attempt or something had to do with the intersection of that and cybersecurity. So it made sense for them to cover it. But that is, oh, it's insane. He's start thinking about using paid media to get distribution for good stories that you're developing. I think one of my questions on this one is just like in cybersecurity it feels like that volume could potentially make sense. Now my knowledge is like this deep on cybersecurity. But I'm just going like with breaches, updates, to commit to that level of content on that consistent of a basis. Like one, yeah, of course, we're going to point it out as an example because they're executing at a high level. But if you were applying this to other industries with, you know, now you've presented this to in Iceland, you've talked about this a little bit. What would be your takeaway for other industries? Is it like some people should double down on this more news type content? Is it the journalism piece? Like if you were like recorded future is a really good example of X that people could go try. What do you think you would say to that is? I mean, branded journalism is for sure what they're bread and butter. They're bread and butter. So taking what newsrooms have been doing for decades, but applying it to dissecting an industry and storytelling around an industry. And they do all this. So they just got acquired for $2.65 billion. And they do their entire brand journalism function is 12 people. Wow. So when you look at their media brand account page on LinkedIn, you see that only 12 people say that they work for recorded future news. So they might, they probably pull in some support from their production marketing team. But I was super impressed that a 12 person, now for the small business, obviously this doesn't make sense. But for I think they were doing 250 million in ARR. I think I saw a stat. So there are, you know, mid market, probably not. I don't know if they would be considered an enterprise company. I don't think they would be. 12 people to have this kind of an impact. Right. Adding stories that are they're getting 11 million impressions on social platforms. Yeah. You can punch way above your weight. If you just have focused effort on a thing and they've, we've been talking about this, pick a lane. You can win in a lot of different ways. We've said that for years. Like there's so many ways to win in content. They have picked brand journalism. Yeah. And they're just cranking it up to 11 and have 12 dedicated resources to it. And they're driving results because it's it's timeliness of their content as well. Because you can stay up on this industry if you follow just this one thing. Yeah. Which is always a nice seat to have at the table in somebody's content diet. It's like, if I need to get cyber security news, I go here. Their journalism is excellent. So it's like you're a trusted source. But then their content distribution, the number of things coming out is just wild. So that's great. The second one on here, Lavender, you use as an example, basically making the product part of the story, right? So talk to me a little bit about why you chose this one. We're both fans of how Lavender has executed content in the past. Yeah. Full disclosure. Lavender is a client of ours. We did not work on Genverse Will. But we've done some other stuff with them. And so, but I love talking about them. It was a big fan of them long before they were a client of ours. But a couple different things here. So the Genverse Will series, I think, does a masterful job of making the product a character in the story and not the hero, which I think a lot of B2B companies make the mistake of making putting their product front and center and then nobody cares and they wonder why. But in Genverse Will, it's a competition style show where Gen and Will, one, have fantastic chemistry. They're both hilarious and very informed. Yeah. They're big audiences on LinkedIn. They got their thought leaders. Yeah, and they're super smart. So their banter is one thing. But the premise of the show is they're in this competition to see who can write the best email for a million different scenarios. The sales emails, yeah. Yeah. And then Lavender, which is a tool that helps sales reps write better emails, grades both of their emails and the winner of the competition is determined by the product. And so the product is a character in the show. It is the judge, so to speak. But doesn't even come out to like videos almost over. Yeah. And is very much baked into the show. Like, of course, you need a judge. Yes. Yep. So, so the chemistry between Gen and Will, super smart, the production value. So, Reina, I will bot your last name if I try to say her last name, but she's starting to pop off on LinkedIn a lot. She talks about video production and super, super smart. The way she edits these videos are like four minute videos, but they're incredibly high engagement. like you are watching from the opening banter all the way through to the end, like she hooks you and keeps the viewer retention on those videos really high. It's all who knows what got left on the cutting room floor there because they obviously put an enormous amount of effort into the post-production edit of this series. So the concept is good, 'cause it's a game, the personalities are great, 'cause you know, well, work well together, the production quality exceptionally high. And then they're talking about topics that were just as relevant three years ago as they are today. So that content made sense in 2022 when they recorded it, and it will make sense in 2027. - And what I think is so great about doing content like that, Jen no longer at Lavender. - Will, no longer at Lavender. - Other wills are there. - Reina, they had a lot of wills. - Yeah. - Reina no longer there. - Yeah, I think so. - But that series can still perform for them because if you think about Netflix, like how many shows on Netflix are no longer filming new seasons, but people are still going back and watching. - Really good point there is YouTube recently had like a summit for creators. And I heard JT Barnett talking about this, but YouTube talked about how the future of their platform, 'cause they're seeing a bunch more activity on TVs, people watching on TVs. They're changing their UI, like their actual app to look a lot more, I don't wanna say this, they wouldn't say it this way, but I will. It looks a lot more like Netflix. And the idea of episodic content where you follow a creator, but they do series is just becoming the norm because YouTube is realizing like people go to YouTube in the same way, if not over the next few years, even more so, then they do go to Netflix. Like they're going on their TVs there. So why I bring that up is like with Jenverse Will, it doesn't matter at all that they're gone from Lavender because of the way they set up the episodic content. So yes, it's good evergreen like funny, quick, punchy showcases the product. And on top of that with that series, that's awesome like funny sales enablement content that's just barely baked in. Like you could do that with SMEs versus a lot of the opposition to starting an ongoing forever podcast is if we lose that host, that could get a little weird. I still have objections to that, but I think the door in is something like Jenverse as well. Just create a quick series, get them in a few episodes, showcase the product and maybe a less obvious in your face way. This one is huge for us. We nerd it out on this whole series. I love it. All right, so this next one is an SEO tool, but they're also dominating on YouTube with over 26 million views and over 560,000 subscribers. So the company is Atrefs and it's an SEO tool that probably every market or has heard. I didn't even realize how much they are dominating on YouTube right now. Here's what they're doing. Fantastic on AR talent. So Sam O is the face of the YouTube channel. 15 years in digital marketing. He's funny. He's got really deep insights, a really deep understanding of SEO. He is proven to be a credible person in this space. He deeply understands the subject matter. That's an advantage in B2B that I don't think we tap into nearly enough is finding our subject matter experts that can carry our content because of their depth of expertise. That matters so much here. They have a very intentional approach to have a title and thumbnail their content. They're opening hooks. They clearly do scripted content on their YouTube videos, which we've been talking about. You have like a quote or we have a quote on here. Is this from them? The scripts are non-negotiable? Yeah. So I think I probably said this because I think that is very smart. Scripts are non-negotiable. They force you to be intentional about delivery. Like even if you've been watching our B2B growth episodes, we're getting more and more intentional about how we open because we want y'all to know like what's coming. We want you to know how these like the value that is here. It doesn't matter if the episode is great. If we don't get you into it. And we know that the way you get people into it is great title, great thumbnail, great opening hook. Their entire videos are seem to be scripted. And heavy use of B-roll, heavy-- they're optimizing for increasing average view duration. And as a result, 26 million views later, they probably sold a lot of software subscriptions. So-- That's a great one, nature. Do you remember how they got on your radar? Because you're not seeking out SEO content regularly. I was looking for great content examples. Yeah. There was a guy named Ryan. He used to be at animals. And he is now at A-Traffs. And so I think that's initially what got me at Ryan Law is his name. And I did a call with him a few weeks ago, or a few months ago now. And it was right before he had announced he was joining A-Traffs. And so I think that's what initially got them on our radar. But yeah, they're absolutely crushing it. We have two left. So take us into this next one. Yeah. So here's the content playbook of a $272 million SaaS company. So the company's clue. Their media brand is the compete network. So Netflix style content hub. We both love to the content hub. For multiple shows, all focused on serving the product marketer. So they've got a really-- because of their media brand, they're able to engage both internal and external creators. So they've got a couple of folks on their team, the guy that uses clue for a clue, like is constantly analyzing their own competitors. And then this guy, Adam, who's a content marketer on the team, they're the main co-hosts of their show coffee and compete, so internal. But then they've also got a whole host of shows that are done by external creators that are already influencers for product marketers. And I think it's really smart to use their media brand in this way to-- I think it's the smartest execution of B2B influencers. To instead of paying somebody to do a post for you on LinkedIn, going to them and be like, hey, we want to build a show around you. You can do it in-- I don't know what they pay if they pay anything for these folks. But there's tangible value to someone that runs a network, coming to you as an influencer and saying, hey, we want to build a series around you. Could we fly you up to Canada? Could we bring a crew to you, build a whole set of content? I could very much see a world where a B2B creator who has a legitimate following goes, that is valuable. I'm going to have to-- me, I'm not even going to charge you for this because this is going to position me as more of an expert. And so-- and I'm going to get a bunch of top shelf content out of it that-- where I'm going to start the show. So really, really interesting way to do B2B influencers just get-- like doing an entire series around each influencer. They've got a mix of ongoing shows and limited run series. So to your point, like, you don't need to do something. Doesn't need to last forever. You can do a six episode series on something. It'd be self-contained. And that's totally fine. And some topics are better for that. Yeah. And it lives on your Netflix style site forever. Yeah. So I think they're doing a lot of really, really smart things here. The premises for their shows are also really interesting. So they've got some co-hosted commentary style shows where they're just talking about what other people are doing in the space. They've got other ones where they break down comparison pages. So they're looking at different companies that are like, how do they compare their product to another product? Like, that's a big type-- a content type. And so that's a really interesting premise, and focus of a series. So they're doing a lot of things right. And yeah, I don't think you can talk about B2B content responsibly and not talk about Clue. B formats and style changes are like things that B2B still needs to catch up on. And they're executing really well on where you have so much room to play in in the formats. Like, even Gen versus Will, what are they choosing to do there? They're choosing to lean into competition. They're choosing to lean into repositioning two people who could just talk on this topic and do talking head videos. But now they're literally going head-to-head to make it more fun. We don't do enough creative ideation to just get a bunch of people around the table and go, I'll just throw series ideas or formats or segments. Throw some of that stuff out there. And again, never start with the blank page. Go to ChatGPT, get some series ideas. But the way they're executing on it to me, what's interesting, and we did a call with them, was like, you are really thinking through formats and how do we uniquely position and brand each of these? And doing both of those before you even start something, the chances of success get so much higher. So this is a really, really good one. All right, last one here is Motion. So they just raised a $31 million series B, and they're crushing it with personal distribution on LinkedIn. So they've got four people specifically on their team, none of which are the founders CEO, that are all getting incredible engagement on the content that they're posting from their personal profiles. - Were they all hired guns because of already having social presence, do you know? - No, so one of them's Libby, she's their head of talent acquisition. The other one is James Mulvey, he's their head of content. Travis Tyler is on the social team. I think he's like a manager. - A little bit, that was you. He was already popping off a little bit. - Yeah, and then there, I'm blanking on his name, but it's a Biz Dev guy. So all four of them getting phenomenal engagement. They're doing creative video, they're doing memes, they're really pressing the boundaries. When you look at what they're doing on their company page, it's got like 31,000 followers in their company page, their content is really good on the company page, but it'll get 31 likes. - Yeah, engagement on company pages, you still got to drip out content, but it's so poor. - It's so poor. And so they've just said, okay, we're not just gonna settle for what our company page can get. We're gonna truly invest in the distribution of personal profiles of the people that work for us to get our name out there. And again, they just raised a $30 plus million dollar round of funding. So this stuff is working. - I appreciate that. We've had a few clients come on recently, who just really understand the value of the personal. - Yeah. - Like didn't page specifically, you could put that across social. If we create content for a person, the content is better. The chances of us being able to package that in a more interesting way, that doesn't have to be like, so company branded is also better. But companies free to use it. Still somebody that works. - Yeah. - So I think thinking in that way, versus what we saw for so long was like, our company's having a webinar. Everybody posts about said thing. Like that is a very company first approach versus really thinking about your audience. And the fact that we connect with people. - Yeah. The other thing motion does really well. They do smart commentary on what big brands are doing. - Yeah, Travis is great at this. - Travis phenomenal at this. I've seen James, I had a content do this too. But when you are talking about an ad campaign from Oatley, like motions product helps creative strategists with ad creative, like managing all the different variations of ad creative that you're running. So for them, talking about big direct to consumer, or consumer brands and what they're doing from an advertising perspective is super smart. Because I care about what Taco Bell is doing with advertising. Like I care about what Oatley is doing. I care about what Ridge is doing. Because I'm a consumer of those products. So them adding not just commentary, but smart commentary on like, hey, learn from what these guys are doing, allows them to ride the co-tales of credibility of a much larger brand. And then weave in their point of view. They also have a weekly newsletter called Thumb Stop, which is just a freaking dope name for the newsletter. But it's, and it's this really cool combo of being specific enough while also being broad enough to be interesting. So it's clearly like four creative strategists, but I'm not a creative strategist and I'm still really interested in this. Because I might not be running ad creative for our business, but it is something that I'm fascinated by. And so I think the way they've positioned it is I think really smart. It's a very specific value. And then when as soon as you sign up for the newsletter, there's just a really smart flow for them to basically get you on a product demo, but they don't position it like a product demo. They position it as like, hey, help us. We want to, we want to jump on a 30 minute call with you and help you think through like your creative strategy. And by positioning it that way, like, hey, we are studying what all these other brands are doing. Like let's pressure test your creative strategy on this 30 minute call. So it's like, I'm getting you into this newsletter, which is the newsletter, you being a subscriber of the newsletter is going to help you in thousands of other use value. But now all of a sudden you're telling me, I can get one on one value, right? That's contextual to my situation. And you're going to evaluate and audit what I'm doing personally. Okay. But because they position the newsletter to be for creative strategists, they're setting up their sales team to have some really great conversations with potential buyers. Well, this has been a really good episode. I like that we gave five examples of brands that you can actually now just go follow, hey, go do your own digging and research. And if you know of other B2B brands that you think we should have shouted out here, we are having ever growing lists because we want to see great B2B content. We are on a mission to see more of that. We want to help create it too. So love your examples here. We talked about recorded future, lavender, hrefs, clue, motion, shout out to the great content that each of them is producing, James, take us out. Remember, whoever has the audience, has the leverage, commodity content is the enemy. Personality-led media is the way. (upbeat music)