Continuing celebrations for the podcast’s one year birthday, I reflect on what’s been popular and successful for marketers in B2B in terms of content and where your focus should be in 2022.
I cover,
Understanding your audience’s preferences or ‘audience-led content’ what to focus on and how to engage your audience effectively, how to prioritise and when to say; no, it’s not working let’s move on.
Let’s dive in!
This episode content was first featured in It’s a B2B Content Thing on LinkedIn live WATCH IT HERE: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/652904803
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Transcript (unedited)
B2B content 2022: What are you focusing on?
Continuing celebrations for the podcast’s one year birthday, I reflect on what’s Benn popular and where your focus should be in 2022.
I cover,
Understanding your audience’s preferences or audience-led content and video will al be a focus in 2022. But what to focus on and how to engage your audience effectively. How to prioritise and when to say no, its not working lets move on.
Let’s dive in
How do you know what content channels are the right ones for you for 2022?
You know in terms of what you should try or you know, what, what should be the right channels, you will know if you’ve listened to the podcast before that I’m a big advocate of measuring your impact and making sure you understand what’s working for you and what’s not.
To just give up a channel is sometimes necessary, but it’s hard, isn’t it? It’s hard. We all struggle with that and but I’m a big believer in trying things new and seeing if they work for you.
For example, Loads of people tried audio generally in 2020. And in particular clubhouse, even Twitter spaces, podcasts, a lot of people didn’t stick at it, and is that because the format didn’t work for them or is it because they you know, the time needed was too precious?
Did they start for the wrong reasons, or, didn’t do enough research into their audience to. To just start or stop a format or a channel without testing it isn’t a great idea? Otherwise, if you don’t really if it’s working for you or not – it’s like running on a treadmill throwing five notes over your shoulder. You know, it’s pointless.
Some things just work and I know for example Clubhouse just worked for a lot of people, but they likely already had an audience. So try things out but make sure you have an idea of how you are going to test it out and measure your impact.
Should you mix up your content channels and types in 2022?
Video and online events are here to stay
I’m a big advocate of, of having a blended, channel mix, I think, some people like John Espirain , are in the camp of find one thing and stick at it. And I think if your thing, that’s great. But don’t assume that everyone you want to be engaged with is just on one platform and for the reason you are. That is the flip side of that strategy is you do have to work out for your business for you where that is and what that right blend of channels are and they’ll be really your go to.
For businesses that I work with, white papers will always be in the centre of a b2b campaign and in person events.
Interestingly, the Content Marketing Institute did a report recently about b2b trends in 2022 and it’s really interesting because it is based on what they measured worked in last year, and this year, and what their blend is going to be and video is up there as is doing more online events
Now you would think I know this conversation goes on all the time, but we do in person events come back over the top of in favour of online and actually no it’s it’s saying that a lot of marketers are going to be choosing blended online formats for their b2b strategies and you know, videos are really engaging for people and we’re ready to mix it up and have online events have their have their place that was a staple in the mix rather than being a sort of extra thing
It’s no one’s no surprise, really, that people are favouring digital. I think we’ve all got more used to it but but for me audio in particular. In that same report, it’s only around 20% of the budget is going to be on audio formats, but that is up on the previous year still. So that’s good news for me is a big audio advocate because it’s so engaging and so accessible. And it is really important I think in 2022 to look at audience first content.
You know, it’s not all about you.
For example, I’m a massive advocate of audio through having had the podcast, but also I’ve I’ve discovered how accessible it is and how interesting it is as a format. You know, it’s not all about creating chart topping podcasts, I think that’s what people think when they think about audio, and it’s not it really isn’t and I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t rule it out. It’s much, I think, much easier to produce the video unless you’re talking about lives and Insta reels and things that are very quick and at your fingertips if you’re talking about b2b content, which is produced I would argue I’m happy to be shut down that actually audio is leans towards being easier to produce as well than video. So should we move on to our next question, his final one is that that
When do you know when a new channel or type of content is working and when to give up?
If you’re going to do now thing in 2022 – make sure you measure your impact
I think it comes back to my earlier point really that certainly businesses that I work with, I’m always surprised that money is spent when not enough people are measuring outcomes actually as part of the planning process.
So when you’re planning your content, and testing things is a good thing, as we’ve all said, but you still need to set a goal, a timeframe and a budget and a resource for that for that new avenue. But you need to review everything ,you need to review if it’s working for you and take a view.
A lot of our content is online and stats are readily available, but you have to look at all of the activity including PR and speaking opportunities as well. And it’s not just about the views and engagement. It’s about whether it’s achieving what you need for your business
Ask yourself why would you undertake an activity that isn’t proving its worth and you know, it especially now we’re also time pressures, but also time pressures and teams are still reduced and budgets are reduced and, you know, nobody wants to be doing activity that isn’t getting your outcomes.
So I think if you’re going to do anything in 2022 It would be to have some sort of framework for measuring the impact of your b2b content against your business goals.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai