The problem is, simply put, out of control. Just because a company or individual can create and distribute content on a platform, doesn’t mean they should. But it’s happening… and it’s killing content marketing strategies around the globe.

I’ve had the opportunity to analyze content marketing strategies from huge brands, desperately trying to build audiences online leveraging content marketing. In almost every case, each one made the same mistake.

They diversify too quickly.

Let me explain.

When an organization decides to fund a content marketing strategy, the initial stages are always exciting. Just coming to the decision of which audience and content niche to target is an exhausting process, but once complete, the company is ready to create content…everywhere.

Should we do a blog? Check. How about a YouTube video series? Yes to that. Podcast? Sure. TikTok series? Why not. Email newsletter? I guess so.

Then add about five other social media channels and you have yourself a content marketing strategy.

Just not a good one.

According to Content Marketing Institute research, the average enterprise creates content on between 14 and 16 different platforms.

Succeeding at this kind of strategy is like winning the lottery. It just won’t happen.

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

One channel. One content type.

The greatest audience-building entities of all time selected one primary channel in which to build their platform:

• Financial Times—printed newspaper
• Fortune—printed magazine
• TED Talks—in-person events
• ESPN—cable television programming
• Huffington Post—online magazine format
• The Joe Rogan Experience—podcast show
• PewDiePie—YouTube series

Even in today’s age of social media, content empires start with one platform as the core base of operation and primarily deliver content at that one place over time to build an audience.

For my new book ‘Content Inc.‘, we interviewed and analyzed more than 100 individuals and small businesses who went from zero subscribers to a massive audience. After two or three years, these content empires became multi-million-dollar platforms.

The interesting part is that they didn’t diversify immediately, but focused on delivering consistently valuable content, primarily on one channel and one content type, choosing audio, video, or text plus images.

• Ann Reardon from ‘How to Cook That‘ decided to create consistent videos and distribute them on YouTube
• Philip Werner from ‘com‘ creates and delivers a text-plus-images blog post every day on his WordPress-developed website
• Wally Koval from ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson‘ distributes one image per day on Instagram, including amazing textual detail describing the location

But these are the exceptions. Most content marketing strategies run short-term blitzes (sometimes called campaigns), diversifying before the proper time.

Content marketing strategy is about saying “no”

When you decide to employ a content marketing strategy with the goal of building a loyal and trusting audience over time, you actually need to decide to not create and distribute content in certain places.

But what if you are already on multiple platforms? If you already have a content marketing strategy, now is probably the time to start killing some of your channels.

We always want more. We believe more is better. When launching a new content effort, “master of none, jack of all trades” never, ever works. How did Amazon become the most valuable company in the world? For three years the company sold only books. Once they perfected that model, only then did they begin selling other things. A proper content marketing strategy behaves the same way.

Successful content initiatives work because they start their journey with one amazing newsletter, one amazing video series, one amazing in-person event, or one amazing blog rather than 100 randomized content pieces that don’t inspire any kind of behavior change.

There is something about focus. There is something about being truly remarkable at one thing. The problem is that it requires you to choose. It requires you to stop creating content everywhere and focus on what’s really important, what will really move the needle.

The four components

Whether you are a media company, a large enterprise, or a content entrepreneur, building a loyal audience includes four key components.

First, identify one target audience

Choose an audience that is too broad and you’ve already failed.

Second, you need a differentiation area

We call this a content tilt. Basically, why would anyone want to engage in your content on a regular basis? Mark Schaefer, the author of Cumulative Advantage, calls this “finding the seam,” which is a content gap that you can exploit to rise above all the clutter.

Third, you identify the primary content platform

The one that makes the most sense for your storytelling. Both your expertise/skill area and the audience will dictate that.

And finally, you select your primary content type

These could look like videos on YouTube, text/images in an email, audio on a podcast, and imagery on Instagram.

When do I diversify into other platforms?

Did you know that Red Bull Media House started with a mini-magazine that they gave away at Formula 1 races? In order to include the results post-race, they actually lugged a Heidelberg press to the track and printed it next to the track.

That mini-magazine turned into ‘Red Bulletin‘ magazine. Once they built what Brian Clark from Copyblogger calls a minimum viable audience, then (and only then) did they diversify into the billion-dollar media conglomerate they are today.

The focus and energy they put into making the Red Bulletin great paid off. But this is not a rare occurrence for successful content empires. All great media companies do this and have for years. Look at ‘The Morning Brew‘. They almost exclusively focused on building an amazing email newsletter for years. Once they built an audience of over 100,000 subscribers, then they diversified into the podcasts and the multiple other targeted digital newsletters they successfully developed.

So, set an audience/subscriber target and focus all your energy on reaching that number. Then, once you have a loyal audience that loves you and probably will buy anything from you, you can diversify to another platform.

But what about social media?

Of course, you can keep your precious social media channels. That said, you need to think about them differently. What’s the goal? Is it for research and development? Amplification of content? To build subscribers? Whatever the goal, make sure it aligns with your core platform.

Let’s look at ‘The Hustle‘, newly acquired by Hubspot. The Hustle’s goal on Twitter is to be interesting every day to their target audience and ultimately drive new subscribers to their email newsletter. Everything they do on Twitter supports their platform strategy.

Bob Ross churned out ~30k paintings in his lifetime.

Nearly 3x the output of Picasso.

But finding one online for sale?

That’s an entirely different story. @zzcrockett with the scoop:https://t.co/O5tEz2JXRd

— The Hustle (@TheHustle) May 2, 2021

So yes, you don’t have to close up all your social media, but you sure as heck have to align your goals with your platform.

Try killing one

Building a platform that works is challenging for any sized company. We all have limited resources in some way.

The best advice is to perform an honest analysis of what you are doing. Maybe that podcast just doesn’t make sense. Maybe that YouTube series is a waste of time? Or maybe not.

Perform a simple content audit and, then, kill something. Kill something so that you can be better at something else. Who knows, maybe your podcast or your email newsletter could be amazing but you just haven’t focused enough because you are tinkering with Facebook groups or TikTok.

Make the tough decisions now so that, later, you can build the audience of your dreams.

Joe Pulizzi is the author of the best-selling content marketing book, Content Inc., and founder of content creation news site, The Tilt.

The post Why killing your content marketing makes the most sense appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

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When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, it’s natural to wonder just what an industry influencer actually looks like?

Our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews feature conversations with top B2B influencers, looking closely at the issues that each expert is influential about in their industry.

For more than a decade our team at TopRank Marketing has fostered a strong community of leading influencers, developing close relationships with subject matter experts in many industries.

Running a successful business is the art of juggling a thousand different things in a thousand different ways. It can be challenging to know which of these things to truly focus on and which balls are okay to drop for the sake of company growth. With so many new technologies at the forefront: cloud, machine learning, IoT, big data, virtualization, cybersecurity, and dozens of others – how do you know where to focus? How do you know which business best practices are the right one for your company vs. others?

There’s no catch-all answer to these questions, but there are industry experts who are more capable of answering them than anyone else. One of those experts is Dez Blanchfield. Dez has been in the business of digital transformation for over 25 years and has learned a lot from his robust experience working with IT leaders, solving complex problems, and running his own successful digital social agency, Sociaall Inc.

He’s here today in the latest episode of TopRank’s Break Free B2B marketing video series to share some of his invaluable insight.

Break Free B2B Interview with Dez Blanchfield

If you’re interested in checking out a particular portion of the discussion, you can find a quick general outline below, as well as a few excerpts that stood out to us.

• 1:00 – Introduction to Dez
• 2:03 – Is it a good idea to be a jack of all trades?
• 5:31 – Is the pace of change accelerating?
• 11:25 – Are business changes made due to the Covid-19 pandemic going to stick?
• 20:00 – For the B2B marketing audience: where are things headed in the near future?
• 40:20 – B2B influencer marketing
• 47:11 – It’s not about the number of followers, but the number of people you can move
• 53:24 – Tracking and monitoring development from B2C to B2B
• 56:10 – Where can you find Dez to hear more?

Josh: It seems like you’re looking to where the puck is going to be versus where the puck is now and have your entire career. So in a very general sense for our B2B marketing audience: where’s the puck going? If you’re a B2B business person and leader and executive, where should you be looking just for the near future?

Dez: The advice I’ve been giving people in the last three to five years is that it was a time when you could do it all yourself. If you were an airline, or a bank, or if you were in health care, or wealth management, if you’re a telco, there was a time when you could do it all, you could run your own telephone systems, run your own technology, stack your own email servers, your own domain name servers. But the complexity is so great now and the speed at which we have to move, as you alluded to before, is so rapid, and so short, and you know that the demand is for reduced time to market. The advice I’m giving people now is: find the best partner choice. In each of the segments, you need to be able to address problems. So if you’re a bank, be a bank, focus on being the best bank, you can, and look for things that are gonna disrupt you. But don’t try to be a phone company. Don’t run your own PBX, don’t run your voice systems. If you own a website, don’t become a hosting company. Don’t waste your time running web services.

[bctt tweet=““If you’re a bank, be a bank, focus on being the best bank you can, and look for things that are going to disrupt you. But don’t try to be a phone company.” — Dez Blanchfield @dez_blanchfield #BreakFreeB2B“ username=“toprank“]

Josh: No, and it seems like the pandemic, which you mentioned there, is almost an accelerant more than anything. We were thinking of it as a slow down and shut down and lockdown. But really, it seems to have just taken all of these very cautious steps that businesses would have would have taken and made them suddenly have to run forward with it. Do you think these are changes that are going to stick? Or are we going to have this inertia pulling us back to normal?

Dez: The way I like to describe it is: if I was in a boardroom the other day having to whiteboard this out, and I would describe it as we’ve already jumped off this cliff. And if you’ve ever jumped off a cliff, you know, it’s impossible to get back up there without actually landing somewhere and then walking a long way back to the track to get to the top. So we have, without wanting to, had to jump off this cliff and deal with it.

I think the majority of the impact is not going to reverse. We are definitely going to want to sit in cafes and go to restaurants again. But the way in which we interact with those will change. So for example, I have an app now for my local barista and I just ordered my cappuccino and wandered past and picked it up at a window. I don’t wait for 15 minutes in a queue in a stuffy room waiting for my coffee to turn up. So you know those use cases have already changed. And retailers have had to go online when they’ve never been online. They’ve had to get apps or integrate and leverage things, shift to digital payments and move away from cash. All these changes have happened. Even with the worst possible human apathy, where humans are lazy, and very arrogant. And you know when we think of them, when we think of some of the changes that have happened the last couple of decades. They’ve come about and people become lazy and there’s been high level apathy and they go back to the normal ways.

Keep your eye on the TopRank Marketing Blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Break Free B2B interviews. Also check out episodes from season 1 and season 2.

Take your B2B marketing to new heights by checking out out previous season 3 episodes of Break Free B2B Marketing:

• Episode 1: Kevin L. Jackson, GC GlobalNet — The Future of Cloud Computing
• Episode 2: Tim Crawford, AVOA — The New Normal
• Episode 3: Oliver Christie, PertexaHealthTech — The Future of Artificial Intelligence
• Episode 4: Liam McIvor Martin, Time Doctor — Trends in Remote Work
• Episode 5: Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, SHIPZ — The Future of Supply Chain
• Episode 6: Eric Vanberburg, TCDI — The Changing Cybersecurity Landscape
• Episode 7: Nicole Brady, SAHM Reviews — The Importance of Empathy
• Episode 8: Tamara McCleary, Thulium — Visions of the Future

The post Break Free B2B Marketing: Dez Blanchfield of Sociaall on Joining the Conversation appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

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What can poll results tell B2B marketers about a year unlike any other, and how can this valuable audience data help us enhance our marketing strategy as we head towards 2022?

For more than two years we’ve run weekly social media polls on our Twitter profile, and for over a year we’ve simultaneously placed a weekly user poll on our LinkedIn* page.

Occasionally we like to share some of the fascinating insights you have given us in the form of results from our polls, in order to see the B2B marketing trends that have emerged during this unprecedented year.

Let’s take a look at a wide variety of marketing trends, how and why marketing is changing in 2021, and the growing effectiveness of B2B influencer marketing, all through a lens of poll-derived feedback from our B2B marketing audience.

Building on the insights we shared in “Show Me The Numbers: 20 B2B Marketing Insights From Audience Poll Data,” our most recent poll numbers paint a sometimes-surprising picture of B2B marketing sentiment in 2021.

Eye-Opener #1 — Remote Work

How has the pandemic changed your views about the long-term feasibility of remote work?

Most B2B marketers now have much greater acceptance when it comes to the long-term feasibility of remote work than they did before the pandemic.

Our poll backs this notion, with over three quarters of respondents on both our LinkedIn and Twitter polls saying that they have either more acceptance or much greater acceptance of remote work as a long-term practice.

Hybrid work scenarios are also very much a part of conversations about the future of work, as I recently explored in „Hybrid & Remote Work Trends That Will Alter The Future Of B2B Marketing.“

Eye-Opener #2 — LinkedIn Live

Have you created LinkedIn Live content yet?

Among our LinkedIn poll respondents, some 58 percent said that they have either created content using LinkedIn Live or planned to do so.

Looking to see how brands are utilizing LinkedIn Live?

Check out our „Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Rocking LinkedIn Live“ for examples from JPMorgan Chase, CompTIA, Microsoft, NASA, SAP* and others.

Eye-Opener #3 — Post-Pandemic Marketing

What will be the most important type of B2B marketing what the pandemic is over?

39 percent of our LinkedIn poll takers said that always-on marketing would be the most important type of post-pandemic marketing, followed by 26 percent who said search and social, 19 percent who picked marketing technology, and 16 percent who chose influencer marketing.

40 percent of our Twitter poll respondents said that search and social will be most important, 30 percent said marketing technology, 16.7 percent picking influencer marketing, and 13.3 percent for always-on marketing.

The results point to the mixed viewpoints and uncertainly surrounding just what will be the most important when the global health crisis subsides.

Our own Nick Nelson recently explored the topic, in „Brave New World: The Model for B2B Marketing Success, Post-Pandemic.“ Optimizing our B2B marketing strategy for a post-pandemic world requires understanding where the key shifts have occurred, and how to adapt. From executive thought leadership to rethinking marketing experiences, Nick’s article explores five ways B2B marketers can smartly adapt and thrive in a reshaped environment.

Eye-Opener #4 — Short-Form Video Platforms

Which short-form vertical video creation and sharing platform are you most likely to use?

YouTube Shorts was the top vote-getter when it came to short-term video platforms for B2B marketing content, with Instagram Reels coming in as the second most likely to be used among those taking our polls. 27.3 percent of our Twitter poll-takers said that they didn’t plan to use either of the two, or TikTok.

Eye-Opener #5 — LinkedIn Stories

Do you plan to incorporate LinkedIn Stories content into your marketing efforts?

As LinkedIn Stories rolled out, 39 percent of our LinkedIn poll-takers said that they planned to test the format, while 26 percent noted that they definitely planned to incorporate the feature into their marketing efforts. 22 percent said they had no plans to implement LinkedIn Stories, while 13 percent noted that they would probably implement the feature.

On Twitter, 50 percent noted that they would either probably or definitely utilize LinkedIn Stories in marketing efforts, with 20 percent planning to test the feature and the 30 percent noting they didn’t plan to use the format.

Eye-Opener #6 — B2B Influence

Which area of your B2B influencer marketing program has seen the greatest success during the pandemic?

42 percent of our LinkedIn poll-takers said that inspiring trust was the facet of their B2B influencer marketing program that had seen the greatest success during the pandemic, followed by thought leadership growth, raising brand awareness, and attracting customers.

Among our Twitter poll-takers thought leadership growth was the top vote-getter, followed by inspiring trust and attracting customers.

Eye-Opener #7 — Scaling For Success With Influence

What is the top factor in successfully scaling a B2B influencer marketing program?

When it comes to scaling B2B influencer marketing programs, the leading factor among our LinkedIn voters was finding ideal influencers, followed by having a process and leadership buy-in.

Our Twitter voters selected leadership buy-in as the top factor to successful B2B influencer marketing scaling, followed by finding ideal influencers and having concrete objectives.

Eye-Opener #8 — Top Fears

What is your biggest fear in marketing?

When fall rolled around, we were curious about some of your top marketing fears.

On both LinkedIn and Twitter the leading fear was the uncertainty of the pandemic, with some also choosing fear of failure.

I expanded on turning fear into success in an article to accompany our poll, in „10 Horrifying Marketing Fears & How To Turn Them Into 2021 Successes.“

Eye-Opener #9 — SME, Expert, of Influencer?

Which terminology do you prefer for a professional who holds sway over a target audience?

B2B marketers differ when it comes to use of the term influencer.

52 percent of our LinkedIn poll-takers said that they preferred the term influencer for a professional who holds sway over a target audience, followed by 24 percent who favored subject matter expert, 14 percent picking the term authority, and 10 percent who chose the term leader.

Our Twitter poll-takers predominantly preferred subject matter expert, following by influencer and then authority.

No matter which terminology use prefer or use, the power of influence is key in today’s B2B marketing, as our CEO Lee Odden recently shared in „Brandfluence – Why Growing Executive Influence is Essential for B2B Marketing.“

Eye-Opener #10 — The Benefits of Digital Tools

Which area has benefited the most from the increased use of digital tools the pandemic has brought about?

Influencer marketing was seen by both our LinkedIn and Twitter poll-takers as the top beneficiary when it comes to areas that have grown during the pandemic. Content marketing was the second choice, followed by always-on and values-driven marketing.

Eye-Opener #11 — What B2B Marketers Are Looking Forward To

What are B2B marketers most looking forward to in 2021?

Post-pandemic life was by far the top choice of both our Twitter and LinkedIn poll-takers, followed by in-person events and physical meetings.

How can B2B marketers help prepare for post-pandemic success? Nick Nelson explored this question in detail, with „Brave New World: The Model for B2B Marketing Success, Post-Pandemic.“

Eye-Opener #12 — B2B Tactic Optimism

Which business marketing tactic are B2B marketers most optimistic about in 2021?

When we asked which business marketing tactic poll-takers were most optimistic about, on LinkedIn 36 percent chose content marketing, 29 percent search and social, 21 percent influencer marketing, and 14 percent who chose always-on marketing.

Among our Twitter poll-takers some 50 chose content marketing, 25 percent search and social, followed by 16.7 percent who picked influencer marketing, and 8.3 percent who chose always-on marketing.

Eye-Opener #13 — Why Do We Follow Brands?

What is the primary reason you follow a B2B brand on social media?

69 percent of our LinkedIn poll-takers said the top reason they follow brands on social media is to learn from the brand, with 20 percent choosing brand news, 7 percent for tracking competitors, and 4 percent for communicating with a brand.

50 percent of our Twitter poll-takers picked learning from a brand, 37.5 percent communicating with the brand, and 12.5 percent who picked tracking competitors.

Eye-Opener #14 — Brand Storytelling

What is the top factor when it comes to creating successful B2B brand storytelling?

47 percent of B2B marketers taking our LinkedIn poll said that authenticity was the top factor in successful B2B brand storytelling efforts, followed by 24 percent who picked empathy, 18 percent who chose creativity, and 12 percent who said that heart was the leading success factor.

47.4 percent of our Twitter poll-takers also chose authenticity, followed by 21.1 percent for creativity, and 15.8 percent for both empathy and heart.

Eye-Opener #15 — The B2B Clubhouse?

How important is Clubhouse in your 2021 B2B marketing strategy?

As Clubhouse gained traction among B2B marketers, we asked how important it will be in 2021 marketing strategy, and among our LinkedIn poll-takers 57 percent said that the jury was still out, followed by 26 percent who said that it’s not important, 13 percent who said it was very important, and 4 percent who said that Clubhouse would be somewhat important in their 2021 strategy.

52 percent of our Twitter respondents said Clubhouse was not important, followed by 28 percent who noted the jury was still out, 12 percent who considered it very important, and 8 percent who said that it was someone important.

Learn more about how audio-based social platforms can work for B2B brands, in Lee Odden’s „How B2B Brands Can Boost Confidence in Livestream Video, Podcast and Clubhouse Marketing,“ and „How B2B Marketing Influencers Are Finding Success On New Social Channels,“ by our senior influencer marketing strategist Debbie Friez.

Eye-Opener #16 — Social Media Manager Qualities in 2021

What’s the top quality you look for when hiring a social media manager?

When we asked our audience what was the top quality they look for when hiring a social media marketing manager, brand storytelling was the top choice both on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Storytelling’s importance in creating memorable B2B marketing experiences is explored in details in my „Microsoft’s Miri Rodriguez on How B2B Marketers Are Embracing Empathy For Better Customer Storytelling #B2BMX,“ and Nick Nelson’s „Your Guide to Effective Storytelling in B2B Content Marketing.“

Open Your Eyes To Your Audience & Take Action

via GIPHY

Keeping your eyes open to the pulse of your audience — whether it’s from poll results, questionnaires, surveys or other types of feedback — can go a long way when it comes to making your B2B marketing efforts more authentic, and also helps ensure your communication is a two-way street and not just a publish-and-forget effort.

We hope you’ve found this eye-opening peek into some of our own poll results helpful as you navigate the uncertain marketing landscape 2021 has given us. Let us know your thoughts by voting in our current weekly poll about what qualities make a great B2B influencer marketing specialist — you’ll find it on LinkedIn here and on Twitter here.

Learn even more about poll data, statistics, and how to utilize audience feedback in every form by taking a look are some of the related articles we’ve written on the subject, such as the six listed here:

• Show Me The Numbers: 20 B2B Marketing Insights From Audience Poll Data
• Social Media Polls For Marketers: 6 B2B Brands Winning With LinkedIn Polls
• 17 Revealing B2B Marketing Insights From Poll Data
• The Power of Social Media Polls: The Drill-Down on 3 Platforms + 5 General Best Practices
• 24 Essential B2B Influencer Marketing Statistics
• Hungry for More: What B2B Marketers Need to Know About Episodic Content

* SAP and LinkedIn are TopRank Marketing clients.

The post B2B Marketing Poll Sentiment: 15+ Eye-Opening Insights To Fuel Summer Success appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

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