The final of three mini-episodes offering a tactical guide to making content strategy work for you, agency owner Kari Olivier of Jute Creative and digital strategist Jeremy Solly tackle the bane of most marketers’ existence: creating enough quality content.
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Jeremy Solly: We put it out and we put an ad and a million people saw it and we're done, or we share it in a different channel, or maybe now we create a magazine article out of it. There might still be a lot more life in that and I actually think companies probably if somebody did an audit could go back at some of those big initiatives and even find some life still in them today.
Kari Olivier: One of the top three challenges for marketers is producing enough content. But a key question is, are you getting enough out of what you already have? Could there be a forgotten gem tucked away in a dusty file cabinet? You know the one in the storage room with the old fax machines. And is there more that can trickle down from a current campaign?
Kari Olivier: Welcome to the Jutecast. This is Kari Olivier from Jute Creative. I'm joined again by digital and content strategist, Jeremy Solly.
Jeremy Solly: Hey Kari.
Kari Olivier: Jeremy, this is not just an issue for the very few marketers. This is pretty widespread. We mentioned in our first podcast that over half of B2B marketers worry about simply one thing, creating enough content.
Jeremy Solly: And how. (laughter)
Kari Olivier: The last time we talked about content at the strategy level.
Jeremy Solly: Sure.
Kari Olivier: Finding that swim lane, understanding your company's content strategy so that you can really feel like you have boundaries and can be creative about producing content. But today we want to go tactical. Let's talk about how you can really crank it out.
Jeremy Solly: All right, let's get our hands dirty.
Kari Olivier: Let's do it. What can these guys do to make more content, get it out there and be successful? Let's pretend it's all on strategy.
Jeremy Solly: Sure.
Kari Olivier: Testing and learning. We've got all of our gurus. Yeah, it's all set, but what do we do to make more, do more and be more successful?
Jeremy Solly: You have to try to figure out, or at least set a line in the sand of here's how much content we need, and let's go try to make that. And then you can kind of measure it and say, "Well, did we need that much? Did we not need that much? Let's course correct." I also think that there's probably a lot of net new content being made and maybe not enough, are you getting enough juice for the squeeze? Are you getting everything out of every piece of content you're making? If you make a video, where are you putting it? Do you put it on YouTube? Do you put it on your website? Do you do both? Do you make a 10 second version and a 30 second version and a 2 minute version so that there's one going out on Facebook and one going out on LinkedIn and one going out on Twitter and one going out on Instagram?
Kari Olivier: Are you pulling stills from that video?
Jeremy Solly: Are you pulling stills? And like, I mean you start to create like this pyramid and like I-
Kari Olivier: It's a repository of assets.
Jeremy Solly: It's a repository of content and assets.
Kari Olivier: The longest, highest value piece is only the longest, highest value piece. There should be a ton of mini assets that fall from that. If you're on point with your content strategy, you're creating that highest value piece with all of the itemization opportunities in mind.
Jeremy Solly: Exactly, 100%. And I've heard so many phrases for this, right? I've used bricks and feathers, right? So I make the video and then there's eight feathers off of it, a tweet and a Facebook post and ... Or I've heard the Thanksgiving dinner, right? You make the Turkey and then you have all the sides and stuffing and gravy. Or you itemize it, right? Like it is about, I love this word, I've been using it a bunch lately: extensibility. What is the extensibility of your content, right? If you invest a bunch into making a white paper in a video, in a podcast, whatever the core piece of content is. How are you getting the most leverage and extensibility out of that and getting it across your other channels and turning it into other really interesting pieces.
Kari Olivier: Well, let's talk about a few ways to do it. I mean, if you're creating a video, you've obviously got the one video that's going to be your big spend. It's your highest and best value.
Jeremy Solly: Right, that's your brick.
Kari Olivier: Yeah, that's your thing, that's your brick. But can you create that video in such a way that you can slice and dice it? Intentionally create the videos so that the intro and the outro summarize the content of the video so you can use that on your website, give it to sales, and use it as a sales engagement piece.
Jeremy Solly: Instagram stories, you know the swipe up so that it's going to a lead capture page or even link clicks. Even within, if you're putting on YouTube a YouTube video or something like that, that's taking your prospects into that sales channel, right?
Kari Olivier: Yeah, absolutely. And work with your videographer to create this asset library, this repository so that, yeah, you've got your one video, but you've got these 800 other things and a content plan to put it up. Talk about a white paper. I mean, you've got your white paper that's your hero piece. Are you working with your PR and communications team to pitch parts of that white paper as possibly a media opportunity? When you're pulling out the graphics and the data visualization parts of your white paper, are you itemizing those and pulling those out in isolation so that you can create animated gifs of those and using them across social media?
Jeremy Solly: You know, sometimes white papers are written for a very technical audience or a very industry specific audience. How do you, for lack of a better term, dumb it down into a blog post where somebody can just dive into it and then maybe it gets passed off on to somebody who's more senior or maybe more specific in that industry. So yeah, there's a lot of different ways that even that, like we spend a lot of time taking itemized versions of a white paper, turning them into those graphics to drive people back to the white paper or using that in our advertising, our social ads, our digital ads, to send people there. So you're naturally going to be creating a dozen assets off of this one hero piece, right?
Kari Olivier: Yes. And that sounds like second nature. Some people are listening to this podcast going, "Of course I do that." Are you holding an editorial meeting monthly with all the right players so that every single one of those data graphs is being provided to the sales guy that's doing the keynote presentation to the room full of prospects that that data piece would be completely perfect for? I'm just not sure.
Jeremy Solly: Yeah. Is it getting integrated across all or different channels that it could be.
Kari Olivier: Yeah, of course, integration, yeah.
Jeremy Solly: You know, another point to consider too is if you can't keep up with that much content development, you might be putting too much pressure on the quality and caliber of that B2B content. We could simplify it down even more to create more of that content. Like one thing that I'm really interested in right now is LinkedIn Video. So LinkedIn has put video up so people took their Sizzle Reels from their brand and started putting it on.
Kari Olivier: Oh yeah, of course. But who cares about watching a Sizzle Reel?
Jeremy Solly: What's getting engagement?
Kari Olivier: What they want is the DIY videos, that people-
Jeremy Solly: Exactly, it's the person sitting at their desk on their computer that's like, I'm going to give you the two minute update of the day about subject X or subject Y.
Kari Olivier: It doesn't have to cost money. And it's not a plug for Jute Creative, but we have a blog. And this would make, Juke Creative zero money. We have a blog post on making your own DIY video. There's absolutely a place in B2B marketing for companies to leverage their people and their ideas to create quick turn around, but still thoughtful content. And in fact, when you look at engagement numbers, zero, goose egg, Sizzle Reel. High engagement when a CEO who has something to say, pulls his iPhone up. It's about real time. So we're totally in sync.
Jeremy Solly: You know who else does this really well? And it's not exactly B2B, but the CEO of Walmart has an Instagram account. His name is Doug. I think MacMillan, I might be getting his last name wrong.
Kari Olivier: He's probably just Doug CEO Walmart.
Jeremy Solly: But Doug, right? Yeah. And it's real time. It's just him walking around in stores.
Kari Olivier: It's not over, you don't want it to be over generic.
Jeremy Solly: It's like, don't overthink it. And I think that that's some times that I see that 50% of B2B marketers producing enough content is their top three challenge. Part of it is probably a misunderstanding of what it means to produce content, right? That we can produce it more nimbly, maybe less production value, and it may drive more engagement and drive more of what our purposes with content marketing is to get customers, right? And this ties back to what I mentioned in our first episode, which is how critical it is that the content strategy has been socialized. Because if everyone is on the same page, there's more opportunity to leverage that internal content creation.
Kari Olivier: Exactly, and if it's on strategy and it works well, it's brilliant. And people pick up the phone and they order and they listen and they take notes. So I'm with you on that. And then there's times for the glossy high production deal. So I'm right there. I'm right there with you. So two more things. So you've said, you create the big highest value piece and then you've got your Thanksgiving dinner your-
Jeremy Solly: Extensibility.
Kari Olivier: Your extensibility, your itemization, your insert fancy marketing word here. Yeah. Then there's also the extent of it, the reach. How many times can you put it out on social media? How many ways can you put it out, where it should go on your website? How should it be utilized through your sales team and all? And that's a pretty rigorous process in and of itself. Do you want to speak to that, Jeremy?
Jeremy Solly: Yeah, I mean, that's another piece that marketers, I think sometimes forget, is, you might own a channel like the website or social media, and so you kind of get this blinder on of like, "Okay, I just need content to fill my channel," right? And I think that that becomes a team effort around a marketing team to be really creative of like, "Are we using every channel? Have we really exhausted this content?"
Kari Olivier: We get sick of it long before any customer would.
Jeremy Solly: Yeah, maybe customers would, right?
Kari Olivier: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Solly: Like maybe there's a lot more reach still to go on, but it might require us to think about distributing it a different way. Like, "Okay, cool, we put it out and we put an ad in a million people saw it and we're done." Or maybe now we flip it over and give it to our employees and have them share it through an employee advocacy campaign, or maybe now we share it in a different channel, or maybe now we create a magazine article out of it. Like there might still be a lot more life in that. And I actually think companies probably if somebody did an audit, could go back at some of those big initiatives and even find some life still in them today.
Kari Olivier: Yeah. Evergreen content.
Jeremy Solly: Yeah. And I think we get caught up on evergreen content. I think a lot of people are like, "Oh it's got to be-"
Kari Olivier: But for the two to ten people ... that yeah.
Jeremy Solly: That's another definition problem, I think.
Kari Olivier: Yeah, for somebody that might ... Yeah, what is your definition of evergreen content? And then I'll tell you what mine is.
Jeremy Solly: Okay. Well, actually, I want to tell you what I think people think of evergreen content. I think people think of evergreen content as like truisms in industry, right? Like you know what I mean?
Kari Olivier: Right, right.
Jeremy Solly: Like, "Oh, we've got to write an article that's broad," and you know what I mean?
Kari Olivier: Oh, you know what? You're right, that lasts forever.
Jeremy Solly: And it lasts forever. Like we have to write about Newton's theories because it will never change.
Kari Olivier: You know what? You're right.
Jeremy Solly: I think that there's a lot of scaredness around what evergreen is, because it doesn't have to be that. It can be a cultural piece about your company.
Kari Olivier: You're right. There is a thought. Someone wants you to write an evergreen piece that means it is such a truism that it lasts forever and then you can put it on your website ... It's such a dyed-in-the-wool... That's one definition. Another sort of-
Jeremy Solly: Yeah, I wouldn't say that's mine. I would say that that is-
Kari Olivier: Yeah, that is one.
Jeremy Solly: ... that that is I think the prevailing one.
Kari Olivier: It's prevailing. And another definition is evergreen content is something that you can, and maybe we do, maybe we redefine it right here on this soon to be famous podcasts.
Jeremy Solly: Okay, great, I can't wait.
Kari Olivier: But another definition of evergreen, which we'll rename it right here, is a content that you've put out there with your best face forward and it has a good shelf life and it's worthy of pulling back up. You put a little new twist on it, then you send it right back on out because it is still true and it still has a relevancy. So I think of ... and it still ladders up to the content strategy. I'm always about, like if you wrote it two years ago and you can put a spin on it and send it right back out there and it gets, another bang for the buck, that's the evergreen. Who cares about Newton? That's my evergreen. It's an ongoing piece of content, that feeds your content beast. It's part of your marketing mix and it's evergreen because you can pick it up and you can make it better and you can feed it, feed it, feed it. You don't have to start from scratch. So, but I mean, we could rename it.
Jeremy Solly: That could be it, you're not starting from scratch.
Kari Olivier: It's a not start from scratch. I don't know. We could rename it but I love the idea and if I would say, with clients that I work with the notion of really considering the content that's out there on their website, on their blog, in the stable of sales tools, because everywhere, the content strategy repository of tools, PR, testimonials.
Jeremy Solly: Media.
Kari Olivier: The thought leadership, the whole kit and caboodle is worthy of a big stir, rinse, and repeat and see what falls out and could have relevancy for today.
Jeremy Solly: If you're able to find your bricks and feathers for your brand, extend that content that you already have and also allow for creation of content that is still in your swim lane but maybe not necessarily that high production value or cost, then you'll be struggling a lot less with content creation.
Kari Olivier: 100%, 100% I'm tracking with every single thing you're saying. And if you're doing these things within a rigorous and disciplined strategy, which we've been talking about, and you have clearly defined that swim lane, then you are a lot more likely to find yourself in the company of that 34% of marketers whose content strategy is really working for them. Jeremy Solly, as always, it has been a pleasure.
Jeremy Solly: Thanks, Kari, this has been great.
Kari Olivier: This is Kari Olivier from Jute Creative.
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