The Media Company Playbook For B2B Companies - Part 1

Today's newsletter will be short. I am experimenting with a new format, and this is the first of many I plan to try. Let's dive in.

The media company playbook. 

The idea of making your marketing a media company is a hot topic, but few people actually know how to do it.

I am sharing the exact playbook I used as VP of Marketing at Heretto to build a media-first approach to content and generate over 90% of the sales-qualified pipeline via marketing alone year after year.

I will publish a series of posts on this topic. To not miss any upcoming posts, connect with me or subscribe to my newsletter if you are reading this and not following me.

First, it is important to understand the core strategy. 

The name of the game in this approach is Demand Creation. 

Demand Creation: What the heck is it?

Perhaps you've heard of Demand Capture. 

The goal of Demand Capture is to catch buyers who are actively seeking your product or a product in your category. In your target market, this group typically represents less than 5% of all buyers. 

Thus, 95% of potential buyers are not actively searching for a solution or a product like yours.

This is where the media company playbook comes into play.

Media content allows you to reach a broader audience, not just the 5% of buyers, but also the remaining 95%. 

You do this by shifting from text-based content creation to media-based content in both audio and video formats. 

An important part of the media-first strategy is creating episodic content. 

Your goal is to attract and grow an audience by educating and entertaining (~ Edutainment) them about a particular topic or outcome.

An audience's affinity for a brand is fueled by episodic content, which provides them with a predictable reason to return. Like late-night talk shows, it follows a set format and airs at a set time. The audience knows when the next episode will air and what to expect.

Your episodic content should be thought of this way - as the fixed episodic format. By creating brand affinity, you are creating demand.

You publish great episodic content consistently and earn broader attention and followership. Your company receives free advertising as a result of the attention you receive.

You get inquiries about your product from a percentage of your following. And that's how you convert the attention into sales opportunities.

Companies, especially B2B companies, are turning company marketing into a media company approach.

Marketing in this way is not new. Globally, media companies have built large audiences over the years.

Video, podcasts, and other emerging mediums have been embraced by media companies, allowing them to build and engage audiences. To gain a competitive advantage, they can carefully distribute into channels they control themselves.

In the wake of the pandemic, many B2B companies created their own media marketing departments. The shift from traditional marketing to media strategy.

It is easy for media companies to build large audiences, but they struggle to monetize them. By contrast, B2B companies have difficulty building subscriber bases but are reasonably good at monetization. As a result, it is natural to concentrate on marketing strategies that can help B2B companies to build their own large audiences.

Mobile technologies have disrupted the landscape of content distribution. 

Videos, podcasts, live streams, and other video formats are increasingly consumed by consumers along with written content. 

The shift in media consumption among the general population has boosted multimedia content distribution channels.

It is no longer competitive enough to reach the audience with text-based content and SEO.

To stay competitive, innovative companies are acquiring media companies and building media operations within their businesses.

You are building a larger audience that goes way deeper into the 95% who are not yet ready to buy but have established a solid brand affinity with you. 

This way you are securing a spot in the buyer’s mind, and when they are ready they are compelled to reach out to you. 

That’s all for today folks

This brings me to the end of Part 1 of this series on the media company playbook. Please do let me know if this format is better or worse.

Also, let’s connect on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cheers,

Vivek

PS. I love you ❤️