Ep 54: B2B Content creation: Avoiding overwhelm and getting strategic
Today’s episode is taken from a live that I did over on LinkedIn with Stacey Meadwell for our new monthly live series called the B2B Comms Breakdown.
In this takeover episode of the BEMS we’re looking at Content creation: Avoiding overwhelm and getting strategic.
Articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, carousels, panels…the B2B content options are many and varied, as are the platforms and outlets on which to publish.
Time is always short, and overwhelm is understandable. So:
How do you decide what type of content to create?
Is it OK to stick to one type of content?
Which content channels should you use, and how many?
Bye bye for now
This podcast is now taking a bit of a Summer break and will be back in September.
Watch this episode live
More podcasts.
Transcript
Ayo Abbas 00:05
Hello, and welcome to the built environment Marketing Show. And I am your host, Iowa bass from a bass marketing. We're a marketing consultancy that specialises in working with architects and engineers, some of the leading lights that you probably do know, I help them with their marketing strategy, but also their content and their campaigns. So I do a wide range of things pretty well, I hope, and I really do enjoy it. Anyway, today I am sharing a recent episode of a LinkedIn live that I did. It's a new series that I'm actually doing with Stacey meanwell. It's called the b2b comms break down. So once a month, we go live over on LinkedIn and also as a webinar, and we answer free content related questions. And we also take questions from the floor as well. So it's a lot of chat, kind of going through the topics and themes that you know of that of that session. And it's good fun, but we also share a lot of good nuggets, as you're gonna hear. Anyway, the topic for this first episode that we went live with was b2b content creation, how to avoid overwhelming how to get strategic. So that was our first episode where we talked about how to decide on the type of content to create, whether it's okay just to create one type of content, and also which channels to use and how many because as we know, there's tonnes of them. Anyway, I'm gonna stop rambling on, and you can get on and listen to this kind of very special kind of takeover of the built environment marketing, show, stroke, b2b, comms breakdown. Enjoy.
Ayo Abbas 01:35
Hi, welcome to the b2b comms breakdown. It's the first one we're doing. And if you are watching us live, please do say hello in the comments because we can see them and we know that you're there is I built environment marketing consultant. And I work for I guess, a range of architects and engineers doing content and campaigns which I love.
Stacey Meadwell 01:57
And I'm Stacy maidwell. I'm a former property journalist turned content creator and trainer working with businesses in the built environment.
Ayo Abbas 02:07
Brilliant. And thank you so much for joining us today. And we are going to be talking about how to avoid content overwhelm, articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, carousels, panels, tonnes and tonnes of different ways lives like this as well, then loads of ways and kind of b2b content options out there. And so what kind of platforms and outlets should you be using? And which one should you be publishing on? Time is always short. And overwhelm is kind of understandable at the moment,
Stacey Meadwell 02:36
let's talk a bit about how you decide what type of content to create.
Ayo Abbas 02:42
So I guess I'm gonna kind of put some principles in place, because I kind of think we are all busy, right? So, you know, content is another thing to do. Even I'm starting to get to that stage. I'm like, there is like so many other things I could be doing with my time. So I'm going to start off by saying, you've got to make sure that you move away from perfection. So like, sometimes getting it done, and getting it done to a decent standard is better than nothing at all right? And I think often when it comes to what type of content I want to create, I have to think about what story it is that I want to tell. So that's normally where I start is what's my story? Or what's my hook, or what am I trying to communicate? Or sometimes it's like, Oh, I've not done one of these for a while. You know, like, it's true, you know, you suddenly realise, like, we spoke the other day, we were like, Oh, we haven't done video for a while, have we let's do an intro for this video. So I think it's that kind of thing of like, a mix of what the story is, I want to tell but also, you know what content type works for that story, as well as, but also, I think there's also that thing, like we said was like, sometimes people aren't posting certain types of content at the moment. So maybe you doing that makes you stand out from the crowd as well. I mean, what's the kind of ideas and thoughts you have on that one?
Stacey Meadwell 03:51
Yeah, I mean, I agree with everything you said, I think it's important to focus on what you feel is achievable what you feel you you you like, but I think it's also important to focus on where your audience is, you know, is your audience watching like 15 second videos on Tiktok? That's probably where it should be. But if they're not, then maybe that isn't the that isn't the type of content that you should that you should be creating. And I would add don't necessarily think of one type of content in isolation, and I'm sure they will might dive into this in a little bit more detail. But think of how you can maybe repurpose one type of content in easily into another format. Think about where your audiences but I would also add, don't forget new audiences. It's very easy to get stuck into doing one type of content as you said, I Oh, can you do something different? Is there a new audience you want to reach? Are they consuming different types of content rather than the type of content that you are creating. But I think it comes back to do what is what is achievable. What you can easily do to start with, and what you in joy creating, I would say is a big part of it. Yeah,
Ayo Abbas 05:18
I remember I interviewed an architect for BBTs. And he talks about finding the channels that you could that you really enjoy. So like, he loves talking him and his partner and his practice. And, you know, so they do podcasts. I mean, they're, you know, they're on TV for God's sake, but like, but and they played on their strengths. And I think that's what makes it easier. So how would you start off topic type of content, your strengths, and what you enjoy comes into it as well as your audience. I think it's that whole getting that mix. Right. But I think one of the things you said as well, so it's, I think it's also it's about the content. It's all about the story you're trying to convey. Yeah, it's taking that story and actually using then using a different content types for that one story. I think it's more about that than anything else.
Stacey Meadwell 06:01
Yeah, I mean, I think see your content, you know, a piece of content as your hero piece of content that you can then slice and dice and do something with, which kind of leads on to the next point we were going to talk about is, is it okay to stick to one type of type of content? And I would, I think yes and no to that, but maybe you've got some thoughts on that I do before I launch into my thoughts.
Ayo Abbas 06:32
I know, I want to hear yours, because I actually tend to agree I started writing my answers earlier. And yeah, I tend to agree with you. But yeah, go for it.
Stacey Meadwell 06:39
Well, I think it's yes. Because I think yes, in a sense, because it's better to do one thing and do it well, rather than trying to do lots of different things and not do anything particularly well. And that relates to channels as well, which were which we're going to come on to, but saying that, can you easily repurpose that, you know, your one type of content? I mean, certainly, you know it with the sort of error of the built environment I work with, it's very much focused on written content. And, you know, I'm a content writer. So, you know, I do a lot of a lot of that. Could you repurpose that written content into, say, a carousel? with bullet points, it's a different type, it's a different format. It's a different type of different type of content. So it's, it's not necessarily sticking to, you know, one type of content and thinking, or trying to do a video or podcast, you know, an article or blog post an event and do it trying to do everything, there's like, okay, we're already producing written content, can we turn that into something else? You know, another example is, you know, if you're holding events, and you do roundtables or panels, can you turn that into a white paper or report or a series of articles? So it's, it's, yes, it is okay to stick to one type. But I would say think beyond that one type of content, and what you can easily repurpose it into.
Ayo Abbas 08:12
So I can really agree with you on that. I think there was also an issue of not everybody likes one type of content, some people are more visual, some people learn, you know, some people take stuff in more from words. I mean, to be honest, I don't read that much anymore. I normally just listen to stuff, right. So audiobooks, audio, you know, podcasts, all of that video that appeals to me right now. But then actually, if I want to digest information, I might read a blog and write something down. So I think we all learn differently in taking information differently, and our clients and our target target audiences will be exactly the same. So I think only having one content type, you might be limiting your reach, because there are some people who will never ever listen to a podcast or audio. So if that's your thing, then you're going to be missing that audience. So I think it's just trying to kind of work out, you know, if it's, this is my primary piece of content or content type, but then also, these are quite easy that I can, you know, create something that's worth worthwhile in these other mediums easily. I think you got to have that there. But I think in some ways to do that having the right systems and processes underneath so that makes it easy to repurposing, recreate. I think that's the key, because then that just makes it a lot easier to do.
Stacey Meadwell 09:24
Yeah, I completely agree. And it comes back to that hero piece of content. You know, this life is a hero piece of content for both of us, and we will repurpose it, splice it, dice it and chop it up and use turn it into lots of different formats without creating content from scratch because that's the big that's the big time consuming, but it is creating a new bit of content, new bit of content from scratch. So, I mean, coming back to obviously the theme is avoiding overwhelm. It can be overwhelming trying to do all the things but think about if you you know, think about that one piece of content, are there easy ways you can repurpose repurpose it. So it is in different formats. So you're ticking those boxes, you're reaching those different audiences, those people with different preferences and how they consume, consume content.
Ayo Abbas 10:17
And I think I think that's a good point. And I think like, you know, that whole thing of, you know, you mean, you could literally, like, take a written blog and just speaking to camera on your phone, and then that's an audio that and you know what I mean? So, there are simple things that you can can do, and are all having a carousel, you just take the headlines out, and things like that. And they're really, really practical. And then you can go, that's a carousel that that's done. That's another type for that one piece of content. But I do think that thing you said about, you know, at least you're starting, we're starting from something with this. So rather than starting from a blank page of I've got to do five posts on LinkedIn, oh, my god, the beginning of the week, is actually looking and thinking, actually, I've got this blog I did there have no, I could literally just turn that into this. And then you know, using that kind of repurpose, don't have content from elsewhere for a couple of days. And then actually, it's only free new posts you need to do, I think it's stuff like that as well, where you can kind of get smarter with stuff you already have as well, that just make it reduces the overwhelm, because then you're like, actually, that could just work as a carousel, or that would be quite quick. So yeah, I think that's another thing,
Stacey Meadwell 11:16
which which kind of leads us neatly into channels? And what channels should be on? And how many channels should you be? i Well, I'll go first, if you don't mind. I would say don't put all your eggs in one basket. Because if you know if your primary content channel is LinkedIn, or is a social media channel, you don't own that anything could happen. You could get locked out of LinkedIn. I mean, I'm not only Instagram for work, but I'm on Instagram for for my for my hobby, and I got locked out of Instagram on Sunday. And you know, I'm at the whim of of meta in terms of letting me letting me back on I didn't do anything bad, honestly. Yeah. I am trying to post a question about this. Yeah. So I would say don't put all your don't put all your eggs in one basket, and at least have at least one channel that you control. And that could be your website. It could be you know, content that you put on your website, it could be, you know, it could be a newsletter, or an event that you own or something that isn't completely beholden to the overlords who run who run the social media channels. And, you know, social media channels come and go. I mean, look at what's happening with Twitter now, in the, you know, in the past sort of 1212 months, you know, who would have seen that? Who would have seen that coming? And I've got a tip about how to, you know, how you can fill channels easily, but I'll go over to you. I don't want to talk too much. Yeah, too much.
Ayo Abbas 13:07
I mean, I was thinking about this now. It's like, I mean, I use I use, I basically use most channels, because I'm a marketeer. And part of what I do, I always sort of say, I can't really go out until you know, advise people on what to do on social media, and if I don't use them. So that's one of the reasons you kind of see me everywhere. But some stuff, I'm just testing out more like tick tock and things like that. But I think for smaller firms and thinking about this question, it's like, I would tend to say, stick to one platform, ideally, or one or two at a stretch. But you know, obviously, like Stacy said, I also have your email list and your own channels that you own, that you can feed people through to it, because that's ultimately what you want. You want to own that contact, you want to own that data. And then I just thought about it. It's like, take LinkedIn, if you run a company and a personal page properly, where they're kind of intertwined, working with each other, fueling each other and compounding, that's a lot of work, right. So you could just be building that up and getting better at doing that and make an impact for both your company page and your personal page. And then you could also just say, actually, we want to go going deep on LinkedIn. So then you could start adding ads, for example. Or you could start adding newsletters, or you could start adding lives like this one. So you could literally have one channel but have a wealth of different content types within that one platform, and just become really, really good at it. So I think that's kind of one thing to think about is like, actually, you could become a lot better. And they're always bringing out new features as well, right? That they never tell you about. But they do bring out a lot of new features. So it's making sure your whole profile is updated. And you're making the most of the new features because genuinely they give them a hell of a lot more traction than anything else. So you could literally just build it out like that. And you could do one on one platform, which is doing really well and then you've got a secondary one that you just drip feed stuff but you have one you do really well.
Stacey Meadwell 14:50
Social media platforms are very, very time consuming. And this feeds into your point about doing one and doing it well. I would don't choose to be on lots of different sites. social platforms, if you can't do them properly, you know, LinkedIn works better. If you are active on the on the platform, if you just posting once a month and then disappearing, posting and ghosting is never going to work for you. So choose the platforms that you have got the time or as many platforms as you have got time to devote in enough energy into, into making sure that they work. You know, it's like any platform, I'm starting off on YouTube, YouTube doesn't work. If you're only publishing a video once a month, you need to be kind of publishing regular regular content you need to be you know, and doing and doing it properly. So, yeah, I completely agree with your point, if you're going to, you know, choose your channels, depending on how, you know how much time you've got to give them. I mean, I I've you know, I've lost reasons I don't use Twitter for for work anymore. But one of the reasons is I haven't got the time to prime the algorithm to use it properly to make it work for me. I just haven't got time so I devote my attention to don't bother wasting your time. Got
Ayo Abbas 16:13
what is this? Have? You lost really the platform? Man? It's horrible.
Stacey Meadwell 16:18
Yeah, I was very early adopter of Twitter. You know, I got on it sort of, I think 2008 or something. And I loved it. And I found it brilliant for a long time. And then I just kind of moved away from it because its usefulness stopped. And now you know, now I just don't have the time. I just don't have the time for you know, LinkedIn is my social channel. I have other channels. But LinkedIn is my is my social social channel. So yeah, that would that would be my advice.
Ayo Abbas 16:49
Hi, it's ayo here. And I just wanted to tell you a bit more about the show. the built environment Marketing Show was set up during lockdown one as a way to help firms do better marketing. It was very much about having the conversations that I have with my friends and showing what best practice really is. In terms of me. Well, I'm actually a generalist marketeer. So I guess I know lots of things about marketing and how to put everything together. So I could be talking about you know, PR, or understanding what to do next strategy wise, or figuring out how to get in front of the right audience or what messaging you should be using. Those are all things that I'm kind of really Skilling and understand how to do for my clients. I now work for myself, and I set up my own consultancy at best marketing in 2020. And I'm working with a range of engineering and architectural firms, and even prop tech firms who really want to, I guess, talk the language of their clients and their audiences and do something a bit different in terms of their strategy and content. If what I do sounds of interest to you do email me at IO at a bass marketing.com. And there's a y o, or head to my website, which is www dot Abbas marketing.com. For more info. There's also a link in the show notes. Bye. We've got question. Thank you Sif says I recently started out with b2b content. And my first brief is to write a blog post targeted to a business leader and government with a CTA redirect to a former blog post on our website. If this if this story will be outlined. Why will it be? I'm not sure what that means?
Stacey Meadwell 18:23
Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure about your what your what your question is. You said, Could you make it clear what your what
Ayo Abbas 18:29
could you clarify? Yeah, if you can clarify that. We'll come back to it.
Stacey Meadwell 18:33
We have a comment. And I mean, this is a question. It's quite a long one. Working in the roofing industry has made me restrict its restrict to only being blog posts to drive audience after a while there are instances where I really get stuck to think like what should I create my blog now? What do you think is a good way to get out of the phase and come up with new ideas written blog content? On this one? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. coming up with ideas. I mean, we've we've had conversations about this because I know both were in the camp that we never have problems coming up with our own content
Ayo Abbas 19:10
that's the worst thing. It's just like
Stacey Meadwell 19:15
my background is always a Features Editor. And at one point, I had 1000 pages a year to fill and commission and stuff so like my I'm primed, but I know that not everybody is is is primed for that. I would have a look at you, I would go back through your content and have a look at the content channels, you know, what are the types of content you do? Do you have three or four different types of content that you know, three or four different topics that you write about? You know, like, say for example, you know, for me, I I write about writing, I write about, you know, press releases, I write about property, and I write some personal stuff. So that's roughly my my full kind of content channel. So have a look at what You're what you've been publishing? Is this? Is there a pillar missing from your content channels? Is there something? You know? Are you missing people's stuff? Are you you know, is there an area of your business that you're missing? Are you covering all the questions that your customers ask? Or your clients ask?
Ayo Abbas 20:24
I'll tell you what we're amazing for that like to go in our sales team, what what are people asking you about at the moment? I think I think that's a really good one today. So I don't
Stacey Meadwell 20:31
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, go back to go back to those customer queries and see, yeah, and see, see if there are areas that aren't covered. I did some work. I did some work recently for a client on this very, you know, how on this very thing, how do we create? How do we, you know, come up with ideas. And one of the things that we discovered when going through the content pillars, but also we looked at the audience and who their target audience was, and all that content was focused on one particular audience group. Yeah, so actually, when they started looking at a different audience, you know, target audience, there was a different type of content that they could then put out that was targeting them, and actually just done
Ayo Abbas 21:13
that roofing one. I think there's also the whole thing of all, is that new legislation coming out, there's always that angle, isn't there, which I was on the kind of what legislation is coming up? You know, are there any trends in the industry happening at the moment? Who's doing really well? You know, and and also, I will, you could break it down to some of the kind of difference, you know, the customer viewpoint, actually, when it comes to roofing, is it about the homeowner? Or actually, are you targeting the contractors, which audience you're talking to? So you've got things like that, I think, and I think, you know, you could talk about how to do stuff, you can talk about, you know, why you should choose certain, I don't do roofing, that's for sure. I've done quite a little product. So, but I think it's just trying to legislation I've found has been actually a really good one, this is coming up and you're prepared, that kind of stuff is really good. Or here's a you know, a useful guide on how to do such and such. So I think those kinds of stuff you can do around blogs on that, but yeah, I know what you mean, when you're talking about one thing, it's like, how do I change it up? But also you could talk about, you know, do spotlights on certain supply, supply chain and stuff like that and talk to them, you know, get to know the people behind the product type stuff. So yeah, it's stuff you can do. But yeah, I get what you mean. And so I like all those ideas as well work on socials as well. So that's the kind of stuff I would
Stacey Meadwell 22:28
get it is it is it is a tricky one. It's one that we come up, cat HELLO, CAT. Do you agree think attention spans are dwindling? On socials? Generally? How do you think this affects the type of content we were sharing? Eg punchy, colourful verbs rather than short? Shorter word sentences? I mean, I, you know, I haven't done I haven't sort of seen any research and to this, but sort of anecdotally people seem to be saying that attention spans are shorter. But then when I've done a poll about this or question about this, some people still do prefer long form content, some you know, that's, that's their thing. I think, yes. Shorter is particularly on LinkedIn shorter seems to be doing better on LinkedIn, there was a phase when everyone said, right, really, right up to the maximum word count on your posts, but it feels like they're getting over that. No. And I mean, I don't read long posts on LinkedIn. And it's just like, it's a really long post, unless it's really, really, really engaging. I won't, I won't read it. But that's just me. Everybody's, everybody's different. And I think it's good to have a little bit of, you know, don't just do all shorts content, but maybe try and throw in something that's slightly longer.
Ayo Abbas 23:50
I mean, I think, for me, I think short content can be your hook to reel someone in, you know what I mean? The short stuff is like, I actually I want to know more, and then then you date that can link into the longer piece. So I think getting the two to work together is probably the way but I mean, I still think there is a role for longer and people still do delve in longer. They do want that but not everybody's going to want it. Yeah, I like short and punchy, personally.
Stacey Meadwell 24:15
Yeah. That mean, that's there, but that suits me. So what the only time I like longer content is podcasts. I don't like short podcasts. You know, it's just I know, I just
Ayo Abbas 24:26
10 minutes today, is that too short?
Stacey Meadwell 24:30
It's more it's more of a practical thing. It's just like because I tend to listen to them when I'm out walking, and I don't want to have to be constantly going for another for another episode. I want to just be able to put a podcast on it's not it's fine. I'll forgive you. It's all right. It'll be 10 Brilliant minutes. 10
Ayo Abbas 24:46
minutes, not being boring if you want Allison's next
Stacey Meadwell 24:51
so how do you know what resonates with your audience? Do you use software metrics and in LinkedIn, it's okay. Don't worry. We can read our brains are very good at auto correcting, it's fine. It's fine.
Ayo Abbas 25:11
Because naturally I missed that word. When I write, I swear, like my fingers can't keep up my brain. So there's always like a word missing
Stacey Meadwell 25:17
ideas what I do. I work. Yeah. So you're the metrics person, I am
Ayo Abbas 25:24
the metrics and analytics, which I love. And I guess on LinkedIn, in particular, I mean, the analytics for LinkedIn have got so much better in the past year. And I don't know why I'm seeing it, because it's creator mode, or everybody has it. But definitely, you can really kind of, you can look at your posts from the past 365 days, you can, you can even see like, which types are doing well, and all that kind of stuff. Which levels of audience like, you know, is it directors or co founders? Who is who is actually looking at your content. So if you haven't looked at the kind of metrics on LinkedIn, I would say, and it's company pages, and for personal pages, it has got so much better in the past year. So you can literally go back and see, actually what has resonated with my audience, actually, is this the right audience that I want to be targeting, you can kind of have a deep dive and just play around and have a look there. So I would definitely say to do that, before that I was using shared analytics, but I haven't renewed because I was like, actually, you know, what, LinkedIn is actually pretty good now, in terms of its analytics, for what it can do for you. So I would say go back and look at the numbers and the data and, and also just kind of get a feel of like, what was your most popular posts last year, you know, which ones really resonated with people, which ones had the most comments and stuff like that? So just go back and have a feel, and then you can start to, you know, understand, you know, what stuff is engaging with those people that you really want to talk to? So yeah, that's yeah,
Stacey Meadwell 26:43
I mean, I, you know, I always I also look at the, the stuff that hasn't performed well, and see what lessons I can learn. And sometimes it might be that it just hasn't, it hasn't been presented in the right way that maybe the opening line wasn't as catchy or the headline wasn't as grabby or it didn't, you know, it didn't have certain key phrases or something like that. So sometimes it might be just that people weren't interested. But sometimes there might be other reasons why some something hasn't performed well.
Ayo Abbas 27:13
Sometimes it just doesn't perform. Yeah,
Stacey Meadwell 27:16
exactly. Sometimes, it's just like people like so what don't care,
Ayo Abbas 27:20
the best place in the world, but you know what, you've missed it. Okay, you just come back with a rephrase. Starting out with b2b, I got this laundry, which appears overwhelming compared to b2c in brackets, which what he did before, which revolves around content pillars, which are best tied to drive sales or position as a thought leader for a brand. But in this instance, the blog post is targeted to business leaders in government position. As for investment, what will your advice be? Okay, I do understand that now, I'm gonna put that away, because very big question, it cuts off our face. But it's the same mechanism. So what would your investors and what were those business leaders, so you need to drill down into those audiences and understand who precisely they are because business leader is a very, very broad term, and government is a very poor term. So you need to drill down into who those audiences are, in those two buckets, those two target audiences. And once you figure that out, then it's about that next level down if you know, what's their issues, and what do they care about? And then that's where your blogs can come in? How do I answer that and how to respond that respond to that. And I think b2b is like b2c, but you just need to drill down the business leaders very broad as a business leader, who's a CEO of a bank, or is it a business leader is actually just running the small business, you know, like business? See, that can mean anything, and government is exactly the same. So you just need to get some granularity on what that is, and drill down into what's their issues, then you can understand what to what your company's response or how they can help them in that kind of area. So that's kind of how I would approach that. And I think b2c is like that. It just seems bigger, but you just need to drill down Well,
Stacey Meadwell 29:00
we've got two more questions which because we're coming up for half an hour now I didn't wasn't expecting to be talking quite so long. Thank you so much for your for all your brilliant questions, but let's quickly go through these. So this LinkedIn user ideas for b2b email list building apart from masterclasses like your brilliant ones. I mean, I'm very new to email. I've only my email list was only set up last autumn so I'm still in the very early stages and still very much learning. So yeah, I I'm going to pass over to IO for this one, because Yours Yours has been going a lot longer than mine.
Ayo Abbas 29:45
Sometimes the email list building I just asked I say hi, I do this email, follow it. Sign up here. So sometimes I literally just ask people, other things you can do is trail it before it goes out. This is coming out. We'll have this this and this in it. If you like it we're existing Chances are, if you like it sign up here. I've seen other people like Nikita Morel, who's amazing. She owes a compromise, and He specialises in writing for architects. And what she does, in every single LinkedIn post is always, if you like my staff link, you know, his or her LinkedIn stuff is sign up to my email list. And that's her main CTA on everything. Because her approach is, once you're on my email list, you'll get regular posts from me, you'll get really regular content from me, and you'll see it. So that's what she wants, she drives all content, all kinds of all CTA activity goes straight to her email list. So there's a number of ways you can do when it goes live, you can kind of sit there and flag and say, this is just gone out. If you want to sign up, this is how you can get it next time. So there's lots of kinds of things like that, as well as you could also do things like downloads and stuff like that, and giving away free downloads. You know, come on, you know, here's a social media posting Guide, which I have got one on my site, actually, which I've done, you know, and you can kind of use that as a hook to kind of get people on your mailing list. So hope that helps.
Stacey Meadwell 31:00
Cool. Final question. How do you manage clients who are far too cautious about saying anything that could be interpreted as controversial or against the grain? This can be a huge barrier to having anything interesting to say in comment pieces. Yeah, this is this is a this is an interesting one. And you know, I do because I write a lot of thought leader for people I go strike a lot of thought Thought Leader comment and there can be there is the nervousness around putting your head above a head head above the parapet. I think there are ways of presenting a viewpoint in in a friendlier sort of way, I think you need to back up what you're saying, make sure you've got evidence, I think, acknowledging that there are other viewpoints. And there are other, you know, other things that play, I think, you know, you set out well, this is what I think I'm you know, there are these other things going on, which may, you know, sort of balancing that balancing that discussion. I used to commission comment pieces for the magazine I worked on, and people would send in pitches for comment pieces, and they wouldn't have an opinion that basically sending a press release, that's not going to get published. And I think if you want to build if you want to build a you know, a reputation, as you know, somebody who's got insight into the market or a brand that has got insight into into the market that understands the industry, then you need to kind of be put on an opinion, having having an opinion, but just, you know, set it back, set it out as a balanced viewpoint. The other thing to do, which I don't think people do do enough, is asked for other people's code. This is what I think this is why I think this what do you think, you know, and he asked other people's ask other people's opinions on stuff and make it a conversation, rather than sort of standing there and going, this is what I think and this is my opinion, and I'm right, you know, so they're there in nuanced ways of going around it. But uh, yeah, I appreciate that. It is, it is difficult.
Ayo Abbas 33:03
I've got, you know, I have to admit, the first the first response that came into my head was fine, find more exciting clients, but that's probably not the answer. In my head, I was like, Oh, my gosh, but no, we all we all do face it and Stacy's answer is a lot more sensible.
Stacey Meadwell 33:25
We do have one more question, but I don't know what you want to do. One more. Comment. All right. Okay. Wants to be diplomatic, quite generic, careful with language. What do you think about using more spicy language and content? Oh, yeah. I have a particularly I'm sorry. One of the things I find frustrating with a built environment is everybody you know, for years and years and years, I've worked in the industry. And I've once said it's a people industry. It's, you know, it's all about the people. But there's so little personality that comes across in the content that is put out. And you don't have to, I think, yes, you need there's no point creating content. If it isn't engaging, it doesn't sound human. You know, it's boring. But you don't have to go, you don't have to go crazy. It might just be you know, a few words a turn of phrase, a particular phrase that someone uses that is that is just makes them sound human. It's about not using the language not using corporate language. That is just the sort of stuff that you feel you have to write because it's corporate, you know, use words and language that you would use in conversation. If you can't imagine if you're reading something and you think if I was talking to someone about this, would I use that word if you if the answer's no, don't use it in your content. And you can make little subtle, you know, subtle differences in in your content just by just by word choice. I saw I saw a post on LinkedIn the other week and it was talking about a riff Verb Agreement projects, you know, a regenerating an existing an existing building, and they use the word recast. This building has been recast as I just thought it's one, it's, you know, rather than using, regenerate or repurpose, they've used the word recast. And it's, you know what it means. But actually, it was a nice little word, because it just gave this sort of image or it's more human, it's a bit more colourful. So, you know, I appreciate that people are very nervous because they've been writing in the corporate way of producing content, you know, using a corporate language for so long that you don't have to go all innocent smoothie. And, you know, be really
Ayo Abbas 35:37
wary. Not very often.
Stacey Meadwell 35:44
I want to I want to, you know, the other thing I want to flag up is, you know, which comes back to your point that you made right at the very start. I know about you doesn't have to be really polished. But there's a developer capital and centric, have a look at their LinkedIn feed, have a look at their managing directors LinkedIn feed. It's not they do Brilliant stuff, but they haven't kind of polished it. And so it does it. Just it's it's him, you know, that it's, you know, that it's the people involved in the business that have written it. You know, there are typos there are you know, it doesn't matter. The content is brilliant. So I would I would check, I would check them out. Because they do they do great. They do great stuff, and they really add personality.
Ayo Abbas 36:25
I love it. And thank you from Allison proctor. Thank you.
Stacey Meadwell 36:28
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Ayo Abbas 36:29
Then we've got a comment from Laura. I've got a call with next weekend. Hello. It says yes, exactly that this is exactly what I've been thinking Stacy. There's no soul to a lot of comms no soul. I agree with that. But as you say, you don't have to go overboard. You just have to sound like the friendly people you are in real life. And if you're not friendly, maybe don't be on session.
Stacey Meadwell 36:55
Shall we? Shall we round things off by giving our one out because we decided beforehand that we'd have we'd finished on one actionable tip going back to our theme of avoiding content overwhelm. I do want to go first do or should I
Ayo Abbas 37:09
do? I think one thing for me is actually just finding a story that's interesting that you want to tell and telling it your way.
Stacey Meadwell 37:17
Brilliant, that's a great actionable tip. Mine is do more with less. Don't feel that you have to create a fresh new content every single time. Get your hero piece of content and slice it and dice it and use that to feel different channels. That's my that's my tip.
Ayo Abbas 37:41
Thanks so much for listening to the b2b coms break down takeover. If you liked the format, why not join us live for the next one, which will be on July the 21st. Over on LinkedIn. Just connect with me or Stacey and you'll see all details about the show and how to sign up. And the next episode will actually be about cracking b2b content ideas how you banish boring and get creative. See you then. Thanks so much for listening to the built environment marketing show. Don't forget to check out the show notes which will have useful links and resources connected to this episode. You can find that on a bass marketing.com And of course if you liked the show, please do share it with others on social as it helps more people to find us. See you soon.
