Your Content Delivery Isn't as Good as You Think It Is, with Caitlin Ridge

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:03.960 Today on B two B growth, we are sharing a featured conversation from our 2 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:08.880 archive, with over two thousand episodes released. We want to resurface episodes worth 3 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:12.400 another listen. Before we jump in, I just want to say I would 4 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:15.519 love to connect and hear from you on Linkedin. You can search Benji walk 5 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:18.600 over there and that's a great place to also interact with sweet fish and B 6 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:32.719 two B growth. All right, let's jump into today's featured conversation, conversations 7 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:40.840 from the front lines of marketing. This is B two B growth. I'm 8 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:43.840 your host, Timmy Bower, content strategist here at sweet fish, and my 9 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:48.439 guest today is Caitlin ridd she is the director of corporate marketing at Allacadia. 10 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:51.799 CAITLIN, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me to me. I'm 11 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:54.840 excited to be here. Me Too. I'm so excited to talk to you 12 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:58.000 about this topic. It's something that, as a content strategist, I think 13 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:03.040 about all the time and our last conversation we were jamming on the philosophy of 14 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:10.159 we gotta ship content versus genuinely publishing trash, and uh, I remember what 15 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:14.959 sparked it is we were just talking about content strategy and I asked you you 16 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:19.040 know what's an overrated trend in B two B marketing, and you just see 17 00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:25.640 so many linkedin videos that are these long ramblings of nothing. So why don't 18 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:29.879 you go ahead and start there? Just describe your inspiration for for why you 19 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:34.840 said this is a problem. Yes, yes, that they are my personal 20 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:38.280 pet peeve. I'll be honest. The walk and talk videos on Linkedin, 21 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:44.319 Um that are rambling, because I'm come from a heavy content side as well. 22 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:48.719 I think about content and content strategy way more often than I probably should, 23 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:51.879 Um, and you do. You're always looking for new channels. Linked 24 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:55.799 in, particularly in B two B, is such a powerful channel and I 25 00:01:55.879 --> 00:01:59.079 really when I look at those videos, I just think there's a lost opportunity. 26 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:02.319 Like if your take the time to put something out there first, impressions 27 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:07.280 are everything and if people catch the first video is like a five minute philosophical 28 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:09.680 ramble of a video, that's like straight up your nose and there's wind in 29 00:02:09.719 --> 00:02:15.680 the audio, that's not a pleasant like viewing or listening experience for anyone and 30 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:19.319 you've lost the chance to capture this audience. Like I just think that, 31 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:23.159 like when you think about your brand and the awareness of the engagement you're trying 32 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:25.919 to get. I'm not. I'm not touting perfection by any means. Like 33 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:29.599 I do think there needs to be that concept of like get it out there, 34 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:32.520 can make it good enough and go but like there's a level. There's 35 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:37.240 a level between like let me just walk around the block and talk versus let 36 00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:40.080 me plan out what I want people to do after this video. How big 37 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:46.680 of a problem do you think this is in the general scare? There's clearly 38 00:02:46.759 --> 00:02:53.240 much bigger problems than the world. No, I mean, you know, 39 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:57.319 I think the problem is that the problems that we're not telling people what to 40 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:00.680 do in these videos. Like I'll take a add video that's like two minutes. 41 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:06.879 That's giving me really insightful content, because that that's where I was intending 42 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:09.680 to take this is we see Gary v post these kinds of videos. So 43 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:13.800 I want to get to, you know, what's the difference. But before 44 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:16.159 I get to what's the difference, why do you think the problem is so 45 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:21.360 prevalent? I think it started with a couple of influencers, to be honest, 46 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:23.719 and then everyone was like, oh, they collect a lot of audience 47 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:28.280 doing this different style of video. So I think that it started out not 48 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:31.439 as a problem, but now it's just become this copycat and I'd rather people 49 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:35.800 do the copycat of like let me put out two minutes on something that you 50 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:38.159 could do, like a quick tip, like here's how to do this, 51 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:42.000 here's why you should care about this. But instead they took the idea of 52 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:45.199 like the walk and talk, and that's the part they copied, and they're 53 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:50.800 copying the wrong part of this idea, I think, and personally, another 54 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:54.400 problem is that a lot of people, myself included, we think we have 55 00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:58.319 so much to say, like we think, we think our thoughts are so 56 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:03.680 valuable and we think somebody wants to hear US ramble, which is crazy level 57 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:09.719 of pretentiousness. It's a fair point. Yeah, I think. I think 58 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:14.080 most people have something to say. I don't think that we all have something 59 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:17.120 to say every week for ten minutes that's going to drive something. So I 60 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:20.360 think that's where I would ask the people that are doing these kinds of videos 61 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:24.959 to stop and think, like what's your strategy behind this? If your goal 62 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:27.879 is that you have these like couple core topics and this is part of a 63 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:31.079 thought leadership program by all means create the videos do what you need to do 64 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:34.199 get it out there. I think that's one cool thing about the pandemic is 65 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:39.879 that like seeing people in their houses has become so normal that, like you 66 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:44.120 don't need this polished, perfect video studio anymore to produce linked in videos, 67 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:46.920 but you do need to be giving back. Like there I saw this really 68 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:53.240 great sales consultant one where he was talking about like the difference between consultative and 69 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:57.319 transactional selling. It was genius. He was definitely doing it on this porch 70 00:04:57.519 --> 00:04:59.639 and the audio was a little rough, but it was one of those where 71 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:01.720 I was like, you made the effort to condense it and give people a 72 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:05.800 strong like what should you do after this video? That I really admire and 73 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:09.519 I think that's the kind of content we should be putting out there. Like 74 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.160 what's going to happen after this and as like, for me in corporate marketing, 75 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:16.399 I'm always thinking, like what's the brand perception that we're going to be 76 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:18.839 putting out with this, and that's what I want people to think about. 77 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:24.720 is like ultimately posting on Linkedin, like people now today, or I have 78 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:27.519 just read this, like people are spending like three hours a day on social 79 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:30.759 media. Channels and that's been like a big jump even in the past year, 80 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:33.399 obviously because we're all trapped at home so there's not as much to do. 81 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:38.720 Like think about that. You have so much more capability to capture people's 82 00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:44.079 attention right now and build positive perception of whatever brand, like your personal brand, 83 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:47.120 the brand of the company you work for. But that brand is connected 84 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:50.199 to what you're putting out and you do need to take that half a minute 85 00:05:50.199 --> 00:05:53.600 to think about like, what are you actually trying to get people to do 86 00:05:53.720 --> 00:05:57.079 here? Like, don't just gramble. Give me a concept, give me 87 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:00.480 a call to action, give me something that I walk a from that and 88 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.120 I'm like, Oh, I now know about this or I'm going to go 89 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:08.319 try this. That was my team. Yeah, when I personally think about 90 00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:13.079 content quality, the biggest thing on my mind is the actual quality of the 91 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:17.839 content, not the quality of the delivery. But when it comes to brand 92 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:23.680 perception, that's where you say delivery is important. So this is a complicated 93 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:27.680 question and I'm not sure how to phrase it because I have a few different 94 00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:31.920 competing thoughts here. Where one of them is you know that brand perception is 95 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:39.600 important, but I hate when I see companies over prioritize brand perception. What 96 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.639 are your thoughts on that? I would totally agree. I think if you're 97 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:46.560 trying to over engineer your brand perception, you probably have pretty bad brand perception 98 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:50.240 at that point. Like can't what do you mean when you say over Engineer 99 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:55.519 Brand Persitionum, like and we'll everyone will know one of these like that when 100 00:06:55.519 --> 00:07:00.279 you see something on Linkedin that's this like dodgy, like very B two B 101 00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:04.279 old school ask like we pretended this, we've put out this e book today 102 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:08.000 and here's the two things you're going to learn from it, and it's all 103 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.360 marketing jargon, where like if you put it in front of your mom, 104 00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:14.040 she would have no idea what you were talking about. Like that's the kind 105 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:17.120 of over engineering where like they're so afraid to bring the human element into it 106 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:23.160 that it just sounds like a robot. In your personal opinion, how humble 107 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:28.000 and human do you think you can get with videos and not hurt your brand 108 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.759 perception? Oh, that's a great question. Humble, I think that's up 109 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:35.519 to the brand and the person. Honestly, like that's a that's a very 110 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:40.199 degree of like who you are and what you're selling to the world. As 111 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:44.199 far as like the human element, I think it should be more human. 112 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.319 I think that's one like as I think about like how brand messaging resonates right 113 00:07:47.319 --> 00:07:50.959 now, especially on channels like Linkedin, where like that's where we all go 114 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:57.759 for our business networking, business information gathering. We're human, like we're all 115 00:07:57.800 --> 00:08:00.800 seeing this like again, and I feel like covid is just like part of 116 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:03.000 my answer all the time, and it's kind of annoying but very true, 117 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:07.279 because it's the world we live in. Is like you have seen people get 118 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.720 more human, and I love that because I think that was one of the 119 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.120 like failures, would be two B marketing before this, is that we didn't 120 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:16.000 put the human element into it enough. But from that, like perception, 121 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:22.079 first impressions matter again, like that's psychological, that's just human behavioral, like 122 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:26.160 part of that pieces that, like when we see something, our first instinct, 123 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:31.120 like there's multiple studies that have shown it's really hard to override that first 124 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:35.480 instinct, even if you have all this data and facts proving your first instinct 125 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:37.000 was wrong. We, as humans, our brains, are wired to be 126 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:41.360 like first instinct or the first impression. That's it. We go no further, 127 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:45.720 because that's how our brains help us process all the information that comes in. 128 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.279 So that's where I think you need to find that balance of like be 129 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:54.039 human, give me the two minutes worth of awesome information, like give some 130 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:56.519 good audio, like you and I talked about this on the podcast, like 131 00:08:56.559 --> 00:09:00.399 you told me not to wear earbuds because the audio is kind of crap when 132 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:03.679 I'm speaking. Like do the little things that will take you five or ten 133 00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:07.279 minutes to make it just slightly better. That's that's the baseline that I'm asking 134 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:13.200 people to go to here. That's a great example, because the reality is, 135 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:18.679 if you couldn't find earbuds, you just weren't able to get them and 136 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:22.840 we couldn't reschedule. But I want to make this episode. I would have 137 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:26.200 said, all right, just use your internal microphone on your computer, because 138 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:30.120 at the end of the day, my mindset is let's make the piece of 139 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:33.399 content and then just in our interview we'll try to make it as good as 140 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:37.639 we can and maybe I'll interrupt you a little bit less, because one of 141 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:41.879 the reasons I want you to wear earbuds is so that when I get super 142 00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:45.480 excited about something you're saying and I want to interrupt you, I can do 143 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:48.440 that and it doesn't completely throw off the audio, which is what Zoom will 144 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:52.960 do. So I so I might just be taking a little bit of extra 145 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:58.480 care in the actual interview, but I'd still say let's do the interview because 146 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:01.080 at the end of the day, my d is Let's make the piece of 147 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:05.600 content. Do you see that in the B Two b space or do you 148 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:09.960 feel like B Two B is too hesitant about no, let's just make the 149 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:13.960 piece of content. No, I actually think that there has been the past 150 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:16.120 like five years or so, I've seen more and more of that. Posh 151 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:18.480 was like, let's make the content, let's make it as good as we 152 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:22.039 can. I think that's my like back to our original problem that I was 153 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:26.919 discussing. My pet peeve is that, like let's make the piece of content. 154 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:30.039 I think people use that as a way to be sloppy and I think 155 00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:31.519 if you spent five minutes, because to your point, like what if I 156 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:35.799 couldn't find this, we could have figured it out with some other option. 157 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:39.320 But you asking me to wear these headphones was a really small request. It 158 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:43.360 really wasn't that hard to do something like that. That's what I'm saying, 159 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:46.320 is that, like you should ship the content. You should make sure that 160 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:48.679 you're seeing that you're the content you're putting out is quality. You shouldn't let 161 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:54.080 like small things detract you from it. But it doesn't mean you should get 162 00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:56.879 lazy. Like you're still publishing content, you're still pushing it out to an 163 00:10:56.879 --> 00:11:01.480 audience and you're still making impressions on those people. And so that's where I 164 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.960 think that like take those five or ten minutes to write that, you know, 165 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:07.559 figure out the best possible version of it, and then go for it. 166 00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:13.080 Like how many amazing memes have we all seen of people like dogs in 167 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:16.720 the background, kids running in and interrupting stuff, like the world is okay 168 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:20.039 with seeing the human side now, but like, let me be able to 169 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.360 hear you, let me like be able to see your face, non straight 170 00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:26.279 up, your nostrils, like they're saamful of little things. We can all 171 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:31.480 do to be slightly more polished and we're still human beings. So so if 172 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:35.519 you were to just outline those or, let's say you at Your Company, 173 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:41.240 how you folks would think about creating content at scale while being human. And 174 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:46.159 you know, when the when the content inspiration strikes, we make the Pisa 175 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:50.519 content and we ship the piece of content. I guess what's Your Plan that 176 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:56.120 you follow? Yeah, I think for me my plan is always like what 177 00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:58.720 do we what do we want this piece of content to do? Like I 178 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:01.320 don't ever want to put content out for the sake of putting content out, 179 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:05.960 like that's just random acts of marketing. The step one is your strategic about 180 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:11.360 what do you want the piece of content to do? WHATS NEXT? Is 181 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:15.399 Um so we have what we want to do. What's the tone? Is 182 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.399 this serious? Is this funny and lighthearted? Like what's that piece? And 183 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:22.919 then third is let's create the content. So, like those truly are my 184 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:24.440 three steps. Is, like I want to make sure that there's a purpose 185 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:28.279 to it. I want to make sure that the messaging hits, because I 186 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:31.919 do think that's so important in today's content, especially social content, like you're 187 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:37.360 only capturing like a little snippet of people's information as they're scrolling, but sessions 188 00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:41.960 on linkedin are increasing like a quarter right now. Like you should not push 189 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:46.759 it out there because there's like a tiny section in the background that looks funky. 190 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:50.080 That's again to my over engineering, like that's way too corporate. But 191 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:54.440 you need to have those three steps of like what's the purpose, what's the 192 00:12:54.519 --> 00:13:00.480 tone, and then like let's create it. How much content are you guys 193 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:07.399 at allocadia putting out through the personal brands and profiles of your team? Quite 194 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:11.480 a bit actually. So we on my team are a head of content marketing 195 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:16.399 that's on my team. We have a whole schedule of content from our internal 196 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:20.480 team, so like blog posts, infographics, you know, various videos, 197 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:24.039 things like that that we're publishing in general. We then shared out to the 198 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:26.639 entire organization so that they can put their own spin on it. So for 199 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.519 the CS team, it may be that we had a great customer story come 200 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:33.639 out there, sharing how excited they are for the customer they help every day. 201 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:35.440 Sales is then taking that and spinning it and saying, like look, 202 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:41.159 how valuable allocadia is. So we really do encourage our team to share things 203 00:13:41.720 --> 00:13:46.440 from their own perspective and we've seen huge engagement increases in that the past three 204 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:52.159 or formats we we have as well. It's one of the biggest if somebody's 205 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:58.600 not doing it everything. There's one thing that we didn't talk about that I'm 206 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:01.960 a big believer in, but I'm curious how it plays into what we're talking 207 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:07.600 about, and that is I am such a believer in the iterative approach to 208 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:13.000 making content and making content good. Um. So I will often, if 209 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:16.360 I have an idea, I'll find some channel that I can just get the 210 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:22.320 idea out and then I'll just iterate on it over time. What's your feeling 211 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:26.799 about that in the context of what we're talking about? I completely agree that 212 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:30.399 iterative is the best bet, because I think otherwise you get stuck in that 213 00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:35.200 Rut of like perfection over progress. If you're trying so hard to just get 214 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:37.799 it perfect, you're missing probably like a month of opportunity to get in front 215 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:43.679 of people. Um. So my general philosophy on it is like I want 216 00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:46.559 to get something about eight percent. I want us to have nailed, like 217 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:48.519 what are we trying to do? What's the tone? But then let's put 218 00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:52.720 it out there, like we've we've been testing a current brand program actually, 219 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:58.159 we had a couple of different ideas about like the verbiage for like what's how 220 00:14:58.200 --> 00:15:01.000 do we get people to like move deeper into the funnel? How do we 221 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:03.440 actually get people to engage? So we tested it out on social ads, 222 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:07.039 because social ads are super easy to put out. It's a quick change if 223 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:09.399 we do want to do some of the wording, and we've been a B 224 00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:13.559 testing a couple of those factors for the past month and a half, knowing 225 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:16.840 that spring season is going to be big, I know. Well, like 226 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:20.559 it's not in live in person events, but like virtual events for Adobe summit, 227 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:24.519 for there's B two B summit. Like we want to have things nailed 228 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:28.320 by then. So we started the process eight weeks ago to start iterating on 229 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:31.679 things so that we feel really strong by the time April hits. I love 230 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:35.519 that. I love that a lot. Yeah, awesome. Well, Caitlin, 231 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:39.679 this has been a really fun conversation. How can listeners connect with you? 232 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:43.360 You can connect with me on Linkedin, Caitlin Ridge, or come to 233 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:48.159 the alacadia website. Um Allacadia DOT COM. This has been great. Thanks 234 00:15:48.200 --> 00:16:02.559 for having me. B Two B growth is brought to you by the team 235 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:04.960 at sweet fish media. Here at sweet fish we produce podcasts for some of 236 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:10.039 the most innovative brands in the world and we help them turn those podcasts into 237 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:14.200 micro videos, linkedin content, blog posts and more. We're on a mission 238 00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:26.279 to produce every leader's favorite show. Want more information, visit sweet fish media DOT COM