How to build a marketing flywheel pt. 2

Welcome to a new edition of PROse, where B2B marketers get better at creating resonating content.

As you’re reading this, I’m currently preparing to hop on a flight to Houston then Pensacola, FL.

Send thoughts and prayers - I hate layovers 🫠

Anyway, this is the final section of our 2-part installment on building a content marketing flywheel. It’s probably the part most of you came for, so let’s jump right in.

First, a recap from last week’s email for those who missed it.

Every marketing funnel has two objectives. No, getting the sale isn’t one of them.

Marketing is responsible for getting the right people to the deal table. The Sales team is responsible for closing the deal. Simple statement to make, but I know firsthand how challenging it can be to get an org aligned on that philosophy.

Nevertheless, back to my point.

In order to get the right people to the table, you have to do two things:

• Get their attention

• Earn their trust (affinity)

Attention + Affinity = Sales.

For B2B marketing in 2022, the easiest way to get people’s attention and affinity is through content. Because of how effective content is, you can essentially build a marketing machine with just 3 channels:

• Organic social (attention)

• Newsletter (affinity)

• Podcast (affinity)

Employing all 3 creates a flywheel, where one channel feeds into the next, and so on.

You can take a read of last week’s email for a more in-depth view into how this works.

Today I want to break down how I would build them out and show you how they feed into each other.

Let’s go.

Podcast

I’m starting with the podcast because it is the highest leverage channel in the flywheel mix. And, contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t have to be the biggest time-suck.

In this case, we’re going to build a talk show-like video podcast, with at least two co-hosts. Think: Joe Rogan, without all the controversy (unless, of course, that’s what you want).

The goal for the podcast is to get people to view your hosts (and in effect, your company) as industry experts. These should be people who understand the space and can talk about it at a high level.

Why a talk show? Because interviews are boring, overused, and ironically tend to carry less value than a casual conversation.

Why at least two people? So we can feed off of each other’s energy. If one person doesn’t have a lot to talk about, the other person can take the lead - and that just might spark an interesting discussion.

Podcasts are where you build the most trust with your audience.

We all place a premium on our time. If you can get someone to commit 30-45 mins to listening to two or more people talking with each other, you’re in a really good spot.

Not only does it tell you that you have great content, but those people tend to be the most valuable customers you can have.

What to focus on:

Format: video + audio

Number of co-hosts: at least 2, no more than 4

Length: 30-45 mins

Topic: industry news + commentary

Newsletter

I’ll be honest, I’ve only subscribed to one SaaS company’s newsletter and felt like it was worth reading.

The reason I don’t care to read nearly any of them is because companies treat them like product changelogs and bulletin boards.

(I’d love to add more to the list, so if you know a company that puts out an insightful newsletter, please respond and let me know.)

I’m just not interested in product updates, every new article, and general company news flooding my inbox.

If I’m getting an email on a regular basis, I want it to provide some sort of insight that helps me perform better in a target area.

Creators, like Tommy Clark, are the best models to study for this. Maybe it’s because they don’t have anything to sell most of the time. The content is the product.

For example, here’s a snippet from Tommy’s newsletter early this week:

It’s both insightful and something readers can put into action immediately.

So that’s what we’ll do for our newsletter - scrap the company updates.

People can read your press releases and feature updates when they’re ready.

Our goal: one topic. Step-by-step guide or breakdown. No BS.

What to focus on:

Length: 600-1,200 words

Cadence: At least 2x/month, but preferably 1x/week

Topic: Niche-specific tips & tactics

Organic social

Think of organic social as the school cafeteria. It’s where everyone hangs out.

If you’re a startup, you’re like the new kid in school. People already have their crews and self-organized seating charts at the tables.

Your job is to a) figure out your general POV, b) become friends with people with similar values and c) find a way to organically join them at their table.

Now, this is a slightly tongue-in-cheek analogy but it’s how the best brands run their social accounts.

The goal isn’t to force people to agree with your POV. It’s also not to try to win people over by constantly bragging/talking about yourself.

The goal is to find people who share a similar POV and build an authentic relationship with them.

Once you do that with one person, they begin introducing you to other friends like them, and soon enough you’ve got an entire group of people who love supporting what you do just because they feel like you get them.

Morning Brew is one of the best examples of this on Twitter:

Their strategy is so genius and obvious in hindsight but it wasn’t as apparent when they first started.

Every other business news account looks like that one school kid that takes themselves too seriously. Morning Brew decided they’ll be the business news company that literally talks to you like you would talk to a friend.

Their voice, light-hearted content, and courage to share a specific POV has helped them crush Twitter. Their core audience base is one of the most engaged I’ve seen, especially for their size.

One more thing before I move on from this section.

Let’s talk about product news & updates. Is it something you should be posting? When? How??

My answer is simple: yes, do them. After all, you are still running a business and the goal is to attract new customers.

But the underlying content should still be interesting and you should focus on the big updates (measured by customer interest or impact) and product extensions rather than every small patch.

Notion publishes some of my favorite product content.

It’s the perfect mix of native, engaging content, while still showing the audience what the product/update does and why they should care.

Takeaway: Be funny. Be relatable. Build a fandom.

What to focus on:

Format: memes, sh*tposting, questions

Platforms: Twitter & LinkedIn

Number of posts: 2-4 times/day

Topic: industry commentary + product updates

Putting it all together

Alright so we know how we’re going to build the individual components of the flywheel. Now let’s talk about how they can feed each other.

There are two schools of practice here:

• Allow the channels to live mostly separate from each other, creating original content for each

• Create a continuous “ecosystem” where content from one channel bleeds into another

Both have their pros and cons. But for the sake of efficiency, I’m a fan of the second option.

Here’s how that looks:

• Look at social banter for the week for topic ideas

• Create podcast episode discussing those topics

• Note timestamps that might spark an interesting discussion on social

• Edit short clips to promote on social

• Post open-ended questions and polls on social regarding hot topics from the podcast

• Choose a single hot topic from the podcast (can be the same as above or different) and deep dive into the company’s POV

• As social media engagement increase, plug the newsletter to increase subscribers

Every channel snowballs into the next, making it much easier to get off the ground.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for today.

BEFORE YOU GO:

Can you do me a favor?

Reply to this email and let me know what B2B companies you feel are going down this track. Would love to study them!