Episode Summary
Many podcast hosts are content creators and marketers which is good because they have experience with creating and distributing a message But many of them may not have in-depth knowledge about the product they sell or the industry they operate in especially in the B2B space
For marketers who arent experts in the technology their company sells its important for them to include a subject-matter expert within their content production process And thats why a podcast comes in very handy Experts capture the voice of your customers and share details to help the audience get the most value from a podcast
In this episode of Recorded Content our host Tristan Pelligrino welcomes Adam McQueen the Content Marketing Manager at Klue
Adam shares what it was like transitioning from journalism to content marketing how he came up with the idea of starting a podcast the challenges he faced and the lessons he learned along the way
Guest Profile
Name: Adam McQueen
What he does: Content Marketing Manager at Klue
Company: Klue
Noteworthy: Before becoming a content marketer Adam was a sports journalist
Key Insights
- The key to success for companies such as Klue lies in collaboration between the product team and sales While the product team works on product building and creating a message for the target audience sales provide insights from the field Thats why these two teams need to collaborate to ensure that the company reaches its aims Thats the key Klue is trying to unlock that partnership even more to bring product marketing closer to the revenue engine The best product marketers I talked to work in lockstep with the sales team They Sales are sharing messaging with them on competitors sales and giving them information based on what they hear on calls and what theyre hearing about competitors And its just this virtuous cycle of feedback loop
- Educate rather than sell Adam created the podcast to bring competition enablement closer to their audience His primary objective was to educate the listeners and so he knew he needed a subject-matter expert to provide value I couldnt be the expert and feel confident about writing and creating content whatever that content would be with an authoritative voice And thats what we needed to do when creating competitive enablement Its a space where you need to educate your buyer You need to educate them a ton And I didnt feel confident doing that So I needed to figure out a way to get the voice of the expert in
- Producing a podcast is more than recording an interview The misconception around podcasts is that it all starts and ends with an interview Although the conversation is the fundamental part the success of an episode depends on its post-production Theres a lot more to it than just recording an interview and chucking it out there Theres a lot that goes into distribution Theres a lot that goes into post-production editing Theres a lot that goes into thinking through the clips or the hooks that are of interest to your audience
- Im having these great interviews why dont I just broadcast them Adam McQueen Content Marketing Manager Klue
Episode Highlights
KLUES TARGET AUDIENCE
Its product marketers Theyre in charge of competitive enablement at their organizations So the product marketers obviously wear a lot of different hats messaging helping with sales enablement sales collateral monitoring what competitors are doing and enabling their reps product teams and executive team to beat the competition
At the enterprise level therell be companies that have dedicated competitive teams and its not the same as a product marketer Theyll have more robust teams with more than one person dedicated to competitive research
CONTENT IS MORE THAN WRITING A BLOG
Im an avid podcast listener whether its sports news culture or something related to my workspace I love being able to listen to content I love the audio element There are tons of different ways to create this So I started to think that Im having these great interviews with people Why dont I just broadcast them Why dont I show them
Then I started to build out a business case for the podcast itself to make it one of our distribution channels one of the pillars of our content It can be the thing thats posted on social media It becomes the fuel and engine that drives all the other pieces of content
BEGINNER MISTAKES
I was trying to read off of a script too much I was taking the air out of the conversation sometimes I was just more nervous It takes a while to feel comfortable on the mic in conversations because it can be daunting to begin with even though theres no live audience in front of you
Plus I said um but and like 7200 times And after going back and editing I realized that I need to stop this to be able to do the rest of my job because my whole day is cutting out ums and buts
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY FEEDBACK VS DOWNLOADS
The metric to care about is downloads And I say Okay a couple hundred here a hundred there maybe this one didnt land as much But then what I started to realize was the importance of qualitative feedback internally and externally
I almost value that more than just straight download numbers Now I can look at download numbers I can see just topics that hit the people who want to listen to them Listening times will help me understand what resonated But I started to get over that hurdle when I started to get initial qualitative feedback like Oh there are humans out there that are listening to this and enjoying this
PEOPLE LOVE REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES
People like stories I like to set people up ahead of time now and say Id love some examples on this but Ill try and pull real examples out of people because the stories are more memorable Those real stories are way more human people will remember them more and the guests will start to open up and youll get to hear their real voice
RUNNING A PODCAST HELPS YOU BUILD PERSPECTIVE
I always refer to the expert I have not run competitive enablement at another company so I dont have that first-person lived experience But Ive also talked in great depth with so many different product marketers competing for leads about the pains they face and the experiences theyve had
Its what we live and breathe at our company The cool thing is that Im building my perspective Im building a point of view and that helps add another texture or layer to a podcast conversation right now instead of just teeing up questions for my guest
My marketing director was like I want you to start building your perspective Dont feel that because youre in content and marketing you cant have a perspective I love what youve done So hand over the mic a ton but its also time to start building your thoughts on the space
