Episode Summary
B2B has earned the reputation of being a dull space and marketers struggle to put a lot of effort into crafting creative marketing campaigns. But the trends have changed and businesses today acknowledge the power of creativity in attracting and keeping customers. Therefore, as our guest says, B2B companies differ little from B2C companies. In both spaces, it’s about the people and ensuring your marketing reaches customers on a personal level. In this episode of Recorded Content, our host Tristan Pelligrino chats with Nolan McCoy, the Head of Video and Creative Content at Chili Piper. Nolan also produces the company’s podcast, Demand Gen Chat.
Guest Profile
Name: Nolan McCoy
What he does: Nolan is the Head of Video and Creative Content at Chili Piper
Company: Chili Piper
Noteworthy: Along with Kaylee Edmondson, Nolan produces the Demand Gen Chat podcast
Key Insights
- Creating a podcast goes beyond hitting the record button. The misconception around B2B podcasts is that it all starts and ends with recording a conversation. However, that’s just half of the work. Production involves editing and creating pieces suitable for different channels and audiences, and distribution is also a critical part of the process. A lot of people get B2B podcasts wrong. They think, “Hey, if I just get on a call, I just hit record, we have this conversation, and then I throw it up on YouTube. It’s done.” And it’s like, no. You’ve done 50% of the work even though it feels like a hundred percent because you just poured your heart out on a call for an hour or whatever. It’s when you start meeting your audience where they’re at, getting it in front of eyeballs, making sure it’s ranking, and making sure that you’re releasing it on a regular cadence.
- Editing allows you to polish the episode but you want it to sound natural. Once the episode is recorded, editors focus on removing unnecessary parts to make it more appealing to the audience. Still, you don’t want to make it too perfect because you’ll make both host and guest sound like robots. That’s why Nolan tries to remove long repetitive parts while preserving the human touch that gives value to episodes. “I tried to maintain the flow of conversation so it was as conversational as possible. It didn’t feel like an interview in terms of question one, answer. I want it to have more of a fly on the wall kind of vibe.”
- The show’s quality depends on constructive feedback. Nolan is on the production side of the Demand Gen Chat podcast, which is hosted by his colleague Kaylee Edmondson. Although she didn’t have experience hosting a podcast, Kaylee decided to dive into this exciting sphere. She was open to learning and using feedback to create a show that will bring value to their audience. “Kaylee took ego out of the picture as a host and just yielded to the producer. She was like, ‘I understand that I’m the host and I’m conducting these interviews, but at the end of the day it has to be listenable for an audience and engaging and actually add value. It needs to add value to somebody’s time.'”
- I think where a lot of people get B2B podcasts wrong is with distribution.
Episode Highlights
Creativity is as important in B2B as it is in B2C space
B2B has traditionally been boring and it’s been very lacking in terms of depth, creativity, and heart. There’s just a ripe opportunity to be able to think about B2B in a more creative way because the people you’re selling to in B2B are the same people who are in B2C; we’re all human selling to humans. There shouldn’t be a difference between B2C and B2B in creativity. It’s different methods, a different language, and different ways that we talk, but visually and the way that we think about unique and new ideas, I think that’s where people get caught up like, “Well, it’s different.” And it’s not. We’re still humans.
A personal brand helps podcast hosts find guests for the show
What’s current in marketing right now is your personal brand. More and more people are waking up to the fact that you have an audience and you can engage them if you are consistent with building a presence on whatever channel makes the most sense. The more you can build that social clout, the easier it is for you to get the guests you want. It’s similar to people saying, “Hey, I started posting on LinkedIn daily. I built up all these followers and now I have recruiters DM-ing me a couple of times a week.” I think it can be the same with your podcast. And you should be able to have people going, “Hey, love that post you put out. I think it would resonate with my audience.”
It’s all about the story; the host’s job is to guide a guest through it
At the end of the day, you’re telling a story; you’re helping facilitate a storytelling session with a person who has a story to tell. And as a host, it’s your job to guide them through that story even if it is a tactical “tips and tricks” and deep dive nerd session. You’re telling a story. There was a pain point, this person solved a pain point with a system and a framework, and now there’s a solution. There’s a story arc. You had tension that you have resolved and then you have how it’s been since then and that’s a compelling episode.
Podcasts need structure
There’s an author, Erwin McManus, and he talked about creativity and said, “Creativity is chaos. Let’s say you have a square and you’ve just got all these nebulas floating around. That’s your creativity.” But when creativity becomes something cohesive, there’s a conduit for it to flow through, there are guardrails, and there’s a framework. And that’s what we’re talking about here. You have a podcast, you could do all these things. But when you put up a framework of a show structure first, it gets the fundamentals. Then you can start layering in those other elements that build and scale and add value to your production quality.
Every episode can reach a different audience if distributed adequately
Let’s say you’re hosting a B2B podcast and you want to reach different personas with one piece of content. There’s probably content within your episode that could speak to different personas. We have to go in there and cut those out. You have to think with this recycled content mindset. There’s so much you can do with that one piece. It can meet people in so many different places.
