Ah, the age-old debate in B2B marketing: Should your content sell or should it help? Well, why not both?
In a recent episode of the "Marketing Smarts Live" show, George B. Thomas sat down with Jammy Digital's Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach to discuss how B2B marketers can create content that not only educates but also sells.
Intrigued? Let's dive in!
The Customer's Interest: It's Not What You Think
Lyndsay Huntbach makes a compelling point: "Your customers are interested in you. They're just not interested in things like what award you've just won, or your new office plans. They are interested in your products and services and learning whether those products and services are right for them."
Action item: Reevaluate your content strategy. Are you focusing on what truly interests your customers?
The Art of Priming: Setting the Stage for the Sale
Martin Huntbach shares a golden nugget: "Success to us looks like a call with a client who is already primed, already very aware of how you operate, how you work, how much you charge, so that by the time they speak to you, they're already set to click that buy button and get started."
Mindset shift: Think of your content as a pre-sales conversation. By the time prospects reach out to you, they should already be primed to make a purchase.
How to Start: The First Steps Toward Content That Sells
So you're convinced that your content needs a revamp, but where do you start? It's all about answering your prospects' questions in your content, according to Martin and Lyndsay. That way, by the time they reach out to you, they're already informed and ready to make a decision.
Next Steps:
- Identify the most common questions your prospects have.
- Create content that answers these questions in a detailed and informative manner.
- Use that content as a part of your sales funnel to prime your prospects for the sale.
The Power of Informed Selling
The key takeaway from this enlightening conversation is clear: Your content can—and should—serve dual purposes. It should educate your prospects while priming them for the sale.
Watch the show for more on how you can do exactly that:
Make sure you don't miss any future episodes: Subscribe to the Marketing Smarts Live Show on YouTube. And to catch up on all previous episodes, check out the full playlist on YouTube.
Episode Details, Guest Information, and Referenced Links
Episode No. 51
- Live date: September 25, 2023
- Episode link: youtube.com/live/8j1wLzGZYwA
- Original podcast episode: B2B Marketers and Creating Content That Sells: Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]
Guest's social media profiles:
- Twitter: @martinhuntbach
- LinkedIn: Martin Huntbach
MarketingProfs resources referenced in the show:
- Content Marketing Operations: Five Essentials for Consistent Success
- Five Serious Content Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid
"In B2B News" article referenced in the show:
"From the #mpb2b Community" links referenced in the show:
Transcript: B2B Marketers and Creating Content That Sells: Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach
Marketers are often told to avoid "sales-y" content—to offer something helpful and customer-focused instead. But that doesn't mean avoiding talking about your service entirely, explain Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach.
"Your customers are interested in you," says Lyndsay. "They're just not interested in things like what award you've just won, or your new office plans.... They are interested in your products and services and learning whether those products and services are right for them."
And if you take the right approach, prospects will have all their questions already answered in the content, so when they come to you, they're ready to go.
"Success to us looks like a call with a client who is already primed, already very aware of how you operate, how you work, how much you charge, so that by the time they speak to you, they're already set to click that buy button and get started," says Martin.
That and more on today's Marketing Smarts Live show!
Hello to all my Marketing Smarts Live viewers today. I'm super excited to bring you EPISODE 51 of the Marketing Smarts Live show.
This week's topic is all about B2B Marketers and Creating Content That Sells.
So, if you're ready to get your learn on, buckle up, and let's get ready to rock and roll.
Hey, I'm your boy George B. Thomas, speaker, trainer, catalyst, and host of this here show, the Marketing Smarts Live show, as well as the Marketing Smarts podcast found on your favorite podcast app.
Our guest clips today are brought to you by none other than Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach.
Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach, are the owners of Jammy Digital, an award-winning SEO and content marketing agency for businesses that aren't afraid to stand out.
They do their best work with personal brands, helping them find and retain better, higher-paying clients who don't gobble up their time.
They've also published a bestselling book, Content Fortress, that protects business owners from unnecessary stress by helping them attract their dream clients.
Now, remember the clips of Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach today are pulled from the full Marketing Smarts podcast episode, and if you want to listen to the full interview with Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach and myself, make sure to tune into the Marketing Smarts podcast, link to the full show will be in the description below after the live show ends.
Now, in this episode, again, I'm talking with Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach about B2B Marketers and Creating Content That Sells.
The first question I wanted to ask Martin and Lyndsay was where to get started when creating a strategy around content marketing that leans into the sales side of the B2B marketing content.
Here's what they had to say:
Martin: The first thing that you need to do is escape what we call "SEO no-man's land," which is, let's create content for SEO reasons, let's create lots of helpful content in the hopes that Google is going to reward us for it. If Google closed down tomorrow, and you weren't able to create content that ranked on the first page of Google, how would we make sales? The thing to remember is that when you create content, and we're talking about sales content, so it might feel that the content we create is 100% this kind of content, and it's not. It's very marginal.
You might be talking one in ten pieces of content would relate to what we're talking about. But that one in ten makes all the difference. It really does. If you create 10 super valuable articles that don't directly lead to your products and services, but you create one that does, if you do it right, I'm talking about a promotion strategy, getting your email list involved, repurposing it, you can create a whole lot of content around that piece of content.
I don't want anybody to think that they have to completely change their content calendar, strategy, and processes. It's just about adding a drip of that kind of content.
Lyndsay: It's just a little nudge.
Martin: It can make a huge difference to revenue. It literally transformed our business when we did this, and we've not looked back since. We try to write one of these articles every month or two, just to explain more about what we do. When we get questions, we answer them as they come.
It's just a very simple strategy that doesn't require you to completely throw out the rule book and start a blank canvas. It's just about dripping some of this content in and communicating it with your audience. That's key. We're not just hoping that Google sends us traffic. We're creating this content and then pulling people in to consume it and getting those people over the finish line.
Lyndsay: Yes. A good place to start is whenever you make any change to your product or service, anything different, you add something, you raise your prices, you start using AI, whatever it might be, just create content around it, even if you start with something simple on social media. I bet you'll be really surprised at how many people engage with that content, especially if they're already getting content from you that's full of value. They love that and then they're like, "Okay, they're raising their prices. What's that about? I want to know more."
This content really does very well. To you, it might seem like why would anyone be interested in this, but they really are, and it's what will lead to sales. As Martin said, just keep it light. It's like a seasoning rather than a main meal. It's not something that you should be doing every week, because obviously that is going to get very annoying.
Notice what they said, you don't need to make a radical change, you just need to give your content a nudge.
No need to throw out the historical marketing content rule book.
No need to start from scratch.
If you do something new, create content around it and, then tell a little bit about you, your company, and behind the scenes.
So, want to learn more about this content seasoning?
Well get into that in a bit but, I have to ask…
Does your content only have an SEO strategy right now, or are you digging deeper? If so how?
Put the answer to that in the chat pane or let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #mpb2b and, of course, tag me using@georgebthomas.
We'll get back to Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach and his thoughts on B2B Marketers and Creating Content That Sells, But first, I have to ask...
Are you part of the MarketingProfs community? If not, become part of the MarketingProfs community by heading over to mprofs.com/mptoday - That's mprofs.com/mptoday.
Now, it's time for one of my favorite sections …
In The B2B News - Where we talk about breaking B2B news or really important tips we find on the Google news tab related to you and your B2B business. This week, the title is ...
How to Build a B2B Content Marketing Strategy that Converts by Neelam Goswami.
Content marketing plays a key role in both customer acquisition and retention.
Whether you're selling an everyday commodity or advanced business software, getting found on relevant searches is more important than ever, as everyone is looking for answers online. Influencing B2B buyers is difficult, so your B2B content marketing strategy is vital.
What should your B2B content marketing strategy look like? How do you lead hard-to-convince B2B buyers to a purchase decision? Let's find out.
To read this article, check out the link below when the live show is over.
So let's get back to Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach and his Marketing Smarts podcast episode.
How do you create content that sells? How do you create that content without putting people off because you feel like you're being salesy?
Listen to what Lyndsay and Martin have to share and the example they make sure they have and they have their clients lean into.
Lyndsay: That's a really good question. A lot of our clients come up with this when they are afraid, and you mentioned it before, of putting people off. A great article that we talk about that does actually sell really well is why you shouldn't work with us, why we're not the right fit for you. Automatically, people think I'm going to put people off. But what it does is it just increases sales in those people who are your ideal audience because they're there to essentially understand that you're just not out there to work with everyone. They know that you're choosy and selective, and they understand that they're the right fit for you. That's incredibly powerful and builds a lot of trust.
Really, the first thing with our clients is getting over this mental hurdle of I don't want to put anyone off. What they do when they create this kind of article is they're very wishy-washy with the points. For example, reasons you shouldn't work with me, and it's you don't breathe air or something like that. Be direct with this kind of article.
When we create this for us, we say, "If you want a yes man or yes woman to do exactly what you're saying, that's absolutely fine, that's not a problem, but we're just not the right fit for you. You might need to find someone else. This is maybe what sort of person you would need or what sort of industry you should look at."
Really just highlighting and going deep into who it is that you want to attract and being very clear on that. Don't be afraid of putting people off, because I promise you that you will then attract more of the right people.
Martin: It's the lurkers. You have to love the lurkers, they're always there, they're always listening, they're always watching. They just need a gentle nudge sometimes.
That kind of content will essentially list all of the reasons that you wouldn't want to work with somebody, but throughout that content you essentially highlight the reason that you don't want a yes man or yes woman is because you need some guidance, you need a strategy, luckily we've gotten all of these results and it's fantastic with rankings, that happens because we tell you what needs to happen in order to make this a success. If you don't want that, by all means, don't work with us. 90% of the people actually would look at that and think, "I understand now. Initially, this is what I thought, but now I understand what you're saying."
All of those points throughout that piece of content do a really good job of explaining what you do and why you do it. It also gives you that velvet rope policy to say that this is the dress code when working with us. I think there's nothing better than having a dress code in any organization to say some people will work and some people won't work, and that's okay, we just choose to work with people who there's the most chance that we're going to help them become successful. In order to do that, you have to be able to say this or you have to be able to do that.
It's just nice, people like consistency and formality sometimes. They might not think that they do, but everybody needs a routine. I think if you can create a little bit of a routine on attracting your clients, put some velvet ropes up, and keep things in line, because you have the path to success, we all know how clients can be successful, it's just sometimes they veer off track.
Are you creating content to attract all the eyeballs or are you creating the content that grabs the right eyeballs?
Are you creating content that lets your audience know what working with you looks like and what success looks like?
Are you creating those velvet rope opportunities?
We will get back to Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach in a few minutes but first, it's time for some...
Dope B2B Learnings From The Vault of MarketingProfs Articles
That's right, it's time to dig into the treasure trove of valuable information and pull out two pieces of gold to help you be a better B2B marketer.
Article one this week is: Content Marketing Operations: Five Essentials for Consistent Success by Mollie Kuramoto
By now, most marketers understand the massive impact content marketing can have for a business: 55% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority, according to HubSpot.
But there's more to the content puzzle than just the writing—though no one is going to read a blog or other content that is boring, dry, or otherwise bad. The ability to write great content is a necessary skill, but it's very different from managing a content marketing strategy and program.
When leading the content charge, marketers have plenty to think about: The topics to cover, the keywords to include, the frequency of publishing, and the tone of voice for content all come to mind as obvious considerations.
But one massive part of content marketing that's often not given enough attention goes beyond basic campaigns. It digs into how the content machine runs: It's about the entire content marketing operation.
Article two this week is: Five Serious Content Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid by Swati Saini
Done well, content marketing helps businesses build brand awareness, increase visibility, and generate more leads—ultimately driving sales and growth.
Yet, many businesses struggle with their content marketing.
It takes a ton of effort to create great content that provides value to audiences and delivers on your KPIs.
And although you may be focused on creating quality content, inevitably, some critical mistakes end up diminishing the impact you want to have.
To harness the full power of your B2B content marketing, here are the five biggest mistakes you need to avoid.
Want to keep learning more? If so, check the links in the description below after the live show to get access to both amazing MarketingProfs articles.
Okay, back to Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach … Let's dive back into this conversation of B2B Marketers and Creating Content That Sells
The next thing I wanted to dig into even deeper was this success word. How do we know when we make this change to content that sells, how do we know it is actually being successful for our organization?
Here is what they both wanted to share with us.
Martin: It comes from when you get to the point and you're speaking to a client, think about 12 months ago, think about some of the longer conversations you've had with clients, think about how long it has taken for you to get clients over the finish line, multiple emails, maybe two-hour phone calls, Zoom calls, or face-to-face meetings.
Lyndsay: Even getting a lot of our clients, we've been ghosted in the past.
Martin: Sending proposals.
Lyndsay: Yes. All sorts of things. They've really struggled with those kinds of things.
Martin: Success to us looks like a call with a client who is already primed, already very aware of how you operate, how you work, how much you charge, so that by the time they speak to you, they're already set to click that buy button and get started.
We love it when we speak to people on calls and we start to talk about what it is they do, and they already know everything and they're ready to sign up within 21 minutes. Which is an example that we talk about all the time, the fact that we went from two-hour Zoom calls to a 21-minute Zoom call where someone said, "I don't really know why we're speaking, because I already know everything there is to know, but I just want to ask you about the invoice."
Lyndsay: Where's the address? I was looking for that.
Martin: To find the details. You can't help but laugh. It is true, that's what success looks like, it means that you can sell to people without having to sell anything at all.
Lyndsay: It's getting over that hurdle as well, because I think we think this is the norm, especially in B2B, and especially if it's a high investment. We think we have to get people on calls, we have to do a proposal, then we have to get them onto the call, and from the point when they contact us to the point of the sale can be months, or they might just ghost us and we never hear from them again. That's kind of accepted, and it shouldn't be.
If you use content, you can actually have really enjoyable sales calls that last 15 to 20 minutes and then they just go ahead and sign up because they've already done that work without you there.
Martin: It does come back to the current process. What are the current problems in your business? What are the current bottlenecks? Is it the sales call? Is it the fact that you're attracting the wrong clients?
We thought maybe it's just us, maybe this is just relevant to us because this is how we've changed our business for the better. But we actually did a survey recently of over 500 people, and we found out that these people have the exact same issues that we had a few years ago. We're finding that most people get ghosted by clients.
Lyndsay: Yes, 84% of people experienced ghosting.
Martin: Can you believe it, 84%? They never hear back after spending hours doing a proposal. Another one was 7 out of 10 people have lost sleep due to difficult clients because they don't have a process in place, because they're not using content to protect themselves. There are just so many. All of the data that we got was quite upsetting, to be honest.
I'll send you our report so you can see it. I'm sure it's going to be pretty helpful. For us, it was just a sign that we needed to be out here talking about it more, and that's what we enjoy to do.
Are you selling to people without having to sell at all?
Are you leveraging your content to change the buyer's journey that your potential prospects, leads, and customers need to go through?
Are you in this world of getting ghosted? Are you in this world of losing sleep because of difficult clients?
And, maybe the most critical question or tip I heard…
Are you using content to protect yourself?
Can they (your potential customers) do almost all of what they need before they even talk to you? Or can they purchase without even needing to chat?
We're going to get some words of wisdom from Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach here in a few minutes but right now, it's time to turn the spotlight on you, the MarketingProfs community. Yep, time for ...
From The #MPB2B Community
We searched far and wide in the #MPB2B universe to find amazing information and conversation to bring to the masses.
So, first, make sure you are using the hashtag, and second, make sure you have fun and add value to the community.
Then, we'll spotlight you or your crew on the show. This week, it's...
Christine Gritmon: Building Your Professional Brand ?? Speaker ?? Podcaster ?? Content Creator ?? Community Builder ?? GIF Queen
Her LinkedIn post goes like this…
My guest episode of Kerry-Ann Betton Stimpson's The Internal Marketing Podcast is also a great preview of what I'll be discussing onstage in Boston in a couple of weeks for MarketingProfs #MPB2B Forum: personal branding for employees!
Check it out and let me know:
Do you have any stories of employees whose personal brand benefitted their companies?
On the flip side, do you have any cautionary tales of companies who did NOT support their employees' personal brands?
But you need to check out the description and click that link to check out the post and read, listen and learn more!
Marketing Smarts viewer, I have to ask... are you going to be next to get the spotlight?
Remember, community, use the hashtag #mpb2b on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and get the light shined on your awesomeness in the next episode or a future episode of the Marketing Smarts Live show!
Pro-tip: it won't hurt if you tag me in your post as well I'm @georgebthomas on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Okay, let's kick it back to Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach and some words of wisdom around this topic of B2B Marketers and Creating Content That Sells.
Here is what Martin and Lyndsay Huntbach wanted to leave us with ...
Lyndsay: Who is going to go first?
Martin: I'll go first.
Lyndsay: Are you going to steal mine? We have the same brain.
Martin: You go first.
Lyndsay: I'll steal yours then.
Martin: Okay.
Lyndsay: Mine is probably people don't care what you say. I've stolen yours, haven't I?
People don't care what you say, they care what you publish. Essentially, you can say anything to anyone on a Zoom call, on a phone call, in an email privately, but it's only trustworthy when it's public content out there that everyone can see. That is what is going to help you get more sales.
Sorry, I stole yours.
Martin: Don't worry about it. My advice would be, "It's your responsibility." What I mean by that is it's absolutely your responsibility if you have clients who are difficult, if you have clients that take up too much time, if you have clients that don't reply and ghost you, it is unfortunate, but it is your responsibility in order to create content to prevent that happening again. It's fool me once.
Lyndsay: You know the phrase.
They don't care what you say. They care what you publish! Boom! Thanks Lyndsay!
And Martin, DANG!
It's your responsibility to create content to create that content that protects you, protects your company, and turns the right people into the right clients that you can love! #betterclientreationships
Have you enjoyed today's journey? Let us know.
Use that hashtag #mpb2b on whatever platform you are joining us on.
