When I reached out to Liz Prugh about being one of the first episodes of the 3C Podcast I was confident that it was going to be a winner.
She commented on a LinkedIn post that I created.
I did what marketers do in 2021
Decided to slide into the DM’s.
We caught up briefly before the recording. I didn’t want to talk too much because I knew there was going to be a lot to share once I hit the record button.
I was right.
There was energy.
Energy is the secret ingredient to a good episode.
Anyone who has hosted a podcast knows right away after they hit “Leave Meeting” on Zoom if they got a winner or not.
It’s a vibe and it usually transmits based on the chemistry between the host and guest.
I black out when I record episodes.
The better the episodes the less I remember.
It’s a strange dynamic and I think that anyone who has hosted at least a hundred episodes can relate to.
I remember sharing stories about the good old days at ExactTarget and how Liz used to work at P.F. Chang’s, but had no idea what nuggets we shared with the audience.
This episode was going to be used as the launch episode for the podcast and High Alpha was going to help us push it out to their audience.
I had a moment of panic because I was worried that we might have given our brand new audience more ideas on what to order from P.F. Chang’s than actual content takeaways.
I uploaded the episode to Transistor and did what I always do before I publish new podcasts.
Put in the AirPods.
Put on the Pacers stocking cap (It’s freezing in Indy right now🥶) and went for a walk in between creating, planning, publishing and all of the other priorities of a marketer in a pre-launch company.
This is a habit of mine.
This is my gut check on the episode.
When I was done with the 1.5 mile loop I was excited.
It wasn’t just the energy, but it was the substance.
Liz helped us deliver an amazing launch piece of 3C to our audience because she didn’t sound like other B2B marketers.
That was a really good thing.
Here are some thoughts and takeaways that I learned from Liz that I think you should be thinking about as you approach your audience this year.
- Have a deep understanding of your audience and where they hang out
Base is a platform that is built for administrative assistants. We have all worked around AA’s at our companies and understand that there is a high volume of activity that dominates their day to day. These are busy people with a ton of responsibilities and Liz is mindful of that in her marketing efforts.
When I spoke to Liz she knew that if her audience did get a break in the action they were turning to Facebook. This was the platform where groups existed that Base’s audience went to learn.
So Liz did what any smart marketer would do. Focus on community building and add value in a place where they already hang out.
Enter the Creation of Base Assistant Community: Daily Tips for Assistant Facebook Group.
This is a group where assistants can go to learn from others, get advice, and share with other people in roles just like them. It’s growing with over 2,500+ members.
There has been a tremendous shift in B2B marketing from audience to community.
We all want to build an audience as marketers, but the rubber meets the road when you are able to bring these members together around common interests.
This is how you build a brand in 2021 and Base is ahead of the game.
- Drop antiquated B2B tactics for B2C megatrends
A big part of what I enjoyed about the conversation when listening back was the fact that Liz wasn’t thinking about marketing like we did back in 2012.
There was no discussion about polluting blog posts with keywords to try to manipulate the internet and readers for ranking.
Actually, she questioned if she should even be doing a blog!
Liz’s focus was on providing value to her community by capitalizing on live streaming.
Most people think about Instagram Live, YouTube, or Twitch from a B2C perspective when the word live streaming comes up.
Liz is mindful of that and has decided to point these B2C concepts to B2B marketing and it’s working.
Base hosts weekly streams where they bring in a thought leader in the space to discuss topics relevant to their community.
Think about delivering value in these streams compared to traditional B2B marketing.
No forms.
No hoops to jump through.
No annoying, out of touch follow up.
Base has created a platform that provides frictionless value to their community.
This example is a reminder that we should all be digging deep and thinking outside of the box when providing value back to your audience.
Don’t overthink it.
Testing B2C concepts is acceptable and has a high likelihood of working.
Think about the form experience they are used to receiving from B2B companies.
- Be real with your content
Liz and I didn’t talk about this on the episode.
I decided to do an audit and check out everything that Base was doing and came across their YouTube page.
I was blown away by the volume of conversations that existed between Liz and her audience on their channel.
This is a great reminder that to truly be in the game you need to have conversations with your audience.
If you can turn those conversations into content for your audience then you will help level up your brand building in a big way.
Would you rather pour through a well designed, dense e-book when doing research on an industry topic or watch a couple people have a conversation about it?
Putting yourself in the shoes of the content consumer offers great perspective.
Follow the places your audience hangs out or goes for entertainment.
These are good places to provide value and Liz is doing just that.
I’m really excited to bring more conversations like this one to you on the 3C Podcast. We are working hard to create an enemy of B2B tactics that put obstacles in the way of the consumer.
It’s time to be real. It’s time to destroy the status quo. I’ve got a bench of incredible marketers on deck.
Can’t wait to share their stories with you soon.💯
If you enjoy what we are doing we’d love for you to do a couple things:
