Revenue-Driving B2B Content Marketing Strategy with Andy Crestodina

Spend a minute on LinkedIn, and also you’ll come throughout scores of self-labeled content material specialists claiming to have insights into the following massive “hack.” It’s straightforward to seek out conflicting claims and recommendation — but uncommon to seek out insights which can be revolutionary, but grounded in confirmed fundamentals (versus hype).

Which is precisely why I felt so lucky to snag an hour of Andy Crestodina’s time to speak content material technique on The ChangeOver Podcast. Andy’s been immersed in digital advertising and marketing since 2001, and he actually wrote the e book on content material advertising and marketing: Content material Chemistry, now in its seventh version, needs to be foundational studying for each content material marketer.

In case you attended Experience Inbound in 2024, you actually bear in mind Andy’s keynote, by which he challenged content material creators to consider AI in phrases past effectivity and productiveness, and as a substitute acknowledge new methods to create higher, extra differentiated advertising and marketing content material that stands out and drives outcomes.

No shock, speaking store with Andy is like tapping a motherlode — so that you’re getting a two-part podcast masking a variety of top-of-mind questions and challenges content material entrepreneurs face proper now. On this article I’m sharing key insights from half considered one of our dialog.

However quite than learn my take, why not pay attention for your self, so you may hear straight from Andy as he breaks down his strategy to strategic content material allocation, the evolution of the weblog, and tips on how to create high-value content material with restricted sources.

Take a look at episode 19 of The ChangeOver now, then subscribe on Apple, YouTube, Spotify, Weidert.com, or your favourite podcast app.

Content material Technique: The Math of Useful resource Allocation

Our dialog revealed a complicated strategy to content material planning that I would characterize as strategic content material allocation — treating your restricted advertising and marketing sources as investments that needs to be deployed primarily based on proximity to income. As a content material strategist myself, this strategy calls for sturdy alignment between B2B advertising and marketing and gross sales groups.

Content material is a marathon and a whole lot of manufacturers simply don’t have the horsepower in-house to supply a gentle stream of weekly articles and movies… So I believe an excellent starting for an industrial model is to investigate who’s in your pipeline proper now — your gross sales pipeline.

Andy’s recommendation on execution is refreshingly sensible. He recommends creating content material particularly designed for prospects already in your gross sales pipeline — for instance, growing supplies that can be utilized in nurture sequences for proposals which have gone chilly. 

His strategy prioritizes the backside of the funnel, the place gross sales and advertising and marketing naturally align. This technique is inherently extra environment friendly, he defined, since you’re delivering content material on to these more than likely to take motion. By focusing your restricted sources on these high-probability conversions first, you may set up a basis of content material with clear ROI earlier than increasing to extra top-of-funnel initiatives.

Methods to implement this strategy:

1. Overview your CRM for prospects at present in your pipeline
2. Create a persona representing these precise prospects (Andy suggests sensible methods to make use of AI to assist)
3. Analyze transcripts out of your final 20 gross sales calls and establish frequent questions and objections
4. Develop content material that particularly addresses these questions/objections
5. Share the content material straight together with your viewers in gross sales follow-ups or nurture electronic mail sequences

This bottom-of-funnel focus is essential as a result of, as Andy notes, it’s the place “content material simply form of tends to be extra environment friendly anyway,” and the place you may most simply show ROI to stakeholders.

A New Running a blog Paradigm: From Calendar-Pushed to Asset-Constructing

Some of the energizing elements of our dialog was Andy’s permission to desert the relentless publishing calendar that burns out so many advertising and marketing groups.

As a substitute of viewing your weblog as a endless dedication, Andy suggests reconceptualizing it as a structured information base:

In case you don’t have the energy and funds to maintain a gentle stream going, possibly take away the dates from all of your weblog posts, take the template, and take away the dates so issues don’t look as previous as quick, and deal with evergreen content material solely. 

For the content material you do create, Andy recognized two high-value codecs that resist straightforward commoditization:

1. Authentic analysis: Andy considers this one of many highest high quality content material codecs obtainable to entrepreneurs. He recommends producing one or two substantial analysis items yearly that set up your website as the first supply for brand new statistics or insights in your trade. By creating authentic information that doesn’t exist elsewhere on the web, you develop content material that naturally attracts hyperlinks and citations from different publishers.
2. Thought management: The second format Andy advocates for is content material that takes a transparent place on trade subjects. He encourages entrepreneurs to articulate a definite standpoint, even on seemingly mundane topics related to your viewers. By drawing traces within the sand about what works and what doesn’t, you create content material that sparks conversations quite than merely offering info — one thing AI can’t authentically replicate.

These codecs are notably priceless as a result of, as Andy explains,

Authentic analysis crushes it in search as a result of it attracts hyperlinks all day from journalists; and thought management crushes it in social as a result of it begins conversations. It is a standpoint. It is a private factor. It is a human factor. And AI cannot compete with both of these.

How one can create authentic analysis on a shoestring funds:

1. Search for information you have already got: For example, Andy suggests a easy, one-point query or commentary that service groups may collect information on, similar to the rationale for a selected sort of apparatus failure. Over the course of a month or so, with a discipline service crew on the bottom gathering proof, you’ve bought a dataset to attract from. Create a content material piece with a brand new, significant trade statistic, and also you’ve created one thing priceless to your viewers — and for trade media retailers.
2. Manually monitor interactions: Andy saved a devoted pocket book at his desk for one 12 months, and when folks referred to as to speak a couple of web site redesign, he wrote down each grievance they made about their present supplier or their present web site. He ended up gathering 27 complaints about web site corporations and created highly-ranking content material that demonstrated most complaints aren’t even about web site design.
3. Analyze your CRM information: Search for patterns in consumer industries, frequent challenges, or shopping for cycles.
4. Survey your prospects: Even a easy three- to five-question survey despatched to your buyer base can yield attention-grabbing — and extremely focused — insights.

These easy, simple approaches are accessible to advertising and marketing groups of any measurement and may yield distinctive content that rises above the tide of AI-generated sameness, giving your model each credibility and visibility that generic content material merely can’t match.

Channel Technique: From Omnipresence to Strategic Presence

In case you’re feeling overwhelmed by the proliferation of content material channels, let Andy’s perspective liberate your considering:

The individuals who have tried have found that you could’t actually transfer an viewers from one channel to a different. So our job is to go to them.

However there’s no rule requiring manufacturers to be in every single place their audiences are engaged. That’s merely not a sensible expectation. However Andy goes additional, suggesting we develop our view of what we imply by channels — and preserve alternatives in thoughts like podcasts, YouTube channels, commerce publications, associations, occasions, and extra. 

He’s additionally fast to level out this isn’t new considering, essentially; quite, it’s a confirmed strategy from the world of PR, the place you discover your viewers’s most well-liked sources of knowledge, and make your messages a part of that surroundings.

For figuring out these channels, Andy recommends instruments like SparkToro (which we love, too) and shares a intelligent tip for fast concepts. Even with the free model, he suggests taking a full web page screenshot of the free report, importing the picture to ChatGPT, and chatting with the instrument about concepts for engagement within the channels it identifies.

He additionally advocates for a shift in fascinated with how we measure and consider channel efficiency — one which challenges the traffic-centric metrics entrepreneurs have clung to for too lengthy. Relatively than obsess about driving web site guests, Andy suggests reframing success round visibility and impressions.

This recognition that model consciousness has its personal impartial worth represents an evolution in how we assess channel effectiveness. Contemplate, for instance, LinkedIn newsletters, the place visibility might considerably outweigh visitors as the first profit.

How one can implement strategic channel choice:

1. Use SparkToro or the same instrument to establish the place your particular viewers spends time
2. Broaden your definition of “channels” to incorporate trade publications, podcasts, and associations
3. Choose 1–2 channels the place you may constantly create worth, quite than attempt to be in every single place
4. Contemplate investing in approaches that concentrate on visibility quite than driving visitors
5. Measure success when it comes to views and engagement, not simply click-throughs

Last Ideas: Concentrate on Worth, Not Quantity

My key takeaway from this dialog was the significance of specializing in worth over quantity. For industrial B2B entrepreneurs with restricted sources, this implies:

1. Prioritizing bottom-of-funnel content material that straight helps gross sales
2. Creating fewer however higher-quality items (leaning into analysis and thought management)
3. Being selective about channels quite than making an attempt to be omnipresent
4. Reimagining your weblog as a structured information base quite than a endless dedication

Industrial entrepreneurs don’t want extra content material; we’d like content material that issues extra. In an period the place everybody has entry to the identical AI instruments and template-driven methods, your aggressive benefit lives within the intersection of strategic restraint and deliberate funding.

It’s not about holding tempo with each pattern, however quite about putting concentrated bets on content material that straight influences income whereas rivals proceed spreading themselves skinny.

Catch the total episode for all of the insights, after which head over and register for Experience Inbound. This 12 months’s lineup guarantees an excellent day of high-caliber, actionable, no-fluff steerage for advertising and marketing and gross sales professionals. Be part of us on Could 19 at Lambeau Subject in Inexperienced Bay or Could 20 on the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee for a day of insights, recommendation, and techniques that will help you establish your individual high-value content material alternatives for 2025 and past.