It is uncommon {that a} B2B marketer is humorous on LinkedIn.
And never “posted a meme about ChatGPT taking up my job” humorous.
I imply genuinely, “I’d watch this content material in my free time” sort of humor.
And he or she’s bought 20K followers (and a few viral movies with 4M+ views) to show it.
Right now’s knowledgeable tells us to cease obsessing over high-performing content material, and why your purchaser persona is bingeing Promoting Sundown, too.
Heike Younger
Head of content material, social, & built-in advertising, Microsoft
Lesson 1: Your objective should not be high-performing content material. Interval.
When Younger walked right into a convention room throughout her first day at Microsoft (this will have been digital, however for the sake of the story let’s image the Mad Males workplace), she informed her workforce that her objective is not to create high-performing content material.
Her objective is to alter minds.
Each time her workforce creates a chunk of content material, she asks herself: “What can we create that is truly going to alter the hearts and minds of our viewers? And that is a heady job.”
Here is an instance that hits residence for us: At HubSpot, we have hit hundreds of thousands of views every year on one put up alone — “The High Film Quotes of All Time.”
(Yep. About as removed from a product conversion as you will get.)
However this yr we took one other have a look at that put up and mentioned, “Does it matter that it attracts hundreds of thousands of views if it has nothing to do with… nicely, HubSpot?”
So we (lastly) retired the put up. (I advised a Viking funeral, however we settled on a 301 redirect.)
That is Younger’s motto and driving motivation behind all of her work. She says, “We hope it performs nicely, however actually our objective is to create affect and to alter how folks assume and act — and for our model to develop once they do.”
There is a bonus to this lesson: Creating content material that modifications minds means writing, recording, and posting content material that’s provocative and distinctive. And that is the one sort of content material that may lower by means of the noise, anyway.
As Younger places it: “Daring POVs are just about the one content material left that resonates.”
Lesson 2: Your B2B purchaser is identical one who’s bingeing Promoting Sundown.
A few years in the past, Younger took comedy courses in LA at Upright Residents Brigade, which touts previous college students like Amy Poehler, Kate McKinnon, and Nick Kroll.
And he or she’s now bringing that comedy to her LinkedIn movies, a few of which have amassed hundreds of thousands of views.
Why?
As a result of her B2B viewers remains to be made up of individuals. And other people prefer to chuckle.
“There’s this concept that’s actually necessary to me, which is content material that strikes with the tradition. The identical one who approves the PO on your SaaS firm additionally binges Promoting Sundown or does Twitch dwell streams at night time.”
She provides, “In B2B, we have gotten into this behavior of performing like persons are so totally different. You understand, they arrive to work and placed on their work outfit and instantly their requirements for content material or leisure are totally different.”
Her comment jogged my memory of Severance: There may be the buttoned-up, skilled B2B viewers, after which there are the folks we get dinner with and watch motion pictures with and name our pals.
This synthetic separation does not simply make our advertising really feel stiff — it makes it ineffective.
Younger says, “I personally need to create content material that’s knowledgeable by the tradition at giant and strikes at that pace versus content material that feels prefer it was sealed in a time capsule from 2001.”
Lesson 3: Worker-generated content material issues now greater than ever.
Younger goes all-in on personality-led content material in 2025.
Why? As a result of, as she informed me, personality-led content material will be the core differentiator on your model: “Anyone can reply a bunch of questions. No person can clone your folks.”
(Take that, AI!)
In her present position, she’s actually centered on employee-generated content material, and empowering her workforce to create content material on behalf of Microsoft.
And he or she’s strolling the stroll, too. Which is why, a couple of yr in the past, she began posting her personal movies on LinkedIn.
She informed me, as a pacesetter, she’d been lacking the chance to create content material. To her, it was necessary to get some pores and skin within the sport. “And I additionally actually needed to wager on myself.”
Certain, it may be hella awkward to put up that first awkwardly edited iPhone video of your self and getting seven likes on it.
However you by no means know the place it could lead on.
Coming full-circle to our first lesson, Younger provides: “It is necessary to alter folks’s minds round deeper subjects, to have deeper conversations, and simply to resonate extra deeply. Floor-level, primary, one-on-one type answering questions — that is probably not the trail ahead.”
Lingering Questions
This Week’s Query
As a advertising thought chief, how do you see AI influencing strategic considering and the artistic course of in model constructing? — Lise Lozelle, senior director of communications and engagement, Greatest Buddies Worldwide
This Week’s Reply
Younger: AI is efficient as a thought accomplice. Ask it to poke holes in your technique and play satan’s advocate. Additionally ask it to search out extra analysis and knowledge factors you have not thought of. These workflows could make your authentic concepts even stronger.
All of that being mentioned, I consider human creativity is extra crucial than ever, and I like seeing human fingerprints on the content material I personally devour. As an illustration, I’ve lately been swooning over all of the tiny artistic particulars in Severance.
I consider some AI-related modifications in advertising will occur quicker than we anticipate, and others will occur extra slowly. Solely time will inform what falls into which class. So I am leaning into AI the place it is helpful for me, and never forcing it the place it does not appear useful.
Subsequent Week’s Query
Younger asks: What’s a chunk of promoting recommendation you’ll have given earlier in your profession, however you’ll not give, because of how advertising has modified?
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