The Value of High-Quality Content

This year, my LinkedIn content has generated $1.5M+ in ARR. Content is the lifeblood of B2B marketing. It basically IS marketing at this point. We tell our B2B clients all the time: no amount of clever search or display ads are going to magically manifest buyers. Today, businesses and brands make decisions based on: • Thorough, self-directed research • Credibility established over time • Word of mouth reviews + referrals • Demonstrable value, for free Now my silly little posts on LinkedIn don't check all those boxes, but they might trigger enough reach, frequency, and value for folks to get interested enough to talk to us. And when they do, that's when we hit them with a freight train of extreme value, for free. The "marketing audit" is pretty standard practice, but the reason Power is able to generate tremendous revenue with simple B2B fundamentals is because our audits are extremely thorough: • Deep customer analysis with 3PD identity matching • Modeled incrementality by marketing tactic • Customer and unit economics analysis (LTV:CAC) • Financial analysis + forecast with ROI • Competitor, ICP, + landscape analysis And all of that is before we even get into the marketing tactics, tech stack, and overall product market fit. Prospective clients are shocked at how comprehensive and strategic our audits are, something we could easily charge six figures for. But we do it for free, as part of a sales pitch, so that we can demonstrate the caliber of our work. That, in and of itself, is "content." We give that to the brand, they pass it around, they talk about it with their friends and colleagues at other brands, eventually a PE firm gets a hold of it, and they come knocking. All of that starts with a LinkedIn post or blog article, but supported by an engine designed to produce highly valuable content customized to the needs of our audience. My advice on how to scale your B2B business, especially in a services industry? • Produce a LOT of high quality content • Provide an extreme amount of value, for free • Establish yourself as an expert • Be incredibly transparent and build in public Customers and clients are getting more and more discerning. Put down your Salesforce Attribution report and start looking at the volume and quality of content you're producing instead. Search ads won't get you there (alone), but demonstrable expertise will. #b2b #contentmarketing #thoughtleadership #arr

I’m fortunate to have regular conversations with CMOs, digital leaders, and content strategists across industries. When the topic is content, the discussion almost always circles back to generative AI, along with two critical questions: “What use cases will actually impact my business” and “What will the ROI look like?” Many teams are already running pilots, generating large quantities of content at speed and scale. Yet, focusing solely on creating more content, faster and cheaper, often fails to deliver positive business results—and in some cases, it has the opposite effect. The companies we’ve seen achieve the greatest ROI from generative AI are the ones that take a less-is-more approach, putting content performance at the center of their strategy. Here are a few use cases that stand out: 1. Optimize the Content You Already Have Many organizations have content with strong SEO but limited impact on downstream business outcomes. Generative AI excels at identifying underperforming assets and optimizing them to better resonate with audiences, driving measurable actions and results. 2. Version, Atomize, and Create Derivatives of High-Performing Content Once you’ve identified your best-performing content, AI can help extend its value by creating tailored versions for different segments, personas, regions, or channels without overburdening your creative teams. 3. Focus on Fewer, Higher-Impact Pieces Instead of chasing volume, shift focus to refining and amplifying the content that truly moves the needle. This not only aligns with business goals but also maximizes ROI on your content investments. Demand for content is expected to grow 5x in the coming years. By operationalizing AI with performance as the guiding principle, content teams can deliver better results, enhance efficiency, and free up time for high-value creative work.

I recently spoke with a business leader whose company was in trouble. Revenue was down, competitors were outpacing them, and their strategy hadn’t evolved in years. The problem? - No clear differentiator. - No adaptation to modern buyer behavior. - No content that resonated with their audience. The result? They were being left behind. But here’s the truth: The right marketing and content strategy isn’t just a fix—it’s a growth engine. Here’s how: → Social listening identifies gaps your competitors miss. Most businesses guess what their audience needs. Social listening eliminates that guesswork by uncovering: - Problems your competitors aren’t solving. - Questions your audience is asking. - Trends shaping your industry. This isn’t just data—it’s insight you can build a strategy around. → Strategic content creates compounding impact. High-quality content does more than grab attention. It builds trust, educates your market, and positions your business as the solution. Done right, it: - Attracts inbound leads. - Nurtures existing relationships. - Helps close deals faster by addressing objections before they arise. → Personal branding builds trust at scale. In today’s market, people want to connect with people—not faceless brands. - A strong personal brand builds credibility for your leadership. - It creates a ripple effect, influencing buyers, talent, and even partnerships. - It positions your company as forward-thinking and trustworthy. The combination of social listening, content, and personal branding isn’t optional anymore—it’s essential for survival in today’s market. Are you adapting, or are you stuck in the past? Let’s build a strategy that works.

A CMA leader recently asked me: 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑔𝑜 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦, 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑜𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ-𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠? On one hand, quick, unpolished videos—Zoom calls, iPhone clips, UGC, man-on-the-street interviews—feel raw and real. But at 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 (𝐌𝐎𝐅𝐔), your audience isn’t just watching... They’re evaluating. And like it or not, production value is part of that evaluation. Take Patagonia’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑔𝑒. They made a beautifully shot, emotionally gripping documentary. Why? Because when their audience sees the effort behind the story, they 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 how much Patagonia cares. Now, imagine they had filmed a shaky selfie video instead. Same message, totally different impact. That said, I also have an exception that kind of proves the point I’m making. Apple’s Shot on iPhone campaign embraces the idea that user-generated content feels authentic—but with a twist. They’re not just saying “authenticity matters.” They’re saying, 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛’𝑡 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑎𝑟. That’s the key difference. If your video looks high-quality 𝑎𝑛𝑑 real, it wins on both fronts. These are obviously B2C examples, but hear me out. I think (as consumers, not B2B brands) we’re sometimes swayed by the content we see that’s directed at us. And that influence blurs the lines between our work selves and our real selves. For instance, B2C content acclimates us to the low-stakes purchase decisions we’re making all the time. But in practice, what builds trust and moves us rapidly through a product’s B2C funnel is a very different exercise in human psychology. Whereas a guy on a longboard singing about cranberry juice puts Ocean Spray firmly into the zeitgeist, that approach wouldn’t convince a CISO to upend their tech stack in favor of a new security solution. For B2B brands, this matters. A polished, well-told customer story reassures prospects that you take your customers—and your own brand—seriously. A grainy, last-minute Zoom testimonial? It might leave them wondering where else you cut corners. Trust is something you can build, but once it’s there you need to justify it in your customers’ eyes. And in B2B, where buyers are making high-stakes decisions, your videos function as proof points to the claims you’re making. So when a prospect watches your content, what does it tell them?

What is "good content"? How do you measure it? How do you know? Here's a story behind a pillar piece of content we put out at our company. BACKSTORY So Danielle (Head of Content at Exit Five) spent a bunch of time during Q1 putting together our first original research report. This didn't take an hour. This wasn't a listicle. This took hours. Maybe 20? 30? 40 hours total? No joke. The goal for the report was to make something actually worth reading. Not another weak ass eBook designed to get your emails. *Side Note* We did want emails, because unlike a B2B SaaS company we don't have MQLs. As part community part media company, emails are actually a core KPI for our business. We want to grow our list. I want to have 250,000 B2B marketers on our email list in the next year, and you can't get people on your email list without valuable content. Danielle set a high bar for the quality of this report in both the data and design. We got survey responses from over 1,000 people in our core audience (B2B marketers, not just SaaS marketers). We got the data and hired some outside help to crunch the numbers and pull out the key findings. We're not data experts so it was important to find someone who was to help us do this the right way. We spent weeks chopping this thing up and turning it into a beautiful report, plus Danielle interviewed an expert on salary negotiation to work into the report to make it even more useful. The result? 10 days after the report went live 3,096 people have downloaded the report. Awesome. It was a home run. But beyond the data there's a signal we look for to really know if the content "slaps" as they say -- and that is how many people are sharing it. This is the first thing we've done where people have proactively written about this report, featured it in their newsletter, and Danielle has even had a few inbound requests to go on podcast/webinars to share some of the findings. That's the mark of high quality content (beyond the download numbers). You can Google or ask ChatGPT to find "Exit Five Salary Report" if you want to check out and see how your comp stacks up with other marketers in the B2B space. And here's to hopefully more great original research and reports from the team at Exit Five in the future. PS. We have a little internal competition going. Danielle is a big F1 fan, and we're going to send her and her husband to an F1 race this summer if we can cross 10,000 downloads of the report. So if you have any ounce of kindness in your body in a world full of hate and coldness, you'll do the right thing and go grab this report to give them a little boost :)

High-performing content shouldn't be the goal for content teams, according to Heike Young, Head of Content at Microsoft. When I first read that quote as a content leader, I clutched my proverbial pearls. But then I understood what she meant, and it perfectly aligns with my own perspective. Instead of asking how they can win, Young asks her teams, "What can we create that's actually going to change the hearts and minds of our audience?" She adds, "Our goal is to create and influence and to change how people think and act—and for our brand to grow when they do." I would add: every piece of content should aim to make people's lives better. Not only does that give me purpose in my work, but it's the most viable long-term business strategy. That's how you attract customers, build your brand, and keep people coming back to you. People will always visit the places that provide the best information and experiences. If your content isn't seeking to improve people's lives, then your competitors will figure out how to do it and quickly outpace you. Focus on providing real value, improving people's lives, and providing the best possible UX. That's the only way to win. What do you think? Does this align with how you think about content strategy? Why or why not? #seo #contentstrategy #contentmarketing #content #social #seostrategy