Be Excellent to Your Content

An intro.?

A great portion of my career has been spent working in close proximity with some of the biggest names in entertainment.? To name many: will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas, Fergie, Macy Gray, Christina Aguilera, Vanessa Carlton, Mary J Blige, Keyshia Cole, Ashlee Simpson, Snow Patrol, Nicole Scherzinger, Cobra Starship, Leighton Meester, Queen Latifah, Maisy Kay; songwriters Justin Tranter, Mark Hoppus, Mikey Way, Matt Skiba, Aaron Kamin, Jordan McGraw, John Nolan, John Feldmann, Mike Green; creative executives Ron Fair, and Jimmy Iovine, and directors Marc Webb, Francis Lawrence, Paul Hunter, and Benny Boom among many others. Please excuse the name dropping, I promise you it's central to my point.

Due to this proximity, I’ve been able to witness a number of key behavioral traits and important circumstances that elevated the content that these artists created far above a field littered with content of the highest quality.? As I’m new to writing openly about my 20+ year experience in content creation, I thought I’d take some time to unpack a few of these observations over a few posts.

Be Excellent to Your Content

One of these key traits I was quite easily able to pick up on was an elevated level of excellence that bordered on perfectionism.? “Perfect” being a generally relative or subjective term, of course.??

Each creator, whether the artist behind the mic, the songwriter behind the instrument, the producer behind the console, or the director behind the lens (or one person doing it all) utilized an seemingly embedded relentless drive to create the highest quality content they could with whatever equipment they had at their disposal.? It wasn’t a conscious decision so much as an urgent and sometimes desperate need.? This need was not quelled with success, in fact with each hit, the desire to reach an equal or greater mountaintop increased.

Of course I would be negligent if I did not mention that there is absolutely a correlation between the quality of equipment used and quality of an end product, but I would also argue that this gap has been almost completely closed.? The tools available to the general public are beyond substantial to make something great if it includes the right measurements of inspiration, talent, and that same desire for excellence, making it far more about the creator than the equipment with which they use to create.? It has essentially leveled the playing field…

But I digress.??

Upon entering the B2B Marketing space, I immediately witnessed a sizable drop in quality of the content being created.? Now, I’m not coming for anyone here, or even laying down what could be considered a hot take.? SO many people I’ve spoken to in the B2B marketing space agree and have made the same or similar comments to me.? In addition, I can’t say that this drop in quality is due to a lack of passion, as the marketers and content creators I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in my small sphere all care very much about what they do.??

I also don’t think that this is a messaging problem, as plenty of companies understand their market fit, brand identity, and ICP enough to message well to their core customer.? This is a packaging problem.? Too many companies do not see the value in production; they do not understand that excellence in production is tied to entertainment value, and more importantly, it can absolutely help you earn business outcomes.? Outcomes in the form of brand awareness and affinity sure, but also in more quantitative areas like demand, leads, sales, etc.?

Now I’m not saying that there aren’t outliers.? The market is changing fast, and as each B2B company recognizes and adapts to the market shift and comes to the realization that no matter what they do primarily, they must also become a functioning media company, there is excellent content emerging from a variety of B2B companies.? But for the industry on the whole, there is still quite a ways to go before we have a B2B landscape offering consistent, broadcast quality content on a regular basis.

The Quality Gap.

So why does this quality gap exist between content in the consumer world, and the quality of content in the business world?

I believe that there are a number of factors, a great deal of which, in my short time in B2B SaaS, I have experienced firsthand.? But let’s start with one:

There is a lack of experience.

Most people who are tasked with building these media companies inside a larger entity have not been ‘in the room where it happened’.? For example, right now, there are a significant swath of content marketers who have been hard at work writing SEO directed blogs for the past however many years, now leaving meetings with their CMOs, all being given the same directive: ‘make us relevant on social’, or ‘make us some of that YouTube content we’ve been hearing about’, or simply, ‘make us a media company’.? This can seem like a Herculean task if you come from a place devoid of any production experience or background, times that by a million if it doesn’t include experience working in “Hollywood”, in new media, or in the content creation/influencer space.? This also means that while one can be developed, that drive for excellence may not be immediately innate.? The people creating at the highest level are DRIVEN to create, and they are driven to create at the highest level, if this is forced, that quality can be difficult to attain as it requires detail work and a large amount of fine tuning.

I’m not saying that firsthand experience is essential to the person placed in charge of building your media company.? I would say it’s a pretty big bonus, as there is in that experience an already developed set of skills.? However, there are content marketers that are capable of adapting and learning, and creating high quality content, but to my point, who you are taught by, matters a great deal.??

In Summation:

It’s 2022; pretty much anyone can set up a usb camera, a usb light, a usb mic and hit record, absolutely.? But there are a full degrees worth of skills associated with every single task I just named.? Of course, there are plenty of YouTube walkthroughs, webinars, seminars, and guidebooks available on how to create a quality production, but are you checking the background and/or experience of the people you’re learning from?? Are you inspired to create?? Are you driven to create?? Are you passionate about production and content creation?? If the answer to these questions is yes, I urge you to learn from the people who know, even if it is at a larger scale.? Learn from the best and experiment with how to do it for a smaller budget; it’s never been more possible.? If your answer to those questions is ‘no’, I would very very kindly urge you to get out of the way.? The train is coming, and this game must be played at a higher level.? At the end of the day, the B2B industry and its customer base are all made up of human beings, same as the consumer world, and these human beings all watch television and film, and they’re all on YouTube and TikTok, and the content they watch from the consumer world, even that reality show you hate, is all well produced.? That’s part of the reason they watch it.? If you want to continue to compete, and to capture the attention of your market, and create an impactful media company, you must raise the bar.

?To be continued….