SMEs aren't investing in high value productions and here's why...

Welcome to another episode of Inside (ED)ition! In this episode, I've been asked to give my take on why fewer and fewer companies are not leveraging on high quality productions to spread their message.

Gary Koay asked: I’m curious why businesses who are doing amazing miraculous things have so little to say or show about themselves. High quality production is lower than ever before but production in corporate sector is still depressingly low. Especially in the short, entertainin, and educational space.

And I think they could bring so much value to the world and their companies by simply sharing more. But I don’t know how to prove it or convince them.

Gary - you've really hit me where it hurts, and I'll tell you why. It pains me to hear that businesses aren't investing in quality production, even though we know it's good for them. On my end, after 8 months of hitting the market, and hearing from the ground, I've found the answer, but I've got to set the context first.

Firstly, I love visual storytelling and admire those like you, who are able to do it! There are companies that are putting out more content which tug on the heartstrings more. Those ads that can make you laugh, or make you cry.

Unfortunately, it's only a select few that embrace and associate themselves with such storytelling.

Going back to April 2023, I initially went with a Go To Market strategy of a 6-8month podcast engagement, developing a series for companies that believed in long tail marketing and communications solutions. Still green behind the ears and overly optimistic as a new business owner, I stuck to it, sharing my belief of what could be.

Oh how wrong I've been in these 8 months! I focused on my product more than I did about the problem and what businesses needed.

Opportunity in Production

In our line of work, Businesses aren't here to hear what great idea you have - they want solutions that can help them attain their business goals and vision.

Will high value production support that? Perhaps, but it needs to be angled in a way that works, that's FAST and can be proven.

One thing that's been working for me, has been to make the product more bite-sized, budget conscious and easy to pick up again as a retainer.

The challenges that I see with high value production are:

1. Short form content with exquisite production can be expensive - with tiktok and instagram, companies won't be willing to invest without a guaranteed ROI. It's too big a risk.

2. Production time - what's going to be quick and easy? If production is going to take up loads of time and involve many stakeholders, I'd like to quote from a famous meme of yesteryear - ain't nobody got time for that!

Why B2B podcasting can lead the way

This is one of the reasons why I still believe that podcasting is one of the better ways to go - it's cheap and easy to start, with low maintenance costs. Once the listener base has grown to a point where it makes sense to up the ante, then high production comes in. Unless, companies have their own internal talent that's able to do it, many won't invest unless there's already the user base that can balance out the cost of production. I honestly think that there's a gap that can be filled here, with high quality production coupled with targeted ad or content strategy that's tailored to that particular company. The prospecting will be hard, but the returns, will be massive.

Well, that's my 2 cents worth and thanks for sending this question across - I wish you more success and to everyone else, thanks for tuning in to Inside (ED)ition, with me, Edric.

If you'd like to learn more about the various ways that #podcasting can help your business, please reach out to me on LinkedIn, or write to me - [email protected]