B2B is a bit of a misnomer since all marketing is people marketing to people. B2B buying teams are individuals with personal interests, goals, and needs who are also looking for business value to move their companies forward. The best B2B marketing is a blend of personal engagement and education, brand-building and demand generation. In today’s episode, I’m talking with Camille Trent, who is Head of Content at Dooly, a connected workspace for revenue teams. Dooly does an amazing job of bringing B2C tactics to B2B marketing, and Camille has plenty of insights for SaaS marketers looking to bring a bit of fun to their campaigns.
Mentioned in the show:
✨ Camille’s podcast: Content Logistics
✨ Check out Dooly
✨ Connect with Camille on LinkedIn
Key Takeaways
(3:52) Whether you are marketing B2B or B2C, you are marketing to people.
Our VP of Marketing has said before that he is a B2C marketer in a B2B world, using those same tactics and strategies of marketing to people. And not thinking about it as B2B or B2C, but thinking about it as person to person — relationship to relationship.
(5:51) To stand out among B2B companies, create a culture and a community with your brand.
Centering the marketing around community, I think, is something that B2C does better. But you don’t have to be a lifestyle brand to have copy or marketing with a pulse, to have marketing with life. You can be a B2B brand and do that. But it’s a very underused tactic.
(8:55) Look for simple, out-of-the-box ways to stand out from the crowd, even if they sound a little silly.
We had won a few G2 badges and awards, and what people typically do is they’ll post about it on social. And everybody tends to do it around the same week, because the report comes out a certain week. And we all rally around like these G2 badges, but they’re boring to most people. And so it was like, how do we make that fun?
(14:52) Don’t be afraid to make cuts. If you cut something you think is an important piece of the project, you can always use it for content somewhere else.
We cut part of the video, and it ended up being a lot tighter. And then we could use the cut part for bonus footage. In the end, we had like a week’s worth of content, so we were sharing different assets on different days. We shared the video first to launch it off, and so everyone understood the campaign and the theme. And then we also, later on in the week, shared those covers, and different people shared it on different days. And so it allowed it to have a really long shelf life.
(18:32) Successful, creative collaboration comes from a combination of hiring the right kinds of people, actively asking for and documenting ideas, setting a creative tone for the brand, and being open to inspiration coming from anywhere.
Having people that are eager to do creative work, and can come up with ideas on the fly, having those people in the meetings is really helpful. But also make sure that you ask everyone in the room, too, because there are other people that maybe aren’t as loud on social, or just as loud in general. And then lead by example in terms of creativity to say, here are some things we’ve done in the past; it’s okay for us to go there. But also set some guardrails of, we don’t want to talk about these things, or we don’t want to talk about our product in this way. And then just be open to inspiration coming from anywhere. It could even just be a misspeak. Have the mindset of, everything is content. Everything is copywriting.
(21:42) Having many different pieces surrounding one main piece of content is a great way to involve as many people in the team as possible, especially if they are encouraged to voluntarily share the content on their own social platforms.
What works well in general is having the main asset be a short video that works well on social, and then support it with more static images and user-generated content. So for instance, we put together this asset library, where it’s all in a document and linked out so we could download all the assets. We even had inspiration copy to use or iterate on. So it outlined all those things to make it as simple as possible to get engagement from within the company, but also didn’t make it mandatory.
(29:10) To determine where and how to market your products, start with how and where you buy products. Then think about where your audience will go when looking to buy products like yours.
Start by thinking about how you buy. And you can even think specifically in terms of B2B products: how did I purchase the last B2B or marketing product that I bought? And how did I originally hear about that company? And a lot of it is word-of-mouth, too. Because a lot of those conversations happen in communities or on social. And so, knowing that that’s where those conversations are happening, that’s probably where you should also be. So go back to how you buy, but then look more specifically at how and where your audience buys. And then, just be there.
(33:18) Find a balance between educational and entertaining content.
You can still be informational and entertaining at the same time. This is a hard balance, because I do think that educational content works really well in B2B. A lot of what we talked about was more of the fun campaigns and maybe a little bit less educational on the product side, but complementing that content with educational content is the sweet spot. So make sure that you do both.
Transcript
(Laura 1:40) Alright, thanks so much for coming on, Camille! I’ve seen the campaigns that we’re going to be talking about today, and they’re just super fun and interesting. So I cannot wait to hear the insights that you have to share!
(Camille 2:00) Yeah, happy to be here! Thanks for inviting me, Laura.
(Laura) Awesome. So I always like to start with a little bit of background. So could you start by just sharing a little bit about Dooly, and tell us about your role there?
(Camille 2:12) Yeah, so I’ve been here for just about four months now, and joined as Head of Content. Previous to that, I was Managing Editor at MarketerHire, and started out my career in copywriting. So, always kind of stayed in the content part of marketing, I guess you could say. Well, the storytelling part of marketing. So that’s my background. And then Dooly itself is a little bit different for me in that I had sort of broken into SaaS specifically with my job before that, but it was more of a marketplace with kind of like a tech layer onto it. But yeah, more of a marketplace, and then it was placing freelancers.
And so moving into this, like, it’s true SaaS, and it’s for a different audience: for the sales community, for the revenue teams. And before I was marketing to marketers. So that’s been sort of the biggest shift for me is most of a lot of marketing is just knowing your audience deeply. And that takes time. So in that way, starting from ground zero in learning the audience and understanding sales better. So I had exposure to that. And obviously there’s overlap with marketing that work together, but still, like a very different audience with different needs.
(Laura 3:27) Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s interesting, because it sounds like you really hit the ground running. You guys have accomplished a lot, you know, even in the few months that you’ve been there, so, very cool. So I’m curious, you know, we’re talking about B2C tactics today: bringing B2C to B2B. I’m really curious how the idea of bringing B2C tactics into Dooly’s marketing strategy really came about in the first place.
(Camille 3:52) Yeah, so our VP of Marketing — shout out to him, Mark Young — he, I think, like, set the tone and like sort of created a movement from the beginning as Marketer #1. And so he’s said before that he is a B2C marketer in like a B2B world — and I think that’s true — and has kind of like set out to prove that, you know, those same tactics and strategies of marketing to people, you know? And not thinking about it as B2B or B2C, but thinking about it as, like, person to person, right? Relationship to relationship. But he’s been really big on that, and you can see that in some of the early strategies.
So to give people kind of an overview: again, we’re a solution for revenue teams, right? And specifically, we provide a lot of benefit to SaaS revenue teams. So it feels very B2B. It helps with productivity. It helps with moving deals forward, helps with process — like, a lot of B2B-type things that we solve for. But some of the early marketing plays were Fire Talks. So if you’ve ever seen Hot Ones, it’s kind of like a similar setup, where it’s inviting, you know, the best salespeople around onto the show to eat wings and ask them hard questions, right? Literally have them, like, on the hot seat. So having that sort of, like, a play for B2B isn’t usual, I would say, but it was very effective. And that, just commentary from him, I know some of the top influencers reached out and were like, hey, I’d love to be on the show. You know what I mean? At a certain point, people are reaching out wanting to be on the show, rather than like having to do that outreach. Which was super impressive, being that they were at, you know, seed round in those days — like a very small early-stage startup — and to kind of have that brand exposure.
So that, I think, like set the tone for the brand quite a bit. People started knowing us because of that show. And again, this is all not taking credit for — this was all before my time. So there was that, and then there’s like the fact that the internal branding, I think, was super good in that they set kind of a tone and a culture around like the “Dooligans,” right? So the company is Dooly; everyone who works at the company is a Dooligan; everyone who uses the product is a Dooligan. So really centering the marketing around community, I think, is something that B2C does better, right? Like you think of like the — we’re just talking on a zoom call for a company meeting about Patagonia and, like, how good of a job that they’ve done with, you know, having like a cause, having just like momentum and like culture around their brand. You see that more with lifestyle brands, right? But yeah, something I’ve said before is, like, you don’t have to be a lifestyle brand to have copy or have marketing like with a pulse, right? Like, to have marketing with life. Like, you don’t have to be a lifestyle brand to do that. You can be a B2B brand. And so like a very underused tactic.
So those are a few off the top of my head. I just remember seeing them a lot on social. They kind of felt like, you know, Drift and Gong feel as well. They do social pretty well. So going all-in on social like that I think is also a more B2C play, but that B2B has a lot to benefit from. So that was like the early setting-the-stage of a B2C culture for a B2B brand.
(Laura 7:11) That’s so interesting. And like you say, you know, B2B really is people to people. You know, people are always going to have, you know, their personal interests in addition to their business interests or needs. And being able to, you know, tap into that, I think is so effective. And it’s like, you know, you mentioned a couple of B2B companies that are really good — SaaS companies — but it’s so rare. I mean, you know, so often it’s just like this super boring, you know? So I think it helps differentiate as well as build that emotional connection, that community. So yeah, that’s very cool.
(Camille 7:48) Yeah, just what you made me think of there was: Dave Gerhardt I think put it pretty well. The other day, I saw him have a tweet or a post or quote — one of those things — that basically said, you know, B2C is people marketing to people. And then B2B is, yeah, people marketing to people that work at a company. Like when it comes down to it, you’re like, oh yeah, that really is the only difference, is that with B2C, you don’t necessarily know that that person works at a company. Or works at a corporate-y company. But that really is the only difference. So when you boil it down, then you can get more creative.
(Laura 8:27) Yeah, and it really helps just kind of simplify as well. Because you know, everybody, like I said, is trying to solve for business problems. But when you think about it on a person-to-person basis, it really just strips away all the extraneous stuff and gets down to what really matters.
(Camille 8:44) Yeah, absolutely.
(Laura) So you guys did a really unique campaign to promote your G2 award when it was announced. I would love for you to tell us about that campaign!
(Camille 8:55) Yeah, absolutely. So I love this one, just because it was like one of the first projects that I got to work on when we came on board. And because I just think it’s a perfect example of, you know, team marketing and team collaboration, like coming together to create something pretty cool. So basically what happened was, we had won a few G2 badges and awards, and by a few I mean, like, 36. And so we wanted the market to know that. And, you know, what people typically do is they’ll post about it on social. They’ll have like an image of the badge. I’ve also seen like the carousels, where you can scroll through to the different types of badges. And it’s just, it’s nice, but it’s like a celebratory, like, “look what we’ve done” kind of a thing. And everybody tends to do it around the same week, because the report comes out, you know, comes out a certain week. And so you have like this push.
And so a couple things that we did purposefully and a couple things that we didn’t do purposely that worked out in our favor were: one, that, I think Mark does a great job of sort of running the team an agency, almost — it feels kind of more of like an ad agency environment than a SaaS company, so a lot of it is like around campaigns and sprints — and so for this it was like, hey, like, we want we want a campaign like around this news. And so we had like an initial meeting about like, let’s start thinking about themes and what we want the rallying cry to be around this news. And then, I remember he was out for a few days. I think he was moving. And so I set up like a second meeting to kind of talk and nail down exactly what we wanted the theme to be, so we could move forward.
But in that initial meeting with Mark, I had accidentally said GQ instead of G2. And so we were all kind of laughing about that, of like, yeah, wouldn’t it be cool if we got GQ, or whatever. And then we’re like, wait, maybe that’s it? Like, maybe there’s something really there. Like it’s so simple. And just in my agency days, in my like advertising days, that was usually when you knew that an idea had some legs or it had some potential was if it’s like super simple and kind of stupid. Like not always those things, but if it’s like, you can explain it in a sentence and — yeah, and it almost like feels dumb because it’s so simple. And so we felt like this was that. And then we were like, okay, what if we tell people, “Hey, we made GQ,” like, “We made the cover of GQ.” And then go, “Oh no, just in: it was actually G2.” Kind of like poking fun of B2B in general, right? Of like saying, we all rally around like these G2 badges. And they’re great and stuff, but they’re boring to most people. You know, most people are not going to sit there and like scroll through all of the badges that you’ve won, read all of them, soak it up. And so it was like, how do we make that fun?
So anyways, that was the concept. It was all just kind of like joking about that. And then, in the next meeting… I think in the meeting invite I had said, “GQ?” “G6?” Was like the title of it. And then all of those concepts kind of ended up coming together under one. So Ding, who’s our evangelist and creator and just like a fantastic past salesperson and now marketer — so like a really good fit for our business — he just ran with the G6 idea. So if you’ve heard that song “Like a G6,” he turned that into “Like a G2.” So we kind of had that as our…
(Laura 12:20) That is awesome!
(Camille) Yeah, we had like the perfect soundtrack for the idea, right? And so he just created that like in a matter of a few hours so we could all kind of see the vision. And so it was like, okay, that’ll be the backdrop. And then Zoe, who’s our Partnerships Manager, had the idea — because we talked about doing like a Zoom video of us all meeting and then someone mis-hearing right? And then saying like, “No, it was actually G2.” And so she kind of like created the script for that, of just a basic, you know, 20-second Zoom meeting where like two people come dressed up like for a GQ shoot, only to find out that we actually just got G2 badges.
So we had that idea. We had like another idea of Ding and then Ryan, who’s one of our AEs, like actually getting ready. So like a montage of them getting ready for their GQ shoot, and then that leading up to the Zoom call where they find out. So we had all these pieces going. And then another thing that was thrown out too was actually using or photoshopping a GQ kind of cover of a magazine, but having it be G2 instead. So kind of having like our own version of a GQ cover, and then having anyone that wanted to participate being like photoshopped in. So everyone had their own cover, their own asset, basically, that they could share on social. And that ended up being hugely important. So that one’s a big shout out to Sam, because she made one for everyone. Like at first, we were like, oh, maybe we’ll just have a few of them. And it was really helpful that she created one for everyone that wanted to be involved, because we had like massive reach, which I can talk to more later. And she also like edited the whole video. We pulled out some quotes from G2 specifically. Like we wanted to make sure that the product wasn’t lost or that the story like of those G2 badges, and like just the reviewer love, like that that wasn’t totally lost. We did have quotes from happy customers like throughout the video as well.
But yeah, so then it was a matter of, like, we had these pieces, and then it was just putting them all together. So everyone was kind of like working on a different piece of it. And the part that was more accidental, but that ended up being helpful, was everyone had already done their kind of like G2 pushes, like as we were working on this, and so ours ended up being like a week or two late. But because of that, there wasn’t other noise or like distractions from the campaign. It was just kind of like we ended up kind of owning the G2 report, or like the conversation around G2 during that time, and actually have a lot of G2 AEs and people — representatives — like reaching out to us and being like, this is like the coolest thing that we’ve seen.
(Laura 14:52) Oh really? Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah.
(Camille) Yeah, so that’s like an overview of the campaign and getting everything together. But it was just like figuring out what are those pieces to fit the different things that we want to do. So the last piece was having kind of a contest of like, hey, by the way, if you sign up for Dooly, you’ll be entered to win like a subscription — a GQ subscription — and then also, you know, a Dooly box and whatever else. So we had kind of like an incentive to also sign up. And then also, you know, just being a leader in a few different sales tech spaces is also a little bit of an incentive, but we wanted to make sure that we still had a call to action and didn’t lose out there. And lastly, just a blog. So we still had more of like an informational place that we can send people about, like, what does this mean? What categories did you own? And so having that blog has been helpful, because I’ve seen that we’ve been able to rank for G2 sales. And so, you know, coming up for something like that. And having some more, I would say, less playful options for people to share, too. So we did still have a slider, like with those badges. That kind of helped us cover all of our bases. And yeah, so that’s the campaign in a nutshell.
And then the last thing that I’ll talk about, too, with it was we didn’t plan for it to be later than everyone else for a specific reason, just that it took a little bit of time to get all that together. And then also Mark coming back and we wanted to get his approval on it as well. And we’re like a few weeks in at this point, and we’re all working hard to get this together. But one thing that ended up happening was we had this Zoom call version of the video, and then we also had like this version of Ding and Ryan getting ready that was kind of the intro to that video. So it ended up being a little bit long. So his take on that was like, “What if we just cut this and we go like straight to the Zoom video?” And we’re like, “Yeah, I guess we could do that.” So my thing for that was like, oh, and then we also have sort of behind the stage, or like backstage kind of footage that just ends up being like extra content. And so the lesson there, I think, is that one, don’t be afraid to — I hate the word, like, “killing your babies,” because that’s something that’s like — but don’t be afraid to make cuts, you know? Like, even if it’s something that you’re like, oh, this was the main thing. Like with the campaign, like a couple weeks ago, and now things have changed. And so we cut that, and it ended up being better, because it was just like a quick Zoom call, and then it cut right to the “Like a G2” music. And then you have the reviews playing. So ended up being just a lot tighter. And then we also just had like bonus footage. So, again, like if you cut something, just know that it can still be content somewhere else, right? And so that was something that, like, made sense for Ryan and Ding to share, since they were both in it, after the fact, right? So we’d like launched kind of like all of our major content. We had them kind of launch those things separately.
And yeah, and that was kind of like the whole campaign in a nutshell. I would say for about — we had like a week’s worth of content, too, so we were sharing different assets on different days. We shared the video kind of first to launch it off, and so everyone understood like the campaign and the theme. And then we also, later on in the week, shared those GQ covers, and different people shared it on different days. And so it allowed it to have kind of a really long shelf life.
(Laura 18:05) Awesome. Yeah, and that’s a great example, too, of, you know, blending and balancing the business highlights along with the fun and engagement. So I’m curious, you know, you mentioned that brainstorming session. I’m really curious on, you know, what exactly does that look like? How do you encourage people to, you know, put out those crazy ideas and, you know, kind of bounce ideas off of one another? How do you get that collaboration going?
(Camille 18:32) Yeah, that’s a really good question. So I’ve been asked it before, and I would say the number one thing that it starts with is just hiring the right people, or at least the right people for that kind of strategy. So for instance, like I mentioned, Ding and Ryan and Zoey — like all of those people were creating like their own personal content on LinkedIn, and would do that even if they weren’t at this company, right? And so knowing like, you know, people that are eager to do creative work like that, and can come up with ideas on the fly, like, having those people in the meetings, and then the conversations, I think is really helpful. But also like making sure that you ask like everyone in the room, too, because there are other people that maybe aren’t as loud on social, or just as loud in general. And just making sure that in those meetings, you’re like, “Hey, did you have any ideas?” Like, at the meeting, expecting everybody to go out and brainstorm. But when they come to the meeting, like kind of just going down the line and asking people about their ideas, and documenting them kind of as you go. So we have like, all of them kind of in the pool that we can pull from. And usually we’re all kind of leaning toward one or two. But that’s kind of like the basics. It’s just yeah, hiring kind of the right people or people that are comfortable creating.
And then, the thing that I didn’t mention as much, but I mentioned earlier in this call is, again, like Mark — kind of Mark and then even like Ding — setting kind of the tone for the brand of like, oh, we can do like these music videos. Like that’s an option, you know? We can do like Fire Talks, or something like that. So knowing that when they said like, “Sky’s the limit,” like, sky was actually the limit. And so that’s just kind of like a leading by example of like, there’s just some things that we’ve done in the past. Like, we’re okay to go there. But also setting kind of some guardrails of like, we don’t want to talk about these things, right? Or like we don’t want to talk about our product in this way.
And so yeah, so that’s why I think it’s leading by example in terms of like creativity, of like, what you can accomplish and what’s good — like what we’re defining as good. And then, yeah, but then also having some like, but we don’t want to do X Y and Z. Like we don’t want to maybe push it this far, or talk about our product in this way. So yeah, so that’s what I would say. I know, for this one, it was helpful to just say, hey, this is coming. Like if you know a campaign is coming in a few weeks, like, it’s helpful to say that in advance of like, we really want to do something for this, so just start getting like the cogs turning, and then people just have time to simmer on it. So that was helpful. And then, yeah, I think just saying, like, Hey, you know, expect to bring ideas to this meeting. And then people will come more prepared. But yeah, and then just, I think also, just being open to inspiration coming from anywhere, right? It could just be like a misspeak. And just having the mindset of, like, everything is content. Everything is copywriting.
(Laura 21:20) Yeah. Yeah, that’s super helpful. Awesome. So now I would like to talk about your giveaway for Saastr, which is super cool. And a strategy that you just don’t — again, you don’t see it in B2B. So it was really interesting to me. So tell us about that one, and also why you think it was so successful.
(Camille 21:42) Yeah, so this all again like following this trend of, like, B2C marketing working in B2B. So we have a relationship with The Chainsmokers in that they are investors in our company, right? And so it kind of started as that, of like, that’s kind of a cool fun fact. But how do we make it, one, known, and then two, more than a fun fact? And they wanted to work together on some sort of a project, and so what we kind of landed on — and again, like most of this was before my time. Like I’m not, I’m not talking directly to The Chainsmokers. I should clarify. But they wanted to do something for us. And so we sort of landed on a giveaway, like a VIP backstage in Vegas concert. And so they are like residents in Vegas, and so logistically that works out well. And so, yeah, so we’re like okay, we have this kind of really cool grand prize. Let’s build a contest around it, and then also align it with Saastr because we’re doing Saastr, and we can have both of these things work together. It’s kind of a good launching pad for both our new brand, like this contest, talking to people in person, like having there be advertisements at the booth.
So yeah, so then we kind of like set to work creating the actual Saastr booth that we had there like around The Chainsmokers — or around this kind of like collaboration — rather than around us, and have it be like a big sort of activation play around basically kind of like a referral giveaway kind of a campaign. And so we launched there, but then in tandem we also had social play going as well. So kind of going back to the G2 campaign, but on kind of a larger scale of getting the assets together. And again, shout out to Mark and our designers in that we just had a lot of like assets to put together, and he’s really talented on that side, on like the video on the creative vision kind of a side, and so we had a bunch of different assets like put together. Kyle, our Lifecycle Marketing Manager, and who does a lot of copywriting, has a background in like script writing, wrote a script for The Chainsmokers to actually explain the contest, like explain the giveaway. And so they filmed that; we chopped it up, put a lot of after effects, and just like made it look really top tier in terms of production, even though it was just a Zoom call, right? Or it was actually, I think they — an iPhone video is what it ended up being. First planned as a Zoom call, and ended up being an iPhone video. So we were working with that, but made it like really high production, and had that be kind of like the main, like, pillar content. And then created like some other little assets to support it.
And so we found that what works well in general is just having like the main asset be a short video that works well on social, that’s sized for social, it’s like a square. And then support it with more static images and user-generated kind of content. So for instance, like we started using some of the actual images from Saastr as they were happening. So like, as I was getting them, like posting them on social. And then also having like, you know, people from the company who were naturally posting those things, too. And so we had this kind of asset library, it’s all in a document, and it’s all like linked out so you can download all the assets. And so we put together several of these kind of — what are we calling them? — yeah, Asset Library documents, where you can find all the assets to share. Like, there’s even some inspiration copy, right, that you can go off for the posts, of, you know, here’s how the contest works, and like, here’s how you can win. So it kind of outlined all those things to just make it as simple as possible to get engagement from within the company, but also didn’t make it mandatory. So it’s like, hey, we have all these assets. They’re well organized. We have, like, sample copy that you can use or iterate on. And if you want to be involved, you can share it on social like anytime this week. So, yeah. So having it be fairly organized that way, and having different options, kind of like every day, to go along with different parts of the campaign. So when we’re in Saastr, having it be more around, you know, going to the booth and the fact that we were at Saastr and all the things that were happening there. And then post-Saastr, having it just be more about the actual contest and how you can enter and it being more on like the digital side of things.
And so, yeah. So that’s kind of the whole thing in a nutshell. But we essentially had this opportunity to work with The Chainsmokers and to have that be like the grand prize, and then landed on a referral campaign. So basically, signing up for Dooly also made it easy to sign up for free. Because I used to have to sign in through Salesforce. But we knew that some people might not have Salesforce, but they might, you know, have friends where this product was a better fit for them. And so we wanted to open it up to become more of like a viral campaign, so that you could sign up for free, and you could share with the people that were maybe even better fits for the product that worked in a sales company that had Salesforce, and so rewarded them. We had a low tier where it’s just you sign up, and then you invite two friends, and then you have an entry and you also win other stuff, too. So, you know, $20 Uber Eats card and some, like, Dooly hot sauce. So we had kind of like our branded things in there, but then also some tech prizes in there as well, and then entries like as you go up. And then, the higher you go up, each tier has, like, significantly more entries to make it more attractive to sort of keep climbing those tiers. There’ll be better prizes, and also significantly more entries.
So yeah, very, again, like something that you might see on a cereal box, or something that, like, Doritos might be doing with, you know, a concert giveaway. It was like, why can’t we do that? Like, there’s no reason that we can’t do that or that it wouldn’t work. Because again, it’s people. And we had like some, you know, I think like some data that the age group worked out in terms of that being an attractive giveaway. Vegas, specifically, for salespeople, and then also like The Chainsmokers being like a top band. And so we’re like, that’s a pretty nice prize. And then we also had several questions about what those other prizes should be to best align with our audience.
(Laura 27:57) Awesome. And I love the ideation. You know, like you were saying, it was just like, what do we have? What connections do we have? And what can we do here? I think that’s such a cool approach, just kind of like widening your vision and, you know, exploring ideas.
(Camille 28:12) Yeah, I mean, I didn’t think about this so much before this call. But on this call, I was thinking about, you know, our mission at the company. And some things that we believe strongly in is connected selling, right? So this idea that you would use like every resource available to you to close a deal, right? And so that means, like, leaning on your team, like, multi-threading deals, like getting rid of all of the barriers that are in the way of you doing your best work. And so that’s already something that we believe in. And it’s kind of like the same thing for this campaign of like, in marketing in general, especially for startups, a lot of it is about getting scrappy, and like using every potential advantage that you have in your favor. This is kind of one way that we got creative with that.
(Laura 28:56) Awesome. So I’d love to hear, you know, what advice that you would have to share with other SaaS marketing teams who are, you know, thinking about bringing B2C tactics into their strategy looking to do more of that?
(Camille 29:10) Yeah, I think it’s partly just that mindset shift, right? In thinking of a traditional kind of B2B more being lead gen and ebooks and white papers, and just thinking about how you buy, right? So I think this is the best place to start: of like, what are the last few things that I’ve purchased? And you can even think specifically in terms of B2B products, right? As like, how did I purchase the last, you know, B2B product that I bought, or marketing product that I bought? And how did I originally hear about that company? So I think that’s kind of like where it starts is like, yeah, some of the biggest B2B products, you know, that we use — like Gong is a big one — and it’s like, okay, well, how did you hear about Gong? I heard about them on social. Or I heard about them because of their content play and, like, how they use data. Or because of like the Super Bowl ad they did.
And so thinking about how you actually buy, and how a lot of it is word-of-mouth, too. Because essentially it goes back to: social media didn’t exist so much like 10-15 years ago. And now we buy in a new way. A lot of those conversations happen in communities or happen on social of like, hey, I’m evaluating some products. Like, does anyone have a favorite project management tool? Like I’ve done this exact thing of, hey, like, I’m looking for a project management tool for freelancing specifically. And, you know, getting the feedback there. And so, knowing that that’s where those conversations are happening, that’s probably where you should also be.
And then, on the other side of that is, if you are top-of-mind — because you have a really strong brand, and because you are in those communities, and you’re doing things that are getting attention — then you will be tagged in those conversations when people say — this happened today, for instance — like, what’s a B2B brand that I should look at, or that is doing some cool things? And we were mentioned several times in there, like along with some other brands that I think are doing a great job. And most of it was, like, social-led brands. And so really just I think going back to how you buy, but then more specifically how your audience buys, right? And it’s also something that I’m looking into a lot, too, is, you know, will salespeople read like super long-form content? And if they do, like, would they prefer it to be audio, video, text? Like, how do they consume content? Where do they consume content? And then, just be there. And so I think it starts there. And then it’s some other things that I mentioned, of having the right leadership and attitude and hires to be able to enable that sort of creativity.
(Laura 31:46) Yeah, those are great, great points. And I love your emphasis on brand building, you know, that long-term focus combined with the lead gen. I mean, because so many people, it’s — I mean, everybody wants short-term, you know, wins, right? So it’s easy to focus on the lead gen. But really, the magic happens, like you said, when you’re building that brand and gaining that recognition and getting people excited, you know, about what you’re doing.
(Camille 32:13) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, again, yeah, shout out to Mark and to some of the other CMOs out there that have started with brand, right? That, like, in addition to doing demand gen, and lead gen, just making sure that from the beginning, that you’re building the brand, because that’s the long-term investment. And it’s like a hard thing to do after the fact. Like, okay, we’ve just been capturing existing demand, like on Google using Google ads, you know. Like, we’ve just been paying for these key terms. And we’ve been able to bring in customers that way. But it can be a lot harder to scale ads like once you’ve penetrated the market. If you’ve already started those ads, you can obviously mix it up. But yeah, but at a certain point, like, you’ll need to add brand, and you’ll need that to continue to build, and that momentum to continue, to be scalable and profitable.
(Laura 33:04) Awesome. So, last question before the plug zone: Is there anything else that I should have asked you, but didn’t. Anything that I missed that you’d like to share specifically about bringing B2C tactics to B2B?
(Camille 33:18) Hmm, no, I think you’ve covered most of it. Like, those are definitely two of my favorite campaigns that I’ve worked on in the past. I think — one call out I think that I’d make, too, is that you can still be informational and entertaining at the same time. This is a hard balance, because I do think that educational content works really well in B2B. Probably more so than B2C, I’d even say. Because it’s more complex, and because of the price that you’re asking people to spend, that just educating people in B2B is really smart, because a lot of times, they’re looking to get better at their job, you know, with this product. And so if you can help people get better at their job, then that’s like a big win. And so that, I think, is really the sweet spot for a lot of B2B, especially B2B SaaS companies, is when you can be entertaining but also educational. When you can combine those two things. And so, a lot of what we talked about was more of the fun campaigns and maybe a little bit less educational like on the product side, but I think just complementing that content with educational content is kind of like that sweet spot. And so, making sure that you do both.
(Laura 34:32) Yeah, and that’s a great point, too, you know, having that balance. Because really, I mean, in a sense it is kind of the buyer’s journey. You know, you’re catching their attention and making sure you’re top-of-mind with the fun stuff. And then, you know, as they get interested and dive a little bit further, then you’re educating and, you know, kind of moving them along.
(Camille 34:53) Yeah, absolutely.
(Laura) All right! So I would love to let you plug whatever you want to plug. I know you have a podcast, so let’s talk about that and anything else you want to share.
(Camille 35:03) Yeah, no, thank you again. Yeah, so my podcast I recently started. I think I’m on like Episode 10 now, although that one’s not live. But I’ve recorded in double digits now, so feeling good about that. The podcast is called Content Logistics. And really the whole point of it is for each episode to be kind of a masterclass in a specific part of content marketing. So essentially, I’ll just keep my ears open for people that are doing interesting things, and especially things that I hadn’t thought about or heard of. And also things that I’ve been wanting to get better at. So really, it’s selfish in that it’s a way for me to get better at my job, and then by recording it, it allows other people I think to get better at their job.
(Laura 35:50) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, that’s the main reason I do this podcast, is to talk to people like you. So, very cool. I’ll definitely include a link to that in the show notes as well. All right, well, thank you so much for coming on and talking to me and sharing all of this. I know the listeners are going to be really interested, and this is really gonna, you know, get their brains going.
(Camille 36:13) No, thank you again for having me, Laura. This was a lot of fun.