Joshua Nite

Why Empathy Matters More than Ever in B2B Content Marketing (And How to Get It Right)

Joshua Nite on Oct 20th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

B2B marketers, ready for some TRUTH BOMBS?

Here we go: We need to make our content more human and more empathetic. B2B content doesn’t have to be boring; in fact, it can’t be boring and be effective. B2B buyers are just people — we need to talk to them like people.

Are you blown away by the depth and breadth of my insight? Ready to book me at your next marketing conference?

Okay, all sarcasm aside: We all have heard the old “B2Me” speech a dozen times. I’m not here to give it to you again.

Instead, I want to get deeper into the specifics of what it means to be empathetic and provide value with content.

Why Empathy Matters More than Ever in B2B Content Marketing (And How to Get It Right)

Equilibrium: 10 Tips to Balance Creativity and Process in B2B Content Marketing

Joshua Nite on Sep 21st, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Marketers have to continually earn and reward people’s attention. If we fail at that task, there are plenty of other content options out there. People — yes, even B2B buyers — want engaging, entertaining and valuable content.

That’s great news for those of us on the content side! It means we should be regularly exercising our creative muscles, breaking free of boring B2B, and coming up with new ways to delight our readers. How cool is it, for example, to make Ghostbusters references… for your job?

But as fun and creative as the work can be, there’s a cerebral and analytical side to marketing that we can’t neglect. If you came into marketing through creative writing, not the other way around, you may need to develop the left-brain part of the job:

Equilibrium: 10 Tips to Balance Creativity and Process in B2B Content Marketing

Write from the Heart for More Memorable B2B Content Marketing

Joshua Nite on Jul 20th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

B2B marketers have been pushing for personalized content for a good long while. Now we’re also trying to humanize content — to make the case that B2B buyers are human beings who want to connect with other humans on an emotional level.

Isn’t it remarkable that we still have to make that argument?

But I’m not here to write another 1000 words about humanizing content. I want us to take it a step further, beyond personalization, humanization, personality and empathy.

B2B content marketing needs to come from the heart.

True, genuine heart is the last frontier in content. Every brand has an Instagram with behind-the-scenes content to boost authenticity. Every brand is striving to give at least the appearance of sincerity, personality and transparency.

Write from the Heart for More Memorable B2B Content Marketing

6 B2B Content Marketing Summertime Sizzlers To Increase Audience Engagement

Joshua Nite on Jun 1st, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing

I’m going to knock on wood as I type this, but: It looks like we might have a (mostly) normal summer this year in the U.S. After the lockdowns, isolation, anxiety and fear of 2020, it finally feels like things are opening up.

This is all great for everything except getting people to read your marketing content. In 2020 we had a captive audience starved for entertainment. Now we’ll be competing with everything from music festivals to movies to walking in the park.

The way to break through and have a “hot brand summer?” First, don’t use phrases like “hot brand summer,” because you’ll just make people hate you. Second, it’s all about customer engagement. That means connecting with people on a personal level, offering something novel and fascinating, and using that contact to build a meaningful relationship.

6 B2B Content Marketing Summertime Sizzlers To Increase Audience Engagement

What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy

Joshua Nite on May 25th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Stand-up comedians need to make a connection with their audience. It starts with getting attention, then stoking interest, developing a rapport, and ultimately provoking a reaction.

To do it right, you need empathy, knowledge of your audience, creativity…oh, and a spark that makes you unique.

B2B marketers: Does any of the above sound familiar? I’ve been a professional marketer and an amateur comedian for over a decade, and it’s surprising how much the two inform each other.

Here are just a few lessons that B2B marketers can learn from standup.

Keep It Real

In the early 19th century, standup comedy depended on wordplay and absurdism. For example: “Take my wife…please!” or “The other night I shot an elephant in my pajamas… how he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.”

What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy

B2B Content Marketing: 10 Tips to Level Up Your Writing Skills

Joshua Nite on Apr 27th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

What is the biggest challenge a writer faces?

Nothing.

Well, by “nothing,” I mean a blank white screen and a blinking cursor.

It mocks you with its unlimited potential. It fills you with fear that anything you put on that screen won’t be an improvement over its pristine emptiness.

We content marketers have to face this challenge nearly every day, and somehow find a way to write content that connects, engages, and persuades.

I’ve spent my entire adult life working in the content trenches — first as a comedy writer, and now as a content marketer. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up that can elevate your writing and make that blank screen less daunting.

10 Tips for B2B Marketers to Elevate Their Writing Skills

#1: READ

B2B Content Marketing: 10 Tips to Level Up Your Writing Skills

Creating B2B Podcasts That Rise Above The Noise

Joshua Nite on Mar 30th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Podcasting

It’s never impressive to hear someone say they have a podcast. Making a podcast is easy! I have one that’s nearly a decade old and 400 episodes strong.

The hard part is getting people to listen. My personal podcast has maybe 200 monthly listeners and brings in just enough in donations to pay for our web host. And at that, we have 198 more listeners than a lot of podcasts out there.

The barrier to entry is low… but if you’re a B2B brand looking to engage with potential buyers, you’re going to want to aim higher.

How do you make a B2B podcast that actually gets listened to? One that inspires people to subscribe and tell their friends about it?

It’s simple:

Creating B2B Podcasts That Rise Above The Noise

5 B2C Content Marketing Techniques that B2B Marketers Should Steal (And 5 They Shouldn’t Touch)

Joshua Nite on Mar 2nd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

B2B marketers, are we over the B2C envy yet?

We used to have a legitimate reason to be envious. B2C marketers got to be more creative, personal, emotional, and interactive. We were stuck with dry, logical appeals with no-frills presentation.

These days, though, B2B marketers can be just as dynamic and creative as our B2C counterparts. And we not only can, we should.

Yet we still hear that drumbeat: “B2B marketing needs to be more like B2C.”

Does it really?

I would argue yes, but only to a certain point. B2B is its own discipline with its own best practices. There are a few recent developments in B2C that we should borrow, but there are just as many strategies and tactics that don’t translate as well.

5 B2C Content Marketing Techniques that B2B Marketers Should Steal (And 5 They Shouldn’t Touch)

21 New Marketing Jokes for Unprecedented Times

Joshua Nite on Feb 9th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Why write jokes about marketing?

Why write, to be specific, 101 jokes about marketing over the last five years?

I came to marketing from the comedy world, and was genuinely surprised back then at how little personality there was in B2B content. Back in 2015, people were still asking whether B2B marketing could be funny — whether it would torpedo a serious brand to come out with humorous content.

Now we’ve finally admitted that B2B buyers like to laugh just like everyone else. And we’re seeing that humor can be a powerful way to bring people together. Used the right way, it can illustrate the shared human experiences that unite us all, showing that our trials and triumphs make us more alike than we are different.

21 New Marketing Jokes for Unprecedented Times

5 Ways to Humanize Your B2B Content Marketing – And Why It Matters

Joshua Nite on Jan 27th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Never underestimate the corporate world’s ability to take something that should be intuitive, and make it weird by overthinking it.

Case in point: We used to say, “B2B doesn’t have to be boring.” Which indicates that for a long time, folks truly believed that B2B did have to be boring — that B2B buyers were a unique species of creature that operated without emotion and wanted the driest content possible.

Now we’re talking about how we need to “humanize” B2B content. And doesn’t that sound like some kind of filter you run your content through after you make it? I picture something that looks like a fax machine, where you load the content in the top, and push a big red button marked “HUMANIZE.”

5 Ways to Humanize Your B2B Content Marketing – And Why It Matters

How B2B Marketers Can Get Closer to Their Customers

Joshua Nite on Jan 7th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

Last year I finished up my fifth full year as a B2B marketer. A lot has changed in that half decade.

When I started, there was a growing movement: “B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring.”

Now we’ve finally moved on to, “B2B marketing can’t afford to be boring.” We’ve finally acknowledged that B2B buyers are people — they want useful information, they want to be entertained, and they’re just as bored by corporate-speak-laden white papers as everyone else.

To our credit, I think marketers already knew this. We just had to convince the rest of the organization.

For the most part, we marketers have more leeway to choose the best way to reach our audience. And, of course, with that freedom comes responsibility.

How B2B Marketers Can Get Closer to Their Customers

Joshua Nite

The Problem with Most B2B Social Media Marketing

Keep It Real

10 Tips for B2B Marketers to Elevate Their Writing Skills