It is uncommon {that a} B2B marketer is humorous on LinkedIn.
And never “posted a meme about ChatGPT taking on my job” humorous.
I imply genuinely, “I’d watch this content material in my free time” form of humor.
And he or she’s acquired 20K followers (and a few viral movies with 4M+ views) to show it.
Right this moment’s skilled tells us to cease obsessing over high-performing content material, and why your purchaser persona is bingeing Promoting Sundown, too.
Heike Younger
Head of content material, social, & built-in advertising and marketing, Microsoft
Lesson 1: Your purpose should not be high-performing content material. Interval.
When Younger walked right into a convention room throughout her first day at Microsoft (this will have been digital, however for the sake of the story let’s image the Mad Males workplace), she advised her staff that her purpose is not to create high-performing content material.
Her purpose is to vary minds.
Each time her staff creates a bit of content material, she asks herself: “What can we create that is really going to vary the hearts and minds of our viewers? And that is a heady activity.”
This is an instance that hits house for us: At HubSpot, we have hit thousands and thousands of views every year on one publish alone — “The High Film Quotes of All Time.”
(Yep. About as removed from a product conversion as you will get.)
However this 12 months we took one other have a look at that publish and mentioned, “Does it matter that it attracts thousands and thousands of views if it has nothing to do with… nicely, HubSpot?”
So we (lastly) retired the publish. (I recommended a Viking funeral, however we settled on a 301 redirect.)
That is Younger’s motto and driving motivation behind all of her work. She says, “We hope it performs nicely, however actually our purpose is to create affect and to vary how folks suppose and act — and for our model to develop after they do.”
There is a bonus to this lesson: Creating content material that adjustments minds means writing, recording, and posting content material that’s provocative and distinctive. And that is the one kind of content material that can reduce by the noise, anyway.
As Younger places it: “Daring POVs are just about the one content material left that resonates.”
Lesson 2: Your B2B purchaser is similar one who’s bingeing Promoting Sundown.
A few years in the past, Younger took comedy lessons in LA at Upright Residents Brigade, which touts previous college students like Amy Poehler, Kate McKinnon, and Nick Kroll.
And he or she’s now bringing that comedy to her LinkedIn movies, a few of which have amassed thousands and thousands of views.
Why?
As a result of her B2B viewers continues to be made up of individuals. And other people prefer to chortle.
“There’s this concept that’s actually essential to me, which is content material that strikes with the tradition. The identical one who approves the PO on your SaaS firm additionally binges Promoting Sundown or does Twitch stay streams at evening.”
She provides, “In B2B, we have gotten into this behavior of appearing like individuals are so totally different. You already know, they arrive to work and placed on their work outfit and all of the sudden their requirements for content material or leisure are totally different.”
Her comment jogged my memory of Severance: There’s the buttoned-up, skilled B2B viewers, after which there are the folks we get dinner with and watch motion pictures with and name our mates.
This synthetic separation would not simply make our advertising and marketing really feel stiff — it makes it ineffective.
Younger says, “I personally wish to create content material that’s knowledgeable by the tradition at massive and strikes at that velocity versus content material that feels prefer it was sealed in a time capsule from 2001.”
Lesson 3: Worker-generated content material issues now greater than ever.
Younger goes all-in on personality-led content material in 2025.
Why? As a result of, as she advised me, personality-led content material will be the core differentiator on your model: “Anyone can reply a bunch of questions. No person can clone your folks.”
(Take that, AI!)
In her present position, she’s actually centered on employee-generated content material, and empowering her staff to create content material on behalf of Microsoft.
And he or she’s strolling the stroll, too. Which is why, a couple of 12 months in the past, she began posting her personal movies on LinkedIn.
She advised me, as a pacesetter, she’d been lacking the chance to create content material. To her, it was essential to get some pores and skin within the recreation. “And I additionally actually wished to wager on myself.”
Certain, it may be hella awkward to publish that first awkwardly edited iPhone video of your self and getting seven likes on it.
However you by no means know the place it could lead on.
Coming full-circle to our first lesson, Younger provides: “It is essential to vary folks’s minds round deeper subjects, to have deeper conversations, and simply to resonate extra deeply. Floor-level, fundamental, one-on-one fashion answering questions — that is not likely the trail ahead.”
Lingering Questions
This Week’s Query
As a advertising and marketing thought chief, how do you see AI influencing strategic pondering and the inventive course of in model constructing? — Lise Lozelle, senior director of communications and engagement, Greatest Buddies Worldwide
This Week’s Reply
Younger: AI is efficient as a thought accomplice. Ask it to poke holes in your technique and play satan’s advocate. Additionally ask it to search out extra analysis and information factors you have not thought of. These workflows could make your authentic concepts even stronger.
All of that being mentioned, I consider human creativity is extra important than ever, and I like seeing human fingerprints on the content material I personally devour. As an example, I’ve just lately been swooning over all of the tiny inventive particulars in Severance.
I consider some AI-related adjustments in advertising and marketing will occur sooner than we anticipate, and others will occur extra slowly. Solely time will inform what falls into which class. So I am leaning into AI the place it is helpful for me, and never forcing it the place it would not appear useful.
Subsequent Week’s Query
Younger asks: What’s a bit of promoting recommendation you’d have given earlier in your profession, however you’d now not give, attributable to how advertising and marketing has modified?
