Category: Radix Podcast

Podcast 45: Is BOFU content sexier than TOFU? Ooft, absolutely.

Posted on by The Radix Team

After a hefty winter break (and far too many of Matt’s yuletide treats), the Radix team are back in action (albeit slightly bloated) for another year of B2B content adventures.

And we’ve been thinking hard this past week about BOFU content –why all the ambivalence towards it? The bottom of the funnel is where all that hard work pays off and the money comes rolling in; what’s not to love?

Case studies, product sheets, implementation guides – for us, these are the poster boys of content marketing. Shexshy.

You probably think we’ve lost our marbles; how can a case study be sexy? But bear with us: check out the latest episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy with Emily, Fiona and David.

Tune in now to discover:

  • Our favourite examples of great BOFU content
  • Why BOFU content is just as glamorous as TOFU
  • At least three actionable BOFU tips
  • The right content to use with a ‘freemium’ signup model
  • Why David is so worryingly attached to Maxon’s latest motor catalogue?

Alongside insightful chatter on Xero’s frankly excellent case studies, Emily and David finally acknowledge Bee Movie and its (totally justified) influence on our writers’ relationship with Slack.

(If you happened to have missed the recent buzz around Bee Movie, born from the internet’s most asinine depths, click here – but be warned, a tolerance for memes is essential.)

Finally, if you’d like to guess how many pages are in the Maxon 2016/17 Motor Program as asked by David (it will make his day if you do), please tweet us @radixcom.

Download the episode here (right-click and “save-as” to download). Or stream the episode in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Podcast 44: Our roundup of this year’s B2B content marketing predictions

Posted on by The Radix Team

Yes, it’s that time of year where people eat and drink too much, catch up with family and, of course, make wild and ill-advised predictions and wishes about what the next year will bring B2B content marketers and copywriters.

And what could be more seasonally appropriate than a roundup podcast where Fiona, David and Emily reflect on the B2B marketing content predictions we made in 2016, and offer up bold forecasts and Christmas wishes for 2017.

(Turns out a surprising number of our predictions were proved correct this year. Perhaps the most important was about content going longer: research from Andy Crestodina states the average blog post is now over 1,000 words for the first time.)

We also react to a whole bunch of listeners’ predictions and Christmas wishes for 2017 – featuring:

(We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to submit a prediction or wish – we’re sorry we couldn’t use them all.)

Inevitably, there were some wishes and predictions from 2016 that (sadly) did not come to fruition. The word “impactful” still survives, and B2B Expressive Dance has yet to take off as a content medium. Maybe next year…

Download the episode here; right-click and use “save as” to download. Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

(And for anyone struggling to find Doug Kessler a present: Ardbeg. And socks.)

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Ed: If you’re wondering what the header image is – that’s the top of our Christmas tree with a fairy that has John’s face on it.

Podcast 43: Content writer v copywriter – is there a difference?

Posted on by The Radix Team

Does your project need a copywriter or a content writer? Or does it need both? Could you hire one and not the other? Or are they basically the same thing?

These were just some of the questions we were left asking at the November Bristol Content Group’s Big Content Skills Debate, organised by Valuable Content and hosted at The Real Adventure Unlimited.

Clearly, different writers’ strengths suit different tasks. A writer who’s excellent at writing blog posts may struggle with writing an ad, for example.

In the US, copy is often seen as persuasive, sales-focused writing, where content is more informative. Could that same distinction help marketers in the UK to hire the right kind of writer?

Knowledge gap

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad copy, I talk with Fiona and David about this issue, and also the wider subject of The Big Content Debate: the skills gap currently facing marketing.

It includes interviews with:

  • James Ainsworth (Head of Content at The Real Adventure Unlimited)
  • Matt Turner (co-founder of Writers Ltd)
  • Chris Hull (Director of Marketing Communications at RedstoneConnect plc)
  • Sonja Jefferson (Content Marketing Consultant and Trainer at Valuable Content)

Listen now to find out:

  • Are copywriters and content writers suited to different tasks?
  • Is copywriting purely about persuasive writing?
  • Does content marketing try to sell?
  • Are there types of content that marks out content writers from copywriters?
  • What skills are needed for today’s content marketing?
  • How important is collaboration in writing and creating content?
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Podcast 42: What does the 2017 B2B Content Marketing trends report mean for copywriters?

Posted on by The Radix Team

The new 2017 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report for North America from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs has already caused discussion about what is and isn’t content marketing.

The report showed that 37% of B2B marketers in the US now have a documented content strategy, a five-percentage point increase from the 2016 report.

(In case you don’t know: I attribute a lot Radix’s own content marketing success to us having a documented content marketing strategy.)

The report also suggested that 39% of US B2B organisations are planning to increase their spending on content marketing over the next 12 months.

And interestingly, certainly for copywriters, was the news that 76% of B2B content marketers in the US are planning to prioritise quality content over the volume of content they produce.

Welcome to the future

There are a host of other insights in the report that are of interest to those of us who work in B2B marketing.

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, I talk with David and Fiona about what the report’s findings mean for copywriters and marketers.

Listen now to find out:

  • Why case studies may no longer be considered content marketing
  • Could UK content marketers actually be ahead of the US?
  • Whether there’s an identity crisis for white papers and ebooks
  • If B2B marketers killed infographics
  • Why there could be blogs galore in 2017
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Podcast 40: How I made content marketing work for our small B2B business

Posted on by The Radix Team

Google “benefits of content marketing” and you’ll be served up a host of articles explaining why it should be a part of your overall marketing strategy.

But in the four years since I joined Radix, approaches to content marketing have matured and evolved. Today it’s not just enough to be producing content; you need to have three things:

  1. A content marketing strategy to keep you focused
  2. Great content that sets you apart from your competition
  3. Reliable ways of measuring your content’s effectiveness

This may seem difficult, if not impossible, for small businesses to reach for.

I’m here to tell you it isn’t impossible for SMEs to do effective content marketing.

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, I talk to Fiona about my approach to content marketing for our own 12-person business. I explain how I’ve made content marketing work for Radix Communications since we started our programme in 2012.

Listen now to find out:

  • Why you need a content marketing strategy
  • Which free or low-cost tools you can use to run your content programme
  • Where to find the best content advice
  • How to overcome the challenges of creating good content
  • How to figure out your niche
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Resources

The B2B Content Marketing Workbook from Velocity Partners

How to make an editorial calendar in Trello

Editorial calendar template for Google Sheets

How to use Creative Commons images safely on blogs

Podcast 39: What’s so hard about writing engaging B2B marketing content?

Posted on by The Radix Team

If you haven’t heard already: producing engaging content is the top challenge for 60% of B2B content marketers. The issue is right up there with measuring the effectiveness of content marketing, and just being able to consistently produce enough good content to go into marketing and sales funnels.

Like our founder, Fiona Campbell-Howes, pointed out in B2B Marketing’s Content Marketing Benchmarking Report 2015:

Creating engaging content is a pressure that’s only going to intensify for marketers – especially as the brands with big budgets plough more of their cash into New York Times-style newsrooms and Hollywood-grade videos.

Here at Radix, this is a challenge we have to overcome every day. So in this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, Fiona, David and I share our thoughts on why it can be tough to produce engaging content and share our secrets on exactly how we do it.

Listen now to find out:

  • Why good content starts with a good brief
  • The importance of giving your audience something of value
  • Why the way you feel about your project can make or break the results
  • How creating content for the sake of content kills engagement
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Related listening/reading

This Old Marketing episode 139: Most brands failing at customer experience

The attention economy and the demise of the middle ground

Podcast 38: Got content? B2B Marketing Summit 2016 takeaways

Posted on by The Radix Team

For one day in June, The Business Design Centre in London was filled with some of the most experienced and interesting minds in business to business marketing. And we were lucky enough to be there.

With keynote speeches from Joe Pulizzi and Carlos Hidalgo, plus five different session streams: what did we learn at the B2B Marketing Summit?

In this episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, David, George and I share our personal highlights and favourite B2B content marketing and copywriting takeaways from the likes of Bray Leino, Danfoss, Earnest, OmPrompt, Octopus Group and DSM (you’ll find the video David mentions here).

Listen now to hear us woefully mispronounce various names (sorry!) – and also find out:

  • Why more content doesn’t mean good content
  • How dynamic/intelligent content is still the future
  • What you need to ask before starting a project
  • Why SMEs don’t appreciate being patronised by B2B brands
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Podcast 37: The battle to stop B2B content from going to waste

Posted on by The Radix Team

A staggering amount of B2B content goes unused after it’s been produced:

In this episode I’m joined by Fiona Campbell-Howes, Radix’s founder, and David McGuire, Radix’s Creative Director, to examine what leads to content waste and if there’s anything you can do to stop it.

Listen now to find out:

  • How a lack of review time can lead to B2B content getting benched
  • Why it always seems to be the work you like most that disappears
  • The effect strategy changes can have on publishing content
  • Why delays gaining permission from third parties can stop publication altogether
  • What editorial can do to reduce waste
  • … and more

Download the episode here (right-click and “save as” to download). Or listen in the player at the top of the page.
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

Alternatively: add our RSS to your preferred podcast player.

Music by Industrial and Marine.

Podcast 36: Pay, gender, location & skills – the state of UK copywriting

Posted on by The Radix Team

Everybody’s talking ‘bout the Pro Copywriters’ Survey – and no wonder: it revealed a 28% gender pay gap in UK copywriting.

But the understandable outcry over the gender pay issue may have drawn attention away from a few other juicy findings in the survey. Stories of a huge London price premium, an all-round lack of training, and a university education apparently harming your earning potential. A hint (if you squint at the stats a certain, determined way) of workaholic Yorkshire writers and lazy Scots.

The survey provoked some (ahem) lively debate around gender, pricing, training and sector specialisms at our recent #b2bcopychat on Twitter (see the Storify below) – so in this, the 36th episode of Good Copy, Bad Copy, we thought we’d sprinkle a bit more fuel on the fire.

Radix’s MD, Fiona Campbell-Howes, Content Marketing Manager Emily King and I pick out our personal highlights of the discussion so far, and ask:

  • Which qualifications impress copywriting recruiters – or is it all about experience?
  • Why on earth don’t more copywriters specialise?
  • Does anybody – male or female – really negotiate over pay?
  • Do Yorkshire copywriters really work 40% harder than Scottish counterparts? *
  • Is there any discernible advantage to hiring a copywriter based in London? **

(Fiona may or may not also imply that the best writers all naturally gravitate West. You might think that, Fiona; we couldn’t possibly comment.)

You can listen in the player at the top of the page – or to download the episode, right click here.

If you like, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here and we’ll pop up in your fruit-based device on a regular basis. Or alternatively, add our RSS to your podcast player of choice.

Our music is by Industrial and Marine. Bangin’.

* Hint: no.

** Another hint: HELL NO.