Todd Clouser’s Post

(do me a favor and read this as Eeyore) You missed Goldenhour. Your feed probably won't let you forget it. Not cool feed...not cool. Looks pretty cool tho, right? Lotsa smart people in that recap video. You coulda been chattin it up with legends like Dave, Melissa, Alex, Jill, Colin, Brianna. Yeah, we're on a first name basis, no big deal. But you missed it. Bummer. Good news though. We captured it all on video. And if you have an imagination, you can still pretend like you were there. Even though you weren't :( *sigh* (you can stop the Eeyore voice in your head now) We recorded over 120 pieces of content with some of the biggest names in and outside of B2B. The Live broadcast sessions are up now as 16 individual episodes so you can pick and choose the topics that interest you. But we're releasing it all on AudiencePlus over the next few weeks including, - 7 main stage sessions on the future of B2B marketing - 9 deep dive workshops - Season 1 of "Tim's Fruit Stand" - Season 1 of "Side Quest" - Season 1 of "Clipped" - Season 1 of "No Sleep til Brooklyn" - and a bunch more off the cuff interviews with marketing legends

We just created over 120 pieces of content in a day. And not like “let’s chop up this podcast or keynote into 10 clips and call it 10 pieces of content.” I’m talking about 120 pieces of thought out, individual episodes for different series that can be repurposed even more. If you have an events strategy and it’s not currently linked to an owned media strategy, you are leaving tons of pipeline on the table. That’s all.

Has Zero-Click content made us over index on vanity metrics? For the past few years we’ve all been saying, “You need to provide all the value in the feed.”   I won't pretend like I haven’t said it, I have. Many times.   I spent almost two years pushing this narrative during my time with Refine Labs. And in many cases, it’s 100% the right thing to do.   But sometimes, dare I say oftentimes, it's not.   So I’m here to walk that thought leadership back just a lil bit. Because it’s not always about providing value in the feed that your audience is on.   Sometimes it’s about driving traffic or attention to something completely different, because the goal of every piece of content is not the same.   #storytime (Don't worry, I'll tie this back to B2B)   Prior to entering the SaaS space, I spent almost a decade of my life building the largest YouTube channel in the welding industry. Let me share some stats (this has relevance, I promise).   We distributed content through three primary channels: YouTube (long-from) - 7 million monthly views Instagram - 1 million monthly views Facebook - 2 million monthly view Our primary revenue was generated through product placement sponsorships on our YouTube channel—not the typical one-off posts or baked in pitches, but using the products while we created adjacent educational content (Old school product placement).   The way we justified price increases was an increase in viewership on that content.   Our sponsors wanted access to that active, long-form viewer, and cared very little about the 3 million pairs of eyeballs every month on those short form channels. That meant our primary goal was to drive as much traffic as humanly possible to YouTube.   We did that very effectively, but not by chopping up the entire long form video and repurposing it to IG and FB.   Here was the weekly short form mix: One promo video: Not zero-click. It gave enough to intrigue and sent people to the full video. Bloopers/BTS: No “value” just audience engagement to build stronger connections. “Weldporn” images throughout the week: “Wanna see how we did this, video’s on YouTube.” One zero-click video: This helped us build trust - It’s always going to be a big part of the mix. By using that mix, we consistently drove huge impact to our viewership on YouTube, and we knew that because we obsessed over our analytics and could see the spikes when we posted to IG and FB.   Could we have driven more views on those short form channels if we chopped up the long form into several shorter parts and posted it natively? Maybe, but that's not what our sponsors paid us for.   Would it have drove more people to go to our YouTube channel? I think not. Why go somewhere else when everything you want is right there? I'm not anti-zero-click. But it has made us over-index on vanity metrics.   ----- In last week's AudiencePlus newsletter, I went into how this applies to SaaS. Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/eDAnSMF9

There was a little easter egg in the opening moment from Goldenhour (for those of you old enough to remember the Beastie Boys). Not only did we rewrite the lyics to No Sleep til Brooklyn, but we also remade the music video (almost) shot for shot. The original video probably wouldn't have gone over in a professional setting, so we made some adjustments, but it's something I had to share. There were so many details about Goldenhour that the casual attendee or viewer might not have noticed, but to the ones who caught it, it makes all the difference. These little things don't mean much on their own, but they add up and it's what gives people a sense of belonging. We'll share more intentional easter eggs in the coming weeks, but here's a little shot-for-shot comparison to the video we were parodying. P.S. If you are wondering about why we created a music video in the first place, there will be a blog coming soon on AudiencePlus.

B2B content is changing. On Wednesday I got to announce some of the series we've been working on recently and why: 1. Easy Mode (Now Live on AudiencePlus): An 8-part framework that will show you how to create a content engine through both internal and external creators. Why? Me and Obaid have been talking about Easy Mode for almost two years. We've recorded podcasts on it, made short form LinkedIn content about it. Why create a series on it? Well, we practiced what we preach. we proved out the concept over the past two years in as low of an effort way as possible. Nothing more than some time, brain power, and iteration. People loved it. It was successfully implemented at a bunch of companies. So we decided to take it to the next level and distill down the content into the simplest form possible. - Fully scripted - Beautifully shot and edited (we rented out an arcade to make it) - Easy to binge (quickly) and start implementing This series is going to make the content WAY more accessible to you and your team, so go check it out. 2. No Sleep til Brooklyn (being edited as we speak): A educational documentary that will teach you how to plan and run events that builds audience. Why? We believe that events are a huge part of an owned media strategy. We're attempting to change B2B events forever. No more booths. Way more content. Way more networking. Way better experience. So we broke down exactly how Anthony, JK and the rest of the team planned and executed Goldenhour. And we're giving it to you as a blueprint to go do it yourself. 3. The Playbook (coming soon): A guided program for you to complete with your entire team. No more silos! This is a new take on b2b content. We're not just giving you the information and letting you figure it out. You'll get: - Tutorials on how to integrate owned media into your current strategy. - Exercises to help you measure and test different ideas. - A companion guide with prompting questions to complete WITH YOUR TEAM. - Additional resources to dive deeper. ^ This is the $10k/month consulting you'd typically pay for that we're breaking down so you can do it yourself (do with with less, right?) This is the future of content, and our goal with ours is to show you exactly how to do it.

I heard, "Walking around this event feels like I stepped into my linkedIn feed IRL," at least 5 times yesterday. There were a ton of learnings around getting such an amazing group of people together in a room for a day, but I'll break that down after I recover from 72 hours of very little sleep. For now, I just want to thank everyone who came to the in person event and the live broadcast. It was amazing meeting so many LinkedIn friends in person for the first time and connecting with old friends too. There's going to be about 10 years worth of content coming out of yesterday, so stay tuned.

Last night me and Obaid did some last minute tweaks to our presentation. So stoked to share the blueprint we put together. This is like Easy Mode 2.0. we're getting super granular on building a show strategy and going into detail on how to build: 1. Product shows 2. Brand shows 3. ABM shows PACKED with tactical step by steps for each one. that's all you get for now though because the day before a conference is madness. P.S. I had to give you a sneak peek at the kicks.

Me and Obaid have been keeping this under wraps for a few months now, but it's finally just. about. ready! Big annoucement from us coming Wednesday from Goldenhour! If you can't join live, be sure to register for the LinkedIn Live broadcast.