I’m not a data scientist or an engineer.
But I am a marketer. 🤓
And because I'm a marketer, I'm going to take some time to talk about what business creators are making my brain tick these days, and dive into why. 😊
I spend so much time online, consuming and researching content, and of course for fun.
I have since I was a kid.
And you’ll never hear me say that I hate the internet or that I hate social media or any of that.
I think it’s genuinely cool to be at a point in history where we can find communities we never thought existed, to be able to share ideas with people thousands of miles away, and to get new content instantly.
Before I started at Tingono, most of the content I consumed was from content creators I admired and B2C brands.
I like brands like Nike, Fenty Beauty, and Chipotle. I like content from people like Amber Fillerup and Tieghan Gerard.
I want to see exotic locales, recipes, and hair tips (and memes).
I only thought about B2B content a few times during college.
I would sometimes see content from SaaS companies like Salesforce and Zendesk but I’d just think to myself, “who even knows what they do! I certainly don’t use them!”
And why would I think twice about content that not only didn’t tell me what it is, but also feels cold and stagnant and not at all like the content I usually like?
I think that’s a pretty common experience for non-technical people like me.
But does business content always have to be this way? No.
Personalizing your Business Content to your Customer to Expand Revenue
Our blog here at Tingono often touches on how to make artificial intelligence work together with human knowledge. We know that “setting and forgetting” machine learning models is a recipe for disaster.
And a lot of the content I’ve seen in the B2B space can feel like it’s been set and forgotten.
I think there’s a clear line in the sand between brands that say meaningful things and “silence, brand”.
I think people can share valuable insights about their career and business without it feeling like everything leads back to buying their offering.
Ultimately, we all need to make money. We all need to turn a profit to keep our companies afloat. We all want to retain the customers we have.
But I think there are ways we can humanize business content for the better.
We can’t expect customers to resonate with content that feels cold. If we want to see the content we share impact our customer base (and our revenue), customers need to feel like they connect with it.
Everything always comes back to how a customer feels about something.
So I’m going to spotlight two accounts I think are doing “business” content right: one a content creator, and one a brand blog.
I’ll also talk about why I feel this way.
Timm Chiusano: Business content that feels like your cool uncle made it for you
I live for Timm’s content.
He’s the VP of Production and Creative Services at Spectrum Reach.
However, it wasn’t his career content that I saw initially that made me want to follow him. It was a video honoring his dead best friend.
I can comfortably assume he does not think of his followers as customers.
Still, I think what he puts out is extremely valuable and applies to what I’m talking about.
Timm’s content keeps me coming back because he keeps everything positive AND real. He has a consistent style through all of his videos, films what he does throughout the day, and then does a clear voice-over after.
You also see constants in his videos—him running, eating sweetgreen, and spending time in his office. His videos are easily recognizable as his.
Timm is dedicated to providing resources to people early and maybe at a questioning stage in their career path.
He's created resume templates, made career “cheat sheets”, and loves being in the mentor stage of his life. He provides all this free of charge.
Recently he made a video and said, “it’s a pretty standard Tuesday of trying to help everyone that you work with be set up to be as successful as possible.”
Isn’t that what we should all try to do at work every day?
Snowflake: B2B Content for both Customer Retention and the Generally Curious
Snowflake: certainly not a brand I knew before Tingono. Very different from Timm’s content.
And Snowflake’s blog keeps me coming back.
I say that because I can always learn something new from their content.
Whether that’s a better understanding of what a data lake is, or thinking about teamwork from one of the worlds leading free solo climbers, they have a huge library of content, and touch many topics.
Even if a blog post is for a heavy, technical concept, they can keep a customer on their blog through linking to smaller “bites” of that concept.
Snowflake’s blog is an excellent resource for customers from the top to the bottom of the funnel. It's curated, yet varied.
And its content can appeal to many different skill sets. They can draw new customers in, and keep current customers engaged. All just through their blog.
Where does this leave our GTM teams?
So now you have a little insight into what makes me tick (this is my first blog) and who and what I’m looking at for inspiration.
How thrilling!
The reason I wrote this blog is I want to set the stage for what to expect from Tingono, and give insight into what we’re currently building with our content streams.
I want people to look to Tingono as a brand they can trust.
We’re a brand that will share ideas that are good for business and for the world. And we’ll share resources that teach.
Yes, we’re a brand, not a content creator.
But we can still move people and companies forward in a way that doesn’t feel icy or sales-y.
We want to help solve your business's aches. We want to help you integrate machine learning with a human touch. And, ultimately, our goal is for you to find opportunities to retain and grow revenue.
And our content is part of that. 😊
So drop us a line if you’re curious about what we’re building. Or if you just want to chat about a concept we’ve talked about. Talk soon!
