Afleveringen
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Hi, Itās George from Orama, a virtual podcast and video studio for brands.
You can watch this episode on the Substack player, on YouTube, listen to it on podcast platforms, or read an edited transcript below.
Iām testing the video feature of Substack; itās pretty cool that you only need to upload the video, and it will create an RSS feed from the audio for your podcasts.
How do you transition from Minimum Viable Podcast (something we discussed here before) to Most Valuable Podcast?
As a Frenchman who enjoys watching basketball, I enjoy following the NBA career of Wemby or Victor Wembayamaš«š·. Heās a newcomer to the NBA, a rookie with a chance to become an MVP.
**Trivia: Only two players in NBA history have done it before: Wes Unseld and Wilt Chamberlain.**
You may be the Wemby of podcasting, in which case congratulations, go for it. But for the rest of us, the great news is that you can gradually elevate to āMost Valuable Podcastā level by improving episode by episode.
If your focus is a brand or niche podcast, the aim is not to top the charts but rather to become the reference point within your industry and a favourite among the small group of people who matter to you.
Shifting the MVP metaphor from NBA to Startups
Let's move to a startup metaphor, where MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product. An MVP approach involves iterating and improving over time. And thatās the idea behind the Minimum Viable Podcast.
If youāre running a company podcast, it might be just a small part of your duties, but the mindset remains akin to a startup transitioning from MVP to something greater. In all humility, creating a defining podcast for a niche is the goal, with my recently relaunched āInvestologyā podcast, that focuses on investment management (YouTube, Audio podcasts).
The process, not the topic, matters here.
(Itās also the goal with this podcast, but thatās a more remote possibility, as Iām still very close to the Minimum Viable state, so I use Investology as a better example).
Although it's an established podcast, my interest changed from broad fintech to investment management, so I paused it, rebranded, and relaunched it, so it feels brand new.
Below, I'll share the tool I use to manage my own and my clientsā podcasts and how it can help your show as well.
From List to Dashboard
Previously, I used a comprehensive brand podcast checklist for launching and growing podcasts. There are 45 items there (but the list is flexible)
You can access it here.
Even if Iāve launched quite a few podcasts before for Investology, I wanted to do many things at once andā¦ I wasnāt doing much because it felt overwhelming.
Leading me to develop a production dashboard (or development dashboard - I thought this was a better name after the recording)
NB: This is not the usual āperformance dashboardā where you can see your past audience stats; this one is forward-looking and qualitative.
Introducing the podcast development dashboard
You can view the Investology version of the dashboard in its current live state here.
Categories
It is organized across four categories: setup and branding, production, distribution, and monetization.
Setup & branding: This is what you need at channel level. It's similar to your brand editorial guidelines.
Production: what you need to create every episode, but also in general what you need to create content from your podcast, and that goes beyond the episodes (think articles, clips, etc.)
Distribution: everything that you need to [00:04:00] grow your podcast
Monetization: is how you generate revenues. But that might sound a bit restrictive because maybe that's not your goal. If you're a brand, you are not planning to generate money directly by monetizing the podcast, but you want to generate value from it. For example, if you manage to promote your services through the podcast, that's useful. If you network with guests, that's also something very valuable. So I'm putting everything in there.
Completion or Progress level
You can visualize them as little gauges, but it could also be a number from 0 to 100, 100 being this is fully done. For example, I havenāt started on a podcast website.
I prefer this gauge over a checklist because nothing is set in stone.
For example, the podcast logo is something that I'm probably not going to change for a long time.
Other elements are more fluid, like setting up a YouTube channel, which is something that I can initiate in a very basic way and improve over time because there's a lot you can do specifically on the YouTube channel in terms of SEO, or graphics.
Setting Priorities
The next aspect is to have a priority view because you shouldnāt always be starting with the thing that's least completed.
For example, you cannot launch a podcast without a hosting platform and a logo. Again, the YouTube channel is an intermediary priority. You don't need to start with that.
Creating Actionable Items
The goal of the dashboard is to create actionable items, and we do this by mixing up the priority with the completion level (via a basic formula in Notion).
So if I look at Setup & Branding: I want to create a trailer. I want to review the audio assets, the music that I use for different tracks. I want to create series that are more distinctive. I want to improve the run of the show.
I can also use it for new ideas. For example, I just thought about having a media kit for sponsors. I haven't got one, so I will put it here in monetization, with a low priority.
The bottom line is that it gives me an overview of what I need to do. It's not overwhelming. It's actionable and itemized.
As a bonus, this can also be used as a reporting tool if you manage a podcast. You can combine it with hard viewership numbers to explain how the show evolves qualitatively and quantitatively.
Thanks for reading DisContent - by Orama! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
I hope this dashboard is beneficial for you. Even if you donāt use the file, you may keep the idea.
Here is the link again to the Investology development dashboard.
I'm planning to create a template that I can share in the next newsletter. Stay tuned!
I will be sharing the evolution of the podcast and the template itself.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com -
Dave Wallace's venture into podcasting started as a personal project and a way to catch up with a long-time collaborator, Dharmesh Mistry. Their podcast, "Demystify," focuses on FinTech and allowed them to explore their interests while growing their audience and developing media opportunities, such as a partnership with Fintech Futures (a leading fintech publication, part of the Informa Group), or a recent invitation to record a series of interviews in Dubai. But for Dave, it was also a personal journey and an opportunity to āfind his voiceā, and pursue new opportunities.
šš¼Below you will find key lessons for brands from our conversation
šListen via the Substack player above and the usual podcast platforms
š Watch on YouTube
**Disclosure: Dave & Dharm Demystify is an Orama client**
Key lessons for brands
A safe place to
Daveās advice to individuals and brands embarking on their podcasting journey is simple: just start.
Podcasts offer a safe environment for people to express themselves and share their stories. Unlike the traditional belief that podcast hosts need to be charismatic entertainers like TV chat show hosts, for Dave, the key to successful podcasting is genuine interest and the ability to keep conversations going (which we all have).
And who knows, a podcast may even help you find your voice, like it did for Dave.
Leveraging content beyond audio
Dave stresses Demystifyās multi-faceted potential of podcasts beyond just being audio content. The episodes are a foundation for creating diverse content streams, such as articles, videos, and social media posts.
Particularly for B2B businesses that naturally struggle with content, turning podcast conversations into content can act as an efficient content engine, generating white papers, LinkedIn articles, and even whitepapers
A call to businesses
The podcast is not just about the audio experience; itās an opportunity for brands to articulate their messages, share insights, and connect with their target audience on a more personal level. Dave argues that every business should consider podcastingānot necessarily to reach thousands of listeners but for deeper engagement with their specific audience.
Companies are so terrible at creating their own content, like terrible. Whereas, people are good at talking. So actually recording a conversation within a business and turning that into a podcast and then writing content on the back of that. This is the way to do things.
More about Dave Wallace:
* Follow Dave on Linkedin
* Dave & Dharm Demystify podcast on Fintech Futures
* Watch the show on YouTube
Useful Resources for Brand Podcasters:
* The Brand Podcast Checklist
* Grow Through Conversations: a Framework for B2B Brands
* Distribution and Audience Growth Playbooks for B2B āShowsā
* How to stand out in a crowded niche (when everyone has a podcast)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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The term āembedded financeā is hugely popular in fintech and gaining traction more broadly. The potential is hugeā$7 trillion by 2030. Yet a significant knowledge gap exists among non-financial brands and tech companies. To bridge this divide, Lars Markull, an embedded finance adviser who supports brands, infrastructure providers, and banks as they explore and build embedded finance products, has embarked on a content creation journey that includes blog posts, newsletters, podcasts, and events. Heās rapidly built a significant niche following and attracted sponsors, with indirect benefits to his main consulting business.
He shared his insights about his content strategy and the challenges of balancing consulting with media activities.
šš¼Below you will find an edited transcript of the conversation
šListen via the player above and the usual podcast platforms
š Watch on YouTube for added charts & visuals.
**NB: Embedded Finance Review is an Orama client and Iāve also interviewed Lars for my Fintech podcast.**
Personal Highlights:
* Itās a journey (you wonāt get everything right on day one)
* Itās a bit like a workout: You need a cadence, but build up gradually
* As a consultant, you may not get a lot of direct enquiries, but producing content helps with visibility, authority, and relatability
Transcript:
George Aliferis: When I look at the Embedded Finance Review online, I see a newsletter and a podcast. How do you characterise it as a content platform for your consulting business?
Lars Markull: It's been quite a journey. Initially, I started with insightful blog posts on LinkedIn, sharing insights about embedded finance. I identified a knowledge gap between FinTech companies and non-financial tech brands. My goal was to produce content for the latter group. The early blog posts were an educational series, which I'm reworking for an updated release soon. I soon realised the challenge of maintaining this output frequency, so I explored other formats like news curation. Now, I focus on a European perspective in my weekly newsletter, gaining great feedback from various sectors. The podcast naturally followed, amplifying the stories of those who've succeeded in this field. Recently, I've started organising physical events in European cities to foster connections between different sectors. It's a journey of education, especially for non-financial brands, as they navigate these trends.
GA: You havenāt mentioned the word marketing. But building online communities via episodic content and then hosting physical events sounds like a good marketing strategy for many B2B brands. Did you first launch as a consultant and then move into content creation, or was it concurrent?
LM: I always had a love-hate relationship with producing content. When I was employed in open banking, it must have been in 2016-2017; I started under my own domain with my own name. Basically, I started publishing blog posts. My big role model was Fred Wilson, a VC in New York who became famous with his blog, called avc.com. Back in the day, he published a blog post every single day. On some days it was a photo on the beach with a dog. But it was quite often really insightful stuff. I realised I wasn't always enjoying the writing part, but putting content out there is really helpful. Even as an employee, it was helpful to be visible in the space for the things you're doing.
I pushed myself to post back in the day. I focused on embedded finance. By learning, and speaking to companies, I understood thereās a massive gap. The content is not there. That's when I realised I needed to come back to that. And, to be honest, now the content production around embedded finance is a lot more love and a lot less hate. Of course, there are still days when you are writing the newsletter or doing something where you feel like you have a bit of writer's block. It's good to have a rhythm to keep getting stuff out there.
GA: And how do you think about monetisation?
LM: I never did it for monetisation. I've now started taking sponsors for my newsletters, as this could give me more time to focus on content because right now it's a side thing. A newsletter is a great way for lead generation. It's not like I've received a lot of project enquiries, but I think it definitely helps with building your brand, not so much with the cold network but with your existing network. Sharing on LinkedIn is definitely helpful.So sharing on a weekly basis, my newsletter, and my podcast definitely helps me to be visible. And again, it's a journey. I don't think embedded finance review will become a media business, but the media element will become more relevant.
GA: 11FS are doing it well, right? They have sponsorship and make money from the media element, but their core business is consulting. Do you have any tips in terms of the workflow and the process that you can share with us?
LM: When I started blogging in 2016, I tried to keep a weekly cadence. I stuck with that for a month or two, then I stopped for a week, and typically one week of stopping meant stopping for another six months. So it's good to keep a rhythm. I think you have to be realistic about what you can achieve. I didn't start with a weekly newsletter. I started monthly, then biweekly, then weekly. You can learn a lot while you do these things. And similar to what I said about the embedded finance process, it's not possible to build a perfect thing from day one. You need to iterate to learn. I learnt that news curation and interviews are great because they don't require too much creativity on my end. I need to find people. I need to be active, find the stories, go out there and amplify them. But I don't need to come up with crazy new concepts around embedded finance.
Find something that works for you; find a cadence content you feel comfortable doing long term.
GA: What are the challenges or things youād like to improve on?
LM: I spend a lot of time thinking about the mix of consulting and content activities. How they can contribute to each other. There's a lot of thinking around that, but I'm not going to find the perfect answer. I keep trying things; with the sponsors now, I potentially have more time to invest and then see where it goes.
Every day as an entrepreneur, there is a new challenge, something they didn't expect, sometimes small, sometimes big. I think that's just part of life.
GA: You are a leading light in embedded finance, fulfilling an important mission to connect brands to finance opportunities. But I think you're also nailing it with your approach as an entrepreneur and content creator.
More about Lars Markull:
* Follow Lars on Linkedin
* Subscribe to Embedded Finance Review
Useful Resources for Brand Podcasters:
* The Brand Podcast Checklist
* Grow Through Conversations: a Framework for B2B Brands
* Distribution and Audience Growth Playbooks for B2B āShowsā
* How to stand out in a crowded niche (when everyone has a podcast)
And to finish, a bit of funš
And some interesting reflections on The Podcast Election
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com -
Welcome to the new joiners. Iām George, from Orama a content studio that helps Ī2Ī brands grow with podcasts. The September sprint, a series of short solo episodes, continues.
When I posted earlier about YouTube, I was wondering: should B2B brands invest in YouTube? Here I share tips on how to make it work.
Listen to the podcast, read the edited transcript below, or watch the video for a visual bonus.
The InvestOrama channel is nearing the 20,000-follower milestone. We should reach it next month, and it happened with minimal recent effort, I only posted twice this year.
My podcast channel follows a similar organic growth path on YouTube - with the same level (or lack of) activity - a trend I donāt see on Apple Podcast and Spotify unfortunately. That inspired me to revisit my YouTube Journey and share some key learnings.
My YouTube Journey
My journey with YouTube began straight after I left finance. I started by offering YouTube channel management services and worked with channels across varied industries like food, jewellery, tech and sports. The brand channels Iāve worked with have accumulated around 100 million views. That number would be a total failure for any video of Mr Beast, but if you consider brand videos with a CTR of 0.5%, thatās potentially 500,000 new business opportunities.
YouTube users have changed. It used to be seen as a platform for independent creators. Soon media brands adopted it, then consumer brands, but 10 years ago very few brands could boast a million followers (Chanel was one of the first). Now, all prominent B2B tech brands such as AWS and Google Cloud heavily invest in YouTube and build significant audiences.
Whatever your technical topic, thereās an audience on YouTube for it. Creators who understood the platform's potential have long garnered millions of followers by sharing technical content, from math to coding.
Here are 20 essential tips from personal experience on YouTube (from my channels, or others):
šš¼šš¼šš¼If you want to fix your channel, but donāt want to spend time on it, I can help. Thereās an offer at the bottom.
20+ YouTube tips for brands
How to approach YouTube
1.You don't need to post all the time on YouTube or promote your content.
YouTube can do the work for you, like it did on my channels. The traffic comes from YouTube directly.
2.YouTube is reliable, unlike other social media platforms.
Do you remember Facebookās pivot to video? (LinkedIn also had one, but it never took off).
ā3.The difference with other social networks is that it's based on content, not notoriety, not how popular you are already.
When Apple, or Nike (or the Pope) launched their Instagram account, they had millions of followers instantly. Just like BCG, Goldman, Amazon, did on LinkedIn. Thatās not how it works on YouTube, where itās about the content that you post.
4.Itās an opportunity for smaller brands to punch above their weight - thatās a consequence of the point above
5.Itās an opportunity for SEO
YouTube is the second largest search engine after its parent, Google. It is incredibly competitive if you look at the amount of videos posted.
But if you compare it to non-video content, it's a lot less competitive. If you have an SEO strategy, it's, it's not easy, but it's easier to compete on YouTube than just on the World Wide Web in general.
6.But itās more than search.
But it's also a suggestion mechanism, and both combined means your content can live forever and be discovered by new people. That's unlike other social media where your posts have a lifespan of days or weeks max.
7.Analytics rule
YouTube provides a LOT of data, you can pinpoint your search terms and target them with free tools like vidIQ. And therefore it pays off to have a very analytical approach and that also means that brands that naturally have an analytical approach should have a competitive advantage by applying those skills.
ā8.The ROI is always high if the āIā stays low
In terms of return on investment, well, it can be high because in my case, I haven't published much recently (the I - Investment is low) and it keeps growing and bringing in revenues directly (ads) and indirectly (sponsorships, courses).
But I did a lot of work upfront. Once you've built a proper show, a proper channel, once you find something that resonates, it has long-term benefits.
9-You should post regularly: itās good advice, but it's not a golden rule.
This channel has just posted one video and has been growing ever since.
You can forget this preconception about having to post, weekly or even monthly, even if it's beneficial.
ā10-There are things that you can do to maintain the channel which are much less time-consuming than creating actual content.
Although I havenāt been posting, I regularly respond to comments. It just takes a few minutes and I enjoy it. I also tweak the titles and thumbnails based on the analytics that have been fed.
Optimization
11-Content and optimization are a product.
CONTENT X OPTIMIZATION = IMPACT
If you score 10 in content and 1 in optimization, it's going to be hard to break through. If you're very good at optimizing, but your content is not great, you won't have fantastic results.
But if you take care of both, then YouTube can really work for you, and optimizing is a lot less
12-There are 3 essential things that you need to think for optimization
Start with the title, thumbnail and description. Check your āImpressions click-through rateā. If itās less than 1% you need to change something.
I've posted before about thumbnails and titles.
13-And then there are little things:
Think of playlists to organize your content. I don't think tags matter. But you have Cards and End Cards, which are powerful ways to link to other types of content. They can bring your CTR from 1 to 2 or 3 percent.
ā14-Analytics over Creative
Your optimization, includes copy and design, things that maybe B2B brands are not the most comfortable with, or are not part of their core skills. But, this is a simple fix, and with iteration and analytics, you can make it work.
15-Thumbnails and hooks are not clickbait
Itās something I've learned through YouTube that I'm not yet applying it to other content. Unfortunately, it's not enough to put valuable content in the hope that people will find you.
You really have to get them a strong incentive to click. And then to keep watching. I apply it fairly well on YouTube, but not on this blog, for example, and itās something I want to improve.
About your videos
16-Resonance is key
When you find a point of resonance, just like in physics, when an item vibrates in response to oscillation, that matches its resonant frequency, it changes everything. So it's the same with your business. You need to find something in terms of style, content, and format that match your audience and things will start to click. The view count will start to rise. You'll have some feedback. All things will come together
17-Thereās an audience for your niche, whatever it is.
That includes your B2B super specialized subsegment of FinTech or whatever. It's not boring. There are probably creators that are reaching millions of people, or just thousands of people on that topic. And I think the more niche you go, the better it is. But no, just publishing content is not enough. ā
18-Think of the format.
Itās the unique way you're going to present things. My channel didnāt work at first. I wanted to explain and clarify key technical aspects of finance. I used to post very āgoodā content with very good speakers. And it didn't really āworkā until I found the concept of linking it to series and financial scenes.
Itās pretty much the same content with the same people, but itās reaching tens or sometimes a hundred thousand views per video. ā
* A classic interview with an expert, Nicolas Rabener: 1,500 views
* The same expert, but referring to a Billions episode: 55,000 views
19-Face the camera
For a long time, my channel was āfacelessā. It's not very practical for me to film myself and also I don't like it. But I decided to embrace it, because you want to create this connection, especially if you're selling a service or something on top of your channel. At least people get a feeling of what it would be to talk to you, relate to you, and work with you. Don't shy away from that.
20-Apply your branding diligently, but it's about perfectible vs. perfect.
It will not be a 10 out of 10 for the first time, probably forever, but you can improve over time.
Keep the end goals in mind
21-Capture value outside YouTube
This is what creators do, and this is what brands should do as well. Try to capture emails straight away.
ā22-Selling is fine.
The content can be totally related to what you have to sell your product, your service. Explaining how your product and service can solve issues should probably be your strategy on YouTube. I use Ahrefs as a reference, they are doing it really well without being āpushyā. And they're cashing in significantly.
We're coming to the end of my āSeptember sprintsā. I hope you enjoyed them.
If youāre interested in making YouTube work for you, hereās an offer exclusive to clients and subscribers to this newsletter.
Free YouTube Audit
What is it?
We use various analytical tools to assess the completeness and performance of the channel. We will provide you with an assessment and some recommendations. (This is not an assessment of the quality of the content itself).
Why do I need that?
A YouTube audit would most likely precede a YouTube strategy. Once you know what works and what doesnāt, you can de-risk your content creation.
How does it work?
No login is required, we will scan your channel with various publicly available tools using YouTube APIs and that will be enough for a first report. If you want more details we can look at your analytics.
Get in touch here and provide your YouTube URL if youāre interested:
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com -
Welcome to the new joiners. Iām George, from Orama a content studio that helps Ī2Ī brands grow with podcasts. The September sprint, a series of short solo episodes, continues.
Listen to the podcast, read the edited transcript below, or watch the video for a visual bonus.
Something fun happened since my last post.
Open or close with a conversation?
As my last post was about business development, I must have been doing searches that got the internet excited about selling me ways to grow my business, and I've been served countless ads, including this one multiple times:
It's about learning a complex funnel system that āattracts and converts high-ticket clientsā. What struck me there is that the purpose of the whole system was to lead with a conversational close (below). I've been talking about the opposite: a conversational opener.
Both can work together of course. But, you need to know what type of deal youāre into. If you sell āsimpleā solutions, but itās hard to identify the buyer then maybe you need a complex funnel system, like the one above. When it comes to enterprise sales, where you have a clear idea of what institutions can buy your services, but itās a complex solution, starting with a conversation is a better approach. Itās the opposite of the ātraditionalā marketing playbook.
Beyond āContent-Based Networkingā
My earlier post was about business development and it was inspired by a book called ācontent-based networkingā. Hereās a pretty good one-line summary by ChatGPT.
"Content-Based Networking" by James Carbary teaches how to build meaningful professional relationships by creating and sharing valuable content that fosters authentic connections with key individuals in your industry.
Firstly, itās worth thinking about sales vs. networking. Although the summary above and the bookās title are about the latter, from memory, the focus is on the former. Itās about finding a balance.
Then I want to mention the elephant in the room: where does it fit in a brandās content marketing?
And finally, there may be additional, personal, selfish benefits (based on personal experience) that trump profits.
Networking vs Sales
The book says āInvite your ideal buyersā. Why not? But I think there's something a bit problematic about it: keeping a genuine interest (or pretending well enough but thatās even harder).
I'll take a personal example. I've been invited to the āBusiness Spotlightā podcast. The host was, well, Spotlighting my business.
Approach it cautiously
And he offered some services (coaching starting with a free session!) straight away on the back of it. I wasn't in the market for that. But even if I were, I could see them coming from a mile away. I participated anyway in the podcast. I always say yes if I donāt need to prepare, itās good practice, but I didn't think this led to a very genuine conversation. There was no incentive to share the episode or recommend it to other people - although I could have.
Iām sure you readers have a more subtle and meaningful approach - but I wanted to offer some caution anyway.
A bigger audience = more value to the relationship
If your show is popular, your business can become popular and thatās content marketing (see below). But even if we miss that completely, it means having a bigger spotlight on your guests, offering more value to the people you will interview. You canāt completely neglect audience growth from a relationship-building point of view.
Networking > Outreach
Secondly, I think this ideal buyer targeting misses a networking opportunity, although the book is called content-based networking, not content-based sales. Being introduced to a connection is probably more useful, more valuable than a serendipitous connection, especially if the introduction is a warm recommendation. If you look at complex deals that benefit from a network-led approach, the various stakeholders and partners can be excellent guests who contribute to your ultimate goal, even if they are not the buyers.
Thereās probably an ideal mix of outreach (interviewing prospects) and networking (Iād look at Goldman Sachs and A16Z for guest strategy clues).
Podcasting and content marketing
Youāre podcasting. You're creating a lot of content(!). I know what you think if youāre a podcasterā¦ But from a brand perspective, if the primary motivation for your podcast was business development itās easy to see it separately from the rest of your ācontentā.
Itās a content engine
Good news! You can still pull them together. Or if you donāt have a content arm, a podcast, a series of conversations can be your content engine.
It's a powerful one and it's also a very efficient one. Let's say you have monthly episodes. You can easily transform each conversation into multiple articles, posts, and clips. They can also help you to create whitepapers, where you regroup the perspectives of different experts. And these can feed your content calendars, week in and week out.
It takes two to converse
It's not just about the guest. It's also about your point of view, and your expertise that you can showcase for the podcast. Thatās where the host strategy matters. Your listeners will get a feel for the organization.
That's why I often say that someone at the company should be the host, by default. It can be more than one person, but it should not be the intern who's comfortable in front of the microphone. The host represents the company. Even if just a hundred people listen? Who would you send to an industry conference attended by a hundred people?
And the fact that it's video is not neutral. It's a way to create a connection at scale.
Conversations are more than content collaborations
This draws straight from my experience as a podcaster who recorded hundreds of episodes.
On content collaborations
I think content collaborations are usually a good idea.
It's a good way to break the ice. It works really in terms of audience growth. And you can do it in many ways on social media. There are Instagram takeovers, YouTube collabs, etc. From a more traditional business perspective, you can write an article by sending questions to experts who will be featured in return.
But a conversation is more than that. It is interactive. It has the potential to bring you from point A to point B. You both learn something. It affects your perspective on the world, even if it's not always in a groundbreaking way. That makes it particularly important for relationships.
But there are even more benefits in being able to ignite these conversations.
Other benefits
I evolved my podcast, originally The FinTech Files (about financial technology), into an area of finance that I was even more interested in (investing).
Because this was primarily a personal exploration. In doing so, I transformed a podcast that was bringing in business (as discussed here) into one which isnāt. Because I'm interviewing authors, experts and academics, not brands and my business, Orama, works with brands.
It still amazes me to have this opportunity to reach out to people I admire, my favourite authors, personalities, etc. And most often they will agree to have a conversation with me. The non-monetary benefits are huge.
Itās not a complete financial loss though. It was a time when this exploration of investing was important to me. And it impacted my finances overall by making me a better investor. But you may say it's a selfish perspective, to the benefit of George Aliferis, the individual, and the detriment of Orama, the brand and you probably have a point.
As the sole owner of the business, Iām ok with thatā¦ and I'm now thinking of relaunching my FinTech podcast but with a different angle.
So far so good with the September sprints. I started them with a swim training metaphor so hereās another one. Even if you only race long distances itās beneficial to include sprints in your routine. These solo episodes are not sustainable and Iām here for the conversations, but itās been a good drill.
So I'll do another one, which may be the last one. And it's related to something that's happening. on my YouTube channel as it's about to cross 20, 000 followers even though I've posted almost nothing this year.
Itās an incentive to revisit the missed opportunity for many B2B brands on YouTube.
Thank you for listening, watching, or reading!
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com -
Welcome to the new joiners. Iām George, from Orama a content studio that helps Ī2Ī brands grow with podcasts. The September sprint continues with a critical question: Business Development.
Listen to the podcast, read the edited transcript below, or watch the video for a visual bonus.
In this episode get into the heart of the matter, podcasting for business development. I've hesitated to do this episode because if you're an insider, it's a bit taboo.
You don't want everyone to know that your podcast is about sales. It's a go-to-market strategy. Itās different from a content strategy where the audience is the target client. Here itās the guests themselves. And how would your guests feel about that?
I convinced myself to go ahead because firstly, I donāt think itās that much of a secret anymore. The word is out, many brands apply that and that includes many Orama clients. Secondly, it's not a straightforward playbook. I want to revisit it and clarify. As always, I write with mainly B2B Fintech in mind. But if you're in another industry, consider yourself lucky in terms of marketing because B2B fintech faces a lot of challenges. It's finance, so it's highly regulated. And think about selling to banks. That's got to be a long and complicated conversation, right?
Weāll break it down:
* Unlocking enterprise sales with a podcast (Why it works)
* Content-based networking (How it works)
* How to make it work in practice
Unlocking enterprise sales with a podcast
The idea: create content to connect with others and build relationships.
* build a platform
* invite people you want to meet for a conversation
* collaborate on the content
* follow up after the content collaboration
* deepen the relationship over time.
* reap the rewards (sell more)
It works.
I canāt share details from our clients, but I can share my firsthand experience from returns on my podcast.
To keep it relevant for enterprise sales the reference is:
* Not THIS podcast
* Not podcasting services, which are my main business at Orama (Also it doesnāt work to interview people in Fintech just for the odd chance that one of them would want a podcast - see Alignment below).
Instead, I will use:
* My now-defunct podcast The Fintech Files, which explored B2B Fintech
* Consulting services that I offer on the side, opportunistically (bus dev, marketing)
Two guests became clients, Mockbank and Nordigen. I also did a consulting mission for this organisation, which was not a guest but was a connection from a guest. And through podcast connections, I was also invited to interview for a head of marketing role at one of the big Open Banking firms (I was not in the market for a job, and it wasnāt for me, but itās still an opportunity)
Keep in mind: I wasnāt doing podcast interviews with a sales agenda, the opportunities appeared spontaneously.
There was a connection between all of those: Open Banking. A topic I was curious about and that I became well acquainted with through 5 conversations on my podcast. I didnāt even think about it then, but now that I look back I was connected with the Open banking community.
NB: since then I transformed the podcast into somethig different and I interview authors and academics in the investment space with 0 probability of them giving me a ājobā. The reason for this pivot is for another episode.
Content-based networking
Use podcasting for targeted connections
Similar opportunities might arise serendipitously if you network intensely, schmooze and attend all the right industry events. The power of networking is nothing new. You can also refer to it as the power of weak ties. āItās not what you know, but who you know.ā
But you can bypass serendipity or the randomness of being in a room with the right people and go straight to the CEO's office, the investor table, the meeting you want -through this medium.
The title of the chapter is from a book, that Iām loosely referring to here.
Collaborating > Networking
The other advantage is that it's not just about networking.
You're going to work together to create content, not just one conversation, but repurposing this content in many different forms. Your incentives are aligned, for example, you want to get as many people as possible to watch the content.
Collaboration (on content) is a step towards a more commercial collaboration.
Podcasting and ABM
From a B2B marketing perspective, you can see it as an ABM (Account-Based Marketing) tool. You can target specific organizations that you want to connect with. This can be part of a broader go-to-market toolset: ads, events, outreach, etc. that will create multiple touchpoints that form a cohesive strategy.
For smaller organizations, it can work as a standalone strategy, because it doesn't cost much, and it's very accessible If you don't have a budget for anything else. Connect with the CEO of your ideal client, can open a lot of possibilities.
WIIFT
A key principle is that you put the spotlight on your guests. It's about them. They're the stars of the show, the heroes of the story.
It's What's In It For Them (WIIFT), and that provides a very different approach to cold email.
What is the success rate if you approach executives with a carefully crafted commercial proposal that corresponds to their needs, is personalised, etc?
Answer(s): a) it depends b) very low. Both are correct!
If you invite people to your podcast the success rate will be very high. First you need to have a few episodes on your belt. They need to be well-produced. You need to do a decent job at promoting them. But this is the bread and butter of podcasting.
To be specific, for my Fintech podcast, where I was booking CEOs or senior executives, the default answer was yes. Iād say the success rate would be around 80%. And that means there was no need to chase the 20% who didnāt respond because there were always enough guests available.
Iād split the guest booking experience into three phases:
* Start with āfriendsā to build a track record (3-5 episodes)
* Then you can start reaching out to people.
* People contact you to appear on your show. Many CEOs pay PR companies to book them onto podcasts, theyāll do the job for you and help with questions and logistics.
Your agenda
Obviously, it's not to sell them something. It's a relationship-building exercise and the sales can come later. But itās your agenda, and you can ask them anything you want, or at least suggest the questions. You can guide the question and you can understand very important things pertaining to your specific goal. It's also good for market research. This ABM approach is not just about, entering the organization, but also about understanding your target organization.
How to make it work in practice
Let's talk about practical aspects, starting with my personal experience related to Open Banking.
Genuine interest
I hadnāt started with an agenda of āgetting involved in Open Bankingā. I was genuinely interested and thatās why I invited multiple guests to discuss the topic. One conversation led to another, I was immersed in that community and from there opportunities came naturally.
But that doesnāt mean you shouldnāt be strategic about it and thatās about alignment.
Alignment
From a business perspective, you need to carefully align your podcastās purpose and guest strategies with your market.
For example, if you sell, software to higher education, your ideal guest could be the CTO of these companies. If you're selling marketing services, then you should target their CMO.
But often itās not that simple. Maybe the marketing decision for what youāre selling is not taken at the CMO level, maybe itās someone in content or social media.
For enterprise sales, itās probably not a single person or department, you may have many stakeholders, influencers that weigh on the decision. But thatās where the opportunity to interact and explore through your platform is even more beneficial. If thatās your case, I recommend the Goldman Sachs guest and host strategy.
Content collaboration in practice
There are many ways, and many platforms to do that. For the B2B FinTech, LinkedIn matters more, but you can adapt. Some of the obvious things you can do on LinkedIn are:
* Create a post to thank the guest and link to the full conversation
* Create clips, long or short. Even if you don't have videos, you can create clips with animated audio.
* Carousels with quotes from the podcast
Those are examples that we typically create with each episode for our clients, but
The importance of the workflow
If this is not your core business, you don't want to spend too much time on this and it's easy to get distracted.
Iāll revisit this in a future sprint (another one: Iāve got a lot of drafts!) but as these are recorded and edited conversations, they require a few steps and tools or providers.
A seamless workflow is the key to making it last and getting all the long-term benefits (donāt exhaust yourself).
Network beyond the episode
The conversation can be part of your ABM strategy, your sales team can leverage it. But you can also use the content to help build a relationship over the long term.
We discussed it previously.
You can post regularly about them, even if you had one conversation, that was a year ago, So you've got a good workflow. It's part of your schedule. You get regular guest, your network grows and it'll be easier to seize the opportunity or push for them use this to trigger a commercial relationship that's how you grow your business as you grow your podcast.
Further thoughts
If that sounds interesting, but youāre not ready to commit, you can start with a Minimum Viable Podcast:
Relationships can unlock enterprise market sales, and podcasting is a very effective relationship-building tool.
But I want to go even further, in the next post.
Because there are elements that I havenāt mentioned above, but we need to explore them, including:
* What about your audience? (The book says it doesnāt matter, but really?)
* The medium: you can collaborate on social media for any type of content, but what makes a conversation different?
* Sales vs Networking
* Content marketing: where does it fit
Thanks for your attention! If you have questions or comments drop them below, respond to this, or contact me: [email protected]
Thanks for reading DisContent - by Orama! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
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Welcome to the new joiners. Iām George, from Orama a content studio that helps Ī2Ī brands grow with podcasts. The September sprint continues with a critical question:
Listen to the podcast, read the edited transcript below, or watch the video for a visual bonus.
How do you start a podcast?
How do you start a podcast? Thatās the question I get asked the most.
It's coming from brands and individuals alike. And although it looks simple, it hides multiple layers. It's a bit like: how do I launch a website? or a business?
My answers so far have been perfectly accurate but largely ineffective.
I want to solve this here.
For podcasts, I think you can break the original question into three:
* What are the practicalities of launching a podcast?
* How do I build and sustain a podcast that will elevate my brand, differentiate from competitors and generate returns?
* How do I get started and test it out?
A practical answer
You can go to Wix, Squarespace, or whatever, create an account and create a website.
For a business, in the UK at least you can register a company with a few documents and Ā£50.
And for the podcast equivalent you need two things, assuming you already have a computer.
* A microphone because otherwise, your sound recording will be of poor quality. You're exposing yourself to a lot of background knowledge and other issues.
* A podcast hosting platform: multiple options are available on the web, and many are free. I'd recommend, starting with Spotify for podcasters. You can also use Substack, where this podcast is hosted. Both are free and you can load your audio files there.
* Follow the brand podcast checklist for the other details: TL;DR: logo, blurbs, etc.
* Youāre all set! Your audio files will be distributed via RSS feeds across platforms.
A comprehensive answer
In reality, people want a website that showcases their offer, attracts traffic, etc.
They want to create a business that generates some kind of value.
A podcast that can sustain itself and bring some sort of satisfaction through the host or benefits as a business.
Then there are answers but they get much more complicated.
Maybe a good way to create a website is: to gather all the content; create a wireframe; use a template. Thatās for a simple version. Or maybe find the right agency that will do everything for you.
For a business, it can be infinitely complex. Make a business plan. Find customers. Build a product. All that sort of thing.
They require significant effort and investment, even if itās just time, upfront.
The podcast equivalent is not that complicated, but it also benefits from careful preparation and creative thinking.
We've created a document as a guide: the B2B Show Bible template. (I call it āshowā not āpodcastā on purpose).
It is a very useful guide if I say so myself.
It helps to launch a podcast that sustains itself, makes it easy to book guests, and to differentiate. And links to the end results (not just podcast metrics) they want to achieve.
We use it with clients to guide them through their launch. But it implies commitment, professional assistance, and a minimum personal investment. It only makes sense if the brand wants to create a series of episodes, say at least one per month for six months.
Butā¦ You may not feel confident if this is going to work for you. And, if you will be able to sustain it. And that's where I think we need the third and differentiated approach. The idea would be to try it out. Figure out what it implies until you're fully ready to commit. In particular for scale-ups.
If youāre a large business, this may be just a small line on your budget.
If youāre a startup founder, you can nimbly drive this.
The need for a third answer
But itās harder if youāre somewhere in between, a scale-up.
Youāll be using resources:
Brainstorming the name of your podcast alone could take hours. If you need a logo and copy, youād need to raise tickets to your design and copywriting teams, and so on.
It creates pressure.
You have to deliver something meaningful: ship many episodes and prove the value to the company.
Thatās a cold start problem.
But you can also see it from a different angle.
You simply want to have a conversation with someone and share it with others. That's what we typically understand as a podcast.
Maybe it's just insight from one of my colleagues, your CEO, or the executive team, whoās got something interesting to share.
Maybe youāre going to have this conversation anyway, and people will benefit from it. Or you have an opportunity to chat with a client. And it would be great if prospects could hear what they have to say. But you don't have plans for 6 episodes.
For all those challenges the Minimum Viable Podcast (MVP) can be a solution.
The Minimum Viable Podcast
The name is inspired by The Lean Startup, an influential book by Eric Ries. I learnt from Googleās AI that it was coined by Frank Robinson. Here are a couple more key points (from Gemini):
The minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product that's simple enough to sell to the market, but still has enough features to attract early customers. The MVP is a key technique used to validate a product idea and learn from customers early in the development process
The MVP's purpose is to test a business idea at a low cost, and to learn from customers so that the product can be improved.
You can substitute Product for Podcast and you got the idea.
I would also like to offer a different perspective, heard at The Podcast Show, from someone at BBC Sounds. The podcast arm of the almighty BBC:
Podcasts never land perfect(!).
That's striking because the BBC, are pretty knowledgeable about podcasts or creating shows, they have a big talent pool, experience producers, user data, etc. Yet they also tweak the podcast after the launch.
NOTE
Before we get to what this MVP looks like thereās one thing you need to know:
A podcast is fully editable. And that can make the approach very different from the website and/or business comparison used earlier. That means you can change all the elements, even after theyāve been published (itās part of the beauty of the old-school RSS feed). Make the changes on your hosting platform and they will feed to Apple, Spotify and wherever you syndicate it. You can also replace an episode.
To some extent websites, and businesses can also be edited or pivoted, but itās more complex than just overwriting something new.
But you can be even leaner than that.
You donāt need a syndicated podcast. You can start with an audio post. Itās an option, here, on Substack. The process is identical to a podcast: you upload an audio file.
You donāt need Substack. An audio file can also be posted on any website or included in an email. But if youāre starting from scratch, the value is mostly in the transcript which you can create with tools like Otter and many others - they multiply on the web. (Please do NOT transcribe manually, itās not worth your time.) Now you have the draft of a blog post or newsletter.
If you record a video, you can post the whole conversation, or create clips for social media. Even if you didn't record a video, you can create one with an animated transcript.
Then use your existing email database, website, and social media, to distribute it. After you've done that a few times, youāll be in a better position to answer the questions: Should we continue? Do we want to have regular public conversations? Can we commit to monthly episodes?
And then those audio posts can be uploaded as your first podcast episodes.
What does an MVP look like?
Youāre reading/listening/watching to my Minimum Viable Podcast. Although this episode is syndicated on podcast platforms and on YouTube. Iām still at this stage where I am thinking of tweaking the format, the branding, and I allow myself to make mistakes. At least I wonāt hit my head against the wall if I do. And I sure did last week when I included a video from the Olympics on my YouTube channel. Of course, it got blocked. What was I thinking? The thumbnail was also wrong. (But no big deal. Itās fixed.)
This is my minimum viable podcast. Iāve got other channels, which are no longer at this stage, like my investing podcast & YouTube channel where I know that any tweaks can have an impact because Iāve already built an audience there.
Moving past the MVP
There are still some questions to ask before you cross the chasm and decide to launch episodic content. Hereās what I see as the most frequent follow-up questions
* Resources: do we have what it takes to sustain the effort
* Compliance: particularly in the financial space
* Audience engagement: especially now that our competitors have launched their own: how do we stand out if there are X podcasts in our industry
* Guests and inspiration for content: will we find them
* Measurement and ROI
I will cover those in detail in future episodes.
Right now, I would say the last is the only one that matters ultimately because it relates to all the others. If you get ROI on this, then you will find resources.
Nobody said:
āI had a conversation with a prospect and he later became a client. Itās a pity we canāt do more interviews because we donāt have enough resources.ā
If you are in that position, youāll find resources.
It's rarely that simple, but it happens, it happened to me (and it will be the topic of my next post).
The most important reason to launch a podcast in the B2B/enterprise sales space is t build relationships.
Once you have an established podcast. Itās easy to book guests who would never reply to your email or pick up the phone otherwise. CEO, CMOs, whatever C-suite your target market is have an incentive to participate. Just like you should participate in someone else's podcast. It's an efficient way to promote your business, but softly!
My next episode/post will tackle the big question: how can a podcast unlock enterprise sales?
But the main message for this one is that you can test out this medium of communicating in the leanest, simplest possible way. Record an audio post and transcribe it. Donāt call it a podcast just yet.
Thanks for reading DisContent - by Orama! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
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Like everybody else, I've been watching the Paris Olympics. As I like swimming, I didn't miss the 50m sprint (the equivalent of the iconic 100m sprint in track & field). The atmosphere was particularly joyous, and I was pleased that all āmyā countries got a medal (š„š¦šŗ š„š¬š§ š„š«š· - My kids are Australian, British, French).
It was a great race, finished in 21 seconds, but it will have a long-lasting effect on the sport, because a relative outsider, Australia's Cameron McEvoy, won with a very unusual approach. It also made coaches and athletes rethink their training.
Even journalists were puzzled and kept asking McEvoy (you can hear/see the questions in the audio/video version):
How did you come up with the idea of winning an Olympic gold medal in swimming by swimming not very much? (laughs)
This struck me because that's what this podcast is about. How B2B/complex industries, such as enterprise fintech, can create content which generates revenues (= gold), or other measurable results (medals!). And how by escaping the norm, you can achieve better results.
Training long distances in swimming will make you fit, but McEvoy showed there are better ways to train for gold.
Content for B2B has many benefits, but if revenues are your gold medal, there are better ways than the traditional approach to content.
Culture matters in sport and business
I'm a mediocre, veteran swimmer, but I know enough to witness something that every swimmer can confirm: it's very much about the volume of training, many sessions in the pool with extensive mileage.
Swimmers train harder than most other sports. My neighbour is a Premier League football coach and told me how a new manager shocked the team when he asked for more than an hour of training per day. The typical elite swimmer would have two gruelling swimming sessions, six times a week and cover huge distances, 10 kilometres a day is not unusual (multiply by four or five to estimate the running equivalent.). And you have to add gym sessions.
NB: I donāt mention the financial difference between pro footballers and elite swimmers who depend on state subsidies.
The ādistance cultureā also prevails for sprinters, despite some differences.
That's also what external commentators assume, like this lady you can hear/see in the audio/video:
And when itās part of your culture, you donāt ask questions about it.
The parallel with B2B brands is that they have embraced the idea of creating content, so much that they donāt ask the ultimate question: how does it link to revenues, or move the needles in other ways?
McEvoy went on a journey of exploration and drew from other disciplines to design a different training program with his coach. But ultimately the mileage question comes naturally to a casual observer with a ābeginnerās mindā in the swimming world.
I need to insist that swimming, is not a new sport, it has been data-driven and scientific for years, but still, people woke up to something new.
When it comes to B2B content, thereās also an unwritten playbook. We need to attract eyeballs, to show some thought leadership. Some activities can feel compulsory: whitepapers, webinars, events, and articles. They are all good. But if you have limited resources, they can be exhausting and there may be better ways to achieve what matters, create relationships and convince potential buyers.
Punching above your weight
Hereās a picture of the podium, as they stand together on the same march. You may notice that McEvoy is a bit shorter than the other two.
Sprint swimming used to be dominated by larger athletes, the difference with McEvoy and the other guys is even more striking with their shirts off. If you were to design a 50m swimmer, youād probably pick the giant Manaudou as a model.
McEvoy is punching above his weight. And thatās the opportunity for startups and challenger brands. Content allows you to punch above your weight.
The parallel with B2B brands is that the content is not about looking big or being popular. It should be about delivering the right type of results. My audience, clients, and business, we all try to punch above their weight.
Data-driven vs. end-result driven
Another important aspect of this race and the personality of the Australian swimmers that the media love is he's called āthe Professorā. He graduated with a science degree, majoring in physics and mathematics. So yes, heās data-driven and thatās how his unique training regime was built.
I think being data-driven is something that the majority of people on this list already appreciate. For content, you want to measure, iterate, and improve based on whatever data you have.
Yet a challenge with this approach for brands is that it makes it easy to lose sight of the end result.
If you launch a new content initiative, and you want to show it works, you will measure the reach, and how many people click. Maybe how many people like and interact with your content. It's still data-driven and important. But you never want to lose sight of the end result.
It doesnāt have to be sales. It can be softer data such as:
* Contribute to Account-Based marketing (ABM) efforts
* Improve the relationship with one decision-maker or influencer in the process
* Networking benefits (someone who can introduce you to someone)
* Inspire people internally
* Insights that improve our product
What I often observe with fintech startups, that launch successfully, raise funding rounds which allows them to have a marketing budget and then try to tick the boxes of the financial marketing playbook, which include some or all of those: webinars, events, whitepapers, articles, podcast, social media, etc.
Swimming long distances will make you fitter.
And ticking all the boxes will all have benefits.
But you may not get you a medal, and you may exhaust yourself in the process. This brings me back to the conversation about BOFU content.
The focus is typically on brand building or brand awareness, which is fine, which is important, but content can do a lot more than that. Content can also generate leads, can also bring in customers.
So it's important to keep a distance from the conventional marketing playbook and measures for ādata-driven contentā and stay closer to the end result.
See you next week.
PS: yes next week, which is unusual as itās normally monthly and Iām busy, butā¦
Maybe I feel bad for criticizing traditional swim training and the culture of mileage. I am doing something thatās very much inspired by old-school swim coaching. After a break, comes āhell weekā, an extra intensive week where you swim even more than usual. It has a physical impact, but also a mental one. Itās hard but the rest of the year will be easier. So I'm doing my own little sprint as I return after my Summer break. Itās to regain my āpodcast muscleā, and to share some recent research and conversations that I canāt wait to share.
The next episode will be about the challenges to launching a podcast, and the idea of a āMinimum Viable Podcastā, or MVP inspired by āthe āLean Startupā book.
(Hint: The MVP doesnāt need to be called a Podcast. TBC)
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com -
Welcome to the Orama Newsletter. Iām George, Founder/Producer at Orama, and this is a monthly newsletter that I send mainly to clients and partners, with two goals:
* Build in public and share thoughts & insights about the world of video and podcasting for brands
* Keep you in the loop with the latest offers & developments at Orama.
You can listen to the podcastš or watch the video šš¼:
TL;DW (Too Long; Didnāt Watch)
I started my career in financial markets, for big banks. We had a āmarketingā department, but the head of the department was not called āCMOā. As far as I understood it, that department was mainly creating PowerPoints for the sales, helping with events, etc. They were not expected to generate leads.
This was a decade ago. It feels like a different era, but this culture is still felt in the FinTech world, where most founders have a financial background and have not been exposed to a modern marketing setup. But they are smart people who know itās not just about having āhungryā sales anymore. So they hire marketers - but they expect results fast. Itās one of the main reasons Fintech CMOs have such a short tenure.
Thatās the realm where my guest, Araminta Robertson, the MD and founder of Mint Studios works. Her answer is āBOFUā or Bottom of the Funnel Content. The process is explained in the episode, and you can read about it in detail here. I will share a few quotes below to give you an overview.
Hereās the idea:
Start with the bottom of the funnel. Start with people who are closer to converting. āSo these are people who already know they have a problem and are actively looking for a solution.
And its benefit:
It helps you get results sooner, which makes your leadership happier, generally. It helps direct your content strategy because then you suddenly know the topics that seem to bring in customers and revenue.
In an ideal world, youād get the topics directly from your customers, but in practice:
We use a proxy, which is the salespeople, customer service reps, product people, the people on your team who are constantly talking to customers and over the period of like two or three weeks, we interview them and ask like a list of questions to try and understand the customer.
Araminta runs a copywriting studio, I trust they write well, but this conversation makes me understand the role of the copywriter differently. Iāve used copywriting services before, but mainly because I though they had a comparative advantage: theyāre better writers, they have SEO skills and it makes sense for me to spend my time elsewhere. But this is different.
Copywriting is as much a process as a skill. And if you think of the brand as a content engine, audience data was exhaust from the publishing process. Itās becoming the fuel.
Behind the scenes
After my Nvidia podcast experiment, Iāve decided to continue posting commentary based on an interview rather than the interview itself.
On the plus side, I think it delivers more value for the audience, in less time
* A more compact conversation (strictly no chit-chat!)
* More reflection
* More added-value details, and visual clues
* A podcast that looks more like a show, with more creative freedom to evolve it
Thereās nothing wrong with conversational podcasts, where you get to know the speakers more and where sometimes the value is in the anecdotes and the personal stories. But the format must correspond to the rather radical proposition to ālink Content to Revenuesā.
On the minus side, it takes longer to edit, but I hope the tradeoff is worthwhile.
In other news, my main YouTube channel just passed 18k subscribers - not exactly a milestone, but an opportunity to share a few stats - which Iāll do in the next email.
PS: Special thanks to The Fintech Marketing Hub which enabled this connection
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com -
Welcome to the Orama Newsletter. Iām George, Founder/Producer at Orama, and this is a monthly newsletter that I send mainly to clients and partners, with two goals:
* Build in public and share thoughts & insights about the world of video and podcasting for brands
* Keep you in the loop with the latest offers & developments at Orama. This replaces the occasional end-of-month email but you can also contact me directly anytime: [email protected], Tel: +44(0)7900033552
I aim to keep it short. Speaking of which, you're on the list, but if you donāt want to receive it anymore, you can unsubscribe at the end of this email or click here. And if you want to share it with a colleague, they can subscribe herešš¼
The Orama website and emails are back up. Thank you Cloudflare!
How NVIDIA markets to developers
Today is #NVIDIAGTC, and the company has a lot to celebrate!A few years back, I had the opportunity to chat with Pahal Patangia from NVIDIA when their market cap was 'only' $500 billion. Back then, they weren't yet leading the 'Magnificent 7', and the AI boom hadn't kicked off.But, I was thoroughly impressed.Not just by the sheer power of their GPU, but by their unique marketing approach. NVIDIA has a knack for engaging with developers in a way that few other companies can match.By staying deeply connected with its end users, NVIDIA has maintained its position as a beloved market leader. From its origins in 1996, when NVIDIA was catering mainly to gamers, the company has constantly evolved, positioning itself for the next big opportunity.You can listen to the podcast or watch the video here:
TL;DW (Too Long; Didnāt Watch)
* Developers are influencers and decision-makers, but theyāre hard to reach for traditional marketers
* NVIDIAās playbook for marketing to developers includes:
* Using developers and data scientists as marketers
* Push code as content
* Community event (Kaggle)
* And yes of course it also involves traditional marketing and a BIG event: Nvidiaās GTC (18-21 March 2024)
Behind the scenes
This was an interesting exercise in re-purposing a 2021 podcast, which was all about data and financial technology but included interesting marketing snippets.
In parallel to the YouTube channel, Iāve set this up as a podcast directly on Substack. It took 10 minutes (it would have taken 5 if the logo did not have to be 1400x1400).
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oramatv.substack.com
