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