Capturing Your Internal Experts As Content with Zontee Hou: 3 Takeaways from the Business of Marketing Podcast Interview

I had a fantastic time speaking with A. Lee Judge of the Business of Marketing podcast about the value of video as a way to convey thought leadership and how to get your business leaders involved. Here are just a few excerpts from our conversation:

Do you think B2B has caught up on the idea of video?

The advantage of video even what we’re doing right now is that people get to really understand the expertise and build trust with the experts within your organization. For the vast majority of B2B organizations, we know that personal relationships are really important. And you can’t skill that without a tool like video where people get to know you really care and be interested in that expertise and that knowledge and really see your people in action.

I’m working with a financial services company right now where they just said to me, “We feel like on our webinars, you really get to understand the smarts of our people. But what we mostly are doing is sending out PDFs.” And I think that that’s something that a lot of B2B marketers, and just individuals, even on the sales side, customer service on relationship management, they can all understand that that’s what it feels like. Right? So I think that most B2B organizations are behind when it comes to video.

What do you think holds companies back?

The challenge that I think a lot of organizations still face that, I think is a challenge, because we haven’t invested in it is the human talent piece of it. You need to do some video training or media training for your people so that they feel confident. And I hear this all the time from my clients still, they have somebody who makes those phone calls every day has conversations with their clients. But when you say to them, “Can we do a video of you?” They’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve never done a video before. I don’t feel like I look good on camera, I don’t know how to make eye contact with the camera the whole time, I think I’ll just look flustered.” And they don’t want to look bad. They don’t want to be in that situation. But their company has not made the investment to say, “Hey, let’s help you look your best by giving you the tools that you need to have those skills.”

So I think that’s one place that companies small and big can really easily make a little bit of an investment to build that confidence. Because you’ve got to convince your people that they are going to look great, and then they’ll be more willing to share their expertise through video.

How do you target the thought leaders in your organization?

I think that it really depends on your organization and where do you build trust, right? I’m a huge fan of Sally Hogshead’s book, How to Fascinate. And she talks about how there are six, seven different dimensions that we as individuals we as brands, can think about when it comes to what’s fascinating about us: Are we really knowledgeable? Are we really prestigious? Are we really prescient and like looking far ahead and being innovative, right?

And depending on what your organization has, as that reason for people to be interested in you, you might select different people. So if you’re an organization that leads with innovation, you probably want those people who are talking about the development of innovation, to be a part of that content. If you’re an organization where your service is really what setting you apart, you probably want to invest in having those people be the front people when it comes to developing content.

So there’s no one right answer. But I think understanding why customers should engage with you, what’s really important to your organization, in terms of that storytelling—how to fascinate—I think that will help you to determine who are the right people to put on there.

Listen to the full show and/or watch the video version here.