Latest / The Prompt / Ep. 567 | Content with a pulse: Building brand trust through storytelling
Transcript
- 0:01This is on base your one stop shop for solving your most
- 0:04pressing B to B go to market challenges.
- 0:07Each week, host Chris Moody and Paul Gibson talk to sales and
- 0:09marketing leaders to get you in depth insights and creative
- 0:12strategies to set your revenue teams up for success.
- 0:18Well, hello everyone. Welcome back to a brand new
- 0:21episode in the award-winning On Base podcast series.
- 0:24I'm Paul Gibson, and I'm excited today that I'm talking to Callum
- 0:28Brody. He's Associate Director of
- 0:29Marketing at First Source Solutions.
- 0:31And today we've got a great topic.
- 0:33It's well, the name is Content with a pulse.
- 0:36Callum sounds like an exciting project.
- 0:38Looking forward to talking to it.
- 0:39Thank you very much for coming on the show today.
- 0:41Thanks. Yeah, cheers.
- 0:42Thanks, Paul. Thanks for having me.
- 0:43Looking forward to it. OK.
- 0:44So it sounds like an interesting topic and very relevant for
- 0:48listeners. We'll get into that.
- 0:49But first, if you don't mind, just a quick simple question,
- 0:52Callum, can you walk us through your journey, where you are
- 0:55today and what inspired you to focus on this particular topic?
- 0:59Absolutely, Yeah. So I'll start from the
- 1:01beginning. So I was I was a journalist for
- 1:03the 1st 10 years of my career after after finishing uni,
- 1:08started off in local newspapers. So I started at my sort of
- 1:11hometown newspaper, which was the SLA Observer and I cut my
- 1:15teeth on general news. So kind of everything from it's
- 1:19council meetings, Crown Court proceedings, all the way down to
- 1:22sort of mileage, Fates, dog shows, everything in between
- 1:26really. So I started in Slough, moved up
- 1:28to Grimsby, all the glamour spots and a few few other places
- 1:32in between, which was, which was great fun and I, I learned a lot
- 1:37having sort of experienced that. I then moved to London where I
- 1:40sort of rose through the ranks at AB2B trade publication that
- 1:45focused on the general insurance market, spent about sort of five
- 1:49or six years there, learned, learned a lot about sort of
- 1:52publishing at that level. Obviously quite a niche, niche
- 1:55target audience, but a great market is the insurance market.
- 1:59And then, yeah, I really, really enjoyed my time there.
- 2:02After that, I helped run the news coverage for EU KS biggest
- 2:06consumer finance website, which is Money Saving Experts.
- 2:10And I worked pretty closely with, with Martin Lewis on quite
- 2:13a few high profile campaigns, which was a really unbelievable
- 2:17experience. Really thoroughly enjoyed that
- 2:20that that time did a lot of really, really good work that I
- 2:24I feel kind of did did help people.
- 2:28I left MSC kind of midway through 2017 and it's this point
- 2:33where my career kind of pivoted more towards brand journalism.
- 2:37So I joined a leading content marketing agency which supported
- 2:41a number of global organisations in terms of kind of cutting
- 2:45through the noise with multi format content that that
- 2:48resonates with their target audiences.
- 2:50And I learned, I learned a lot there, spent about six years at
- 2:53that agency, moved up the ranks there.
- 2:56In my current role, I'm part of the in house marketing team at a
- 3:00company called First Source Solutions, which is a big global
- 3:04business process outsourcing company.
- 3:07I'm based in London. The company itself is say
- 3:10globally in nature. So we've got big presence in in
- 3:13the UK, we've got big presence in the US in India and other
- 3:16parts of the other parts of the world.
- 3:19Among other things, my role includes delivering multi format
- 3:22content sort of integrated campaigns, which is designed to
- 3:26drive brand awareness and and lower funnel engagements across
- 3:30the various industry business units that we cater for here at
- 3:33here at First Source. Excellent.
- 3:35What a what a varied and interesting background.
- 3:37I reckon the the journalism and the Martin Lewis.
- 3:40I think there's a whole another podcast we can get into that
- 3:42one. Absolutely.
- 3:44Yeah, yeah, yeah. So with the title being content
- 3:48with the pulse, why in your mind do you think it's important for
- 3:52B to B organisations to maybe move away from traditional
- 3:55promotional content and focus more on, you know, building that
- 3:59trust around your brand with an audience?
- 4:02Yeah, building trust with your target audiences is really
- 4:06fundamental in terms of generating connection that will
- 4:09ultimately lead to acquiring and retaining customers, which is
- 4:12kind of what it's what it's all about.
- 4:14The best way to start building trust is obviously to 1st
- 4:17consider your audience's point of view.
- 4:20So what's keeping the awake at night?
- 4:21What are the main challenges and opportunities facing their
- 4:24business? Once you've considered the
- 4:27audience's point of view, you can then start to develop
- 4:30relevant and insightful content that addresses those those pain
- 4:33points. And I think the temptation in
- 4:36the past has been to focus primarily on promotional
- 4:39messaging. So you know, what do we want to
- 4:42say rather than what do the audience actually want to hear?
- 4:45What do they want to know? That doesn't mean that you
- 4:48shouldn't weave in the more promotional information, but it
- 4:52certainly shouldn't be the headline.
- 4:53And any promotional messaging should of course always be
- 4:56relevant to the target audiences challenges and requirements.
- 4:59So I think an effective piece of content marketing should
- 5:03ultimately leave the audience more informed and engaged on the
- 5:07topic in question. They may not necessarily be
- 5:10ready to start a dialogue yet, but you've taken that first step
- 5:13towards building trust and of course, brand awareness.
- 5:17I think it's important to note that there's no silver bullet
- 5:20when it comes to building trust with your target audience.
- 5:24It takes time and a patient considered approaches is really
- 5:27what's what's required. Yeah, and I think that trust is
- 5:30often overlooked. I mean, part of the the demand
- 5:32based technology is to give in insight, you know, intense
- 5:36signals when when that journey starts from a prospect, oh,
- 5:39look, they may be interested in us, they started exploring
- 5:42something relevant. That's way too early to give it
- 5:44to sales, right. That is where that trust element
- 5:47comes in. And getting that brand out and
- 5:50building the awareness and trust long before it gets to sales is
- 5:54is often overlooked. It's a case of, oh, I saw a
- 5:56signal, let's give it to sales. So, yeah, I think you put the
- 5:58nail on that ahead there. That trust with an audience is
- 6:01so important. And then the earlier you can
- 6:03gain that trust, the more challenge you've got have been
- 6:05successful going forward. Yeah, you can't.
- 6:07You can't do, you can't do anything without it.
- 6:09It's it's integral. You know, the the temptation is
- 6:12always to kind of push, push for those conversions.
- 6:14But without building the trust, you can't get to that point.
- 6:18So it is, yeah. It's really, really is
- 6:20important. Yeah, absolutely.
- 6:22And for obviously a lot of companies who'll be listening to
- 6:25this, it's a bit of a, a mind shift.
- 6:27So I think we all agree that any sort of change in a business is
- 6:31challenging. So when you're first starting
- 6:34maybe this shift in content strategies, you know, maybe
- 6:37you're in a traditional B to B setting and you're trying to do
- 6:40something different. What kind of resistance did you
- 6:43face when you did it and you think other people will face and
- 6:46how did you approach it? So I first started kind of
- 6:50working on this stuff. I moved from, as, as I mentioned
- 6:53in my intro, I moved from that sort of editorial, pure
- 6:57editorial journalism background into brand journalism, content
- 7:01marketing, whatever you want to call it.
- 7:03And I made that move almost almost 10 years ago now.
- 7:07And back in those days, it was very different to how it how it
- 7:10is now. So I think when I first started
- 7:12working with B2B brands on their content marketing strategies,
- 7:16the mindset within many organizations was that the focus
- 7:19must be on promoting particular products or service offerings
- 7:23with little or no consideration to the bigger picture in terms
- 7:26of the audience's challenges or even the wider industry or, you
- 7:31know, macroeconomic context. As I say, coming from an
- 7:34editorial background, I was keen to emphasize the importance of
- 7:38storytelling over jumping straight into the hard sell.
- 7:42So it's about finding the human stories with the sort of pulse
- 7:45beneath the surface of big corporations.
- 7:48By finding that emotive human connection, I think it's it's
- 7:51possible to start building that trust.
- 7:53And once you've built that trust, it's much easier to start
- 7:57taking your audience further down the funnel, as we say, to a
- 8:00point where they're ready to start talking to you in a
- 8:03meaningful way that that can lead to new business.
- 8:05Yeah, absolutely. And did you feel that the
- 8:08resistance that you got is similar to what other people
- 8:11would face or you know, from a business perspective?
- 8:14Do you mean what in in when I started out or now?
- 8:17Yeah. So you want to, you want to
- 8:18change your strategy and and get that trust element in it rather
- 8:21than the promotional element. But did you get pushed back from
- 8:24the business or a? Little bit, I think some some
- 8:28were more sort of receptive than others.
- 8:31The companies that we tended to work with back then were
- 8:34obviously the fact that they were working with us, they did
- 8:36understand, or at least they they kind of thought they
- 8:38understood why it was important. So yeah, I think that the
- 8:42pushback from those businesses was probably not, not so much,
- 8:45but obviously the companies we were working with were huge.
- 8:48So there, there might be people within the marketing teams or
- 8:51comms teams that that totally got it.
- 8:54But those people may be working in sales or solutions or
- 8:56operations. Maybe took a bit more convincing
- 8:59that, you know, it's not just about trying to put a product or
- 9:02service in front of someone and expected them to kind of, you
- 9:05know, want to start a conversation.
- 9:07You have to find that hook. And that's where kind of
- 9:09storytelling comes in. You know, what's the hook?
- 9:11Why should they care what, what are they getting out of it?
- 9:13And then you can start to build from there.
- 9:15Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And we hear lots of
- 9:19conversations, right. We want to be a much more, you
- 9:22know, account focused approach or whatever.
- 9:24And then sales push back because all they want is more leads.
- 9:27And actually you don't want more leads, you want better quality
- 9:30leads. And so, you know, if if you're
- 9:32bringing in companies that have understood and trust your brand
- 9:36and we're bringing those people into the funnel rather than just
- 9:39hitting anyone and everyone, it's going to be much more
- 9:41successful for them. And sometimes that resistance is
- 9:44something that you just have to do it and.
- 9:45Prove it. Yeah.
- 9:47We see. That a lot, Absolutely.
- 9:49So that will make sense. So from a practical perspective
- 9:52and again based on your own experiences, how does putting
- 9:56the focus on identifying challenges rather than just
- 9:59pitching solutions change the way we should think about
- 10:02content creation in in these big organizations?
- 10:05So I think it enables brands to amplify the issues and the
- 10:08topics that matter to their target audience, thus enabling
- 10:12brands to talk directly to the people that they want they
- 10:14actually want to engage with. So essentially it's it's about
- 10:18substance over slogans. And I think by adopting an
- 10:21editorial instead of a, say, advertorial approach to content
- 10:25creation, you start to build up a Bank of contact content assets
- 10:29that are of genuine interest to your audience.
- 10:32And this applies to all formats of content.
- 10:34You know, it could be long, short form written articles,
- 10:38case study, case studies, videos, landing pages, you know,
- 10:42the works really. And when it comes to putting
- 10:44this approach into action, the first crucial step is to make
- 10:49sure you understand the full picture.
- 10:51And this involves analyzing context, data, nuance and
- 10:55applying A journalist mindset to unearth the story that matters
- 10:59most to the target audience and hence moves the needle on your
- 11:04brand. Yeah, I think your your
- 11:06journalistic background gives you those skills to go and
- 11:09identify those problems that may be a a traditional market.
- 11:12So maybe wooden house. So definitely a good a good use
- 11:16of previous history. Yeah.
- 11:18So obviously, you know, with the all the onset of AI and all this
- 11:21sort of stuff, things are changing, but I believe, and I'm
- 11:24sure you do as well, that people are still the heart of, of
- 11:27creative, creative industry and wanting that sort of stuff.
- 11:31So what is it about the human stories that make them so
- 11:34powerful in a, you know, the corporate context and, and, you
- 11:38know, using your journalistic skills, how do you go about
- 11:41actually uncovering them in these big companies?
- 11:43Yeah, I, I. Totally agree.
- 11:44I think just because you're in AB to B environment doesn't mean
- 11:48your audience isn't interested in stories with a human element.
- 11:51And I think actually that's, that's quite the opposite case.
- 11:55I think. After all, human stories connect
- 11:57us all and uncovering those human stories can take a little
- 12:01bit of digging. But often when you scratch below
- 12:03the surface, you, you quickly start to uncover a wealth of
- 12:06potential storytelling collateral behind every, I
- 12:09honestly believe this. Behind every product or service
- 12:12offering there, there is a benefit to an end user,
- 12:14obviously. And it could be a banking.
- 12:16It could be a banking solution that protects vulnerable
- 12:19customers against say fraud, for example, or providing high speed
- 12:25broadband to remote parts of the world.
- 12:28The key is to ask the right questions of the subject matter
- 12:32experts within big companies to get to the bottom of the what,
- 12:36the what and the why. And I think that the best way to
- 12:39uncover these stories is to engage with as wider base of
- 12:43stakeholders within the organization as possible.
- 12:46So that could be sales people, you know, operations leaders,
- 12:50solutions experts, different job roles look at the same issue,
- 12:55but with a different very different perspective often.
- 12:58And it's these different perspectives that can form
- 13:00really powerful and engaging stories.
- 13:03And at the end of the day, everyone has got a story to
- 13:06tell. You know, it could be, this is
- 13:09getting a bit extreme, but it could be, you know, every from
- 13:11the cleaner to the CEO, everyone has got a story to tell.
- 13:14And if the craft is uncovering the golden Nuggets that can form
- 13:19the basis of a really compelling story that will resonate with
- 13:22your target audience. That's so right.
- 13:25And you need to be a storyteller from a sales perspective, but
- 13:28you need to know what story you're telling.
- 13:29And, and I, I think you're the word you use, which I use pretty
- 13:33much every conversation I have with my sales team is why
- 13:36understanding the why behind stuff, You know, why do you want
- 13:40to do this? What's the actual issue you're
- 13:42trying to achieve? Why is that important to you?
- 13:43It's so it's so important and it's the same, you know, if you
- 13:46don't understand the why, you might tell a story, but if you
- 13:49don't understand the reason behind it, it's not as
- 13:52compelling. So I definitely.
- 13:54I subscribe to the sort of the five wise approach, which does
- 13:58annoy salespeople a lot of the time.
- 14:01And it's, you know, if someone, if someone's requesting a
- 14:03content asset blog, for example, well, you know, why, why do you
- 14:07want it? You know, I want it because it's
- 14:10going to help me, you know, drive sales with this particular
- 14:13organization. Well, why, why, why do you think
- 14:16that? And the more you drill down into
- 14:18the wire, you eventually get to the root cause of actually why
- 14:21they'll want to do it and then how we can position it in a in a
- 14:24way that will be effective. Yeah, absolutely.
- 14:26So we, we often get people. So I want to buy some data from
- 14:28you. So why do you want to do that?
- 14:29Well, because we need more data. Well, why do you need more data?
- 14:32Because our pipeline's full of rubbish.
- 14:34Well, why would buying more data solve that?
- 14:37I mean, as you say, you then dig into what the real problems are.
- 14:40So, yeah, definitely agree with that.
- 14:42So from your perspective then, how do you go about adopting an
- 14:45audience focused mindset when you're creating content?
- 14:49And are there any particular operational shifts that you need
- 14:52to make sure this is successful? Yes, I think obviously getting
- 14:55under the skin of your audience is obviously you know, very
- 14:58important. Research your audience personas
- 15:02and establish their particular pain points and intense signals
- 15:05upfront. Obtaining top level buy in for
- 15:09the concept is again very important.
- 15:12You need everyone pointing in the same direction or else your
- 15:14objective is it's just doom doomed to failure.
- 15:17Once you've done that, your brand conversation should
- 15:20reflect 4 key aspects and those those are sort of the first one
- 15:24being around honesty. So content should always deliver
- 15:28an honest and clear reflection of the thoughts and values of
- 15:31the organization. The second one is connection.
- 15:34So a good way of building a connection is showing your
- 15:37audience how you've delivered in a similar situation.
- 15:40So case studies and testimonials from within your organization
- 15:45are a really powerful way of building a connection with the
- 15:48audience. The third one is is value.
- 15:50So your messaging needs to offer genuine insights that resonate
- 15:55with the audience. And finally, the 4th, the 4th
- 15:58point would be around reliability.
- 16:00So you should never, never initiate a conversation unless
- 16:04you intend to maintain that conversation.
- 16:06And this last point emphasizes the need for sort of what we
- 16:09call a drum beat approach to content distribution to doing it
- 16:12in isolation doesn't, doesn't really work.
- 16:14You know, if you're, if you're committed to it, you have to
- 16:16maintain it. And that could be, you know,
- 16:18anything from sort of regular social posts, regular blog
- 16:22updates, making sure your micro site is refreshed and up to
- 16:25date, you know, attending events on a regular basis.
- 16:30Without that drum beat approach, you are going to struggle with
- 16:33with your content marketing strategy.
- 16:36Yeah, absolutely. And all of this stuff, it takes
- 16:39time. And at the same time, we're all
- 16:41under pressure to hit numbers and things like that.
- 16:43So have you found a way to balance the need for that
- 16:46authentic audience first content we're all talking about
- 16:50alongside the the pressure to hit the goals, You know, maybe
- 16:53from a promotional perspective you often hear.
- 16:56Yeah, I honestly don't think the two are mutually exclusive as we
- 17:00sort of talked about earlier. I think the best way to achieve
- 17:03lower funnel success, you know, in terms of SQLS is through that
- 17:08strip steady drum beat of human centric content.
- 17:12It's the only way really you can drive meaningful long term
- 17:14engagement with those key audience personas.
- 17:17So I don't think it's a case of balancing audience first content
- 17:21with hitting promotional goals. It's more a case of making the
- 17:24development of quality audio first content a central
- 17:28component of your strategy for delivering results for for sales
- 17:31sales stakeholders. Yeah, makes sense.
- 17:34And I'm assuming there's going to be people on the call or on
- 17:37the podcast at the moment thinking, oh, this is something
- 17:40I'd like to get started with. Is there a cultural shift needed
- 17:44here? And and if there is, where would
- 17:46you, where would you say they should start?
- 17:48And once I've got going, how do they keep that momentum going?
- 17:51Yeah. So I think back when I started
- 17:53this, it was more of an unknown. And I think now, you know, 2025,
- 17:58most large organizations these days do understand the need for
- 18:02content marketing. But I do think a lot of those
- 18:04companies are putting the cart before the horse in a way.
- 18:07So before investing in a content marketing program, it's
- 18:11important to first ascertain what success looks like.
- 18:14So whether it's boosting brand awareness, delivering lower
- 18:16funnel connections, or to be honest, as is usually the case,
- 18:19it's a combination of both. Once you've established what
- 18:22success looks like, then attention to turn to the
- 18:25audience. So who are we targeting and how?
- 18:28How do we want to engage with them?
- 18:30More often than not, the answers revolve around human, human
- 18:34centric content that gets to the root of particular pain points
- 18:37or opportunities. What has changed since 2017 or
- 18:42whenever it was I, I started is the development of technology.
- 18:47And we talked about, you mentioned AI, you know,
- 18:50leveraging AI and LLM tools like ChatGPT has become, you know,
- 18:55it's no longer nice to have. It's a must have.
- 18:58And it, it's really important to use to start thinking in those
- 19:01terms when we talk about content marketing.
- 19:04So being able to maximize output from these tools has become a
- 19:08real differentiator. So, for example, it's, it's
- 19:10really important to understand how to tailor your prompts when
- 19:13using things like ChatGPT to uncover the best results in
- 19:16terms of, you know, everything from sort of campaign strategy
- 19:19to content development and audience targeting.
- 19:22And it's something that we, we take quite seriously at at first
- 19:26source, which is where I'm, I am now.
- 19:29Ultimately success depends it, it lives or dies on buying from
- 19:34leaders outside of marketing. So without a support sales
- 19:38solutions and operational teams, it really is extremely difficult
- 19:41to to kick start and maintain content marketing program.
- 19:46So that that is quite crucial. And I think the final thing to
- 19:49say on the point is just patience is really important.
- 19:52So campaigns rarely deliver instant results.
- 19:55It does take time, as we say to, to build trust and for that to
- 19:59translate down into into meaningful outcomes for the for
- 20:03the business. Yeah, everyone obviously always
- 20:06talks about the topic of AI. It's there to stay and it's,
- 20:09it's revolutionising the world. I mean, one of the interesting
- 20:12things we see a lot is that sales, particularly I speak to
- 20:16sales leaders often are losing a little bit of confidence in AI
- 20:20because often AI is driving their, their sales teams to go
- 20:24after things that in reality aren't real.
- 20:27And so like to turn it AI without the why.
- 20:30If AI says go and do that, but it can't give you the, the why
- 20:33behind it, start, start not to trust it.
- 20:36And I think that's what's happening.
- 20:37I'm, I'm assuming in creative circles as well as you're
- 20:41building content, if AI is building something that's not
- 20:44quite as you expected it to be or doesn't actually hit the mark
- 20:48that you want, there's a bit of a confidence issue there.
- 20:51Yeah, it's, it's an interesting point.
- 20:53When I first started using it or looking into it in my previous
- 20:57role, it was still kind of in its infancy.
- 21:00And I did notice a lot of issues with with the technology.
- 21:04So for example, we, we trialed it on a, on a blog for a, for a
- 21:08client and we noticed that a lot of the, a lot of the quotes that
- 21:12were being pulled out were completely fictional, obviously
- 21:16caused by what was known as hallucinations.
- 21:19And it was an issue because, you know, you can't, you can't
- 21:21submit a piece of content that's full of just falsehoods and in
- 21:25inaccuracy. So, so that was something to
- 21:27keep an eye on. I think as time has gone by,
- 21:29that's, that's kind of been ironed out to a large extent.
- 21:33Where you can minimize those issues is just around how you
- 21:36use the technology. So the kind of the prompts that
- 21:39you use, the information that you're submitting to platforms
- 21:43like ChatGPT to kind of drive the results so you can kind of
- 21:47influence what you're receiving. But on your point around kind of
- 21:51like the creativity side of things, I totally agree.
- 21:54I think it will never completely replace the human element of
- 21:58content. You know, there's something
- 22:00about human creativity that that AII don't think can can ever
- 22:04really replace. So it's about kind of merging
- 22:07the two. By doing that, you can create
- 22:10quite a powerful proposition really.
- 22:13But it's, yeah, certainly interesting times for sure.
- 22:16Yeah, we use AI agents a lot to, you know, take away all those
- 22:20manual time consuming tasks. So it leaves sales and marketing
- 22:24to do sales and marketing, which is what we really want to do.
- 22:26And I think as long as AI stays in it's lane like that, I think
- 22:30we'll all still have jobs in the future.
- 22:31That's the important thing. Yeah, let's hope so.
- 22:34So the proof of the pudding, I always say, is in the eating.
- 22:37And as you evaluate your past and where you are now, what's
- 22:41the would you say is the boldest brand move you've made that
- 22:45maybe people doubted at the beginning?
- 22:47There's been a few that I've been sort of involved in that
- 22:49down the years. I think one thing that I'm quite
- 22:52excited about at the moment it's it's something that's kind of
- 22:55weird. We're spearheading at First
- 22:57Source at the moment and it's it's a brand move around what
- 23:00we're calling or the tagline is UN BPO and it's essentially a
- 23:04sort of a transformative shift away from traditional
- 23:07outsourcing models. So it's a bit of a yeah, a bit
- 23:10of a deviation from from where we've previously been.
- 23:14And it's all about embracing the power of digital innovation to
- 23:17being what we call an inch wide and a mile deep in terms of that
- 23:20that really deep domain expertise and fostering kind of
- 23:24collaboration over over silos. It's still relatively early days
- 23:29in terms of the roll out of on BPO.
- 23:32The early signs in terms of the response from both our clients
- 23:35and and analysts has been really quite promising.
- 23:38And I think the reason I mention it is, I think it's, it is a
- 23:41bold, bold move for a BPO organization.
- 23:44And yeah, it kind of reflects the mindset within the company
- 23:46to to sort of think a little bit differently and potentially
- 23:49upset the apple cart a little bit.
- 23:51Yeah, I think it's important, right There's it's too easy to
- 23:54say me too and just go along with what everyone else helps.
- 23:58And if that is the case, you end up all being bucketed in the
- 24:01same, you'll do the same thing in the same way.
- 24:03And it ends up becoming, whether we like it or not, you get into
- 24:06that price war of who can be the cheapest.
- 24:09And there's, I think similar to yourself.
- 24:11There's differences between what your business does and your
- 24:15competitors do. And you need to be able to, you
- 24:18know, explain and enhance those differences.
- 24:21Otherwise, as I say, you just get bucketed into into a Dutch
- 24:24auction which none of us want to be in.
- 24:26Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
- 24:28So you mentioned AI. Just out of interest, do you use
- 24:31it day-to-day? Is there a particular example
- 24:33you could share with us where it helps?
- 24:35Yeah, I do. I didn't used to, but it is a
- 24:38big focus at the moment. And I wouldn't say I was
- 24:41skeptical. Perhaps I was when I started
- 24:43out, maybe in my earlier career, but I I'm a big advocate now.
- 24:49I use it, you know, for everything from sort of very
- 24:52basic tasks like drafting social posts.
- 24:55Not that I do a huge amount of that, but you know, that's an
- 24:58example. Recently I used it for creating
- 25:02sort of like a campaign update, so refreshing an existing
- 25:05campaign that I've been working on to explore new messaging
- 25:09themes and explore new sort of a wider target audience.
- 25:13And I was honestly amazed at what I got back.
- 25:17The detail and the relevance of what what I received was really
- 25:21quite astonishing. And I, I ran it past my sales
- 25:26stakeholder who I'm working with on this particular campaign and
- 25:29I presented it to him and I didn't take credit.
- 25:32I told him up front that it was the result of AI.
- 25:36But obviously I'd, you know, I'd spelled out exactly what I
- 25:39wanted. I'd listed all the relevant
- 25:41prompts and he was equally just amazed And he, he wants to run
- 25:45with it. I mean, he's got a few comments
- 25:47to make on some of the points, but yeah, he more or less thinks
- 25:50it's good, good to go. So yeah, I mean that that's a
- 25:53recent example, but I am using it more and more and I think,
- 25:57yeah, the sort of the, the opportunities are just quite
- 25:59staggering really. So yeah, I would fully, fully
- 26:02recommend. Yeah, I was at an event a couple
- 26:04of weeks ago and I spoke to a founder and I said, you know,
- 26:06just give me your elevator pitch.
- 26:09And it was amazing. And I said, well, that's one of
- 26:11the best pictures I've ever had. He said, yeah, I take no credit.
- 26:13It was all done on AI. So it worked.
- 26:16It works. And if it works, why not use it?
- 26:18That's what I think. Yeah, it's amazing.
- 26:20So you're kind of like someone who probably consumes lots of
- 26:23content. Is there a particular book, A
- 26:26blog, podcast, newsletter, or anything like that that you'd
- 26:28recommend to our listeners? I subscribe to Seth Godin's
- 26:34daily blog, which I think probably a lot of people do and
- 26:38I'm a big fan. It's it's, it's really
- 26:40snackable, really thought provoking.
- 26:43There's another blog guy called Neil Patel whose blog I find
- 26:47really useful when I'm looking for ideas, sort of tips to
- 26:50enhance things like SEO and just other kind of general digital
- 26:54marketing advice. A book that I, that I can
- 26:58recommend is actually written by the founder of my former
- 27:03employer. It's a book called Powerful B2B
- 27:06Content. And it was written by Gay, a
- 27:08lady called Gay Flashman, who was the say, the founder CEO of
- 27:12my my former former company. And there's just loads of really
- 27:16good advice in there for anyone interested in kind of getting
- 27:20started with content marketing. So yeah.
- 27:23Excellent. Well, I'm sure people listening
- 27:25will be will be checking those out.
- 27:26So thank you for that. You've been a really good guest
- 27:28Callum. So I'm going to be cheeky here
- 27:30and ask, have you got any inspirational people in B2B that
- 27:34you think we should invite to the show in the future?
- 27:37Oh, it's a tough, it's a toughy. So the two people that I
- 27:41mentioned gay would be really engaging.
- 27:44I think she'd have a lot, a lot of really good stuff to say
- 27:47about, you know, her story on on content marketing and where
- 27:50she's kind of taking it. Neil likewise would probably be
- 27:54someone that would be, would be, I'd certainly be interested in
- 27:57hearing from. Without wanting to sound like a
- 27:59suck up, our CMO is a guy called Aniket Mendaka.
- 28:04And he, he's kind of been the spearhead for, for what we're
- 28:08doing in terms of AI within, within marketing here at First
- 28:12source. He's got some really interesting
- 28:14perspectives on how how we can use it and kind of what the
- 28:16future holds. So yeah, he would probably be
- 28:19someone that would be interesting to to hear from for
- 28:22for sure. Excellent.
- 28:24Well, I don't think we've had any of them on the show.
- 28:26So look out for them in the future.
- 28:28Hopefully we'll we'll get them on as as guests going forward.
- 28:31That's great. This has been really informative
- 28:33and we've dug into quite a bit of stuff.
- 28:35But if there's any listeners that want you know more detail
- 28:38or further questions, how would you recommend people get in
- 28:41touch to you after the podcast? So I'm on LinkedIn like like
- 28:45everyone. So yeah, I guess that would
- 28:46probably be the best way to to reach out if anyone anyone was
- 28:49interested. Awesome, excellent.
- 28:51Well, Karen, it's been a really informative, useful session and
- 28:55I think we've probably only scratched the surface.
- 28:57We could definitely get a follow up session, one around the
- 28:59content, but also around your journalist background.
- 29:02I saw you got some great stories we can share.
- 29:05But for now, thanks for your time and everyone you're
- 29:07listening. Thank you for for taking the
- 29:09time to to listen to this. There's plenty more episodes.
- 29:12I think they're coming up for 600 now in total, so please
- 29:15check them out. And in the meantime, thanks
- 29:17everyone for listening. Thanks again, Callum, for
- 29:19joining. Until the next time, Cheerio.
- 29:21Thank you. Thanks for joining us for On
- 29:24Base. If you enjoyed this episode,
- 29:26please be sure to share, rate, review and subscribe on Spotify,
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