Top Secret B2B Marketing Fitness Program Revealed!

Disclaimer: Consult with your primary care physician before beginning any fitness program. The following recommendations are my own. Your results may vary. Oh, and your physician probably won’t have any valuable advice about your B2B marketing fitness. That’s where I come in.

I’ll be the first to admit it: I’ve been flying a desk for way too long. Don’t get me wrong. I had my fair share of physical activity – on the weekends. But something happens when you careen past 40 and are staring down the barrel at 50. (Apologies for mixing metaphors.)

Bottom line: My physical metabolism wasn’t what it used to be during my 30’s, I still love food, and I had to drop a few pounds. (Who am I kidding?! More than a few.)

After discussing my plans with my GP and setting some SMART goals (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely), I invested in a wearable fitness tracker and decent digital scale, both of which sync to an app on my smartphone. Oh, and a decent pair of sneakers. Finally, I built a personal playlist of rockin’ songs to match the hard-driving pace I had set for myself.

A few weeks in, I realized something had to change. It was the music. Don’t get me wrong. I love music. Huge fan. I’ve written some of my best stuff listening to tracks that motivate me and help fire the creative juices.

I decided that since I was spending the hours working on improving my physical health, I also had to find a way to build my professional acumen as well. I knew this would also fit quite nicely with one of our core values that I’m personally passionate about: Always Curious. Always Learning.

It was time to fire-up my mental metabolism.

I decided to deep-dive into the plethora of podcasts proliferating on the web. More specifically, I targeted a few important topics related to my professional B2B marketing health and the subsequent health of my beloved clients. After all, the B2B marketing landscape is rapidly changing and its mission-critical to keep up.

I very quickly learned the beauty of podcasts: Unlike any other form of content, be it blog, whitepaper, infographic, slideshows or videos, ONLY podcasts allow you to consume the information whilst you’re engaged in some form or cardiovascular activity (or driving in your car). (Click to Tweet)

My B2B marketing health targets and the podcasts that are helping me meet my goals are:

• Content Marketing, Curation and Syndication
  The Marketing Companion – After I consumed his book THE CONTENT CODE, it really made sense to add Mark Schaefer to my playlist. What I love most about his podcasts is he’s not afraid to have fun while pushing the envelope. Mark and his sidekick Tom Webster will make you smile, laugh-out-loud and then suddenly have you thinking “Hmmmmm? What the ####?” To his credit, Mark shares his cutting-edge insights so that you come away from his podcasts thinking differently about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it – ultimately to the benefit of your company and your customers. He calls it “turning up your marketing intellect to an ’11′”

Content Inc. with Joe Pulizzi – Listen to just one of his podcasts and you’ll quickly learn Joe is focused with laser-like precision on helping you develop a loyal audience by showing you the importance of creating remarkable content. Known as the “godfather of content marketing” (and not in a Mafioso way, to the best of my knowledge), he doesn’t pull any punches and tells it like it is. Content creation, marketing, curation and syndication is hard work, but well worth the time and effort – but be willing to put in the sweat equity to get it right. His credo comes up time and time again: Build your loyal audience first, and then you can sell them whatever you want.

• Social Media Marketing
  The Social Media Examiner Show – It didn’t take long for Social Media Examiner to become one of my “go to” sources for all things social. Their podcast is no exception. In this ~10-minute daily podcast, you’ll be able to gleam a wealth of awesome tips and tricks related to the effective use of the various social media channels that you can implement in your own B2B social campaigns. In fact, many times the recommendations are so easy to implement, you can do it the same day!

• Marketing Growth & Inbound Marketing
  The Growth Show – This longer-form podcast is meant for business leaders that want to drive growth, be it in their company, ideas, team or a totally new movement. Host Mike Volpe, HubSpot CMO, chats in-depth with numerous business thought leaders on their own remarkable growth and together they share some of the secrets to their success.

Here’s another beauty of podcasts: You can quickly review the topics of the various podcasts and their episode guides / blog recaps, which enables you to filter through and select those topics that are most relevant to your B2B marketing fitness goals.

In a future blog, I’ll provide a more in-depth review of my Top 10 B2B Marketing Fitness Podcasts. For now, you simply cannot go wrong if your B2B marketing fitness goals are similar to mine if you focus on exercising through the above Top 4.

UPDATE: In six-months, I’m on my second pair of sneakers and ear buds. I’m also spot-on with my personal fitness goals. In fact, I’m 17.5% less the man that I used to be (weight-
wise, that is). All kidding aside, my mental metabolism has never been better. I’m voraciously consuming a wealth of information and helping our clients achieve their B2B marketing goals.

It’s a real win-win.

Do you have a favorite B2B marketing podcast? If so, please share it in the comment section

What about your company? Can you leverage your content into your own podcast? We can help! Ask us how.  

Written by Loren S. Meck:
Goldstein Group account manager. B2B marketing automation maverick. Friend to the ‘content strategy challenged’. Forever exploring the inbound marketing, content marketing and social media frontiers. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from the School of Hard Knocks. Unpublished novelist.