080. A B2B Framework for Creating & Repurposing Pillar Content

Hello, welcome back to another episode of Boundify's Demand Gen Studio. Today we are going to be discussing how to use pillar content to create a framework for creating and distributing content for B2B companies. So I've asked Gabby to join me today because when we're talking about creating and distributing content for B2B, that's our day-to-day job, right? So Gabby and I produce and share all of the content for Boundify, and we use the pillar content idea that we'll be discussing today. Hi Gabby, how's it going?

Pretty good, Miranda. How are you? Pretty excited to be here today.

Yeah.

How does it feel not to record with Emilio Garcia Garcia?

Yes.

Yeah.

So right off the bat, um, let's just define what we mean when we say pillar content. So it's simply the idea of having one in-depth, typically long-form piece of content that's more content-rich that you produce on a routine cadence. And then you break that larger piece into smaller pieces and different formats, and then you distribute them across all the different channels. So we wanted to share our thoughts around this topic because when we talk about the struggles that B2B teams face when it comes to producing content, we are definitely speaking from a place of understanding and commiseration since we are also a B2B team that does this every day.

Yes. And actually, I absolutely love this topic because actually one of the biggest frustrations that I hear from like B2B marketing teams is that they feel they're constantly creating content, but they're not seeing like an impact on, or even like what they're expecting to be impact, right? Like they're posting regularly or they're trying different formats even, they're experimenting with video or short-form content. When they step back and look at the bigger picture, it seems like scatter, right? So I think one of the reasons that most of the teams don't actually have this settled is because they don't have a content architecture. And what do they have is activity. And those are like two different type of things. So architecture means actually like building something that compounds over time. And activity means like publishing things, right? So what we want to talk about today is that a framework that helps shift content from, uh, you know, like being something that you produce randomly becomes something that actually is a strategic asset to the company. And obviously that is the framework for, you know, like that framework is the pillar content. So once you start thinking about content this way, like the goal stops being just how do we post more, you know, like, and becomes how do we extract more value from the thinking that we are actually doing right now.

Yeah, I love that you say that. Um, because when we talk about pillar content, the idea of it is pretty simple. Instead of trying to create a lot of different disconnected pieces of content, it allows you to focus on creating one strong, in-depth piece of content on a regular basis. Typically it's around once a month, and then that piece becomes the anchor for everything else that you create throughout the month. Um, and I think that's important to keep in mind that pillar content, we're not You know, talking about one specific format, it's really more about sharing who you are and what you do with your ideal customers on a regular basis. And one of the biggest mistakes in content marketing is that teams will start that process by asking, what do we post this week? And that thinking about it that way, it's like a little too late in the process already. So a better question is, where are our ideas actually getting developed? Where are we explaining our point of view? Where are we explaining the problems that our buyers are dealing with? And that's the whole idea behind pillar content. That's what pillar content should be. Um, it's not just a piece of content, but it's really creating a public thinking platform for your brand. Brand. And in B2B, I think that's extremely powerful because buyers are not just evaluating products anymore, they're evaluating your expertise, and they're paying attention to how companies interpret buyer problems, how they're explaining trends, how they frame their solutions. And when a buyer repeatedly encounters really thoughtful, in-depth content from a company, they begin to trust the way that that company thinks before they ever even talk to the sales team. And that can change the whole dynamic of the buying process, especially for B2B.

I agree. I agree. Actually, another reason, and I think this is another reason that pillar content works so well in B2B, is because complex ideas require space, right? And, um, Most B2B categories involve actually complicated problems and things like revenue operations or demand generation, AI adoption, or digital transformation type of things. You can't really explain it, that type of topics meaningfully in like 30-second clip or a single LinkedIn post, you know, those formats are great for attention. Yes, but they're not great for explanation. And you know that. Explanation is actually what builds credibility. So, filler content gives that, gives you a place where you can actually, you know, like slow down and explore ideas properly, more in depth. And you can actually introduce a framework and explain where it comes from, talk about examples, and even address the limitations of the idea itself. So, the level of nuance is very difficult to achieve whenever you're using a short-form type of content.

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And we will also be the first to say that we understand the reality that most B2B teams operate in, that most teams don't have a massive marketing or content department. For Boundify, that's really you and I, right? Um, so you're usually dealing with a small team that's responsible for a lot of different things around marketing, demand generation, executing your campaigns, sales enablement, analytics and reporting, managing your CRM. And then on top of all of that, you're expected to produce content consistently. So pillar content really becomes a way to create leverage. So instead of creating, constantly starting from zero every time you need to create a new piece of content, you invest your time in developing a really meaningful asset, and then you expand from that asset into other channels. And that one change alone can make content creation much more sustainable for a small team. I know we've definitely experienced that. So let's talk about, let's talk about, um, pillar content for Boundify and what that looks like for us and why it's working so well for us.

Sure. For us, I think that our anchor of our pillar content actually is a framework. It's in our framework is the Demand Gen Studio podcast, right? And we got this version in English and we got the same as well for the Spanish version as we managed. And the reason that we choose a conversation format, it's because conversation naturally creates depth, right? When two people explore an idea together, the discussion becomes more dynamic. And meanwhile, maybe a person is, you know, introducing a concept that the other person asks a question and challenges it, like Emilio does whenever we have a conversation with him. And you go deeper into reasoning, you try to bring examples whenever he's talking, and suddenly a simple idea that is maybe tiny or a simple idea becomes much richer. That is something that is very difficult to replicate when you start like directly with reading content, for example. And another asset for this is like conversation also tends to surface insights that you might not have planned in advance, like something that comes to mind, right? Sometimes the most interesting moments in a podcast actually are the ones that happen spontaneously, like, you know, a reaction or a disagreement. A new angle on a topic. And I think those moments often become some of the most valuable pieces of content later, like those type of reactions that we have during the podcast, or even the funniest ones are the ones that can become that. And for us, let's just say that in each episode that we, that we have, that becomes that anchor piece of content. That's where, like, the core idea gets explored, right? Usually the way that we think about an episode is that we should try to revolve around one clear theme or a problem, right? For example, let's just say that we have a theme like a misconception of my generation or a framework for thinking about content like we're doing right now. A shift happening in B2B marketing or new technology that is influencing how teams operate. So the goal is not just to talk about trends or, you know, topic type of things, but to actually develop a perspective because perspective is what makes actually the content valuable. And in a piece of content, that, you know, sometimes that can only summarize what everyone is already talking about or that already knows, doesn't create much differentiation from other type of content that we see out there. But when a conversation actually introduces a new way of, I don't know, interpreting something or trying to explain something in a different way, it becomes much more memorable than, memorable than other type of content that we see on media, right?

Yeah, exactly. I'd add as well that no matter what your format is, your anchor piece of content is just naturally gonna produce a lot of density for the piece just simply because of the fact of it being long form. So for us, a 40-minute conversation can contain dozens of different insights and ideas. So we're not just creating one piece of content, we're really creating a library of content pieces off of that one piece of content. And that becomes extremely useful when you start thinking about repurposing the content.

Exactly. Actually, you bring this out for these— we get into the process, right, about the format. And we record actually our conversations in both audio and video formats and We do that on purpose. It's intentional because it allows us to expand the ways that people can experience the content because some prefer listening to podcasts while maybe they're, I don't know, commuting or working. Others prefer like watching the video. Like I know I do prefer watching video. And the reason to do this is because recording both formats at the same time ensures that we're not limiting how the content can be distributed later. And it also creates the foundation for extracting the visual clips later that we use for content on social media, right? Which is important because you know that short-form type of video or formats that we use are now the main way that ideas now spread online throughout social media.

Yeah, I love that you mentioned the video aspect because honestly, um, video, like you said, is such a powerful format right now. All of the social media platforms are prioritizing and rewarding video content, at least for now. Who knows what will happen. But even text-heavy formats like blogs or white pages, we're seeing that they're performing better is they have that multimedia aspect to them, not only for human consumption, but also showing up in AI overviews and improving the ranking of the post. So while you don't have to have video as the format for your anchor pillar piece of content, maybe your anchor piece is a blog or a white page. I would encourage you, everyone listening, to explore if maybe there's a way to make one of the smaller pieces that you make out of the pillar piece video format if your pillar piece is, um, text format. And then that video piece can be repurposed multiple times. Um, it can be a post on social media, it can be added to the blog to make it multimedia, it can be embedded in your newsletter. We're all about finding as many different ways to repurpose your existing content. Yeah.

I totally agree. And back to the tools that we use actually for that. The tools that we use are pretty straightforward actually. We use Riverside for recording, as you know. It provides high-quality audio and video, and it also has some like useful features that help identify potential clips from the conversation itself. And then whenever we stop, you know, like recording and save the video, we type of export our video to Descript. And we, what we like about Descript is that, or else I'm myself at least, is that it completely changes the way that you think about editing. It, it has changed the way that I, I edit my videos because instead of working on a traditional type of timeline, Which you can do that. I don't, I'm not saying that you can't, but it can be rearranged in another perspective because, which now that we can use Descript, it can be slow to, you know, sometimes it's very technical, but when we use Descript, we're not down to that. We're essentially editing a transcript, which that means that you can approach content like you will approach a document. Right? And if something doesn't add value, then you can easily delete it in a sentence if it is a sentence, or automatically remove that segment from the video or the audio itself. And on top of that, we use a few specific features that make a big difference in quality without adding complexity to the process, which I think is very important to mention. For example, We remove filler words, you know, like instead of manually cleaning up the, I don't know, sometimes stuff like that, like just the filler words or even awkward pauses that we have throughout the conversations, Descript can actually automatically detect and remove them, avoiding like the harsh cuts on the, on the video. And that helps tightening the conversation. It makes the content feel more intentional without spending hours editing it. So we also use another feature that we use is the chapters to structure the content. And since everything in Descript is transcript-based, it's very easy to identify key sections of the conversation and turn them into chapters. And this not only improves the viewing experience for our audience, but also makes the content more like scannable and we can try to reuse that content obviously across platforms or format that we have. And then, you know, there's the old thing about the intros and outros that we use there that instead of building them these every time, we standardize them and you know, it's a one-time job and then you standardize all the things that you use for your videos. Then you can create simple templates. Descript already has some templates that you can use that can quickly, like, you can put into place or, or plug into each episode. And that helps us to maintain that consistency without overthinking production, which we don't want. We don't want to spend 3 hours editing a video. And all of this is a huge impact, obviously, on speed, and especially when you're working with long-form type of content like a podcast or a webinar. So it also makes even like collaboration easier because this is another feature as well. Like anyone on your team, like it doesn't matter if they're or not a video editor, they can jump in and review the transcript, suggest changes, and refine even the narrative without needing an advanced technical skills, which you have to develop like throughout the years. To be honest. And another thing that you can leverage is the ability to identify obviously those key moments quickly because you can scan that transcript. Actually, you can even download it. So those insights, you can highlight them and turn those into clips even faster, right? So without that scrubbing through the hours of the footage. So Instead of editing being like a bottleneck for us, it has become more scalable for us and it is part of our framework, so, and the workflow that we use. That's for the editing part, so then whenever we, you know, like finish that editing part, we go for the trying to repurpose that content and finally we use it for Restream to redistribute that content across multiple platforms. And the important thing here is that it's not really the tools themselves, you know, like it's not the tools that we use right now. It's just that the workflow remains simple and repeatable. Like if I have a process and I do this, you know, like we have this pre-production, production, and post-production type of things in the process that we can use that repeatable and that the production process becomes more easier for us. Because if the production process, it is too complicated or becomes too complicated, it becomes very difficult for it to sustain the system over time. And consistency is much more important than perform, you know, like a perfect editing thing. So when you're building a content engine, that is very important that you can use it as like part of the process and it makes your work more efficient.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we share, you know, we're sharing the details as, uh, our process and what we do, not that it has to be the exact process that everyone listening follows. It's exactly like you were saying, um, you as a business, you need to identify your pillar piece and your process and just make sure it's something that can be repeatable and make sense for your business. Um, so now to walk through some of our different distribution channels. So our anchor piece of content, the DemandGen Studio podcast episode, once the episode for the month is recorded and edited, we distribute the full conversation across several different channels. So Spotify and other podcast platforms are important because They're one of the primary ways that people consume long-form audio content. Um, so we schedule every episode on Spotify and then we also schedule it on YouTube. And YouTube is also becoming even critical for video format because not just because of the size of the platform, but also the way that it's set up, it almost functions as a search engine in and of itself. A lot of people go to YouTube when they wanna learn something and can easily discover your content. And long-form conversations, uh, often perform well on YouTube because the platform just allows viewers to really dive into the topic, and the platform doesn't ping you on having long-format content because that's what it's designed for. LinkedIn is another key platform for us because that's where a large portion of the B2B audience spends their time. So sharing the episode there allows the conversation to reach professionals who might not actively be searching for podcasts, but they're open to engaging with interesting ideas that they resonate with on their feed. So each platform plays a slightly different role in how the content spreads, and that's why we choose to share it on all of them. So where pillar— the pillar content framework really becomes powerful is when you start thinking about the content branching from there. So for us, instead of treating the podcast episode as the one final piece of content, that we're creating for the month, we treat it as the starting point. So the full episode is our raw material, and then from that raw material, we can extract multiple forms of content, and each form serves a different purpose in our overall content plan. I don't know what your thoughts are on that.

Yeah, I think that when I started with the show groups, right, one of the The first things that we, the first way that people encounter an idea now is that type of format, which is short clips. Most people won't immediately commit to watching a 40-minute episode at first, right? But they might watch a 30-second or a 60-second type of, you know, like a clip that presents them an interesting insight, or at least that is catchy to the eye, right? And the goal of clips isn't to replace, you know, like the long-form content, but the goal is to create that entry point. So there are moments that they spark curiosity to the audience. And if someone sees a short clip that challenges maybe a common assumption or introduces a compelling idea, maybe they're more likely to explore the full conversation than if, you know, they just encountered a 40-minute episode and just Maybe I might or might not watch it.

Yeah, absolutely. And then, so we've talked about the importance of adding in video format to your pillar content framework. Since we start with video and audio format for our pillar piece, then we also try to break off a couple of content branches and a couple content formats that are more text heavy. So another branch, um, of content that we create every month is our blog. And the blog allows the ideas from the conversation to be organized in a more structured format. You mentioned the AI chapters that script gives you. I use those same chapters, um, when I'm creating running topics for the blog every month. And it also helps create a piece of content that can be easily discovered through search. So someone is researching a specific topic, might come across our blog article months or even years later, and they may never have found the podcast episode that it's from, which means the conversation continues to create value long after the original episode was publish. And then we do try to make sure to include that multimedia aspect by embedding the full episode in the blog. And then the social media clips that you were mentioning, we'll repurpose a couple of those to have some kind of like highlights, short clip highlights of the main topics in their respective blog paragraphs. Another content branch that we create every month is the email newsletter, and that gives us a chance to frame the conversation more directly for our audience and our list of people that are highly engaged with our company. So instead of just simply sharing the episode, we can take the key insight from the episode and highlight it and explain why the topic matters for that specific person. And then we usually provide like a short reflection that helps connect the conversation to the challenge that that audience is currently facing. And then email also tends to create a more direct relationship with the audience. It's a more personal channel than social media. And then thinking through more of our text-based format. We also take the blog and create a LinkedIn newsletter, um, as another way to distribute the core ideas from the conversation. And the reason to do email newsletter and LinkedIn newsletter and blog, not only is it additional channels to distribute, but the tone tends to be slightly different on each of the platforms. For LinkedIn, the content tends to be more reflective, maybe more of a narrative because people on LinkedIn often engage with content that feels more like an individual perspective rather than more of a summary that our blog or email newsletter can become. So we duplicate the blog for the LinkedIn newsletter, but then we looked for opportunities to make tweaks to better fit. The way that people consume content on that specific platform. So I think those are all of our current distribution channels. Obviously it may change as new platforms pop up, as they often do. But for now, those are the channels that have been most impactful for us and where our ICP lives digitally. So now I think we can move on to discuss maybe some of the ways that we use, you can utilize AI in your content creation. The ways maybe we most frequently use AI, and then also some best practices to make sure that AI is enhancing and assisting your process to share your human point of view.

Yeah, actually, you mentioned that LinkedIn part and I'm interested with the blog piece because I, that's, that was something I wasn't doing for Bondify. And now it is really cool to see because you're the one that is like the main expert about it, about the blog type of thing in the LinkedIn. And I see what you said, that the way that it changes the conversation or the way that you approach to the audience. And I think that's very powerful as well. And so moving forward for the AI uses, um, AI actually helps you. And this is something that I see every day because I use AI like 24/7 if I can. AI helps accelerate several parts of the process, right? But the way that we think about, or at least I think about, it is very intentional to use AI is that we don't use it to create the content, right? We use it to operationalize it, like, and scale what's already there, like, what we already create. For example, one of the biggest use cases that I have is identifying strong moments in the conversation, right? Instead of manually, like, reviewing, as I said, an entire section or an entire recording of 40 minutes that we have, AI can help you surface segments when there's a clear insight or maybe, like, a strong opinion or a concise explanation that could work as a standalone clip, right? This kind of reduces the time that it takes to go from a long-form content to a short-form distribution. Another key use that I use, or use case that I use, is turning conversations into written content, as you said, Miranda, but also in the post type of thing, right? Once you have the transcript, you can use AI to generate that first draft for your, even your blog outline or that LinkedIn post in structuring ideas. Grow, like grouping type of themes or creating a logical flow to follow. So that is another use case. And as I said, it doesn't replace thinking, but, right, but it removes the blank page problem. Like, where do I start? Whenever I'm trying to post something, it blurs out that and helps you to start from a point. We also use it for support distribution as well. Things like writing descriptions or titles or metadata that we're going to use for SEO-friendly type of processes that we have for different platforms also enhance the way that we use AI and help us to redistribute that content. And as well, not because AI is better at messaging, because it helps us move faster and maintain that consistency that we want. Across channels. That's the main reason that we use it. And there's the part for repurposing, right? A single conversation can become multiple assets, clips, posts, posts, articles, or even that email content that you share monthly. AI helps you accelerate that transformation without requiring a fully like manual process every time that you wanna try to accomplish that. But it is important to remember that AI is just assisting, as you said, Miranda, with the execution, is assisting you, is not where the value is created because the actual insight here is that, or the actual insight still comes from the conversation or the main idea that you have, that is having a point of view, right? That's what we want from demand generation. From saying something that is not— that anyone will agree as fast as you can imagine, right? Because again, content that simply, again, simply aggregates existing information really rarely like creates much impact, right? And we know that what creates impact is perspective. And AI at its best is just a way to help you scale that perspective, but not replace it. And I think that is the most valuable thing that I can say about it.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's, yeah, just like you said, the ways that we've found AI to be the most helpful in our process is just finding ways to save time here and there for a few of the steps, but ultimately the The source of the content is organically produced by us in our perspective. We don't have AI, um, avatars, you know, speaking for us in the podcast episodes. It is coming straight from us. But like you were saying, there are some AI features in the tools that we use that really help speed up the process, whether it's the AI-generated clips that you mentioned on Riverside and Restream, that again, it's, you still, you know, it's, it's still you performing the process of selecting the clip, editing it, posting it on social media. Um, but AI can just, using the clips can help take a little bit of the work on this front end of it just identifying maybe the most Maybe not most important, but like most noticeable pieces of the episode that might make for a good clip. And that's definitely helpful. And then like I mentioned, the chapter titles, that's helpful to pull out to be able to create the blog outline instead of having to review the entire conversation again to separate out the, in the clear chapters. And then another AI feature that I use for our written content, since we use HubSpot for our marketing engine, we use, I use a lot of the Breeze features when it comes to creating the blog and newsletter. So Breeze is HubSpot's, um, AI features. And I think you mentioned it, but the meta description. Um, and then even down to like blog top, the title for the blog and the title, the subject for the newsletter. There's a Breeze section that it'll analyze the content and then suggest newsletter subject, suggest a meta description. That's not only analyzing the organic topics in your content, but then pairing it with search terms that you want to show up for, for your company. So that just takes a little bit of the work off of your shoulders. But exactly as you said, ultimately your content should be coming from your point of view and explaining your brand's thinking in your brand voice. But the AI uses can definitely help take some of the heavy lifting of the process.

Yeah, definitely. We can have a long talk about all the features that we use every day because there's a lot. We have to learn how to use them because, you know, like some of them are not that easygoing or friendly user to manage, but over time we have learned some of them. So another section that I would like to discuss today was just the tips to get started, right? Because We cannot just implement this right away, everything right away. So some things to get started is if someone wants to start implementing a pillar content framework, the first step is choosing a format that feels sustainable for them, right? It could be like you said, like the podcast, the webinar, maybe a monthly research article or whatever, whatever that feels sustainable for you. The key is choosing something that allows you to explore. Ideas in more in-depth, right? And the second step should be like starting with small repurposing content, right? You don't need to create 10 different outputs immediately. Start with a few branches, maybe 1 or 2 clips or a blog article or even an email, right? Once the workflow becomes comfortable, you can try and expand from there. And, um, The final thing to remember is that the real power of pillar content comes from repetition. Over time, each new piece of content adds to a growing body of work. You know, eventually you're not just publishing content, but you're building an archive of insights that represents how your company thinks about its space, right? And I think that's the intellectual presence in the market becomes, or whenever the intellectual presence in the market becomes very difficult to replicate because you have a point of view, a strong point of view, and people recognize you for that.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Like you said, ultimately, if your process isn't repeatable for your team, then you're not going to repeat it. And the most important part with this whole thing is just getting started and remaining consistent with your content creation schedule, your distribution schedule. And just like you said, getting into a rhythm of creating the content and distributing it. Awesome. Well, I think we've covered it all.

Um, we actually reached the 40-minute type of content.

Yes. Emilio will be so proud of us. Well, thank you so much for all of you listening, and hopefully we helped equip you to start producing your own Color Content Framework. So thank you so much, Gabby, for joining, and until next time, see you, Miranda. Bye.