#109: Why Every B2B Business NEEDS Short-Form Video Content, with Ross Brouse from Continuous Networks

Speaker A: Hello, B2B marketers. Welcome back to the Marketing Bound podcast where we help you, a new B2B marketer, look at at work every single day by offering tangible marketing strategies, giving you access to the best minds in the industry and helping boost your confidence in your skills. I'm your host, Laura L. Bernhard, and this week I invited my good friend Ross Braus from Continuous Networks to chat about short form content and how he leverages it to grow his B2B business. Every week he proves that B2B marketing does not need to be boring by showing up on LinkedIn and TikTok with short and catchy videos. In this episode, we chat about storytelling, what it means in short form content, the power of analogies, how to get comfortable on camera, and how to get started in creating short form content. Hey, Ross, thank you for being on the Marketing Bound podcast. So for everyone who doesn't know, uh, Ross and I are good friends. We chat every single month to talk about marketing and stay current with the trends, talk about content creation. So this is gonna be a great episode because it's gonna feel like you're part of our monthly conversations. Uh, uh, so, Ross, thank you so much for being here.

Speaker B: No idea what you're talking about. I do not talk to this woman every month. No, I'm just kidding. I do. Yes. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me. I'm finally invited onto your podcast.

Speaker A: Secretly, you've been wanting to be on the podcast, but you never. You never said anything. It's not fair.

Speaker B: You never said like, that. I don't invite myself places. I'm just. It's not viral.

Speaker A: Okay, that's. That's fair. That's fair. But I'm super excited for this because I really want to talk about B2B marketing and address something that, like, scares every B2B marketer, and that is the fear of being boring. Because so much of B2B marketing is boring and not done properly. But, guys, Ross owns his own business, a B2B business, and he's also a great marketer. And so, Ross, tell us a little bit of how you used marketing or kind of like current marketing trends to help you with your company.

Speaker B: Yeah, uh, great question. And I work in a fabulously boring business called technology. And who wants to talk about that all day, right? We just want to yell and scream every time it doesn't work. And then when it does work, it's just like air, right? It's like air. My iPhone doesn't work. It's the end of the world. But if everything's working, it's like breathing. So that's technology. And people are bored by it because it's only present when it doesn't work. And it's tough because people take it for granted. You only call on the IT person when you need something, and then when you don't, I don't want may even pretend that you exist. And that's a difficult topic to market your services around. And it usually only works well when somebody's in immediate and present pain. And lately that's not happening as much because technology, it's getting better, computers are getting better, networks are getting better, cloud services are getting better, and people don't need as much help as they used to. And so that could clear and present pain that people were having, let's say, five, 10 years ago. It's not happening as much today. And so now we talk today a lot about cybersecurity because people are getting hacked and you've got ransomware and you've got other forms of malware, and you've got business emails being compromised and phishing attacks and text message scams, and it's all over the place. And so what I found is that I wanted to leverage kind of the pain that we all have in our lives, whether it's the phishing emails or the text message scams, or the stuff we hear on the news or whatever it is. And I wanted to start to leverage that and bring awareness to it. Because at the end of the day, I think what attracts people to any kind of a topic is when that topic becomes fascinating to talk about, or it becomes humorous to talk about, or it just becomes damned interesting. And I think we're starting to get there with this whole concept of cybersecurity. And so that's why I started talking about cybersecurity on LinkedIn and making videos. And I talk about it in a way that I think everybody can understand. Because if you look back and if you ever listen to a technology person talk, they love to use their acronyms. And, you know, we're going to set up the VLAN and we're going to put it in the dmz and we're going to take that DMZ and we're going to shove all kinds of traffic through it, and then we're going to reconfigure the firewall, and people are like, what are you talking about? I have no idea what any of that means. And so I wanted to talk about cyber security and technology in a way that anybody could understand it. And that's what my marketing today is all about. It's about connecting with people and in a way that they can understand and doing it in a humorous and fun way. Sometimes I'm a little scary. I'm not gonna say I don't ever, you know, push a little, uh, push a little fud. That happens sometimes because I'm a big believer that that risk and fear kind of go hand in hand and that you can't have one without the other.

Speaker A: So I like that you touched upon content creation and B2B marketing. And the three things that you mentioned was using simple language, so making sure that no matter what industry you're in, that you're communicating clearly to everyone that content is for. You also mentioned video. And I know a huge part of video is storytelling. And because I follow you on TikTok, I know that you've developed that skill of storytelling and especially storytelling for B2B. So if you can go into a little bit more detail on what that means in B2B, like what topics do you talk about? What I know you said news, but like if you had three pillars for B2B business, what would you be talking about? How do you communicate that story and in a one minute video and then how does that help your business overall?

Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. I think people tend to conceptualize storytelling as beginning and middle and end. And I've got to have a protagonist and he's got to have a pain point and he's got to meet some kind of a guide and he's got to overcome it and either get better, get worse. Like that's the whole story brand mentality. And I think everybody thinks of storytelling that way and it is, but you can't wrap that into a 30 second video. Like you're not going to have all of those components in a 30 second video. So when I think about storytelling and these really short, snackable pieces of content, I do it in a way where I present a problem that I know my audience has, or at least part of them is thinking about. And then I lay it out in plain sight. Here's the problem, here's what your potentially thinking about. As an example, I did a video on TikTok a few weeks ago that went viral and I simply just said, have you ever received a text message that you thought was maybe a scam but you weren't really sure? Here's how to find out. And then I show the audience exactly how they could research that text message scam to determine Using one data point, whether or not it was potentially a scam. Now, there are plenty of other ways. And there was a whole outpouring of people that came onto the post, some people to support it, some people to say thank you, other people just to be trolls, um, and tell me how stupid and wrong I was, which I think is fantastic. And I love all of it. Uh, but that's storytelling. That's storytelling right there. Because I presented a problem that I know my viewer has that pain point, and I showed them a potential solution so that they could walk away from it feeling like my life is now a little bit better because I know this and I didn't know it before. That's storytelling and that's how you do it in really short content form.

Speaker A: And I think another way to explain this is, oh, you have kind of like a, uh, like a bad guy. And the bad guy is the pain point. And once you start considering that as a bad guy, you personify the, like the pain point, then you start thinking of stories the way you and I are, are used to. We're used to like the movies or like Disney stories, right? And I think that's where there's like a disconnect is like in B2B, we're like, oh, we're in like a dry industry. And therefore we cannot tell a story. Because stories are fun and they have beginning, middle ends, like what you said before. But in reality, that's not necessarily what you need to tell a story. You kind of just need to bring up, oh, let's talk about this bad guy. And I'm air quoting for everyone listening. Let's bring HM up this bad guy and how to address this bad guy. Right? And I. And so far, what has storytelling and video content done for your business?

Speaker B: Oh, storytelling is a huge part of our entire process of building a relationship with a prospect and even maintaining a relationship with a client. And technology for me is a, uh, is a great example because people don't tend to equate a lot of things in technology to something that they know. And so we love to use analogies. And analogies are great for these types of videos or pieces of content because it brings it to the mind of the audience, of the viewer, where they're now able to relate that to something that they know. Uh, one of the things that I talk about is, or I'll say to somebody is, hey, have you ever gone on vacation and you get maybe like a half a mile away from home and it doesn't matter if you're Driving. You're going to the airport, your driving trip, whatever, something goes through your mind and you go, did I leave that door unlocked or did I leave that back window open? And when that thought pops into your head, what's the first thing that you do? You go back and check. You go back and check. You go back and check. That's what you do. And why do you do that? Because it's your home, and you're leaving it unprotected, and you're going some way, you're going somewhere for a period of time, and. And you're worried about what might happen. And so you want to be able to get peaceful sleep, relaxing sleep while you're away, and not have to worry that you didn't do that thing that could potentially leave you exposed. And so if you're willing to go to that level with your home, if, uh, you're willing to check all of that, because Maybe you have 37 windows and doors in your house, I don't know. But you have 37,000 in your business, and you're not doing it. You're not doing it. And what's the reason you don't treat your business the same way that you treat your home? Because doesn't your home depend upon your business? And not just yours, but what about all the people that work for your company? Do they not depend upon your business the same way you do? What. What's the reason that you treat your home this way and not your business this way? So that's a little form of storytelling with an analogy that relates it back to something that your audience can understand and make them go, huh, uh, you're right, I'm not doing that. That's a good question. Maybe I need to start thinking about my business a little bit more personally than I am. And it doesn't matter. Like, it doesn't, um. I don't care how stuffy your industry is. I don't care if you're in health care or pharmaceuticals or law. It doesn't matter. People are people. We're all the same in some. In some aspects. And we all love a good story, and we all love an underdog story. We all love overcoming obstacles. Every one of us has problems in our lives that we want to solve. And so people need to let go of this constant fear that, oh, I don't want to say the wrong thing or they're going to look at me in the wrong way, because they're just holding themselves back from really standing out from the crowd by doing that.

Speaker A: And we Have a lot of solo marketers that listen to the marketing bound right now. And as, uh, solar marketers, it might be very intimidating to go to the executives and say, I'm going to create TikToks for the business or I'm going to create one minute videos to talk about our pain points. So for them, I just want to tell everyone now is like, if you do want to practice storytelling, which I highly recommend everybody does, I would make those videos in private. One you start really thinking about what are the pain points and things that are very important to our customers. Right. And so for you, I want to talk about now is when you started making these videos, did you already know your pain points, the customer pain points, or did you discover them once you started doing the videos? Because I think for a lot of listeners it's kind of twofold. It might happen both ways.

Speaker B: Yeah, uh, and I would agree. I knew some, I knew some of the pain points, some of the pain points. There were other pain points that I thought I knew. There were more pain points that I didn't know and I discovered simply by, you know, once I would put the content out there, people would reach out to me and say, could you make a video about this or could you make a video about that? I've always wondered. And so, so, and maybe they weren't necessarily your target market, but it depends upon who is watching your videos. And you kind of have to take that and pay attention to who these people are. Who's asking the question as well. So if it is your customer, well, what are they asking for and what are they responding to? Like, one of the things I realized in my industry was that people love how to videos. They love it when I show them how to do something that they didn't know how to do. And it took me a while to figure that out because I'd be like, why does this one do so much better than that one? Well, it's because my industry is so complicated that people are intimidated by technology. And when I make something simple and show them how to do it, they're appreciative of that. And that drives more engagement, that drives more desire to consume more of my content and be more interested in my products and services. So yeah, it's paying attention to those little, those drivers as well.

Speaker A: I definitely think that's like this next step. Like first, if you don't have buy in from the executives, I would still make videos, guys. I would still practice that storytelling, understanding those pain points and creating those videos. Then if you do get buy in and you can publish it. That's even better because what Ross just said, that means you can get feedback and you see what's working and what's not. So let's dig a little deeper here. You're talking about videos. Let's go hard.

Speaker B: Yeah, Bernard.

Speaker A: Oh, gosh, he's making fun of my name. Guys, don't worry about it. Um, so people just getting started on video. What are your recommendations? One, to get in front of the camera, and two, in storytelling in general.

Speaker B: And, um, I'm going to give credit where credit is due here because this is something that I saw Alex Sheridan post about. Uh, I think it was just last week on LinkedIn. Um, I think it was him. I might be getting it wrong. I might be giving credit to Alex when I shouldn't be. So, Alex, awesome if you said this. If not.

Speaker A: Yeah, he's great. So I'll tag him anyway. He. I'll put him in the show notes, guys, say it's Alex.

Speaker B: Yeah, let's say it's Alex. Let's say it is. Um, so anyway, what was said was that we're on calls all the time, right? So press record on zoom. Just press record and pay attention to what's being said. Because you are already on camera. You're already used to doing it. And we get intimidated when we're the only one sitting there and we've written some script and we want to say something because we're thinking about the future. And the future is, is it going to be successful? Are people going to respond to it? Are they going to hate it? Am I going to have trolls that are going to tell me I'm stupid or I'm wrong? And you can't think about that. You can't worry about what's going to happen, uh, in the future. I think you should have a plan so you've got a good message. But when you get in front of the camera, you just have to own it. And that's what I did. I just got in front of the camera, I pressed record, and I went nuts. And I went, I don't care. Like, whatever. Let's just. Let's just rock and roll this thing. I make really silly, crazy, stupid faces. People are like, oh, I love your facial expressions. I said, listen, uh, if you saw me just talking on this podcast right now and the mannerisms that I'm using, I have to do that multiplied by 10 when I get on video, because that's how it translates when you're actually watching it. I feel like an idiot jumping around. I literally look like a clown jumping around sometimes, but I'm enjoying myself and I'm having fun and people seem to like it. And the fact of the matter is, like, people really don't care about you until they do. And so, uh, you're worried that people are going to not like you. People didn't even watch my first videos. I got a couple of likes and, uh, they went nowhere. And I've been doing it now for 14, 15 months. And it isn't until just recently that people really started paying attention and went, I love these videos. I give me more. I need this, I need that. Well, how do we do this? How do we do that? And started reaching out and started asking questions. It takes a long time. It took a long time for me to get comfortable and it took a long time for them to get to know me and what I talked about.

Speaker A: I really feel that once you stop caring how you show up online, you really unlock the doors to, like, all the potential. Like, uh, that's just when you really, like, figured it out. And you also said a very key word, the C word, and that is consistency. Also saying I say that.

Speaker B: Wow, kudos to me. I didn't even know I said that.

Speaker A: Super important. Guys, that's. That's part of everything, right? Especially when you're working in content, it's consistency. You're not just going to create one story and magically everyone's gonna know who you are. So, yeah, awesome tip. And then what is your tip? So that was a good tip for like, showing up online. What is your tip for, like, storytelling? Should they. Should people have a list of things before they start? Should they just wing it? Like, what's your advice for them?

Speaker B: Have to find what works for you. Um, what. Somebody told me this was probably about a year ago. Somebody told me, you've got to batch your content. You've got to batch it. You got to batch it, sit down for one day and make like seven videos. And I tried it and then I had seven videos, or I had like five. And I was like, oh, great, I've got enough videos for two weeks of content. And the two weeks went by and then I was out of videos because I didn't want to do it again because I hated batching content so much. And what I realized was, is I have all kinds of ideas and I like just having that light bulb moment going, oh, I've got an idea. And I put together a quick video and it takes me 20 minutes and then I'm Done. And so now I do all my videos at about 5:30 in the morning. I get up at 5:30 in the morning, I write a quick script with an idea I had the night before. I record it, I edit it, I post it on TikTok, and then it goes on LinkedIn anywhere from two to four days later. So everything goes on TikTok first, because TikTok's like sort of my test bed to, uh, determine if I want my, my good clients and prospects on LinkedIn to see it.

Speaker A: That's amazing. That's actually a really good tip. But I actually love what you said there because I had the same revelation and I wrote it on LinkedIn as well, is that I, uh, was so concerned with batching content that I would never create content. And so when you're creating content, it's important to find your creative process. The one that works for you, that could be working 10 minutes a day, that can be working 20 hours in a row. That is not the same for everybody. And all from all the content creators that you see online, they're all doing it differently. Don't believe there's one way. There are multiple ways. So that was, that was a really great piece of advice. So I can't believe we kind of like let everyone in, in our conversation. But before we, before we end this episode, what is one thing that you want every listener to walk away with from this conversation?

Speaker B: The one thing I want everybody to walk away with is that every business should be doing some form of video content. You have to be doing video. There were people, there were people that are out there that will tell you that's wrong. Be a good copywriter. You do need to be a good copywriter. But you, when people can see the face of the business or the face of the department, or some face that represents your brand, who you are, the change, the, the, uh, the transformation that you're able to provide for your customer and they're able to get to know you. That, that process of know like, and trust is going to happen faster. It's going to build you into that or expert that is much harder to establish when they don't know your personality. And because you see me on video and, and, and you're listening to me on this podcast, so if you've ever watched one of my videos, you're like, oh my God, that's the same guy. That's how he acts. This is literally how I act. And, and you'll, you know this because I act like an idiot every time I jump on a call with you. This is literally just how I am. And my 16 year old and my 12 year old daughter can't stand it and they're embarrassed as hell by me. My wife's embarrassed as hell by me. And I love every last second of it. So get on video, be who you are and let the world see that, that realness that you have. And don't, don't hide that, don't stifle that because you're worried that, you know the corporation is not going to accept you or not going to like it. They may not at first, they absolutely might not. But they will come around to your way of thinking when they see the way people respond to that.

Speaker A: That's great for video content for B2B companies, but also personal branding. So super valuable. Ross, thank you so much for being on the Marketing Bound podcast.

Speaker B: Yes, uh, thank you for finally inviting me.

Speaker A: I knew you were gonna say that. I knew it. Now comes the fun part. Subscribe to the Marketing Bound podcast to catch every single episode and make sure to leave a review so we can take the show to the next level.