Christian Klepp  00:01

With so much digital noise and intensely competitive markets out there, now more than ever, B2B brands need to go the extra mile to set themselves apart. Many, however, fall into the trap of sounding like everyone else. So what can B2B brands do to stand out amidst the noise? Welcome to this episode of the B2B Marketers in the Mission podcast, and I’m your host. Christian Klepp. Today, I’ll be talking to David J Ebner, who will be answering this question. He is the founder and CEO of Content Workshop, which helps small and overworked marketing teams and transformative industries to reach their business goals. Tune in to find out more about what this B2B marketers mission is. Mr. David J Ebner, welcome to the show, sir. 

David J Ebner  00:48

Thanks for having me, Christian. 

Christian Klepp  00:50

And David, you know what? Like I feel like just talking to you. I feel like we’ve known each other a million years. 

David J Ebner  00:55

It does feel that way, yeah. 

Christian Klepp  00:57

But this is the power of connection, right? Like… 

David J Ebner  00:59

Yeah. 

Christian Klepp  01:00

But listen, I’m really looking forward to diving in today, because this is a topic that’s also close to my heart. This is something that you’re passionate about, or should I say to you know, to make it appropriate for the show, this is what you’re on a mission on, right? This is part of your mission. So I’d like to dive right in to the first question. And let me just pull this up here. You’re on a mission to help B2B companies and people grow through storytelling. So for this conversation, I’d like to focus on the topic of how to make your B2B marketing stand out in saturated markets. And let me tell you, man in B2B, that is so true. There are so many companies that are fighting and competing and markets that are becoming increasingly saturated out there, so that’s why I think this is so pertinent for our audience. So I want to kick off this conversation with two questions, and I’m happy to repeat them. So question number one, why do you think it’s so important for B2B companies in this day and age to stand out and be the signal amidst the noise, as it were? And where do you see a lot of marketing teams struggle?

David J Ebner  02:11

Yeah, I don’t know how much time do we have for this podcast, because we could spend the whole time on this. 

Christian Klepp  02:17

Absolutely, absolutely. 

David J Ebner  02:19

It’s really tough. It’s always been important to stand out. Today is just more difficult. I feel, you know, I’ve been doing this now longer than I care to admit, right there’s gray hair is starting to come to me faster than I like, but it seemed 10, 20, years ago, is a little bit easier to stand out. Not only is the market more saturated now, the marketing is more saturated now. So you have more vendors, more competition. You have like these, I don’t know, not direct competitors, but the people that are like in your sphere of influence that can be pulling people away from, potentially your brand, certainly your awareness, awareness of your brand and your time. And then on top of that, you have a million different tools that you can use as a marketer to generate content faster and more of it, right? We are tying lots, as they used to say in the scouts when I was younger, right? You know, there’s less targeting with the marketing. So it’s, it’s important, and it’s becoming even more important because it’s harder to do. 

David J Ebner  03:25

I believe that the best way that you can stand out is to look for the option to be interruptive, right? You want to interrupt the flow. You don’t want to disrupt it so much. You don’t want to throw people completely off. You just want them to, like, have a little moment of, Oh, interesting like, that’s, that’s really what you’re trying to achieve as a marketer. And that’s a way to stand out, is to have more Oh, interesting moments, right? There’s a lot of different ways to do that. You can literally just Zig when everybody else is sagging, right? Like, if everybody’s doing X, you can do Y, something a little bit different, but not something that’s going to like, completely take them out of the mode that they’re in, the medium that they’re in, whatever they’re consuming content on or marketing on, whether it’s social media or an email or billboards, I don’t know, like it can really be anything. You don’t want to be completely disruptive. You just want to interrupt slightly, and that’s how you stand out. And I am definitely going to need the second question repeated, Christian.

Christian Klepp  04:24

Where do you see marketing teams struggle with standing out like because, you know, at the end of the day, people keep saying, Oh, they all sound the same.

David J Ebner  04:32

Yeah, that’s a great point too. And I do think it has a lot to do with the question one point B, right? Which is that there’s just so much more volume out there right now. And I think people are following the trap of more is more. More is not more when it comes to marketing, right? If you don’t have a unique opinion about something, you shouldn’t be saying something about it at all. That’s always been my opinion. You know? I love, you know, I don’t mind seeing people post on social media, particularly like happy this holiday, happy that holiday. Happy Thanksgiving. Everybody that’s one that goes across both borders, right? Happy Thanksgiving. But that’s not a unique opinion about something like as a consumer, some of you, you want to try to pull their attention away from them. You want the most valuable thing they have, which is their unlimited resource of time and attention. You’re trying to get that from people right? You really need to give them something of value in return. And I think we need to just take a step back every time we’re producing a piece of content, and ask us, who is this helping? How is it helping them? And is the exchange worth it, right? Like the time and energy that they’re going to give you to consume this piece of content, this piece of marketing, is it worth that? That value to them of their time and attention, right? We call it the great barter over here, but it’s value versus time, and that’s, that’s, th