Orama Update #6: Every company is NOT a media company
A January epiphany about "content is king" and other clichés
Welcome to the Orama Newsletter. I’m George, Founder/Producer at Orama, and this is a monthly newsletter that I send mainly to clients and partners, with two goals:
Build in public and share thoughts & insights about the world of video and podcasting for brands
Keep you in the loop with the latest offers & developments at Orama. This replaces the occasional end-of-month email but you can also contact me directly anytime: george@orama.tv, Tel: +44(0)7900033552
I aim to keep it short. Speaking of which, you're on the list, but if you don’t want to receive it anymore, you can unsubscribe at the end of this email or click here. And if you want to share it with a colleague, they can subscribe here👇🏼
(Instead of the 1st, I’m going to send these towards the end of the month from now on.)
We’ve all heard these cliches and we embrace at least some of them (well I do):
“Content is king1”
“Build an audience first, then you can sell them 2”
“Every company is a media company”
But then why is it so hard to monetize the content? And I don’t mean ads or sponsorships. I mean driving revenues through the sale of products and services. You know, like a business.
I just spent money based on someone’s content and it’s worth looking back at how it happened. It was for a chat with a guy called Matt Koval, from Creator Dynamics. Just a chat, but it was money well spent.
What we discussed is relevant to you and I will share it later, but first I want to break down the purchase and what preceded it, because it’s a great example of content that drove sales.
From audience to customer
I seldom use coaching or consulting services. I’m more about trying it out. But here is what led to the purchase.
Years ago, I started following Matt on Twitter (awareness) because he was the YouTube liaison officer. I remember a few interactions on Twitter where he responded to me and I thought: “Yes! I’m getting a response from YouTube” (positive impression).
This is all taking place over many years. He eventually branched out on his own. I then stumbled upon one of his videos that provided the answer to a question I had. I have since watched a few more, including interviews with his clients who had similar problems.
How did I book? I didn’t click on an offer. I don’t even think there’s a call to action in his videos. I am not sure, but I think I must have looked him up and saw that he was offering this type of call. I also signed up for his newsletter and received a few of them before deciding to book.
The product itself is very simple: a 30-minute conversation. But I guess that makes it harder to sell than an actual product where you can see the added value before you purchase. It’s a one-on-one interaction, but you might classify it as a ‘B2B’ transaction (Creator Dynamics - his company and Orama - mine).
So what did we discuss? Well, Matt is a YouTube consultant, and he helped me with what I was doing there and with my podcast.
I will share one of the main takeaways for me, and how it relates to brands as well.
NB: These are not his words but my interpretation
Delivering results from content
I see my show “InvestOrama” as an “educational” channel, it’s about helping investors make better decisions. I enjoy pursuing that mission, but it’s only sustainable if it generates some revenue. Some come from advertisers and sponsors, or even subscriptions - like a media business. You could say it’s a hybrid model, but revenues need to come from products that I sell.
That’s where my experience relates to brands. Content is king - but your podcast, videos, and blog need to contribute to your bottom line - even if it’s indirectly.
Unless you’re a media company that sells impressions to advertisers.
(And you could say that even media companies build products: like datasets or events but let’s leave it at that)
Then comes “build an audience first, then you can sell them anything”.
I used YouTube to scale fast. Once I had built enough subscribers and self-sustaining traffic, I thought I could sell them stuff. And I mean stuff that’s relevant, affordable and that adds value.
WRONG!
Well not 100% wrong. I built a course and some people buy it, but not enough—so 90% wrong.
My mistake was being too focused on video for scale and audience growth and I missed an opportunity:
Video (followed by audio) is the most powerful way to establish trust at scale: beyond your expertise, people can know you, relate to you and feel like they could work with you!
The first change I made based on Matt’s recommendations is to put my face on the show’s logo. I will also appear more often on camera and try to share more of my expertise and personality. Not because I’m an extrovert - I’ve been avoiding doing this for a reason! But because it makes business sense.
I expect this new content will be less popular, but the goal is to resonate deeper and build more meaningful connections with fewer people.
How is it relevant for brands?
Unless your goal is to generate revenues through ads and sponsors, keep creating content but don’t do it like a media company. The movement towards adding value and providing content that’s not salesy is still the right way to do it, but it needs finetuning. Podcasts in particular have become a trademark of B2B marketing with conversational formats. It goes like that:
You’re an expert in your field who interviews other experts. to the experts you interview3.
It’s a good start. Your expertise helps you ask more relevant questions, but can you add more of your personality and expertise to your show? If the audience came to hear from your star guest, can they come back because of you?
As I write this I realize it highlights another opportunity: to be a guest on other podcasts. Absolutely! But it’s not the same impact as something that you have engineered for your business and that people tune into every week or month.
I will leave you with a couple of examples of who I think are doing it right. They are in the field of marketing, but that applies to any industry:
Ahrefs: They answer common SEO questions genuinely but with a knack for using their product
B2B Better podcast: Has evolved from interviews to commentary, allowing the host Jason Bradwell to showcase more of his B2B marketing expertise
This dates from a 1996 Bill Gates essay
I couldn’t figure out where this and the next one originated from, but they’re all over the internet
And please do not hire someone to host your show or use your most presentable and keen junior staff!