Running a recording studio took a lot of work. Not only was I managing a staff of five, but I also had a wide range of clients, from corporate clients to independent musicians, with different tastes, needs, and budgets.

One would think it was a mix of equipment and creativity that kept the engine running all the time, but in reality, there was one thing that made it work morning, noon, and night…

The Bunn coffee maker.

We rented that coffee maker from a company that not only provided the machine but also little packets of coffee that you would open, put in a filter, and then brew a pot.

The first thing everybody did was turn on the lights; the second thing was get the coffee started. By noon, that delicious carafe of caffeine sitting on the Bunn coffee maker usually turned to a brown goo, so you'd have to take it out, clean it, and then make another pot.

That coffee maker was especially important during all-night sessions or projects that kept us up into the wee hours.

Coffee was the one consistent consumable that kept the engine running in that recording studio for years.

The Keurig Connection

I was listening to a podcast the other day about how the Keurig solved a common office problem, yet created another.

The Keurig coffee maker was invented in the 1990s. John Sylvan, a tinkerer frustrated with stale office coffee, created the initial single‑serve pod concept and early prototypes. He partnered with his former roommate Peter Dragone, a finance professional, to turn the idea into a business; together they founded Keurig Inc.

Green Mountain Coffee first invested in the company in 1993 and eventually acquired Keurig entirely in 2006. John Sylvan sold his personal stake in Keurig in 1997 for about $50,000 (oops). Peter Dragone kept his stock in the company and cashed out when it became a multi‑billion‑dollar business.

As the brewers moved into American kitchens in the 2000s, the K‑Cup family quickly grew to include tea and hot cocoa, turning the machine from a single‑serve coffee gadget into an all‑purpose hot‑drink dispenser.

Yes, you could choose from multiple flavors, but every single one used a K-Cup, which is not easily recyclable, resulting in billions of K-Cups going into landfills each year. Keurig produced about 9.8 billion non‑biodegradable K‑Cups in 2015 alone.

But ultimately, people could choose from coffee, tea, or something else. (Not unlike marketing.)

Brew & View Marketing

Most marketing content is like a K-Cup… one-and-done. Yet, you can improve your chances of being seen by serving up a single serving of pure caffeinated content marketing joy.

Once you create your content, it only works for your business when someone chooses to view it.

Think of your content as the coffee or tea to be consumed, and your website as the cup it is served in. It could be a mug, a paper cup, or your own fancy YETI tumbler. You can brand your “cup” (a.k.a. website) however you like. But, ultimately it's not about the container… It's all about the coffee.

It's up to the reader (or consumer) to add the right amount of creamer, sugar, honey, or whatever to personalize it. They do that by internalizing the purpose behind wanting to consume your coffee (because it's good or great, convenient, and free).

You are paid back for your expenses or efforts when they give you the time to consume it, and hopefully give you comments, feedback, or better yet… a sale.

The Content Pot or K-Cup

The goal of all content marketing is to get someone to say yes to your cup… to click over to your website. Trying to email or post an entire article on social media is like asking them to drink the whole coffee pot in one sitting. In this awareness economy, your posts should be the aroma of freshly brewed goodness, not the whole pot itself.

We also have to pay attention to timing. Social media can be like a freshly brewed pot of coffee — it's great when it's fresh, but all too often the algorithms let content sit on the burner and turn into a brown goop as it ages into yesterday's brew. But don't let that deter you. Even though you can't control when an audience sees it, keep brewing your links on social and leading people back to your website cups.

Email is more like a K-Cup. Inboxes show the date and time the message was sent, so the user can tell if it's fresh. They can take in the aroma (view) with or without clicking (pouring a cup).

Doing both increases the likelihood that your content will be consumed.

The teasers created for both social and email can also be used to personalize the message. You can post it as a private message for someone you recently met, even if it's old content that's timely for them.

The same goes for most email broadcast systems; you can repurpose an old email as a personal invite for a new connection to consume.

Even better, you can create an automated sequence and trigger it to an individual via your broadcast email program. Think of it as sending a K-Cup variety pack. They may not consume all, but they are likely to sample at least one.

Closing Thought

Content is like coffee. It can be cheap or expensive. It's best when it's fresh. But it's of no use if you can't get people to consume it.

I find AI content like instant coffee. It's fast and cheap, and yeah, you can dissolve it in some hot water, but you might as well just drink the creamer.

K-Cups make coffee and tea, but in a personalized way for your consumer. Yet there is nothing wrong with making a pot of fresh brew to share with your audience.

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.