I have been working in marketing and advertising for a long time. When I started in the late 1970s and early 80s, TV was delivered by antennas, and radio and newspapers were still the primary news delivery mechanisms. It wasn't until 1996 that MSNBC and Fox News came onto the scene. Then, in late 2016, the term “Fake News” started to gain mass media attention.

Today, Fox News is still the 800-pound gorilla of conservative voices, and network and cable TV liberal news is imploding. MSNBC is being spun off from NBC and will be called MS Now (Microsoft still has a stake in the new venture). CBS has been sold along with Paramount, and ABC is now owned by Disney. It's clear that the lines of entertainment and news are blurring, and truth and trust are under attack.

So you may be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with B2b Marketing?” My answer is “a lot!”

From Mass Media to Me Media

As the landscape rapidly changes, a new revolution is quietly taking place. People from both conservative and liberal sides have increasingly left the mainstream platforms and started to create their own channels, albeit smaller and more focused.

Personalities like Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Joy Reid, Don Lemon, and others are embracing new media platforms. Substack is the new blog, but it incorporates all the power of radio, TV, and newspapers. It can have blogs, podcasts, and videos from YouTube, TikTok, and more.

These personalities are creating their own brands and convincing millions of viewers to subscribe. Rather than the corporation paying their salaries (as employees), they rely on paid subscribers and advertising to fund their ventures. While the corporation provided a production team, studio, and distribution network, the new media personality is creating their own part-time teams, setting up production studios in their homes, and using social media and email to promote their content.

This new methodology is now asking people to trust a person rather than a company. That makes personality and performance more of a commodity than any overarching ideology of a corporate media platform. The key thing these new media pioneers need to worry about is that their audience must remain loyal because they trust their truth and agree with their perspective. It has become a realm of journalistic relationship marketing.

Why This Matters to B2b

As a business, we rely on channels to get the word out. Back in the day, it was newspapers and industry magazines that promoted our people, processes, and profits. We have also relied on new media, such as blogs, video, and podcasts, to help spread the word. The channels most of us use in the B2b space are YouTube, LinkedIn, Google, and others to help find the right audience and spread the word about our businesses.

The problem with most of those distribution channels is money. Most of the mainstream media distribution channels for business (Google, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others) are businesses. They need to make money in order to let you ride the coattails of free distribution. All of those are selling ads, and your content best serves them when they can show more ads.

That means that although you can post your content to their platform, there is no guarantee that their algorithm will show it. They are optimizing content to improve their revenue. No matter how insightful, profound, or revolutionary your content is, as a B2b business, you have a limited audience. Things that are controversial, entertaining, or in other words, the most engaging with the largest possible audience, get the most attention from the company and its algorithm delivery system.

Old media (radio, TV, newspapers, magazines) required your content to serve its audience. Back then, you would know if and when your content was being presented, so you could promote to your audience. New media (social media, video, search, and newly minted AI platforms) also rely on content, but you have no control over whether and when your content is shown to any audience.

AI is another cunnundrum since your content can be blended with others (including your competition) to provide an answer with little to no attribution to you, your business, or its original source. They are using your knowledge without permission and without paying you for your efforts and expenses to create it.

Sandwiched between the old and the new is the space where your business still has the upper hand.

What's New Is Old (and Tried & True)

Although Substack has replaced the traditional blog for personalities, your website and its blog are still and will continue to be relevant in the near future. It's the only place where you can create content and control the viewing, distribution, and engagement of your perfect audience. Without that home base, your content is not yours, and you don't really own it.

You can utilize all the new media tools to distribute content and direct people back to your home base. You can also give the new media companies what they want – money to advertise your content to your desired audience.

Be aware that even when you pay for advertising, it's not as clear and defined as it was with radio, TV, and newspapers or magazines. With those, you knew when and where your ad would appear. Magazines would be read for a month or more. TV and radio would give you the ability to pick the days and times your ads would show. With new media platforms (search, podcasts, video, and social media), they get to choose the optimum place and time. And more often than not, they are optimizing in a way that benefits the casino (advertising company) more than the viewer.

The other old media that is still run and owned by you is Email. You have the ability to create, grow, and segment a list of people who could be customers, prospects, vendors, and more. You also have the ability to choose the date, time, and frequency of delivery. Finally, you can use that to direct people back to your website and its content, creating a profitable closed-loop system for just the standardized cost of the platform rental.

Closing Thought

The new trend of media personalities using Substack and their email capabilities is and will continue to be a challenge. They need to transfer their users from the old platform to the new one. Getting them to subscribe for free is much easier than getting them to pay for subscriptions. They need to provide value for the cost, or at least convince them that the money is more like a tithe to keep the doors open.

Your blog and email have to continue to deliver value to your audience. If all you are posting is birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, and internal achievements, it will repel rather than attract new people.

You need to create innovative, thought-leadership content that people would be willing to pay for. They pay for it by becoming or continuing to be customers. To effectively reach your audience, you need a clear, concise, and consistent email system that doesn't pester or ask too much.

You may also need to pay the new media advertising platforms to help you find new people who would find value in what you have to say. In today's fast-paced, ever-changing, new media-driven world, you have to think, act, and produce like a news personality if you want to stay relevant, top of mind, and profitable.

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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.