RV229 - The 2025 B2B Content Playbook

Podcast: B2B Revenue Vitals
Host: Brendan Beck
Guest: Chris Walker, CEO of Refine Labs
Release Date: December 31, 2024

1. Chris Walker’s Background and Passetto Update

Timestamp: [01:27]

Chris Walker, a seasoned B2B marketer with extensive experience in product marketing and demand generation since 2015, provides an update on his venture, Passetto. Reflecting on the past year, Chris emphasizes the complexity of measuring marketing impact beyond traditional metrics like leads and pipeline. He highlights the necessity for marketing leaders to adopt a financial lens to demonstrate ROI effectively to boards and executive teams.

“What I'm trying to do is empower marketing leaders and revenue leaders to be able to look at their data through a financial lens, which is the number one way to communicate your impact and demonstrate progress to the board and the executive team.”
— Chris Walker [01:27]

2. Business Positioning Lessons After One Year

Timestamp: [03:59]

After a year with Passetto, Chris discusses the unforeseen challenges of introducing a novel solution into the market. He learned that pioneering products often lack a dedicated budget within organizations, making it difficult to secure funding without executive backing. This realization led to a strategic pivot: instead of solving a broad, cross-functional problem, Passetto began addressing existing, well-defined issues within specific departments to facilitate easier adoption and expansion.

“One year in, I've learned to back away, solve an existing problem that people already feel, position your product accordingly, and then build and develop our expansion plan.”
— Chris Walker [03:59]

3. Evolution of Content Strategy in the AI Era

Timestamp: [07:09]

Chris delves into how artificial intelligence has revolutionized content strategy. He acknowledges the shift from openly sharing proprietary methods to focusing on broader, audience-centric content. The rise of AI makes it easier for competitors to replicate strategies, prompting Chris to safeguard his intellectual property by narrowing his public content to areas that reinforce customer relationships and deliver substantial business value.

“I'm spending a lot less time talking about what I'm doing, and I want to spend a lot more time surrounding everything that the audience needs, not just pushing my thought leadership message.”
— Chris Walker [07:09]

4. Audience Building vs. Lead Generation

Timestamp: [13:28]

The conversation shifts to the dichotomy between audience building through thought leadership and direct lead generation. Chris advocates for a balanced approach, especially for companies beyond the early-stage (1-10 million ARR). He emphasizes the importance of targeted strategies over broad, unfocused content dissemination, aligning content efforts with the company’s growth stage and market size.

“Instead of shouting into the ether, finding your target addressable market and designing content specifically for that, as you said, 1,000 customers, 1,000 targets and then really leaning into that facet of it because that's your productive patch.”
— Brendan Beck [15:23]

5. Implementation of Content Strategy

Timestamp: [38:43]

Chris outlines the operational aspects of his content strategy, highlighting the importance of a dedicated team and streamlined processes. Utilizing a professional studio and partnering with a specialized post-production company, Hatch, Chris ensures high-quality content creation and distribution across multiple platforms. He emphasizes the significance of tailoring content for each channel, particularly focusing on the nuanced needs of platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok.

“I stack so I just record from 10am to 1pm on Tuesdays I get three one-hour slots, different topics like this one. Then I'll do my other one. So I have different mixes of content.”
— Chris Walker [38:43]

6. Social Media Metrics and Authenticity

Timestamp: [42:37]

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the diminishing importance of social media "likes" as indicators of successful content strategy. Chris argues that authentic, value-driven content should take precedence over chasing high engagement metrics. He contends that genuine connections and meaningful business outcomes outweigh superficial popularity on platforms like LinkedIn.

“Likes and comments are not the barometer of social media marketing. It's are we challenging our customers to think differently, have an affinity to us and buy our stuff?”
— Chris Walker [43:35]

7. Q&A Highlights

Timestamp: [31:28 - 51:09]

a. Data Architecture as a Revenue Factor

John Kim inquires about the challenges in establishing an effective data architecture to measure revenue performance. Chris responds by cautioning against viewing CRM implementation as a standalone solution. Instead, he advocates for a holistic approach that integrates finance, sales, marketing, and rev ops to rectify broken models built during growth-at-all-costs eras.

“The problem is actually rev ops, finance, sales, marketing, the cross-functional layers between it. So it's a very complex problem that one individual tool implementation project is unlikely to fix totally.”
— Chris Walker [31:28]

b. Delegate Content Leadership Beyond the Founder

Dennis Honnold asks whether it's feasible to have someone other than the founder lead content initiatives. Chris acknowledges that while founders often have the most authentic connection, appointing roles like Chief Strategy Officer or Chief Evangelist can be effective, provided these individuals are deeply connected with customers and aligned with long-term company goals.

“I don't necessarily think that the CEO or founder needs to do this. I think that the person that you select that needs to do this has to be deeply connected with your customer.”
— Chris Walker [33:52]

c. Enhancing Content Reach and Effectiveness

Brandon Beck raises concerns about the effectiveness of copying Chris’s content playbook, noting that many imitators struggle to achieve similar success. Chris attributes his success to his unique perspective outside a single company, access to comprehensive financial and operational data across multiple organizations, and a consistent, data-driven approach to content creation.

“I'm not making up my strategic positioning. I'm listening to all the patterns of the problems and then just making it apparent to everyone that it's not just them that's facing the problem.”
— Chris Walker [26:08]

d. Overcoming Low Engagement on Content

Omar asks for advice on why content might receive minimal likes despite extensive effort. Chris identifies three potential issues: strategy misalignment (addressing the wrong topics), content quality (poor medium or messaging), and distribution inefficiency (failing to reach the intended audience). He recommends a process of elimination to diagnose and address these problems.

“That you didn't involve your audience in the content creation, so you were making content and answering questions that they didn't care about.”
— Chris Walker [51:09]

8. Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Chris Walker provides actionable insights into evolving B2B content strategies, emphasizing authenticity, customer-centric approaches, and data-driven decision-making. His experiences over the past year with Passetto illustrate the importance of adapting to market changes, particularly in the age of AI, and the necessity of building strong, financially-informed marketing practices.

Notable Quotes:

• Chris Walker [01:27]: “What I'm trying to do is empower marketing leaders and revenue leaders to be able to look at their data through a financial lens, which is the number one way to communicate your impact and demonstrate progress to the board and the executive team.”

• Chris Walker [07:09]: “I'm spending a lot less time talking about what I'm doing, and I want to spend a lot more time surrounding everything that the audience needs, not just pushing my thought leadership message.”

• Chris Walker [43:35]: “Likes and comments are not the barometer of social media marketing. It's are we challenging our customers to think differently, have an affinity to us and buy our stuff?”

This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions from Episode RV229 of B2B Revenue Vitals, offering valuable takeaways for B2B marketers and SaaS founders aiming to refine their content strategies in a rapidly evolving landscape.