SEO On-Air: Content Marketing for Enterprises like Adobe

In this episode, we cover:

Today, we talk to Burlingtina Vines, the Business Marketing Consultant at Burlingtina Vines Marketing Solutions. Burlingtina is a full-service digital and print marketing professional with extensive experience supporting small, medium, and large corporate organizations’ marketing efforts. 

In this episode, Burlingtina will discuss how to do content marketing for enterprises. 

Stay tuned for the next podcast episode, where our guest, Bruce Clay, talks on the topic “Expanding the ambits of SEO beyond rankings and traffic.”

Show notes

• Can you tell us a bit more about what content marketing is and how it can help the enterprises? 
• For example, say I’m Adobe, and I’m trying to ship my product, say Photoshop or Adobe XP, and trying to push this to the design agencies. If I’m going to plan my content marketing strategy, how do I go about it?
• Now that we know how to make Adobe look fresher in front of the audience. What can they do next?
• What type of format should the enterprise content follow? Will there be images or like an ebook, what do you suggest?
• Having gotten all these content in, we are just scratching the surface because creating content is only a part of the puzzle because they also have to market it. So, how do they do it?
•  Do you think Adobe should be looking at A/B testing features that will help the entrepreneurs and marketers across?
• Do you believe that the current situation is the best time ford enterprises to market themselves?
• Show Notes Explanation

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of SEO on air. Today we have Miss Burlingtina. She’s a Business Marketing Consultant at Burlingtina Vines Marketing Solutions. Burlingtina, welcome to our show. So, the topic that we wanted to discuss today is how to do content marketing for enterprises. 

Senthil: Everybody talks a lot about doing content marketing for eCommerce websites, and businesses with the B2C kind of angle. But, the moment we step into B2B, the enterprises, there’s not much information available on how to do content marketing. 

Mostly these enterprise firms follow a traditional marketing methodology. Now, this COVID situation would have forced people to move completely online because most of the events are getting canceled and are instead taking place online. The enterprises are trying to get into the bandwagon of the real digital marketing book. 

So, can you tell us a bit more about what content marketing is and how it can help the enterprises? 

Burlingtina: Well, thank you very much for the quick question. When it comes to content marketing, when you work with B2B, the main thing that you have to look at is that you’re creating content that your prospective clients will find useful and interesting, and you want something that’ll motivate them to want to work with you. As you mentioned, many things on COVID are being canceled, that’s why even Facebook started putting their events online. 

So by having their events online, whether they are zoom webinars or any other kind of event, such as writing different blog posts, even though all these big companies already blog, they can use them to make a bigger content marketing strategy. They can use their blogs to integrate with the online summit to describe what their products do and how they can help their customers because a good content marketing strategy shows your current clients and prospects what value you can offer them. It shows what you can do to make their lives easier and also a little entertaining.

 So as long as you can do all those things, then you can easily reach your clients regardless if you are a multinational corporation who has billions of dollars or you are a small company, there’s no difference in the goals between that. The most important thing is to make sure that your prospects will enjoy what you put out because if you’re putting out something that does not align with your ideal customer or your ideal prospect, you’ll completely lose them. So, that is the main thing, know who you want to market to know exactly what they like. 

Most enterprise companies already know this because they use traditional marketing, and they can use the information they have from traditional marketing to turn that into digital by using the same assets they already have and just moving them to a digital summit, like a blog post, YouTube videos or any other video site. They just need to learn to convert them to a way where it will work with online content. Hopefully, that answers the question.

Senthil: Yeah, absolutely. In fact, it covers most of the aspects that people will be looking for while creating content and spreading it across. Now, for example, say I’m Adobe, and I’m trying to ship my product, say Photoshop or Adobe XP, and trying to push this to the design agencies. In this situation, if I’m going to plan my content marketing strategy, how do I go about it?

Burlingtina: Well, when it comes to design agencies, a long time ago, Adobe was the king of all of the software for anything, from design to videos. Now there are many competitors in the market, and Adobe is losing market share. So the best way for them to regain that market share is to show the agencies what they’re missing because yes, you can have all these other brands with their easy to use tools, but when you really want something advanced, you want that Hollywood level. 

You want something that will show off the magnitude, and the power, and the awesomeness of what your agency can do. That’s when you need Adobe because you’re going to be like, for simple little things, use whatever, but if you want something that’s show-stopping, that’s when you call Adobe. 

Senthil: Yeah, I’m with you on that. Definitely. Especially in the world of Canva, people will be looking for more robust software. So, now that we know how to make Adobe look fresher in front of the audience. What can they do next?

Burlingtina: Okay. So once they’ve established their image as professionals, then the next thing to do is to help those people who use things like Canva and Affinity to transition to higher levels. A lot of people in my industry have said not to do this, but I’m in the camp of doing this. Basically, if you want to get somebody’s customers, the best way to do it is to show how you can do it better. 

So, let’s say you want to show them how to use InDesign instead of using Canva’s layout features, the first thing you would do is you’ll find out what Canva is missing because I use Canva and I use InDesign too. I use Canva for convenience, but it’s incredibly difficult to do a lot of the things in Canva that InDesign can do in and that is what InDesign should bank on. 

It is the same thing with Affinity photos. It is the same thing with any other software that competes against Audition or Premiere. Show what they lack and show how they can do it because once you establish that you’re professional, you need to provide tutorials. These tutorials need to be focused on people who use your competitors’ products and say, this is how you do it in Canva, let me show you how to do it better in InDesign. 

Senthil: Cool. So what type of format should this content follow? Will there be images or like an ebook, what do you suggest?

Burlingtina: Well, as it’s Adobe and they have the resources to do so, I would say do everything for Adobe, and the reason why I would say for Adobe to do everything is that Adobe’s customers are everywhere. As somebody who’s been using Adobe products for over ten years, I know for a fact that you have people on Adobe in the music industry, people in the film industry, people in the creative design agencies. If you’re aiming for the agencies, you need to aim for them in the trade magazines, because the trade magazines are always showing about the newest and greatest Adobe alternatives. So it’s good to get into trade magazines and be like, “Hey, sure, these are a little cheaper, but look at the features that you’re not getting.” The reason why I emphasize that is because to make these software cheaper, they cut down on the features.

So if an agency says, “we need to do a billboard,” show how easily you can do a billboard using Adobe software. You know that people always buy influencer marketing, so you can use that as a chance to look at the influencers who already have a following and say, “Hey, let me show you the difference using Adobe and using somebody else,” and let them compare it in the video because the only real way to bring people back to Adobe is to show them the difference. 

They already have these wonderful Adobe evangelists. So, all they have to do is get them in more places where the agencies can see them because they already have an army that is more than willing and able to promote Adobe. So they just need to put that army out where everyone can see them.

Senthil: Yeah, absolutely. Also, I felt Adobe lost the track in the last few years because of the small design tools that are available online. I’m going beyond the Canva. Canva is definitely the biggest threat, but I’m looking at some of the common tools for removing the background and blurring the background, and I think that there is at least one tool available online to cover Adobe’s features.

These granular level tools have actually eaten away the market share because you’re always getting something here and there and I think that’s where Adobe might have started losing traction now. 

Now, let’s assume that we are getting these things back on track where Adobe is doing a full suite of attack in terms of getting this content ready through eBooks, recordings, and influencers. Now having gotten all these content in, we are just scratching the surface because creating content is only a part of the puzzle because they also have to market it. So, how do they do it?

Burlingtina: Okay. Now, the trick with marketing content is where you had it. Of course, you can have things on your own website, and they can have it on their own media, which is great, but that’s not where you really get eyes looking at it. You really get eyes looking at it because you find where your people are. For instance, there are specific websites that people who work for the agencies usually go to, and you need to get that content you’ve completed on those websites. So it’d be in front of them.

 That’s the main backbone of content marketing. It is getting that the content you’ve made looks beautiful on your website and someone else’s site matches your target audience because when it comes to YouTube, everybody’s trying to buy commercials. Still, at the end of the day, people skip commercials. But instead of having a commercial, if you have a tutorial on something that’s difficult to do in a competitor software and use that competitor in your keywords and be like, “Oh, I can’t do this on whoever’s app,” because, as you were saying, you have to use several apps to get the benefits of one Photoshop. 

Let’s say if they go to abc.com, which has 10,000 views in one day for a piece of content that they made and posted in people, and let’s say 60% of them click there. So that shows that people are interested in abc.com, but if they go to zrl.com and they post on zrl, and they only get 10,000 views and maybe 700 clicks going through, then they know, okay, this is not a good venue for us. 

Adobe has a Twitch stream, and they show different things there. But also people are starting to do not only artwork and creative stuff on Twitch, but also business things. When people can see someone using your products live and sponsored by Adobe next to it that says, “If you’re interested in what I’m doing, click here for a related Adobe tutorial.” People ask the streamer constantly, “What are you doing?”, instead of that happening, you can say, “Hey, here’s a resource by Adobe that already covers it” and they can go straight to that. That’s just another form of content marketing. 

Senthil: Absolutely. The key here is to get these designs up and in front of the audience and then show them how you did that using Adobe and linking them back to that tutorial. Preferably it might be present in the Adobe website itself, and if they want to download a trial or something, you give a link to that and hope that should make Adobe great again. 

Burlingtina: Yes, that’s it. That’s exactly what they need because the software has never been bad. It’s just now that there are so many competitors. I think the target audience has changed for Adobe a bit because they used to be the only king, and everybody else has come along, like, “Hey, he might be the King, but I’m the Prince.” Everybody else has come along with smaller tools, but the people who do need Adobe were like, “Oh, I’m so tired of using this tool and that tool.”

Senthil: So, the main thing is people use Canva because of the ease of use and also the kind of flexibility you get due to which you can log into one system and then probably if you want to move out, you can always login back into another laptop, and still you have everything on the cloud. 

The second most important thing is that it’s already giving you the default Facebook cover images. So, probably, if Adobe has some plugins like that, where you design a creative, say a Facebook ad, and the tool itself could tell you that this is not something that Facebook might accept because your text is more than 30% or whatever might be the reason.

The moment you design something on Canva, you’re going to download it and upload it and check if it fits the Facebook guidelines because Facebook is not going to love a lot of text on your cover ads. So, those are the kinds of problem areas that people seek to solve through multiple tools. I think if Adobe can cut down on features and probably make the tool widely accessible, it’d be great. I’m pretty sure that people behind it must be doing that already. If not, they should definitely be looking at it.

Burlingtina: You’re a hundred percent right. They do have some presets and templates. However, I do agree with you that they should have recommended the best practices built-in, like they have to have tips for everything, if you move your mouse over the pin tool, it’ll have a little pop-up video to say this is what is useful. It would be good for each template. Also, if they had a check at the end, kind of the way Microsoft word checks for accessibility, that said, “Okay, this matches who you are trying to market to what platform you’re using.” That would be great.

Senthil: Yeah, absolutely. The tight integration is what they should be looking at with Facebook, and Google ads, because the marketing agencies are the ones that want to be the bread and butter for the ones using it. Most of these agencies now are moving away from traditional to digital. So I think Adobe also should try to get these integrations. There should be multiple AB tests. I think they should be looking at these kinds of features that will help the entrepreneurs and marketers across.

Burlingtina: Yes, I agree. Because having an AB test code built-in will be even better because it is easier for agencies to integrate Adobe with the software they already use, the better. Adobe does have an InCopy, but it works more in design. If they could get that to work with Photoshop and across the Adobe ecosystem, they could easily double-check it to ensure compliance with the current guidelines. If they say yes, only then will it be able to move to the next program because that would be the better way, in my opinion.

Senthil: Yes, and hopefully, while it all begins with the feature, there’s going to be a lot of people. The moment when we look at YouTube videos, for example, how to create Facebook ads and stuff like that, most people use Canva, because it tells you how to do it for free. So maybe Adobe should tap into those kinds of marketers because creating content is just one part. Marketing is more important. They have to reach out to these influencers and say,” Hey, maybe you know, you can try using this particular feature. Why are you going after three or four different tools? Everything is inside one interface.” That’s the way the marketing team should be functioning anyways.

So, is there anything else that you would like to add to this discussion?

Burlingtina: Well, I think we’ve covered the majority, but as I said, Adobe has always had quality products. The only good thing about being competitors is that it had made them have to rethink their strategies because earlier if you wanted to make something, it would just have to go through Adobe. But now that they have viable competitors, for almost every facet of work that they do, they now have to think about who they are talking to, why they are talking to them, and what can they do to gain more people? It’s good that now they have to refresh their marketing to grab these people because of some people when they see the same marketing over and over again, they kind of tune it out.

But because they have a chance to innovate their marketing, they have to fight almost like a small business to look at, “Okay, how do we get attention? How do we get back in the spotlight to where we work?” Because many agencies still swear by Adobe, but many use Canva and a lot of other free apps and online apps.

They do have a few online apps with Adobe. I think they should have more actually because many agencies have Adobe creative cloud where you can store your documents and share between devices. But many agencies like the fact that it’s easy to pick up and play. They don’t have to install anything, and so Adobe does have Android apps, iOS apps, and stuff like that. I think the web interface should be a little better so they can properly compete with the other people whose web interface is wonderful. So, even if it’s not exactly the full experience, there still needs to be a bit more robust web interface.

Senthil: Absolutely, and by the way, even though this discussion has been centered around Adobe, I think, leads to any enterprise

Burlingtina: Definitely, for any company of this size. I’ve worked with a lot of tech companies before, and one of the major problems a lot of tech companies have is that they don’t know how to communicate the value of the software to people who usually wouldn’t go for it. We’ll go back to Adobe. Many people think Adobe is too difficult, and it’s the same way with many other software programs out there. People think, “Oh, this is so hard. I like something I can click and be done with it.”

Yes, you can click and be done with it, but look at all else you could do. A majority of the customer base does not understand technology very well. One thing I’ve had to do with many tech companies is work with them and say I know you want to talk about the specifications and get down and talk about how you’ve upgraded the servers.

We can’t tell them how many terabytes and all this stuff. They don’t know what a terabyte is. They don’t understand. So, we have to break it down to the things that apply to it. One of my mentors years ago told me a story about how some people he knew who owned a very wealthy farm were still dirty with their clothes. They went to the store to buy because the wife is a painter, and she wanted to buy a large canvas printer to print out her paintings and sell them. They went to mini-stores, and all the guy was talking about, we got these many pages per minute, we have these many features, check out our new USB, and they didn’t understand any of that.

The last store they went to, a guy told them, ‘Hey, what do you want to do with it?” He was like, we want to print out. He said, well, let me show you. Doesn’t it look nice with a printout art and let me show you how fast it prints out art. And he made his whole sales pitch on just that and didn’t mention the thing about anything else. And not only did they buy that printer, but they also bought the whole line. So, they spent, I think, $15,000 that day. So, all those other stores missed it because they didn’t market directly to what the consumer wanted to hear. So, in content marketing, it’s the same way.

Senthil: Yes. So, I think the key takeaway here would be even if you are an enterprise, don’t try to communicate the technical features. Let them be in the brochure. When you’re communicating, don’t bring those things in the marketing world. Try to be more friendly with the people because probably you can take a leaf out of Canva’s success because they’re so simple to use; anybody can literally go and start designing the best kind of stuff. So, I think these kinds of things can really help enterprises. That’s the way we have to transform. That’s the new normal.

Burlingtina: Yes, it is. Because you know, with everything that’s going on in the world right now, it’s a good time for businesses to reinvent themselves because people are now in a better position than ever to look at the advertisements.

Senthil: Absolutely. They are spending time with their families these days rather than with colleagues. So, now you have to start thinking about communication.

 Burlingtina: People are seeing these ads now. They’re seeing your content now. Before, when the people were like, “Oh, I’m an office. I’m not going to look at this.” They’re at home now. So whatever message you’re putting out, they’re all seeing them. And if your message is not quite up to the right level, then it isn’t good for you because everyone has seen it at this point.

Senthil: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it’s been a pleasure to host you, Burlingtina. Thank you so much for taking your time out and coming to the show. I really appreciate that.

So, guys who are listening to the show as usual, please leave in your comments, your suggestions for improving this podcast. We are bringing in some fantastic guests. These people are experienced in their field and are sharing their knowledge with us. Enterprise content marketing subject in itself, we have just touched upon the basics here in this podcast, but definitely, that could be a follow-up podcast about that.

We can go deep into this by looking at how many comments you have made or how many questions are being asked. So, thank you so much for listening to the show. Have a great day. Bye.