How B2B Thought Leadership Builds Trust | Natalie Ghidotti of Ghidotti

How does a B2B company earn the trust of the businesses it wants to work with? Natalie Ghidotti, principal of Ghidotti in Little Rock, Arkansas, joins Abbie Fink and Dr. Adrian McIntyre to talk about thought leadership that stands out from the noise. Natalie argues that trust matters even more in B2B than in consumer marketing, and that thought leadership earns it by speaking to a client’s real pain points. She explains why your online voice has to match the person a prospect meets across the table, and how an architecture firm must speak differently to a health system’s CEO and to its facility manager. She also shares her cornerstone and cobblestone approach: build one anchor piece of content, then break it into smaller pieces that start sales conversations. Key Takeaways: • Trust matters even more in B2B than in consumer marketing, and thought leadership builds it better than advertising can. • Effective thought leadership names a prospect’s pain point and shows how you solve it. • Be the same person online as you are across the table. Prospects notice when the two don’t match. • Different buyers, such as a health system CEO and its facility manager, have different pain points and need different messages and channels. • Pick one cornerstone piece of content, such as a podcast or video series, and break it into cobblestones: blog posts, LinkedIn articles, quotes and social posts. --------------------------------------- ABOUT THE PODCAST • PRGN Presents: PR News & Views from the Public Relations Global Network • Season 2, Episode 8 • Originally published as an audio podcast on April 20, 2023. • Read the full episode notes and transcript: https://prgnpodcast.com/episode/b2b-t... PRGN Presents features conversations with members of the Public Relations Global Network. No matter where you do business, there is a PRGN member agency in your region with the deep industry expertise, international experience, and local market knowledge you need to connect with your target audience and achieve your goals. Learn more about PRGN: https://prgn.com/ --------------------------------------- ABOUT THE GUEST Natalie Ghidotti, APR, is principal of Ghidotti, which she founded in 2007 and has grown to serve a wide range of clients, including some of the region’s best-known brands. She is a past president of the Arkansas Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and serves on the executive committee of PRSA’s Counselors Academy. • Learn more: https://prgn.com/agency/ghidotti/ • Connect with Natalie:   / natalieghidotti   --------------------------------------- ABOUT THE HOSTS Abbie Fink is president of HMA Public Relations, the oldest continuously operating PR firm in Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. • Learn more: https://prgn.com/agency/hma-public-re... • Connect with Abbie:   / abbiesfink   Dr. Adrian McIntyre is an anthropologist and communications advisor specializing in the marketing and selling of expertise. He is a founding partner at Speed of Story, where he helps entrepreneurial experts and boutique firms clarify their positioning, package their intellectual property, market their premium services, and get paid for their thinking, not their time. • Learn more: https://adrianmcintyre.com/ • Connect with Adrian:   / adrianmcintyre   --------------------------------------- CHAPTERS 00:00 Podcast Intro 00:59 Meet Natalie Ghidotti of Ghidotti 03:01 What Is B2B Thought Leadership? Solving Client Pain Points 05:24 Thought Leadership and Real Connection: Why Authenticity Matters 08:27 Big Fish, Small Pond: Trade Journals and Targeted Outlets 09:55 B2B Personas: Speaking to the CEO and the Facility Manager 12:31 Following Content Through the Sales Funnel 13:32 Repurposing With Cornerstone and Cobblestone Content 15:27 How B2B Content Leads to Sales Conversations 18:01 Podcast Outro ---------------------------------------