Ben Ard (00:01.158)
And like I said, we do edit. As you can tell, I'm talking about random stuff in the middle of the recording. again, one final time, thank you for coming on. This is so kind of you.
Molly Evola (00:12.738)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really, really excited.
Ben Ard (00:14.3)
Yeah. Welcome back to another episode of content amplified today. I'm joined by Molly, Molly. Welcome to the show.
Molly Evola (00:22.55)
Hi, Ben. Thanks so much for having me.
Ben Ard (00:24.71)
Yeah, Molly, I'm excited. This is going to be a fun episode. I'm really excited to share the title with everyone listening today, but we're going to kind of leave that as a little sneak peek. Molly, though, let's get to know you before we dive into the subject. Tell us about your background and work history.
Molly Evola (00:41.57)
Yeah, so I'm Molly Evola, Senior Content Marketing Manager at Customer IO. I've just recently joined the company about a month and a half ago. Before that, I was Director of Marketing at a small Series A startup. And I've been in marketing for about eight years now, kind of spanning every function you can think of from social to events to content to ads. And I've landed now in content marketing, which has been, I think my passion through it all. I've always loved writing and storytelling and bringing things together in like one cohesive
piece. feel like content is a really natural fit for all of those joys.
Ben Ard (01:17.734)
love it. And you are at the heart of all sorts of cool stuff going on right now with artificial intelligence and all sorts of fun stuff and you have such cool opinions about it. So we're going to dive in today's subject and Molly emailed me this and I love the phrase. Everything is content and I couldn't agree more. I think this is the coolest thing. So let's dive in. Molly, when we hear
Everything is content. What does that actually mean when it comes to like day to day? I have a job and how do I make everything into content? What does that look like?
Molly Evola (01:59.402)
Yeah, I think it's like kind of stepping back. Content at some organizations has been really viewed as a support function. Like I would get requests for, hey, we need this blog. Hey, we need this social post. And I think at any company, you're going to have a level of that. But content wasn't really a strategic driver of the story of the deliverables of the distribution strategy. And I think everything is content is taking all of the voices across product marketing, demand gen.
growth and life cycle or even sales and making them into one cohesive story. So the brand voice is consistent and clear, whether it's a product related blog or landing page or a cold outbound template that the voice of the brand kind of shines through there.
Ben Ard (02:44.84)
Okay, I love this. So when content is through every department, every step of the process, how are you collecting the content or organizing publishing all of that fun stuff? What does that look like inside of an organization?
Molly Evola (03:05.356)
Yeah. So there's like a crazy notion document and calendar that we have that is like my brain just put into notion. That's tactically how we do it. But I'm really lucky that content is brought into a lot of the strategic conversations. So if product is working on a survey and they want to tell a certain story content as a part of that discussion and the end result, whether that's a guide or a blog, we're a part of deciding what questions should we ask and how, what channels should we use this on? What's the right story to tell?
Why does this matter? Who cares? I think all of those pieces are then put into that massive notion document, organized, and content is really driving. Here's what we're going to post for this next quarter. Here's all of the big hub pieces. Here's all of these spoke pieces that are related to that larger content piece. And then we do, again, we still get those one-off requests. We've got a content request form.
And that really starts with why and where will this be used, which I think are maybe two of the most important content questions you can ask because distribution is super important. 50 % of content is distribution, in my opinion. And the why behind it, I think, is really informative for how we should be talking about this and what kind of the angle is that we can use in writing or creating a script or whatever that looks like.
Ben Ard (04:23.368)
I love it. So it almost sounds like your content team needs to take on this persona of journalists or documentary individuals that are trying to bring in this internal story from your business and share it publicly. Is that kind of how you look at it and kind of take that on? Is it that extreme or is that going too far out there? What are your kind of thoughts on that concept?
Molly Evola (04:50.945)
No.
Honestly, I think that's a good analogy. We have an editorial sync every other week with our product team, our product marketing team specifically, to talk through what are the new releases that are coming up? Are there new features that we need to be highlighting throughout content? What's the larger story that we're telling about AI or about segmentation or any sort of life cycle marketing topic or whatever topic it would be? We use that editorial sync to then decide, like, this is the way that we'll weave in the product story that we need to tell.
into the larger content strategy. So yeah, in a way it's taking all of the relevant pieces of information and then content gets to move forward with that plan or with the tactics and strategy behind it.
Ben Ard (05:33.576)
Okay, I love that. So when everything is content and everyone in the business is kind of a source for this content, are you using other people to compose the content or are they just information sources? I know some businesses has gone as far as like having a bunch of authors internally that all kind of show their personalities and all that kind of stuff.
How do you kind of fit that together? What do you recommend? How does it feel authentic? Does it still come from the brand or does it come from people in the brand? What does that look like?
Molly Evola (06:09.965)
Yeah, I think like the biggest driving force in content for me is that it's written by a human for a human. So I want to remember like the person that's reading it, what their goal is or what their job is. You know, in a past company, everyone kind of could be an author and we would get articles from solution engineers or salespeople or even our CEO that then content would then comb through, make sure that the edits and the brand voice is still there. But
there could still be some personality mixed in. One of our solutions engineers had like a tuna casserole joke and we kept that in because it just felt authentic to who they were and it made the piece a little bit more interesting. So I think there's definitely a level of keeping the author and the human voice as a part of it.
but still making sure that the product or brand story is consistent within the piece ultimately. And it's similar at Customer I.O. We have lots of different authors. The product team will write fantastic blogs that then content can review and publish, you know, sometimes with no edits at all, or maybe just some light reworking of things or suggestions. We get to be collaborators with them, not just, you know, order takers or editors or things like that.
Ben Ard (07:22.308)
I love that. So when everything is content, seems like content will also be coming in in different shapes and sizes and formats in different ways. Does this change your distribution strategy for content? Do you find that certain kinds of content have to go out through different channels or different areas? Because hopefully if everything is content, you're collecting more of it. And so you have to have different ways of getting it out. How does that look?
Molly Evola (07:48.642)
Yeah, I think we're trying, like this is something I'm always trying to kneel down, is what is the best channel or the best method? You know, again, past roles, I've had this kind of down to like, everything needs to go out through X channel, Y channel. Today it's, you maybe we have a guide that's been published and this guide is going to be the big hub piece for all of the content and spokes that we're creating around the quarter.
then we'll take that guide and distill it into email copy to promote the guide so people will download that content asset. We'll translate it into some informative social posts that we can put as like zero click content on LinkedIn. That can be shared through our BDRs or our AEs in their conversations or in outbound. And so I think it's just trying to tell that story again through as many channels as we can and repurposing it in a way that.
you know, now we have this big guide and all of this original research, let's write content about that and let's take different angles. So we use our company blog and our website obviously as one of our major distribution channels, but that's a story that's been told again across social sales, email, life cycle kind of marketing. It's sent to our customers and maybe even told like through podcasts or things like that PR, wherever you can get it out kind of, we're trying to spread it, spread the love if we can.
Ben Ard (09:03.186)
Very cool. I love that. So when you are really collaborating with so many different departments and teams in the company around content, how do you get people to be excited to participate? Because we all know people have really busy days. They have lots to get done and sometimes helping provide content or ideas or things of that nature.
just don't naturally gravitate to the top of the list. How have you been successful in getting the rest of the organization on like this content hype train to participate?
Molly Evola (09:43.822)
Yeah. I, so again, at CustomRio, I'm super lucky that people, especially the marketing team that I'm working with really closely day to day, they really are excited about content and to tell that story. But in the past, I think the way that it's worked best is maybe just setting up 10 to 15 minutes with the subject matter expert. So I would have a conversation.
ask them questions, sort of interview style, maybe even just get like a brain dump voice note. And I think having them share it in a way that's easiest for them made that barrier to contributing to content a lot less scary. So maybe they're not necessarily sitting down and writing the piece or the social post or whatever it looks like themselves, but they're sharing their original ideas and then I can take those and run with it. And that's really helped, I think, kind of break down that barrier.
Ben Ard (10:31.944)
I love that. Are you recording on like a zoom call or something like that and getting transcriptions? Like what have you found in that workflow tactically to be really like time efficient to have a quick meeting, get that content and create it into something. Have you found some good, I don't know, tips and tricks that you'd recommend or software you use for that.
Molly Evola (10:56.725)
Yeah, think Zoom, like just getting the transcript from Gong, if you have that integrated or whatever transcription that you use, I think like we can run our webinars through Riverside to get the transcript from that and create content that way. And that's a great thing that we're using AI for is taking those transcripts, plugging it into an LLM and like asking for the best bits to share or some of the best, you know, kind of pieces or help with organizing an outline that we can then run with.
I think those pieces work really well, just the transcriptions. And then also, even if you're just sending a voice note through Slack, or sometimes I'll send myself a voice note through Slack because I like the transcription. And then I can take that, plug it into, again, like chat, GPT or something to just organize my thoughts a little bit better and dig a bit deeper. I think that's been a way that I've enjoyed using AI for content, not as a writer, but just as like a, I don't know, brainstorming partner.
Ben Ard (11:53.096)
Very cool. When, when content is everything, it feels like it's a strong mindset you have to adopt for any marketers. You're like, okay, cool. I need to get out of this rut of traditional blog posts to call it good. Kind of an idea. How would you recommend they start to view all of the different internal conversations and everything going on as potential content? How would you recommend they, first of all, find these
And second of all, get people excited and actually okay with them telling these stories outside of the organization.
Molly Evola (12:30.017)
Yeah, I think that's, you know, obviously it depends. It's kind of a marketer answer, but it can depend organization to organization. But I think tying it back to like what's most helpful for your audience that you're marketing to. So if your persona is marketers and you know that you're having a problem as a marketer, how can you create content that will help them solve X problem or a very specific problem? one of the things that I did coming into customer IO is looked at what are the best performing pieces on our website? What content are people engaging with the most?
OK, they're looking for how tos and guides and things to help them dig in deeper. So we should create content that digs deep, that gives really tactical examples. And maybe I've sat in a conversation where someone was using our product in a way that we could answer a question for our customer. And in my role today, I sit on the DemandGen team, technically, and I'm focusing kind of on sales-led content. So I'm really motivated to drive pipeline and revenue in content.
I think that's one of the ways that I've kept really focused is, who is the person that's reading this? Will this solve a specific problem for them? Is this going to make an impact for the business? Those are kind of bigger questions that are constantly circulating in my mind.
Ben Ard (13:41.37)
I love that. So we've talked a lot about like finding content inside the organization. Does this apply to like customers and prospects and stuff like that? How have you been able to tell those stories and pull content from those experiences?
Molly Evola (13:57.058)
Yeah, I think customer stories and case studies are a very obvious example of this. But beyond that, think having customers join webinars or podcasts, if you have a podcast at your company, getting them to tell their story in a way that's really authentic, focuses on them, you can highlight your product in a very subtle way with that, or your team, or whatever kind of thing you're marketing.
I think also like taking your case study or your customer story and distilling that into like any other types of content you can. So if it's again sales outreach or outbound that they can use, if it's a social post that's a carousel or like a story that you can tell, again like the zero click or LinkedIn native content I think has been working well for telling those stories. So I think that's an area. Taking that and even like running with more of an editorial style newsletter, you know putting all of
the information about what was the problem and the solution and the tactical ways that they solved it. Trying to, again, just repurpose and distill that into as many different pieces as you can.
Ben Ard (15:00.936)
of that. Okay, we're running out of time. So I got one more question, kind of a curve ball. So I'm curious kind of what your thoughts are here, but I am excited to hear because you're getting so many other people involved in the company and customers with your content. Have you found that engagement has gone up with content that people are more willing to share and post to their networks, things like that? Like, has there been
and effect on that side of things as well.
Molly Evola (15:31.916)
I think so. mean, I think the excitement is like what you make it. So if you're a content marketer and you're publishing a blog and then you share, hey, we have this awesome new blog and this person wrote it and here's the great story it tells. And then people want to share. And I think, you know, even just being explicit, like, hey, you guys should share this or we should tell this story. Like this is a big deal. I think that helps kind of build the excitement. Obviously, you know, that can ebb and flow, but as there is excitement around like newer features or new
campaigns that we're launching, I think it is like a shared excitement. And maybe that's like, we're marketers marketing to marketers. like that, we all kind of are nerds about it, but it does, it's felt really good.
Ben Ard (16:14.28)
Very cool. And then they get crazy tactical on that one. Slack teams email, what's the best way to kind of put the word out to the company and get them to be aware of your content.
Molly Evola (16:25.323)
Yeah, so we definitely use Slack. And then we have someone who publishes like a company enablement newsletter and we have an internal newsletter. So that is a way that it's promoted. We also, we've got like a, every Monday we have a marketing standup. You can put call-outs into that agenda. Everyone reviews it. So I think there's a lot of.
as with regular content pieces, when you're marketing internally, you have to tell the story across a bunch of different channels too, because people will miss the slacks or they'll miss the emails, but if you put it in enough spots, you'll get eyes on it, kind of in real time.
Ben Ard (16:58.64)
I love it. Molly, this has been awesome. I love the concept. I love your mindset of everything is content, getting anyone and everyone involved, helping tell these stories that otherwise wouldn't be told and getting people to share and be excited about it. I love that it's kind of this company wide initiative. I think this is super cool. And honestly, a lot of people listening to this podcast wish they could be in that position. And hopefully this gives them some insights where they can take their company from where it is now.
and hopefully take even just a few steps on the pathway to making everything content. think it's so cool. So if anyone wants to reach out and connect with you online, how and where can they find you?
Molly Evola (17:37.963)
Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn, Molly Evo, you can search me there. I think that's the best place to reach out and I'd love to send me a DM. I'd love to talk about this or share any kind of lessons that I've learned along the way.
Ben Ard (17:50.95)
I love it. And for anyone listening, just scroll down to the show notes. We will have Molly's LinkedIn profile linked right there so you can click and connect with Molly. Molly, thank you so much. I really do appreciate your time and sharing all your insights today.
Molly Evola (18:06.881)
Thank you so much, Ben. Thanks for letting me nerd out about content today.
Ben Ard (18:10.35)
Anytime. Love it.
