Why Beam?

Content marketing has a problem. 

Let’s be honest: most B2B content is boring AF. 

It’s often general statements and regurgitated info and basic definitions, wrapped in faux authoritative lingo. 

Before you pull out your pitchfork, let me clarify: this isn’t entirely, or even mostly, the fault of content marketers. Content teams face high publishing cadences and lead gen expectations, low bandwidth and budgets, with little leeway to lean on leadership, partners, and customers. (Not to mention peanut gallery questions like “can we optimize this?” and “can we make this go viral?”) 

All of that, if you’re not careful, can lead to an “it’s good enough” mindset.  

This mindset affects the reader—and in turn your pipeline. But it also diminishes the role of content marketing within a company. 

Content marketers can be storytellers and interpreters. They’re not just here to serve lead gen. They’re here to make their customers and audience the stars of the show. To do that, they can’t be relegated to keyword research and ill-conceived gated assets. 

That’s an issue worth fixing.

That’s why we started Beam.

As we grow, we’ll remain focused on our core motivation: 

We're on a mission to reorient the role of content within the B2B go-to-market org. There isn't content marketing and then everything else—there's strategic, engaging content that connects to everything else.

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So: Why Beam? 

I don’t have a super meaningful story behind how we came up with the name. After spending a couple of weeks brainstorming, I thought of it in the shower. We decided on it in our team Slack.

Literally. 

But: we all knew it was right as soon as we saw it. 

Why? 

Because we’d already landed on our mission (see above). We just needed a name to match. 

We’re working with a double meaning, here. 

With Beam, we:

(a) shine a light on the experts your audience wants to hear from, and

(b) add sturdiness to your content mix. 

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(noun) 1. a ray or shaft of light 

Damn it, Jim, I’m a writer, not a VP Sales. 

When I worked at Outreach, my favorite part of the gig was working with salespeople who knew their sh*t but needed help getting it down on paper. It was fun, it was people-focused, and best of all it made for better content. That’s the approach we’re aiming to recreate with Beam. 

None of us will pretend to be experts in IoT, board management, AI, sales management, or any of the hundreds of topics we’ve written on. 

But we are experts at pulling interesting stories out of interviews, data, customer research, and industry trends. 

(By way of example: would you rather read a “what is sales engineering?” SEO article, or hear first-hand from the VP of Solutions Engineering at Slack?) 

We shift the spotlight from high-level content that satisfies the SERP to in-depth content that satisfies your customers.

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(noun) 2. A long, sturdy piece of timber spanning an opening or part of a building, usually to support the roof or floor above

“Content marketing” is a loaded term.

There’s SEO, email, video, case studies, gated assets, social media… 

But we learned a long time ago that we don’t want to do it all. Because, let’s be honest, we can’t do it all well. (Don’t ask us to put together a drip campaign, thank you.) 

Instead: we want to bolster what our clients already have going with thoughtful, engaging content. You know, that guest post series you’ve been wanting to launch or the playful (and helpful) LinkedIn presence you haven’t quite gotten off the ground.

That’s why we’re combining long-form content (read: eBooks, guides, bylined articles, reports) with social content (read: carousel posts, curated LinkedIn posts, captioned videos, Twitter threads).

By starting with conversations and data, we can create both in-depth pieces that everyone from performance marketing to sales can use and choppy, engagement-friendly posts that will give top-level marketing a boost.

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We give you what you need to bring content front-and-center across marketing channels, sales, customer success, and partnerships. 

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Why the #BeamTeam? 

Six months ago, when I quit my full-time content job, my wife and I faced a choice: reduce our workload and keep a handful of clients, or build something bigger than ourselves. 

We chose to build something. 

But why? 

I’ll tell you what I think: already, my team is so much better than me at so many things. I don't think I'd have it any other way.

• Sam (our creative lead) is better at pulling on the human thread of B2B content and knowing what will land on social.
• Becca (our operational lead) is better at organization and knowing which systems we'll need in place.
• Anthony (our content lead) is better at moving from “SME interview” to “polished draft” and knowing the right questions to ask. 
• Sabina (our client strategy and success lead) is better at balancing all the moving pieces of a project and seeing it through to glorious completion.
• Our freelancers are better versed in particular subject areas (from AdTech to Sales Enablement).

It’s fun to write things for clients. 

It’s even more fun to work with other people to deliver the best possible content for our clients—and give ourselves and our time the right work/life balance in the process. We’re starting small, but I look forward to growing into more.

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What you can expect

You’d better believe we’ll be looking for opportunities to work on some cool content with some cool people at some cool companies. 

But, in this next year, we’ll also be focused on:

• Our mission: Content marketers love to talk about content marketing, and we’re no exception. We look forward to adding to the conversation about how to make B2B content better, both for buyers and for content marketers.
• Our team: Yes, we’ll build the team as we grow with our clients. We’ll also explore how we can better live out our values, put work/life balance first, and give back. 
• Our process: I’m 100% more organized and focused than I was six months ago, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have 1,000 steps to go. We’re not creating a machine, we’re building a kitchen—and that still takes an inordinate amount of coordination. 

And, since I’ve been told you should end every blog post with a CTA, here are some links to check out: 

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👉 Want to work with us on a content project?

👉 Want to follow our musings on LinkedIn?

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Stay shiny. We will if you will.