An early pioneer of the demand generation space, and thought leader for demand-gen best practices and campaign optimization, Jason Stewart is a standout B2B marketer whose work now extends to cutting-edge content strategy. As VP of Strategic Content at ANNUITAS, Jason applies his experience and expertise across a variety of B2B clients in a variety of industries and company sizes. He works with clients to create and build the content that powers their nurture programs and best serves the needs of their buyers, achieving compelling engagement at every stage of the content funnel.
Take a peek into what makes Jason tick, both at work and in his free time, in this month’s Content Marketer Spotlight.
Work
What B2B marketing trend is inspiring you right now?
A full editorial calendar is not the same as a well-defined content strategy. A recurring theme at Content Marketing World this year was one of quality over quantity, and that successful content marketers are becoming more focused on relevancy and buyer alignment rather than volume.
What’s one of your favorite projects or campaigns you’ve worked on and why?
This is a tough question because you are always focused on what you are working on at the moment … but there was one infographic I worked on for a network security provider. Security is a very fluid space, but we were trying to capitalize on increased interest in security as the show “Mr. Robot” had just premiered and was popular with our audience. We wanted to capture the nostalgic 1980s/Atari vibe of the show. It wound up borrowing from the movie Tron, with fonts and graphics reminiscent of the scene with the light bikes. It has been performing very well in their nurture program, and with ‘80s nostalgia still on the rise between Stranger Things and Ready Player One, it has legs to last for a while.
What B2B marketing mistake makes you cringe?
This perception that downloads and views equate success. Content marketers have continued to struggle with measuring success, but it still needs to tie to revenue. If it serves the needs of the buyer, it will drive revenue. I would much rather create a piece of content with 100 downloads that I can tie to 10 sales than a piece with 1,000 downloads and no connection to revenue.
Play
What city do you live in, and what’s great about it?
I live in a small city called Petaluma, CA. It’s a wonderful place to live, surrounded by vineyards and farms and with a great downtown. It’s close to the ocean and the mountains. It’s far enough from San Francisco that it can maintain a small-town vibe while close enough that you can easily spend a day in the city and take advantage of all it has to offer.
What’s your favorite quote?
I think about Moneyball a lot … fantastic book, fantastic movie about business as much as it is about baseball. I’m not even a big baseball fan. There’s a quote from the movie that has really inspired the way I work. “Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players, your goal should be to buy wins. And in order to buy wins, you need to buy runs.” It goes back the earlier question about what makes me cringe. Of course, it’s great to put on a show with a home run — but in content marketing, slow and steady wins the race. Your goal shouldn’t be to create leads, it needs to be about serving the strategy that will support the buyer and create wins. And in life, you need to focus on your goals and figure out the best way to accomplish them that works for you, without worrying about how other people do it.
What’s your favorite song?
I listen to music constantly while I work. I find what works best when trying to focus is instrumental, and I have a Spotify playlist pulling from a bunch of music by the band Explosions in the Sky, who are amazing. That being said, I can’t get the song “When I’m Small” by Phantogram out of my head.
Want to learn more about some of the best and brightest minds in B2B? Stay tuned for our next Content Marketer Spotlight, which will run next month!
