Why niching down and smart distribution win in B2B. Ben Hillman.

Key Takeaways

Don't live and die by every single upload. Remember the size of the audience you actually serve, not viral numbers.
Niching down has been the right play since 2011, and it still is. There's always a specific audience you can speak to.
Distribution is easy now, so the risk is spray and pray. Aim for "quality at-bats" instead of as many posts as possible.
One real attribution signal, like a viewer saying "I saw your clips on Instagram," tells you the platforms you can't measure are working too.
Don't assume people have seen your stuff. You have to show up many times before it registers, so break content into standalone chunks and put them where people already are.

What does a B2B distribution lead actually do?

Ben Hillman is the director of production at Mostly Media and the executive producer of Run the Numbers, a podcast for CFOs and aspiring CFOs. The show ships twice a week, eight episodes a month, and with that volume comes a familiar set of distribution headaches.

His first piece of advice is about mindset. The biggest challenge, he says, is not living and dying by every single upload.

"The struggle is to sort of contextualize it. Remember the TAM that we're addressing here. It's not this massive audience. It's not gonna be the same as your viral videos. So just understand the game that we're playing and look at it that way." — Ben Hillman

Some episodes are interviews with CFOs and finance leaders. Others are topic-based, like a history of the stock exchanges. The topic episodes take more research but perform better on views. Either way, Ben measures them against the real, niche audience the show serves, not against viral expectations.

Does niching down still matter for content?

Yes, and Ben argues it always has. When Dane asked why a tightly targeted show is the right play right now, Ben pushed back on the idea that anything had changed.

"I remember going to the second ever VidCon back in 2011. All the way back then, 15 years ago, they were talking about you want to find your niche. And I don't think that is ever going to change. There's always going to be a specific audience that you can speak to." — Ben Hillman

His proof is local. In his hometown of Burbank, California, a city of about 100,000 people, there's an influencer whose entire niche is Burbank itself. If a single city can support a creator, almost any focused B2B audience can too. The lesson: pick the specific audience you can actually speak to, and speak to them.

Why does distribution matter so much now?

Because it finally got easy. Ben's point is blunt: it is incredibly easy to be everywhere now, which was not always true.

That ease is also the trap. When AI tools make it trivial to spin one asset into a hundred pieces, teams start treating every platform like a dumping ground. Ben's pushback on a "make 100 pieces" plan is a baseball analogy.

"I want quality at-bats. In baseball, you don't just want as many times up to the plate as possible. You want to make sure that when you're up to bat, you're prepared, you know what's coming, you've done the research. When we put this out there, it's gonna have the best possible chance to succeed." — Ben Hillman

The tools, ChatGPT and Claude included, are there to give each piece the best chance to land. They are not an excuse to skip the preparation.

What do B2B teams need to know about distribution?

Be on the platforms intentionally, not everywhere thoughtlessly. Mostly Media posts on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and Ben admits they could add even more. The discipline isn't the number of platforms. It's refusing to treat any of them as a dumping ground.

"Make sure that the platforms you're performing on aren't just a dumping ground. No, this is an intentional piece of content that I'm trying to give the best possible chance to succeed on that specific platform." — Ben Hillman

So the both/and answer to "quality or quantity" is yes, but every at-bat still has to be a quality at-bat.

How do you measure performance for a niche audience?

You look for signal in the noise, and you treat a single real attribution moment as gold. Mostly Media puts out two shorts a day on Instagram and TikTok, each landing somewhere around one to three hundred views. Those numbers are hard to trust on their own.

Then a real signal arrives.

"We legitimately had someone comment on a YouTube video in the last week that said, I saw your clips on Instagram, this is great, happy to be here. That one comment tells me there are probably people who didn't comment who came from these different platforms. That legitimizes it." — Ben Hillman

Attribution is the hardest thing in marketing. One person connecting the dots out loud tells you the platforms you can't fully measure are quietly doing their job.

Does video content help you show up in AI search?

It can, and for Ben's show it already does. He runs crude tests, occasionally asking ChatGPT or Claude for the best podcast or newsletter for CFOs, and his show turns up.

He's honest about his posture here. He doesn't feel panic or urgency about AI search, precisely because the show already shows up. That's a privileged position, and he keeps an eye on it rather than chasing it, treating it as one less fire to fight while it holds.

The takeaway for B2B teams that are not yet showing up: this is where the work is. Helpful, niche content is what earns those mentions, and the teams that build it now get to keep the position later.

What is the one takeaway for using video to build trust and pipeline?

Don't assume people have seen your stuff. Ben's closing advice is the most human moment of the conversation. Even his own dad is still trying to figure out how to subscribe to the things he makes. He'll spend months on an episode, and people he interviews haven't heard of it.

"It's age-old advice, but it's still true. You have to tell people seven times before it registers in their brain that something happened." — Ben Hillman

The fix is repurposing with intention. Break a podcast into standalone chunks and place them where people already are, so each clip delivers full value on its own.

"Break it up into chunks. It stands alone. I hope people notice, I saw this chunk, but I didn't even realize it was a chunk. I can get everything I possibly can from this one, wherever I'm interacting with it, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn. Show up where people are and remember they're not gonna necessarily know everything about you." — Ben Hillman

And the bonus, for anyone who hears "our buyers aren't on that platform": maybe the CFO isn't on TikTok, but their kid, spouse, cousin, or neighbor might be. The next best person to reach after a customer is a friend of a customer who validates that you're legit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does niching down still work for B2B content in 2026?

Yes. Ben Hillman says niching down has been the advice since VidCon in 2011 and it hasn't changed. There's always a specific audience you can speak to, and serving that focused audience well beats chasing a mass audience you'll never convert.

What does "quality at-bats" mean for content distribution?

It's Ben Hillman's baseball metaphor for intentional posting. Instead of getting up to bat as many times as possible (spray and pray), you prepare each piece, do the research, and give it the best possible chance to succeed on the specific platform. Quality at-bats beat sheer volume.

How do you measure content performance for a niche audience?

You look for signal in the noise and weight real attribution heavily. Ben notes that shorts on Instagram and TikTok might only get one to three hundred views, but a single comment like "I saw your clips on Instagram" legitimizes the whole channel, because it proves people you can't measure are arriving too.

Does video content help you show up in AI search like ChatGPT?

It can. Ben Hillman runs informal tests asking ChatGPT or Claude for the best podcast for CFOs, and his show appears. Helpful, niche content is what earns those mentions, so teams that aren't showing up yet should treat it as where the work is.

How many times do you have to share content before people notice?

Ben Hillman cites the age-old rule that you have to tell people about seven times before it registers. He says don't assume people have seen your stuff, even people close to you. The practical fix is breaking content into standalone chunks and distributing them where your audience already spends time.

Full Interview Transcript

Dane: Hi everybody, my name is Dane Frederiksen. I am a B2B video expert and I'm on a mission to help companies get visible, trusted, and build pipeline faster with video. And I'm joined today by Ben Hillman from Mostly Media. Welcome, Ben.

Ben: Hey, thanks for having me, Dane.

Dane: So we're gonna talk today about the mighty world of media and about distribution. I was so interested to talk to you about this because, as a video professional who's been in the industry for 30 years now, most of that time was spent creating the content. Putting something on YouTube was something we did maybe just to show people what we did. But now it's turned into a big thing, and I'm getting the sense that's your focus. So let's stop there and let you introduce yourself a little bit about what your role is in distribution right now.

Ben: Yeah, so I'm the director of production at Mostly Media. My primary role is being the executive producer of our podcast, Run the Numbers. It's a podcast for CFOs and aspiring CFOs, just trying to make it into the C-suite and understand what it takes to be a good CFO. And we put out episodes twice a week, for eight episodes a month. And along with that comes a lot of distribution troubles that, if you're watching this, you probably have some pains of your own that we share.

Dane: Yeah, let's get into that. Maybe for some context in the beginning, what is the biggest challenge about doing a show like that?

Ben: The biggest challenge is not getting lost in, not living and dying by every single upload that happens. We'll have an episode where we interview CFOs and folks in the finance world, whether you're an investor, a private equity company, or you're in the finance world in that specific way, not retail investors, more the CFO side. And sometimes we'll make episodes that are more topic-based. We just did one called the history of the stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, those sorts of things. And you invest a lot of time in those, and those are the ones I have probably the most fun with, because it's a lot of research and gathering different cool graphics and archival footage. And it demonstrably performs better from a views perspective than some of the interview episodes. But it's not like we put that out and it's a CFO explaining stock exchanges and I hope that gets thousands of views. That doesn't really happen. So the struggle is to contextualize it, to remember the TAM that we're addressing here, that it's not this massive audience. It's not gonna be the same as your viral videos. So just understanding the game we're playing and looking at it that way.

Dane: Yeah. I wanna talk a little bit about the ecosystem of media right now. I think video's having a moment again. Everybody's realizing that slop didn't work and now we need to do the other thing, which is actually create real value, humanizing content, something that builds trust and authenticity. So where do you see a show like this, which is targeted? Why is that an important thing to do right now? The marketplace conditions have changed, so why now?

Ben: Why now, just so I understand, for a show for CFOs?

Dane: Yeah, or even if it was a different topic and a different subset, let's say CEOs at medical companies. I think the play is the same play. You're kind of in the trenches, so why do you think that's the right play right now?

Ben: It's not to cheat here, but I think that's always been the play. I remember going to the second ever VidCon. I don't know if you're familiar with that conference, the YouTube conference back in 2011. All the way back then, 15 years ago, they were talking about you want to find your niche, niche down, find a niche that you can speak to. And I don't think that is ever going to change. There's always going to be a specific audience that you can speak to. We like to make up niches like carpenters in Indiana, but that's a real thing people can do. I live in Burbank, California, and there's someone whose account I believe is Ashley in Burbank. We're a city of 100,000 people, and her niche is being the influencer for Burbank, basically. I know who she is, and I'm giving her free publicity right now. I just follow her on Instagram. But there's always gonna be those niches.

Dane: Well, you're kind of making your own point here too. Okay, interesting. So let's get into the distribution part a little bit. Why is distribution so important now? Maybe you're not allowed to say it always was, because you just said that. So what specifically is going on that makes that more top of mind, at least to me, than it has been in the past?

Ben: Yeah, it's just because it's easy as heck to distribute now. It's so easy to be everywhere. It has not always been like this. It is just incredibly easy to put it out there with different AI, whatever you're using to make the media. We had a discussion a couple weeks ago on a team meeting of, let's make a hundred pieces of content off of this one thing. And my pushback on stuff like that is, I liken what we do to playing a baseball game. We want to make sure that when we put out anything, whether that's a full episode or a short on YouTube, I want quality at-bats. In baseball, you don't just want as many times up to the plate as possible. You want to make sure that when you're up to bat, you're prepared, you know what's coming, you've done the research on what's in front of you. When we put this out there, it's gonna have the best possible chance to succeed. And that comes into play with using these tools we're all using, whether that's ChatGPT, Claude, or any other AI software, to make sure the thing we're putting out there has the best possible chance at succeeding.

Dane: Sounds like you're talking more about an intentional approach, a pre-planning approach, rather than spray and pray, which I think a lot of content plans end up being. Like, I need to post something today, what can I come up with right now, rather than putting in the research. So let's equip a B2B audience. What do they need to know about distribution right now? For me, top of mind would be LinkedIn and YouTube. What other considerations or places do they need to know about?

Ben: Yeah, it's tough, because the age-old question around quality and quantity, it's kind of both. And it goes into that quality at-bats thing. We're on YouTube, we're on LinkedIn, we're also on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. We're in all these places and I'm sure we could be even more. We could be on Facebook, there are still people that use Facebook. There's technically a limit to the different places we'd post. But if you're going to distribute on these platforms, not falling prey to that spray and pray mentality, making sure the platforms you're performing on aren't just a dumping ground. No, this is an intentional piece of content that I'm trying to give the best possible chance to succeed on that specific platform.

Dane: So let's get into performance a little bit. You talked about, since we're niched down, we're not trying to hit huge numbers. We're just trying to hit the right people in the right place. So what does good versus great look like in, say, a TikTok part of the plan? For a niched-down audience, I can imagine people saying, hey, our audience isn't on TikTok, that's not the right place for that content. So why is that the right place, and how do you know if it's performing well?

Ben: So I actually have a specific example. I remember I sent this in our Slack. This is the marketer's dream, where the hardest thing is attribution, where do you actually come from. And we legitimately had someone comment on a YouTube video in the last week that said, I saw your clips on Instagram, this is great, happy to be here. It's moments like that. We know when we put videos on TikTok or Instagram, we put out two shorts every day, and they get somewhere in the ballpark of one to three hundred views on those platforms. Of course Instagram and TikTok count differently than YouTube, and the audience is different. We get that signal month over month, week over week, seeing okay, we're getting attention here. We don't really know if that's legitimate. But then that one comment tells me one person came and commented. That tells me there are probably people who didn't comment who came from these different platforms. It's just looking for, is there any signal to this noise. That legitimizes it.

Dane: Yeah. So are you thinking about showing up in AI search, and how this content, specifically video content, is helping in a visibility strategy? I think most companies are seeing their traffic drop and feeling like AI is eating our lunch. So is video content gonna actually help move the needle? And is it just top-of-funnel awareness, or what about the middle and late-stage decision-making buyer journey content?

Ben: Yeah, we've done really crude tests of, every once in a while, going to ChatGPT or Claude and asking, what's the best newsletter for CFOs, or what's the best podcast for CFOs? And our show will pop up and show up on those searches for sure. I don't have a lot of panic or urgency around showing up in them because we already do show up in them. Having said that out loud, I'm not trying to portray that it doesn't matter. It absolutely matters. I just know there are so many different things I need to worry about, and the fact that we're showing up there right now, I'm like, okay, that's one less thing I need to worry about. I'll keep an eye on this and make sure we're still showing up there. So I come from a privileged perspective.

Dane: Right. So as we wrap up here, what do you think is a takeaway we can give our audience when they're thinking about using video content for visibility and trust and building pipeline? Is there a takeaway, a piece of advice about how to approach that?

Ben: Yeah, don't assume that people have seen your stuff. My own parents, I think my dad is still trying to figure out how to subscribe to the things that I make. I'll spend months on something like the CFO stock exchange video I talked about, and I know people haven't even heard of it. We'll interview someone and they won't have heard about it. It's age-old advice, but it's still true: you have to tell people seven times before it registers in their brain that something happened. And that comes hand in hand with, take the piece of content, if you're making a podcast, break it up into chunks, find ways to put it out there. That's not encouraging people to go watch the whole thing, but it stands alone. I know you're gonna break up this video into chunks, and I hope people notice, I saw this chunk, but I didn't even realize this was a chunk. I'm watching this and I can get everything I possibly can from this one, wherever I'm interacting with it, whether it's Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn. Show up where people are and remember they're not gonna necessarily know everything about you.

Dane: Bonus question at the end. When people say CFOs aren't on TikTok, what's your comeback to that objection?

Ben: Yeah, they are. It's simple, it's silly, but maybe they aren't. But their kid might be, or their spouse might be, or their cousin, or their neighbor. The next best person you can get, other than a customer, is a friend of a customer. We'll put something out on TikTok and maybe someone will see it who happens to know a CFO in their life and says, I watched this podcast, I saw this clip about this guy, have you heard of him? And maybe they have, and it's a validation that this is a legitimate person I've reached outside of my nebulous area, and now I'm in play.

Dane: Okay, that's a good one. I'll have to put that in my pocket. Well, this has been a great conversation. Thanks again for sharing your insights, Ben.

Ben: Yeah, thanks for having me, Dane.

Dane: And we're wrapped.

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Dane Frederiksen CEO / Creative Producer www.digitalaccomplice.com · dane@digitalaccomplice.com