What should B2B companies steal from creators?

I read Ian Vanagas’s piece on why companies should market like creators this week, and I agree with a lot of it. If you only compare your marketing to your competitors, you’re often setting the bar too low.

Instead, look at what today’s creators do, steal what works and adapt it. Yes, even to B2B.

Caveat though, when I think about what this means for messaging and copy, I wouldn’t start by copying a creator’s hooks. I’d look at what they know and how they use it.

Here’s what I mean, and what that means for your messaging and copy.

• Know your audience well enough to know what gets their attention. A creator’s hook works because they understand the people it’s for. Sometimes so well that knowing what to say feels intuitive to them. You can’t necessarily borrow a shouty, over-the-top hook and expect the same result for your B2B company. What you should steal is that intimate knowledge of your audience, so you can find the language that makes them pay attention to you. Look for how creators immerse themselves in their audience, use their language and “become them”.
• Stay close to the product so you can make the right promise. Ian talks about creators building their content around the promise in the title and thumbnail (instead of the other way around). For your company, I’d start with the value in the product. Your job as a marketer is to convey it at the right moment, in the right language. Which means you need to stay in constant contact with the people building it. This is one of the jobs of a good messaging framework: helping product, marketing, and sales agree on the value they’re communicating.
• Adapt faster without getting impulsive. Ian points out that creators can jump on trends, reuse what works, and adapt to algorithm changes while companies get stuck in quarterly plans. I agree with him on speed. With AI and agentic workflows, you can organize research and test copy variations faster. My synthetic testing approach, for example, uses simulations grounded in real customer research to explore where a message might confuse people, before validating it with real buyers. But being able to change your messaging quickly doesn’t mean you should change your positioning every week. Set milestones for reviewing what you’re learning, without letting those milestones stop you from acting on something important at the right time.
• Have a point of view, and don’t dilute it in review. Ian argues that creators earn attention by taking positions and accepting some criticism, while companies often soften their opinions to avoid blowback. This is something I’d definitely steal from creators. If you try to make everyone agree with your messaging, you can end up with very little to say. Approval still matters, especially when AI and agents help produce the slop, cough cough—I meant work. But I’d use it to check accuracy, product promises, and risk, rather than let every reviewer soften your core opinions and big ideas.
• Make experiments cheaper to run. Ian’s example is a creator testing an idea with an iPhone video while a marketing team needs a plan, script, equipment, and approvals. When each piece costs less to make, a flop is less expensive. This connects to speed, but it’s also about how much you commit before you learn anything. You don’t automatically need three months of research before you can test an initial message. AI can help you collect and work through the data faster, and get something in front of people sooner. And scrappier doesn’t have to mean worse. With these tools, you can do more with less, if you use them well.
• Meet your audience in the formats and language they expect. Ian argues that people want content they enjoy, not whatever format happens to fit your marketing plan. To me, this connects directly to message-market fit. Where do your buyers look for information? What do they need at that moment? How do they expect you to explain it? Start there, rather than with the asset that feels more familiar/easy.

So yes, I think you should learn from creators and how they get attention these days. But I’d just pay at least as much attention to how closely they know their audience and how leanly they work.

Discovery

M. Night Shyamalan’s set diary from Signs

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan has a YouTube channel now, and I’m loving it. In this video, he goes through his set diary from Signs, sharing anecdotes and stories from making the movie. It’s a good reminder of how valuable writing down our thoughts can be, both in the moment and for our future selves.

Hi from Thailand

I just landed in Chiang Mai this week. It’ll be my temporary home for the next three months and potentially home base from next year. It’s a big jump from the UK, but I feel an amazing sense of adventure, play, freedom, and exploration in the air. Not sure yet what it will mean for the business, but I’m excited to find out and share new ideas with you.

If you’re here, just reply and let’s meet up!

Resonance

Henrik Karlsson, Everything That Turned Out Well in My Life Followed the Same Design Process