#005: Is your B2B content strategy driving demand & pipeline?
In today's Product-Led Storytelling Newsletter, I'm addressing some hard questions.
Starting with one for SaaS founders...
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Should SaaS founders neglect startup marketing until after product development???
If you're a founder reading this, you shouldn't.
And here's a short story, showing why.
On 22nd April 2020, Rand Fishkin, former Moz CEO, published a blog titled:
"SparkToro's Finally Here."
The 1st paragraph went:?
"Almost two years ago, Casey Henry and I joined forces on SparkToro in the hopes of solving a thorny, expensive, long-standing problem in the market research world: How to discover the publications & people that influence any group of people online."
Something to note here.?
This April 2020 content piece by Rand showed he started developing SparkToro in 2018.?
But he didn't wait to start marketing after the launch.
Between 2018 and the launch in 2020, Rand published about 100 content pieces on SparkToro's blog. All subtly marketed or made the market aware of his upcoming product.?
Now compare that to this response I got from a founder:?
See, no one's biting their fingers waiting on you to complete your product or feature development so they can jump on it.
I bet you aren't.?
So why do 1st time SaaS founders neglect marketing for product/feature development??
Sergio Pereira, 3x Startup Founder advised against this:?
It's not just Pereira.
Dave Bailey, a Founder coach to scale up CEOs, said:?
"Someone needs to be looking after marketing at your startup from Day One. Not after launch. Not during some PR campaign. But from the beginning, and every day. Building a great product is hard. Great marketing is hard too. And you absolutely need both in order to win."
In other words, don't neglect marketing.
VEC's Chief People Officer, Tamilore, researched this issue.
Her findings showed, to achieve B2B growth, SaaS founders (and marketers) must start marketing like Rand Fishkin of Sparktoro did (and still does).?
From Day 1 to infinity:?
Tamilore's research, however, showed it's not enough to do any kind of marketing.
It's better to do what she called "systematic marketing."
And like Rand's case showed, an effective type of systematic marketing is content marketing –??marketing that educates the market while priming them to buy your product/feature once launched.
She detailed how to go about this in her piece titled:
"Neglecting Startup Marketing for Product Development? 7 B2B Founders Show It’s Bad."?
In this guide, you'll see seven (7) examples showing how founders who took marketing seriously from day zero are thriving well above those who neglect marketing:
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Is your B2B content strategy driving pipeline???
Why this question, you ask?
Because, done well, your content strategy can (and should) drive pipeline and qualified sales opportunities.?
Take this HubSpot attribution of ours:?
领英推荐
As you see above, Amanda (now a VEC customer) went from awareness to consideration, decision, and qualified pipeline, all influenced by content.
We've observed this same pattern over and again.
Here's another one:
You may be wondering...
How are you able to design and execute content strategies that achieves this for ourselves (and our amazing B2B SaaS customers)?
Content clusters!
Strategically clustering content around topics/features to address problems your product solves is an excellent way to engage and influence prospects' buying decisions on their path to becoming qualified pipeline.
Say your product has an AI writing feature.
Here's what a topic-specific content cluster aimed at addressing relevant queries on prospects' path to becoming customers would look like:
?In the illustration above...
The feature's landing page is the pillar post.
And, if you look closer, content pieces are strategically clustered around it to address queries at specific points in typical buyers' journeys. But everything is linked back to the pillar page, which is optimized to drive pipeline.
Aligned to the typical SaaS sales funnel, here's what it looks like:
We've designed a process to simplify this process of designing B2B content strategies, using content clusters to ensure it drives pipeline.
It's called:?
The TCCS (Topic Clusters Content Strategy) Framework.
Sounds interesting?
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Our 1st live event dissects the cluster content strategy framework
Does the concept of strategically clustering content around topics/features to drive real demand and pipeline sound overwhelming?
Well, I must admit, it is.
It requires a mindset shift. And that mindset shift starts by seeing clustering content around topics as not just a way to outshine SEO or rank highest.?
We want to help you make that mindset shift.
We've leveraged this approach and our TCCS (Topic Clusters Content Strategy) Framework to build demand-generating content strategies for ourselves and our clients.?
And in our 1st ever live event, I'll show you how to do it, step-by-step:
Join this live event on Wednesday, 23rd March, to learn:
The event is free, but you must register.
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That's all for today's edition of VEC's Product-Led Storytelling Newsletter (sign up here to get the next editions delivered to you via email).
Thanks for being a member of this newsletter community, friend
Until the next one on 28.03.22, stay safe.
And, please, apply what you've learned today.
With?????
–Victor Eduoh.