Do Less, Get More: 3 Small-But-Mighty Ways to Improve Content ROI in 2023

The new year is here! Congrats to all the marketers who made it through another year of data wrangling, deadline sprinting, and doubters. ??

If you’re like most of us, you’re already looking for ways to get even more out of your content in 2023 — especially in light of recent budget cuts.

And while the advice to start off with a clear content strategy is completely valid, the reality is 60% of B2B content marketers will enter the year without one.

Instead of soapboxing about all the things you “should” be doing this time of year, I’ll share a few tips you can immediately put into practice to help squeeze every ounce of ROI out of your B2B content, no matter what your goals are.

1. Commit to publishing one case study per month

You already know how crucial they are.

Case studies are one of the few digital content formats that hold their value no matter what happens with Google’s algorithm, Apple’s privacy policy, or any other third-party wavemaker. Better still, they work across the funnel making it easy for problem-aware prospects to transition quickly and naturally into product-aware prospects.

Yet despite the case-studies-as-content-table-stakes mentality, many brands don’t actively produce them, and even fewer do them well. Here are a few ways to change that.

Write your case studies in batches

One way to create an entire library of case studies in a short amount of time is to tackle them in one big batch.

Connect with your sales and CS teams to get their top customer nominees and ask them to spread the word about your case study initiative featuring real success stories from users like them.

Then, commit a set period of time for creating the case studies. I recommend a month or longer if you’re planning to do at least three or more. The scheduling, transcribing, writing and approval process is going to take time, and probably more of it than you planned for. During this time, give yourself permission to work on just these assets.

We took this approach with our client Follow Up Boss from February to April 2021. By the end of the three-month period, we had 16 compelling stories from real users who were an exact match to each of the brand’s three core personas, plus a dedicated section of the website for Customer Results where sales teams can easily point prospects who have similar problems or pain points as existing customers.

Once your case study library is live, all you need to do is the occasional pruning to make sure the data is still correct, or schedule updates with interviewees as the case studies age and new results are achieved.

Start with long-form ‘storytelling how-tos’

We all want the ‘How This Incredible Brand Made $1 Billion in 3 Days Using Our Product’ headline. But often, the deeper insights about how your customer arrived at the moment of choosing your product, why they chose your product over another, and the specific features and workflows where your product plays a role are just as valuable — even if they’re not flashy headline material.?

When you schedule your case study calls, consider beginning with a ‘getting to know your story’ approach diving deeper into your customer’s personal and professional background before asking them to share the specific ways they use your product and what they (and the internal and external stakeholders they answer to) like about it.

These gems and use cases may not always have a place in your sales one-sheets, but they can be immensely valuable when leveraged across your other formats — including your webinars, traffic-focused blogs, e-books, and even your paid ads.

For example, consider this long-form ‘storytelling how-to’ version of this case study . While the case study uses a concise BDA format (Before, During and After), the longer version goes deeper into the work/life outcomes for the customer, while sharing the nuts-and-bolts on how to get started with a key integration. And it all blends together naturally.

Played right, the customer insights unearthed via your case studies could also help deliver on the first E in Google’s updated search quality rater guidelines E-E-A-T that prioritize the content creator’s ‘Experience’ — or as Google puts it:

“[T]he extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic.”

Even if you’re working with a team of B2B writers experienced in SaaS, it’s hard to write about a product you’ve never used.

By leveraging your customer case studies, you reduce the need to hire editors and subject matter experts to fact check your content and instead take readers straight to the source. And with only 34% of B2B companies actively using subject matter experts in their content, it’s also a great way to stand out in a sea of generic messaging.

Just get the first one done

Once you’ve got your first published case study, you’ve got excellent ammunition for securing your next one.?

Even in some of the more tight-lipped B2B industries (HR, IT, Data Security, etc.), customers are always much more likely to participate if they see that someone else has gone first — especially if that person or brand is well-known and well-respected.

But don’t be afraid to start small.

Even if you only launch one case study per month for the next six months, by Q2 you’ll end up with a rich library of product positioning insights, use cases, and testimonials — all of which can be leveraged for deeper differentiation and better ROI across formats.

2. Give your content team clearer positioning

You can have a target keyword that is 100% in your brand’s wheelhouse and still fail to see conversions because the team creating the content has no idea how you’re different from the hundreds of other B2B brands they’re cranking out content for. They just follow the recipe and ship, ship, ship.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to go back to a brand and ask what our position is on a topic or rewrite a generic CTA into a true call to action.

And yet, we know that 77% of tech buyers are relying on third-party sources and doing their own research before reaching out to a sales rep. If your content doesn’t have a compelling ‘pitch’, that’s a major missed opportunity.

Lack of positioning is a problem for many brands, but it’s especially acute for those in categories that experienced rapid growth during the pandemic. The marketing-to-everyone approach that once “worked” in those early favorable conditions is now failing to deliver as competition heats up and B2B buyers become pickier about the brands they partner with.

Nevertheless, many brands continue spending five figures per month cranking out generic, soulless content — then wondering where all the qualified leads are.

In 2023, content teams need more than a list of high-volume keywords.

They need a clear, consistent and compelling understanding of what a brand stands for, who it helps, and how it changes lives.

Strong positioning gives you:

• A message that resonates
• A compelling brand story
• Unity between product and marketing
• Clear differentiators
• Quality traffic
• Ads people trust

So get together with your content team and share your spicy hot takes. Be real about how you stack up against the competition. Get preachy about why the ‘old way’ is broken and how you’re changing things for the better.

Be brave. Be bold. And let folks know what you’re really about.

The right content team will eat. it. up.

Because the truth is, with strong positioning, the content practically writes itself. No more clickbait headlines or generic advice. With a clear message to guide each piece, writers and content creators have a reliable filter for knowing when a source, example, or datapoint is or isn’t good enough to make it in by simply asking:

Does it support our core message?

If the answer is no, it’s gotta go.

3. Do less

We’ve all heard the (now ancient) Hubspot stat about how you need to publish four blogs per week to achieve 3.5X more traffic than the other guy.?

But the internet is awash with shallow content. In 2023, it’s depth — not volume — that stands out.

While the commoditization of content is troubling, this oversaturation also presents a great opportunity to outperform. And 83% of B2B content marketers who always or frequently differentiate their content do so by outperforming on quality.?

Make this the year you place quality over quantity at the tactical level within your content team — not just in production, but in your amplification and distribution strategies too.

Get clear and specific about the types of topics, formats, and distribution partners you want to work with. Go narrow rather than broad and focus on making each asset sing. This may mean taking on the painfully counterintuitive task of crossing stuff off your list rather than adding to it.

Start by looking at the projects that definitely take priority and getting realistic about the time it will take to do them well. Be ready to cross out anything that doesn’t make that initial list of priority projects.

From there, set growth goals that are healthy, achievable, and backed by clear tasks that can be executed and tracked consistently.

Remember, content is a long game. The brands that do it well tend to focus on specific tasks like ‘run one VIP customer event per month’ versus metrics like ‘increase customer adoption rates by X%’. By protecting the tasks that matter, rather than gunning for a set number of leads or conversions, you protect your time and resources from getting over-stretched out and prevent your ROI from getting diluted by the many other shiny things you could or “should” be doing.

As long as pipeline and revenue are on the rise, you’ll know that your ‘minimalist’ approach is working.