The trends in what’s effective in attracting and converting B2B audiences change every few years while a few strategies like blogging, having an optimized website, and setting up personalized nurturing aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how top enterprise B2B SaaS brands do content marketing and demand gen.
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But first — a quick story. Back when I was in-house for a marketing software company, one of the hardest things was brainstorming every month or quarter and trying to come up with *new* and *different* ways to get to our target audience.
Here’s what one of those conversations might have looked like.
A typical content marketing team brainstorm
“Let’s make an offer [an ebook or guide] and promote it with a few blog posts?”
“How about a targeted email to a new segment?”
“A sponsorship in a new newsletter?”
“What about a webinar?”
The thing is — these marketing strategies work when you have an engaged audience. And lots of companies have mastered the art of blogging, search engine optimization (SEO), and creating and promoting helpful content like ebooks, guides, and case studies.
So, what can they do to mix it up? Boost engagement? Reach new people outside of their audiences?
First, a quick B2B SaaS content marketing strategy lesson.
B2B SaaS content strategy 101
B2B SaaS brands depend on engaging with their audience regularly, and educating them on how to best use their platform to grow. As trends change and best practices evolve, they need to be constantly guiding their users to success, so they continue to use their products.
Content marketing for a B2B SaaS brand typically includes:
- A blog aimed at generating organic traffic and educating their audience
- Email marketing customized for blog subscribers, prospects, leads, qualified leads, customers, and brand ambassadors
- Social media marketing for engaging with current and prospective customers, and building a community
- Long-form educational and sales enablement content like whitepapers, reports, case studies, and pitch decks
- Events like webinars, live panels, office hours, networking events, demos, or educational sessions
- Advertising campaigns to reach new audiences, convert existing audiences, and promote new features
- A podcast related to the industry or featuring leaders from their team
Content marketing teams work closely with product marketing, demand generation, academy and training teams, sales enablement, paid media, brand, and customer marketing teams.
Here’s a look at what our clients are planning for 2022 for some inspiration for your next content marketing campaign. (Insider info: these strategies work and have incredible ROI.)
B2B SaaS content marketing ideas for 2022
1. Mini reports
Have research? Or proprietary data that can be shared? Turn it into a mini report. The more recent and specific the data, the better. If you recently published a larger report, can you segment it by region? Another demographic?
Example: ZAGENO has been publishing quarterly “State of the Supply Chain” reports on their blog.
2. Templates
Think: checklists, audits, report templates, spreadsheets, or anything that you use or your audience uses and you can repurpose into an offer.
Example: Owl Labs’ Meeting Agenda Templates
3. Benchmark reports
These marketing data reports take survey data from survey tools like Qualtrics, Pollfish, Google Surveys, or from surveys sent to a brand’s social audience, and turn it into actionable insights and takeaways for certain audiences. Having recent data and helpful themes gives companies an advantage and helps them work off of the most recent data-backed testing.
Example: TINT’s State of User-Generated Content Report
5. Video content
Instagram announced last year that they’re now focused on being a video platform, and with TikTok’s growth and an overall push towards video, it’s best for B2B brands to start embracing the more visual medium however they can.
Try Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube, and use a mix of educational content, relatable videos, and showcasing your team with behind-the-scenes company life.
Example: Zeplin’s YouTube Channel
6. Localized content
More and more tech brands are expanding their content to regions outside of their headquarters like Central and South America, Europe and the Middle East, and Asia and the Pacific Islands. By localizing content and providing regional data, companies can leverage work that’s already been created but make it valuable for those in other regions or who speak other languages.
Content marketing tip: Always save source files — you never know when you’ll want to translate it in the future!
Example: DoorDash’s Online Ordering Report (English) / (French)
7. Interactive webpages
Resource pages need to be updated, easy to use on mobile, and fun to interact with. If your audience bookmarks your page or turns on desktop notifications, you’ll know your page is useful and hitting the mark with your readers.
Use data to guide the initial creation and ongoing optimization of these pages — they’re often a bigger technical investment, requiring design and development. Try a tool like Ceros for more user-friendly modules and less custom dev requirements.
Example: Owl Labs’ Hybrid Workplace Hub
8. Thought leadership content
Thought leadership is growing as a priority for many organizations, working alongside SEO content to grow brand awareness and establish leaders as subject matter experts (SMEs). Think creatively about team members who might have unique knowledge or takes about a certain topic, and pitch thought leadership content for:
- Your own blog
- Industry publications
- Publications like Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Inc
- Guest blogs or partner blogs
- Twitter threads or LinkedIn posts
- Magazines
- Video profiles
Example: 7 Reasons Scale-Ups Earn Investments, According to HubSpot’s Founder Dharmesh Shah
For content marketing in B2B, there is a growing interest in creative projects and more qualitative, artistic work alongside traditional data-driven marketing campaigns. Run an experiment and see how your audience reacts!
Particularly for brands who have been developing their content marketing program for many years, the engaged audience and ability to collect data are amazing resources to try out riskier, newer channels. As Gen Z grows in the workplace, there will be more reliance on video and short-form content, and more up-to-the-minute trends rather than lengthy planning for large content projects.
Interested in more helpful insights on content marketing? Check out CXD Studio.
