How + Where to Leverage Content In Every Part of a Successful Marketing Strategy

Your notion of “content” is probably pretty straightforward. Content = blogs. Or social posts. That includes some videos.

That’s how most people think of it. Content is something you do. A box to check off the list of marketing tactics. That’s why it’s so easy for businesses to see the shiny new toy that is AI and immediately think that content can be automated.

Ouch.

I don’t blame you for thinking that way. After all, a bevy of headlines are imploring you to view AI as the killer of jobs. The content killer. And so on and so forth.

The Right Content Strategy + Execution Plan Directly Correlates to Marketing Success

The lens through which so many view content like the above is all about the commoditization of content. In reality, properly-strategized and -deployed content is so much more. In fact, it’s the glue that holds your marketing team together.

Don’t like that analogy? How about the accelerant that moves you toward your goals? The grease that keeps your entire marketing department moving (and your sales team enamored with marketing).

I mean seriously, I can keep coming up with these 😬

But especially for busy startups (or even more established B2B SaaS companies), resources are typically too thin to craft content across all marketing initiatives. Or the opportunity (time) hasn’t presented itself for your content leader to craft a strategy that encompasses content across all facets of marketing your brand.

Wherever you are in that journey, here’s some insight into how content fuels (or should be fueling) each core component of your SaaS marketing strategy:

Demand Gen

A lot of the “typical” stuff people think of when they think about content (even the commoditized versions above) fall under the guise of demand gen, so let’s start here. It’s going to be a large chunk of your content needs, to be sure.

But the demand gen engine requires so much more. And today’s demand gen is much more nuanced than pre-pandemic demand gen, where the trend was to put most of your content behind lock and key (well, behind a gate, at least - but to someone who just wants good content to help make their lives easier, giving their email address is just as bad). Whether or not you gate some of your content - SPOILER ALERT - there is a LOT here. And this is just for demand gen!

A few core elements of your demand gen strategy may include:

A podcast

Content is going to help you reach out to podcast guests, follow up with them, create a website (or page) for your podcast, write show notes, potentially write blog posts for each article, write social posts for your company page and your guests to promote. Content may also compile ongoing podcast content along a similar theme into an eBook or other premium piece of content.

Webinars

Love them or loathe them (when well done, I am a fan), webinars are still a major demand gen player. Your content team or content partner will be writing landing page copy, the webinar outline, social posts, ad copy, marketing emails to your database inviting them to attend, potentially sales outreach to invite opps the sales team is currently working, CSM outreach to invite your current customers, and then post-webinar follow up from the marketing team (with additional resources on the theme of the webinar), recap blog posts, and possibly sales outreach as well.

eBooks/whitepapers

There’s a trend starting here, but let’s break it down anyway – landing page, the eBook/whitepaper itself, any interviews or research necessary to prepare for the topic, social posts, ad copy, marketing emails to your database asking them to download, blog posts promoting ancillary or complementary topics to the eBook/whitepaper, sales and CSM outreach asking them to download, post-download marketing emails, and potentially sales outreach here as well.

Case studies

Case studies can fall under a few parts of marketing, but let’s keep them under demand gen. Of course, you’ll have the interviews necessary to write the case studies, as well as the actual writing, plus social posts to promote, and depending on the format of your case study, possibly some landing page copy. You may also want to promote in an email depending on the scope of a specific case study.

Email Campaigns

This one is pretty straightforward, but the actual email writing, as well as any potential landing pages that your email CTAs may drive readers toward.

Paid Advertising

Paid ads should really have some input from your content team, as I’ve seen many ads that at first glance would seem pretty straightforward and acceptable. But, sometimes you need the insights of your content team (internal or otherwise) to help ensure that your ads don’t just state what you want them to say, but what will drive an emotional response + action from your intended audience.

Interactive content/tools

Do you have a workable demo on your website? A calculator or other tool that helps your prospective customers do their jobs more effectively, learn about your product, or other otherwise provides value? Your landing page will have content. You may require an email address to use the tool, so some follow up will be needed there. Possibly even a script if you have videos.

Sales Enablement

Everyone has either heard about or lived the reality of a company where sales and marketing are more frenemies than allies.

What a shame.

Marketing and sales should be linking arms and singing about buying the world a Coke because they are so in tune with one another. (Too obscure a reference? Google it.)

Marketing shouldn’t be resenting sales for asking for more. Sales should trust marketing to generate pipeline, build demand, and give them what they need to do their jobs effectively. It really is that simple.

So what’s that look like from a content standpoint?

In addition to the email sequences mentioned above under demand gen, some additional sales enablement pieces that every content team should be working on include:

Brand One-Pager

This will be especially important to your BDRs, who are either doing cold outreach or are having initial conversations with individuals who found their way to your site (or, ahem, to some of your other content) and want to learn more about your business. The actual piece here is extremely straightforward – a clean, concise one-pager with an overview of your brand and how you solve problems/make life easier for your clients or customers.

Competitor Comparisons

True differentiation is a struggle for many SaaS companies. Truthfully, marketing messages are a big ole sea of same, for the most part. Competitor comparisons can be especially helpful for when your AEs or other sales reps are working prospects that are also talking to your competition. These can be feature focused, but should also weave in those pain points. An exceptional content marketing resource will be able to ask the right questions to ensure that what they’re creating will really resonate with your prospects.

Product One Sheets

One-pagers, one sheets – these are all terms that refer to actual, you know, paper. And more recently, PDFs. And sometimes they’re disseminated as files. But keep in mind that today, these may also live as pages on your website, but they’re still referred to by these names in many marketing departments. Depending on your specific product or service, you may have individual product one sheets that highlight features and/or pain points. (Resist the temptation to simply tout your features, Folks. Features all sound the same after awhile. Tap into those emotions.)

Product Talking Points

Depending on your sales team, not everyone will need these, but they can be tremendously helpful for newer BDRs or just for those who are uncomfortable on the phone, in Zoom, etcetera. Simple, bulleted talking points on your core products can be tremendously helpful. You can take it a step further by also preparing talking points about common objections, and those competitive comparisons I mentioned above. Anything your sales team discusses could use some talking points, and your content partner is ready to provide those when asked.

Sales Decks

At a minimum, a content professional should be reviewing any and all sales decks and materials that are presented to prospective customers. This is essential for brand consistency, but also to help ensure your deck is polished, clear, concise, and best equipped to help you close business.

Social Content

Sales Friends: Don’t take this the wrong way, but most of you are terrible at social content. You talk about your company all the time. You pitch slap everyone. It’s brutal stuff. There’s a reason it feels like every other LinkedIn post in your feed is dragging salespeople. Leverage your content team to help you craft connection request messages, follow-up messages (TIP: Don’t try to sell in your follow ups…please…I’m begging you), and daily posts.

Events

We’re going to start getting into some overlap, as content-fueled pieces that fit under the demand gen and sales enablement umbrellas will also start fueling other marketing components.

When we come to events marketing, those one sheeters mentioned above are going to factor into how your team performs at booths. But, there is so much more content that helps drive more successful events strategies.

Speaking Pitches

Maximize every dollar you spend on an event by landing an exec or member of your team a plum speaking gig or panel participation. Speaking pitches/submissions can be tricky, so be sure to enlist the help of a content marketer to come up with a great topic and to craft a submission that is so compelling, the event committee will do anything to have you speak.

Speaking Decks/Outlines

Of course, once that submission is accepted, you have to actually present! Your content team should create a deck outline that brings the expertise of your exec/speaker to the forefront in an engaging and memorable way.

Marketing Emails

Let your connections know that you’ll be at [EVENT]. Look, everyone gets too many emails. So stop writing crummy ones and trust your content partner to craft ones that actually get opened, read, and clicked.

Pre-Event Blogs

There are a couple of ways to approach pre-event blogs. Depending on the size and scope of the event, you may want a blog post just to talk about the event itself and how your company is going to be involved (eg. if you have a booth, one of your execs is speaking, someone is on a panel, you’re hosting a dinner, etc).

Or, you could do one (or more) blog posts on topics that align with the theme of a particular event. You could build up some “pain” around the topic or theme and then come in with the “solution” – your exec will be speaking on that exact topic at [EVENT]. You’ve just provided insight and assistance to prospective customers and have generated some interest around your exec presentation (and hopefully more foot traffic at your booth).

Event Outreach/Invites

Hey look, no one wants to admit that attendee lists matter, but they do. That’s why nearly everyone is spending money to sponsor events. If you’re a sponsor, you know you’re doing outreach ahead of time. So make sure your content partner is helping you craft emails that actually get a result. Whether you’re looking to schedule 1:1 time, get people to your booth, are hosting a dinner/happy hour at the event, or something else, your content resource can help.

Landing Page Copy

Depending on how you’re participating in a specific event, you may need a landing page to track who’ll be at your dinner/happy hour, who has set up an appointment, or something else. Make sure that your landing page copy is written to convert.

Post-Event Sequences

We both know that the event isn’t over when it’s over 😬 That’s when your sales team gets to work nurturing those leads who stopped by your booth and to send additional resources to folks who attended your panels and/or presentations.

Recap Blogs

Event recap blogs help you squeeze every last bit of ROI out of your event spend while also shining a light on your internal subject matter experts. You can take one of a few routes here – as an attendee (or if you just have a booth), you could recap top takeaways from other presenters and their presentations. Or, if an exec or other member of your team presented, you could highlight key takeaways from that presentation in a blog post “written” by that person.

Social Posts

Of course, you’ll need social posts for your company page, execs, and sales team for many, if not most, events. And social posts to promote any and all blogs. And by “promote,” I mean “share thoughtful insights and takeaways in a way that people actually want read/digest.”

Customer Marketing

Strong content strategy should support customer marketing by leveraging your customer successes to showcase just how awesome YOU are, while subsequently making your customer look like an absolute rockstar.

Internal Training Materials

Depending on your size, you may have a team in place working on all those training materials. But at a minimum, you should have a professional content marketer ensure that everything aligns with your brand standards and is easy to understand and implement.

Product Templates

This one will vary depending on your actual product, but for some companies in particular your product may need standard templates (things like chatbots in particular). Having an actual writer create those templates is going to help your customers be much more successful with your product. Yay for improved retention rates 🙌

Newsletters

Your customers are spending good money to work with you. So of course you want to let them know about all the great things you’re doing, and how those will continue to make their lives easier (and give them outstanding ROI). Newsletters tell stories, and you need professional storytellers to put those together for you in a way that’s engaging and easy to read.

Customer Webinars

Your product is changing and evolving - the first people you should be helping to explore and exploit your evolving product is customers. And webinars offer a great opportunity to give hands-on training, while also collecting real-time, candid feedback.

And of course, content should be creating webinar decks, landing pages, and any email communications before or after said webinars.

That’s the bare minimum you should be offering as far as customer webinars. Companies that are fully leveraging content across their entire marketing function, though, realize that customer retention is not a given. Churn is very real, and even if your numbers are “good,” why on Earth wouldn’t you want to tighten that ship even further? Keeping customers is more cost efficient than landing new ones. Word of mouth is one of the strongest ways to generate new business.

And so on, and so forth.

There are only so many ways “the other guys” provide value to customers. You need to check those boxes. But, to go a step further, you can and should be creating value for customers on top of what you’re providing them through your product or service.

And webinars are a great way to do it. Actually, let’s amend that - well-designed and -thought out webinars are a great way to do it.

So what does that mean? It means continued education on topics that are of interest to your customers and aren’t directly related to your product. Let’s say you’re an HR tech firm whose platform leverages AI and ML to create better candidate experiences. You should devote resources SOLELY to customer webinars (small audiences, more 1:1 time) on topics that fall outside of using your product and further help them create better customer experiences.

Some ideas could be:

• How to write job descriptions that convert (while creating better experiences)

• How often should you touch base with candidates? Here’s what the data shows (and how to take action on it)

• 10 ways to boost candidate referrals and pinch cost per hire

• How to fill your candidate pipeline in any economy

Testimonials/Case Studies

We all read reviews before buying stuff nowadays. Whether it’s reading Amazon reviews on that new laptop bag or perusing G2 for reviews on a new SaaS platform, we want to be sure that other people have found value (or get ahead of potential hiccups) before we spend our money.

Putting real, meaty testimonials and case studies on your site gives prospective customers a key piece of information that they need to make a decision whether to engage, request a demo (if they’re ready), or move on to someone else.

Without social proof, they are extremely likely to move onto someone else who provides some.

Not having this information on your site can almost make it look like you have something to hide. Do you not have case studies or happy customers?

Look, your customer success and product teams have busted their butts to create a great product and exceptional service. LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT IT 💪

Plus, sharing case studies with your current customers can give them inspiration on how to best use your product even more fully.

Customer Conference/Event Support

Chances are your customers either are attending or want to attend the same events as your team. And meeting up in person at events is a great way to strengthen customer relationships. So, whether it’s pre-event outreach to schedule 1:1 time, or to welcome customers to a special happy hour or meal, content should be working closely with your customer marketing team to craft targeted outreach.

And for those customers who can’t attend events, post-event blog recaps and other content can help them glean key takeaways and insights as if they were in attendance.

Social Posts

From posts sharing those customer stories + testimonials mentioned earlier to posts congratulating your customers on their own wins, your content team should be working closely with customer marketing and social to craft content that makes your customers the star.

Product Marketing

While many PMMs are also pretty good writers (out of necessity!), your content team/partner should align closely with product to not only ensure consistency in voice and representation, but to help take the writing off their plates so they can focus on what they do best.

Case studies, eBooks/whitepapers, + blog posts

I’ve already touched upon case studies quite a bit, but it's important to note that case studies can also be tagged and framed to highlight specific products or features and help propel your product marketing strategy forward.

This holds true for many of the content “pillars” I’ve talked about already. Whitepapers/eBooks and blog posts should also weave in product-focused topics + pain points to best frame problems, show that your company understands those problems, and illuminate just how great of a fit your product is for specific needs and problems.

Product Sheets

This is not a complaint about any of the brilliant PMMs I’ve worked with in the past; however, many product sheets are simply glorified bulleted lists of features.

Features are nice. But they’re forgettable. And are largely the same between you and your competitors. (Now, I understand that’s not always the case. But it really is a LOT of the time.) Memorable one sheets/sell sheets/product sheets speak directly to customers and address the problems or solutions that they are feeling or seeking. Features are woven in, but they are part of the story, not the highlight.

Product Landing Pages

Any product landing page on your website should be built to A) inform, and B) convert. Now, depending on the visitor, a conversion could mean a demo request, or it could mean downloading a whitepaper, etc. But, you want someone to take action.

That’s why, similar to the one sheets mentioned above, product landing pages need the skill + creativity of a content marketer along with the direction of a PMM. Or, absent a PMM depending on the size and age of your startup, your content partner/team will sometimes be wholly leading the charge.

Constant monitoring of page performance is key here to ensure that your pages are optimized. In many instances, visitors will land on your product pages from search, social, or other places. That’s why I refer to them as product landing pages and not simply “project web pages.” This is critical to keep in mind!

Product Video Scripts

Although it can be tempting to simply unleash your product team or PMMs on videos, at a minimum, you should bring in content to review scripts and ensure that everything is on-brand, conveying the right message, and achieving what you hope to achieve with the videos.

Research Reports

Research-driven content will never go out of style. And depending on your resources, research that centers around the challenges/problems/opportunities addressed by your product can be extremely powerful.

Now, the report alone is important, but an entire strategy around dissemination of that report will also lean heavily on content. And content should also be involved in landing page creation, email outreach, and survey design.

Partner Marketing

Partner relationships offer one of the most (in my observation/experience) underutilized marketing channels for B2B SaaS companies. Your team has invested a great deal of time and energy into building partnerships. Now, it’s time to maximize their value.

Partner webinars

This one is a no-brainer, of course. Your partners have their own expertise (and audience). Crafting compelling webinar topics that leverage both your and your partners’ expertise is a win/win for everyone involved.

And as with other webinars, content should be engaging internally and with partners to determine topics that will resonate with your audience. Of course, content will also be working on all those supporting assets like landing pages and emails (in addition to the actual webinar deck) that help make webinars a success.

Blog posts (for partner blogs)

Many marketing teams wish they had more, great content on their blogs. And again in my experience, many marketing teams fail to take advantage of the opportunity to publish original blogs on your partners’ websites.

Posting blogs on partner websites can provide solid backlinks for an SEO boost. But they also help to solidify your expertise and value to your partner audiences. This makes your partners look good for being your partner and sharing your content/expertise. And of course, it increases the likelihood that folks in your partner audiences will join your audience.

And we know what happens from there with your kickass content strategy 💪

Emails (for partner emails)

Just as with partner blogs, getting in front of your partner audience through email can be powerful. Depending on your partner strategies and specific needs, this could entail a standalone email (with an entire mini-lesson or mini-blog within the email itself), or it could be a blurb within your partners’ typical email newsletters.

Blog editing (for partners who want to post to your blog)

Conversely, your partners may want to publish blogs to your website (and who can blame them?). But, rather than simply automatically posting partner-submitted blogs to your site, your content partner/team should review them to ensure brand consistency, and (lightly) for grammar or spelling.

Decks (for your partnerships team to pitch prospective partners)

Getting more into the nuts + bolts of traditional partner teams, your content team should also have a hand in preparing or refining partner pitch decks.

Social Posts

And as with customers, your content + social teams should work closely with partnerships to ensure that you share with your social audiences just how awesome your partners are. This could be as simple as announcing partnerships, celebrating partner wins, or teasing partner blogs on your site or their own site.

Make your partners the star, and you build stronger relationships while also getting in front of their audiences.

PR

How can I say this lightly? Eh, I’ll just say it. The PR firms I’ve worked with are typically very good at pitches and they have super strong relationships. But, many of them have also started to promote themselves as content partners.

But I’ve had to re-write content in every PR relationship I’ve had with a firm in recent years. I’m sure there are exceptions out there, but to really maximize the amount you’re spending with a PR firm (and I know you are probably spending a LOT), your content partner/team should at a minimum review any byline, press release, or other piece of content before it goes out or is published.

And in many cases, you can save money on a PR firm by handling PR content creation internally (or with your content partner - especially if you have an unlimited retainer). Simply use your PR firm to do what they do best: pitch and leverage relationships.

Press releases

This one is a no-brainer, but well-written press releases matter, and your content partner/team should know how to write and edit good ones.

Bylines/third party publications

This is especially important. Senior-level content writers/leaders know how to write compelling bylines that offer value to publication readers and are irresistible to editors. WIthout a doubt, your content team/partner should be writing this content. And they should work together with your PR firm on topics (if publications aren’t providing desired topics themselves).

Awards submissions

Awards committees want to be sold on your company/submission. They want to hear stories and see results. And your content team should be writing those stories (working with your PR partner to determine what will resonate most with awards committees).

Speaking pitches

Similarly, conference committees want to know that speakers will present engaging, relevant content to their audiences that make the conference look good and ensure that this year’s attendees come back next year.

That’s why your content partner/team should craft speaker pitches alongside your PR partner to ensure you are maximizing this type of outreach.

Podcast outreach

I’m going to say this candidly as well. I’ve hosted or co-hosted multiple podcasts over the past few years, and I know quite a few prominent podcast hosts. Nine out of 10 PR-firm podcast pitches are immediately deleted. They’re typically just awful, carbon copy emails that show no understanding or appreciation for a specific show. Your content team can and should craft compelling pitches to either land guests on your podcast or place a member of your team as a guest on another show.

Delegating Content Internally vs To Partners

Many B2B SaaS marketing VPs or heads of content today are super cautious about adding headcount or partners. Budgets are understandably tight as economic uncertainty continues. And no one wants their neck to be on the line after taking a leap and making that extra investment.

But – (and you knew there would be a but 😬)

I’ve spent the last 4,500 words showing you the tip of how content greases the wheels of your sales + marketing functions. Without content, your entire marketing strategy hangs on the hats of marketing teams that are increasingly referred to as “small but mighty.”

And yet, that really means, “burned out and looking for other opportunities.”

That may sound a bit harsh, but I just came from an overworked, “small but mighty” marketing team. And half of my colleagues are interviewing for other opportunities.

Not only do you risk massive turnover among your team, the quality of work done by overworked, burned out marketers decreases rapidly.

So what can you do?

Add internal headcount

You can certainly increase headcount. If you don’t already have an internal content resource, I have one piece of advice:

RESIST TRYING TO SAVE MONEY

Seriously. There is a massive difference between a $75k/y content marketer and a $125k/yr content marketer.

Typically, more experienced content marketers:

• Have strategic experience

• Have experience in other parts of marketing and can not only write but contribute

• Work faster/have more refined processes

• Simply do better work

And really, if you look at the difference of adding $50k to salary, for many B2B SaaS companies that’s what, one additional client? Maybe a few? Is that a bit too flippant? Maybe, but quality matters.

That being said, adding internal headcount also means adding the cost to hire, benefits, etc. Estimates place the total cost of a new hire at between 1.3 and 1.5x the total salary.

And, if budgets get tighter, adding internal headcount increases the likelihood you’ll have to lay someone off (which has we all know, is the worst).

Hire a freelancer

Budget-conscious organizations will often reach out to freelancers. In fact, I freelanced for nearly a decade, and I have mentored (and continue to mentor) many junior freelancers.

You certainly won’t find a shortage of freelancers who “specialize” in B2B SaaS writing on LinkedIn nowadays.

There are a couple challenges with this; however:

• Many of the writers who “specialize” in B2B SaaS content have never actually worked in B2B SaaS. They decided it was an area of growth and became “experts.”

• Similarly, they’ve never been your customer, so they don’t have that intimate understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and pain points of your customers.

• They are either cheap (which can “seem” attractive, but well…you get what you pay for), or they are expensive but without the actual results/skills to back it up (because LinkedIn “gurus” selling their freelancer courses are telling them to charge more).

Hiring freelancers is a crapshoot. Most of them cannot share results (because clients really don’t share results). Due to their lack of actual experience, most don’t understand the greater marketing function within your B2B SaaS company, or understand intimately how their work contributes to the successful implementation of your marketing strategy.

And at least in my experience having hired + worked with many freelancers over the years, they often require more work editing and managing (or chasing them down due to late delivery) than if you had just written the pieces yourself!

Hire an agency

I mean, of course I was going to include this one. I am in agency leadership, after all. But, hear me out.

Over the years, I’ve worked for three agencies on a full-time basis. And I’ve worked with a dozen of them as a freelancer.

I’ve also hired/been a client of five of them as a VP of marketing and head of content.

Yes, that means I’ve seen the best and worst of agencies. And I’m not afraid to spill the tea 😂

What’s great about agencies

• When you choose the right one, you get a balance of true industry expertise + outside perspective to help you get the best possible results

• You essentially get the output + expertise of an entire content marketing team for far less (typically 1/4 to 1/3) the cost of hiring that number and quality of employees internally

• You have flexibility (when you choose the right agency) if your budget or needs changes, particularly suddenly (most reputable agencies have a 30-day notice period, so you’re not stuck in long contracts)

What’s not-so-great about agencies

• Many agencies charge top tier prices but farm out writing to junior talent

• That means a LOT of commodity content that doesn’t move the needle, but makes you feel like you’re “investing in content”

• Account Managers are balancing so many accounts and are tracking hours (down to every 6 minutes - like lawyers - I’m not kidding, I lived this!) they’re not spending much (if any) time thinking about your business goals and strategy

• I’ve inherited agencies while in leadership roles that charged five figures for services that were simply not rendered and in speaking to my network of fellow marketing leaders, I found this is shockingly common

• The people you speak to/deal with early on end up not being your day-to-day contacts

• Turnover can be very high at agencies, so you’re frequently getting used to new account managers, writers, etc

• Many agencies have rigid retainers, so you have to know exactly how much + what type of content you need before you sign the dotted line. Changing deliverables for many agencies means a “change order” (which also means more $$$)

• Many agencies claim to offer content in your niche, but don’t have the results or actual experience to back up those claims

Sharp Pen is different

What a cringeworthy statement, right? But, based on my history of working for or with 20ish agencies over the past 13 years, I feel extremely comfortable making that statement. If it wasn’t different here, I wouldn’t have made the leap from my role as Head of Content at a series D B2B SaaS company.

We know what people hate about agencies, and we do things differently. Flexibility. True expertise. The highest-quality writing (our writers are PhDs and journalists who are also savvy content marketers).

If you’ve gotten through this white paper and realize that your current content resource would never be able to support your content needs across the marketing and sales functions, reach out to us.