Doing B2B Demand-Gen Content Well
Story of two prospects. And Obaid Durrani, HockeyStack’s Head of Brand & Content, on doing B2B Demand Gen content well.
Imagine two prospects, John and Jay.
John, an inquisitive explorer, is like anyone turning to search engines with a general mission: info on how to solve X. Search queries from such prospects unlock the floodgates of optimized titles from companies, all claiming to have information on the perfect solution.
As prospects like John sift through the search engine results page (SERP), they find themselves entangled in the web of captivating Google ads and high-ranking, well-optimized content. But these digital tactics are only a tiny step in influencing decision-making.
First, you must steal their attention through well-optimized, high-ranking ads or content. After winning their attention, you still need to convince John and his likes that you, the company providing them with information on how to solve X, is also adept at solving X. This is easier said than done.
Consider Jay’s path.
He didn’t only have the intent to solve X. He also had prior knowledge of a company that solves X. Prospects like Jay search with a focused mission. They query search engines seeking a direct route to a company already deemed a potential solution provider. By knowing where they want to go beforehand, they bypass the distractions of flashy digital tactics.
The SERPs, of course, still supply Jay with thousands, and in many cases, millions of optimized titles clamoring for his attention. But try as they may, he hardly notices them. Seeing the name of the company he typed into Google, he clicks and, in most cases, a new inbound lead records.
Now, here’s the lesson.
Prospects like John are swayed by enticing Google ads or high-ranking, well-optimized content because players in that space slack in pre-educating them before they hit the search engines.
Says Obaid Durrani, Head of Brand & Content, at HockeyStack:
How do you pre-educate B2B prospects like Jay before they hit the search engines and increase your chances of driving pipeline amidst the digital noise? Through demand-generating content.
I love how Jessica Thiefels defined it:
Demand-gen content targets audiences who aren’t familiar with your brand or your products and aren’t even sure that they need them. The goal of demand-gen content is to make people more aware that there are alternative options to what they currently use.
HockeyStack is nowhere close to being the first B2B analytics and marketing attribution software. Many options existed before them. Many options will enter the market after them. So to drive pipeline, they realized it was better to earn prospects trust before they hit the search engines.
As our definition of demand gen content above highlights, HockeyStack creates and distributes content to get prospects familiar with their brand even when they aren’t sure they need it. The goal? When they do realize they need a product like HockeyStack, they don’t go to the search engines typing “B2B marketing attribution software” into Google.
They go searching for “HockeyStack.”
Data from SEMrush proves this:
As you can see, there’s a 70% upward trend of people querying Google with the “HockeyStack” brand name. This branded search is also responsible for a whopping 65.7% of all the traffic HockeyStack is generating. It’s like saying, in over 65% of the time, the B2B tech startup is using demand gen content to transform random searchers like John into prospects like Jay who already know what they want before they hit search engines.
You should do the same.
Chances are, you’re not the first B2B company in your space. And you’d most likely not be the last. Instead of waiting to capture attention through well-optimized, high-ranking content, invest in pre-educating prospects to earn their trust and mindshare before they even hit search engines.
Invest in Demand Gen content. Invest in doing it well.
What’s the first step in doing it well?
Obaid started with a narrative:
Start by nailing an overarching narrative, as Obaid points out in the clip above, and you’d free yourself from the shackles of SEO keywords. Instead, you get a clearer path to designing a B2B content marketing strategy that puts that narrative at the top, making room for your product features to serve as supporting pillar topics for clustering demand gen content. VEC Studio’s Topic Clusters’ Content Strategy (TCCS) Framework enables that.
As illustrated below:
Let’s revisit John.
Imagine that before typing his query, he already knew about your company, the specific problems your product features solve, and how you’re unique compared to competitors. B2B demand gen educates and prepares potential buyers like John ahead of the solution-discovery journey. It’s how you give prospects a map to navigate the noisy digital landscape and discover you.
There’s a catch, though. A unique narrative that positions your company differently and story-driven content prospects like John actually want to read are crucial. These are core ingredients of doing B2B demand gen content well. But they are not enough.
You equally need to go distribute that content on the channels where prospects like John hang out. That’s how you reach them, earn their mindshare, and trust before they hit search engines.
Obaid does that for HockeyStack, too:
Obaid Durrani shared so much more…
You should👇
Crafted in VEC Studio
The modern B2B sales funnel is multifaceted.
Gone are the days when marketing, product, sales, and customer success worked in silos. Today, to drive business metrics across acquisition, activation, and retention, every team owns KPIs:
Experts behind the research above found what oils the modern SaaS sales funnel and drives lasting growth.
They discovered that:
In other words, any SaaS business –PLG (Product-Led) or SLG (Sales-Led)– is more likely to drive lasting growth by getting product-qualified leads (PQLs) into its funnel. The question then becomes: How do you attract, persuade, and get PQLs into your sales pipeline?
This question reminds of how Ben Horowitz, Founder of the billion-dollar VC firm, a16z, got attracted and persuaded against his stance to invest in NationBuilder. Long story short, Ben, as quoted in Forbes article, wasn’t looking to invest in a product like NationaBuilder.
But after seeing stories (and not just being told) of how ordinary people were using the product to solve problems, he was compelled to not just invest, but become a board member.
It’s probably why he said:
That’s what you get with Product-Led Storytelling.
With this unique B2B content marketing strategy and execution approach, you use stories target buyers (or investors) can relate with to show (and not just tell) how to solve problems with your product. This way, you can compel them to enter your sales funnel ready to start solving those problems they’ve seen how to solve, becoming PQLs in the process.
That’s because you’ll be using stories they can relate with to make them visualize possible outcomes and get drawn in.
Our clients experience this.
One example is HoneyCart:
Curious about Product-led Storytelling?
Thanks so much for reading.
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Three ways we can help:
Chat with VEC Studio to strategize and execute story-driven, product-led content [Product-Led Storytelling] that grows your B2B SaaS.
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