B2B customers absolutely want to know “why” they should buy your product…
And they need to understand all of the ways that your product is superior to your competitors.
But your “how” is just as important; if not more so.
After writing content for B2B SaaS companies for over ten years, I’ve learned that to convince prospects that you are their best option, you must explain all of the ways that your product will help them grow their business.
The best way to do this is to create content that is better and more informative than anything else they can find elsewhere.
That’s where demonstrating your how, via best practices and use cases, comes into play.
While many B2B marketers will save that content for post-purchase customer journeys; demonstrating how versus why first helps to illustrate your mastery of the industry in which your prospective customers are trying to win. In turn, it shows just how useful your product will be to them.
The Solid Gold Content Equation
I’m going to let you in on my personal secret to writing content that converts for my customers.
Are you ready? Your how content should not simply consist of quick tips and tricks via short listicles; you must also show your readers all of the ways that businesses are thriving while using your product.
And I’m not just talking about generic case studies. You must start with a compelling story and introduction, add a dash of actionable steps (e.g., telling them exactly how to succeed versus just recommending a strategy), illustrate those tactics with client use cases or examples, then demonstrate the outcome of the use case with stellar metrics (where possible).
In my mind, the formula for quality content that converts looks something like this:
Solid Gold Stories = A Compelling Intro + Actionable Steps + Client Illustrations + Performance Metrics
It’s not easy to do and it is more time consuming than the average blog post. But when well executed, the outcome is more leads and better customer engagement.
In the age of information overload, why would you waste your time and money producing average content? Your customers will most likely ignore it because they’ve seen something similar elsewhere.
It’s better to produce fewer, more meaningful posts that have a bigger impact. This post entitled The Messenger Is The Message explains exactly that.
The best piece of advice from that example is to let your customers be the heroes of your brand story and ensure that you include their voice in your narrative.
You can do so by weaving in quotes and content created by your clients that demonstrate how they get the most out of using your product, and why they are a loyal customer.
Remember: Strive for solid gold stories versus high volume and you’ll get better results.
Have a look at these two examples to see the formula at work (one of them is written by yours truly and has been extremely successful to date)…
- How ADP Has Built A Customer-Powered Enterprise (And How You Can, Too!)
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Black Friday Ecommerce: 27 Ideas, Tips & Strategies to 3X-10X Holiday Sales in 2018
This post by Sujan Patel also demonstrates the formula, even if the businesses on his list aren’t his clients.
Of course, you don’t always have to follow this formula every time you produce a blog post. There are many different reasons to create content – from announcing a new product to building brand awareness and more.
Still, if you keep these tactics in mind whenever you are writing, you’ll be sure to provide value to your customer – beyond what many of your competitors are offering to their readers. Take the time and make every story count.