Words of appreciation from an editor on Forbes always make our day.
Here is what one of the editors said for the article we sent on behalf of a client:
Do you also want to publish articles on Forbes?
It can fuel your thought leadership campaign.
Interested?
Let me share more.
As a first step, you can apply for the Forbes Council membership through this link (if you have not already).
However, becoming a Forbes council member is just the preamble. Writing articles is where the real game begins.
In our experience, many council members are not able to make a debut for one or more of the following reasons:
Lack of time to write
Unavailability of ghostwriters who can take their brain dump and prepare articles that resonate with the audience
Unaccepted articles at Forbes because they look promotional instead of educational and actionable
However, when there is a will, there is surely a way.
So, based on our experience of helping clients to publish on Forbes, I am sharing three article ideas, how to structure the articles, and some tips to impress the editors at Forbes.
Idea #1 – Your Opinion on a Prominent News in The Industry
For instance: A giant player in the industry discontinues a technology and shows millions of dollars of inventory as a write-off in the quarterly report. You observe that other players in the industry are coming up with comparable tech. You also observed some companies playing on low cost to sell that discontinued tech. You want to alert the target readers to prevent getting trapped in the game of cost and think long-term. You also want to propose the right tech solution.
That makes the core of your article. Your marketing team can now follow the following structure to prepare the piece.
Structure:
Talk about the piece of news
Talk about related events from the industry
Connect the dots with your thoughts
Give actionable steps
Idea #2 – Your Expert Suggestions to Protect Against a Threat in the Industry
For instance: You want to help companies keep cyber security attacks at bay by giving them a proactive approach. Your marketing team can drive the audience by fear and prepare the article using the following structure.
Structure:
Quote the real events where companies suffered badly due to attacks
Educate the reader on a proactive approach to protect against such threats
Given actionable steps to implement the approach
Idea #3 – Tips from You to Prepare Better for the Future Based on Industry Forecasts
For Instance: You know that artificial intelligence is disrupting many professions and business models. You want to educate the reader on what kind of steps he can take to not get wiped out. Your marketing team can prepare the article using the following structure.
Structure:
Quote industry statistics and remarks from market trends
Educate the reader on what’s possible with advanced technologies
Tell stories about how businesses are pivoting by embracing artificial intelligence
Given actionable ideas for pivoting
Bonus: A Few Tips to Impress the Editors at Forbes:
Open the article with a quote, statistics, or an anecdote
Support your claims in the article with some evidence
Refer research papers and books to add more value to the piece
Focus on education and empowerment of the target reader, not a promotion of your product or services
Drive the target reader by any of these – fear, pain, benefits, awe
Choose words that resonate with the target reader
While writing, keep the maturity of the target reader in mind
Always add actionable steps for the target reader in the concluding section
Ensure a smooth flow of thoughts
Add stories and analogies to make the article engaging
Stay within 1000 words limit
Do not add any images to the piece
Do not write content that just summarises the content from the top 10 Google results
Maybe you can forward this article to your marketing team, what say?
It’s no secret that the project management SaaS sector is highly competitive.
As one such software company, how can you better communicate that your product is likelier to fit a prospect’s needs better in a sea of SaaS alternatives?
You would agree that SaaS tools are tricky to evaluate based on traditional metrics. Moreover, businesses face high customer acquisition costs.
Content marketing can become an exceptionally powerful tool for SaaS businesses. By creating high-quality, pain-point-resonating content, companies can attract and nurture highly relevant leads, clearly demonstrating benefits and accelerating the scaling of their business.
At Concurate, we believe great content can be transformative for businesses. Instead of chasing prospects and customers, your content brings you much-needed discoverability without breaking the bank.
However, successfully pulling this off requires a well-thought-out content strategy.
In this piece, we will conduct content marketing teardowns of five project management SaaS companies to draw actionable insights.
Armed with these insights, your project management SaaS organization can create the right awareness, respect, and trust to get more users.
Let’s learn more!
Our Favorite Project Management SaaS Companies
We have shortlisted our project management SaaS companies based on the following criteria:
popularity and user ratings on the Capterra project management software directory,
search engine rankings for keywords with high buying intent,
types of bottom-of-the-funnel content pieces,
existing best practices in blog content, and
research-driven and engaging content
Here are the five shortlisted project management SaaS companies we will analyze:
#1 – Hive
#2 – Asana
#3 – Jira
#4 – Smartsheet
#5 – Trello
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Hive is a project management platform built for hybrid work. Interestingly, Hive is exclusively shaped by its users. Additionally, Hive offers users to utilize over 1,000 integrations to bring information into one centralized dashboard for maximum efficiency.
Keyword Research Analysis
Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content
Publishing bottom-of-the-funnel content actively helps prospects with a high buying intent yet continue to provide essential value. Hive consistently releases such content assets.
A keyword research analysis using Semrush shows Hive consistently ranking high on Google USA for strong buying-intent and commercial-intent keywords.
For example, look at a snapshot of Hive on the results page for the keyword “free project management software.”
This keyword is moderately difficult to rank for (66/100). Additionally, on average, this search query is entered on Google 4400 times per month.
Hive regularly publishes bottom-of-the-funnel blog content such as “best of” articles. For example, their article, “67 Best Project Management Software To Work Faster In 2023,” allows prospects to make better purchase decisions and explore the market with helpful insights. Moreover, Hive publishes “alternative” content, like “Hive vs. Asana,” to allow readers to learn how the tools stack against one another.
Pain-Point SEO Content
Pain-Point SEO is a practical approach to creating empathetic content revolving around your customers’ pain points. Hive has many content pieces following this strategy.
For example, look at a snapshot of Hive on the results page for the keyword “how to organize your team at work.”
This keyword is relatively straightforward to rank for (39/100). On average, this search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
“A backlink profile is a portfolio of links from all the sites that link to your site.” It is a critical building block in a website’s SEO strategy.
A strong backlink profile signals authority to search engines such as Google to determine whether a website has sufficient expertise, authority, and trustworthiness around a search query.
Look at the snapshot to view the page authority of web pages linking to Hive. Page authority is the value search engines assign to a web page. A higher score indicates a higher organic search result ranking.
Content Quality Analysis
Hive has steadily published well-researched and pain-point-driven content. In addition, Hive helps its prospects and interlinks previously published in-depth content pieces. It also follows an underrated approach of mentioning its product first while respectfully showing its strategic differentiation.
Capturing Leads
One of the best ways to capture leads on your website is to offer something valuable in exchange for contact information, such as guides, eBooks, templates, infographics, etc.
For example, look at a snapshot of Hive on the results page for the keyword “pr campaign timeline template.”
This keyword is unchallenging to rank for (29/100). On average, this search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
In their own words, “Asana is powerful enough for any workflow but easy enough for any team to use.” Asana is a project management software used by over 100,000 paying organizations and millions of teams worldwide.
Keyword Research Analysis
Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content
Asana recognizes that publishing bottom-of-the-funnel content allows highly qualified leads to directly learning the benefits of their product and services.
Keyword research and search ranking analysis show Asana steadily ranking amongst the top results on Google USA for transactional and commercial intent keywords.
For example, look at a snapshot of Asana on the results page for the keyword “asana trello alternatives.”
This keyword is grueling to rank for (57/100). Moreover, on average, this search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
Asana has consistently published bottom-of-the-funnel articles, such as “best of” listicles. For example, their compilation, “Project management software and tools: Your best picks for 2022,” makes an overwhelming decision into a tangibly easier one. Moreover, Asana has an “alternative” section to help readers find the best work management tool for their team.
Pain-Point SEO Content
Asana has published many content pieces following the strategy of prioritizing high-intent keywords over high-volume keywords.
For example, look at a snapshot of Asana on the results page for the keyword “how to capture requirements for project.”
This keyword is demanding to rank (44/100). On average, this search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
Here is a snapshot of the page authority of web pages linking to Asana.
Moreover, to build its backlink profile, Asana executives give regular interviews with credible news outlets.
Content Quality Analysis
Asana consistently publishes pain-point-driven content that is well-researched. Throughout their content pieces, they ensure to link several detailed discussion pieces. Additionally, Asana categorizes the tools in their list. A steady flow of thoughts marks their content.
Capturing Leads
Asana regularly gives away free content like templates to gather highly relevant leads.
For example, look at a snapshot of Asana on the results page for the keyword “written performance review template.”
This keyword is challenging to rank for (55/100). However, on average, this search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
Agile teams use Jira to plan, assign, track, report, and manage work. Jira brings teams together for everything, from agile software development and customer support to start-ups and enterprises.
Keyword Research Analysis
Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content
Jira consistently publishes bottom-of-the-funnel content, which is highly optimized for their buyers to build trust and help their prospects make buying decisions.
An SEO analysis using Semrush shows Jira constantly ranking high on Google USA for high-buying-intent keywords.
For example, look at a snapshot of Jira on the results page for the keyword “jira vs servicenow project management.”
This keyword is slightly tricky to rank for (40/100). However, on average, this search query, which has a very high buying intent, is entered on Google 20 times per month.
Jira primarily focuses on presenting “alternative” content, like “Jira Software vs. Asana,” to allow readers to learn how the tools differ. Their dedicated “Jira Software alternatives” page is a good lead to follow.
Pain-Point SEO Content
Many content pieces published by Jira focus on targeting their customers’ and prospects’ clear pain points against prioritizing plain visibility.
For example, look at a snapshot of Jira on the results page for the keyword “how to manage large complex projects.”
This keyword is relatively “easy” to rank for (27/100). On average, this search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
Smartsheet is a SaaS offering for collaboration and work management. It offers a tabular user interface to assign tasks, track project progress, manage calendars, share documents, and manage other work. Notably, Smartsheet is a no-code, cloud-based platform.
Keyword Research Analysis
Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content
Smartsheet regularly publishes bottom-of-the-funnel content to help their qualified leads and prospects make reliable and informed purchase decisions.
An organic keyword research position report from Semrush shows Smartsheet periodically ranking high on Google USA for high transactional and commercial intent keywords.
For example, look at a snapshot of Smartsheet on the results page for the keyword “free alternatives to smartsheet.”
This keyword is tough to rank for (54/100). However, on average, this search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
Smartsheet has published bottom-of-the-funnel blog content such as “best of” articles. For example, their article, “30 Best Free & Paid Microsoft Project Alternatives for 2020,” allows prospects to find the top solutions and understand five crucial factors while selecting an alternative. In addition, Smartsheet publishes “head-to-head comparison” content, like “Smartsheet vs. monday.com comparison,” for easier decision-making.
Pain-Point SEO Content
Smartsheet also publishes articles that attempt to solve their prospects’ regular, persistent pain points. These content assets consistently improve a prospect’s experience.
For example, look at a snapshot of Smartsheet on the results page for the keyword “how to document lessons learned.”
This keyword is challenging to rank for (54/100). Still, on average, this search query is entered on Google 30 times per month.
The snapshot below displays the page authority of web pages linking to Smartsheet.
Like Asana, Smartsheet executives conduct regular interviews with credible news outlets to build its backlink profile.
Content Quality Analysis
Smartsheet has persistently published pain-point-driven content that is well-researched. They ensure to categorize the tools in their list and interlink many relevant, deeper discussion pieces. Smartsheet’s content is concise, actionable, and articulate, with a steady flow of thoughts.
Capturing Leads
Smartsheet often gives away valuable freebies to its target audience in exchange for contact details.
For example, look at a snapshot of Smartsheet on the results page for the keyword “project management template google docs.”
This keyword is moderately difficult to rank for (50/100). However, on average, this high transactional-intent search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
Trello is a collaboration tool available as a web-based, kanban-style, list-making application. Trello’s signature user interface organizes your projects into boards.
Keyword Research Analysis
Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content
Bottom-of-the-funnel content published by Trello consistently allows its highly qualified prospects to understand why Trello is a more suitable option than competing products.
A keyword research analysis using Semrush shows Trello habitually ranking high on Google USA for high-buying-intent and commercial intent keywords.
For example, look at a snapshot of Trello on the results page for the keyword “trello vs smartsheet.”
This keyword is moderately easy to rank for (28/100). On average, this search query is entered on Google 70 times per month.
Like Jira, Trello primarily focuses on presenting “alternative” content, like “Trello vs. Asana vs. Monday,” to allow readers to learn how the tools differ.
Pain-Point SEO Content
Trello’s content pieces attempt to attract leads actively looking to solve project management problems by searching for relevant solutions.
For example, look at a snapshot of Trello on the results page for the keyword “how to write up a project plan.”
This keyword is formidable to rank for (66/100). Yet, on average, this search query is entered on Google 20 times per month.
See the snapshot below to view how Trello weaves in calls-to-action and lead magnets.
Parting Thoughts
So there you have our content marketing teardown of our favorite project management SaaS companies knocking it out of the park! It was a pleasure to dive deep, break down, and grasp their content marketing strategies.
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate well-researched and engaging content as per your company’s requirements and culture because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
Let’s connect over a short call if you want to elevate your project management SaaS business’s content marketing. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
We consider writing a B2B SaaS case study comparable to writing a story for a film.
The customer is an “underdog” before using your SaaS product.
Facing pain points, they explore solutions, stumble upon and explore your SaaS product. After implementing and mastering your solution, they overcome the business problems—transcending to a “hero.”
The role of the distributor starts where the part of the playwright ends.
Put simply; your B2B SaaS case study has arrived at a juncture where your business needs to manage the marketing process and distribute the release to the right audience.
The motive is to promote your B2B SaaS wins – case studies and customer success stories – in a timely and effective manner to reach more prospects and convert them into paying customers.
This article will explain how to do that and generate effective results—in just seven days!
Let’s dive in.
10 Ways to Promote B2B SaaS Case Studies
Before we proceed, here’s a quick rundown of how to follow the tips.
Essentially, your B2B SaaS business can go ahead with the conventional methods or attempt novel approaches.
Here is the list of the 10 ways your business can promote your B2B SaaS case study.
#1 – Publish on Existing Social Media Accounts
#2 – Share in Relevant Online Communities
#3 – Run Paid Promotion Campaigns
#4 – Highlight on Company Website
#5 – Use Email Marketing
#6 – Utilise Sales Collaterals
#7 – Build for SEO Optimisation
#8 – Leverage your “Internal Chatter”
#9 – Feature Your Customer as a Guest
#10 – Utilise a Content Distribution Matrix
Let’s learn more about each approach.
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Conventional Methods to Promote B2B SaaS Case Studies
The methods outlined in this subsection are customary practices to share your business’s B2B SaaS case studies. We recommend exhausting many of these approaches since their returns merit their adoption.
#1 – Publish on Existing Social Media Accounts
Your business can share its B2B SaaS case study on social media accounts as the first course of action. Tagging your clients is a great way to broaden your content’s reach further. This helps your 2nd and 3rd-degree connections potentially get notified.
Your business can consider distributing your B2B SaaS case study in regular hotspots where your target audience discusses industry news. Facebook groups, LinkedIn communities, relevant subreddits, and even replying to questions on Quora are great options.
Your business can consider “boosting” its reach to a broader audience—running paid media campaigns to increase the scale of your B2B SaaS case study’s distribution.
Moreover, your business is more than just reliant upon social media giants like Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn can tangibly help your business reach your target B2B audience effectively.
Additionally, your business can run campaigns using the Google Display Network or partner with email newsletter publishers to reach a targeted audience.
Your B2B SaaS business’s landing page is your owned media! It makes excellent business sense to utilise this “real estate” for sharing customer success stories and case studies. Prospects can view vital social proof of happy clients while taking a cursory look at your website.
Another valuable resource to share your B2B SaaS case studies is leveraging email marketing campaigns. Your business can distribute customer success stories and case studies to its newsletter subscribers. You can learn more by reading these 10 key takeaways from Grammarly’s email marketing.
#6 – Utilise Sales Collaterals
Using sales collaterals to share case studies is a great way to add weight to claims while nurturing prospects. Your sales development representatives can immediately highlight critical statistics on how your B2B SaaS business helped solve similar pain points of your existing customers.
Novel Approaches to Promote B2B SaaS Case Studies
The approaches recommended in this subsection are not common practice. However, utilising these approaches can bring considerably higher returns than their costs.
#1 – Build for SEO Optimisation
An underrated tactic to ensure high organic distribution is publishing your B2B SaaS case studies in a blog-style format.
The benefit of this approach is that your case studies become easily indexed by search engines. This helps your business attract the right audience researching such SaaS solutions. Moreover, your website traffic can organically end up visiting your case studies landing page to understand your service offering better.
“Internal Chatter” is everyday business stories from within the organisation.
So how can your business utilise this aspect?
After publishing your B2B SaaS case study, it will be highly beneficial if the employees who actively participated in the project share it with their networks. By adding personal observations on their participation in the work, they can tangibly increase relatability and help maximise conversions from the content piece.
#3 – Feature Your Customer as a Guest
A beneficial approach is inviting your B2B SaaS case study client on different platforms. Examples include hosting on Twitter Spaces, webinars and live events. This approach helps to facilitate active engagement with the audience. Prospects can understand more by interacting with your business and the client.
#4 – Utilise a Content Distribution Matrix
Lastly, it helps to have a structured approach to content marketing distribution.
Your business needs to make an informed decision on how to promote your B2B SaaS case study. Factors can include a particular approach’s return on investment and potential sales volume.
We hope these conventional and novel approaches to distributing your B2B SaaS case studies help your business acquire targeted leads and convert them into paying customers. Narrowing down the appropriate distribution methods involves:
Leveraging your business’s social media presence. More than solely using your primary handle, interacting with relevant groups, and running paid campaigns can be highly effective.
Utilising your owned media channels. Your business can share case studies on the landing page and own email marketing/newsletter lists.
Tapping into relatability by publishing blog-style case studies and using “internal chatter.”
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate the best content per your company’s requirements and ideology because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
If your organisation wants a B2B (SaaS) case study brainstormed and designed by Concurate, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
We recommend using these questions to record a video of your client’s answers. This approach can aid you in creating a case study video for your SaaS business or repurposing it for publishing blog-style and skimmable slide deck case studies.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
How to Structure B2B SaaS Case Study Interview Questions
Every movie has a fundamental structure—a narrative arc.
It’s safe to say a movie consists of a plot, characters, and a conflict affecting the characters. Further, it has an introduction, a middle, and an ending.
Accordingly, if your B2B SaaS video case study follows a natural progression of interview questions, it will allow you to possess relevant information for each stage of the case study.
Therefore, your business should consider chronologically using four categories to craft the list of B2B SaaS video case study interview questions.
#1 – The Brand
#2 – The Challenge
#3 – The Solution
#4 – The Results
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
#1 – The Brand
Purpose
The best B2B SaaS case studies offer helpful context around the brand they are featuring and do not just hog the limelight by talking about their services. Such information is invaluable! Here are some important questions you can ask about branding:
Question 1
Please tell us a little bit about your company.
This question helps to kick off your B2B SaaS case study interview on a solid footing. The purpose of this question is to inquire about your client’s brand.
This question is relatively broad and open-ended.
It also helps to put your client at ease.
Moreover, they can talk about their product, USP, and more.
Question 2
Let’s go one step further. Please tell us about your company’s structure, the workforce size, and the number of years it has been in business.
While this question may tilt more towards a technical side, it has an essential purpose.
Maintaining clarity about your client’s “persona” helps your case study build a stronger connection with the target audience.
It allows readers to understand better who uses your SaaS product.
Question 3
Can you share your (industry-relevant) goals?
For example, your client may want to improve enterprise-wide communications using your SaaS application. Some metrics they might target are improving the noise-to-signal ratio and timely receipt of important notifications.
#2 – The Challenge
Purpose
Gathering as much information about your client’s business challenge is crucial. These questions showcase how your business solved a real, significant problem. Here are some essential questions you can ask at this interview stage.
Question 4
What persistent problem did your business face before choosing our services?
A specific, narrow question like this allows your client to state their core problem effectively.
Taking a cue from our previous problem statement, your client may say their employees struggled to juggle multiple messaging applications.
Such responses allow you to ask hyper-specific follow-up questions.
Question 5
How significantly did this problem impact your business?
This question offers you to resonate with your target audience’s pain points.
A tricky pain point the client’s employees might complain about are blurred boundaries between personal and professional lives and delayed resolution of important notifications.
By sharing such real, relatable pain points, your case study can establish a strong connection with the readers.
Question 6
Which solutions did your business try before choosing our services? Why did the results dissatisfy you?
The intent of this question is not to throw shade at business competitors.
Let’s understand how.
Your client can share standard practices to solve a specific industry pain point.
However, explaining how your SaaS application offered the ability to use a single platform to create role-based access to particular message groups and the ability to share multiple file formats can help to place your services on higher ground.
Question 7
How did you find our business? What reservations did you have? Why did you choose to work with us? Can you recall an internal conversation that highlights this aspect?
Even a brief mention of client testimonials or a business partner’s referral will offer solid social proof of your B2B SaaS business’s credibility.
Moreover, your customers can validate a great aspect of your service, such as “the ability to integrate multiple 3rd party services seamlessly.”
At Concurate, we believe in sharing “internal chatter” or everyday business conversations outside the confines of a company’s walls. For example, a thought-provoking conversation with a colleague or relating a personal experience with daily business practices. Sharing such content can tangibly increase a content piece’s relatability and help maximise conversions.
#3 – The Solution
Purpose
This section takes your B2B SaaS video case study readers to the heart of the matter. The following questions will help you extract actionable insights from your clients. Consider asking these questions:
Question 8
Which business service did you choose to avail?
For example, if your company offers a business communication SaaS messaging application, it is unlikely that every client will adopt every feature of your application.
The answer to this question will help you to highlight a specific subset of your service, such as a centralised hub for enterprise-wide communication.
Question 9
How did your team use our services to meet their needs? Can you share a step-by-step implementation process for our services?
The answer to this question allows your client to share how they availed of your services.
For example, your client successfully replicated its office culture in a remote work setting after using your SaaS application.
The client can talk about improved collaboration, timely resolution of customer support tickets, and an uptick in employee satisfaction.
Question 10
Did you encounter any challenges during your transition?
Readers might anticipate particular challenges to “obviously” arise while transitioning services.
Answers about how clients avoided such obstacles can lift your case study to the next level.
Question 11
How was your experience?
A question such as this helps to highlight your application’s user-friendliness or ease of receiving a resolution from the support staff or point of contact.
#4 – The Results
Purpose
Don’t leave your B2B SaaS case study readers in the dark! Share hard, quantifiable data to add credibility to the claims. Consider asking such questions:
Question 12
When did you first notice the results?
Any business can claim that its service delivers overnight success.
It helps if your B2B SaaS case study shares a realistic results timeline and supports it with credible proof.
This practice lays rest to any creeping doubts readers might possess.
Question 13
Do you have any data on the results you achieved after using our services?
Try to share definitive quantifiable results.
For example, how much did the application reduce the signal-to-noise ratio?
Question 14
How did our services impact your business?
While it is self-explanatory, this question is a great way to bring your B2B SaaS video case study interview to a close.
This question can also help your business stand apart from the competition.
Allow your clients to sing your virtues!
Question 15
Is there anything else you would like to share?
Some clients might forego answering this question.
However, this might be an opportunity for others to share something which didn’t come up during the interview.
If you’d like a downloadable version of these B2B SaaS video case study interview questions before writing your next case study, fill out the form below!
Parting Thoughts
We hope these 15 B2B SaaS case study interview questions help you extract engaging, valuable, and actionable insights for your upcoming case studies.
It will be great if your B2B SaaS case study interview:
Establishes a clear profile of the client to resonate with your ideal customer profile
Convinces prospects why the client chose to adopt your SaaS service
Demonstrates how your SaaS service solved the client’s pain points
Shares quantifiable data that convincingly presents a before and after picture
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate well-researched and engaging content as per your company’s requirements and beliefs because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
If you also want a B2B SaaS case study prepared for your business to get more qualified leads and customers, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
The play button is the most compelling call-to-action on the web.
Michael Litt
Your SaaS business might be sleeping on an underrated approach to showcase notable success stories – case study videos. This claim is well-founded too!
A joint survey report by Vidyard and Content Marketing Institute, released in the fall of 2021, revealed that an overwhelming majority of content marketers believe that video has become more important to their organizations.
51% of the respondents shared that they use video to present case studies or customer stories. Moreover, 48% of respondents believed these videos produced the best content marketing results in the previous 12 months.
Moreover, according to G2, 84% of marketers say video marketing improves lead generation. On the other side of the counter, 94% of users say that videos help them make purchase decisions.
Underutilization of Case Study Videos
However, many SaaS businesses need to pay more attention to the power of case study videos.
Why do we say so? While conducting extensive research for this content piece, we combed through dozens of SaaS websites and noticed fewer case study videos than traditional text-based ones tangibly.
Moreover, we have yet to find SaaS businesses habitually embedding such videos to supplement their blog-style case studies. This golden practice can improve the chances of Google indexing your case study video and encourage visitors to stay on your site longer.
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
But before you move ahead with a case study video to showcase the value of your work and grow your business, it will be beneficial to understand the building blocks of a case study video.
Elements of a Successful Case Study Video
Seven elements go into making a case study video, which can state having “hit the home run.” Let’s touch upon them briefly.
#1 – Compelling storytelling
It helps to present your case study video by incorporating storytelling frameworks. One such example is “The Hero’s Journey” framework. You can read our article on how this framework can help us decode why the Squid Game is so popular.
#2 – Relatable pain points
Your case study video is more effective if it highlights your ideal customer profile’s pain points. For example, a case study on software targeted towards small and medium-sized businesses will resonate more if it showcases related users who discuss their pain points and hurdles.
#3 – Backed with data
A case study video doesn’t have to be devoid of numbers! Armed with credible statistics, your clients can mention, as a “matter of fact,” the efficiency their business has achieved from your services – man-hours saved, reduced operating costs, and increased revenues.
#4 – Embedded with social proof
A case study video allowing multiple stakeholders to talk about your service adds to social proof. It’s contagious!
#5 – Video elements – script, music, visuals
A case study video allows you to add emotion to the storytelling. You have the leeway to add stage-appropriate sound effects and compelling visuals. This is an addition to your primary arsenal, the script.
#6 – SaaS product showcasing
A well-produced case study video also allows you to give your prospects a peek behind the curtains and showcase how your SaaS product looks and works.
#7 – Ideal duration
What is the optimal video length? Take it from the leading SaaS internet video hosting and analytics company, Wistia – 2 minutes is the sweet spot.
10 Best Case Study Video Examples You Can Copy
Now that we have established the vital elements of a case study video, let’s learn from some examples from the past twelve months. Additionally, we’ll explain why we chose to present the selected video case studies.
#1 – Tableau
#2 – Slack
#3 – Drift
#4 – Canva
#5 – Xero
#6 – Grammarly
#7 – HubSpot
#8 – Salesforce
#9 – Workday
#10 – Dropbox
#1 – Tableau
In the Tableau case study video, viewers can delight themselves by viewing stunning visuals aided by tight-knit storytelling.
The case study highlights why the product is a perfect fit for solving the client’s pain point of visualizing constant streams of vast and disparate data. Their client’s goal is to deliver a superior customer experience. Viewers can easily understand how the data visualization software helped the client achieve their business goals.
The case study allows employees throughout the hierarchy to share how Tableau makes their work more efficient and productive.
The case study showcases snapshots of the software and provides actionable use cases.
The video wraps up in just over 2 minutes.
#2 – Slack
In the Slack case study video, one can see an authoritative thumbs up from Samsung’s Vice President of Framework R&D Group of its mobile communications division.
The case study discusses the pain points of using Slack alternatives like email and messengers. To support these claims, the client talks about the positive effects of adopting Slack, like smoother communication, a stronger organizational culture, and a boost in productivity.
The client inadvertently provides social proof of Slack and its credibility by mentioning it received adoption from a giant like Samsung since many other high-profile businesses vouched for it.
Viewers can also receive a walkthrough of the application and its custom use cases, such as creating topic-specific “channels” and creating bots.
This case study is shy of 5 minutes in length but an engaging and pleasant watch.
#3 – Drift
In the Drift case study video, target users can immediately relate to critical sales metrics that Drift helps to improve.
The customer discusses how Drift helped improve common pain points, such as the “engagement and connection with the customers and prospects” and “help in pipeline acceleration.”
Moreover, it provides a use case of Drift to better engage with customers and prospects in a highly personalized way.
To add weight to their claims, the client also shares increased sales figures after implementing the software (>$1 Billion) and improved response time by sales development representatives (<5 minutes).
It is a simple case study video with minimal post-production efforts.
The case study spans just under 3 minutes in length.
#4 – Canva
In the Canva case study video, viewers can immerse themselves in a fast-paced video filled with popping visuals.
The case study brilliantly captures the brand’s vibe and target audience.
Wondering how?
It showcases how the software allows small businesses and non-tech-savvy people to follow their dreams and be creative. Viewers also receive a walkthrough of the software to see how intuitive and seamless it can be to use.
The case study is a minute and a half in length.
#5 – Xero
In the Xero case study video, viewers can immediately identify the target audience of “accounting software for small businesses and their advisors.”
This light, breezy case study provides context around the client’s business and which offerings it is using from the Xero product suite.
The case study carefully mentions common pain points that the software resolves by stating features like “cloud-based,” “synchronization,” and “user-friendly,” which “helps to streamline operations and be efficient.”
The case study also gives an example of a typical use case by the client and the efficiencies it achieved (saving more than 200 man-hours per year.)
The case study is just under two minutes in length.
#6 – Grammarly
In the Grammarly case study video, viewers can learn from an appropriate user base, the client’s content marketing team, who advocate for its usefulness and efficacy.
The case study offers pleasing visuals and a soothing background score.
The client vouches for the software by allowing different employees to share how they managed to communicate the brand voice and tone in an intended manner.
The case study uses motion graphics to show how the software operates in real time. These visual cues are incorporated in parallel as employees share critical statistics about “style guide suggestions” from Grammarly.
Moreover, to provide concrete social proof, The client calls Grammarly an extension of their team.
The case study is just under three minutes in length.
#7 – HubSpot
In the HubSpot case study video, prospects can learn about the software’s capabilities and dependability in a crystal clear manner. The case study seamlessly narrates what prompted the need to adopt HubSpot, its onboarding, and its ensuing benefits.
The case study addresses common pain points faced by the client’s sales team – working in silos – to how HubSpot allowed them to “talk to one another” and ensure consolidation and simplification.
The client champions the ease of transition without requiring lengthy delays and hiring expensive outside talent. Moreover, a product walkthrough highlights the different features which have led to better user experience and dramatically driven product adoption.
Giving a confident thumbs up for HubSpot, the client also sheds light on how they aim to integrate HubSpot deeply in the future.
This case study is just over two minutes long.
#8 – Salesforce
In the Salesforce case study video, viewers can enjoy a fast-paced, well-produced case study of two business partners working together towards a common goal.
In addition to giving an overview of the vast scale of operations conducted by Dell, the case study spotlights the Chief Information Office and Chief Data Officer of Dell to lend authority to the case study.
The case study gives statistics on how many Dell employees used Salesforce at the onset of the pandemic—a whopping 150,000.
Employees at different levels of the organizational chart mention important aspects enabled by Salesforce – “structured processes,” making the “sales organization more productive,” “providing a 360-degree view of the sales cycle,” and “offering a single source of truth information at their fingertips.”
To add social proof, a senior Dell employee states that she works for “two companies” – since Dell and Salesforce dedicate themselves to achieving a common goal.
This case study is just over two minutes long.
#9 – Workday
The Workday case study video is a noteworthy example of letting each stakeholder present an honest review of using a product or service.
This case study offers a pleasant viewing experience.
It establishes context around the client and the core issue of improving the experiences of students, faculty, and staff – fulfilling their basic “expectations.”
The case study gives a product walkthrough and presents a before and after picture. Then, stakeholders establish social proof by describing the software using terms like “integrated, accessible, responsive, and user-friendly.”
The case study is three minutes in length.
#10 – Dropbox
Consider the Dropbox case study video as a short film, if you will!
It utilizes beautiful storytelling and high production value to present the “rising from the ashes” effect of the software on a stagnating town.
With the odds heavily stacked against the “protagonist,” the case study provides context around the product’s adoption and subsequent dependency.
Aided with a product walkthrough, the client presents use cases of how the software helped lay the foundation for their small business and build and catapult it to success.
The case study ends poignantly, showcasing how the client and their local community thrived in trying times because of Dropbox.
The software helped them become “anti-fragile.”
This case study is just over four minutes long.
Parting Thoughts
To round up this piece, here are some important takeaways on publishing case study videos your SaaS business should consider implementing from the get-go:
Establish from the outset how to implement the seven successful elements in your case study video
Build relatability by shedding the spotlight on your ideal customer profile and presenting credible statistics of your SaaS product solving their common pain points
Demonstrate how your product works using walkthroughs
Bring out your creativity! Don’t underestimate the power of catchy visuals, sound effects, and tight-knit storytelling to drive home your point
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate well-researched and engaging content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
Does your B2B (SaaS) business want a case study prepared to get more leads and users? Let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
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Best way to sell something: don’t sell anything; Earn the awareness, respect, and trust of those who might buy.
Rand Fishkin
Now, how do you earn that awareness, respect, and trust?
Well-researched and engaging content is the key to this lock!
Hello readers!
We are big fans of content marketing. It mesmerizes us to see how great content can be transformative for businesses. Instead of you chasing customers, customers discover your product through content.
To make this happen, one requires a well-thought-out content strategy and some inspirational examples from whom to draw actionable insights.
Therefore, today, we bring our ten favorite SaaS companies nailing their content marketing. To shortlist from a large pool of candidates, we analyzed the content marketing strategy of 50 fast-growing medium-sized US-based SaaS companies with a workforce not exceeding 500 employees.
We hope you will enjoy reading this piece!
7 Point Content Quality Analysis Framework
To examine the quality of the content, we have considered seven parameters:
#1 – Pain-Point-Driven Content
The content that provides solutions for pressing pain-points of your target audience lays a strong foundation for content marketing. Such content makes it easy for your target audience to discover your website through Google and other search engines.
#2 – Storytelling Practices
Humans are hardwired to connect with stories, empathize with characters, and respond to narratives. Storytelling is crucial in content marketing as it makes your content more engaging and captivating.
#3 – Actionable Content
Actionable content provides solutions to readers that they can implement from the get-go.
Readers will appreciate quality, actionable content that delivers on its promises and does not leave them scrambling for additional resources.
#4 – Articulation and Steady Flow of Thoughts
Content with a broken flow of thoughts and complex sentence constructions push the readers away. Good articulation and a steady flow of thoughts keep the readers glued to your content and make them crave even more.
#5 – Conciseness
Less is more.
Content that conveys your message in the least possible words fares better. Concise content shows respect for the reader’s time.
#6 – Well-Researched Content
Does the content cite reputed reports, statistics, surveys, and interviews?
If your content cites credible research, it elevates the quality and authority of the intended message. It draws in potential customers and fosters trust among existing clients.
#7 – Consistent Brand Messaging
Do you have consistent messaging that reflects your brand?
Through consistent brand messaging, readers can easily distinguish between your content pieces and just about any other competitors. Moreover, it instills a sense of familiarity in the minds of your readers.
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Our Favorite SaaS Companies
We have shortlisted our favorite SaaS companies based on:
the quality of their blog content,
the nature and quality of their case studies,
whether they have published bottom-of-the-funnel content,
the types and quality of their lead magnets, and
overall content quality based on parameters which we explained in the previous section.
Here are the ten shortlisted SaaS companies that are nailing their content marketing:
Front is a customer communication hub that surrounds every high-stakes conversation with team collaboration capabilities and contextual data to ensure responses are always fast, accurate and deeply personalized.
Front has a well-curated blog section, but let’s take one of their blog pieces, revealing findings from the Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) study:
It showcases independent research cited by a reputable and credible source, offering their target audience with an unbiased review on Front.
It includes impressive statistics and figures like “Front Customers can see 440% ROI in Year 3” among many others that are bound to grab the reader’s attention.
It enlists the benefits of using Front in a captivating yet concise manner.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Front is a customer communication platform. Their target audience’s most appropriate buying intent keywords would be ‘customer communication plan’ and ‘customer communication.’ They have been doing an exemplary job with their SEO strategy, ranking No. 2 and No. 6 on Google USA.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ❌ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ✅ Popular SaaS alternatives ❌
Lead Magnets
Front has beautifully crafted lead magnets like the Front Classroom, guides, webinars, Ebooks, research material, use cases, roadmaps, training material, and other value-based resources.
Case Studies
Makes their customer story a “hero study” – For instance, in the MongoDB Case Study, they have highlighted the pain point of email volume faced by MongoDB and how, by partnering with Front, they were able to roll out faster responses and build deeper connections with their customers.
Highlights return on investment – The case study prominently showcases how MongoDB reduced their email volume by a substantial 60% after using Front.
Easy to follow – The case study follows stylistic and formatting guidelines with simple fonts and clear headers and pointers.
Call to Action – At the end of the case study, there is a very noticeable CTA – “Contact Sales Team” accomplishing the very purpose of the case study, i.e., getting more leads.
Verifone is a digital commerce and payments provider that helps companies sell their products and services via multiple channels, acquire customers across multiple touch points, increase customer and revenue retention, leverage smarter payment options and subscription billing models, and maximize sales conversion rates.
Addresses the pain point of sleeping subscriptions and provides readers with actionable solutions, offering immense value to their customers.
The content cites multiple statistics and figures from reputed sources. To consider one of the many, it mentions “How SaaS business will see 27.5% growth in the hyper growing market”
The content is well-articulated and concise, catching the reader’s attention till the very end of the blog piece.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Verifone provides online payment processing services, making it evident that their potential clients would search for ‘online payment processing’ or ‘online payment processing services’ on search engines. Verifone ranks No. 12 and No. 20 for these keywords on Google USA.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ❌ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ❌ Popular SaaS alternatives ❌
Lead Magnets
Verifone has a wide range of lead magnets comprising eBooks, guides, webinars, infographics, videos, a knowledge base, solution briefs, and an online calculator to attract leads.
Case Studies
Paints a clear ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture – For example, in the Kilohearts Case Study, they have clearly stated how previously using a payment-only platform consumed their client’s time, deviating their attention from the product. It shows how subscribing to 2Checkout led to a holistic purchase process benefiting the client in multiple ways.
Easy to follow – With a simple font style and clear headers and bullet points, the case study adheres to stylistic and formatting rules. It also includes relevant pictures making it visually appealing and easy to follow.
Showcases clear statistics – The case study concisely conveys the impact of using Verifone by stating facts and figures like a “5% increase in sales” and a “50% Curb in Churn Subscription”
Call to Action – At the end of the case study, there is a very prominent CTA – “Talk to Sales” that helps them acquire quality leads.
The blog follows a beautiful storytelling approach. It is precisely written and uses simple language instead of technical terms or jargon. More than just talking about the product’s features, Dashlane sells ‘security’ instead of just a ‘password management app.’
Dashlane publishes well-researched content that includes reports from credible sources like Princeton, Time, People Magazine, CNBC, and USA Today.
They do not beat around the bush and have concise content. What’s unique is that they also have a ‘Bottom Line’after every content piece making it easier for the reader tonavigate through the blog.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Dashlane is a password management platform. Their target audience’s most relevant keyword would be the ‘Password Manager App,’ and it ranks No. 18 on Google USA for this keyword.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ❌ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ❌ Popular SaaS alternatives ❌
Lead Magnets
Dashlane has a comprehensive list of lead magnets that include White Papers, guides, reports, videos, webinars, migration resources, user education resources, and admin resources to attract quality leads.
Case Studies
Conveys impact in a powerful manner – For instance, in the CSG Case Study, Dashlane has broken down the benefits of using their app compellingly, articulating it in distinct pointers.
Appealing format – The case study is presented in an eye-catching blog and repurposed in a video format.
Key stakeholders feedback – It pens down the experience of their client company and portrays first-hand feedback of multiple key stakeholders.
Call to Action – At the end, the case study includes a flashy CTA – ‘Contact With Us Directly.’
ActivTrak continuously monitors employee workflows and resource utilization for productivity and operational compliance. As a result, you get actionable insights to help improve processes, optimize technology and reduce risk.
This content piece appeals to the pain points of their client base. It explains multiple types of burnout along with their causes and actionable cures.
ActivTrack publishes well-researched content. For instance, this article cites a study and statistics from WHO making them appear more reliable to their prospects.
At the end of this blog, they have provided a free downloadable manager’s guide to help them acquire quality leads.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Companies looking for a Productivity Management platform are highly likely to use ‘Employee Productivity’ and ‘Productivity Measure’ or ‘Productivity Management’ as their buying intent keywords. ActivTrak ranks No. 10, No. 31, and No. 10 on Google USA for this keyword.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ❌ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ❌ Popular SaaS alternatives ❌
Lead Magnets
ActiveTrack provides their visitors with various appealing downloadable resources: guides, on-demand webcasts, checklists, datasheets, reports, templates, solution briefs, White Papers, and invitations for blog subscription.
Case Studies
Cleverly conveys their value proposition – Let’s take the York International Case Study. Through this story, they have highlighted how ActivTrak can enhance productivity irrespective of your work mode, whether on-site, remote, or hybrid.
Appealing format – It is a case study cum interview with York International’s CEO making it engaging and relatable.
Simple to follow – The case study is in a QandA format and has a good flow, where one answer leads to another vital question.
Call to Action – The Case Study concludes with a catchy ‘Create a Free ActivTrak Account Today.’
SearchSpring is an enterprise-level site search and merchandising platform that helps online retailers maximize search relevancy, increase conversions and order values, automate time-intensive merchandising tasks and prioritize the highest-value sales opportunities.
The blog is very well-articulated and to the point, making it easier for the reader to follow its actionable content.
SearchSpring has cited credible research. For example, “71% of customers expect personalized shopping experience” and “38% of the customers can be lost due to poor personalization.”It is an engaging read, making it highly likely that readers will stay until the end of the content piece.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Potential SearchSpring clients are likely to use keywords like ‘ecommerce site search solutions’ and ‘ecommerce site search.’ SearchSpring ranks No. 17 and No. 34 on Google USA for these keywords.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ❌ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ❌ Popular SaaS alternatives ❌
Lead Magnets
SearchSpring uses Ebooks, webinars, the SearchSpring Academy, and newsletter subscriptions as their lead magnets.
Case Studies
Create a convincing “before and after” illustration – Consider the Monwell Case Study. It conveys how Monwell had a tough time streamlining its merchandise strategies and how collaborating with SearchSpring enabled a great approach enabling customized customer experience.
Prominently highlights the return on investment – SearchSpring uses statistics and figures like “Revenue from searches accounted for 34% of total revenue’’ and “Searchers have a 6x greater average order value than non-searchers.”
Easy to follow – The case study employs an accessible font and uses bullet points and relevant pictures, making the case study appealing.
Call to Action – The Case Study ends with a prominent CTA – ‘Request a Demo.”
15Five is a holistic performance management company. 15Five equips HR teams with a complete, single-platform solution to improve manager effectiveness, drive high performance and engagement, and increase retention.
The piece has an engaging introduction and a compelling conclusion with appealing content.
It has a good flow of thoughts and reads more like a conversation rather than just a mere information piece.
It cleverly sells the idea of implementing HR SaaS platforms by empathizing with their audience and addressing their pain points.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
15Five ranks on position No. 6, No. 7, and No. 9 on Google USA for the buying intent keywords – ‘hr performance management software,’ ‘performance management software,’ ‘performance management softwares.’
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ✅ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ✅ Popular SaaS alternatives ❌
Lead Magnets
15Five offers their visitors valuable lead magnets like eBooks, events, webinars, on-demand resources, research, guides, and communities.
Case Studies
Striking depiction of impact – For instance, the Woodard Case Study conveys how 15Five helped them streamline communication, provide crucial information to the key stakeholders, and accomplish advanced planning.
Showcases return on investment – The ROI is showcased through statistics like “71% reduction in employee churn.”
Good formatting – The case study uses readable font size and distinct pointers.
It speaks to their clients’ pain points, like the rise in cyber threats. It covers time consumption due to billing using multiple portals. It also offers readers actionable solutions.
The blog cites research, studies, and surveys from credible sources, increasing the reliability of its content.
The blog is concise and allows the reader to focus only on what is necessary and valuable.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Litify is a legal management platform. It is reasonable to say that their potential clients would search for keywords like ‘legal software,’ ‘legal softwares,’ and ‘legal management software.’ They rank No. 9, No. 2, and No. 50, respectively, for these keywords on Google USA.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ✅ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ❌ Popular SaaS alternatives ❌
Lead Magnets
Litify provides their target audience with value-packed resources like eBooks, presentations, videos, White Papers, event invites, webinars, and subscriptions.
Case Studies
Remarkably captures impact – For instance, the Salesforce Case Study depicted how Litify helped a massive company like Salesforce in legal matter management and offered them a holistic view.
Choice of distribution – The case study is conveyed through concise text and via an engaging video.
Reliable feedback – The case study gives a sneak peek into the first-hand experience of a critical stakeholder, i.e., SVP and COO of Legal and Corporate Affairs, Léo Murgel.
Simpplr is a modern intranet provider that makes it possible for organizations to connect, engage and align the entire workforce in a seamless manner. They get to streamline internal communication and forge connections with ease.
It is an engaging read with the right questions, anecdotes, illustrations and references hooking the reader to until the end of the blog piece.
The piece is shaped with concise pointers making it easier for the reader to follow what it intends to convey.
It includes popular shows and personalities that are favorites, like ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Indiana Jones,’ and others, adding an excellent storytelling aspect to the article.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Simpplr is an employee experience platform. Their target audience with a buying intent would search using keywords like ‘Employee experience intranet’ and ‘Employee experience management platform.’ Simpplr ranks No. 20 and No. 23 for these keywords on Google USA.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ✅ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ❌ Popular SaaS alternatives ❌
Lead Magnets
Simpplr uses podcasts, events, webinars, research, training, and newsletter subscriptions as lead magnets.
Case Studies
Clear sketch of challenges and results – In the Datto Case Study, the challenge of centralizing communication and the ideal solution of using a streamlined communication platform is well put, catching the reader’s attention.
Backed by statistics – The case study comprises concise yet powerful data like “Rapid deployment of 2000 employees in 5 months” and “34,000 content views,” among others.
Call to Action – At the very end is a notable CTA – “Request a Demo.”
Kinsta, a WordPress hosting solution, maximizes the utility of WordPress by not only powering websites but by equipping customers with features and tools they can use to manage their websites more effectively and ultimately spend less time thinking about their websites and more time focused on their business.
It is a balanced piece with the right amount of statistics and figures. It also includes narratives and stories, making it engaging to read.
The content is actionable.
The content follows exceptional formatting guidelines. Moreover, it uses relevant pictures, studies, and statistics from reliable sources.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Kinsta is a WordPress Hosting Platform. Therefore, it is highly plausible that their target audience would use keywords such as ‘managed wordpress hosting’ or ‘wordpress hosting platform.’ Kinsta ranks No. 3 and No. 19 for the keywords mentioned above on Google USA.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ✅ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ✅ Popular SaaS alternatives ✅
Lead Magnets
Kinsta has a comprehensive catalog ranging from Ebooks, podcasts, Kinsta Academy, and Affiliate Academy to Agency Directory, glossary, newsletter subscription, guides, webinars, and free migration to gather leads.
Case Studies
The problem, the solution, and the result – In the UNICEF Denmark Case Study, the impact of switching to Kinsta is presented concisely by stating the issue of increased hosting cost and the solution of scalable hosting, which resulted in easy migration across sites.
Return on Investment – The case study shows a remarkable 850% increase in cost savings which readers cannot ignore.
Organized format – The success story uses concise points with appealing visuals, catchy words, and easily readable font size and types.
The research cites statistics and figures from reliable sources enhancing the credibility of the piece.
It provides prospects with valuable jewels of information, educating them on the crucial Dos and Don’ts.
It employs use cases, graphs, real-life illustrations, narratives, and stories to convey vital information making it impossible for the audience to stop reading midway.
Appearing on Google’s Top Results for Buying Intent Keywords
Hiver offers google workplace/gmail customer support services. Their prospects would search for the keywords ‘gmail customer service.’ Hiver ranks No. 13 position for the keywords mentioned on Google USA.
Bottom of the Funnel Content
Best in category content ✅ Your SaaS Vs. Any competitor ✅ Popular SaaS alternatives ✅
Lead Magnets
Ebooks, reports, guides, tools, webinars, videos, infographics, and newsletter subscriptions act as lead magnets for Hiver.
Case Studies
“Hero Case Study” – For our analysis, let us consider the Get It Made Case Study. This success story shows how the previously-faced challenges of haphazard project management and sloppy workshops are no more in the picture after switching to Hiver.
Return on Investment – The case study shows a fantastic hike of 250% in the client’s efficiency after using Hiver.
Appealing format – The case study is well-structured with appropriate elements, fonts, headers, and pointers, making it an even more engaging read.
Parting Thoughts
So there you have our analysis of our favorite SaaS companies that are knocking their content marketing out of the park! It was a pleasure to dive deep and break down each pillar of their content marketing strategy.
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate well-researched and engaging content as per your company’s requirements and culture because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
Let’s connect over a short call if you want to elevate your SaaS business’s content marketing. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
Writing a B2B SaaS case study is like writing a story for a film. But, you may ask – how?
Well, think of it this way:
Your customer is your hero, but he becomes a hero after using your SaaS product.
At the outset, consider demonstrating your client as an “underdog.” Someone who was going through the growing pains of running their business. Someone who wanted to bring more operational efficiency to their business.
That was before they implemented and mastered your solutions to overcome their business challenges.
And the magic unfolds when they get introduced to your SaaS product.
You onboarded them and helped them make the most of your SaaS product. Eventually, they saw their pain points vanishing. They could measure the impact of using your SaaS product in various ways, like saving time, money, effort, etc. They are a champion user now. They are also now ready to put out a word for you.
It’s time to write a case study. Let’s dig into the best practices!
Let’s take a look at eight of the best practices to follow while writing any case study.
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
8 B2B SaaS Case Study Best Practices
#1 – Make your case study a “hero story”
#2 – Identify what your case study aims to highlight
#3 – Make your case study easy to follow
#4 – Choose the case study format wisely
#5 – Repurpose your case study
#6 – Share your case study in the right places
#7 – Add calls to action to your case study
#8 – Partner with an agency to create your case study
#1 – Make your Case Study A “Hero Story”
Once you present your client as a hero, readers are more likely to connect with them and want to sign up for your services. In addition, they are likely to think, “Yes! It is exactly the problem that I am experiencing right now!”
This connection also ensures that readers are engaged as the case study unfolds.
Let’s dig deeper and learn about the essential cogs of the “hero story.”
Buyer Persona
Maintain clarity on who is the ideal persona you want to attract to read the case study.
If you are targeting a buyer, he would be more interested in value for money, RoI, etc. And, if you are targeting a user, the focus should be more on productivity, personal growth, etc.
Pain Point
Your case study should appeal to the emotions of your target buyer persona. You can achieve this by showcasing your client’s relevant problems and pain points.
For example, a tentative case study can be: “How (buyer persona) found a solution to (specific and relatable pain point).”
This case study by Clever titled “How a Clever Offboarding Process Helped Referrizer Recover 25% of Cancelled Clients” is an excellent example of targeting a particular pain point.
Product/Service Used
Your business might have on offer different types of products and services with varying propositions of value. Therefore, it would be counterproductive to broadly showcase your strengths by targeting different personas.
Making your case study highly specific and relevant makes it easier for your business to attract and convert the ideal buyer persona.
For example, a tentative case study can be: “How (your business name) helped (buyer persona) to achieve (specific result).”
This case study by Semrush titled “Spanish merchandising retailer uses Semrush to increase revenue by 50% and website traffic by 60%” is a relevant example of targeting the right audience.
Semrush is a comprehensive tool with a lot of features. However, the case study showcased only its relevant features. It helped highlight how a medium-sized business could compete against established players to achieve a specific result.
Results Achieved
It’s essential to be upfront and present your business’s achievements. Your readers care more about results and tentative solutions to their pressing problems.
Instead of touting your capabilities, provide tangible proof.
You can use specific numbers to highlight the results. Another essential point is to clarify the timeline within which your client achieved the stated results.
For example, a tentative case study can be: “How (your buyer persona) decreased (metric) from (higher number) to (lower number).”
This case study by Hotjar titled “How ClassHero reversed a 48% drop in conversions” does just this.
#2 – Identify What your Case Study Aims to Highlight
Walking around in circles and talking about opaque lofty results will do your business no good.
At the outset, it is just as essential to identify specific statistics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to highlight in your case study.
Here are some examples from case studies highlighted earlier in this piece:
Quality Leads
Hotjar’s case study targeting sales operations managers highlighted how their tool helped achieve critical onboarding targets and doubled the onboarded users from 30% to 65%. This onboarding further helped in bringing a more significant number of quality leads.
Earned Revenue
In its case study, Semrush highlighted how it helped its client achieve a 50% revenue increase.
Return on Investment
Your prospects will significantly benefit if your case study can highlight what return their business can achieve based on the investment they make by availing of your services.
Here is an excerpt from Clever’s case study, “Shawn estimates about $2,000 yearly savings for each account they managed to keep.
After some simple math, that adds up to $56,000 total yearly savings within just two months of having an offboarding process. Now imagine you’d be running that process for a year. Even with no improvements in the process (which tend to come naturally), that would mean approximately $336,000 saved per year.”
#3 – Make your Case Study Easy to Follow
It is essential to make your case study scannable. Readers are likely to skim the content looking for relevant information.
Keeping big chunks of text makes it difficult for readers to understand what is happening in the case study. Therefore, it is crucial to adhere to formatting and stylistic guidelines.
By using headers, bulleted lists, images, and videos, you can add flow to the story and make it more enjoyable and compelling. Moreover, well-designed charts and graphs can do the heavy lifting of several pages of text. They allow you to break up large pieces of text and make your case study easier to consume.
#4 – Choose the Case Study Format Wisely
Your business must not be constrained by a specific format to present the case study. Instead, it would help if you considered the context in which the target audience will read it. It would be best if you considered using the format that best engages your target audience.
Here are some different formats you can consider:
Blog Style
Razorpay published a case study in report format to highlight how it enables schools to streamline payments. A blog-style case study makes your business discoverable on search engine result pages.
One-pager or a Skimmable Slide Deck
IDC published a case study in a one-page format to showcase how it helped provide credible, third-party research data to help its clients weave stories around the absolute value of their products. In addition, a one-pager case study gives a high-level overview to busy leadership audiences.
Video
Let your creativity loose. Consider this response to a video case study published by Slack: “This (is) easily the MOST engaging and entertaining video for a SaaS application ever!” Video case studies are a trend to follow for garnering better engagement.
#5 – Repurpose your Case Study
You can consider repurposing the contents of your case study into multiple formats across different platforms. Here are some ways you achieve that.
Create a video case study and repurpose it as
a blog post,
a podcast episode,
a social media carousel post,
a slide deck, or
other marketing material.
#6 – Share your Case Study in the Right Places
Once the case study is ready, it would be best to ensure it reaches your target audience. Here is how you can do that:
Give to your sales team to share with prospects.
Print the case study in one pager format as a flyer and distribute it at events like trade shows, meetups, conferences, and more.
Run ad campaigns on LinkedIn – The best place to reach B2B buyers.
Make your blog-style case studies discoverable through Google search to attract people with high interest in solving the same pain point.
Embed CTAs to download the case study across various places on your website.
Ask your marketing team to add it to their marketing emails.
#7 – Add Calls to Action to your Case Study
The purpose of publishing a case study is to get new customers. So direct your focus on getting them by adding calls to action.
It would be best if you considered using specific language that speaks directly to your prospective customers. Additionally, it’s essential to understand that not all prospective customers will have the same approach to avail of your services. Therefore, you should consider using different CTAs as applicable.
You can consider switching between the following calls to action:
“Start a free trial.”
“Book a demo.”
“Contact us”
“Sign up for the newsletter.”
#8 – Partner with an Agency to Create your Case Study
Partnering with a boutique B2B SaaS content marketing agency will allow you to publish high-quality case studies that generate and nurture leads consistently—and close sales faster.
Concurate recently delighted a client with its approach to creating their case study. Take a look.
Do you know what his most significant relief was? He said, “I am so glad you understand my niche. You have pulled up a phenomenal case study for us in just two brief calls. Huge thanks!”
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate the best (well-researched + engaging) content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
If you also want a case study prepared for your B2B SaaS business to get more leads and users, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today! No strings attached – A lot can happen over a quick chat 🙂
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
It’s the wails of SaaS business founders, echoing in the halls of various SaaS forums and LinkedIn after their catastrophic failure in generating even a small number of sign-ups and leads from their content.
Often the content they publish is not of poor quality, and sometimes they even get some traffic from it, making the entire situation more ironic and tragic.
So is there any way to write SaaS content that generates leads and signups consistently?
Yes, there is. We have been using that framework to generate high quality results for our clients and ourselves.
In this article, we will spill the bean by unveiling the SaaS content writing framework that will bring you real results.
What is Wrong with Most SaaS Content?
Now let’s address the obvious question: “What sabotages SaaS content which should have worked on paper?”
From our experience of writing and consuming hundreds of SaaS blog post articles, we have identified the following causes:
#1 – Traffic-Focused Content and Keyword Strategy
Many SaaS marketers take generic SEO advice into their hearts. As a result, they prioritize keyword volume and devise a strategy suitable for bringing the traffic only.
This strategy indeed has its place.
However, if you want leads, both your content and strategy should be built around high intent keywords. This way, you will have content optimised for visitors with purchase intent.
#2 – Bland Content that Lacks the Punch
Often, SaaS brands hire freelance SaaS content writers with zero domain knowledge to create content.
The problem is that just good writing is not enough. Such articles often lack the specificity required to persuade the audience. The readers can quickly determine that the author doesn’t have a good idea of their situations, inspirations, and objections.
Why would they even bother?
To create high converting SaaS content, you must blend audience research, expert perspective, and good writing. We will discuss more in detail later.
#3 – Unwillingness to Mention Your Product
We strongly believe content marketing rose to prominence as a direct reaction to typical pushy sales methods. No wonder early promoters made even mentioning your product a taboo. So, many SaaS pieces of content today still refrain from doing it.
But the problem is that if your product does help the reader solve his challenges and you skip that part, he would never know that your tool could have saved him money or time. So that’s a lose-lose situation for both parties.
In short, you want to break the taboo and showcase the product if it helps the reader eliminate the problem.
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
In the following sections, we will share our 4-step content creation framework that addresses all the mentioned problems.
4-Step Content Creation Framework
Step #1 – Content Interview
Most SaaS content creators and agencies kick off their content creation process with Keyword research.
We don’t, and you shouldn’t either.
When one directly goes to keyword research, we assume that person already knows about his potential customers’ backgrounds, challenges and why they prefer one solution over others. But in most cases, content teams don’t actively interact with customer-facing sales executives or C-level executives who often have far deeper customer insight. As a result, the content teams often miss the intricacies of various use-cases, customer preferences and purchase motivation. Such half-backed knowledge of customer profiles leads to keyword strategies with many loopholes.
So it’s better to start by interviewing your CEO and Sales team.
We first conduct interviews with our clients (sometimes even for individual articles) when creating content.
This approach is a must for:
Finding out which topics should be covered thoroughly and from multiple angles.
Spotting unique angles and substance for articles.
Ensuring we highlight the most compelling features to every audience segment.
Content interviews are often an hour-long zoom call. However, a Loom recording of a client-side expert explaining the product or audience can work too.
But what about the questions you should be asking during these interviews?
We, Concurate folks, ask our clients about:
Background
Who is your target audience? How do they do their job, and what steps are involved? (This is extremely important to come across as relatable. More on that later)
Pain Points
What challenges do they face? How do they go around it currently? What are current solutions lacking? Why do customers prefer one solution over others? What are the most common questions they ask?
SERP Topics
Which topics and subtopics do you think we should cover in-depth? What is the client’s opinion about current results on search engine result pages, and what is missing?
Product
How does the product solve users’ problems? How is the product different from others?
Feel free to take inspiration from our template and make relevant changes to it.
Long story short, we highly recommend tapping into available expertise and knowledge before moving on to the next step: Keyword research.
Step #2 – Keyword Research
The main reasons behind the failure of generic SaaS content stem from two factors:
Traffic-focused SEO approach
Poor audience research
Generic traffic-focused keyword research compels SaaS leaders to chase after super competitive high-volume keywords (and burn cash in the process), which often don’t suit well for sales conversion. And whichever traffic they usually receive bounces off because their content fails to persuade readers.
You need sales-focused keyword research to convert leads consistently.
Sales-focused keyword research begins by writing down customers’ profiles, pain points and motivations. This juncture is where content interviews make a considerable impact. In addition, you will get nuggets of gold from the experts/ sales reps inside of your company.
In the next step, you look for keywords based on those pain points and motivations. These are the keywords your customers would type in while looking for a solution.
Since these keywords are niche-focused, you won’t get millions of visitors. However, these keywords are high intent. Therefore, the visitors who will land on your blog posts will be more willing to purchase or sign-up.
Also, pain-point-focused keywords are relatively easy to rank. However, often you will find mediocre content dominating search engine result pages as all big players are busy fighting for high-volume keywords.
For your better understanding, here are a few examples of the types of keywords we look for:
Best software for [Use-case]
[use-case] software besides [competitors]
[competitor] similar companies for [use-case]
[use-case] solutions for [industry/ audience segment]
[competitor] vs [competitor]
On-demand [use-case] service
You can read this post from Nitesh for more clarification.
Step #3 – Content Topic and Angle
High intent keywords are not your topics. They are just building blocks that you use to forge high-converting topics.
But there is a right way to do it. If you fail to understand those keywords’ underlying user intents and find a perfect angle, your content will not perform remotely close to its potential.
So how do you create great topics that convert?
Each keyword has a user intent; a goal user has in their mind while searching. Therefore, you want to match your content topic and format with your targeted keyword’s user intent.
For instance, take the keyword “Best software for time tracking”. It has a transactional intent, meaning the searcher may be looking for info for now, but they would probably purchase a time tracking app further into the conversion funnel.
You can target this keyword with middle-of-the-funnel topics (information-gathering and options-evaluation stage) like “Best software for time tracking in 2022” or “Best time tracking software for you: Side-by-side comparison of 10 apps”. All of these content topics are transactional and perfect for someone who would purchase an app in future.
But your job doesn’t end with matching your content topics with the user intent. A broad content topic can inspire multiple sub-content topics if you change the perspective. We call this perspective a “Content Angle “.
Let’s consider the above example: “Best software for time tracking in 2022”. You can derive the following content ideas by shifting the angle:
Best free software for time tracking in 2022
Best free time tracking software for SMEs in 2022.
Best free time tracking software for manufacturing companies
Best free time tracking software: Why you don’t need to bother
But why do you want to explore multiple content angles?
Well, SaaS brands often have multiple audience segments. Customers’ backgrounds, pain points and motivations vary across these segments. By exploring new angles, you can reach all of them.
Step #4 – Writing
Once all the groundwork has been completed, it’s time to start writing the first draft. But you don’t want to put words on the document without any plan. A good piece of SaaS content requires the following things to be handled:
An Introduction that doesn’t bore
Sound logical structures
Specificity and details
Placement of product/service without sounding sales-y
An Introduction that Doesn’t Bore
SaaS content, especially B2B content, has a reputation: It is dry, dull, and not at all enjoyable to read.
Dull introductions are one of the culprits here.
Most SaaS articles, for example, open by stating the obvious and adding some stats that don’t add much value. As a result, intrigue, creativity, connection, and substance – all good writing ingredients often remain absent.
Yet an introduction persuades the reader to scroll down and read the rest. So mastering the art of writing introductions is a must.
So what does it take to write a good introduction?
Two things:
Relatability
Hook
Relatability
Your introduction (or the entire article, for that matter) should be able to connect to readers. They should feel the author understands their backgrounds, challenges, wishes, and interests.
This familiarity builds trust. A relatable introduction makes the audience ditch their skepticism and trust that reading the rest of the article is worth it.
Relatability can only be achieved through audience research. That’s why interviewing customer-facing team members is crucial. Such interviews give you an in-depth idea of the audience’s background, challenges and contexts.
Hook
Relatability gets your content read, but a hook ensures you have the full attention of your readers. A hook ensnares your readers with either something exciting or unexpected. And once they are pulled in, they stay till they find out more.
A hook can be a story, a statement that seems unrelated to the topic at first or something else. But make sure your hook connects with the topic.
The introduction of this article on Loom’s growth is a good example. The target audience here is SaaS leaders who love to read about SaaS growth, startup and entrepreneurship. We opened the article with news of Ripple’s funding and used a personal story as a hook. The hook was connected with the topic at the end of the introduction.
Sound Logical Structures
No matter what you publish – a listicle post, a thought leadership post, or a top-of-the-funnel blog post (which builds brand awareness and establishes the trust), there is always some argument underneath.
A thought leadership piece, for example, persuades readers to view things from the author’s perspective. Likewise, a top-of-the-funnel “How-to” blog post argues why you want to pay attention to a problem, how to solve that problem and why you want to solve it in a way the article suggests.
When your content fails to persuade or convert, it is often because this argument is not strong enough. It’s like hiring the wrong lawyer to represent you in court.
So what makes an argument a strong one?
It’s both substance and logical structure.
The substance is what you say in support of your argument. You get enough substance when you know your audience and do proper research before writing. You want to use this substance to make your writing more specific.
But how you structure your argument is as much important as the substance. If you mess up the sentence order, for example, you most likely won’t be able to communicate with your readers effectively.
Now, it is not that hard to argue in the right way. There are proven frameworks that you can use. Here is one of the most common logical structure frameworks: TAS (thesis-Antithesissynthesiss)
Present a thesis (“A logical structure is a must for any content”)
Come up with an antithesis (“Without a proper logical structure, the content feels “off” and halfheartedly written. Also, the author doesn’t come across as a credible expert on the topic.”)
Close the loop with a synthesis (“That’s why you must apply logical structure frameworks like TAS”)
The other two most common frameworks are:
SCQA
Situation: (“To write SaaS content, you need to understand the audience”)
Complication: (“But you can’t do that by just looking at competitors’ blogs or worse, taking a wild guess”).
Question: (“So what is the right way to know your audience closely?”)
Answer: (“Start by interviewing your Sales reps and your CEO”)
PAS
Problem: (“No one would purchase your product if you sound like someone who does not understand your readers’ situation.”)
Agitate: (“They would think you just another faceless business who doesn’t care about them and just after their money.”)
Solution: (“So before you even type your first word, look at your audience research: what are your readers struggling with? )
All these frameworks have their places. You must determine which one to choose depending on your context and argument.
As for the examples, we followed the TAS framework and came up with a simple yet relatable introduction for this TriangleIP article.
You will even spot TSA and PSA frameworks at many places within this article you are reading.
Specificity and Details
A strong introduction compels readers to read. In addition, a sound logical structure gives your SaaS content a solid frame.
But you need to be specific to put some flesh on that bare frame. In other words, if you want your readers to buy into your argument, you need to be thorough, back up your claims, and provide examples.
A great example of specificity from a Concurate blog on LinkedIn growth is here.
Notice how we start with a claim, “One of the trump cards Zerodha has is CEO Nithin Kamath himself.”
Next, we added details in the next paragraph to support our claim. We also uploaded a screenshot of Nithin’s LinkedIn profile as another piece of evidence to support our claim. As you can see, at the time of writing, Nithin did have 800k followers, his posts received high engagement, and he often left a link to a Zerodha blog post.
Note: You want to add more than one piece of evidence to support your claim, especially in places where people might get sceptical, have objections, or simply want to see more proof. In this way, even if one of your arguments feels weak to someone, other pieces of evidence would hold the main claim.
Placement of Product/Service Without Sounding Sales-y
One of the primary goals of content marketing is getting business without being too pushy.
Unfortunately, many SaaS marketers take the “not being pushy” part too far. They either avoid speaking about their product or hesitantly place a half-hearted CTA at the bottom of their otherwise decent articles.
That’s not the right thing to do. Your sales number will suffer if you don’t educate your readers on how to use your product for their use cases. You CAN and should sell your product without being sale-y.
Enter a product-led content approach.
This approach advocates the inclusion of your product into the narrative, provided your product facilitates the solution you suggest. In other words, if your product helps complete some steps that would take the user closer to the final solution, demonstrate how your product works in the relevant places.
We, here at Concurate, are a big fan of product-led content and use it while writing content for our clients and ourselves. For example, consider the article “How can you reduce your outside legal service fee” we wrote for our client. We included a section:
Notice how we provided a lot of contexts that demonstrate we indeed understand the intricacies of their challenges. Also, we made it clear TIP Tool can save readers a lot of money by handing over the data they otherwise have to pay for.
Step #5 – Editing
Your first draft will always be messy. However, your editing skill transforms an ordinary draft into an excellent article that makes readers gobble it up first and then ask for the demo afterwards.
Unfortunately, very few talk about how to edit SaaS content beyond generic advice. First, you want to cut out the filler words and passive voices. But what next?
Here at Concurate, we do a three-step edit to give any content we write a shine:
Developmental Edit
Every SaaS content has a purpose and audience. If it fails to meet its goal and capture the target audience’s attention, then it will not convert. Developmental editing ensures your content meets your goal.
During developmental editing, you check high-level structure:
Does the article answer what was promised in the headline?
Does this article speak to the right audience?
Do these sections help to unfold the narrative or resist it?
Is the angle right?
Are your arguments strong and persuasive?
We suggest you look at your brief and audience profile before plunging into editing. That will help you to find the big “‘WHY”s. Also, at this point, you don’t want to focus on spell-check or grammar.
Copy Edit
A proper developmental edit makes your article relatable enough to your audience and fulfils its goals. However, redundant phrases, wordy sentences, conflicting ideas and bad logical structures can spoil the reading experience.
During copy edit phase, you ensure your content is pleasant to read:
Are reasons/benefits/“Why” clear to the readers?
Are those sentences easy to read?
Does this paragraph add value or regurgitate the same thing twice?
How should I make these paragraphs concise?
Do these paragraphs connect?
You would do a lot of rearrangement of ideas, paragraphs and sentences in this step. Make sure reasons/ benefits/outcomes are so evident in every paragraph that readers never have to stop and think, “what is the point?” Also, you will look for cliches, generalizations and unwanted jargon usage and get rid of those.
Proofreading
Proofreading is for checking grammatical errors and punctuations. This step is pretty straightforward. You want to check things like:
Are these words spelt correctly?
Is the grammar right?
Is this the correct punctuation?
Are we using US English or UK English?
You can use tools like Grammarly for proofreading. However, some suggestions can steal your writing personality and make your content grammatically correct but bland. So channel your inner proofreader even if you have tools like Grammarly.
On-page SEO
After you finish editing, you want to take care of On-page SEO:
Use H1, H2, and H3 tags.
Use keywords in the headline.
Place links to other blog posts (internal linking)
Place keywords in the meta description.
Optimise image Alt tag
Parting Thoughts
Most SaaS content doesn’t generate leads because it fails to persuade and relate to the audience, lacks specificity and has zero mention of the product. However, you can do better by using the framework we laid out. It addresses every weakness of the existing SaaS content creation process and provides solutions.
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate the best content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
If your organisation wants its content marketing strategy designed by an experienced and result-driven SaaS content marketing agency, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
Recently we surveyed our clients to identify the gaps they observed while working with various content marketing agencies. One observation that stood out was that, before working with Concurate, clients had to carry considerable heavy lifting to get their pieces of content across the finish line.
The output will most likely be subpar if the article’s content brief – the blueprint – isn’t well prepared.
At Concurate, as a content marketing agency, we prioritise preparing robust content briefs that ensure the output is powerful, brings visibility and helps our clients convert prospects into customers.
Having a dependable content brief and a process to create it helps us maintain the quality of output for our clients. With this in mind, here is a template that your business can use to prepare content briefs.
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Guidelines for Preparing Content Briefs
Title
A concise and catchy title for your content will allow you to hook your target audience and give them a clear indication of what the piece attempts to achieve.
You would not like your article’s title to drown in a sea of search results. Strong emotions and staggering statistics sway people. Incorporating words that indicate why and how something happened increases the upside of your article getting clicked.
Identifying your target audience is imperative. Start noting down the ideal audience of your article and try to make the description as precise as possible. By undergoing this exercise, you can provide your audience with timely, relevant, and actionable information. This step will allow you to know the following about your target readers:
What industry do they work in
What kind of business do they operate
What type of clients does their company serve
What is the amount of revenue that their company generates
What is their position in the hierarchy
What is their job profile
What pain points are they looking to resolve
For example, “Founders of medium-sized SaaS enterprises who want to hire a SaaS-based content marketing agency.” This statement can act as a starting point in assisting you in crafting the right content that will address pain points such founders are likely to possess.
Current Perception
What is your ideal audience’s current outlook on a problem or approach to getting work done? What blindspots do the readers possess? Understanding their perceptions will help you to emphasise and address the core problem right at the outset. In addition, it will give the readers a clear idea of what they can expect to achieve by the close of the piece.
For example, founders of medium-sized SaaS enterprises might not possess a clear plan of action for hiring a content marketing agency that will be the right fit for their company. Moreover, they might not be aware of SaaS-based content marketing agencies or inclined to hire one.
New Perception
Strive to transform your reader’s neutral or negative outlook into a positive one. After going through your content, ideally, the reader is now aware of a possible solution to their problem and incentivised to adopt your proposed solution.
A unique selling proposition in your article nudges the reader to try moving to the next stage of the buying process. For example, the founders will understand the different elements of SaaS content marketing. They might also be subtly inclined to give your marketing agency a try based on the actionable insights.
Content Inspiration
Inspiration can strike anywhere. You might have been reading a publication, listening to a podcast, or perhaps come across a helpful article while entering queries on search engines. Ensure to link such resources to create engaging anecdotes in your articles.
Content Sources
Did you find any valuable resources such as a webinar, blog post, or interview while researching for the content piece? Then, make sure to hyperlink it to establish the proper context for your writer.
Article Opening
Statistics
A good content piece cites statistics to support the overarching view. It is always great to pick up statistics from reputable and authoritative sources and add a link.
Anecdote
Adding personal stories helps establish a connection with the reader. These stories can be something you experienced yourself or received from your clients. Your readers will likely think, “I felt the same way!” For example, do you recall the opening for this piece?
Messaging
Messaging helps writers to write the piece and pitch the brand’s solution in an intended manner. For example, at Concurate, we attempt to create content that brings business, not just traffic. We do this by adding relatable stories which maximise conversions.
Target Keywords
Is your content informative or conversion-focused? Your target keywords will vary accordingly. Providing these through keyword research will help your writers weave them seamlessly and allow the piece to rank higher organically. You can guide your writers by providing primary and secondary keywords.
Publishing Platform
Where will the content be published? For example, will it be published on your website or as a guest post?
Publishing Platform Guidelines
For example, if your content will publish as a guest article, ensure to denote pertinent guidelines to which the writer must adhere.
Internal Links
Internal linking refers to linking to your own website’s pages or blog articles. Your writers may not know all the past articles you’ve published. Save precious time and resources by including links to related pages in your content brief. This assistance will allow the writers to weave them into the piece seamlessly.
Word Limit
The word count is just an estimate. What is more important is that the message comes across correctly. Ideally, the article’s topic should dictate the length, not an arbitrary boilerplate word count. Contrary to popular wisdom, your audience does possess lengthy attention spans. You stand to gain higher backlinks, shares, dwell time, and click-through-rate with the right content. You can avoid setting artificial barriers and provide your writers with ballpark lengths, such as “1000-1200 words”.
Internal Chatter
“Internal Chatter” is stories from within the organisation that you can embed within the article. Provide your writers’ stories that increase relatability and help maximise conversions from the content piece.
Key Takeaways
Based on Concurate’s approach to preparing content briefs, here are six benefits you can expect the following:
Ranking higher on search engines by using the right keywords while preparing quality content that matches the search intent.
Achieving the purpose of your content by writing relatable, credible and valuable content. How? By successfully changing your readers’ perception through research-backed content.
Adjusting to readers’ maturity linguistically and depth of understanding by clearly outlining the persona.
Maintaining your branding and tone of voice by guiding your writers on how to approach messaging.
Connecting with your audience by sharing relatable “internal chatter” from within your organisation.
About Us
We are a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate the best content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
If your organisation wants thoughtful content brainstormed and designed by Concurate, let’s connect over a short call. Block our calendar today!
If you wish to read more goodness, subscribe to our newsletter.
The best ways for content promotion and distribution are not the best anymore.
During an internal meeting with my colleagues, we so happened to discuss different content promotion and distribution strategies – search engine optimisation, guest posting, and more.
I offered the opinion that search engines require you to use the right set of keywords while preparing content. My colleague, however, disagreed and proved how.
He said the wiser way to go about SEO is to niche down. How? Your business needs to target long-tail keywords instead of broad ones with higher buying intent. For instance:
Instead of trying to rank for “content marketing agency”, try to rank for:
“B2B SaaS content marketing agency for fintech”,
“B2B SaaS content marketing agency for legaltech”, and
“content marketing agency for a non-profit initiative”
This way, you stand to reach your potential customers much faster.
Your target audience will reach out to you (read: Inbound) rather than chasing them.
Intuitive, isn’t it?
In this article, we share how we bring leads to our clients using effective ways to promote and distribute content.
Pro tip: If you need 30 standout SaaS growth hacks to attain double the growth for your SaaS business, fill out the form below!
Content Promotion and Distribution | 5 Actionable Ways
#1 – Niched-down SEO (20% Effort 80% Results)
#2 – Guest Posts (80% Effort 20% Results)
#3 – Paid Promotion and Distribution (80% Effort 20% Results)
#4 – Personal Branding (80% Effort 20% Results)
#5 – Email Marketing (80% Effort 20% Results)
#1 – Niched-down SEO
Typically, businesses that are new to the game try to rank for difficult keywords such as “time management app” or “content marketing agency”. The inherent problem with this approach is that you’re competing with industry giants who’ve created giant content marketing machines over 10-15 years to rank higher on search engines.
But you need not despair! Another approach that can land your business on the coveted first page of search engines is to target long-tail keywords with high buying intent. If that sounds like jargon, let me share in simple words with an example.
Consider this example for our client, IP Toolworks. After using keyword analysis tools like Semrush, team Concurate found that IP Attorneys, the target audience for the client, were searching queries around “office action responses” that have worked with particular patent examiners.
In our work with IP Toolworks, team Concurate used long-tail keywords instead of broad ones with higher buying intent and published multiple content pieces around “office action responses [examiner name]”. This approach helped our client gain clear visibility at the top of Google search results and also brought qualified leads.
A carefully executed content marketing strategy can provide 80% of the results for 20% of the efforts.
#2 – Guest Posts
There are not many better ways to draw in your target audience than by establishing a presence on platforms where they typically spend time to find the latest happenings in your industry.
Concurate has followed this approach for its clients across the LegalTech SaaS space.
Triangle IP
TriangleIP’s TIP ToolTM is an intuitive drag-and-drop tool to help you capture enterprise-wide innovation & manage your patent lifecycle.
Concurate has assisted its client and founder of Triangle IP, Thomas Franklin, publish guest posts on platforms like The Future Shapers. Why does it work?
The Future Shapers is a global network of thought-leaders, innovation practitioners, business leaders, academics, and speakers who have come together to create innovative futures. This platform is an exact match for our client to reach its intended audience.
IP Toolworks
IP Toolworks has developed software that enables effective searches of past communications with the patent office. This creation stemmed from the founder’s discovery of consistent difficulty in transmitting knowledge to new attorneys, a situation he believed reflected more significant inefficiencies in the system.
Concurate has assisted its client and co-founder of IP Toolworks, Yvonne Morris, publish guest posts on platforms like IPWatchdog. So why does this platform suit their business?
IPWatchdog.com is the leading Intellectual Property Law Journal on the internet, providing an excellent fit for our client to be visible in front of its target audience.
ScanWriter
ScanWriter is a data entry automation and visualisation tool to assist financial fraud investigations by Personable Inc. It’s a homegrown software trusted by many district attorneys, forensic accountants, and fraud investigators working in the public sector across the USA.
Concurate has assisted its client and founder of Personable Inc., Benjamin Chou, publish guest posts on renowned publications, such as The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), which is the world’s largest anti-fraud organisation. So establishing a presence on this platform is a real coup for ScanWriter.
The opportunity to publish guest posts on such highly authoritative and relevant publications has helped our clients gain highly qualified leads for their businesses.
#3 – Paid Promotion and Distribution
Although this approach can be a viable strategy for your SaaS business, the caveat is that paid promotion and distribution can boost your website traffic in short-term traffic, but it’s a costly affair.
In our experience, LinkedIn works quite well with paid advertisements. We helped our client, Triangle IP, get leads through LinkedIn by offering a valuable template for their target audience.
#4 – Personal Branding
Another way to build a robust content marketing and distribution strategy is to spread your business’s word far and wide from your, the founder, and senior leadership’s personal social media handles.
As founders and members of the leadership team, your investment in personal branding can reap excellent results. You can leverage platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to weave in the content you need to distribute. The idea is to post regularly, especially internal chatter from your business. At Concurate, we call everyday stories #internalchatter. These stories can stem from several angles:
Our approach to content creation,
Our attitude towards different events that life/work throws at us,
Proofs of working with incredible clients,
Blessings of an influential mentor,
Our attitude toward hiring people who can challenge our work, and
A reason to hire us
An excellent example to learn from is the SaaS business, Gong. Gong’s leaders regularly share their expertise on LinkedIn and continue building their respective communities. On a related note, if you’d like to learn more about the LinkedIn strategies of 5 successful B2B brands at a granular level, check out this article.
#5 – Email Marketing
Distributing your content using your email list is one of the best ways to supercharge your content promotion and distribution strategy. The best part is that you own the list and not a 3rd party platform. Additionally, you can share your thought processesand promote services to a willing audience.
We speak from experience that email marketing does indeed spring up some pretty pleasant surprises!
Content Promotion and Distribution Strategies Comparison
Category
Time
Money
Effort
RoI
Niched-down SEO
HIGH
LOW
LOW
HIGH
Guest Posts
HIGH
LOW
HIGH
MEDIUM
Paid Promotion and Distribution
LOW
HIGH
MEDIUM
LOW
Personal Branding
HIGH
LOW
MEDIUM
LOW
Email Marketing
HIGH
LOW
HIGH
MEDIUM
Parting Thoughts
If you’re searching for a content marketing agency for your SaaS business that says, “This is how you’ll grow if you hire us,” then look no further!
Concurate is a content marketing agency that brings business, not just website traffic. We curate the best content as per your company’s requirements and philosophy because we believe in the power of meaningful information.
Let’s amplify your content’s distribution and take your blog to the next level. Let’s connect over a short call if you’re ready to outsmart your competition. Block our calendar today! We’d be happy to help you develop a content promotion and distribution strategy for your business.
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