There are 4 major content buckets you need for a successful paid social strategy: 1.) Thought leadership This is when you share your unique POV and strategic narrative that positions you as an expert in what you do. You can do that through blogs, podcasts, posts, events, etc. 2.) Product Marketing This is when you tell customers what your product does, how it works, and the outcomes it drives. (most neglect this in place of pushing TOFU content only) You can create ungated product tours, create single-image ads to highlight outcomes or pains, and create before and after illustrations. 3.) Social Proof This is when you share stories from current customers who are already getting value from your product. You can write case studies, collect testimonials, get 3rd party validation from vendors (G2, Capterra, etc.) 4.) Content This is when you answer direct pain points and questions that tie back to your product You can create blogs, guides, templates, tools, to answer some of these questions. --------- Most will start with product marketing and social proof, then layer on content, then thought leadership content. Depending on your goals I'd put 50% of the budget into product marketing, 30% into content, 10% to social proof, and 10% to thought leadership. Don't worry about having every content piece in the beginning, you just need to execute well on a couple of them in the beginning and add on when you feel like you can support it. #demandgen #b2b #saas
Love the post, Jonathan! I think that the second bucket could have a name “Demand Generation”. Because everything else is also content, isn’t it? 😉
I like it, nice and simple!
Love this breakdown - that's exactly how I'd put together a content strategy. And the line between the bucket 'content' and product marketing' definitely blurs when you're offering a service...but also does thought leadership :)
2) is amazing seen only handful of doing it. Here you can be very creative
This is also a good formula for developing a homepage (or underlying sub-homepages for each of your audiences if you serve several). Distilling it without losing specificity is key for this combined format.
Always appreciate your content, it's always actionable.
This is indeed insightful, good post. Awesome
Great post and couldn't agree more with product marketing content and social proof! Curious if you recommend certain channels for different content phases or buyers stages?
Very informative. Thanks for sharing Jonathan Bland.
Marketing at Trenton Systems | I talk tech and business | Classic Rock and Sopranos Fanatic | Product & Revenue Marketing
1yJonathan Bland In your opinion, what should a sequence look like? What should be at the start, middle, and end?