B2B SaaS content material is commonly very technical, which is usually a bit dry for readers. However integrating storytelling into your content material permits your target market to construct an emotional connection along with your model.
Usually, turning a gross sales prospect right into a buyer takes for much longer in B2B advertising than in B2C. Why? As a result of there are typically many stakeholders concerned in purchases for companies. Plus, the acquisition is normally extra expensive, requires intensive onboarding and rollout, and entails many finish customers.
Why Is B2B Storytelling Vital—and Difficult?
With a lot at stake in a B2B buy, you possibly can perceive the significance of making content material that enables SaaS patrons to attach along with your model personally. In reality, analysis has proven that compared to customers, B2B clients, on common, really feel rather more emotionally related to their distributors and repair suppliers.
Regardless of all of the speak about storytelling, many B2B content material entrepreneurs focus extra on selling the services or products quite than the way it can change a possible buyer’s life personally or professionally. Many don’t know the place to start out or don’t have the precise instruments to execute storytelling correctly, stated Mark Evans, principal at Advertising and marketing Spark.
Evans says storytelling could be difficult to execute in actuality. However upon getting the precise assets to make it occur, it may be a key model differentiator.
Particular person items of content material—whether or not weblog posts, movies, webinars, infographics, and so forth—could be offered as a story, however the bigger buyer journey will also be considered as such. In different phrases, each bit of B2B content material you create could be considered as a small piece of a bigger story that guides a reader from the model consciousness stage by way of the sale (and past).
So, what does storytelling in SaaS content material advertising entail, and how are you going to combine it into your technique?
The Buyer as “Hero”
“Nice tales are ones the place there’s a story, there’s a hero, there’s some type of drama,” Evans stated. “The viewers can utterly relate to them as a result of (they mirror) their pursuits, their wants, their issues, their challenges.”
The format of a B2B story is just like what you’ll learn in a piece of fiction. The potential buyer—not your organization—ought to function the “hero” of your story, stated Ardath Albee, CEO and B2B advertising strategist for her agency Advertising and marketing Interactions. You even have an antagonist, which is the issue they should remedy. Lastly, the seller (your organization) is the “mentor” or information who assists the hero in reaching their final vacation spot—like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings or the fairy godmother in Cinderella.
Take buyer success tales for example. Many B2B content material entrepreneurs construction these as follows: Firm X works with Firm Y and sees Z outcomes, stated Tommy Walker, founding father of The Content material Studio and former World Editor-in-Chief of Quickbooks. However this format is lacking the human factor of why the issue exists and issues to the viewers.
When Walker labored at Shopify Plus as the corporate’s first advertising rent, they printed this case research, which Walker feels is an effective instance of storytelling in motion. You may see how the story begins—not solely did the co-founder of an internet T-shirt firm must take care of a crashed web site at 2 a.m., however this occurred on the evening of his bachelor occasion, which he needed to placed on maintain. This added a human factor that made for a way more relatable story.
In the end, the co-founders selected Shopify Plus as an eCommerce platform that will sustain with the corporate’s speedy progress. Based on the case research, Shopify Plus alleviated the stresses the co-founders encountered with expertise and allowed them to focus extra on the enterprise.
The Buyer Journey as Narrative
In SaaS content material advertising, storytelling additionally means offering a seamless narrative that spans your complete buyer journey by way of a number of items of content material and simply directs the reader from one level to the following. Consider each piece of content material within the buyer journey as a chapter in a e book, Albee stated, all of the whereas remembering {that a} B2B tech sale can take months and even years.
Albee stated that the customer ought to be capable of entry the totally different items of a bigger narrative to fulfill them the place they’re of their present scenario. And so they might discover these items in quite a lot of locations.
Good B2B storytelling means displaying you perceive the customer nicely sufficient to assist them resolve the challenges they face and in the end get the end result they need.
“Now we have to consider how can we let (the customer) drive however nonetheless put these guardrails round that have, that story, so we get all of them the knowledge they should get from A to Z in no matter method that appears like,” Albee stated.
Content material for Every Stage of the Advertising and marketing Funnel
When you perceive the fundamental framework of a narrative, you possibly can map the totally different components of your content material technique to a personality’s journey:
- Prime-of-funnel content material: Present you perceive the varied challenges patrons face (and tips on how to remedy them) in detailed methods. This may be performed by way of weblog posts, social media, podcasts, model consciousness emails, and extra.
- Mid-funnel content material: Assist your character overcome the obstacles which may come up within the decision-making course of—as an example, inner politics or budgetary issues. Attainable content material codecs embody eBooks or guides, case research or testimonials, whitepapers, touchdown pages, webinars, occasions, or product-focused blogs.
- Backside-of-funnel content material: In case your mid-funnel content material is executed nicely, the sale ought to occur naturally by way of the “change” your character experiences rooted within the onboarding, implementation, and buyer success of your product. However for those who do want extra content material to drive a sale, this may be performed by way of pitch decks, product demos, aggressive analyses, and extra.
4 Storytelling Ideas for B2B SaaS Content material Entrepreneurs
1. Know your buyer.
Understanding your buyer’s present wants is essential to bringing your story to life—in spite of everything, they’re the “hero” of your narrative. Storytelling helps them remedy actual issues by offering immediately relevant options.
“It’s a must to commit your self to understanding your viewers, understanding what makes them tick, and actually understanding the tales they need to hear,” Evans stated.
If you happen to don’t have the price range to develop intensive purchaser personas, Albee recommends talking with clients your self.
2. Know your organization.
Do not forget that your organization, because the mentor, continues to be an vital a part of the story, so perceive its merchandise, providers, or options very nicely earlier than you craft your narrative. This may make clear to readers why your organization’s choices are the easiest way to resolve their issues.
“Whoever is in cost must get as many views as they will from inside their firm and get an understanding of who they suppose they’re and what they’re about,” Walker stated.
And when unsure, you possibly can all the time ask an inner material professional to assessment your content material earlier than it goes dwell.
3. Consider your story from a holistic perspective.
A standard drawback B2B entrepreneurs face, Albee stated, is that they publish one-off items of content material which are repetitive or disconnected from each other. Potential clients might learn this content material, then transfer on with out fascinated with it or taking motion.
Don’t assume a possible buyer will know the place to go in your web site after studying a weblog submit, for instance. Direct them to the following a part of the story.
“Now we have to proactively package deal that up for them in a method that they will entry it with out our assist,” Albee stated.
This would possibly entail together with a call-to-action on the backside of a weblog submit that drives readers to a product touchdown web page, as an example. Or, for those who cite a supply of data or knowledge, you must hyperlink again to the unique supply or a associated piece of content material.
Do not forget that storytelling extends past the gross sales stage of the client journey. How your buyer makes use of your product can be vital and could be instructed by way of post-sale buyer success content material.
4. Get within the storytelling mindset.
In the end, understand that constant B2B storytelling would require a mindset shift, and it will not be simple—however specialists say it’s value it.
“You actually have to purchase into the concept storytelling issues, storytelling works,” Evans stated. When your viewers pertains to what they’re studying on an emotional degree, they’re extra more likely to relate to your model, make a purchase order (ideally greater than as soon as), and advocate to your firm down the highway.
Keep knowledgeable! Subscribe to The Content material Strategist for extra perception on the most recent information in digital transformation, content material advertising technique, and rising tech tendencies.
Picture by
Maksim Yremenko
