22 Tips for B2B Software Content Format That Works Best In Generating MQLs: Advice From Experts
- Updated: May 16, 2023
What content format has worked best in generating MQLs for a b2b company? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, since the most effective content format for generating MQLs (marketing qualified leads) will depend on a variety of factors, including the specific industry and target audience of the company, as well as the company’s marketing strategy and goals.
And so we decided to put together Trends in B2B Software Content Marketing 2023 where we hand over the mic to the B2B content veterans and marketing leaders who grabbed eyeballs with their cunning strategies to get you insight and ideas from the best of the best!
Thanks to the expert content marketers that allowed us to grill them over these pressing content marketing issues, when it comes to content format that works best for generating MQLs -while most B2B experts seem to prefer long-form content, the other popular formats were creating assets like templates and checklists, investing in podcasts and webinars, producing product videos, publishing original research and gated ebooks, SEO-optimized blogs, putting up customer testimonials and case studies.
They also recognized that hooking with a story can be the strongest approach for most content formats.
Thanks to the expert B2B content marketers that allowed us to grill them over pressing content marketing issues, we have some amazing tips for you.
Let’s be real, content is still king and at the heart of our content is good storytelling. We recognize different stories need different formats — so with this understanding, we select the best editorial approach that supports the strongest storytelling. When it comes to generating MQLs, we recognize that different formats serve different purposes — but we see value in producing our guides, running our webinars and keeping our readers engaged with our newsletters and articles rounding up the best trends, insights and customer stories that promote deeper understanding in B2B SaaS.
As a PLG company, we don’t do any email capture or nurturing beyond the people who have signed up for our product. However, we’ve put a lot of effort into creating resources of data for people to tap into, and these have been really helpful for building up positive brand awareness and making our content something people come back to the site for.
Some examples are a summary we did of 300+ Agile statistics. Previously, this data was scattered across many different reports. But we created one repository for our target personas to dip into for data. We published a similar resource with Agile quotes that people can use in their presentations or to inspire their teams.
Template content has been the most effective for us in terms of winning sign ups. Parabol is an online meeting tool for product teams. So our meeting templates bring a lot of people through the front door and increase the surface area of our product on the SERP vs just having a couple of product pages.
In our niche, thanks to very long sales cycles, it’s very hard to determine. However, it seems long-form content packed with a chock-full of relevant, actionable information brings us admirable results, followed by our podcast episodes.
Digital events. Events have been a top driver of marketing-sourced pipeline and revenue for our team in 2022. We typically host an event as a way to launch a campaign and then repurpose the event content into other assets like e-books or guides, blog posts, clips for social media, etc.
We’ve been experimenting with different formats to discover this for Paytron. We’ve found that focusing on point solutions works, rather than trying to market our whole product as it’s very comprehensive. At the moment, short form regular content on social channels and paid digital (SEM ads), and longer form email marketing content have helped to reiterate the awareness of Paytron and drive conversions.
For us, webinars have always been our best performers. We usually perform original research, publish it in the form of a guide or an e-book, and then walk through the findings in webinar format. We find that the engagement of a webinar is truly collaborative – we get loads of comments and questions throughout from participants. Then those engaged leads are more likely to convert for us.
Blog articles about the challenges our product is solving. We usually follow a structure where we describe the problem or the challenges, explain how manually solve it, and then describe how our product helps to solve it much faster and more precisely.
For example, finding influencers: we explain how influencers can be searched by hashtags or keywords on social media (but that’s very time-consuming and ineffective). Using an influencer search tool such as Promoty helps you to find suitable influencers much faster. In the end of the articles, you definitely need to have a clear CTA.
Another benefit of blogging is that well-written and optimised articles rank well on Google – which means stable flow of free traffic monthly.
Long form content has always worked best for us to establish authority and generate MQLs. It, rather than blog content, has the ability to transform your brand into a thought leader.
Usually blog content that meets the right intent. For instance “How to set up Klaviyo for WordPress”. This should be a good indicator that the person searching for this runs an ecommerce business and has a problem integrating Klaviyo. They would be a great lead.
Content that tells a story and provides clear value to the reader always performs best. Something that the reader can identify with and clearly demonstrates our value proposition for that customer.
I have discovered that video testimonials are super-effective in generating qualified leads. But the efficiency of video testimonials is not necessarily out of place.
Today’s digital make is laden with fake-it-till-you-make-it wannabees. Many businesses profess astronomic results they can’t deliver an ounce of.
This has inadvertently swollen the skepticism in buyers – with the larger percentage now wanting to SEE results first before working with you.
Few things boost your credibility and aggressively suppress buying objections as the video of a happy customer. Such video testimonials emotionally resonate with your viewers better if the happy customer once shares the viewer’s pain points.
It shows prospects that should they choose you, they are not EXPERIMENTING with you but rather guaranteed the solutions they anticipate.
Free eBook downloads are an amazing generator for qualified leads. They provide benefits in many ways too – links for the resource for your SEO, email capture, and trust-building with cold leads. Plus they are relatively easy to produce.
Paid placements on very targeted industry websites and directories. Some placements on popular blog listicles we have done on a CPC basis instead of getting a permanent position.
YouTube videos
Podcast/interviews with ICP
Live Discussion/Webinar/Podcast
Long-form content has been one of best in generating MQLs. This typically includes in-depth guides around a topic in the form of blogs or ebooks, based on the depth in which we’re covering the same and the actionables we’re providing alongside it.
Videos
Blog Posts and (gated) Ebooks are working fine for us to generate MQLs. We are getting regular subscribers to our blogs and email address — which we warmup with the email drip to get them to take a Demo.
In-depth blogs
Alternative landing pages/blog, Case study, long-form guide
Checklists and templates.
No B2B company that has made it big today can tell you that they did it without the hours of brainstorming and sweat put behind their campaigns by their content marketing team. And so we need to hear the behind-the-scene stories from these guys.
This guide is sponsored by Content Beta – a video and design service for B2B marketers.
This year, Content Beta decided to put together Trends in B2B Software Content Marketing 2023 in which we converse with the B2B content experts who grabbed attention with their clever marketing strategies.
You can get insight into all the current trend in this report.
Grab your copy grab your copy of Trends in B2B Software Content Marketing 2023 here.
Put on your noise-canceling headphones and get ready to dive into this report. You can thank us later!
Ultimately, you want to develop content that addresses the pain points and needs of your target audience and assists them in making a purchase decision. You can effectively generate MQLs for your B2B company by doing this.
Before we leave, we want to share some tips that will help you up your B2B content game for generating MQLs:
To identify the right audience for your B2B content marketing campaign, you should consider your ideal customer profile (ICP), which includes factors such as industry, company size, job title, pain points, and buying behavior. You can use analytics tools, social media, surveys, and customer feedback to gather data and refine your audience targeting.
The most effective types of content for B2B content marketing include blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, e-books, webinars, videos, infographics, and social media posts. The key is to create content that is educational, informative, and relevant to your audience’s needs and interests.
B2B content marketing is the process of creating and sharing valuable, informative, and engaging content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience of other businesses. The aim is to establish trust, build authority, and generate leads or sales for your software company.
Some common mistakes that software companies make in B2B content marketing include not having a clear strategy or goals, creating content that is too salesy or promotional, not targeting the right audience, not using a variety of content formats and channels, and not measuring or analyzing their results effectively.
Khyati is a seasoned writer and a hands-on marketing professional. She specializes in inbound and growth marketing, content marketing, lead generation, public relations, brand amplification, B2B communications and partnerships, and social media marketing.
Khyati is a seasoned writer and a hands-on marketing professional. She specializes in inbound and growth marketing, content marketing, lead generation, public relations, brand amplification, B2B communications and partnerships, and social media marketing.
