Most B2B marketing plans fail due to a lack of clarity and misalignment with revenue goals.
To avoid friction in the funnel, design a marketing plan (template linked inside) that balances these two execution pillars – 1) regular operations (80%) and one-time programs or experiments (20%).
This 80/20 split strikes a balance between stability and innovation, allowing you to maintain consistent growth while exploring new bets.
Once you have a clear marketing plan, the next step is build campaigns to support the execution of your strategy. Usually centered around a theme, these initiatives span multiple weeks and move the needle on a growth metric.
Here are key questions to ask when planning your next campaign.
👉 1. What's your campaign goal? Define success criteria using the GACCS brief (Goals, Audience, Creative, Channels, Stakeholders).
👉 2. Who's your target audience? Identify specific segments or accounts you're aiming to reach and influence.
👉 3. What's your campaign fuel? Determine the content, messaging, or creative that will resonate with your audience.
👉 4. Which channels will you use? Select the right mix of channels to reach and engage your target audience effectively.
👉 5. Who's the DRI? Assign a single directly responsible individual to coordinate across marketing functions.
This campaign playbook is a cheat sheet for running quality marketing campaigns. It breaks down the entire process from pre-planning to post-launch analysis, giving you a step-by-step guide to keep your team aligned and your campaigns on track. No fluff, just the essentials to execute campaigns that drive real growth.
B2B revenue leaders have spoken.
Original content has become the new poster child for a SaaS company's content marketing strategy.
Resources are shifting away from long-form assets to digestible and unique experiences, leveraging first-party research, storytelling, and building personal brands.
It’s no surprise that companies are battling to differentiate their brand online. It has become harder to hold engaged attention as short-form videos and AI-generated content saturate online media.
But what does original content look like in practice?
A framework for original content. What’s that, you ask? It’s any content type that is unique, demonstrates out-of-the-box thinking, and provides additional value through novelty or a new perspective.
This article highlights nine examples of original content formats. Here are my top three with examples.
👉 Data studies – Analyze proprietary or third-party data to create unique insights, like SparkToro and Datos' study on ChatGPT user behavior.
👉 First-person narratives – Share personal experiences and lessons learned, like Veed.io CEO Sabba Keynejad's article on growing from zero to 50k customers.
👉 Contrarian content – Challenge industry norms with well-supported arguments, like LinearB's piece on misuses of DORA metrics in engineering organizations.
Case studies are a powerful form of original content, offering a narrative-based perspective and a resource to prevent prospects from getting stuck in the sales funnel.
Here’s a practical guide to help write your own studies and customer stories.
👉 Leverage data-driven storytelling – Include specific metrics and results in case studies, similar to Cognizant's approach of highlighting cost savings and efficiency improvements.
👉 Diversify case study formats – Create both text and video versions of case studies, like Xerox's Buena Park School District example, to cater to different audience preferences.
👉 Personalize for different industries – Write industry-specific case study collections, as Xerox did for banking and financial markets, to demonstrate expertise in various sectors.
How this B2B SaaS influencer would build her audience from scratch.
👉 Start with LinkedIn. Start with a single social media platform to gain traction. For example, exclusively focus on LinkedIn to build a follower base – especially when engaging with B2B marketers.
👉 Engage with Key Influencers. Comment and engage with influencers in your niche, helping you to increase your visibility and credibility.
👉 Repurpose Content. Use successful content from your primary platform on new platforms, saving time and leveraging proven material.
Scale your social media reach and word-of-mouth marketing with B2B influencers. Here’s how.
👉 Leverage influencers to reduce acquisition costs. Influencer partnerships provide cost-effective marketing by utilizing established trust networks.
👉 Build trust through credible sources. Thought leaders and influencers offer a trusted voice that can cut through the noise of traditional marketing.
👉 When reaching out, highlight the overlap. Send customized emails highlighting how your product aligns with their audience's interests.
Build a multi-channel content ecosystem to generate leads and establish authority. Here's how.
👉 Start with fast feedback channels. Use LinkedIn posts to quickly gauge audience interest and refine your content approach.
👉 Create long-form content for deeper engagement. Offer eBooks and guides to collect emails and showcase your expertise.
👉 Make your newsletter the cornerstone. Repurpose content, nurture your audience, and drive consistent touchpoints that build trust and revenue.
Superhuman built a $2bn email startup by focusing on premium user experiences, viral growth loops, and meticulous product-market fit measurements. Here are a few tips.
👉 Implement high-touch onboarding. Personally onboard early users to help them discover the full value of your product.
👉 Use waitlists strategically. Create a waitlist to generate scarcity and drive organic interest. This also helps to control your growth rate and pre-qualify leads before onboarding them.
Gong's CEO and CMO share their winning strategy to boost LinkedIn presence and drive brand growth.
👉 Redirect organic traffic to LinkedIn. Include CTAs in blog posts that drive readers to follow your page, building a more engaged audience.
👉 Add data to your posts. Some of the best-performing content that Gong shares with its followers is content that offers data-driven insights.
👉 Use attention-grabbing visuals. High-quality, emotion-driven imagery can boost post interactions and engagement rates.
In today's crowded landscape, where it's harder to stand out and easier to be forgotten, SaaS companies are embedding a media business inside them.
HubSpot acquired The Hustle, Pendo acquired Mind the Product, and Salesforce launched Salesforce+. Here's why.
👉 Treating content as a core product. When SaaS companies focus on content that serves the reader (not to service the funnel), they build trust with an audience and a community around their brand.
👉 Owning your distribution. Like traditional media, SaaS companies opt to 'own' the relationship with their audience – instead of relying on third-party players for distribution.
SaaS companies are shifting their focus to owned media, opting to control their messaging and build stronger customer relationships.
Here's how to build a media engine for your company.
👉 Build a hub-and-spoke content model. Create blogs, videos, and newsletters that push a consistent message, extending the entry points for brand discovery.
👉 Host community events. Organize meetups, webinars, and workshops to build trust and gather feedback.
👉 Create a data feedback loop. Track subscriptions and measure interactions to gather first-party data, helping to inform the customer journey.
Building an in-house media arm isn’t the only way to get started. SaaS companies are opting to acquire them as well. Here's why.
👉 Side-stepping the cold start problem. These acquisitions are low-risk experiments and provide immediate audience engagement, which can take years to build in-house.
👉 Efficient audience acquisition. Media assets offer an efficient growth engine, attracting highly engaged audiences for minimal cost.
👉 Acquiring the right talent. Along with the audience, media companies are a great source for content creators and community builders.
What do Semrush, Synthesia, Wix, Canva, and HubSpot have in common? These five companies used content to enable their PLG motion. Here’s how your company can too.
👉 Create educational content. Develop in-depth guides and tutorials to showcase your product’s capabilities and build trust.
👉 Leverage diverse formats. Use blogs, webinars, and videos to reach a wider audience and cater to different preferences.
👉 Foster community engagement. Build an active online community and encourage UGC to strengthen brand loyalty and inspire new users.