Sarah Bottorff understands how content advertising and marketing can help build a logo. She must do as she’s performed it for numerous SaaS groups, consisting of her modern agency, FastSpring in which she is VP for Marketing.
For example, Bottorff was formerly introduced in to construct out a marketing group at AppFolio for a brand new felony product imparting. AppFolio had constructed their organization thru strong attention on content advertising. Bottorff took those learnings and applied them to their new legal practice control answer, MyCase, making it the range two criminal practice control software program on time.
That became simply the begin. Bottorff took her content advertising capabilities to Smokeball, every other organisation providing cloud-based total felony exercise control software program. When she joined them, Smokeball changed into a sales-pushed agency. It didn’t do content material advertising, opting as a substitute to ship a monthly email to its database.
Bottorff changed into in a position to expose professionals how content advertising and marketing that supplied idea leadership could upload real fee round the use of their software better. It helped the company’s clients to recognize their efforts on being wonderful attorneys, now not remarkable commercial enterprise software people.
With FastSpring, she has brought that same attitude of the usage of content marketing to assist clients in being even higher at what they do. In this situation, FastSpring gives SaaS-based digital commerce answers to small to mid-sized organizations selling digital software program (e.G., subscription software, payment, and billing, again workplace competencies, and many others.). Through content material advertising and marketing, FastSpring helps customers enhance how their clients sell their software.
A few examples from the FastSpring weblog:
7 Ways to Use Video to Increase Conversion Rates, How To Write Great Product Descriptions That Convert, and Subscription Finance: What is Monthly Recurring Revenue? These blog posts are not about FastSpring’s merchandise; they as an alternative offer guidance and quality practices on the way to boom income and apprehend the income management a part of their commercial enterprise better.
It’s fair to mention that Bottorff understands the price that content marketing can carry to a company – if you make your customers a hit, you will be a success.
So what’s the advice she offers?
Tips for fantastic content material marketing
The first thing is to construct a sturdy crew with dedicated roles and responsibilities, says Bottorff. Content advertising and marketing is a shared duty, however, with out in reality defined roles and obligations, a content material marketing software will not thrive.
The most critical position is the owner of the content material application. The owner identifies drivers and pain points. They do this through operating with the product team to recognize what they’re developing and why, as well as speaking to clients to understand ache factors and gaps. Interviews are a huge element of any content advertising and marketing software. With all this information in hand, the content material owner develops a complete program.
Another crucial element of a strong content program is SEO. As Bottorff factors out, it’s quality to create content, but you want the proper people to discover it. Then there’s design, and by way of layout, Bottorff doesn’t just imply how the content looks, however, how easily digestible it is and how it’s displayed. Then, of course, there’s the high-quality writing and the subjects that lend fantastic thought management that human beings want to devour.
As to where content material advertising suits within the company, Bottorff argues that it ought to be incorporated and work across the organization – in product planning and the roadmap, patron fulfilment and the income group. Every team has a role to play in what content material to develop. The key to building successful relationships throughout those groups is reciprocity. For example, Bottorff says the product group works with the content advertising group because the brand new capabilities they increase will get publicity. For income, it’s miles approximately ensuring they get the resources and property they need.
Building a content material library
When it involves constructing the content library, Bottorff takes a slightly special attitude. Yes, you want to define the purchaser adventure and build content to support that adventure. But for Bottorff’s agency, that is a pay-according to-performance business, personnel are incentivised to assist their customers in optimizing their websites and their businesses.
What her group does is increase content that allows companies to get to the subsequent stage in their business. So they offer advice on optimizing their web sites, along with improving their content, and a way to leverage different content material assets, like webinars or films.
Bottorff says FastSpring has comparable challenges to their customers, so that they have an amazing deal with on the concepts and might put more sources into growing thought leadership content material that their customers want.
For example, FastSpring sends potentialities personalized videos in which a Sales/Support individual speaks to the possibility on-screen, indicates them their website and makes recommendations to improve it. They then display how in case you plugged in FastSpring APIs, you could improve the experience in special approaches. These are simply informative sufficient to make the chance to see the fee and need to know more.
Bottorff likens the videos to a cooking display in which you may see the very last product that will help you recognize the fee of the effort you want to put into making it.
My take
Bottorff makes the factor that content advertising is all about the revel in and that you need to provide content in an effortlessly digestible manner. Content has to be useful, and that calls for you to recognize your marketplace nicely, now not best in terms of what content material to provide, however additionally the way to provide it and in which.
