To B trend, how to attract customers through content?

01 Definition

1.1 Definition of tool-type SaaS products

Software as a service (software and services), the essence of SaaS is software. Customers can order the required software services through the Internet based on their actual work needs to improve work efficiency and thus increase ROI.

Tool-based SaaS is software that provides tool-based application services. Compared with other types of SaaS software, tool-based SaaS is more standardized.

For project management software, it can improve project efficiency, organize communication, handle project changes more quickly, and reduce project risks.

Dongxing Securities Research Institute

According to the deployment method, it is divided into two modes: public cloud and private cloud. Privatization is implemented locally by the customer and is a buyout system for the number of users controlled by licenses, while public cloud is a shared service deployed in the cloud and is a leasing system.

In comparison, the rental fee of public cloud is lower, the version iteration is timely, and it is easy to use and deploy. Although private clouds are expensive and have a long implementation period, they have data security attributes that customers trust.

Currently in China, enterprises have low awareness of public clouds and are very sensitive to data security. Most large enterprises still purchase software for local deployment, while small and medium-sized enterprises mostly use leased private clouds.

1.2 SaaS product decision chain

Customer demand department, purchasing department, boss, etc.

The product decision-making chain is complex. From a content perspective, continuous output of content that enhances understanding of the industry (such as public cloud/project management) will help increase the amount of leads obtained.

1.3 SaaS Operation Composition

Customer acquisition, paid conversion, user service

The impact of content on the user value conversion process:

1. From the perspective of operational composition: content marketing is not as simple as producing and publishing content, but a systematic process of user acquisition and cultivation centered on the ultimate goal of closing deals.
2. From the purpose point of view: content marketing is to acquire customers at a lower cost. Compared with direct and extensive SEM delivery, it can obtain more low-cost and continuous leads in the long term.
3. From the perspective of the long-term process of incubating leads: content marketing is used to form a community, form a private traffic pool from public traffic, incubate koc (target key users), help enhance the brand influence of the product, and at the same time, feedback helps optimize and iterate the product.

02 Content Classification

2.1 Scenario

Divided into online content and offline content according to the scenario;

2.2 Content dissemination forms and carrier channels

According to the content dissemination form and carrier channels, it can be divided into live broadcast, community, micro-class, public account, various forums, Weibo, Zhihu, etc.;

2.3 Content itself

According to the content itself, it can be divided into the following categories

1. SEO optimized article: published on the site, focusing on keyword stacking for traffic generation.
2. Industry information: mostly published on third-party media accounts for brand exposure.
3. Product tutorials: Mostly published on the site, third-party media accounts, Baidu Experience and other Baidu platforms, carrying certain SEO attributes and used for traffic generation and brand promotion.
4. Solutions/customer cases/product features/in-depth soft articles: mostly published on official channels, such as websites, blogs, public accounts, etc., to incubate private domain traffic customers.
5. In-depth soft articles: They are mostly published on third-party forums, websites, public accounts and other easy-to-spread channels, and are used for direct customer acquisition and brand promotion.
6. PR copy: mostly published on news source media websites for brand promotion.
7. Hot topic (product-related) copywriting: published on various channels to attract traffic and directly acquire customers.

The output carried by the content in each dimension is also different. Some are for brand exposure, some are for traffic generation, and some are for incubating customers to achieve hierarchical progressive conversions.

03 How to plan and operate content

The planning of content operation must be based on the business process chain, which is product, marketing, sales, CSM

Business process chain

The SaaS service business has a long decision-making cycle and a complex decision-making process, so the content marketing planning should combine the long-term and short-term. The long-term focus is on product branding, while the short-term focus is on the acquisition, cultivation, and conversion of effective leads.

3.1 Starting from the target users

Not only do you need to make long-term and short-term content outputs based on your own business decisions, but you also need to be able to control the overall content and understand the needs of your target users.

3.1.1 Addressing user concerns

Macro-level output content: policies, national conditions, economic situation, public opinion, industry trends, development prospects, etc.

Micro: business development/endorsement, product function explanation, answering customer questions, etc.

3.1.2 Satisfying User Characteristics

The companies that use this SaaS software come from different industries. Different industries have different characteristics. For example, the software industry has sufficient knowledge about project management and needs to be impressed by more professional content.

However, the furniture and building materials industry and state-owned enterprises and institutions are slow to recognize new things and need sufficient high-quality case content to endorse them in order to gain trust.

3.1.3 Understanding the User Stage

Enterprises present different characteristics at different stages of development. Enterprises that have just received financing are not very sensitive to the cost of purchasing SaaS software, and efficiency and practicality are the first priority; for large enterprises and government state-owned enterprises, product trustworthiness comes first; and for small businesses and startups in crisis, cost-effectiveness is king.

3.2 Combining long and short

In the long term, it is to continuously output knowledge/management/product/industry type content; in the short term, it is to output high-quality functions, user experience, and policy content at product optimization and iteration nodes, and carry out short-term "blasting".

Long-term content helps build brand momentum, while in the short term it is about seizing nodes to obtain effective leads and business opportunities.

3.2.1 Long-term content planning (personal participation case)

3.2.1.1 Channels:

Online content mainly consists of live broadcast, community, micro-course and public account content: Kingdee Cloud Live Broadcast - Famous Teacher Lecture Season, using well-known tutors as a gimmick, continuously outputs product-related and management-related knowledge during a period of time to enhance brand awareness, and uses third-party software (live broadcast software supplier) to conduct data statistics and analysis, and conduct quarterly data collection and analysis.

Online live broadcast poster

Community content: Mainly composed of groups of Kingdee Cloud customers, project areas, and partner customers, the groups interact with each other and continuously output content about Kingdee Cloud products, solutions, live broadcast posters, micro-courses, and public account content. Make use of online, offline and social spaces to repeatedly reach out and enhance the dissemination power of content.

Groups

Public account matrix: official subscription account (authoritative content output), Starry Sky Ecosystem (ecological concept content output) and Zhougong Fankun (pre-sales solution content output), covering the needs of customer decision-making chain roles from three content aspects.

Public account matrix

3.2.1.2 Content Category

Industry cutting-edge trends, methodology research, solutions, and successful customer practice cases

Solution/Case Introduction

Offline content: case books, sample case packaging books, white papers, product instructions, delivery methodology, etc.

3.2.2 Short-term content planning

3.2.2.1 Time Node

Industry peak and off-peak seasons: For example, the peak season for the HR SaaS industry is generally December, and the transaction cycle is evaluated as 2-3 weeks. Therefore, the business pressure on customers in this industry is relatively small in August and September each year, and there will be more possibilities to attend the conference. For companies, there is more time to cultivate leads to reach cooperation at this time, so content output at this time is particularly important.

3.2.2.2 Important meeting points

For example, Salesforce, a giant in the SaaS field, has held the ecosystem conference Dreamforce every November since 2003, while Alibaba in China holds the Yunqi Conference in September every year.

3.2.2.3 Theme Positioning

It is difficult to innovate the theme, and words such as sharing, empowerment, ecology, and digitalization appear frequently. Therefore, companies must clarify their core information demands to the outside world and extend them to content operations.

For example, Beisen has determined that the core message it conveys to the outside world is "agile talent management", and all activities throughout the year revolve around this term. The theme of the User Ecosystem Conference: "Agile Talent Management, Creating Reality with Ideals" is an extension and display of the content.

3.3 Subject content

3.3.1 Content Strategy

The combination of online and offline communities also requires the overall cooperation of the sales and marketing departments.

3.3.1.1 Online

Content distribution metrics. The content produced by the marketing department every day must be forwarded by sales partners to various channels, including but not limited to personal WeChat, Moments, Sohu, Toutiao, Weibo, social networks, etc.

After the live broadcast, the video can be replayed and then transferred to the community for promotion to extend the life of the content, so that the content can be reused repeatedly and influence the long-tail users (people who have not paid attention to it before)

3.3.1.2 Community

Set recruitment targets. The community operated by the marketing department needs to continue to grow, so sales partners are required to recruit people to the community every month.

Use online communities, public accounts and other channels to repeatedly reach users and enhance the power of content. After the case tweets are released online, the valuable tweets will be disseminated for the next time, and manuals will be printed and distributed at offline exhibitions to improve the efficiency of content reuse.

3.3.1.3 Official website

The fastest and most streamlined content marketing channel is the official website.

And the main indicators are clear: online traffic (number of consultations), demand research (questionnaire collection), and telemarketing techniques (number of feedback). The content includes: industry research, customer cases, product function demonstrations, sales node displays. The presentation forms include: official website landing support page, 10-30s short video, PDF, white paper, etc.

04 Build a content growth model (closed loop)

aarrr model

Use content to capture traffic as soon as possible, enter traffic with cooperation intentions into the lead pool, and coordinate sales to follow up as soon as possible. In order to prevent the loss of traffic with no intention of cooperation, we pull it into the community and convert it into leads through the influence of long-term valuable content.

Author: Menchang

Public account: Tomorrow's horizontal