The easy answer: Solve the query with your product.
I wish I can just end it here.
But hey, you cannot craft product-led content without understanding the many nuances.
Let’s start with the Why?
Why Product-led Content?
The end goal of any marketing campaign is to get leads and signups.
With good quality SEO and marketing content, you can gain traffic, links, DA, etc., but cannot achieve conversions.
And why’s that?
Here’s the typical behavior of most search users:
User searches for a query and most of the times the question is answered in SGE or a featured snippet. So goodbye conversions.
But you got lucky, user wants to know more and they clicked on your article ranking in the top 3 or 5. (below 5 gets nothing)
Now the user is quickly skimming through your massive article, finds quality info, and then bids farewell.
All of this happens in a matter of seconds.
Rarely will search users click on your product features or home page or any other money page to know more.
Yeah, that one CTA above-the-fold sounds too salesy/desperate and a CTA at the end of the article makes no sense.
(Because nobody reads so much these days)
Of course, for SEO purposes, you need long-form content, but…
You will only get conversions when you subtly pitch your product along the way.
Adding your product gifs, screenshots with clear markers will help retain your brand in their memory. (yes, infographics help but product is better)
Even if they’re not going to signup immediately, they leave with a lasting impression. And they’re bound to come back to you.
So, What is Product-led Content?
Product-led content is content that shows how to solve a user’s problem with the help of your product. The purpose is both to solve the problem and to influence a buying decision.
For example,
If you’re selling a sales CRM, and you’re writing SEO content for “how to setup drip campaigns,” you can explain each step by visually showing how it’s done in your product.
Ok, so you might say “I don’t want to shove my product down the user’s throat.”
But again, what’s the ultimate goal of any marketing campaign?
To sound all goody-goody or to get those leads & signups?
In my experience, I have seen marketers write non-sense, build links to that non-sense, and then pray for conversions.
And they never happen.
You can get 6-digit or even 7-digit traffic (I have witnessed those numbers) but it’ll just bleed out without reaching the end goal - even the industry standard of 1-2%.
(Yeah, your AI content won’t help the matter)
Now, how do you craft the dang product-led content?
1. It actually starts with crafting the right strategy.
Most SaaS companies rely on SEO as their primary content promotion channel and therefore, craft the content for this channel.
But the common mistake made, especially by those just starting out with less DA, is they try to target keywords which are not their product’s strength.
For example, if you’re a product analytics SaaS but you don’t provide customer journey analysis in your product, then you don’t want to write too much on it.
You can probably mention it in one of your articles but you cannot make it as a pillar or cluster article - since you cannot add value to the reader visually using your product.
Now, I’m not advocating too many product screenshots/gifs that it turns into a sales copy.
But when you choose topics (low KD, high KV) that’re closer to your product, you can solve problems with confidence and the chances of getting conversions are higher.
So that needs to be your first steps.
Find topics, keywords or trends where you can attribute your product easily.
2. Create a repository of product gifs and screenshots for multiple use cases
This part is a bit annoying.
I’m sure your product is quite big and it can take time to record videos or screenshots for each use case.
But doing it helps you in two ways.
Building support articles, making it easier to solve customer queries.
Using them wherever you need across the site. Including your content.
Sometimes, you may not have time to do extensive videos or capture screens for every use case, nonetheless, try to do it for the most important ones.
And when you’re writing content for a specific problem, create it on-the-go.
3. Clearly mention product attribution in content briefs/structures
Most SaaS writers forget to attribute the product visually during the creation process, because the briefs don’t ask you to do it.
The content strategist needs to mention, meticulously, where a product screenshot or gif should come in (and which one) based on the topic.
More importantly, you cannot complete the first draft and then do product attribution.
You need to do it at the briefing stage and the attribution will happen naturally (instead of forced) when writing the first draft.
4. Fit your product to the flow
It’s critical to add your product in the right context.
As mentioned in the previous point, If your brief is good, the content will flow naturally with the right attribution. However, in my experience, I have seen most briefs lack it. And if you lack a solid brief, you’ll need to write the content with the product in mind.
For example, if you’re an AI content creation SaaS and you’re talking about how to use prompts, adding screenshots of your product’s prompt tool can help your case. But adding a gif of how fast your AI tool generates content may not be the most appropriate here.
So, ensure you fit your product in the flow of your article, signifying it’s relevance.
This process remains the same: whether you’re a $1 mil SaaS or a $100 mil SaaS
Yes, if you’re a smaller product, you may have to put in a lot more effort but the result is worth it.
So invest in product-led content. It will boost your sales & signups.
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