Weak Positioning Is the Enemy of Good B2B Content Marketing

Today, the content space is noisy and bloated.

In B2B and SaaS, hundreds, if not thousands, of vendors in your space cover the same topics and ideas. They are all competing for eyeballs on social media and for the top spots on Google search results page, just like you.

Content is now a commodity.

In other words, content is a product as much as your actual product is. So if you want your content to drive results—it has to stand out.

As they say: There's no point in posting just for the sake of posting. That will get you nowhere except drowning in a sea of noise.

This is where the Content Style Positioning Matrix comes in.

Content Style Positioning: Standing Out From The Noise

Building a strong, differentiated brand is critical, especially if your product category is oversaturated, like most B2B SaaS businesses.

Similarly, in this crowded content market, marketers should do a similar exercise to determine how to make their content stand out. As I've illustrated below.

A positioning matrix is plotted on two dimensions; each represents a criteria consumers use to decide which brand to purchase.

Or, in this case, which content to consume.

As a content manager, I've combed through a ton of SaaS and B2B content, and I've noticed that the highest engagement tends to come from a delicate dance between two opposite forces.

They are:

• Human Vs. Corporate
• Educational Vs. Entertaining

Let's dive a bit deeper into each dimension. We'll unpack each one and what that could mean for your content strategy.

Human Vs. Corporate

The first dimension of the matrix balances two opposing goals: Human Vs. Corporate.

• Corporate: The goal of the content is to convey the company's knowledge and expertise. It has a more analytical, polished, and professional look and tone. The business itself is considered the star of the content and the (SME) subject matter expert. People might present or create the content, but they are just a conduit for the company's expertise and knowledge.
• Human: The goal of the content is to humanize a business. It has a subjective, relatable, and authentic look and tone. People are the stars of the content and the SMEs—in short, it uses people (and often their first-hand stories and expertise) as conduits for conveying knowledge and expertise.

The benefits & drawbacks of corporate content

Benefits

• Professional and analytical content can command respect and authority
• Can quickly inspire confidence and trust from your audience
• Effective at communicating authority and mastery with a given industry

Drawbacks

• Hard to connect with emotionally
• Can feel generic and impersonal
• It can undermine trust and credibility

The benefits & drawbacks of human content

Benefits

• Harder to copycat
• Highly relatable and personable
• Creates an emotional connection and builds trust with audiences

Drawbacks

• If done wrong, it can feel gimmicky
• Can lack authority and professionalism
• It can take more time and effort to produce

Educational Vs. Entertaining

The second dimension of the matrix balances these two opposing goals: Educational Vs Entertaining.

• Educational: The goal of the content is to teach and enlighten the audience. The tone is more instructional and practical; think of step-by-step, textbook-style content. Giving the audience concrete practices and tools to help them tackle their biggest problems and pain points.
• Entertaining: The goal of the content is to be compelling and enticing. The tone is playful, light, or sardonic. It can use a great hook, humorous tone, animation, design, music, props, etc. (depending on format) can all be used to create a more persuasive and attention-grabbing piece of content.

The benefits & drawbacks of educational content

Benefits

• Practical takeaways are highly valuable to an audience
• Commands authority and trust
• It can be easy to produce (especially now with AI)

Drawbacks

• Easy to copycat
• It can be technical, dry and uninspiring
• Topics can be oversaturated

The benefits & drawbacks of entertaining content

Benefits

• Effective at hooking people’s attention
• Stands out with a unique voice and personality
• It can help illuminate or enhance dull or technical topics
• Feels relatable (e.g. meme content)

Drawbacks

• Can lose the audience's attention if you don’t deliver on the hook
• Can trivialize the importance of the content or subject matter
• With no concrete takeaways or advice, it can offer less value and authority

Nailing Down Your Content Positioning

There is no universal or "right" way of positioning your content.

It’s also critical to remember that your positioning shouldn't exist in a silo, either. It should grow and be aligned with your larger marketing strategy.

Meaning:

• Your brand identity
• Your target audience's profile (i.e. age, gender, industry, etc.)
• Which segment of the market you're going for (i.e. enterprise, SMBs, etc.)
• Which channels you want to focus on (e.g. Linkedin, TikTok, Instagram, etc.)

In other words, a content strategy will never thrive on top of a poorly defined marketing strategy. However, nailing down your content positioning will give your brand a clear, distinct place in the content sphere, and it will serve to inform everything related to content.

For example:

• Design, video production style, etc
• Topics and subjects being covered
• Voice and tone of the writing

Strong Vs. weak positioning

To that end, when I look at B2B businesses with content that stands out and high engagement, they tend to follow a predictable pattern.

• They already have a solid, differentiated brand identity, and they know which personas they are targeting.
• They balance these two opposing forces. (i.e. they don't lean too hard on any of the extremes).
• They try to occupy an untapped area of the market (i.e. if most of their competitors are highly educational and corporate, they try to be different).

In contrast, B2B businesses whose content marketing falls flat also follow a predictable pattern as well.

• Their brand identity is generic or unclear; they seem to be confused about which personas they are targeting.
• They lean too heavily on one side of the spectrum. (e.g. they are corporate to a fault, so it comes across as bland and impersonal.)
• They don't try to stand out from their competitors (i.e. their content blends into the noise.)

To be clear: You don't need to suddenly start making slapstick comedy skits if your content isn't getting traction and engagement. Doing a 180 is not the goal.

But you should avoid leaning too heavily into one side of the spectrum, such as most B2B companies with overly educational and corporate content.

These changes can be subtle yet effective.

For example, before producing another 15-page data-driven "industry report" loaded with stock images, corporate jargon, and size 12 font, consider asking yourself how this product (AKA this piece of content) compares with others in your industry.

I'm not saying to ditch the report entirely…

But ask yourself, if you're producing a report like this simply because everyone in your industry is doing it, why would your audience choose to download yours over 50 or maybe even hundreds of others? What makes your report stand out? What’s your unique angle?

As an experiment, you can try gently dialling up the entertainment or human factor. This might mean cutting out the fluff and jargon to reduce it to only 4 pages, refreshing the design, and updating the language and tone to be more casual and relatable.

If you're feeling spicy and want to push the dial into a whole different quadrant, that can mean ditching the data-driven industry report entirely. A new medium or angle can be tested here.

For instance, you might produce a piece of written content or video starring your CEO discussing their first-hand experience of a pain point your target audience shares. This content is still educational, yet more human. If nobody else in your industry produces content like it, it will surely stand out.

The point is: this is not black and white. There are countless ways to experiment and iterate on your positioning without drastically changing things overnight.

Final Thoughts

As with trying anything new, you may feel trepidation. Not to mention, senior leaders might see it as "risky."

But, if "risky" entails potentially wasting time and resources. To me, keeping your content indistinguishable from everyone else's is just as risky.

Organic content still costs money to produce. When done well, it can be an incredibly powerful and cost-effective way to drive demand for your business which will allow you to rely less on paid ads in the long run.

So if your content isn't driving results and ROI for your business, it's time to start pushing some dials in a different direction. Start small, and grow from there.