A Strategic Approach to Content Amplification for SaaS Businesses
Published on
May 26, 2023
If you want my team to help with your SEO & Content, click here.
If you want my team to help with your eCommerce SEO campaigns, click here.
Content is expensive to make.
And it’s a pain.
So it is in your best interest to make the most out of it.
“Amplifying” your content is the fastest and cheapest thing you can do to leverage your content and drive return on your content marketing investment.
Content amplification is a simple concept: just take a piece of content and push it in front of more people - Amplify its reach through a combination of digital channels.
But while the concept is simple, it’s easier to explain than to implement.
So today, I will take you on a content amplification journey and give you ideas on how to approach it effectively in the context of the SaaS industry.
TL;DR
This article goes quite in-depth on content amplification and how to approach it. If you’re an impatient reader, here’s the summary:
- Content amplification is an umbrella term that refers to every digital method that aims to amplify the reach of a piece of content.
- Yes, it’s similar to content distribution and content promotion. But its methods are broader. And in 2023, we’re all about putting everything under a more expansive lens.
- The common approach to content amplification is to reach as much people as possible, regardless of their potential interest in the product. This is the wrong approach.
- Instead of just trying to reach as many people as possible, focus on reaching the right people at the right time with the right solution. That’s the strategic approach to content amplification I’m advocating for.
What is content amplification?
Content amplification means promoting and distributing your content to a broader audience via online platforms and channels. These channels can be earned (like social media), owned (like your website or email list), or paid (like advertising).
Amplification is sometimes used as a fluffy term that’s often confused with content distribution and content promotion. Content amplification is broader. It encompasses distribution, advertising, and PR. And even though these concepts are often defined differently, they all have a common goal: amplifying the reach of your content.
But to make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to terminology and definitions, here’s what I refer to when I talk about content amplification:
- Content: Everything from product pages to e-books, infographics, articles, videos, podcasts, social media posts, etc. In short, anything you create in a written, visual, or audio format.
- Amplification: Everything your piece of content goes through as you try to multiply its reach through various distribution efforts. It can be a YouTube video you repurposed into a blog article, then shared on social media, then repurposed into an Instagram carousel, and then boosted through Instagram ads.
Amplifying your content helps you find a broader audience, drive more traffic to your piece of content, drive better brand awareness, and eventually boost your content ROI.
In one sentence: it helps make the most out of your published content.
And yes, you can totally skip this step. It’s just not very smart to do so.
What’s really important in a B2B content amplification strategy
There are a couple of important factors to consider to create a revenue-driven B2B content amplification strategy. You want your content to reach the right people at the right time with the right solution – and that’s not an easy thing to do.
So, let’s take a look at some key things to pay attention to.
Make sure you know your target audience and where it hangs out
There’s no way you can do business or marketing successfully in 2023 without knowing your audience. Knowing who your customers are is unskippable.
And in the case of content amplification, it is even better to know where your audience hangs out, and where you have the best chance to be heard.
Think of content amplification when creating your content
A great way to amplify content is by sharing some parts of it on other channels.
For example, you can reuse an infographic you included in one of your blog post and share it on social media. It’s easy and straightforward.
Instead of simply sharing your article without much context, or summarizing all your content in one short social media post, you share one key information/idea.
This is an effective way to transform long-form content into short form content. And in order for it to work, you should think of short-form repurposing opportunities at the moment when you are creating your original content.
This means:
- Including all the necessary information in infographics and graphs, so they can be understood independently
- Structuring your content, so you can easily extract some parts of it
Stay authentic and transparent, even when promoting your content
Nobody wants to hear sales pitches all day long. That’s why you should always try to sound as authentic and transparent as possible - even when promoting your content.
Try not to sound overly formal when distributing your content. Instead, share why you wrote this piece of content, why it’s relevant, or what the story behind it is.
In other words – be relatable. Stay open to engaging in conversations around your piece of content. Turn these conversations into debates where readers can share opinions, ask questions, and leave comments.
This will create a sense of community and drive engagement and trust between you and your audience.
Don’t overdo it
No one likes to be spammed with an endless stream of content shared from other platforms.
If you do this, your followers probably won’t even react. So, don’t treat your distribution channels like a playground for link dumping.
One-size-fits-all content shares won’t cut it. Each platform needs content specific to its requirements – and its vibe.
For example, if you want to build an audience on LinkedIn, you need to:
- Create LinkedIn-specific content (around 80% of your total LinkedIn posts)
- Repurpose the content you share from other platforms into a LinkedIn-specific format (around 20% of your LinkedIn publications).
Partner with thought leaders in your industry
When you share unique insights in your content, other thought leaders will naturally become interested in what you have to say. Ideally, you would like to reach their audience.
But first, you must draw their attention to your content somehow. You can do that by being active in their comment sections and engaging in conversations with them.
You can also reach out to them via a simple email or direct message to let them know about the content piece you published. If you do, make sure to give them a reason to care. Let them know why they should take the time to read, watch, or listen to it.
Putting in that extra effort can help you create better relationships with partners in your industry and open doors for you to distribute your content to their audience.
Best content amplification platforms for B2B SaaS companies
There’s one question I still didn’t answer in this piece : what are the best places to amplify your content as a B2B SaaS business?
Here are 6 of the best content amplification platforms for B2B SaaS.
Those are the platforms where B2B SaaS buyers hang out, and where it’spossible to initiate genuine conversations around your content.
LinkedIn is the best social media platform for networking as a B2B company. Pretty much everyone on LinkedIn is interested in content that will help them grow their businesses in some way.
But too many business owners on LinkedIn make the mistake of creating content that caters to their peers rather than their target audience.
In B2B, what matters more than numbers is connecting with the right people and building genuine relationships. It’s not about sending your content to everyone and their grandma – it’s about sending it to the people who will find it helpful.
People go on Reddit to share their most intimate dilemmas and ask their most burning questions. That’s why it’s a great platform to connect with your target audience and discover their struggles and insecurities.
In other words, Reddit is a great place to share your content. But don’t just spam everyone with links – get involved in conversations, ask the right questions, and try to be helpful. Over time, you’ll become a valued member of the niche communities where your audience hangs out.
Not sure where to start? Take a look at this list of the best SaaS communities on Reddit.
Slack communities
B2B marketing revolves around networking, which makes Slack communities an excellent place for business owners to engage in conversations with other business owners.
But unlike other platforms, Slack is an anti-marketing channel. You won’t succeed if you push your content and sales messages. Instead, focus on being your authentic self. Have conversations and suggest your content whenever you think it’ll genuinely help someone.
As a B2B SaaS business, you might be interested in joining some of these SaaS Slack communities.
Quora
Quora is a forum-based platform where users ask and answer questions about pretty much anything.
This forum-like nature makes Quora a fantastic market research platform and a great place to answer questions related to your topic of expertise. And while answering those questions, you can casually throw in the link to the related piece of content.
Medium
If you’re already producing content for your blog, why not repurpose it to Medium? This platform allows pretty much anyone to post their content. All you need to do is write a content piece, pick a category, select the topics your article discusses, and hit publish. Genius, isn’t it?
This is a brilliant content amplification strategy: it allows you to put your content in front of the people who are already reading articles in the category you’re posting. And you don’t even have to write it from scratch. You can repurpose the content you’ve already written.
PR newswire
If conducting studies and publishing the results in written form is your thing (I’m thinking of study reports, data sheets, infographics), then this content amplification platform is for you.
You can reach out to journalists who might be interested in using your data. They’ll write interesting news people will want to read, and you’ll get exposure. That’s a pretty sweet deal!
Email marketing
Newsletters are a great way to share to your audience what’s new on your end.
You can either send weekly/monthly digest newsletters, compiling all your best content of the moment, or create a new content format specifically, where you rewrite some key ideas from your content.
For example, I’m recently working on a new newsletter called “Marketing Self-Defense”. Every week, I’ll send tips on how not to get trapped by marketers doing marketing to you.
This is new exclusive content, but based on ideas and topics Vince, Laura, and I covered during the week either on LinkedIn or our blog post. Sometimes I’ll even add insights from our Google meet conceptual debates. 😅
The big advantage of email marketing for content amplification: your subscribers have a high chance of being interested in your content, since they have already subscribed to your emailing list.
At the end of the day, your content amplification efforts will only be as successful as your content
You can have the best content amplification strategy out there, you can even spend big money on paid content amplification, at the end of the day, clicks, leads, and conversions will only follow if your content is appealing enough.
And I don’t mean clickbait appealing.
I mean genuinely interesting for your target audience: helpful and filled with unique takes on a topic.
Content that says something new and provides solutions to readers’ problems.
But I’ll assume that’s already what you are doing :)
FAQs about Content Amplification
Content amplification encompasses three ways to give your content a little boost: free distribution, paid promotion, and PR. You can amplify your content using a combination of these methods.
Creating great content isn’t always enough to get seen by the right people. When you implement a content amplification strategy, you’re giving your content a boost to appear in front of your target audience. Eventually, you’ll build big enough of an audience that you won’t have to worry about your reach.
You don’t. The best way to get the most out of your content amplification strategy is to put in the effort to engage in conversations with your target audience and become active in their communities. This way, you’ll be able to make the most impact with your content, which will eventually lead to building long-lasting relationships with your customers.
More posts on
Content Marketing
See what other great content we have in store.