One of the most underutilized B2B relationships is with your industry’s leading trade publication. According to a 2018 Mequoda Magazine Consumer Study, 42.4% of U.S. adults read at least one digital magazine per month — a 15% increase in three years. This goes to show trade pubs are much more than the monthly magazine they produce.
Gone are the days where a trade publication’s reach is confined to the pages of their magazine. For many B2B SaaS industries, trade pubs and, more specifically, their websites, are the pulse of the industry. They are the first place your potential customers will look for current news and trends and can help you successfully fill your sales funnel.
Many digital publications are hungry for fresh, relevant content. With shrinking editorial staffs, these outlets want high-quality contributions from a variety of authoritative sources.
Here are three ways SaaS companies are using trade media to reach new SaaS customers in the market:
Support Lead Generation Efforts
Trade publications provide an opportunity to uncover new prospects and provide lead intelligence. But in today’s online publications, authors and companies are in a much more unique position. The conversations and content that orbit trade publications are constructed by people both looking for help and offering solutions. This goes to show the soft-sell approach can work wonders and move prospects along the sales funnel quicker.
Expand Your Reach
For companies looking to target new industries, trade media provides an opportunity to showcase industry expertise prospects can trust. When SaaS companies create a new offering or target new verticals, trade coverage can give them credibility. For example, if a company’s software has previously been built to support marketing teams but has new functionality for sales and customer support, earning coverage in those new verticals to raise awareness among the new buyer persona is a huge boost. Software sales reps can then use educational content and thought leadership coverage found in third-party media to refresh prospect email cadences to reach target buyers.
Enhance Your Content Strategy
By reading and actively participating in trade publication content, you should advance your level of knowledge about prospects’ needs and pain points — all the things that keep decision-makers awake at night. You can then brainstorm the best ways to solve those pain points to attract leads, guiding them through your sales funnel. That being said, companies should consider what types of content are needed for various stages of the buyer journey and target accordingly. With proper lead nurturing supported by the right content every step of the way, companies will strengthen the relationship with the prospect, ultimately closing deals and driving revenue.
For more information on why trade media matters in B2B SaaS, please visit https://www.blastmedia.com/