Producing valuable content for your target audience is critical to the overall health of your B2B SaaS company in today’s digital-first, relationship-driven marketing industry. This means you need a solid content marketing budget to get the job done.
Over 95% of content marketers report that creating and sharing content has enabled them to build trust with customers. And 95% of buyers consider content a credible resource when assessing a company’s offerings.
In 2020, 47% of organizations had a content marketing budget greater than $10,000, compared to only 38% in 2019, according to a survey by Semrush. Almost 70% of survey respondents anticipate their content marketing budgets to grow by 10% or more in 2021.
Is your B2B SaaS company is still pinching pennies when it comes to content marketing? If so, read on to discover 4 steps to help you nail your content budget, and 4 tips to help you get buy-in to increase it.
How to nail your content marketing budget
If you’re stumped on how to get more content budget, you’re not alone. Start by grabbing a copy of our free, fillable Content Marketing Budget Template, then follow these 4 steps:
Step 1: Establish your objectives
Figure out what you want your content marketing program to achieve. This will enable you to narrow down the kinds of B2B SaaS content you need to produce. You’ll then be able to figure out what resources—including the amount of content marketing budget—you need.
For example, if your company is keen on increasing your search rankings, you may choose to allocate more content budget toward in-depth and highly optimized blog posts next year.
Step 2: Identify necessary resources
Let’s imagine you’ve only been creating one SaaS ebook per quarter but you want to start publishing one per month. In this case, you’ll need to consider hiring an internal or external team member to help you produce this content.
When planning for a content marketing budget increase, you should also think about the technology you’ll need to execute on your new strategy. You’ll also need to get clear on the costs associated with your software wish list.
Step 3: Invest in thought leadership
Producing thought leadership content is an excellent way to set your B2B SaaS company apart from your competition. And it’s also a staple of any content marketing budget.
You may want to set money aside for:
- partnerships with industry publications
- ghostwriter to write a white paper under your CEO’s byline
- PR campaign to help promote your newest product
Step 4: Review and fill gaps
Before you set your content budget in stone, comb through every line item to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything.
For example, if your plan is to double your email subscriber list, you may need to pay for an email software upgrade. You’ll have an easier time securing content creation budget if you lay all of your cards on the table from the beginning, rather than asking for more money down the road.
How to get buy-in for more content marketing budget
Even when you’ve done your homework on a shiny new content budget, you may still find it’s tough to get your boss on board. Over 50% of B2B marketers cite proving the ROI of their content as one of their biggest challenges when seeking a budget increase. Here’s how to overcome that hurdle:
1. Track the performance of your SaaS content
Measuring content performance can be tricky, but it’s worth your time to do so. Data is one of the best ways to paint a picture of the impact your content is having on your company. Concrete numbers will help you justify a boost in your content creation budget.
Try to find out how often your content gets used by your sales team, how frequently your prospects read it and what kind of engagement the content receives on social media.
Chat with your team about what other marketing metrics would be useful for your organization to track, then document them religiously.
2. Set your colleagues up for success
If you find your sales or social media teams aren’t sharing your content, it may be difficult to land a bigger content marketing budget.
Sit down and talk with your colleagues about what kind of SaaS content is most helpful for them:
- Do they need case studies that are specific to a particular industry or use case?
- What about ebooks in a certain format?
Deliver on what’s important to your colleagues and you’ll increase your chances of securing a bigger content budget.
3. Find cross-departmental advocates
As the saying goes, there’s strength in numbers. Show the budget gatekeepers at your SaaS company that you’re not the only person who would benefit from additional content marketing budget.
Try to get feedback from your product team on how having the story of their product shared with a broader audience would make them feel. Getting support, especially from senior leaders in your organization, is an excellent way to convey that multiple teams in your company will benefit from producing content.
4. Consider your timing
Sometimes, you can check all of the necessary boxes and still not get the content marketing budget increase you’ve asked for simply due to a poorly-timed request.
Find out when budget deadlines occur at your organization, and ensure you’re ready to present the right information to decision makers at the right time.
It’s also helpful to get a sense for what your company’s current priorities are, so you can try to figure out where content marketing fits on the list.
Make content budgeting easier
Developing a content creation budget isn’t every SaaS marketer’s cup of tea. At Uplift Content, we’ve streamlined the process for you by putting together a content marketing budget template that you can copy and input your own numbers into. Download the free template now.
