Sometimes I declare my hopes –precisely, helping B2B SaaS startups grow through story-driven, product-led content. But most times I don’t. It lingers in my heart until a prospect kicks it into life.

One such time was Feb. 13, 2023: 

When I checked my email on 13th Feb. 2023, I did so to tidy up my inbox. But in a corner of my heart, it was to see if my discreet hope had been kicked to life. When I first checked, it hadn’t. But 53 minutes later, as I was about to put my phone away and return to deep work by 14:00, I checked again and saw the email above. 

Interestingly, this ‘Work with VEC Studio’ booking was Srividhya also activating her hopes of growing their B2B SaaS through content. But such mutual hope activation doesn’t emerge out of thin air. 

It rarely does.

B2B prospects don’t just wake up and magically love your SaaS enough to start a free trial or book a sales demo. They must’ve known you, trusted you, your startup, and the unique way your product could solve their problem. None of which is possible, as Srividhya’s example will show, unless you’ve earned a share of their minds: 

What Share of Mind Means for SaaS Startups

Here’s a succinct description: 

This quote by Anthony Iannnarino, Author of ‘The Lost Art of Selling,’ makes so much sense. And the reason isn’t farfetched. As he noted, most SaaS Founders don’t spend enough time on it. But earning your prospects’ mindshare is about your only rare chance of killing three birds with one stone. Specifically, it is how your SaaS startup can: 

1. Nudge prospects who wouldn’t have done anything.
2. Make B2B buyers shortlist your tool above alternatives.
3. Move them to actually buy your product over a competitor’s. 

For instance, Srividhya could have chosen not to build an organic growth engine for their startup through content. She could’ve opted to produce content by just prompting ChatGPT. Also, she could’ve decided to go with another content marketing agency. If she made any of those decisions, we never would’ve worked with Cyber Sierra. But she didn’t. Amidst the many options at her disposal, she chose to work with VEC Studio. 

The same can be said of the B2B prospects you hope to attract, nurture, and close as customers of your SaaS startup. They could decide not to do anything and be fine. However, inaction doesn’t mean they don’t have inherent hopes of solving specific problems or achieving results your product can make possible. Most, if not all, do. But at the same time, when they decide to act, they all have options, too. 

Getting your prospects to act or choose your product over competitors when they are ready to act is, therefore, what share of mind means. Reflecting on how we succeed in achieving both for VEC Studio (and our B2B SaaS clients), I’ll say it comes down to marketing done well. Precisely, marketing focused on earning buyers’ mindshare long before they are ready to buy. This guide is my attempt to help you achieve the same. 

Before proceeding, consider subscribing to: 

Marketing that Earns SaaS Buyers’ Mindshare

There’s something about hope. 

Pronounced or discreet, when our hearts are filled with them, it only takes a stroke of chance to activate. Each marketing effort aimed at earning your buyers’ mindshare increases those activation chances.

Srividhya’s example proves this: 

Her journey and eventual decision to work with VEC Studio didn’t start with the call she booked on Feb. 13, 2023. Surprisingly, it didn’t even start with her being Cyber Sierra’ Head of Marketing. Per the screenshot above, it began about six months prior on Sept. 6th, 2022, while she was still a Content Lead at another startup. 

It was then that Srividhya “chanced upon an article on our website and loved it.” This made her sign up for VEC Studio’s newsletter. Think of it. What if we didn’t produce an article a prospective customer like her would love enough to subscribe to our newsletter for more? 

To achieve the same…

1. Produce Content Your Prospects Will Love

It took a whole 160 days before Srividhya booked a discovery call to work with us. But she’s not an exception. In fact, the average B2B sales cycle is even longer than that. Precisely, according to research by Dreamdata, it is as many as 192 days (over six months). 

And in most, if not all, cases, those days don’t begin to count until prospects chance upon a well-crafted article they love. Because until they do, B2B prospects may never remember you again. A reason for this is best captured by Andrew Sobel, Author of ‘Clients For Life.’

According to Sobel: 

It is possible to capture prospects’ attention through other marketing efforts. For instance, a viral social post may stop your prospects from scrolling. A well-targeted ad may win clicks and site visitors. 

But here’s the thing. 

Per Sobel, it’s hard, if not impossible, to share solution ideas that match your prospects’ goals through ads or viral social media posts. Such may help you to capture attention. But even after that, you still need well-fleshed-out thought leadership in the form of articles. 

But not just any kind of article, though. It must be content your prospects will love enough to follow you or subscribe for more. To craft such, Sobel stressed the need to be relevant. However, mere relevance is insufficient. In addition to relevance, Anthony Iaannario made a crucial recommendation for earning buyers’ mindshare: 

Let’s put both suggestions together. 

First, your articles must be relevant. But better if it’s in the form of thought leadership, sharing solution ideas that match your prospects’ goals. Second, excellent if crafted with stories that resonate well with your ideal customer profiles (ICPs). 

These were the first things Srividhya sought: 

2. Take Content Distribution More Seriously 

Per Srividhya, she subscribed to VEC Studio’s newsletter in September 2022 after she “chanced upon an article on our website and loved it.” But did it really happen by chance? Did she find our article by chance?

A. Big. Fat. No: 

Yes, when we craft B2B SaaS content at VEC Studio, we hope that prospective buyers will chance upon them. But no, we don’t fold our hands and hope for prospects to magically chance upon them. We take content distribution so seriously. In short, it is baked into ours and every content marketing strategy we design and execute for clients. 

There was a time when you could write great content, optimize for SEO, and go to sleep. A few months later, the content would rank on Google and your target audience would discover them. And if it didn’t rank fast or high enough, you simply built more backlinks. Doing all these still has a huge place in B2B content distribution. 

But things are changing. 

If we stopped there, Srividhya never would’ve chanced upon the article she loved, subscribed for more, and eventually hired VEC Studio. The lesson here is pretty straightforward. 

You shouldn’t stop at optimizing your content for SEO and hoping for Google to rank them high. Repurpose them into relevant excerpts fit for distribution on the various channels your target buyers hang out. Below is a visual illustration of how we do it: 

Doing this, and doing it well, increases the chances of your prospects chancing upon your content. If said content is crafted with stories they can resonate with, they’ll love it and subscribe for more. Once they subscribe for more, earning their mindshare becomes easier. 

That’s how Srividhya chanced upon VEC Studio. It’s how we opened the door to her mind and gradually began to earn a share of it, in about six months, until she chose to work with us despite the options at her disposal. And it’s also one of the things she loved as we executed Cyber Sierra’s content marketing program. 

But don’t take it from me: 

3. Show (Don’t Just Tell) Your Uniqueness

We crafted the first VEC Studio article Srividhya found for someone like her. We distributed it on channels where people like her hang out. We tried to be relevant by using relatable storytelling someone like her could resonate with (and thankfully, loved). 

But Srividhya was already a Head of Content with years of experience in B2B SaaS marketing. There’s not so much we could tell such a person that they haven’t heard before to compel them to sign up for more. Likewise, there’s not so much you can tell your prospects. But you can still compel them to act favorably —and earn mindshare ultimately— if your articles tick three boxes. 

Says Anthony Iannarino: 

The answer to all three questions, mainly the third one, comes down to one thing. Showing (not just telling) prospects whose mindshare you hope to earn and ultimately nudge into buyers how you and your product are different and can uniquely solve their problems. 

It follows that each article aimed at earning buyers’ mindshare you craft should: 

• Articulate how you’re different (i.e., your point of view and overarching company narrative),
• Demonstrate how your product uniquely solves the problem addressed in each article a prospect reads, and
• Show (and not just tell) how others, through sales-enabling customer success story excerpts, have leveraged your product to achieve results your prospects will desire.

In a nutshell, Product-Led Storytelling: 

Your prospect could love your articles, as they would songs or poems. But you surely didn’t invest so much time or money merely to amass love from strangers. You craft, publish, and distribute articles to bring relevant eyeballs to your product. And yeah, to earn mindshare. But really, the first goal is to start sales conversations. 

The second is to put your product in the hands of those whose lives it can transform. And the third, if you’re being honest, is to grow your ARR. For these to happen, treat each article you craft like a subtle commercial with your product attached. I couldn’t say it better than Malcolm Gladwell said in his book, “What The Dog Saw:” 

Story-driven, product-led content helps you achieve this. 

It was the unique approach Srividhya loved when she chanced upon our article. It offered her a new way of thinking about how she executed SaaS content marketing. It prompted her to join our newsletter for more. By the time she transitioned to Head of Marketing, we had earned a share of her mind. Enough that she booked a sales call to have us execute the same for Cyber Sierra. Thankfully, it worked for them (as it can for you, too). 

Again, don’t take it from me:

Difference Between Market Share and Earning Mindshare

It’s really simple. 

Say there is an estimated $100M per year for grabs in your niche. The company with $70M in ARR has a 70% market share. As a startup seeking a slice of that market, you can only start by closing the first customer. After that, you strive to close more customers. So the difference is that one is generic and easy to quantify through publicly available information. The other is specific, reflects in ARR-growing actions taken by customers, and fuels the other. 

As explained by Investopedia: 

If earning mindshare is the means to achieving a bigger market share, it stresses its importance. It means a company with a larger market share will eventually lose to a startup slowly, but increasingly, earning the mindshare of customers in that market. 

So whether you’re the biggest company or startup in your niche, you’ll never go wrong focusing on slowly, but increasingly, earning a share of mind of prospective (and existing) customers. 

All of this begs the question… 

How is Share of Mind Calculated?

I love Anthony Iannarino’s take: 

This reinforces a point I’ve stressed.

Share of mind (or mindshare) isn’t calculated. It is earned. Earned if prospects come across you, your brand, and your product, and be like, “I may not have known the person, brand, or product behind this sales or marketing asset. But I love their point of view. The change they’re proposing is relevant to my business goals. It’s so compelling that I can resonate with it. I will sign up and follow them for more.” 

If Srividhya didn’t feel this way when she first chanced upon an article by VEC Studio, do you think she would’ve subscribed for more? One can never know. But my bet is that, to a large extent, she wouldn’t. 

It follows that if you must calculate share of mind, start by looking at the people who subscribe to hear more from you. Relevant sales and marketing articles, crafted with stories your prospective (and existing) customers can resonate with, will help you attract the right people. 

But it is not enough. 

Srividhya may have loved the article she chanced upon. But imagine if, throughout her six months of being a newsletter subscriber, we failed to deliver content that increasingly earned her mindshare. You think she would’ve trusted us to book a sales call, on her own, and eventually hire VEC Studio? 

One can never know. But again, my bet is that, to a large extent, she wouldn’t. This, therefore, is the ultimate metric for calculating the share of mind (or mindshare) of prospects you’ve earned. 

Becoming the trusted partner target ICPs gravitate to: 

Learn how we help here.