Mid-2023, I was onboarding a new content marketing project when I faced pushback. But I wasn’t surprised as it’s one I often face since rethinking our B2B SaaS content creation goal. 

“We’ve granted you access to Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC),” said the startup’s in-house marketer. “Why do you insist that we install another content tracking script?” 

The script in question was… 

IO Technologies* content analytics script. 

“We need it to track three things paramount to the success of any SaaS content project we onboard,” I explained. “For each article we publish, this script helps us to track three complementary metrics we can’t get out of the box with GA and GSC combined.”

The three metrics I was referring to?  

1. Average time on page
2. Readability, and
3. Recirculation.

But why am I sharing this story, you may be wondering, and how does it concern creating better B2B content briefs? 

Good question. 

B2B Content Briefs Needed a Rethink

Imagine it’s the early 2000s, and you’re running a restaurant. But not just any restaurant. One in a city where food is scarce, and hungry customers are storming in, willing to grab just about anything on your menu. Doesn’t matter if it’s a 2-star meal or an overbaked burger; as long as it fills their stomachs, they’re good. Soon, other restaurants in the city care less about how they prepare their food.  

That’s what Google was like in the 2000s.  

The internet was still new. Search engines were even a phenomenon. Searchers using it for the first time were starved for information, and businesses could serve up nearly anything sprinkled with the right keywords and still get a flood of traffic and customers. Do you know Google even held ‘Content is King’ conferences? There, they told companies, “Just cook more food! People are hungry!” 

And it worked, leading to briefs like this: 

Until the internet’s buffet overflowed.  

Fast-forward to today. Now, it’s no longer about just making food available. It’s about serving the right dish to the right diner at the right moment. As not any food is king, not any content is king. People, mainly B2B prospects, are inundated with content. Target audiences don’t just want more content; they want relevant content that puts their needs before keywords and headers. 

Google’s algorithm (i.e., Helpful Content Update) responded, as ruthless food critics would. The search engine now ranks content that’s not just targeting keywords but useful, engaging, and worth consuming.  

Yet, most content briefs are still stuck in the early 2000s. They’re still being produced to act like quick cook orders when what’s needed is enabling Michelin-level chefs. 

That’s why we rethought our entire approach to briefing B2B content pieces. To brief the creation of pieces that just don’t rank, but B2B prospects would really read, we didn’t just tweak the old SEO-and keywords-focused briefing templates out there.  

We reimagined and built something new…

Introducing StoryBriefs & Outlines

Back to the metrics we obsess over: 

1. Average time on page
2. Readability, and
3. Recirculation.

You may have the best SaaS product. The content you create to market said product may outrank competitors on search engines or get discovered otherways. Regardless, none of the three metrics above would increase if no one reads the content. But through well-crafted, resonant stories your ideal buyer persona (ICP) actually wants to read, you can move all three. 

Says a veteran tech VC: 

We learned this firsthand. 

Over time, we noticed our best customers were those who read many articles on our blog before coming inbound. They spent above the average time on regular B2B blogs before recirculating to our money pages (i.e., services and book a call). 

Here’s one, out of many, of such:

Seeing this pattern, we did three things. 

1. We sought to track the content pieces prospects were actually reading before booking sales calls. GA and GSC combined didn’t help that much here. So we searched for a dedicated content consumption tracking platform until we found
2. With the tracking software installed, we sought what was unique about the pieces prospects were consuming for long before proceeding to inquire about our services. They all had one thing in common: a relatable storytelling undertone. 
3. As a result, we reimagined creating briefs that guided us in using relatable stories to craft pieces target ICPs would really read. The quest for this, which complemented our Product-Led Storytelling approach, led me to invent StoryBriefs & Outlines.

What are StoryBriefs & Outlines? 

StoryBriefs & Outlines is a 4-part framework for briefing and outlining drafts with guardrails for crafting content with relevant, relatable storytelling ICPs would truly like to read. 

They emerged from VEC Studio’s quest to consistently craft B2B content that doesn’t just rank, but resonates. Because what’s the point of traffic if no one reads, recalls your brand, or is compelled to act? Today, the content that B2B prospects consume is what generates demand and real business impact. Everything else? 

More digital noise. 

The reason I believe… 

I invented StoryBriefs & Outlines to answer the question in my quote above. They give us—and can give you—the guardrails for using stories to craft content your ICPs will genuinely read. 

Because my logic used in designing it is to: 

• Achieve a piece that aligns with both your company’s and an ideal reader’s goals (i.e., win-win mutual value)
• Deliver unique insight that sets you and your company apart while resonating with who the ideal reader is
• Tackle the exact queries that led—or could lead—the target reader to seek the information shared in the piece
• And most importantly, show (not just tells) how to address those queries through compelling, relatable stories.  

Combining all four elements into the briefing and outlining process increases the likelihood of creating B2B content prospects won’t just skim, but engage, recall, and act because of it. 

That’s the idea behind StoryBriefs & Outlines. 

As illustrated below: 

Briefing B2B Content with StoryBriefs & Outlines

Picture chess pawns. 

Moved around carelessly, they get captured easily, opening losing loopholes. But when planned and moved strategically, even one pawn can checkmate an opponent’s king and lead to victory. 

The same goes for B2B content pieces. Brief each strategically, and you’re more likely to create what prospects would read and act. But the chances of that happening require mutual alignment.

And it’s why StoryBriefs & Outlines start with…

1. Strategic Alignment

Here, you must ensure the piece to be created aligns with the goals of the target reader and the business hiring you to create it. For this, take a moment to think thoughtfully. 

Then succinctly state: 

• The mutual goal for the piece (i.e., what will the target reader and the company behind the piece respectively get?)
• The target keyword/search query
• The topic cluster (i.e., no piece is an island. So what topic/service/product cluster does the content fit into?)
• Why the piece even needs to be created (i.e., how would the piece specifically help the business grow?)
• What the call to action (CTA) for the piece is. 

Here’s a sample: 

The Strategic Alignment section above is from the StoryBrief & Outline I used to craft ‘Ideas vs Keywords: What Yields Great SaaS Content?’ Look closely, and you’ll notice the stated goal aligns with the goals of the target reader and VEC Studio. 

On the one hand, a target reader who consumes the piece would learn how ideas, not keywords, yield better B2B content. But if that’s all they leave with, what’s in it for VEC Studio paying me with hard-earned resources to publish the piece? 

The stated goal answers that. 

The sample above exemplifies other items under the strategic alignment section. Together, they ensure that your brief aligns with specific business outcomes that justify the content creation investment. 

2. Target Reader Resonance

I can’t count how many times I opened an article thinking it was exactly what I needed, only to bounce off after a few sentences. I don’t have a low attention span, so do I bounce off because the content of a piece isn’t well-written or factual? 

No!

Most don’t resonate with who I am. 

Given today’s content overload, your target B2B readers have become too picky, preferring only what resonates with who they are. Is the content relatable? It is contextually relevant to who I am, where I am on my journey, and my pain points? 

You achieve resonance through relatable storytelling that answers the questions above. And that’s what the 2nd part of the StoryBrief & Outline framework enables you to achieve: 

This Target Reader Resonance sample is from a StoryBrief & Outline I used to write an article for AudiencePlus. To ensure the eventual piece resonated with the target reader’s person, I specified the main target ICP and why they’d even read the piece. Next, and very crucial, I outlined what I’ll anchor the draft’s storytelling. 

Stories could resonate with: 

• Who a person (or ICP) is
• The journey stage they are in
• A belief, pain point, or desired outcome

Enter my complementary framework called ICP StoryScripts. As great movie stories have scripts, ICP StoryScripts merges buyer personas and jobs-to-be-done (JTBD), resulting in scripts for crafting resonant B2B content with relatable stories: 

This is beyond the scope of this article. But my hands-on course teaches how to create ICP StoryScripts and leverage them to build StoryBriefs & Outlines for crafting resonant B2B content. 

You can learn more here. 

3. Content Discovery Triggers

When Google was the default information discovery platform, targeting keywords was how to get content marketing pieces discovered. You can still get your content discovered by targeting, optimizing, and ranking for keywords, but things have changed. 

Increasingly, B2B prospects are relying less on Google as their default place to research information. They’re discovering product information—and content marketing pieces—from ChatGPT prompts, social feeds, niche communities, etc.

But one thing remains unchanged. 

And that’s what triggers prospects to research information or open an article shared in a niche community or social feed. Whether searching, scrolling, or prompting, we’d always tend towards an article that tackles a relevant query or problem. 

As such, this part of the StoryBrief & Outline framework is about listing relevant, related keywords, queries, or problems a B2B content piece should tackle. Take the example below: 

This Content Discovery Triggers section is from a StoryBrief & Outline I used to craft a piece for Cyber Sierra. The content marketing strategy we designed for them wasn’t focused on ranking on Google. But listing related keywords, queries, and problems—which we got from SEO tools—when briefing each piece helped us to craft content that moved the pipeline. 

Said their Head of Marketing: 

4. Content Outline

This stage involves thoughtfully synthesizing insights from the previous three steps to create a structured outline. The process adheres to VEC Studio’s 9-step Product-Led Storytelling approach for SaaS content writing.

On one level, the outline leverages H2s and H3s to organize content around key-related keywords, queries, and pain points. Simultaneously, these H2s and H3s act as storytelling guardrails, for seamlessly integrating your product into the narrative. 

Take this sample: 

As shown, each step must logically lead to the next. Because while compelling storytelling is essential for engagement, B2B SaaS content remains fundamentally business writing. So as you brief to provide guardrails for the story to unfold within the content’s body, under each outlined H2 and H3, the overall narrative must:

• Contextualize the mutual goal stated in Part 1.
• Align with the target reader and their journey stage.
• Address the beliefs, pain points, or desired transformation identified in Part 2 of the StoryBrief & Outline framework.

This outlining process is powerful. 

When executed effectively, this approach ensures that every content piece serves a dual purpose—educating and engaging while naturally guiding readers toward conversion. And that’s because, ultimately, it guides the crafting of Product-Led Storytelling B2B SaaS content pieces that: 

• Attract & Filter, 
• Engage & Show, 
• Persuade & Convert: 

Master StoryBriefs & Outlines

You’ve made it this far, so no need to tell you that crafting great B2B content isn’t just about throwing words on a page—it takes strategy. A lot of it. 

That’s where StoryBriefs & Outlines come in. Once you get the hang of them, you’ll crack the code to using resonant stories to craft B2B content that doesn’t just compete for rankings, but truly compels readership.  

Says a B2B Marketing Leader whose content team I trained:   

Testimonials like that pushed me to go all in—so I created a hands-on video course that teaches how to master StoryBriefs & Outlines. But I didn’t stop there. I also covered how to build ICP StoryScripts, a framework that helps you execute more personalized B2B content that truly engages and converts.  

Put them together—ICP StoryScripts and StoryBriefs & Outlines, and you’ve got the perfect toolkit for using stories to craft irresistible B2B content pieces.  

Still on the fence?

Here’s what one happy student had to say:  

Grab lifetime access to the course here.