Developing Effective Product Marketing Content Across Different Stages: Tailoring Content to the Buyer’s Journey.

Generic marketing messages no longer suffice. Enterprise buyers navigate lengthy, multi-stakeholder purchasing processes that demand specialized content at each stage of their journey. For technology startups competing against established players, understanding how to develop stage-appropriate content represents a critical competitive advantage.

Research from Forrester reveals that 74% of B2B buyers conduct more than half their research online before making a purchase decision. Meanwhile, Gartner reports that buying committees for B2B technology purchases now include an average of 6-10 decision-makers, each requiring different information to reach a consensus. These realities demand a sophisticated content approach that maps precisely to the buyer’s evolving needs.

Here is a framework for developing effective product marketing content across the buyer’s journey, from initial awareness through post-purchase advocacy.

Understanding the Modern B2B Buyer’s Journey

Before diving into stage-specific content strategies, it’s essential to understand how the B2B buying process has evolved in recent years. The traditional linear funnel has given way to what Gartner calls the “B2B buying journey”—a complex, non-linear process where stakeholders move back and forth between stages as they gather information and build consensus.

This journey typically includes six “buying jobs” that must be completed before a purchase decision:

1. Problem identification: Recognizing a challenge that requires action
2. Solution exploration: Investigating approaches to address the problem
3. Requirements building: Establishing specific criteria for the solution
4. Supplier selection: Evaluating and comparing vendor options
5. Validation: Building consensus among stakeholders and confirming choices
6. Consensus creation: Aligning stakeholders around the final decision

What makes this process particularly challenging is that different stakeholders engage at different points, often revisiting earlier stages as new information emerges. An effective content strategy addresses this complexity by providing relevant, valuable information for each buying job, accessible to stakeholders whenever they need it.

Stage 1: Awareness Content Strategy — Illuminating the Problem

At the awareness stage, prospects may not fully recognize their challenges or the potential for improvement. Your content objective is not to sell your product but to illuminate problems worth solving.

Content Objectives

• Establish credibility as a thought leader in your domain
• Help prospects articulate challenges they may have normalized
• Introduce new perspectives on industry trends and challenges
• Build trust through educational rather than promotional content

Effective Content Types

1. Industry Trend Reports

These research-based publications establish your company as a forward-thinking industry observer while highlighting emerging challenges your product addresses.

Best Practices:

• Include proprietary research or unique data visualizations
• Focus on implications rather than just reporting trends
• Offer concrete recommendations, not just observations
• Keep product mentions minimal and contextual

Example: Stripe’s State of SaaS report provides valuable insights on subscription business trends while subtly highlighting challenges in billing and revenue operations that their platform addresses—without overtly pitching their solution.

2. Diagnostic Assessment Tools

Interactive tools that help prospects evaluate their current situation create immediate value while generating qualified leads.

Best Practices:

• Focus on educational value, not lead-generation tactics
• Provide actionable insights regardless of whether they pursue your solution
• Benchmark results against industry standards
• Include clear next steps based on assessment results

Example: HubSpot’s Website Grader provides immediate value by analyzing website performance issues helping prospects recognize problems they may have overlooked while introducing them to HubSpot’s ecosystem.

3. Educational Blog Content

Thought leadership content that addresses industry challenges positions your company as a trusted advisor rather than just another vendor.

Best Practices:

• Focus on challenges, not your product
• Incorporate original research and expert perspectives
• Address different stakeholder viewpoints within buying committees
• Establish a consistent publishing cadence to build an audience

Example: Cloudflare’s blog discusses emerging security threats and internet performance challenges with technical depth that establishes credibility with technical decision-makers.

4. Foundational Whitepapers

In-depth explorations of significant industry challenges provide valuable education while framing problems in ways that align with your solution approach.

Best Practices:

• Lead with industry challenges, not product features
• Support assertions with research and third-party validation
• Address financial, operational, and strategic implications
• Include actionable recommendations regardless of vendor choice

Example: Okta’s “Zero Trust Security” whitepaper established them as security thought leaders by educating the market about an emerging framework that aligned with their product approach.

Content Measurement for Awareness Stage

Track these metrics to evaluate awareness stage content effectiveness:

• Organic traffic growthto thought leadership content
• Time on page/engagement metricsshowing content quality
• Content sharing and social amplificationindicating relevance
• Return visitor ratessuggest audience-building
• Email subscription conversionsshowing ongoing interest

Stage 2: Consideration Content Strategy — Framing the Solution Approach

During consideration, prospects understand their challenges and are evaluating different solution approaches. Your content objective is to establish your solution category as the optimal approach while positioning your specific offering favorably within it.

Content Objectives

• Define evaluation criteria that favor your approach
• Differentiate your solution category from alternatives
• Educate on methodologies and frameworks that align with your solution
• Build confidence in your company’s expertise and approach

Effective Content Types

1. Solution Approach Comparisons

Content that objectively compares different solution approaches while highlighting the advantages of your category.

Best Practices:

• Present fair, balanced comparisons of all viable approaches
• Focus on business outcomes rather than technical specifications
• Address implementation considerations beyond the purchase price
• Include appropriate use cases for different approaches

Example: Snowflake’s “Data Warehouse vs. Data Lake” comparison guides position cloud data platforms as the optimal middle ground, framing evaluation criteria that favor their solution category.

2. Methodology Frameworks

Proprietary frameworks that guide implementation success help prospects envision adopting your approach.

Best Practices:

• Create memorable, branded frameworks that simplify complex concepts
• Focus on implementation methodology, not just technical architecture
• Include assessment tools for evaluating readiness
• Offer certification or training programs around your methodology

Example: HubSpot’s “Inbound Methodology” created a framework for modern marketing that naturally aligned with their platform capabilities, making their solution the obvious choice for implementation.

3. Expert Guides and Playbooks

Comprehensive resources that demonstrate deep expertise while guiding prospects toward successful implementation.

Best Practices:

• Focus on implementation guidance, not product specifics
• Include templates, checklists, and planning tools
• Address both technical and organizational considerations
• Anticipate and address common barriers to adoption

Example: Atlassian’s “Agile Playbook” establishes them as methodology experts while subtly positioning their tools as the natural implementation choice.

4. Case Studies Focused on Approach

Customer stories highlight the value of your solution approach rather than specific product features.

Best Practices:

• Focus on business transformation, not product implementation
• Include multiple stakeholder perspectives
• Quantify business impact with credible metrics
• Address challenges overcome during implementation

Example: Salesforce’s customer stories focus on business transformation through cloud adoption rather than specific features, validating their overall approach to CRM.

Content Measurement for Consideration Stage

Track these metrics to evaluate consideration stage content effectiveness:

• Progression from awareness to consideration contentshowing journey advancement
• Content downloading and sharing among buying committee members
• Webinar or demo registrationsfollowing consideration of content engagement
• Competitive comparison page engagement
• Questions and objections raised in sales conversations

Stage 3: Decision Content Strategy — Validating the Specific Choice

At the decision stage, prospects are comparing specific vendors. Your content objective is to provide evidence that validates your solution as the best choice while addressing implementation concerns.

Content Objectives

• Provide concrete evidence of your solution’s effectiveness
• Address specific objections and concerns
• Facilitate stakeholder consensus-building
• Reduce perceived implementation risk

Effective Content Types

1. Product Comparison Guides

Detailed feature and capability comparisons that highlight your competitive advantages.

Best Practices:

• Maintain factual accuracy and fairness
• Focus on differentiators most relevant to customer priorities
• Address the total cost of ownership, not just the purchase price
• Include third-party reviews and analyst perspectives

Example: Notion’s comparison pages objectively present feature differences between their platform and alternatives like Evernote or Confluence, focusing on workflow advantages rather than just feature checklists.

2. Implementation Success Content

Resources that address the “how” of implementation, reducing perceived risk.

Best Practices:

• Provide detailed implementation timelines and milestones.
• Address common challenges and how to overcome them
• Include resource requirements and organizational considerations
• Offer customer support and success metrics

Example: Slack’s implementation playbooks outline specific steps, timelines, and best practices for rolling out their platform, addressing common adoption challenges to reduce purchase anxiety.

3. ROI Calculators and Value Assessment Tools

Interactive tools that help prospects quantify the potential value of your solution.

Best Practices:

• Base calculations on conservative, defensible assumptions
• Customize inputs for different industries or use cases
• Provide transparent methodology documentation
• Include both direct and indirect benefit calculations

Example: DocuSign’s ROI calculator helps prospects quantify time and cost savings from electronic signatures, providing specific financial justification for the purchase decision.

4. Technical Documentation and API References

For technical evaluators, detailed documentation validates platform capabilities and integration potential.

Best Practices:

• Organize for easy navigation and searchability
• Include code examples and use cases
• Provide developer sandbox environments
• Maintain comprehensive API references

Example: Stripe’s developer documentation is renowned for its clarity and completeness, giving technical stakeholders confidence in implementation feasibility.

5. Security and Compliance Documentation

For enterprise purchases, detailed security information addresses critical governance concerns.

Best Practices:

• Provide certification details and audit results
• Address industry-specific compliance requirements
• Document security architecture and practices
• Include penetration testing and vulnerability management processes

Example: Zoom’s security white papers detail their encryption approach, data handling practices, and compliance certifications, addressing critical enterprise concerns that might block purchase decisions.

Content Measurement for the Decision Stage

Track these metrics to evaluate decision-stage content effectiveness:

• Feature comparison page engagement time
• Technical documentation depth and frequency of access
• Sales enablement content usage by representatives
• Objection handling effectiveness
• Close rates after engaging with decision content

Stage 4: Implementation Content Strategy — Ensuring Customer Success

After purchase, content continues to play a crucial role in ensuring successful implementation and adoption. Your content objective is to accelerate time-to-value and expand usage.

Content Objectives

• Accelerate onboarding and initial implementation
• Drive product adoption across the organization
• Reduce support costs through self-service resources
• Identify expansion opportunities through usage patterns

Effective Content Types

1. Customer Onboarding Sequences

Structured onboarding content that guides new customers through implementation milestones.

Best Practices:

• Segment onboarding paths for different user roles
• Create clear success milestones and celebrations
• Combine automated and personal touchpoints
• Provide both quick wins and strategic implementation guidance

Example: Asana’s onboarding sequence combines automated guides, webinars, and personalized check-ins to ensure customers achieve value quickly while building toward comprehensive adoption.

2. Knowledge Base and Self-Service Support

Comprehensive resources that enable customers to solve problems independently.

Best Practices:

• Organize content based on user workflows, not product structure
• Include troubleshooting guides and common issue resolution
• Provide video tutorials alongside written documentation
• Continuously update based on support ticket analysis

Example: Airtable’s knowledge base combines text, video, and interactive examples that address both basic and advanced user needs, reducing support costs while accelerating adoption.

3. User Community and Peer Learning

Facilitated spaces for customers to share best practices and implementation approaches.

Best Practices:

• Provide dedicated spaces for different user roles and use cases
• Recognize and reward community contributors
• Include company experts alongside peer advisors
• Create implementation templates and examples for sharing

Example: Figma’s community platform allows users to share design systems and workflows, accelerating adoption through peer learning rather than just company-created content.

4. Advanced Training and Certification

Structured learning paths that develop deep product expertise and advocates.

Best Practices:

• Create role-based learning tracks
• Include both product mechanics and strategic application
• Provide certification that enhances professional credentials
• Develop advanced content for power users and administrators

Example: Salesforce’s Trailhead platform provides gamified learning paths that develop deep platform expertise while creating certified administrators who often become internal advocates.

Content Measurement for Implementation Stage

Track these metrics to evaluate implementation stage content effectiveness:

• Time to first value achievement
• Feature adoption rates and usage patterns
• Support ticket volume and resolution pathways
• Community engagement and contribution metrics
• Certification completion rates

Stage 5: Expansion Content Strategy — Growing Customer Lifetime Value

For existing customers, content should focus on identifying new use cases and expanding adoption. Your content objective is to showcase additional value opportunities and maintain relationship strength.

Content Objectives

• Highlight additional use cases and applications
• Maintain executive-level engagement beyond the initial purchase
• Identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities
• Develop customer advocacy

Effective Content Types

1. Advanced Use Case Spotlights

Content that highlights innovative applications of your product beyond initial implementation.

Best Practices:

• Feature customer innovation and unexpected use cases
• Include implementation templates for new applications
• Provide specific ROI calculations for expanded usage
• Create application-specific training resources

Example: Miro’s use case library showcases how their whiteboarding platform extends beyond basic collaboration to support specialized workflows like UX research and agile planning, encouraging expanded usage.

2. Product Roadmap and Vision Content

Forward-looking content that maintains executive engagement through strategic alignment.

Best Practices:

• Connect product evolution to industry trends
• Provide early access to upcoming capabilities
• Include customer input channels for development priorities
• Maintain a strategic rather than just tactical perspective

Example: Slack’s product roadmap webinars keep customers engaged with the platform’s evolution, highlighting upcoming capabilities that maintain competitive differentiation and strategic relevance.

3. Executive Business Reviews

Structured review content that demonstrates realized value while identifying expansion opportunities.

Best Practices:

• Focus on business outcomes achieved, not just product usage
• Compare results against the original business case
• Identify untapped value opportunities
• Include peer benchmarking and best practices

Example: Drift’s quarterly business reviews combine usage analytics, outcome measurement, and peer benchmarking to demonstrate value while identifying expansion opportunities.

4. Customer Advisory Content

Exclusive content that develops customer advocates through insider access and influence.

Best Practices:

• Provide exclusive research and industry insights
• Create opportunities for customer thought leadership
• Develop customer-to-customer connection platforms
• Include early product input opportunities

Example: HubSpot’s customer advisory board receives exclusive market research and early product access, creating advocates who frequently speak at their INBOUND conference and refer new customers.

Content Measurement for the Expansion Stage

Track these metrics to evaluate expansion stage content effectiveness:

• Expansion revenue following specific content engagement
• Executive-level content engagement metrics
• Customer participation in advisory programs
• Advocacy actions (referrals, testimonials, case studies)
• Renewal rates correlated with content engagement

Building a Cohesive Cross-Journey Content Strategy

While each stage requires specific content types, building a cohesive strategy requires connecting these elements into an integrated system. Here are key considerations for developing this comprehensive approach:

1. Content Governance Framework

Establish clear ownership, review processes, and update protocols for content across the journey.

Implementation strategies:

• Assign specific ownership for each content type and journey stage
• Develop cross-functional review processes, including product, marketing, and sales
• Create update triggers based on product changes and market shifts
• Implement content scoring systems to prioritize creation and updates

2. Content Repurposing System

Develop processes for adapting existing content across formats and journey stages.

Implementation strategies:

• Create modular content blocks that can be recombined for different contexts
• Establish guidelines for transforming in-depth content into shorter formats
• Develop visual style systems that maintain consistency across formats
• Build content relationships that guide users between related resources

3. Personalization Framework

Tailor content experiences based on industry, role, and journey stage to increase relevance.

Implementation strategies:

• Develop industry-specific versions of core content assets
• Create role-based pathways through your content library
• Implement dynamic content components that adapt to user context
• Build progressive profiling that refines personalization over time

4. Measurement and Optimization System

Implement comprehensive analytics that tracks performance across the entire journey.

Implementation strategies:

• Deploy multi-touch attribution to understand the content impact on conversions
• Create content effectiveness dashboards for each journey stage
• Implement A/B testing frameworks for continuous optimization
• Develop ROI modeling for content investment decisions

Case Study: Notion’s Journey-Based Content Strategy

Notion, the workspace collaboration platform, provides an instructive example of an effective journey-based content strategy for B2B technology marketing.

When Notion began targeting enterprise customers, they faced significant challenges: enterprise buyers were skeptical about replacing established tools like Confluence, and buying committees included stakeholders with diverse concerns from IT security to end-user adoption.

Notion addressed these challenges by developing a comprehensive journey-based content strategy:

Awareness Stage Approach

Rather than immediately positioning against competitors, Notion created thought leadership content about workplace productivity challenges. Their “State of the Digital Workplace” report established credibility while highlighting pain points their solution addresses.

Consideration Stage Approach

Notion developed a “Workspace Assessment Framework” that helped prospects evaluate their current collaboration environments against best practices. This framework naturally positioned Notion’s approach as the evolved solution without explicitly attacking competitors.

Decision Stage Approach

For technical evaluators, Notion created detailed security documentation and API references. For business stakeholders, they developed ROI calculators specific to different use cases like knowledge management and project coordination.

Implementation Stage Approach

Notion’s “Template Gallery” provided pre-built solutions for common enterprise use cases, accelerating time-to-value. Their customer success content included role-specific training paths and administrator guides.

Expansion Stage Approach

Notion created a “Connected Workspace” content series highlighting how teams expanded from initial use cases to company-wide adoption, featuring specific implementation patterns and ROI calculations.

The results were significant: Notion reduced its enterprise sales cycle by 37% while increasing average contract value by 43%. Their content-led approach helped them compete effectively against established players despite being a relatively new entrant in the enterprise market.

Future Trends in Journey-Based Content

As B2B buying processes continue to evolve, several emerging trends will shape effective content strategies:

1. AI-Powered Content Personalization

Machine learning is enabling increasingly sophisticated content personalization based on individual and account-level behavior patterns. Leading companies are implementing systems that dynamically assemble content components based on specific user contexts and behaviors.

2. Self-Guided Assessment Experiences

Interactive diagnostic tools are evolving beyond simple lead-generation tactics to become sophisticated evaluation environments that guide prospects through solution exploration on their own terms. These tools combine education, assessment, and recommendation in integrated experiences.

3. Video-Centric Technical Content

As technical evaluators increasingly prefer video-based learning, product documentation is evolving from static text to interactive video demonstrations. Companies like Loom are pioneering approaches that combine video explanations with interactive documentation elements.

4. Community-Centered Content Models

User communities are becoming central to content strategy rather than supplemental elements. Companies like Figma and Webflow are building content ecosystems where customer-created resources often exceed company-produced materials in both volume and specificity.

The Competitive Advantage of Journey-Aligned Content

For technology startups competing against established players, journey-aligned content represents a significant competitive advantage. While enterprise incumbents often have larger content libraries, they frequently lack the cohesion and relevance that come from a strategically designed journey approach.

By developing content specifically tailored to each stage of the buying process, startups can create more relevant, valuable experiences that build trust and momentum toward purchase decisions. This strategic approach allows for more efficient resource allocation while creating stronger connections with prospects throughout their journey.

Remember that effective B2B content is not about volume but about relevance—delivering the right information to the right stakeholders at the right moment in their decision process. By mapping your content strategy to the actual buying journey, you create a system that not only generates interest but converts that interest into revenue and long-term customer relationships.