Content Marketing for HR Tech - The Only Guide You Need
Over the past few years I’ve witnessed, first-hand, the power content has to grow HRTech businesses organically. 🌱
I’ve watched the best and fastest growing HR Tech companies figure out how to convince and convert HR tech buyers using authentic, human-led content.
Today I want to show YOU how to do the same.
But I speak with HR tech founders and marketers every week and, believe it or not, they’re not all convinced about content or organic growth. Instead, they’re focusing on paid media and other demand gen tactics.
That's mostly for two reasons:
They feel valuable keywords are too hard to rank (Technical)
They’re unable to convert that into leads and revenue (Content Quality)
But I’m telling you.. If you use this content framework properly, your organic growth will demolish your other marketing efforts when it comes to acquisition costs.
But at the same time.. it will exponentially improves the results of other channels. 🤔
But talk is cheap, right!?
So, in this video + written guide I SHOW you exactly how the best HR tech companies (including a few of our clients) are doing this TODAY. With the data to prove it. 📈
Then, I'll show you how you can find out the exact results your business will generate by doing the same.
Let’s do this!
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Table of Contents
Understanding the HRTech Buyer Journey
If you want to attract more buyers from HR, talent acquisition, learning and development departments.. Or any other prospects relevant to your product, you need to understand the journey they go through.
If you’re a B2B marketer, chances are you’ve already heard ALL about the “buyer journey”.
In truth, this has sadly become an industry cliche, because a lot of the information out there is overly complex “fluff” or just plain WRONG.
It’s unfortunate.. because it’s a really important concept.
So let’s review.
I don't care what anyone says. Your buyers come to four realizations before they buy from you. Period.
1. Problem Aware
First, your prospects realize that they have a problem. And critically.. that problem is something YOUR product solves for.
Maybe their problem is related to employee engagement, training and development, talent sourcing, recruiting..
Your prospect understands that they could be doing something better.. But they AREN’T looking for a product.. Yet.
2. Solution Aware
At some point HR Tech buyers will consider that your TYPE of product is a solution to their problem.
They start actively looking for an HRIS, employee engagement platform, training program, recruitment software.. whatever it is that your product does.
3. Product Aware
If you’ve done your job as a marketer then the HR Tech buyer will become aware that YOUR product is an option.
They've learned your brand is a potential solution and are evaluating you against the other competitors and alternatives.
4. Final Decision
Ultimately, your buyer needs to decide that your product is a BETTER solution to their problem than the alternatives.
And if your sales and marketing wins.. then you win the buyer!
We tripled this HR Tech company’s organic traffic and 5X’d their inbound leads.
Want to know how?
The #1 Mistake in HR Tech Content Marketing
Content that WORKS for organic growth gives your prospect EXACTLY what they're looking for at EACH of the above stages.
So, for each stage there are RIGHT and WRONG content types.
We’ve found the main reason HR Tech businesses aren’t able to scale organically with content marketing is that they just can’t get this right.
The content they're making isn’t relevant to an HR Tech buyer at ANY stage.. (e.g. they’re making content about cats)
They are targeting the wrong content to people at the wrong stage (e.g. they are trying to SELL people who just want to be EDUCATED.. Or, vice versa)
Let's unpack that.
Understanding Mismatched Intent
BAD HRTech Content Examples
Example 1: Your product pages (Home, platform, features, soltuions..) should be intended to sell people who are already product aware.
These people are already considering you and need to know WHY and HOW you solve their problem best.
So, what keyword would you want to choose for a Employee Engagement Software’s PRODUCT page?
A lot of SEO novices say “best employee engagement software”.
“Justin,” they say.. “I’ve checked my keyword research tool.. The difficulty score is just 16/100 and there’s search volume. Not to mention this buyer is surely in-market. So, it’s a PERFECT keyword.. Right??”
WRONG, Jack! Why?
Because, that’s an ❌ INTENT MISMATCH.
People who are searching for the best employee engagement software really don't want to see a page that's all about your product.
They want to see all their options and need help deciding which one’s the best.
So, these misguided marketers will spend lots of money trying to rank this page and sadly.. it never works.
Example 2: Other misguided marketers will try to rank the SAME sales pages for “What is Employee Engagement” by sticking a definition onto the page.. 🤦🏻
“But Justin” the search volume is GREAT! I’d be a fool not to try and rank my sales page for it.. No brainer, right?
Wrong again!
Yet another ❌ INTENT MISMATCH.
This person is looking for a DEFINITION. They're just LEARNING.
They want a resource dedicated to that.. your sales page is IRRELEVANT and Google knows it.
A lot of promising HR Tech companies we talk to have gotten burned by marketers and agencies who make those mistakes, and they’re about ready to give up.
Until we show them the right FRAMEWORK.
Want to see how your HR Tech Website Stacks up Against the Competition?
Check out our (Free) HR Tech SEO Benchmarks Report
The Perfect HR Tech Content Framework
Presto!
THIS is the optimal structure for your buyer journey. The PROPER type of content for every point.
GOOD HR Tech Content Examples
But instead of just telling you what this is.. I'm going to SHOW you how the best companies are crushing each type of content.
Sometimes generating tens and hundreds of thousands in $ value every month for each page they create.
It’s best to think of this as a PROCESS.
And you start that process at the END of the buyer journey. With your product’s OUTCOMES.
Our 5-Step HR Tech Content Strategy
Step 1: Showcase Your Product's Outcomes
“Outcomes” content often has the BIGGEST ROI of any other content type.
Why? Because the people who’ll see it are those who are closest to converting.
But there’s also a BIG secondary benefit..
By doing this part justice, you're going to learn exactly how to talk about your product in a way that converts buyers.
How to Create HR Tech Case Studies
Take a look at WorkVivo's case studies..
These are an AWESOME example of content that's targeted to people making their final decision.
They've expressed the sentiments of their best customers – in their OWN words. They give real data points on the outcomes each client saw.
KPI’s like:
% lift in employee retention
employee engagement rate
adoption rate
All outcomes that get their target prospects EXCITED.
This type of content converts potential buyers who are “on the fence”.
Using HR Tech Product Reviews
Now take a look at how BetterUp’s case studies are organically ranking for the keyword “BetterUp reviews”..
800 people search for that keyword every month.
Think about it.. That's an opportunity to appear FIRST in 10,000 searches a year who are actively considering BetterUp.
That’s a CLEAR revenue opportunity.. in the multi-millions.
You can tell the BetterUp content team knows this.. Because their case study content is phenomenal. They clearly put a lot of love into it.
Again, clear data points on how their solution helps:
reduction in burnout
lifts and team performance
Self-reported scores
On the other hand.. HiBob is missing this opportunity.
You can see third-party review sites dominate the search engine results page with no website content of their own.
Rippling is ranking first for “Rippling reviews”..
But I also want to point out that a competitor is ranking their own review of Rippling on their website.
Note that this keyword is an important opportunity for the brand AND the brand's competitors.
I also want to stress how important user generated social content is for this.
For example, there's also a good number of people searching YouTube for “Rippling reviews”. They’re being met with third-party reviews from respected authorities in HR tech.
You absolutely want to be part of this conversation, and it's your job to influence this content however you can.
So make sure to build relationships with those influencers and your own custom review content to YouTube as well.
Step 2: Position Your HR Tech Product Against Competitors
There’s no way around it.. when an HRTech buyer is considering you they are going to compare you against your competition..
Meaning they will directly compare how your platform and features stack up against the other brands and alternatives they are considering.
This is where pages like the home page, the product and features pages should come into play.
Sales content that’s designed to convince HR Tech prospects why your product is the best solution to their problem.
Marketers obsess over these pages.. because they know that they're very close to sales.
They need to be written masterfully in a way that expresses the product's unique value in solving your customer's biggest problems, like Rippling’s Recruiting Platform Page.
The customer stories and case studies you wrote for the last step are going to help you do that. But you need to consider that these pages are right for people who are already aware of your product.
The people who are searching for a particular platform or feature. And it's a mistake to try and rank these four, for example, best XYZ software.
That's a different type of content and we're going to cover that later. These folks may be looking to compare you head to head against a particular competitor.
HR Tech Landing Page Examples
Notice how Deel and Rippling both have pages ranking for “Deel versus Ripling”.
Both brands are on top of it.. Check out Deel’s Feature Comparison Page and Rippling’s Comparison Page content.
It’s incredibly robust, giving the bottom-of-funnel prospect every bit of information they need and more. It includes features comparison charts, a benefit matrix, use cases, feature comparisons… the WORKS.
Head-to-head brand comparisons are another great opportunity for user generated video content from influential accounts, like Rippling has done in the screenshot below.
“Parasite SEO” is another good opportunity here. Take a look at this review that’s written on a third party website.
It can be pretty easy to get authors from relevant publishers to post and rank this type of content..
You'll also, of course, want to consider customer searching for alternatives to a competitor, like our Workvivo has done here.
And that doesn't always just go for competitors, either. Maybe your product isn't an adjacent alternative to something like Slack or Google Sheets.. you'll want to consider that too.
Step 3: Show HR Tech Customers Their Best Options
Now we're going to cover the content that targets some of the MOST valuable keywords in the game. Those used by “Solution Aware” HR Tech prospects.
These are the people who are searching for your TYPE of product but not necessarily aware of your exact brand.
BOOM.. “best employee engagement platform”.
This is the keyword all the competitors are obsessing about in the employee engagement space. It’s why they're paying upwards of $30 per client to rank for it! 🤑
But when the prospects search for this, they're not looking for your sales page. They're looking to compare the options. Our client Workvivo addressed that need with a round-up article, including the 11 best platforms.
Like it or not, you’re clients want this type of content. And you want to be part of that conversation.
Of course if you’re posting this on your own website you’ll position your brand as the number one option for a certain type of prospect’s problems.
Workvivo has created 36 of these type of pages. And you can see here that they are getting, for free, what their competitors are paying tens of thousands of dollars every month for.
And of course, once again, an important opportunity to influence third-party unbiased content from other publishers and video content for influencers on YouTube.
On top of that, you should be targeting people searching for the best HR tech platforms for more specific use cases.. for example; “best payroll software for small business”. Take ADP’s Small Business Landing Page:
You can see how valuable these searches are.. Competitors are literally willing to pay in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per month for it!
Again, a good place to use “roundup” content.. (lists of the top best products your prospects might consider).
But SEO isn’t the only goal here. These pages are intended to position your brand as the best solution for very specific subsets of your audience.
The opportunities are endless; “best payroll software for contractors”.. “Employee engagement platform for frontline workers”, “ intranet for small business”, HRIS for midsize companies..
A solution aware prospect may also be looking to compare the type of product, likeLike Workable did in this page on HRIS versus HCM or Namely’s page on HRIS versus PEO software.
The content goal would be to help them decide which platform is right for them and position your product as the appropriate fit for its ideal case.
Step 4: Establish Your Brand as an HR Tech Thought Leader
Finally, we do want to cover your “top of funnel” content.
This is the content that positions your brand as the thought leader.. You’ll do that by giving. By teaching your prospects how to solve their biggest problems.. showing them how to do something better.
Start with all the other types of content first.. But once they're done, there are literally endless opportunities here.
Your content team will almost certainly spend most of their time on this type of content.
But even still.. You want to make sure you’re not putting out any “fluff”.
Every content piece needs to hit HARD! And by that i mean your content;
Provides ORIGINAL perspective.
Provides value to YOUR prospects
Solves a problem that your product is related to
I first want to cover why podcasts are incredibly powerful content for HR tech marketers..
The truth is.. you may NOT be the best at solving all your customer's departmental problems. The good news? When that's the case, you can find and interview the folks who are!
The MOST respected people in HR and workforce management.
The ones who have been through and crushed your prospect's problems.
Take Bamboo HR's branded podcast HR Unplugged.. or Workvivo’s branded podcast episodes.
Tons of episodes featuring top-age art people and how they solve problems like fixing a broken performance review process, using data to influence change, communicating to HR leadership, using PTO to retain employees and more.
And your podcast can (should) be easily transcribed, tied into written word, and optimized for phenomenal written HR Tech content pieces and blog articles.
Again, the opportunities here are endless, and that's why this type of content will likely make up about 80% plus of your site's content and organic traffic.
Step 5: Promote Your HR Tech Content with Shareable Assets (Link Magnets)
The next and final type of content are your shareable assets or “Link Magnets”.
These are the juice, the fuel for your buyer journey engine. ⛽
They are intended to be shared, not only by your prospects, but also shared by the media. Publishers who are looking to cite great assets for their own content.
When you build this type of content, you'll notice that people will share it naturally.
You'll get backlinks without having to pay for them, which is of course, still one of the most critical factors for scaling your SEO.
Templates and tools are great for this. Trailiant, a sexual harassment training platform, uses an interactive sexual harassment training requirements tool.
HiBob uses shareable HR dashboards.
Good data, statistics, reports, and infographics are absolute gold for publishers. Take this page we did for our client Quantic, a research report on female, Fortune 500 CEOs.
It was shared by 58 high-profile websites, including Berkeley EDU. The results, skyrocketing authority for the brand, with zero spent on acquiring those backlinks.
Conclusion
And there you have it!
You now have all the information you need to go and build an HR buyer “Journey Engine” 🚀.
A content machine that attracts, convicnes and converts HR Tech decision makers like clockwork. 🕰️
Create this content, and I guarantee you are going to see big, organic, bottom line business results.
And if you have the time and resources to do that all yourself, you absolutely should. But if you want some help.. that's what the Journeyengine team is here for!
Right now, we are offering a free organic growth projection. We are going to show you exactly how this system fits into your business.
You'll get a one-to-one strategy call with me, along with the following;
Thorough analysis of your competitive market
Custom HR tech buyer journey engine strategy tailored to YOUR business
A forecast of the exact results that you can expect from the campaign
A SWEET data visualization designed to share with your team.. instantly making you the coolest person in your org.
Just click the link below and answer a few questions to prep for our discovery call.
I can't wait to meet you!
Want Your Own Custom HR Tech Content Strategy?
1/1 meeting with Justin (Journeyengine founder)
Thorough analysis of your competitive market
Custom journey engine strategy tailored to YOUR business
A forecast of the exact results that you can expect from the campaign
SWEET data visualization to share with your team.. instantly making you the coolest person in your org
