Case Study: Bliinx uses stack ranking to create problem-focused content marketing

The secret to creating high converting content marketing is to understand your user's problems and present your product as a perfect solution — simple! Yet so many of us overcomplicate it...

Bliinx on the other hand are nailing it! They recently posted a textbook example of good content by combining high priority problems with clear and actionable solutions. How are they identifying which problems are high priority though? That's where stack ranking comes in.

Bliinx is on a mission to help sales reps turn more leads into customers by knowing who to focus on and when to engage with them. Their product analyzes how users engage with free trials, marketing and sales touchpoints to optimize outreach and increase conversion to premium plans.

In this post, we're deconstructing the process that Bliinx has started using to research and deliver their content marketing masterpiece.

Identifying engaging problems

The first step in Bliinx content creation process is to get an accurate read of the most painful problems experienced by Account Executives at SaaS companies (their target market).

To do this, Bliinx CEO Fred Melanson drafted an initial list of problem statements and added them to a stack ranking survey on OpinionX. Next, he sent it out to over 200 Account Execs, asking them to vote for the most painful problems on the list and to add any problem statements he missed.

The best part about stack ranking on OpinionX is that the analysis handles itself. Once Fred had reached his target number of participants, he just had to take one look at his results to see which problems Account Execs felt were most painful:

Pain #1: Juggling prospecting, reaching out, internal meetings, admin tasks and client follow-up.

Pain #2: Knowing when to reach out in order to maximize time and not overwork deals.

Pain #3: Grabbing prospects' attention.

Pain #4: Managing lots of deals at the same time without dropping the ball.

Pain #5: Being ghosted by prospects.

Pain #6: Knowing which leads to focus on.

Pain #7: Finding good information to personalize outreach.

Pain #8: Updating contacts and data entry in the CRM.

Pain #9: Lack of visibility on how leads engage with the product and marketing content.

Having these pains stack ranked like this gave Fred the perfect material to offer solutions to his target customers' biggest problems. Using their sales expertise, the Bliinx team turned the list of problems into a video and blog of solutions for each — identifying useful tools, frameworks and best practices that SaaS Account Execs could implement in their sales process. Fred implemented this in the most engaging problem, starting with a blog post and turning it into a video that he shared across social media.

Personally, I loved Fred's solution for Pain #4 ("Managing lots of deals at the same time without dropping the ball"), which was to "set up 'at-risk' signals in Bliinx so you can be notified in Slack when deals are falling through cracks, and act accordingly."

What's cool about this content marketing campaign from Bliinx is that their content went far beyond the promotion of just their own product. Instead, they are sharing information on a whole range of other useful products also — which creates a feeling of authenticity and avoids sounding like the whole thing is just a big sales pitch.

From the first handful of comments, it's clear that people were loving it:

Whether you want to make a video, write a blog post or even create a quick meme, understanding the top problems your target market is experiencing is the first step to creating content that people resonate with. Showing your readers that you understand their experiences and challenges opens up the space you need to start a conversation about your product that they will actually listen to.

The formula for great content is simple: Problem → Solution.

Trying to nail a 'Problem → Solution' content marketing campaign? Start by stack ranking the biggest problems your target customers experience so that the content you write is exactly the solution they've been searching for. Create a stack ranking survey for free today on OpinionX.