How to Create GOAT’d “Edutainment” Content in B2B SaaS Marketing

Table of Contents:

Cool bruh, but how do you define edutainment?

Armchair psych theories in their edutainment era

Traditional content vs. edutainment content: what’s the diff?

How to HEIGHTEN your content ideas with edutainment formats

Marketing dorks measuring the success of an edutainment strategy

Conclusion

It seems like every B2B SaaS company falls into one of two categories.

1. They either “get” content marketing and absolutely crush it online (noice).

OR

2. Their content pretty much gets ignored, especially across social media (yikes).

But why?

Well, my working theory is that the most effective B2B content marketing teams blend edutainment strategies and theory into their deliverables.

And if done correctly, edutainment content in B2B SaaS can:

• Enhance audience learning and engagement

• Heighten cognitive and emotional retention

• Build stronger trust and brand loyalty

• Provide pattern-disrupting differentiation

Let’s dive into it.

But first, who the heck am I? And why should you trust me?

Well, howdy amigos!

My name is Travis Tyler, AKA “The LinkedIn Rizzler” and I manage socials for Motion.

Ex. Travis’ Gen-Z Website Redesigns To Engage & Educate Marketers

I’ve spent the last 8+ years growing brand awareness for hyper growth B2B SaaS companies such to amass hundreds of thousands of followers for brands like PandaDoc, Chili Piper, Apollo, and others by tapping into the power of
“Edutainment Content Marketing Strategies” or just “edutainment” for short.

But what exactly is edutainment? And how’s it different from traditional marketing?

Cool bruh, but how do you define edutainment?

Edutainment is a portmanteau that combines the words "education" and "entertainment," (duh). It refers to content that is both informative and enjoyable. And it’s really a one-two punch formula.

1. 🥊JAB - Capture attention with scroll-stopping entertainment.

2. 👊🏼UPPERCUT - Then build deep comprehension with useful education.

This type of content uses the appeal of entertainment to maintain attention and combines it with the substance of informative content to add lasting value.

Armchair psych theories in their edutainment era

There’s a growing body of peer-reviewed research examining edutainment’s effectiveness in capturing attention and enhancing information retention. These four psychological concepts around education, motivation, and cognitive engagement really stood out to me as the most important for B2B SaaS marketers to master.

1. Cognitive Load Theory: Basically try your darndest to create content that does NOT overwhelm your audience. Most people’s short term memory can handle 5-9 items at a time. And because cognitive load is inversely correlated to task completion – the less we ask of our audience, the more likely they are to process, retain, and recall learned info.

Source: covnertcart.com

Here are examples of both to help demonstrate the differences.

1. Content Example - Low Cognitive Load - Gen Z Website Redesign Video

2. Content Example with High Cognitive Load - PandaDoc’s Proposals Guide
   

2. Dual Coding Theory: So the idea here is to provide two different representations of your content, both visually and verbally, to help your audience understand the information better. Most people can retain information better when information is presented in both formats simultaneously. The most effective edutainment marketers will maximize learning through this dual-channel processing of showing and telling.

Source: researchgate.net

1. Content Example - Motion’s AI Ad Creation Video

3. Constructivism: This learning theory suggests that audience members construct knowledge through experiences rather than just absorbing information passively. Makes sense right? Great edutainment content invites audience members to engage through interactive and immersive experiences. Marketers should look for ways to allow the audience to explore and discover new knowledge actively. Instead of just having speakers talk at them. Make it a back and forth discussion. Webinars and Live Streams are a GOLDMINE opportunity to do this.

Source: instructionalcoaches.com

1. Content Example - Motion’s Ads Teardown Live

4. Self-Determination Theory (SDT): This theory relates to human motivation and personality, and it looks at feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Edutainment marketers can tap into SDT by providing content that makes learners feel competent in their skills, autonomous in their learning process, and connected to the community or culture portrayed in the content. I think the folks over at Webflow do this the absolute best through humorous guided walkthroughs in their Webflow 101 playlist. Upon watching their videos, viewers are instructed to work alongside the instructors and pause the video when needed.

   1. Content Example - Webflow’s 101 YouTube Videos

Traditional content vs. edutainment content: what’s the diff?

If you want to elevate your traditional content and make it
edutaining – here is a checklist of what to build into it.

1. Lowered cognitive load expectation
   

2. Present it verbally (w/audio)

3. Present it visually (w/images)

4. Make it interactive

5. Make it immersive

6. Enable users to feel a sense of competency

7. Enable users to feel a sense of autonomy

8. Enable users to feel a sense of relatedness

How to HEIGHTEN your content ideas with edutainment formats

Chances are pretty good that your company has created at least a few pieces of content that have performed well at some point. Which is a great place to start.

You don’t have to come up with huge ideas from scratch. Just double down on the most valuable pieces in your arsenal and elevate them with heightened formats that are more dynamic, intense, and interesting. To show you what I mean, here are 10 pieces of traditional content and their “heightened” application.

Traditional Format	“Heightened” Edutaining Format
Downloadable whitepaper .pdf	Interactive e-book that includes clickable charts and videos integrated with live data. This could involve real-time anonymous customer data that updates automatically, making the e-book a continuously relevant resource
Case study page	Customer mini-documentary where viewers can choose which aspects of the story they want to explore through different paths on the page. They can focus on more technical challenges or client feedback that creates a truly personalized viewing experience depending on what they click.
Blog post	Crowd-sourced, ever-evolving story. A post where readers’ choices influence the direction and outcome of the content. As the reader progresses they are presented with polls at the end on what they’d like the next section to be written about. They get emailed when the next section is unveiled and live on the page.
Onboarding videos	Gamified tutorials with real-world rewards. Take your onboarding content and gamify it so users get actual prizes like an annual discount, mailed out swag, and bragging rights on public leaderboard.
Webinar	Virtual escape “zoom-room.” Participants work together in breakout rooms where professional actors lead exciting mystery puzzles complete with riddles, tasks, secret websites, fake social media accounts and require teamwork to win. Turn your training into a virtual escape room.
Press release	Record a ridiculous news spoof. Then record yourself watching the news spoof and reacting to it. The news anchor seemingly responds to the questions and responses of the viewer and turns a boring announcement into a hilarious viral video.
Podcast interview	NPR-style editorial as a limited series. Take your microphones on the road to interview your guests in-person and record the sound effects, background noise, and tell a compelling story like you’d hear on Serial or This American Life.
Product demo	Personalized emails based on survey responses. Require a segment of highly-engaged users to complete a brief survey. Pull in dynamic data synced from your database that populates based on their responses.
Infographic	Augmented reality images accompanied by a chatbot. Give users a way to view AR demonstrations of the infographic simply by pointing their smartphone cameras at images in the infographic. Have an interactive chatbot pulled up alongside the infographic that allows users to ask questions and engage with the content and trigger related videos.

Obviously these are pretty ambitious ideas. But they serve as a demonstration at the possibility to really deliver your content in formats never seen before.

Imagine that!?

Creating content that is as informative as it is enjoyable. But once you’ve created it, how do you know if it’s working? Do you measure it differently than traditional content?

Marketing dorks measuring the success of an edutainment strategy

Measuring the success of edutainment content is really no different from measuring traditional marketing content. The only difference is making it your job to measure, observe trends, and tell stories based on data from TWO distinct areas: quantitative and qualitative measurements.

There is no single metric here that tells a whole story.

The best content marketers look at monthly and quarterly trends in these areas to paint a picture of what’s gaining traction and what’s not working.

By weaving together these measurements you can double down and iterate where you see signs of early success. Then rinse and repeat.

If you’re unsure of what to report on and how to compare your traditional content to here’s a list of what I typically look at and report on with my team.

Quantitative Edutainment Content Measures

Qualitative Edutainment Content Measures

Social Engagement Metrics: Followers Impressions Likes Shares View duration Viewer sentiment scores Website Engagement Metrics Website traffic (unique visitors) Self-reported attribution reports Page views Traffic sources Avg. engagement time Conversions Conversion rate Avg. time on page Bounce rate New contacts/subscribers/conversions User stickiness Search Engagement Metrics Top queries/search volume Clicks Impressions Competition Rankings/Positioning

Social Qualitative Engagement: Comment sentiment DM sentiment Share sentiment Website Qualitative Engagement Self-reported attribution sentiment Additional Qualitative Engagement Customer onboarding call sentiment Product/service review sentiment Customer recording mentions

Conclusion

Edutainment marketing strategy isn’t just a trend; it’s a historically rich and scientifically supported marketing approach that can elevate your brand's content strategy, making it more engaging and memorable.

By merging education with entertainment, companies can capture the elusive attention of their audience and hold onto it, turning viewers into loyal customers and brand advocates.

Or in the words of my Gen-Z brethren:

Whoever TF said your b2b saas marketing had to be mid was cooked AF.

Because you mix up learning with the fun stuff, NPCs just stick around and vibe with your brand, becoming all loyal and hyped. It’s like, bam, you’re not just watching—you’re gassed up and part of the squad my babies.

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P.S.

If you’re a nerd like me and interested in the latest peer-reviewed research on edutainment and how it enhances learning, engagement, information processing, and retention, – do a quick search on Google Scholar, JSTOR, or specific journal websites like “The Journal of Educational Psychology, Computers & Education, The Journal of Educational Research, and European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction.