105 • How to turn your subject matter experts into a lead-generating content machine

by Ryan James, Founder of Rocket SaaS

& Sam Gocher, Head of Content

The SaaS Marketing Weekly Podcast

In this episode, Ryan sits down with Sam Gocher, Head of Content at Rocket SaaS, to talk about subject matter experts, or SMEs, and how to turn the experts already sitting inside your business into a content engine. Most of your competitors are pumping out generic AI slop that nobody engages with. The advantage goes to the brands whose real experts show up and share genuine thought leadership. Sam breaks down who your SMEs should be, how to actually get busy senior people into a posting rhythm, what to do when they go quiet, and exactly what they should be posting about. If your content relies entirely on the founder, this episode shows you how to widen it out.

Takeaways:

Your subject matter experts are already in the business: the founder, head of sales, head of product, senior marketers and any real expert with useful knowledge in their head
An SME does not need to be charismatic or great on camera. They just need genuine expertise. Your job is to extract it and turn it into content
A recurring project management task (Rocket SaaS uses Asana) plus a clear SOP is how you turn good intentions into a consistent posting rhythm
Busy senior people have two or three minutes a day, so give them everything: the topic, the transcript, the templates, the examples. Lead the horse to water
Ghost writing tends to strip out authenticity, so it is usually better to enable people to write in their own voice than to write for them
If free methods fail, incentives can work: paying per post, or running a competition for the most engaged post that month
Sell it to your team on career growth, not just company benefit. A strong LinkedIn presence is one of the best things anyone can build for themselves
Follow the 80/20 rule: 80% helpful, educational, top-of-funnel content and only 20% bottom-of-funnel promotion