hen you have an online business, content marketing should already be a part of your plan--this includes things such as writing for your website, creating landing pages, and posting updates to social media.
Formulating a content strategy composed of ideation, creation, distribution, and measurement is essential to being successful in the SaaS content marketing field. Your goals need to be specific and data-driven in order for your investment into content pays off.
By reaching and connecting with your target audience, you can create a more significant presence for your brand. This includes credibility and awareness that will generate organic traffic, qualified leads, and conversions.
SaaS content marketing is a long-term strategy focused on attracting, converting, and holding onto customers by consistently creating valuable, one-of-a-kind content. Content marketing for SaaS products is not only an opportunity for users to learn about what you have to offer, but also a chance for them to connect with your brand on a deeper level. By engaging with your content, they will get to know who you are, what you stand for, and how you can help them solve their specific problems.
Importance of SaaS Content Marketing
Most SaaS companies use content marketing to establish themselves as experts in their field and offer helpful, informative resources to their audiences. Why should we rely solely on the old-school cold selling approach?
If you want your company to grow, content marketing is a must—this is especially true for brands dealing in SaaS products. According to statistics:
- SaaS companies using content marketing have noted 30% higher growth rates and 5-10% better retention rates.
- It has shown that content marketing can lead to an ROI of up to 647%.
- SaaS brands that blog generate 36% more leads than those who don't.
- 48% of B2B SaaS buyers engage with multiple pieces of content before reaching out to sales.
The SaaS and tech industries are always advancing, and their audiences are always willing to learn new information and skills to keep up. For some people, the content produced by SaaS companies is their only source of information and knowledge.
So, if you want to expand your customer base, produce content that helps them upgrade their skills. Not only will this establish your brand as a thought leader, but it will also provide a sustainable revenue stream.
In simpler terms, having effective content marketing for your SaaS business will make it clear to the customer that your subscription-based SaaS product is the better choice when they are ready to invest in a cloud-based tool.
Why Should SaaS Businesses Invest in Content Marketing?
If you want your SaaS company to succeed, then you need a marketing strategy that will strengthen the relationship between potential and current customers. Content showing what your service can do, as well as blog posts, videos, etc. Helping existing customers get more out of their investment are all excellent methods for maintaining customer loyalty and referrals.
Also, if your SaaS company isn't already an industry leader, you need to let your potential customers know that you have a service that can help them. Content marketing is one way to do this; Neil Patel used it to grow his SEO software service into a business powerhouse. He did this by providing useful information on his blog and newsletter. You can also to this to your SaaS company.
Content marketing is an affordable and effective way for small-to-medium sized SaaS companies to drive sales. According to DemandMetric, it costs 62 percent less and produces three times more leads than advertising and other marketing strategies.
Informative content can help show prospects how your service can improve their business or lives. SaaS services that provide content highlighting their advantages are more likely to be chosen over competitors.
For B2B marketers, content marketing is a favorite technique in 2022. According to a CMI report, this year 46% of B2B users are increasing their content marketing budget.
Content marketing has helped many SaaS brands that were once startups to become globally successful. For example, HubSpot and SEO software provider Moz have benefited tremendously from content marketing campaigns.
To stay ahead of the competition, even established companies need to utilize content marketing. For example, IBM still produces a large volume of content today and has managed to remain relevant despite being an older company. This is due in part to their employee-generated content rather than relying solely on their marketing department.
7 Tips to Work-out your SaaS Content Marketing
Think about this: without a content marketing strategy, you'll have more difficulty fulfilling consumer expectations. Quality content published on a regular basis is now necessary to compete with other brands (and their blogs) for the #1 spot on Google. It may seem like an insurmountable task, but we're here to help you. Here are seven tips to work-out your SaaS content marketing:
- Build your Content Strategy Foundation
- Know your audience
- Be an expert
- Strengthen thought leadership
- Build authority
- Create an effective Marketing Content funnel
- Focus on Quality over Quantity
Let’s discuss these tips into detail..
Build your Content Strategy Foundation
You can't just start creating content without a solid plan in place. Make sure you have all the right tools and processes ready to go before you begin.
- Make sure your product and brand have a strong story.
Unlike other categories, SaaS products are more intricate and challenging, needing a profound comprehension of the value proposition and messaging you want to give your audience. You're more likely to see results if you have a solid business and product strategy in place before creating content.
To craft a winning marketing strategy, you'll need to consider:
- Who your target audience is and how to segment them
- What makes your company unique and what core value it offers customers
- How you position yourself in the marketplace and tell your brand story
- Set your Content Marketing goals
Set your content marketing goals by being specific in what you want to achieve. Doing this will allow you to measure your progress and have achievable expectations.
There are two types of goals you should consider when setting up your content marketing strategy:
1. The bigger picture-- for example, how much revenue or the number of Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) that your content will generate this year.
2. Metrics specific to each individual piece of content you produce. This will help you better understand complex SaaS products and their performances.
Know your audience
Getting to know your audience is critical in formulating any content marketing strategy. It allows you visibility into your reader’s needs, goals, challenges, questions, and doubts.
Furthermore, analyzing customers in the Software-as-a-Service industry is even more challenging than other sectors, particularly when it comes to business-to-business software. This is due to the fact that usually several steps and people are involved in the purchasing process of SaaS products , from those who make decisions to users and supports.
Consequently, it is essential that you comprehend who will engage with your content and when, as well as how to construct an effective conversion systematically.
Be an expert
If you want to create successful content that will engage your audience and build trust, then you need to be an expert in your field.
Since many SaaS products focus on difficult sectors such as fintech, healthtech, or legaltech, this often means that content marketers working in these companies have to start learning from scratch.
However, it is still key to understanding your customers’ day-to-day goals and challenges.
There are a few ways you can become more acquainted with your industry:
1. Go through customer research and sales processes.
2. Subscribe to the newsletters of well-known niche publications and check their daily or weekly digests.
3. Nurture relationships with your internal subject matter experts, learn from them, and involve them in content creation
4. Having regular communication with experts in your field is key for any SaaS content marketer. These people can provide you with some of the best ideas and help generate new content.
5. Google Alerts are a quick and easy way to stay up-to-date on the latest news in your industry.
6. Use a topic research tool to stay updated on current trends.
Strengthen thought leadership
If you want to build a strong SaaS brand, focus on creating thought-leadership strategies that center around the following:
- You must first identify your key area of expertise. Once you have done that, you can focus on becoming an expert in that area. For example, if you work in the ad tech industry, you could focus on finding innovative ways to optimize ad performance.
- Promote your brand story by staying true to the values and beliefs you want to be known for. For example, show that digital advertising can be effective while still respecting personal data privacy.
- In your company, take note of individuals who are seen as thought leaders and experts on certain topics. For example, product owners and performance marketing managers in an adtech company.
It's never too early or late to start writing thought-leadership content, which comes in all shapes and forms.
Build authority
In order for your SaaS content to be successful, you need what is called topical authority. This means that your content does best when it focuses on areas that you are an expert in.
By focusing on a few key topics, you can then more easily further your research and find the most appropriate sets of keywords. Thus, when you start content planning, first look at those topics and then pick out relevant keywords.
In other words, research the various questions and subtopics that fall under your SaaS niche to gain a deeper understanding. Furthermore, most topics come with several semantically related keywords you can target.
Create an effective Marketing Content funnel
SaaS products are usually in a high-consideration group, especially for B2B companies. This means that there are many people involved in the decision-making process before winning a customer.
With this, it is key that content must be created to satisfy customer needs at all stages of the journey in order to seal the deal.
To generate leads, create content that covers each stage of the funnel. The standard funnel is shaped like an inverted pyramid and consists of stages including Awareness, Interest, Consideration, and Conversion.
The potential customer is aware that they have a problem, but are not sure of the available solutions.
In the 'Interest' stage, a customer starts to become aware of their problem and begins looking for possible solutions online. They will read about various options and start following brands that seem promising. By this point, they should have a good idea of what kind of product or service they need.
At this point in the content funnel, the potential customer is aware of what type of solution they need, but not necessarily which brand. They might watch webinars, download guides, read reviews, or sign up for your mailing list to learn more.
Your customers are looking for information that will help them make their final decision, including details on your deals, pricing, and specific use cases.
Focus on Quality over Quantity
Content is the most important element when it comes to organic traffic.
Creating high-quality, optimized content requires that your content does a number of things:
- The content should ideally be both useful and original while still being relevant to the reader.
- Make sure your content is genuine. You will always produce better content when you write about what you know.
- Your content should answer every possible question someone could have on the main topic. By doing this, you create a comprehensive piece that covers all bases.
In conclusion, a great user experience is key. For example, all written content should be tailored to the level of understanding of the audience and incorporate visuals. In addition, sentences should be shorter and easy-to-read to help users scan through the information quickly.
Conclusion
SaaS content marketing should focus on your potential customers and not just be a platform to advertise your product. Your goal shouldn't only be about making a sale, but rather building a lasting relationship with those who might buy from you.
Keep in mind that this takes time and effort; there is no such thing as an overnight success story when it comes to developing customer relationships. Your hard work won't go to waste when you see an uptick in organic traffic--this is one way of knowing that your content marketing is working.
However, don't expect your newly published blog post to jump straight to the first page of Google overnight. It can take anywhere from three months to over a year before you start seeing results.
The goal of SaaS content marketing is to attract a relevant audience and produce content that appeals to them. When you create content for a specific audience, you are more likely to see positive results from your efforts.
Only produce content that interests and appeals to your target audience—for example, entrepreneurs if you have an enterprise management software product. Straying from this type of content is a recipe for failure. If you're unclear about who qualifies as the "right" customer in your business, generate a customer avatar for greater clarity.
If you want to see success with content marketing, you can't treat it as a one-time event. You need to be continuously creating quality content if you ever want to see any ROI. It might take some time for your previously posted content to start paying off, but that doesn't mean you should stop posting new stuff in the meantime.
Consistency is key in content marketing, especially if you're just starting your business. This might mean staying on schedule with your weekly or bi-weekly blog posts, even if it means hiring someone to write for you.
Get in touch to learn more about how our expert content team can help make your content shine.
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