“Customers won’t care about any particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way.”
Peter Thiel
The way humanity gets things done has changed over the years. The modern world is interestingly becoming more driven by technology with each passing day. Today, many business activities are accomplished with the help of technology. Among the tech solutions that are smoothening business operations is internet accessibility. Additionally, SaaS applications, and technologies like AI, VR, AR, and Metaverse.
In this piece of content, we would like to look at SaaS content marketing, a type of cloud technology that is becoming an everyday use for businesses and enterprises across industries. We’ll also offer an ultimate guide for content marketing for SaaS businesses. However, let’s begin by clarifying a few things.
SaaS Applications/Solutions
Many people and businesses use SaaS applications unknowingly. SaaS applications, precisely, are web-based software accessed with the help of the internet. Users don’t need to download the software or worry about upgrades.
Businesses don’t need to set aside huge amounts of storage space to download, use, and maintain a SaaS application. Almost everything is taken care of by the SaaS service provider. SaaS applications are becoming a remarkable option for small, medium, and large businesses because they are accessed anywhere and at any time. Moreover, they are affordable.
The latest statistics show that the SaaS market will be valued at 195 billion U.S. dollars by 2023 as more businesses are expected to take on these cloud solutions. They don’t need to be maintained by a business which reduces operational costs, saves workforce time, and creates room for scalability. This means that any SaaS business has a higher chance of succeeding within its area of specialization.
Findings by Forbes also indicate that Zoom persisted as the fastest-growing SaaS business between 2020 and 2021. Yet SaaS companies like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Shopify are also enjoying tremendous growth because of the increasing need for digital transformation and automation. So, do you run a SaaS business and want to upgrade your content marketing strategy?
An Ultimate Guide for Content Marketing for SaaS Businesses
There is a range of factors to consider when developing and running a content marketing strategy for a SaaS business. Content marketing when done right can offer a competitive edge to a SaaS business and sustain its brand in the marketplace.
So, if you’re a SaaS business, there are a number of things you shouldn’t ignore. Your content marketing strategy must parade the problem that makes your SaaS application a perfect solution. Therefore, you must create and distribute content strategically in order to attain the goals you need.
Currently, there are many forms of content marketing strategies that SaaS companies can leverage and these include ads, blog posts, videos, and third-party websites. But before you utilize all these mediums of content marketing, here is what to do;
Define your Content Marketing Goals
What do you want to achieve with your content marketing campaign? Is it leads, brand awareness, conversions, ROI, or subscribers? Or you want to remain ahead of the competition! Marketing goals must be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound).
Every SaaS business is unique and certainly, you will have distinctive marketing goals for your content marketing strategy. So, avoid setting vague goals that may hinder the success of your SaaS marketing strategy.
Whichever your target may be, defining your marketing goals clearly will allow you to create content that caters to the 7Cs of communication. More so, you will be able to create content that optimizes your marketing efforts.
Also, with your SaaS content marketing, you must know that you are promoting both the product and the service. You must create content that cultivates brand awareness and authority.
Define Your Target Audience
Knowing and understanding your audience’s needs is very crucial in the SaaS sector. Unlike other types of customers, we are looking at businesses and enterprises in this case. These aren’t any other type of user that can easily stop buying a product and switch to another.
Business owners and managers are very cautious when opting for solutions. That’s because any mistake can lead to resource wastage, downtime, and compromised security. Such hugely cost businesses.
With that, it’s important to understand your target audience and their needs. If you want to attain better insights into your target audience, then consider the following;
Research: Research provides room for a systematic investigation of the type of audience you are targeting. Also, the existing gaps that your solutions can patch, user expectations, product affordability, and competitors. This will help you set smart goals and understand your campaign needs.
Tools: There are many tools that can offer insights about your target audience. Tools like Moz, SalesForce, HubSpot, Google Analytics, and Search Console can provide you with quality information. These will help you understand the type of marketing you need to use.
For example, whether to consider webinars for educational purposes, interviews to identify problems, or to invest in CRM tools for relationship management.
Additionally, your content marketer team will have to collaborate with other teams. Such as sales, customer relationships management, and support teams to understand your target audience better.
Define Metrics
What will show that your content marketing strategy is on the right track? The best way to know whether your SaaS marketing strategy is working is to set and track metrics.
There is a range of metrics, also known as key performance indicators that a SaaS business can set to observe the performance of a content marketing strategy. Depending on your goals, there are a few metrics that can indicate a working SaaS content marketing strategy.
These include demo requests, free trial registrations, reviews, leads, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and lead conversion rate (LCR). Such metrics will make it easy to drive your content marketing strategy or implement changes where necessary.
Create Good Content
Any effective content marketing strategy is influenced by good content. It doesn’t matter how popular a social platform you use is, your content quality is key to attaining the best conversions. When creating your SaaS marketing content, here are a few things to consider;
First and foremost, create compelling content. Text-based content must be appealing to foster the hype you want in the target audience. Precisely, it must be easy to understand, relevant, and written with expertise.
You can leverage the storytelling approach to make your content more effective. For example, you can define the problem, offer a solution, and the long-term benefits. Something like this; are you tired of wasting a lot of time during assigning tasks?
Or, do you want to track employee productivity? Our Ultra SaaS application is the answer. It will help you assign tasks timely and track employee performance effectively. This type of content can create enthusiasm in a target audience and push them to take immediate action. For example, register, subscribe, or create an account with your SaaS business.
Additionally, use quality imagery, videos, and infographics to educate your audience about your SaaS product. These will clearly depict your offerings and eliminate confusion among your customers and prospects.
Another way to enhance the effectiveness of your SaaS content marketing strategy is to follow a marketing funnel. A content marketing funnel is simply a medium of visualizing and creating content as per the different stages of a customer lifecycle.
A content marketing funnel can include the awareness phase, interest, and conversion among others. It generally helps marketers to create more targeted content for each level of the funnel. Currently, about 87% of marketers create focused content using a funnel.
Distribute Content Carefully
Whether you’re publishing content on your website, a third-party site, or on social media, it is important to be strategic with your SaaS distribution efforts. Above all, you must evaluate your preferred outlets.
There are different ways to attain publicity as a SaaS company. It can be through an official website, partnerships, email, social media, influencer outreach, or PPC. Leveraging a range of social channels can help you reach more audiences.
However, you must prioritize platforms as per their efficacy. Online platforms are a great way to distribute and promote your content. To enhance your efforts, you can use a marketing automation tool.
An automation tool will allow you to schedule content better and respond to clients timely. It can also help with personalization which enhances the efficacy of a marketing campaign and its ROI.
Also, promote content. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are ideal avenues for pushing your SaaS content reach. Besides that, you can utilize social media analytics to collect and understand data about your campaign.
Monitor & Manage your Campaign
It’s important to track the results of your SaaS content marketing strategy. Otherwise, how will you know that your efforts are paying off? Tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, and other online software can help you measure your goals.
Key metrics such as website traffic, number of new visitors, impressions, social media shares, and brand mentions among others can indicate the performance of your content strategy. You can then evaluate your SaaS strategy for continuation or modification.
Don’t Ignore Quality SEO Practices
Consider investing your time in search engine optimization if you want to build your brand personality. With the fact that your SaaS company is surrounded by competition, it is important not to ignore SEO.
Quality SEO practices like keyword research, content optimization, competitor research, site speed, and internal linking can improve a Saas content marketing strategy. These will help you run a winning SaaS content marketing campaign.