According to the Content Marketing Institute, 58% of B2B marketers say their content marketing strategy is only moderately effective, and 12% say it’s not very effective at all. Some of their top challenges? Creating content that prompts a desired action, differentiating content, and creating the right content for their audience. This is especially true for SaaS marketers, who have to contend with a crowded, oversaturated marketplace and niche audiences.
A successful SaaS content marketing strategy should help you stand out, build credibility, generate high-quality leads, and drive conversions throughout the B2B buyer journey. But this goes beyond posting a few blogs on your website and hoping for the best.
Is your content attracting prospects with high purchase intent? Do you have the right content types to address audiences’ concerns throughout the B2B buyer journey? Are you tracking the right KPIs to inform targeted improvements? Here's what you need to know to build a standout SaaS content strategy.
The B2B buyer journey is often complex and lengthy. Your content must keep prospects engaged at every customer lifecycle stage to accelerate the sales cycle — from awareness and consideration to decision and advocacy.
Put yourself in your customers' shoes and consider the information they need to move to the next stage in the B2B buyer journey. Besides building brand recognition and generating leads, a SaaS content marketing strategy must drive actions like free trial sign-ups and upgrading to paid plans.
To progress the audience down the purchasing path, include a clear and compelling call to action (CTA) in each piece of content. It should be related to the information and relevant to leads in the corresponding customer lifecycle stage (e.g., request a demo for prospects in the consideration stage). You can also include cross-links between related pieces of content — this is a useful way to guide customers through the funnel from one stage to the next.
Like any marketing strategy, identifying goals and tracking meaningful metrics are key to B2B SaaS content strategy success. You can see what works and what doesn’t for your specific audience and evolve your content to meet customer expectations.
To gain granular insights, define objectives and content marketing KPIs for each stage of the B2B buyer journey. For example, use traffic and click-based goals for top-of-funnel content, engagement and lead generation KPIs for mid-funnel activities, and sales metrics for bottom-of-the-funnel pieces.
Monitor and analyze your content marketing KPIs with tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Semrush. Test different content formats, channels, and messaging approaches to see how they impact success metrics and use resulting insights to adjust your SaaS content marketing strategy.
B2B customers often seek content to help them stay current with the latest industry news, do their jobs better, and advance their careers. Content marketing for SaaS companies should focus on sharing information that solves your audience's challenges, answers their burning questions, and helps them achieve results.
According to Conductor research, customers were 131% more likely to buy from a brand after reading a piece of educational content by that brand. Educational content also tends to drive more organic traffic than PR-focused pieces (e.g., company news or product launches.) It can help you build credibility and establish your brand's authority to foster trust with audiences and stay top of mind.
A good B2B SaaS content strategy focuses on sharing practical solutions to your target audiences’ challenges. Use real-life examples and write in simple, jargon-free language. Also, make the content concrete with step-by-step instructions and visual aids, like screenshots and diagrams.
As search engine algorithms become more sophisticated and evolve with more advanced AI techniques, keywords aren't the be-all-end-all in a successful SEO strategy. Your SaaS content marketing efforts must consider why a user enters a specific search term into a search engine — i.e., the search intent.
Understanding search intent behind a keyword helps you create content that will provide the most relevant information for the intended audience. You’ll have a higher chance of ranking for the target search term, and the content will be more likely to convert qualified prospects.
Target long-tail keywords or phrases prospects use when looking for your solution. If your company is relatively new, consider incorporating names of established rivals in target keywords (e.g., "alternatives" or "vs." in a comparison post) since they're more likely to be used by searchers with high purchase intent. However, avoid linking out to competitors' URLs so you don’t boost their online visibility.
Many SaaS companies make the mistake of focusing on audiences in the awareness and consideration stages but ignoring their existing customers. Yet, the longer a paying customer stays subscribed, the more profitable the relationship. Therefore, customer loyalty, advocacy, and retention should be part of your SaaS content marketing objectives.
To delight users, offer customer-only, high-value content, such as a resource library, how-to trainings, webinars on the latest industry best practices, and in-person events for VIP customers.
For example, by sharing in-depth training on how users can utilize your solution to follow the newest industry standards and strategies, you may encourage adoption and help customers maximize their ROI, which will make them more likely to keep using your software. This is an effective way to leverage content marketing for SaaS products and keep users engaged over the long term.
Creating quality content is essential, but you must also ensure it reaches the right people. Successful SaaS content marketers follow the 80/20 rule: Spend 20% of your time creating content and 80% promoting it. A well-designed content promotion strategy helps you distribute your content and reach the right people at the right time to achieve your objectives.
Your SaaS content marketing strategy should include syndication and promotional tactics, such as sharing content via email blasts, sharing pieces through social media posts, and working with influencers to build backlinks and drive traffic to your website. You may also repurpose content for webinars, conferences, videos, podcasts, and more to increase your reach.
Establish a content publishing calendar, identify channels through which your audience seeks information, and research solutions to guide your promotional efforts. Also, publish thought leadership content in trusted industry publications to build credibility.
SaaS content marketing involves more than just hitting the publish button and crossing your fingers. To effectively handle the many moving pieces, you need access to expertise in multiple areas, such as customer journey mapping, keyword research, SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and more.
Partnering with a SaaS content marketing agency gives you expert counsel that can help build traction for your brand. Let's talk and see how we can help you design and implement a SaaS marketing strategy that works for your business.
