The Ultimate Guide To SaaS Content Marketing: Boost Your Strategy And Drive Success

Did you know content marketing yields significantly more leads than traditional outbound marketing?

It's no wonder SaaS companies are flocking to embrace this game-changing strategy.

But here's the thing: 

Different content marketing strategies work for different audiences.  

So, what works for the SaaS industry?

This in-depth guide will provide you with the best content marketing tactics in the competitive SaaS sector.

From crafting irresistible blog posts that drive organic traffic to creating captivating videos that go viral, we've got you covered.

Let's make your SaaS dreams come true!

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What is SaaS Content Marketing?

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as a strategic strategy that emphasizes creating and disseminating informative content to engage and retain a specific target audience and lead to profitable customer actions.

The primary objectives of IT/SaaS companies in content marketing are establishing brand awareness, generating leads, and increasing website traffic, ranking them as the top three goals.

However, the definition undergoes modifications when considering SaaS businesses.

SaaS content marketing, or B2B SaaS marketing, creates and distributes rich and informative content to attract, engage, and convert potential clients for SaaS enterprises.

High-quality content marketing will likely generate an ROI of 448% or higher for SaaS brands.

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Unique Features of SaaS Content Marketing

Content marketing in the context of SaaS can be intricate due to several factors:

• SaaS services require significant customer commitment, making it crucial to establish a strong reputation and build trust with the target audience.
• B2B (business-to-business) transactions in the SaaS industry often involve multiple decision-makers and influencers, leading to more complex sales cycles that take longer.
• SaaS solutions are typically delivered through digital platforms, which may involve intricate technology. This complexity can be incredibly challenging when the SaaS offering is innovative or unprecedented, requiring additional effort to ensure adequate understanding and adoption.

With this in mind, you should treat your SaaS content strategy more like a marathon, not a sprint, expecting it to take time to show results.

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Why is content marketing a must-have for SaaS Companies?

Content marketing propels your brand's online presence to new heights. It establishes your authority, engages your audience, and drives valuable conversions, making it an essential strategy for long-term success in the digital landscape.

Let's examine a few key reasons for incorporating content marketing into your strategy:

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Every company, including those offering SaaS products, requires content marketing to achieve organic growth. This is particularly true in the unique SaaS and tech sectors.

The audience in these sectors is constantly seeking knowledge and professional development opportunities.

In fact, for many individuals, SaaS companies' content is their primary source of information and insights.

Consequently, creating content that aids users in developing their skills is essential for creating a devoted community, positioning your company as an authority, and bringing in a steady flow of income.

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Types of Content to Use in Your SaaS Content Marketing Strategy

As a SaaS business, you have various options when it comes to content formats. Let's briefly discuss three commonly used types by SaaS businesses.

Blog Posts

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Blogging is crucial for SaaS businesses as a content marketing tool. Various formats are available based on your specific content marketing objectives. B2B marketers who maintain blogs experience a 67% increase in lead generation.

Some popular blog formats include how-to guides, comparison posts, and more.

Videos 

Videos are highly impactful content marketing tools, enabling SaaS businesses to communicate valuable information to their audience effectively.

Videos can serve multiple purposes and offer versatility in their usage. In addition to being published on blogs, content can be repurposed and adapted for distribution across social media platforms and other formats.

E-books

E-books are valuable resources for SaaS businesses to share industry reports and other comprehensive information with consumers. They are particularly effective as lead magnets, incentivizing consumers to subscribe and join your mailing list.

By offering e-books, SaaS businesses can provide valuable content, attract and engage potential customers, and ultimately build a strong subscriber base.

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13 Tips for Creating Effective SaaS Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing can be challenging. However, with the right approach, you can conquer it successfully.

Our SaaS experts have tried and tested the following best practices for enhancing SaaS content marketing, which has proven effective for numerous successful B2B SaaS companies worldwide.

Overhaul Your Blog

The traditional blog concept has evolved, and now it's time to embrace a new approach, like creating a SaaS brand magazine. This approach allows your thought leadership content to thrive, positioning your brand as an industry leader and providing entertaining content for your target audience. 

Capturing SEO-driven demand relies heavily on establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Create content hubs for each identified topic based on keyword research, focusing on becoming a leader in those areas. 

Utilize Your Unique Data

The key to successful content marketing and a strong content strategy lies in elusive secrets and unique execution.

The content marketing community is known for being open and sharing successful methods, playbooks, and strategies. However, what truly matters is how you distinctively execute those strategies.

One powerful approach is to involve your customers in the content creation process. Crafting content that addresses and resolves audience pain points is crucial.

56% of individuals have been utilizing technology to gain insights into their audience's behavior and preferences.

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Many companies prioritize generic SEO content marketing targeting high-volume search queries, which is beneficial. However, investing time in creating niche content pieces that provide specific value to your customers is equally important.

Consider developing content such as company leadership reports, hosting statistics, and engaging articles that captivate readers rather than solely focusing on generic articles designed to target keyword research.

Striking the right balance is crucial. Use quantitative and qualitative user data to craft valuable, unique educational content.

By integrating these insights, you can create content that profoundly connects with your intended audience and sets you apart from competitors, making it a vital aspect of SaaS market research.

Creating A System Around OKRs

OKRs stand for objective and key results. 

OKR is a goal-setting system that many successful companies utilize. It involves setting a clear business objective and defining the key results needed to achieve it.

Let's consider an example from ReachUs for a quarterly content marketing OKR:

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The "objective" represents the desired outcome, while the "key results" are the specific actions or inputs required to reach the objective.

How do we determine that these inputs will lead to 500 sign-ups? 

The number is arbitrary in this case, but the process involves attribution analysis.

Creating clear OKRs can be challenging when starting. Substantial data is required to inform goal setting.

In the example of ReachUs (remember, this is a fictional scenario), we observe that we drove 400 sign-ups from SEO in the last quarter.

This indicates the need to double down on SaaS SEO efforts. 

For this quarter, we set a goal of 500 sign-ups, a 25% increase from the previous quarter, based on the informed assumption that our inputs would help achieve the goal.

OKRs serve as guardrails to maintain focus throughout the quarter and remind us of the underlying purpose of our daily activities.

Developing effective OKRs requires the expertise of a skilled leader with years of experience.

While a content marketer may not determine the objective, they can assist the leader in identifying the inputs (key results) believed to contribute to reaching the objective.

OKRs are commonly known as "stretch goals" where the target is not necessarily to achieve or exceed 100% of the goal. In fact, hitting 70% is acceptable, 80% is considered good, and 90% is considered great.

If the OKR is unmet and falls below 70%, it may indicate an issue with setting the right objective or selecting the appropriate inputs.

Likewise, if the goal is significantly surpassed, it suggests a potential misalignment of the objective. This is why it takes time to refine and establish effective OKRs, involving trial and error and data analysis.

Prioritize Content Quality Over Quantity

According to a survey of respondents working in the IT field conducted by SemRush, the two primary factors contributing to success in content marketing are search engine optimization (SEO), mentioned by 56% of respondents, and improving the quality of content, mentioned by 55%.

The survey findings indicate that high-quality content is crucial to driving organic traffic, as 68% of respondents reported.

This highlights the significance of creating valuable and engaging content to attract and retain audiences, leading to increased organic traffic.

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To create high-quality and optimized content, it is important to consider the following factors:

1. Provide useful, practical, and original information: Your content should offer valuable insights and be relevant to the intent of your target audience. It should address their needs and provide practical solutions or information.

2. Be authentic: Leverage your expertise and knowledge to create content that showcases your unique perspective. Your own experience and insights will add authenticity and credibility to your content.

3. Ensure comprehensive coverage: Aim to cover all relevant aspects, questions, and subtopics related to your content's main theme or topic. This approach will make your content richer in information and more valuable to your audience.

4. Optimize user experience: Focus on delivering a great user experience with your content. Use clear and concise language, short sentences, and easy-to-scan headings. Incorporate visuals, such as images, graphs, or videos, to enhance your content's visual appeal and engagement.

You can utilize tools like the SEO Writing Assistant to enhance your content creation process and optimize for SEO. This tool provides instant feedback on your content's SEO, readability, tone of voice, and originality, helping you improve the overall reader experience on your blog.

It is also crucial to regularly assess your content's performance and identify improvement areas.

Content audits play a vital role in this process. According to research, around 65% of successful content marketing companies conduct content audits more than twice a year. 

These audits help you evaluate the effectiveness of your content, identify gaps or areas of improvement, and make data-informed decisions to enhance your SaaS content strategy.

Build An Effective Content Marketing Funnel

SaaS products, especially in B2B scenarios, require satisfying multiple decision-makers throughout the customer journey.

Creating content that meets customer needs at each touchpoint is crucial.

A well-structured content marketing funnel aligns with the SaaS sales pipeline, ensuring that potential customers receive the right information at each stage of their journey, from awareness to conversion.

According to statistics, 65% of marketers face challenges producing engaging content, while 60% struggle with consistently generating new content.

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One effective strategy is developing content for different funnel stages: awareness, interest, consideration, and conversion. In the uppermost section of the SaaS sales funnel, create content that generates awareness by providing informative and educational value.

As prospects progress, provide content that captures their interest and showcases your expertise.

Finally, offer content that helps customers evaluate your solution and make informed decisions.

Awareness 

When potential customers know the problem they need to solve but are uncertain about the available solutions, they are in the initial stage of their buyer's journey. 

For instance, let's consider a marketer wanting to enhance their in-house research capabilities and explore options online.

They might search for information on conducting online market research. They might find various helpful guides from different SaaS providers during their search.

Interest 

Once the potential customer is aware of the available solutions, they enter the stage of actively researching and evaluating their options.

They start reading about different solutions online and engaging with brands by following them and asking questions.

Consideration 

At this stage of the content funnel, the potential customer has identified the category of solution they require but is still exploring different brands within that category. They may participate in various activities, including attending webinars, accessing guides, perusing reviews, or subscribing to mailing lists to acquire further information.

For instance, Wistia, a video creation SaaS, has developed an impressive series called "Low Views, High Impact," demonstrating smart tactics.

In the consideration stage, Wistia aims to address a common objection: the perceived difficulty of creating viral videos.

The series effectively achieves this by sharing client success stories, humanizing the brand, and showcasing that video content can still be impactful and successful without reaching millions of views.

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In this stage of the content funnel, lead magnets such as case studies and e-books can play a significant role. These valuable content assets are typically offered behind an email capture form, requiring potential customers to provide their contact information.

Here is a tip: Gated content must offer substantial value. People are usually reluctant to share their personal details unless they are strongly interested in acquiring new knowledge or insights.

Maintaining trust and credibility with the audience requires delivering on the promises made by the content. Failure to meet expectations can lead to losing trust instead of building it.

Conversion 

At this stage of the content funnel, customers seek specific details about deals, pricing, and use cases that will assist them in making their final decision. 

An excellent example of providing such information is Zendesk, which effectively combines web copy, white papers, and case studies to showcase tangible results. This approach lets decision-makers comprehend how the service can apply to their needs before engaging in sales calls.

For instance, on Zendesk's homepage, a prominent white paper explores the return on investment (ROI) of using Zendesk, providing valuable insights to potential customers.

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Implementing email lead nurture flows can be incredibly impactful if you have developed a mailing list. It is crucial to provide valuable content to nurture your subscribers consistently.

While mentioning your product, offers, and referral programs in your emails is acceptable, it is essential to prioritize delivering substantial value to your audience without expecting immediate returns. 

By offering useful, practical, insightful, or refreshing content, you can engage your readers, maintain their subscriptions, and ensure their satisfaction with your emails.

ROI and Tracking

Metrics and attribution play critical roles when measuring growth from content marketing. Understanding how your content contributes to sign-ups is essential for determining which strategies to focus on.

The following statistics demonstrate the percentage of B2B marketers who measure content marketing return on investment.

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However, attribution can be challenging due to cookie laws, ad tracking changes, and untrackable word-of-mouth referrals.

It's important to leverage the tools available to us to overcome these challenges. Mixpanel and Amplitude are two recommended tools for tracking website content.

Both offer valuable insights, with Mixpanel being more user-friendly and Amplitude more technical and suitable for engineering-focused teams.

Tools like Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console are essential for tracking website visits and sources.

While GA and Search Console focus on website visitors, Mixpanel and Amplitude are in-product marketing analytics tools that provide better insights into user behavior.

Properly configuring event tracking in Mixpanel can help you determine which blog posts encourage the most sign-ups and where those sign-ups are coming from—through SEO or other social media platforms.

Setting up Mixpanel or Amplitude requires technical expertise, often involving larger startup engineers or growth product teams. It involves creating event triggers, writing code, conducting quality assurance, and ensuring accurate data flow and attribution.

Some important metrics to track include overall website visitors (using GA), website visitors from SEO (using Search Console and possibly Ahrefs for keyword rankings), sign-ups and paying subscribers from different pages (using Mixpanel or Amplitude), and newsletter subscribers (if applicable).

Tracking resource access and downloads through Mixpanel or Amplitude is also valuable.

While this overview clarifies what and how to track, setting up these tools is complex and beyond the scope of this response. It's worth exploring comprehensive resources or guides on this topic.

Implementing effective content marketing requires focusing on B2B SaaS metrics and attribution.

Using tools such as Search Console, Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Google Analytics (GA) can offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of your content strategy.

It is essential to understand that producing content demands specialized skills and consistent effort.

Allocate Your SaaS Content Marketing Efforts Equally

SaaS marketing teams often overlook the importance of content distribution compared to content creation.

Despite investing significant time and effort in creating exceptional articles, they often fail to promote them to reach their target audience. It's crucial to go beyond just creating content and instead focus on pushing it into the hands of potential customers.

Take cake baking as an example. You can not win the Great British Bake Off by combining the ingredients; you must also bake and serve the cake. 

Similarly, even if you create the best article in the world, it won't yield results if you don't invest time and effort into distributing and promoting it.

You can promote your content across channels such as social media, email marketing, outreach campaigns, or newsletters. Utilize the available resources and channels to maximize your content's reach and effectiveness.

Creating content that resonates with your specific channels to share your articles is important to enhance your distribution strategy.

For instance, if you aim to promote an article on SaaS content marketing on LinkedIn, you can transform a snippet into video content and share it as a post. This approach recognizes the higher likelihood of engagement and sharing of video content among LinkedIn users.

Tailoring your content to the likes and features of each channel can increase its impact and expand its audience.

Formulate an Effective Conversion Keyword Strategy

Many SaaS companies do not properly segment their keywords when developing their content strategy.

While they select keywords relevant to their target audience, they often fail to go beyond that and consider where these keywords fit within the customer journey and which ones align with buyer intent.

It is crucial to identify conversion keywords, as they are the ones that directly impact revenue, and they require unique content tailored specifically to them.

Collaborating closely with the PPC (Pay-Per-Click) team during keyword research to identify conversion keywords is beneficial.

By utilizing their insights, you can identify keywords directly related to the decision-making process and concentrate on intent-based keywords with a lower search volume but a higher potential for conversion.

For instance, prioritize keywords that indicate intent to take action instead of looking at keyword volume, such as converting to a free trial or subscribing to a paid plan.

By identifying such keywords and exploring related long-tail variations with even lower search volume but higher intent, you can make your content more competitive and relevant to potential customers.

Furthermore, infuse personality into the content you create. When crafting content to drive conversions, offer valuable insights into the potential benefits and experiences that await individuals who become customers.

Adopt an inclusive tone that showcases customer success stories and exemplifies the brand you aspire to be. By doing so, you connect with the reader, helping them envision the benefits and experiences they can expect as a customer. This approach fosters relationships and enables readers to envision a more fulfilling future with your product or service.

Provide a Compelling Incentive for Others to Refer to You

Focusing on getting links from trustworthy sources get serious dent on your content marketing efforts. The result? a significant improvement in your website's search engine rankings and generate natural traffic to your SaaS site.
First, aim to create content that stands out and offers value to your target audience. Whether through compelling branding, data-driven insights, captivating company imagery, or any other unique element, make your content worthy of being noticed and shared.

You will be more likely to get backlinks from other websites that think your content is valuable if you produce high-quality content.

It's not just limited to content specific to your niche. You can earn backlinks for your marketing strategies, operations, or overall brand style.

To get more backlinks, you should reach out to marketing agencies, industry award brands, and graphic designers who appreciate your content's visual appeal. Keep producing high-quality and creative content to establish a reputation that resonates with your audience and attracts attention from various sources.
Encourage mentions, shares, and links by actively promoting and distributing your content through various channels, reaching out to relevant influencers, and engaging with your audience.

Remember that acquiring backlinks exceeds sheer quantity and emphasizes the quality and relevance of the websites linking to your content.

Focus on building organic backlinks from reputable sources within and outside your industry to establish your authority and improve your online visibility.

Build Hype

Create a comprehensive content marketing experience and journey for your customers. It's important to captivate their attention immediately and maintain their interest throughout the piece. Avoid starting strong and then losing momentum towards the end.

Instead, aim to hook your audience and continue building their interest as they progress through the content.

Ensure the excitement and engagement levels are high, gradually increasing their anticipation until they reach the desired call to action (CTA).

Following this approach, you can transform passive readers into enthusiastic leads when they encounter your CTA.

This strategy helps decrease bounce rates and enhances lead conversion rates, resulting in a more successful content marketing campaign.

Create for the Problem, Not Just the Solution

Many SaaS companies overlook that people often search for a specific solution when purchasing.

For instance, a digital marketer tasked with finding an email automation tool will likely search for that exact term in Google or even the name of a recommended tool. This search intent should guide the type of content created, which may not necessarily attract a wide audience.

As SaaS content creators, it is crucial to focus on the problems and pain points that our product solves.

The content of an email marketing tool should encompass subjects like lead nurturing, enhancing email writing abilities, launching a newsletter, crafting engaging subject lines, and previewing text.

Focusing your content marketing strategy on a specific topic allows you to reach a larger audience while remaining relevant to potential consumers.

It's important to note that SaaS content marketing goes beyond landing pages; it involves building effective funnels to guide users toward conversion.

In the email marketing solution example, the content should be approximately 20% focused on showcasing how the SaaS product can help solve the problem.

The remaining 80% provides valuable information that readers can use without the SaaS product.

The level of specificity in addressing the problem will determine how close readers are to conversion. When the content is highly specific, it is more likely to lead to conversions but may reach a narrower audience.

It is essential to define a clear goal for each piece of content, identify metrics to measure it and write with the specific problem and goal in mind.

This approach helps ensure that the content effectively drives the desired actions and achieves measurable results.

Think Big, Not Just Problem-Solution

Adopting a narrow problem-solving approach in your content is myopic since your readers and potential clients have diverse interconnected needs.

By creating content that is broader in appeal and addresses related topics, you can expand your potential audience exponentially.

Taking an educational approach to SaaS content marketing goes beyond solving functional work problems for your users.

It involves empowering and helping them become industry leaders, positioning them for growth and potential promotions.

By prioritizing the delivery of valuable insights and knowledge rather than solely promoting your product, you forge a stronger and more memorable connection with your audience. This enhances the likelihood that they will remember and engage with your brand.

Develop Customized Content for Every Stage of the Sales Funnel

To ensure high-quality content, it's important to seek skilled writers with expertise in the relevant subject matter.

Onboard them effectively so they have a deep understanding of your product, target audience, and the specific stage of the marketing funnel they are writing for.

Regarding content strategy, it's beneficial to utilize TOFU (Top of the Funnel) content to attract your target market, BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel) content for brand alignment, and BOFU (bottom of the funnel) content to convey a unique point of view within your industry.

However, you can achieve remarkable success by optimizing content for MOFU (Middle of the Funnel). This involves meeting your audience when they need your solution and providing valuable content that aligns with their search intent.

SEO is crucial, especially in competitive markets. Identifying specific focus areas and leading your content strategy with a strong SEO approach is essential.

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Each stage of the marketing funnel should have a distinct objective, which necessitates the creation of unique content tailored to help individuals achieve that particular goal.

Master Your Product and Become an Industry Expert

Expertise is a crucial foundation for creating customer-focused content that builds trust with your audience. You must have a deep understanding of your industry to achieve this.

Here are a few methods to acquaint yourself with your industry:

• Engage in customer research and sales processes: Participate in interviews, demo calls, and analyze customer support requests to gain insights into your customers' goals and challenges.
• Stay updated with industry publications: Stay on top of industry trends by subscribing to newsletters, reading daily or weekly digests, listening to relevant podcasts, and watching YouTube shows within your niche.
• Collaborate with internal subject matter experts: Build relationships with your company's product managers, owners, and executives to learn from their expertise and involve them in content creation.
• Connect with thought leaders and industry experts: Engage with influential individuals in your sector who can provide valuable ideas and contribute to your content.
• Utilize Google alerts and topic research tools: Set up Google Alerts for core topics in your industry and use topic research tools to track trending subjects.

In addition to industry knowledge, it's crucial to have a deep understanding of your own SaaS product.

Explore and familiarize yourself regularly with its features, join customer calls conducted by product owners to gain insights into usage patterns, and stay updated on product updates and new feature releases.

Combining industry expertise with a comprehensive understanding of your product allows you to create effective content that integrates your tools into thought leadership pieces and aligns with other teams within your company, such as product marketing, brand, and growth.

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Wrapping Up

In the rapidly evolving realm of SaaS content marketing, utilizing all available tools and strategies is crucial to maintain a competitive edge.

This guide has equipped you with a thorough roadmap toward achieving success, unveiling the power of content marketing to fuel your SaaS growth.

You can create an unstoppable content marketing strategy by crafting compelling narratives, optimizing SEO, nurturing a loyal community, and embracing digital platforms' dynamic nature. The potential for exponential growth is within your reach.

Now is the opportune moment to seize and leverage the potential of AI bees to unlock their power.

Our expert content creators and marketers are buzzing with innovative ideas to supercharge your SaaS content marketing efforts.

Together, we can elevate your brand, generate high-quality leads, and boost your conversion rates.

Don't wait any longer.

Take the first step toward dominating the SaaS landscape by contacting AI bees today.

Let's turn your content marketing dreams into a reality. Remember, success awaits those who dare to take action.

Schedule a demo to start your SaaS venture!