How is content marketing for Saas Companies Different?

Content marketing is the marketing strategy used to attract, engage and retain readers by the help of creating and sharing articles, videos, and podcasts as this approach keeps the business at the top by promoting brand awareness, etc.

Saas companies is the software distribution model defined as cloud provider hosts applications that make available to the end-users over the power of the internet. 

Content marketing for SaaS is completely different when compared to other industries. We have provided major points stating the difference between them. The points are:-

• Selling both technology and services
• Major focus on SEO
• Sales rely on reviews only
• Marketing strategy to promote repeat business only
• Marketing educates prospects only

SaaS software is the product, first of all. SaaS marketing sells the product to the customers. But, this is only half part done; they also provide software as SaaS customers choose providers and the support quality. In general, SaaS marketing stresses selling the software product to the SaaS customers and the support. 

SaaS customers research all the products on the internet, making SEO a critical component to ponder for SaaS marketing. SaaS customers research products through white papers, app marketplaces, and website reviews. Hence, the marketing team should apply a strategy that includes SEO content, which helps attract most buyers from this approach. 

How to build an empire with effective SaaS content marketing strategies?

Empire is not built in one day. It takes time and dedication to cherish it to that stage. The person who wants to build an empire tries various strategies which help him boost in this process. But some fail, and sometimes the rest is just history. The same is with the SaaS content marketing. The strategy team is using some strategies, but not everyone passes. But some strategies used and tested have passed with flying colors to build an empire. 

Down we are going to discuss those strategies in detail. Those are:-

• Identifying the strategic goals for better outcomes
• Defining benchmarks
• Map your funnel
• Know your audience
• Research about competition
• Keyword strategy
• Developing list building strategy
• Developing outreach strategy
• Explaining content cycle

These are a few strategies that will help you build an empire with the help of an effective SaaS content marketing strategy. We will explain all the points in detail. 

Identifying the strategic goals for better outcomes

Proper strategic goals will help systematically optimize the content to gain an audience. The role of content marketing should be properly noted and what role plays in your business. Some strategies will help in SaaS content marketing. 

• An increase in brand partners increases the sales funnel 
• The help of two-way relationship will help to encourage network effects and reciprocation 
• Building contacts to know their position that will transition from lead to customer.
• An aggregate stream that leads for sales staff every month
• Furnish the steady stream for automated sales pages and automate acquisition systems
• Uplifting customer loyalty and brand advocacy

Defining benchmarks

After the strategic goals, some benchmarks should be considered to know the growth of SaaS content marketing. Those are enlisted below:-

• Increase in monthly visits per dollar of investment
• The first contact of channel, content, time of sale, and the path of sale
• Average time of each unique visitor
• Return-back of percentage visitors that are new and returning
• Increment in subscribers or contacts per dollar invested
• Sign-ups per visitors

Map your funnel

There should be three primary strategic goals to accomplish, which help fulfill the requirements of the SaaS customers. Those are:-

• Place the funnel where your leads are
• Increase the size of the funnel
• Guide the leads through the funnel

There are different conversion funnel stages, which have different goals and tactics to deal with. Those are also listed below:-

• Awareness

• Goal – Generate traffic and brand awareness
• Tactics – Blogs posts, email marketing, and social media marketing are the best way to grab attention

• Evaluation 

• Goal – Generate leads
• Tactics – Case studies, webinars, newsletter, and events

• Purchase 

• Goal – Convert leads to customers
• Tactics – Newsletters, demos, smaller invite-only events, and trails

• Retain 

• Goal – Retain customers, upsell, and advocate.
• Tactics – Case studies, client workshops, product updates, training/tutorials

Many SaaS content marketing strategies will help in various aspects. Those are:-

• Lead discovers blog post that is related to the problem
• Blog posts must be unique that should tend to hold the user’s attention until the end of the blog post
• The customer should be satisfied with the solution which is being provided by the blog post
• Customers sign up for SaaS. 
• The lead receives a constant diet of information that uses SaaS to solve various problems.

Know your audience

Two common mistakes in SaaS strategy will fall towards one of the extremes. Those are focusing on:-

• Narrow audience
• Broad audience

There are some of the questions that will help to find where the effective lead for your business is present.

• What kinds of queries will leads be searching on google
• Whom will they will follow on social media
• What social networks and discussion groups should be actively visit
• What youtube channel should they view regularly
• Which magazines, blogs, or newspapers they should be reading
• How far can you stretch the use-cases which fit the target audience without cynicism

Research about competition

To know the weakness in the USP, you can collect data that will help look into this matter.

• A thorough analysis of the direct competitor’s backlinks
• Analyzing the content for keywords and topics with the help of platforms they are targeting
• With the help of all those data, intuitive browsing will help you know the content marketing strategy of the competitors looks like

Keyword strategies

Numerous tips will help in the effective keyword strategy that is enlisted down below:-

• Google Adwords Keyword Planner

It is a tool that helps to initiate searches using specific phrases in google. It works as a suggestion and a guide that will find a way to bring customers to the blog, which does not have much traffic.

• KeywordTool.io

It is the biggest selection of questions and variations on the keywords.

• SEMrush

For competitive research

There are some websites/platforms that identify the audience of your concern by paying attention to those phrases with the help of keyword tools. 

Developing list-building strategies

Numerous sources will help to gain various customers. Email lists are best for content marketing efforts. No other way is needed and presents the importance of solid list-building strategies.

Those resources are:-

• Ebooks
• Whitepapers
• 30-days challenge
• Training courses
• Webinars
• Videos
• Original research like surveys, case studies, and proprietary data

Developing outreach strategies

It has two basic forms. Those are:-

• Publication
• Promotion

There are numerous winning strategies for SaaS content marketing that are:-

• Influencers’ involvement in the content creation process
• Mention influencers in content and inform them when the post is live
• Addressing specific issues with the influencers that are having content.
• Develop content with a list of specific resources
• Connecting various influencers that will help to share your content
• Inclusion of newsletters curated by well-known influencers 
• A regular columnist for a trusted publication
• Getting in touch with websites that are linking to similar content

There are a few principles when connecting to influencers and major publications.

• Provide them with context
• Don’t ask for something, if you are not eligible to offer
• Start conversation with email always

Explaining content cycle

There are a series of steps for such content that are:-.

1. Identify the target audience along with the core problem
2. Identify target keywords
3. Identify associated lead magnet
4. Identify target problems
5. Outline
6. Research
7. Produce
8. Promote
9. Analyze performance
10. Sharpen content with response of keywords and analytics 
11. Produce final content

Define your campaign goals and metrics

Goals are the ones that are a person’s ambition or efforts. Hence, the same happens for content campaigns. This will help to align your campaigns with marketing goals and performance also. Key performance indicators (KPI) are standard for content marketing in any industry, like the number of unique visitors, session duration, and bounce rate. KPI is related to SaaS industries. Hence, some marketing metrics are important for SaaS. 

1. Free trial registrations
2. Software demo requests
3. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
4. Lead conversion rate (LCR)

CAC and LCR have different equations.

CAC

CAC = MC / CA

Where MC stands for marketing costs

CA stands for the number of customers acquired from that marketing expenditure.

LCR

LCR = C / L

Where C stands for the number of conversions 

L stands for leadership opportunities, yielding a percentage rate.

How to create your content production procedure?

As we have discussed above in the content cycle. Those are:-

1. Identify your target audience with core problems
2. Identify target audience
3. Identify associated lead magnet
4. Identify the list of target platforms
5. Outline
6. Research 
7. Produce
8. Publish
9. Promote
10. Analyze performance
11. Hone content concerning keywords and analytics data
12. Produce follow-up content
13. Identify different content types that are associated with different goals. 
14. Develop a separate series of steps for each type
15. Content calendar
16. Clear role definition for every content marketing team member
17. Trello will help to track content progress with the support of communication
18. Regular follow-up on performance of content along with identifying potential opportunities
19. Check content organization at regular intervals. 
20. Schedule regular time for brainstorming new audiences, platforms, and SaaS.

How to describe your distribution strategy?

Content distribution strategy is the plan that helps an organization disseminate the content, even if it is promoting the latest blog or new ebook. There are steps that, when followed, can create a content distribution strategy. Those points to ponder are:-

• Understand your target audience
• Research the platform where your audience is active
• Create copy that’s customized for the platform
• Interview your customers
• Evaluate, rinse, and repeat

How to monitor your results and make adjustments?

Tracking is the best way to know your progress; for those reasons, it is essential to monitor the performance of the campaigns. This can be done by setting up a reporting system that tracks key performance indicators (KPI). 

An analytics software tool helps customize displays and reports tracking the desired KPI. Regular review procedures will be able to review the campaigns. If no results are still the same, make adjustments, identify which content provides best-in-class results, and focus on those kinds of marketing and promote them by using the successful content to make templates and replicate success on other content. 

Improving the performance of underperforming content and doing split-testing that makes changes affects performance. Small changes also have a great tendency to fetch better results. 

What are the benefits of SaaS content marketing?

There are numerous benefits of SaaS content marketing, and those are:-

• Content adds value without divulging trade secrets
• Content can help increase your conversions
• Content is engaging and can start conservation
• Content can help product and brand discovery
• Content gives your brand personality
• Content establishes your authority as a thought leader.

What is the aim of SaaS content marketing?

SaaS content marketing is a long-term strategy that SaaS businesses implement to attract, convert, and retain target audiences by consistently creating and distributing value-packed, unique content. 

How do you analyze your competition to become the best?

Competitive analysis is the research, analysis, and comparison of competitors to our company. It identifies major competitors concerning products, sales, marketing, and customer retention strategies. It helps to practice to get better than competitors and help to improve responsibility. 

The benefits of competitive analysis are:-

• Identify the unique value proposition of the product 
• Updated on the latest trends
• Test and identify for better results
• Apply unique marketing strategies
• Tracking of customer’s reviews concerning products
• Learning about market trends

Points to analyze the SaaS competitive analysis are:-

• Identify the competition
• Researching of products and offerings by competitors
• Oversee competitor investigation
• Understanding of competitor tactics
• Reducing the gap between you and for competitors
• Ascertain the differentiators
• Comparing prices concerning price
• Looking for marketing tactics used by competitors
• To reduce bugs, checking technology and tools
• Tracking of social media engagement 
• Conduction of SWOT analysis
• Perform, estimate, enhance, and rehearse to make your company a brand.

How can mapping your funnel make me a better person?

Content mapping is the process structured so that you and your team plot out your content within different stages with the help of a marketing funnel. 

The main two ingredients of content mapping are:-

• Marketing funnel
• Buyer persona

Under the marketing funnel, there are 4 points to ponder; those are:-

• Awareness stage

In this stage, customers are facing challenges that are being researched, and possible solution is being provided for better results.

• Consideration stage

In this stage, customers are eliminating numerous solutions that do not work for them; hence, it is a risk for the startup to hold a position in the market.

• Decision stage

In this stage, decisions are made that help convince the customers; if they are not satisfied with the decision, they might even lose to their competitors. And if the customer is loyal, you must start with the first stage.

• Delight stage

In this stage, they retain previous customers, which helps to increase the sales altogether. As the study explains, repeated buyers spend more time whenever they return; that is 3x and 5x more than first-time customers.

Buyer persona

It is very crucial for the success of any marketing strategy. It is because it serves as a representation of your ideal target customers. 65% of B2B marketers and business owners struggle to get rights of publishing, distribution, and go out. 

There are a few points to ponder for the buyer persona. Those are:-

• Focus on their pain points
• Think like customers
• Usage of simple languages

These points will help to grow the business to a large scale.

Conclusion

SaaS content marketing is a service provider and software distribution company. They earn more from the services they provide; Netflix is an example. We can provide a complete guide stating tips and tricks to help you make your company a brand. We have explained SaaS content marketing and how to grow it into an empire with the help of goals and metrics. Under this, we have distribution strategies, benefits, aim, analysis, etc., that will help you guide for SaaS content marketing.