The global Software as a Service (SaaS) market was valued at $251.17 billion as of 2022. This represents an increase of nearly $40 billion since 2021.
All this expansion means your business should have plenty of opportunity to grow in 2023 and long after. However, the rise in market size is attracting plenty of new players into the SaaS space. It’s also encouraging established brands to break into adjacent markets in order to maximize their revenue.
The bottom line is that it’s now harder than ever to get noticed in the SaaS industry. Fortunately, you can generate more leads and set yourself apart in the digital ecosystem by leveraging SaaS content marketing.
What Is SaaS Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a brand-building and lead-generation strategy founded on a single principle: producing and publishing high-quality content online.
As part of these efforts, you’ll need to generate a wide range of digestible content. After you develop engaging, informative content, you need to showcase it on your website, third-party sites, and of course, social media.
A SaaS content marketing strategy is unique in that it doesn’t include any explicitly advertorial content. Landing pages, service pages, and blatant social media ads won’t be part of your content marketing campaign. Rather, content marketing materials should be devised to do the following:
- Entertain
- Educate
- Inform
- Raise brand awareness
- Pique interest
- Drive engagement
An effective SaaS content marketing strategy will have a positive impact on your target audience, making them more open to direct advertisements and encouraging them to explore your software solution.
Types of SaaS Marketing Content
Great copy is the core of any SaaS content marketing strategy. However, before you can start crafting winning content, you need to decide which types of copy you’re going to publish.
The most effective SaaS content marketing strategies make use of a combination of materials, including:
Blogs
Blogs are the cornerstone of any successful SaaS content marketing campaign due to their versatility and flexibility. Far from being a one-dimensional medium, blogs are infinitely malleable and diverse.
You can create many different types of blogs. Here are just a few examples:
- How-to pieces
- Beginner’s guides
- Product comparisons
- Countdowns (i.e., top 10 lists)
- Tips and tricks articles
- Mistakes to avoid blogs
This barely scratches the surface of the many different blog angles you can take in your SaaS content marketing strategy. Some of the most effective blog categories include “everything you need to know” articles and comparison pieces.
Newsletters
Newsletters are a great way of providing updates about your company or its SaaS solutions. You can publish newsletters on your site or third-party platforms or distribute them via email and put information straight into customers’ hands.
This SaaS content marketing tool should be used sparingly; otherwise, it will lose its “wow” effect. More specifically, you should use newsletters when you want to announce something big, such as the release of a new application or service.
White Papers
White papers subtly advertise your product through the exhibition of hard statistics. The most impactful white papers include facts and figures demonstrating a need for your SaaS solution.
You can take several different approaches when creating a white paper.
For example, you could list a wide range of statistics about pain points or challenges affecting businesses in your industry. Then, toward the end of the write-up, you might explain how your solution has helped other companies overcome similar growth hurdles.
Social Media Posts
Social media posts can be used in several different ways. One common approach involves making posts to announce the release of a new blog or white paper. This strategy should be a staple of your SaaS content marketing campaign, as it will enable you to generate a rapid influx of traffic to your latest articles, creating a compound effect.
Additionally, you can create standalone content for your social media pages. For instance, you might develop a short video and publish it exclusively on your Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts. Doing so will help keep your existing followers engaged while drawing in new leads.
Emails
Although email is often overshadowed by social media advertising and other new-age tactics, it remains a highly effective form of communication. Like social media, email campaigns can be used as a direct content marketing channel and are also useful for hyping up on-site content.
Once you’ve built out a strong email list, your next step is to segment it. Long-time customers should be targeted with different content and messaging than new subscribers or prospects. Creating separate content marketing copy for each subgroup will maximize the impact of your email campaigns and deliver a better ROI.
Videos
Everybody loves a great video. Well-crafted videos tend to be more impactful and memorable than impersonal written content since most people are visually stimulated. This holds true whether you offer direct-to-consumer SaaS products or business-to-business (B2B) solutions.
With that in mind, it’s important to incorporate quality videos into your SaaS content marketing campaign. Make sure you draw attention to your videos via social media posts and emails. Also, put the video in a prominent location on your website, and, if appropriate, add a link to it on your homepage.
Podcasts
Podcasts aren’t a good fit for every SaaS content marketing strategy, but they can be useful if you want to discuss your solution in great detail or introduce it to industry-adjacent conversations.
Creating your own podcast allows you to promote customer success and provide extensive information about your software in an easy-to-absorb format. In addition to discussing your software, you can also cover related topics that interest your target audience.
5 Reasons You Need a SaaS Content Marketing Strategy
Now that you know what sort of content to include in your SaaS content marketing campaign, let’s shift our focus to why you need such a strategy in the first place.
By incorporating content marketing into your growth strategy, you can:
1. Provide Value to Readers
While the end goal of your content marketing strategy is to generate more leads and drive conversions, publishing quality copy and videos also allows you to deliver better value to clients. Blogs in particular are an excellent way of helping readers understand your solution, what needs it fills, and why they should invest in it.
However, you aren’t limited to discussing your software. You can also educate readers about related topics like cybersecurity, productivity, etc.
That said, it’s important to always tie these auxiliary topics back to your industry and the solutions you provide. When appropriate, you can also include a call to action at the end of your content to generate leads.
2. Generate More Traffic and Increase Conversions
A SaaS content marketing strategy can become one of your most effective traffic generation tools. Regularly publishing high-quality content will increase your visibility on search engines like Google, and your improved ranking will make it easier for prospective customers to find your content and software solutions.
Getting leads to your site is only part of the equation, though. A cohesive content marketing campaign will help you nurture these leads into trial users and, eventually, paying customers.
3. Facilitate Brand Awareness and Product Discovery
One of the greatest challenges for SaaS brands is demonstrating why a product is necessary. When you initially release your software solution, it’s essential that you effectively convey what it does, what pain points it resolves, and how it differs from other technology already on the market.
A SaaS content marketing strategy helps you do all that and more by presenting readers with low-pressure content that’s free from sales jargon or pushy language. Potential customers can learn more about your brand and SaaS solution without feeling like they’re being force-fed advertising materials.
4. Share Your Personality
Your brand identity, voice, personality, and values are what set your organization apart from the competition. It’s therefore important to share your unique ideas, values, style, and personality with your readers. What better way to do that than by publishing expertly written copy and engaging video content?
Whether your organization is serious and professional or a bit more casual and approachable, you can convey all these personality traits and more with content marketing. Learning to share your brand voice through content will help you build trust with readers and nurture existing customer relationships.
5. Establish Your Brand as a Source of Authority
When ranking web pages, Google analyzes content quality, keyword usage, and various other factors. One attribute it considers is the brand’s authority or level of expertise. If you’ve established yourself as a thought leader within your industry, you’ll not only rank higher but also be able to reach a wider audience.
Building your authority will also supplement your other marketing efforts. For example, domains in your industry vertical are more likely to link back to your content if they view it as reliable, trustworthy, and authoritative.
Acquiring high-quality backlinks will further expand your reach and visibility online, keeping your brand top-of-mind for both long-term users and prospects.
Master the Art of SaaS Content Marketing With Insights ABM
SaaS content marketing can be your secret weapon in the fight for your clients’ attention. However, developing an effective content marketing strategy can be a labor-intensive, time-consuming process, at least if you attempt to go it alone.
Why would you impede your progress by navigating the world of content marketing solo when you don’t have to? You shouldn’t, and with Insights ABM’s assistance, you don’t have to.
You can kick your content marketing strategy into overdrive by partnering with Insights ABM, an experienced SaaS marketing firm. Reach out to our team and book a complimentary consultation today to get started.
Joe is a digital marketing strategist and media buying/planning leader with 13+ years of expertise in marketing strategy and program management, omnichannel campaign delivery, brand building, data analytics, and customer experience/UX optimization. He has helped drive growth for industry-leading clients, including F500/F100 firms.