Content marketing is a powerful tool that can be used in any domain. Software-as-a-service companies can utilize top strategies to generate higher traffic and greater interest in their digital products.
Today it is essential for every SaaS brand to have content and use it for promotion. This approach allows you to focus not only on the product but also on customer support and after-sales service.
This guide is the ultimate guide for building a content strategy in 2021.
Why Invest in SaaS Content Marketing?
With SaaS content marketing, you can effectively inform customers about how your product performs, display how it can resolve their problems, and help them test your tools.
Of course, before you start creating your SaaS content strategy, you should build a user-friendly and fast-loading platform and use website development services for that.
According to Statista, end-user spending on public cloud applications/software as a service (SaaS) worldwide will be $145 billion by 2022.
The SaaS market is growing. But how to stand out on it and take into account the main mistakes of competitors to enlist user support and build the perfect marketing strategy? That is the point of this article.
How to Get Started with Content Marketing?
Content marketing is an adaptable marketing strategy. It uses unalike types of content such as blogs, white papers, infographics, videos, industry reports, case studies to attract leads, offer them something of value, and ultimately turn them into customers.
Content marketing can be either subtle or eye-catching. Either way, the goal of the game is to use your content to attract new leads.
What are the Key Strategies for SaaS Marketing?
However, SaaS marketing is more complex than marketing a conventional product. If only because you don’t have a real product to show. It’s harder to convince someone to integrate your software into their day-to-day processes than asking them just to buy a pair of shoes.
That is why SaaS marketing strategies are different for you and why it is essential for you to know the key strategy in this area.
1. Show All Subscription Plans Publicly
The price of your product directly affects your sales.
Pricing in SaaS marketing is a key deciding factor for customers, so don’t hide it. Let the price of your product subscriptions be affordable. Also, make sure that customers see in detail what they will be paying for.
2. Implement Content Marketing to Attract More Customers
Perhaps, nothing has been invented better than content marketing for lead generation of SaaS marketing strategies. Placing high-quality content on your website relevant to your target audience is an effective way to attract more visitors.
3. Use Free Trials
Using a free trial for your product is one of the most effective SaaS marketing strategies for attracting customers.
Do you want people to use your service and understand the benefits you have to offer? Give them a trial period! It is an excellent way to get them to take the first step. This step also helps customers decide on the paid version because they will already be familiar with your product, and most likely if it solves their problems, they will want to continue using it.
4. Offer a Limited Number of Options
Too many different options can confuse potential customers, which can lead to them abandoning their purchases. Limit your plans to 2-3 other options to avoid confusing your prospects.
And, be sure you clearly state the features offered in the different service plans and their respective prices to help people make the best decision that suits their needs.
5. Make Registration Simple
If you want more people to try your SaaS product, you need to work hard and make registration easy.
Be aware that asking for credit card information when signing up for a free trial can scare off potential customers.
6. Work on the Quality of Customer Service
Of all SaaS marketing strategies, this one is arguably the most important. Once you want to serve your customers well, try to personalize your communication with them as much as possible.
For example, communicate by email using their name in the subject line (rather than using a jaded communication template). You can also periodically send the finance and safetrading news to your company and remind you of yourself during the holiday sales.
7. Create Compelling Offers
One of the good tested SaaS marketing strategies is to close profitable deals for customers to entice them to opt for a more extended plan.
Many SaaS companies use this strategy and offer discounts on long-term plans. However, the main thing is to show what benefit the client gets if he chooses a long-term cooperation plan. Show that you are working on the client side and save their investment at every step.
8. Write About your Products on Guest Blogs & Thematic Sites
Many people look at product ratings and reviews before making a purchasing decision. Before making a decision, people read reviews and check online comparisons with similar products, especially in software, since there is no real product.
9. Create Referral Rewards
Referral marketing is one of the most effective SaaS marketing strategies when it comes to lead generation. According to a recent survey of B2B marketers, over 80% cited referrals as a key source of lead generation. For this strategy to work well, you must give your customers discounts or bonuses for referring to friends and colleagues. It can also be a loyalty program that rewards referrals or provides other incentives for customers to recommend your product to others.
10. Use PPC
PPP – Pay for Click is a paid marketing tactic that helps drive additional traffic. Which in turn will lead to more leads for your product. It is crucial to test different ad copy variants, analyze which text worked best, and use winning combinations. Use relevant industry keywords in your ads so that they appear for all relevant search queries.
Also, make sure your ad communicates your value proposition and engages a relevant target audience.
PPC campaigns, while expensive, are still preferred by many marketers as they are scalable, and you can increase or decrease your spending as needed.
SaaS Content Marketing: How to Find Your Keywords?
Interestingly, you can find your keywords by studying the path of a customer buying your product. For example, before your client even knows about your brand, he may search the Internet for information on how to solve their problems, their pain points.
Then, after stumbling across information about you and learning that you can solve their problems with your product, the customer starts looking for reviews of your product. This way, you can use keywords that are common throughout the buying journey. And this is how you create content.
The main thing to remember is that your content meets the customer’s needs at every sales funnel stage. It can lead to more effective marketing and sales as well as increased customer satisfaction and retention.
Once they start using your product, they can look for information on how to complete the setup process. As they actively implement your product, they may seek advice on using certain features of your application.
A good tool for finding relevant keywords specifically for your product is SEMrush. Not only does it help you do keyword research, but it also lets you track traffic from PPC campaigns. As a result, you will have more options to optimize your ad performance.
How to Create Great Content for SaaS?
The goal of great content is to keep your reader awake, engage, and push them to convert.
It follows that the content should be exciting and valuable. Content that doesn’t solve the reader’s problem in any way never becomes useful.
Of course, creating great content takes time and effort. We are not all geniuses of writing and sales copy. However, if you invest in quality content and hire someone who knows how to create it, it will pay off, bring you leads and income in the future.
Tool to Use for SaaS Content Marketing in 2021
As you get to this stage of content marketing for Saas, you will start wondering if there are dedicated tools to create engaging content, track marketing campaign performance, and evaluate strategy.
Let’s see some tools that will help you most.
1. Google Analytics
The quantity and quality of traffic is an indicator of the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. Therefore, Google Analytics is an excellent tool with which to track the effectiveness of saas content marketing. In general, any content marketing aims to attract as much attention as possible to your content.
Here it is convenient to look at detailed reports, indicators of your audience’s activity, see how much time they spend on your site, and also monitor conversion. The convenience of this tool is also that it is free and can be combined with other marketing management tools.
2. BuzzSumo
This tool helps you find relevant content for your area of business. What is unique about BazSummo is that it shows you examples of your competitors’ content marketing. After such an analysis, you can quickly form a SaaS content marketing company that will take into account the negative experience of competitors and take you to a leading position.
Another great thing about BuzzSumo is the ability to find influencers in your industry through this tool who might want to promote your content. A handy feature is Talkwalker, a device that tracks mentions of your content online.
3. Piktochart
A good tool for creating infographics and relevant images for your content. Why is it important? Today, the average duration of a person’s attention on a page on the Internet is about eight seconds. Of course, this depends on the interestingness of the text and the content itself.
However, visual resources are what helps to keep the reader on the page and have time to explain to them the essence of your content.
Visual assets are not only easily shared between websites and social media platforms, but they also allow you to bring your content story to life.
This tool allows you to create beautiful infographics and pictures without investing an enormous budget in the design team.
Top 3 Examples of Excellent SaaS Content Marketing
Studying competitors and companies that are successfully applying Saas marketing strategies is essential in preparing your business for this area.
Below you will see a list of companies whose content marketing behavior for Saas is worthy of emulation.
1. BigCommerce
This company regularly creates blog posts to position itself as an authority in the e-commerce world. The content they post is helpful, informative, and creates value for the entire industry.
2. MailChimp
This company has learned how to create complex technical topics into easily digestible text. At the same time, in its messages, the company only shows its experience of interacting with customers.
3. Zendesk
You can see the headlines from this company. Attractive and engaging, they are engaging right from the start. And it is simply not possible to pass by.
Zendesk has also established itself as a company that has learned how to achieve customer loyalty. There is someone to take an example from!
To Sum Things Up & Conclusion
Forbes has published an article on SaaS Marketing Tactics To Help Retention Customers Even In Times Of Crisis.
After all, it’s important to remember that the loss of income from a single departed customer can affect your bottom line within a few months.
Techcrunch describes referrals as essential to SaaS growth. That being said, referrals can be as simple as mentioned in a conversation or as severe as a personal introduction. That is why it is essential to talk about your business and attend related events.
Author’s Bio: Anastasiia Lastovetska is a technology writer at MLSDev – a software development company that builds web & mobile app solutions from scratch. She researches the area of technology to create great content about app development, UX/UI design, tech & business consulting.