It’s no secret that SaaS is a crowded area. No matter what you’re offering, there are likely a handful of competitors trying to outmaneuver you at every turn.
To help you stay one step ahead, you’ll need a powerful content marketing strategy that not only drives traffic but also nurtures leads and turns curious visitors into loyal customers.
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The very first step on your content marketing strategy for SaaS is to get clear on who you’re targeting and what your goals are for your content.
This is the time to create audience personas and map the customer journey to various stages.
Once you better understand who your message is geared toward and what you want to achieve as a result, it’s time to break those goals down into SMART goals, meaning goals that are:
At this point, you’ve clearly defined your goals. From there, it’s just a matter of matching those Key Performance Indicators to different stages of the content marketing funnel. For example:
Understanding your audience and turning goals into actionable steps means you can now unleash the rest of your SaaS content marketing strategy, the next stage of which is creating the actual content.
Rather than starting entirely from scratch, it’s a good idea to take a step back and analyze what you’ve already got.
Catalogue your blog posts, ebooks, webinars and case studies and look for any missing topics or gaps in your content pillars (more on those below).
Tag pieces by the amount of traffic and engagement they got, as well as which ones drove the most leads or trial sign-ups.
Choose anywhere from 3-5 core pillars that are tied to your overall value proposition.
Example: If your SaaS is a team collaboration tool, you might have core pillars situated around “Remote Team Productivity” or “Project Workflows.”
From there, for each pillar, create a detailed pillar page. It should be by far the most comprehensive piece of content out of everything you write in that topic cluster.
You’ll then create topic clusters around each pillar. These are shorter posts or other content assets that link back to the pillar page.
This method of creating content is commonly known in SEO and content marketing circles and is a great way to boost your authority as part of Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines for people-first content.
This is also the point at which you should do some deeper keyword research and find high-intent keywords (such as “best team collaboration software comparison”) and other long-tail keywords your competitors aren’t targeting.
Prioritize your results by search volume vs. difficulty and align them to your funnel stages.
The next step in creating an exceptional SaaS content marketing strategy is to create a content calendar and editorial workflow.
Start with content that’s tied to product launches or other industry events, as well as seasonal trends. Break your content down into:
From there, create a spreadsheet that assigns roles and deadlines, such as:
Then, have an editorial review section that functions as a checklist for messaging, branding, CTAs and on-page SEO.
Once you’ve mastered pillars, clusters, and content assignments, it’s time to share that content with the world.
Owned channels like your email or social media are the perfect opportunity for you to nurture incoming leads.
Segment your emails by user behavior, for instance, people who subscribed to your blog versus downloaded your free guide, so that you can guide them through the funnel accordingly.
To avoid scattering yourself too thin on social media, pick the one or two areas where your users tend to congregate most (e.g. LinkedIn or Facebook).
Earned media means guest posting on industry blogs, making appearances on podcasts, PR, and influencer marketing to amplify your brand and build awareness, as well as establish thought leadership.
According to Harvard Business School, paid media is focused on promotional material. This might encompass paid search (think Google Ads) or promoted posts on social platforms.
Another key component of an exceptional SaaS content marketing strategy involves repurposing and refreshing your content.
This can be done in a variety of ways. For instance, you could repurpose content by:
Once a quarter, it’s worth going back and revisiting older content to update stats, incorporate new case studies if any are available, and check your search engine rankings to see how your keywords are performing for that content.
In order to know what kind of results your content is generating, you’ll need a broad overview with the ability to go granular. This is normally done with a combination of Google Analytics, your preferred CRM, and SEO tools. Look at metrics including:
From there, run experiments on your content, such as split testing headlines, different CTAs and other formats (video versus text, for example).
Review the results each quarter, double down on the winners, retire the losers, and revise the calendar accordingly.
As you continue to do this over time, you’ll start to see a pattern of your best-performing content.
Focusing on using the actual product as the main driver for attracting and retaining customers is at the heart of a successful SaaS content strategy.
In essence, your product is your lead generator. That means designing every touchpoint to make it push-button simple for a prospect to sign up, see the value you deliver, and instantly understand what makes your service unique and high-value.
Content marketing for SaaS, like all industries, is a marathon, not a sprint. Much like SEO, it’s not a once-and-done task.
The good news is that once you understand how to approach it, you’ll continue to build momentum month after month.
What’s more, by focusing on making your product the driver of your marketing, you help prospects and customers alike experience firsthand the very benefits that your content strategy backs up — more light bulb moments and a more intuitive user experience.
As you continue to do this over time, you’ll attract more qualified leads and bring out brand ambassadors who wholeheartedly recommend your solution.
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