What do the most advanced B2B marketers all have in common? They allocate nearly 50% of their marketing budget to content marketing. Their commitment is an indicator of the impact that SaaS content marketing can have on your business, but do marketers really put that much money towards blogs?
Yes, and no. Yes, because blogs are a key component in most SaaS content marketing strategies. No, because there’s more to content marketing than blogs. Content marketing should serve potential customers, so it makes sense to consider their needs and preferences,
Here are the top types of content your target audiences wants to see:
What to Incorporate Into Your SaaS Content Marketing
Content can be used at every stage of the buyer’s journey and can cover a variety of topics. Very broadly, most SaaS content fits into two categories: educational and promotional.
24% of SaaS companies that blog, offer educational content that gives readers actionable insights.
On the other hand, 20% offer only PR pieces that talk about the company, and more than 40% offer both.
Blog Posts
You can’t cover SaaS content marketing without touching on blog posts. Even though they aren’t the only type of content your audience wants to consume, they are a major part.
SaaS customers want to see blog posts because they are easy to take in, (should) offer answers to their questions or provide knowledge they didn’t have before.Plus they are are easily shareable.
There are different steps you’ll want to take before, during, and after assembling your blog to make sure it converts.
Research Reports
In addition to moving potential customers along the buyer’s journey and capturing new leads, SaaS content marketing establishes you as an expert in your field. Your target audience is always looking to stay up to date with the latest information and findings in their industry because it gives them a leg up over the competition.
If you run any in-house experiments or conduct industry research, by all means share it.
A prime example of this type of content is the 30-page guide titled “Content, Shares, and Likes: What we Learnt from 1M Posts” by Buzzsumo + Moz. The two companies paired up to analyze a million pieces of content and compiled their findings of what types of content performed best into a downloadable guide.
Microsites
Sometimes, the content you want to put out is too large to fit into a single post. In this case, your company can create a microsite to incorporate in to your SaaS content marketing strategy.
A microsite goes beyond standard blog posts and lead magnets by establishing an interactive and valuable platform for users to learn from. These separate resources establish you as a reliable and knowledgeable source, while still allowing search engines to find you. Your target audience will look for this type of content when they are considering their choices and wants to see that a company is reputable, knowledgeable, and helpful.
An example of a microsite is CoSchedule’s The Ultimate Guide to Create A Marketing Strategy. The site breaks topics down into ten chapters, with each segment covering a different aspect of marketing strategy. Microsites are also a great way to repurpose and compile existing content into a new and relevant piece of content.
FAQ
Potential customers will have questions about your offering, making an FAQ page vital.
Raise your FAQ page up a notch by taking advantage of relevant keywords. Do this by including pages that compare you to the competition. It’s likely that potential customers are looking for this information anyway, so you may as well be the one to answer the call. HappyFox does this for their competitors, including ZenDesk.
FAQ pages are also great for SEO, particularly for voice search terms phrased as question statements.
User-Focused Content
It’s easier for a customer to imagine themselves benefiting from your SaaS when they find someone they can relate to. Your target audience wants to see examples of real-life results and testimonials to act as social proof.
One way to give potential customers user-focused content is through case studies. In fact, 78% of buyers look to this type of content when researching a buying decision. When reading case studies, your target audience will want to know about the user’s business, their problems, and how your SaaS helped them overcome.
Kajabi puts a unique spin on user-focused content with a “Heroes” page that simply showcases customers from different industries so that potential users can see others just like them that have benefited from the service.
Resource Library
All of your wonderful content will go to waste if a potential user isn’t sure where to find it. When researching a SaaS company through their content, users want a resource library to find information across formats and topics easily.
A resource page is a single centralized location for blog posts, case studies, webinars, and more that can be filtered and sorted like Evolphin does.
Expert Roundup Posts
You don’t have to create everything on your own! Calling for quotes from a panel of leaders in your industry around a given topic brings in unique perspectives and is ideal for cross promotion.
Your target audience wants expert roundup posts because they provide a variety of perspective on a topic. In addition they are shareable, highlight your network and credibility, and introduce your audience to more thought leaders.
Webinars and Workshops
Not all useful content is written. In fact, it’s a smart idea to experiment with different formats and mediums in your SaaS content marketing to serve your entire audience.
Your target audience is interested in webinars and workshops because they often go more in-depth than a blog post can. In addition, they can be listened to instead of read, and they are more personable than a written piece.
Zendesk offers a variety of webinars and workshops in a single location on their page. These webinars are useful for lead generation. By promoting an online event and gathering email addresses, you build a list of interested target audience members.
Podcasts
Yet another medium your target audience wants to discover are podcasts. These audio-only recordings may not be the first type of SaaS content that comes to mind, but 18% of the world’s biggest SaaS companies have a podcast.
Branded podcasts give you the opportunity to highlight the product while building a rapport with the target audience. Inside Intercom by Intercom covers a variety of SaaS-specific topics from customer support, to startups, marketing, and product management. Podcasts can be an audio version of an expert roundup post that offers the same cross-promotional benefits. In addition, you can repurpose them into other types of content.
How to Make Your SaaS Content Marketing Effective
With the huge variety of formats and mediums for SaaS content, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or unorganized. No matter the type of content, there are a few benchmarks to always keep in mind for your SaaS content marketing:
- Remember your audience. Keep your customer personas in mind to create content that is relevant and helpful.
- Set clear goals. Know what you want to accomplish with each piece of content, and measure the results.
- Plan to test. Practice makes perfect, and testing is the best way to strike the perfect tone and format.
