How to Create SaaS Content Strategy That Drives Engagement and Leads

It’s no secret that content is key to a successful SaaS marketing strategy. But what is the best way to create content that engages your audience and leads to conversions?

In this article, we’ll explore what makes a good SaaS content strategy and how to create one for your SaaS brand. We’ll also share some of our own tips for crafting a winning strategy. Finally, we’ll explain why crafting an effective SaaS content strategy can help lead to better engagement rates-and ultimately more leads.

What is a SaaS Content Strategy and Why Is It Important?

A SaaS content strategy is a plan for creating and distributing content that is relevant to your target audience and drives conversions. When developing a SaaS content strategy, it is important to consider the various touchpoints that potential customers have with your brand. This includes everything from your website and blog to social media and email marketing. 

The goal is to create a consistent message that speaks to the needs of your target customer and compels them to take action. In order to be successful, a SaaS content strategy must be well-researched, targeted, and flexible enough to evolve as your business grows.

A SaaS content strategy is important for three main reasons:

• To ensure that the right information is available to the right people at the right time,
• To provide valuable resources to your target audience regarding your software or your niche
• To retain customers
• To convince buyers to subscribe to your SaaS

As mentioned, a successful SaaS content strategy should include a mix of informational and promotional content, as well as customer support materials. It’s important to create a timeline and stick to it because lapses in execution can lead to decreased revenue and lost customers.

A good way to start thinking about a SaaS content strategy is by identifying what your company does and how it can be made more accessible and useful. Next, think about who your target audience are and what kind of information they might want or need, depending on where they are in their customer journey. Then, develop strategies for delivering that information in an engaging way.

How to Create Engaging SaaS Content

SaaS companies have a unique challenge when it comes to content marketing. They not only need to produce high-quality, informative content that will appeal to their target audience, but they also need to ensure that this content is engaging enough to keep people coming back for more. Here are some tips for creating engaging SaaS content:

Below are a few tips for writing high-quality content that engages readers:

1. Focus your strategy on your target audience

You’re not creating content just for the sake of it. You need to have a goal in mind before you create any type of content. 

Consider the following questions:

• Who is your target audience? How will you reach them effectively?
• What are their pain points and challenges that I can help solve through my content?
• What do they want to learn from me? How much time are they willing to invest?
• What social channels or platforms are we going to use?
• What device does the majority of our target audience use?

Ultimately, to focus your content strategy on your audience means creating a buyer persona as the first step. And to do so, research the questions above to answer them as best as you can. This will give you a solid idea of what your customers are interested in, the challenges they face, and the solutions that they’re seeking. You can then leverage that knowledge to fuel your content strategy.

2. Identify the content types that work best

It’s important to first identify the different types of content you need to create in order to build a comprehensive SaaS content strategy. Content types are often based on the stage of the buying process and should be aligned with your audience goals. Here are some examples:

• Blogs: Blog posts typically contain long-form content that can be more detailed or educational than other formats. They’re usually written by industry experts and someone who has a wealth of experience in the topics you want to write about. If done well, you’ll position yourself as an authority in that niche, which will drive more leads and conversions in the long run. 
• Videos: Videos allow you to tell stories in ways that text alone cannot convey adequately. It’s also easier for people to consume video content than other formats because they’re able to multitask while watching them. In fact, the majority of people online prefer to watch videos than read huge blocks of text. 
• Podcasts: Plenty of people love listening to podcasts about the topics they’re most interested in. A recent study by Nielsen shows that podcast listeners are more engaged with the brands they’re listening to than those who don’t listen. Meanwhile, a 2019 study by Edison Research showed that podcast listeners are 54% more likely to make an online purchase of brands advertised in podcasts.
• Infographics: Infographics have been used as a way to promote SaaS products for some time now. They are a great way to get the word out there because they can be easily shared on social media, and they can also be attached to emails or other forms of content. Additionally, infographics can help to show how your SaaS works, which can be helpful in attracting potential SaaS customers.

Content types can also be classified based on their intended uses as follows:

Narrative

Narrative content is all about telling a story. It can be fictional or non-fictional, but it’s always meant to educate through entertainment. A narrative can be written, spoken or acted out in some way.

Here are a few ideas for using a narrative content piece effectively in your SaaS digital marketing efforts include:

• Discussing your SaaS’ unique selling proposition (USP) and story of how it came to be.
• Share a customer success story with your audience
• Tell the story of your SaaS brand

Informational

Informational content is any type of content that provides information. It can be in the form of an article, infographic, or video.

Informational content is useful due to the fact that it helps people learn new things, understand concepts better, and present solutions. 

In SaaS, two common ways to make informational content is to, first, create blog posts or articles that provide information about your SaaS product, and how to utilize it more effectively. And second, create short videos or infographics that showcase the main features of your software.

Instructional

Instructional content is one of the most obvious types of content out there, but it’s also one of the most effective. It teaches users how to do a specific task, and in SaaS, instructional content should not be thrown in the wayside. If you don’t teach people how to use your software, it’ll negatively affect your customer’s experience with your product.

Instructional content can take many different forms: tutorials and how-to guides are popular examples, but instructional videos and written guides are also common in this genre.

One of the most important components of any SaaS implementation is the instructional content that is used to train users on how to use the software and ensure customer success. Instructional content can be used in a number of ways to promote SaaS:

• As a training manual or video tutorial that can be accessed by employees who need help using the software;
• As supplemental information that is included with new customer signups;
• As an ongoing series of blog posts or articles that discusses new features or changes in the software;
• As an “ultimate guide” for resolving common issues users may experience with your SaaS.

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take some action. It is used by the marketing department in many industries to help make their products or services more attractive and increase sales.

SaaS companies rely heavily on advertising content to promote their products. 

Advertising content can be found on company websites, blog posts, and social media channels. When creating advertising content, it’s important to consider the target audience and how best to reach them. There are a number of ways to use advertising content to promote SaaS:

• Use advertising content as a way to attract new customers. Make sure the advertising content is compelling and relevant to your ideal customer.
• Create promotional videos using advertising content. Videos are a great way to share information quickly and easily. They can also be shared on social media platforms for greater visibility.
• Write blog posts in which you discuss aspects of the SaaS product or provide tips for using it. Blogging is a great way to communicate with customers and build relationships with them.

We recommend using all of these formats in some capacity. Depending on what type of business you have, the appropriate mix might be different for each one-but mixing them together will help ensure that you’re reaching as many potential customers as possible!

3. Think about the tone and style of your content

It’s essential to create a consistent tone of voice for all of your SaaS company’s external communications. This includes your website copy, social media updates, and marketing materials like brochures, flyers and ads.

One of the most recognizable SaaS companies is Slack. Slack has established a consistent style and voice for all of its communication channels, from their website to their customer support chat. This consistency makes it easy for customers to understand what to expect when interacting with Slack, no matter which channel they are using.

Slack also uses a variety of visual cues to help users understand how they are interacting with the company. For example, they use icons in their messages that indicate whether a message is a reply, comment, or question. This helps users quickly identify which type of message they are reading, without having to read the entire message.

This consistency and visual cues make Slack one of the most user-friendly SaaS companies out there. Their approach ensures that customers have an easy time understanding and using their software.

4. Create a distribution plan for your content

A content distribution plan is an essential part of your content strategy. It should be included in your decision-making when determining the type of content you want to create, and how it will be used to get leads for your SaaS business.

This plan should include:

• How you will get the content in front of your audience (e.g., email campaigns, PPC ads)
• What platforms or channels you’ll use for distribution (e.g., Facebook groups)
• How success will be measured (e.g., leads generated vs. budget spent) The types of content you’ll create (e.g., blog posts, videos, infographics)
• Whether or not you will be distributing your content via organic search
• How many pieces of content you’ll create, when they will be created and published.

This plan will help you determine how much time and money you should spend on valuable content. You can then use this information to create a budget for your content marketing effort that aligns with your goals and objectives.

5. Use customer journey mapping to plan the strategy.

The first step in creating your customer journey map is to understand the stages of, well, your customer’s journey. 

To do this, you’ll need to think about where your customers are in terms of their relationship with your SaaS business at any given point. Have they just discovered your software? Are they already researching your SaaS company? Or are they at the verge of subscribing to your software? We’ve detailed a number of actionable tips about what you can do depending on where your customers are in this article. 

Now, let’s say you’re a SaaS business providing a platform that helps business owners manage staff, you could map out the stages of the customer relationship with your business as follows:

• Discovery or Awareness: The first stage is when a potential customer is looking for a specific software to help solve their problem, and then they discover yours. This is an important stage for your business as you can use this stage to learn more about your potential customer so that you can improve your software or marketing efforts over time. This stage is also where you start to build a relationship with them.
• Prospective Customer: A prospective customer is someone who has shown interest in your product or service and you have an idea of how they might use it. At this stage, you should be getting feedback on your product and service. You might ask them to try the service, or you can send a sample of your product.
• Existing Customer: Your existing customer is the person who uses your product or service regularly. They are also the person you want to keep as a customer. They may be your best source of feedback because they have a good understanding of how your product or service works, and what is important to them.
• End User: The end user is the person who uses your service or product in a way that you have not envisaged. This is often the customer who discovers a new way to use your product or service, and who will tell you about it.

6. Tailor your content to platforms or channels

When you’re developing your content strategy, it’s important to consider where your audience is most likely to consume the information you create. This will help you tailor your content so that it fits their needs and preferences.

For example, if you have a large following on Facebook, then it makes sense to provide them with shorter clips of video instead of longer ones. If they follow you on Instagram or Twitter, then infographics may be more appropriate because they can be easily consumed in short bursts while standing in line at the grocery store or waiting for an elevator.

You should also consider what type of content works best on each platform: photos vs videos (or both) as well as long form vs short form vs live streams (or all three).

It’s important to note that you don’t need to be on all the platforms at once. In fact, it can be a good idea to start with one or two and then slowly add more over time as your audience grows in those areas. You may also want to consider how much time each platform requires from you in terms of content creation, engagement and administration (such as responding to comments).

Final Thoughts

Crafting a SaaS content strategy is all about understanding your customers, knowing their pain points and providing them with usable content to help at each stage of the buying process. Here are few more tips to create engaging content before we close out this article:

First is to know what’s right with your SaaS. Knowing this will help you write content that speaks to the needs and pain points of your target audience. It’s also important to demonstrate how your software can solve their problems in a way that is easily digestible and understandable for them.

Second, know what’s unique about your SaaS. What makes it different from the competition? Why would someone choose yours over the other options out there? You need to be able to clearly articulate how your software is different and why this difference matters.

If you can create content that speaks to both the needs and pain points of your target audience, it will be much easier to attract them or convert them. Without this knowledge, you run the risk of developing a “solution” that does not address any problem or creating content that isn’t relevant to anyone.

All in all, a SaaS content strategy can be a powerful tool for any SaaS company. It’s not just about creating high-quality content that converts, it’s also about aligning your efforts with your customer journey and making sure you have the right distribution plan in place to reach them where they are at every stage of their buying journey.

Consider hiring a SaaS content marketing agency to help you out with the process. They can help you develop and execute a strategy for creating and distributing your content. They will also help you create content ideas, engaging ads and social media posts, as well as cultivate relationships with key influencers. In short, a good content marketing agency can help you achieve your business goals faster and with less effort on your part.

If you need more tips on growing your SaaS, check out our blog.