7 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t
Working (& How To Fix It)

According to a statistics report by Zenpost, content marketing can give you a return on investment (ROI) of around 448%.

That just goes to show how effective it can be, especially for SaaS businesses.

After all, SaaS users, especially those in the business-to-business (B2B) markets, are almost always hungry for information that could add value to their lives. They want to improve their businesses and do better at their jobs.

Content marketing is the perfect way to give them that information in a way that’s both helpful and nonaggressive.

Unfortunately, not all SaaS businesses’ content marketing efforts are effective. Many of them fail to produce results.

And if you’re reading this blog post, you might be one of those SaaS businesses.

In this article, we will talk about the most probable reasons why your content marketing isnt working and how you can improve it.

1) Your Content Isn’t 100% Accurate

As we have just mentioned, content marketing works because it provides valuable information to potential customers.

That means your facts should be 100% accurate and the advice you give should be sound.

If your content piece contains inaccuracies, it will reflect poorly on your business. People will question your authority and expertise.

And that’s the last thing you want.

The solution here is simple. Make sure your content is accurate before you publish it.

Here are some steps you can take to make that your content is error-free:

Solution #1: Always Check The Right References For Your Facts

Make sure you’re getting your information from reliable sources. If you’re not sure about the accuracy of a piece of information, don’t hesitate to check multiple sources.

If you’re citing data or statistics in your article, make sure to include a link to the original source. That way, people can check it for themselves if they want to.

What’s more, pay attention to the date of the sources you’re using. Trends in the SaaS market can change very fast. Information can become outdated very quickly.

Solution #2: Get A Second Pair Of Eyes

Even if you’re confident about the accuracy of your article, you may still have some blind spots.

That’s why it’s always a good idea to have someone else review your article before you publish it.

This is especially true if that person is familiar with the topic of your article. They may be able to point out inaccuracies or errors that you’ve missed.

Solution #3: Consult Experts If You Need To

If you produce a lot of educational content, giving advice through it becomes second nature.

So you need to be extra sure that your advice will work for your intended audience. Or else, you’ll lose their trust.

If you’re not sure about something, consult an expert. The extra time and resources you spend on getting your facts right will pay off in the long run.

2) Your Content Isn’t Relevant To Your Target Audience

This seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many SaaS businesses don’t do this.

They produce content that’s either too general or too specific. It’s either not relevant to their target audience or it doesn’t speak to their pain points.

As a result, their content doesn’t generate any results. It doesn’t generate new leads. Even worse, it doesn’t get a lot of traffic in the first place.

The solution here is also simple. Make sure your content is relevant to your target audience. Here are some steps you can take to make that happen:

Solution #1: Do Your Research On Your Target Audience

The first step is to understand who your target audience is. What are their needs? What are their pain points? What type of information would they find useful?

You can’t produce relevant content if you don’t know who you’re producing it for. This research will enable you to build your ideal customer profiles (ICP) and buyer persona.

Solution #2: Do Your Keyword Research

To make sure your content is relevant, find out what your target audience is searching for.

And with keyword research, you’re literally finding out what they are searching for.

Keyword research tools like Google Ads’ Keyword Planner and Ahrefs enable you to determine what keywords are getting the most searches on search engines.

This will give you a lot of content ideas to work with.

And once you have a list of relevant keywords, you can start creating valuable content around them.

Solution #3: Do Your Social Listening

Social media is a great way to see what topics are trending in your industry. And with social listening tools like Mention and Hootsuite Insights, you can easily track those topics.

This will give you a good idea of the type of content that’s currently resonating with your target audience.

You can then produce similar content that’s relevant to them.

3) Your Content Isn’t Engaging Enough

Content marketing is all about engagement. The more engaged your audience is with your content, the more likely they are to take action.

And yet, many SaaS businesses aren’t producing engaging content.

Their articles are dry and boring. They lack personality and excitement. As a result, their audience doesn’t stick around for very long.

So how do you make sure you’re producing engaging content? Here are some tips:

Solution #1: Write Better Headlines

Your headline is the first thing that people see when they come across your article. So it’s important to make a good impression with it.

One of the best ways to do that is to write headlines that are clear and to the point. They should be concise and describe what the article is about.

You can also use power words and numbers in your headlines, especially if you’re writing listicles. These have been shown to perform well on social media and on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Solution #2: Make Your Content More Visual

Make your content more visually appealing by adding images, infographics, and videos. People are more likely to engage with good content that’s easy on the eyes.

In fact, according to Snappa, articles with images get 94% more views than those without.

Solution #3: Use Stories To Make Your Content More Engaging

In 2017, business solutions company Square launched the “For Every Dream” campaign.

This was a series of short films that featured real-life small business success stories.

The company released twelve videos showing how people and communities, despite tough circumstances, have prevailed in their desire to create a better life for themselves.

A year after the campaign launch, Square won the Tribeca X Award, which celebrates content that mixes advertising and entertainment.

What does this story tell us?

This tells us that people love stories.

And when you use stories in your content, it can make it more engaging and exciting.

It doesn’t just capture your audience’s attention. It also invokes their emotions. And when your content makes them feel something, they will remember it more easily in the future.

4) You’re Not Actively Promoting Your Content

Just because you’ve published your content doesn’t mean people will see it. You need to actively promote it if you want to reach a larger audience.

Here’s how:

Solution #1: Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is one of the best ways to promote your content. And with platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, it’s easy to get started.

All you need to do is share your content on these platforms and include a link back to your website. This will help drive traffic back to your site and increase exposure for your business.

Solution #2: Email Marketing

Email marketing is another great way to promote your content. You can send out an email blast to your list whenever you publish a new article or piece of content.

This is a great way to ensure that your audience sees your content and has a chance to engage with it.

Solution #3: Paid Advertising

If you want to reach a larger audience, you can also use paid advertising. You can do this through tools like Google Ads or Facebook Ads.

With these platforms, you can target potential customers who are interested in the type of content you’re producing.

5) Your Blog Posts Aren’t Easy To Read

Your content might be well-written and engaging, but if it’s not readable, people will quickly lose interest.

So how do you make sure that your blog posts are easy to read?

Solution #1: Use Simple Language

When writing your content, use words that are easy to understand. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that your audience might not be familiar with.

If you must use technical terms, make sure that you define them or at least provide a link to another content piece that defines them.

And if you need to use an acronym, don’t assume that all of your readers know what it stands for. Write it out fully the first time you use it. And then you can use the acronym for the rest of the article.

Solution #2: Keep Sentences & Paragraphs Short

Another way to make your content more readable is to use short sentences and paragraphs. Long blocks of text can be tedious and even intimidating.

So break up your content into smaller chunks that are easy to digest. A good rule of thumb is to keep your sentences under 20 words and your paragraphs under 4 lines.

This will make it more likely that people will actually read what you have to say.

Solution #3: Use Subheadings & Bullet Points

Subheadings are a great way to organize your content and make it easier to read. They help readers quickly understand what each section is about

What’s more, they make it easy to skim through an article to find the information you’re looking for.

Similarly, bullet points are also a great way to break up your content and make it more readable. Rather than listing out things in sentence form, having them in bullet points makes them easier to scan and understand.

6) You Need A Better SEO Strategy

If you’re not ranking high in search engine results, then your content isn’t being seen by as many people as it could be.

This is why having a strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is so important. It can help you rank higher in the SERPs and get more eyes on your content.

Solution #1: Place Relevant Keywords Throughout Your Content

One of the most important things you can do for your SEO is to use relevant keywords throughout your blog post.

These are the words and phrases that people are searching for when they want to find information about your topic.

For example, if you’re writing about content marketing, some relevant keywords might be “content strategy”, “inbound marketing”, or “quality content”.

Including these keywords throughout your blog post will help search engines understand what your article is about. This will make it more likely to show up in relevant search results.

Solution #2: Optimize Your Meta Titles & Descriptions

Another important thing you can do for your SEO is to make sure that your meta titles and descriptions are optimized.

Your meta title is the title that appears in search engine results, and your meta description is the short description that appears underneath it.

Both of these elements should be clear and concise, and they should include relevant keywords. This will help to entice people to click on your article when it shows up in search results.

Solution #3: Link Out To High-Quality Websites

In addition to including relevant keywords, you should also link out to high-quality websites in your content.

When search engines see that you’re linking to reputable sources, it helps to improve your own ranking.

The opposite is also true. If you’re linking to spammy websites, it will hurt your rankings. In fact, Google may even penalize you for it.

So make sure that you’re only linking to websites that you trust and that are relevant to your topic.

7) You’re Not Publishing Consistently

Another common reason why content marketing efforts fail is that businesses don’t publish consistently.

If you’re only publishing a few times a month, or even once a week, it’s going to be hard to build up an audience.

Your readers will forget about you if they don’t see new content from you on a regular basis.

Solution #1: Develop Your Content Calendar

One of the best ways to stay consistent with your content is to develop a content calendar. This is a document that outlines all of the content you plan to publish, and when you plan to publish it.

Having a content calendar will help you stay on track and make sure that you’re publishing new content on a regular basis.

Solution #2: Create Your Content In Advance

Another way to make sure you’re publishing consistently is to create your content in advance. This way, you can have a few blog posts or articles ready to go at all times.

That way, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you can’t publish new content for a while, you already have some content lined up.

Solution #3: Set Realistic Publishing Goals

Finally, it’s important to set realistic publishing goals. If you’re only setting out to post once or twice a week, you’re more likely to achieve that goal.

But if you’re trying to publish multiple times a day, it’s going to be much harder to keep up with that schedule.

Start small and work your way up to publishing more frequently. But make sure that your goals are realistic and achievable.

Final Thoughts

Content marketing can be a great way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for your SaaS business.

But if your content marketing strategy isn’t working, you need to find out the root cause of the problem.

As every business is different, content marketing problems can also be quite diverse for each SaaS company.

But once you identify the problem and take the necessary steps to fix it, you can turn things around and start seeing success.

Looking for more guides and strategies to help you grow your SaaS business? Check out our blog here.