Do you want to create content that gets stakeholders or decision makers talking? If so, read on as we walk you through B2B content marketing strategies that bring SaaS brands closer to target buyers, so stay tuned!
B2B SaaS brands operate in a very competitive environment. This means your brand will have to navigate a complex terrain to get noticed in overcrowded markets.
But how can your SaaS solution get the attention it deserves from potential clients? The answer lies in creating a B2B SaaS content marketing strategy that outshines your competitors.
Do you know that 47% of B2B decision makers/buyers read about 3-5 pieces of content even before they decide to contact a salesperson?
After all, your potential buyers are specialists in their industries, and they don’t buy SaaS solutions by impulse. They are looking for a partner who understands their pain points and language and can help them attain the desired results.
We will discuss the top content marketing for B2B SaaS insider tips to help you get started on creating a growth engine in no time. Let us walk together as we debunk how you can achieve content marketing success for your brand.
What is B2B SaaS Content Marketing?
Content marketing has become a buzzword in today’s marketing landscape.
But what is it? And why should B2B brands care about it?
In fact, SaaS brands using content marketing report a 400% increase in new leads.
Content marketing is a targeted approach to marketing that involves crafting and distributing engaging, valuable, and relevant content to attract and retain loyal customers and, consequently, drive profitable client action.
So, what makes B2B SaaS content marketing different from other marketing areas?
B2B target audiences look at your brand to achieve specific business goals, such as improving productivity, reducing costs, or increasing efficiency. Potential buyers turn to Google or Bing to research before they onboard a vendor. This implies that your content needs to be high-quality if you want to grab their attention.
Additionally, B2B purchases involve a more complex, longer decision-making process. Several stakeholders might be involved, needing comparisons, research, and, often, approval. This means you need to craft content that keeps your prospects engaged throughout the buying journey.
Lastly, the typical B2B potential buyer is more educated than ever before. They conduct in-depth online research before contacting a software vendor. So your content needs to be top-notch to grab their attention.
That said, developing a successful B2B SaaS content marketing strategy isn’t a walk in the park, but it’s essential to your brand’s success.
Why is Content Marketing for B2B SaaS Brands Important?
Let’s face it. Closing a sale in the B2B SaaS industry isn’t easy. A solid content marketing strategy is all you need to win in this highly saturated market.
Here are the benefits such a strategy will bring to the table:
Builds credibility and trust with your target audience
Trust is the primary advantage your brand can have over the competition. It is a decisive factor that helps decision-makers consider your SaaS brand. When your brand offers consistent insights, shares expert perspectives, and answers common questions, it positions itself as a credible source of helpful information rather than another SaaS company trying to sell its product.
Once you differentiate your brand, you become a thought leader in the B2B SaaS space, encouraging potential buyers to choose you over the competition.
For example, HubSpot provides informational content on digital marketing strategies, which marketers recommend. Creating top-notch content helped them establish trust/ credibility in the inbound marketing niche and attract prospects who need assistance.
Generate Leads
High-quality content guides your potential clients through the various stages of their buying journey, from brand awareness to the final purchase.
According to a recent study, 72% of marketers reported increased lead flow and engagement rates.
When your brand creates content that addresses your prospects’ goals, pain points, and questions, it naturally attracts clients looking for solutions.
Establish your brand as a go-to expert
Potential clients need to trust your brand before they can close a sale. That’s why content that offers immense value- think honest competitor comparisons, guides, and even templates – makes such a huge difference. Transparency is the new currency in B2B SaaS marketing.
Remember, 80% of B2B decision-makers and buyers prefer learning about a brand through content rather than being bombarded with ads. Consistent, top-notch content positions your brand as a go-to resource, making it a natural step to purchase your software.
Improve Sales
Lastly, in addition to generating leads, B2B SaaS content marketing can also help you drive more sales. By offering your sales team top-notch posts and educating your potential clients, you can establish your SaaS brand as the go-to solution for their unique needs.
10 Steps to Create Your B2B SaaS Content Marketing Strategy
A solid B2B content marketing plan for SaaS isn’t a set-and-go strategy. It’s what helps you outrank your competitors. Decision-makers don’t want a sales pitch. They need proof. They want an expert opinion. And they want it pretty fast. That’s where you top-notch B2B SaaS content comes in.
Nowadays, it is no longer sufficient to publish whitepapers and blogs. Well-implemented B2B SaaS content strategies work as lead-generating machines. They combine automation, personalization, sharp storytelling, and research to present to potential clients.
Research Your Target Audience
Let’s face it. You can’t sell to prospects you don’t know. That’s why a lot of B2B SaaS brands throw everything at their potential clients and hope something comes up.
The problem is: operating without a clear ideal client profile means you are at risk of delivering your marketing message to the wrong people, who may not be interested in your product or services.
Creating content without knowing your target audience is like going on a road trip without a GPS or a map. Such a trip can lead to wasted time, frustrating detours, and ultimately the risk of getting lost.
Defining your ideal client profile is the first step in creating a B2B SaaS content marketing strategy that focuses on the right people.
B2B audiences differ from individual clients, as they represent organizations and companies seeking solutions to improve their operations. The main goal of B2B SaaS content marketing is to reach influencers, key stakeholders, and decision makers within these businesses. Understanding their pain points and motivations is essential to craftin engaging, relevant content.
Knowing who your target audience is forms a solid foundation for your SaaS content marketing strategy. Audience research helps you to:
- Customize your brand’s messaging: Create top-notch content that speaks directly to the people you want to reach.
- Optimize resources: Helps you allocate your marketing efforts to the most promising segments of your audience.
- Increases engagement: craft personalized client experiences that satisfy unique needs.
To know your target audience, here are some things you need to consider:
1. Market segmentation: Divide your target market into different groups based on similar tra
2. Client personas: create detailed profiles to represent unique segments of your target audience.
Set Goals and KPI’s of your B2B SaaS content marketing strategy
Set Goals and KPI’s of your B2B SaaS content marketing strategy
What are you trying to achieve with your SaaS content? Are there specific keywords your brand wants to rank for? Do you want to target buyers at all stages of the sales funnel, or only at particular stages of the buyer’s journey?
To make your content goals actionable, leverage the SMART framework.
S–Specific: You need explicit goals that outline precisely what you want to achieve. This includes goals such as boosting brand awareness, improving client retention, and generating more leads.
M-Measurable: You must be able to measure the goals to track success and progress effectively.
A-Attainable: Your goals should not be too hard or too easy. They should be realistic while accounting for available resources, such as personnel, time, and budget.
R- Relevant: Your goals should align with broader market conditions and business goals, ensuring they align with your overall brand objectives.
T- Time-bound: Set a clear deadline or time framework for attaining your business goals.
Map Content to Different Stages of Your Client’s Buying Journey
Mapping content to various stages of the client journey implies knowing what your target audience needs at every touchpoint, from discovering they have a problem to closing a sale, or even becoming ambassadors of your brand.
Here is a breakdown of a typical customer journey that will help you map content at different stages:
Awareness: A potential buyer realizes they have a problem and starts to look for solutions online, which is when they come across your brand.
Consideration: Clients consider your B2B SaaS service or product as a potential solution.
Decision: The buyer decides and buys the service or product that best addresses their needs.
Onboarding: The customer begins using your product, goes through an onboarding process, and gets familiar with the tool by watching videos and reading guides. They adopt your tool into their daily workflow.
Support: Users contact client teams as they require ongoing support.
Retention: Customer retention is an integral part of the buyer journey, and at this stage, buyers decide whether to remain loyal clients and continue using your software.
By aligning each content type with a stage in the customer buying journey, you guide potential clients forward with the right nudge. The goal here is to reassure, educate, and guide- never to push sales pitches.
Perform a competitor analysis.
When creating your B2B SaaS content marketing strategy, it is crucial to spy on your competitors. This will help you know what they are doing and what your site lacks. It will offer you a general overview of what to remove and include to create a campaign that outranks them.
To perform your research, check your competitor’s sites and social media profiles. Identify an area where you could do better than your rivals and write an engaging post that will set your brand apart.
Create top-notch content that resonates with clients at different stages of their buying journey
Since the B2B Sales cycle is longer, you need content to engage decision-makers/stakeholders at different stages of the funnel. Buyers will have other concerns and needs depending on where they are in the buying journey.
Awareness Top of the funnel: This is where prospects begin to learn about your SaaS brand and its services or product offerings. Blog posts, guest blog posts, podcasts, social media posts, and infographics are great examples of TOFU content.
Middle of the funnel (Consideration) – At this stage, prospects start to regard your service or product as an option. Webinars, ebooks, live video, product comparisons, and product feature pages are some good examples of MoFu content.
Bottom of the funnel (Decision)-This is where they finally settle on a solution and convert into buyers. Pitch decks, customer case studies, website pricing pages, and proposals are examples of BoFu content.
Perform Keyword and Topic Research
Based on your ideal client profiles, competitive analysis, and content audit, you will have a general overview of topics your prospects are interested in. But that’s not sufficient. Make sure that your target audience is searching for the topics you choose. That’s where topic and keyword research come in.
Use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to identify the phrases, keywords, and topics your prospects are searching for.
Leverage creative storytelling
Stories can help to connect your brand to people. For B2B SaaS brands, telling the right story can change your customer journey from a sales pitch into a relationship. B2B buyers are tired of sales pitches, reports, and white papers that only overwhelm them with too much information.
You can leverage storytelling in your B2B SaaS content strategy to:
Create urgency: Tell stories of brands that struggled previously until they found your solution
Demonstrate real impact: Avoid listing features; instead, focus on how the solution can benefit businesses.
Showcase the buyer as the real hero: You should use the buyer as the primary protagonist, trying to overcome real challenges.
Let your creativity shine: Whether through suspense, a narrative twist, or humor, ensure that your story is compelling, memorable, and engaging.
Explore content distribution platforms.
While creating top-notch content is vital, good distribution is essential. An adequate distribution strategy ensures your content reaches the intended audience via the right platforms, and your B2B SaaS content marketing strategy is implemented to the letter.
Creating top-notch content is only half the battle; you also need to identify channels that will ensure your target audience receives your message. Here are some of the platforms that you can use to distribute your content:
• Owned channels: Your blog, email newsletters, and website.
• Social media: Platforms such as LinkedIn to engage with your audience
• Paid ads: promote main content such as ebooks or webinars
• Partnerships: Leverage collaborations to reach a wider audience.
Measure Impact and optimize accordingly
Crafting and publishing top-notch content is only half the battle. Measure what is working, and implementing your strategy when required is how you keep up the momentum. Tracking important metrics is the most effective way to achieve this.
Utilizing tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and GA4, you can monitor metrics such as:
• Keyword ranking improvements
• Organic traffic improvement from non-branded keywords
Build a High-Impact B2B SaaS Content Marketing Strategy
A well-aligned B2B content marketing strategy helps your SaaS brand convert organic traffic into qualified leads. Investing in TOFU and MOFU content ensures that you are educating potential clients and guiding them through conversion.
With this guide, you are armed with the information you need to develop and implement an effective B2B SaaS SEO content marketing strategy. As a full-service SaaS content marketing agency, Barger Digital has the expertise to offer innovative solutions for SaaS companies to highlight challenges faced by the industry.