5 Ways To Conquer The Content Game As a SaaS Startup

As a Software-as-a-Service business, building awareness is imperative for your endeavour. Content marketing has established itself as one of the most powerful tools a SaaS company can use to attract, educate and convert customers. 

If executed well enough, your business can base its entire marketing plan around your content. Whether the goal is to establish a large audience base or close more sales, you’ll be hard-pushed to find a strategy that’s more effective than content marketing. 

There’s a clear and consistent correlation between website traffic and voluminous keyworded content. Image Source: Cobloom

Organic search is something most SaaS business owners are no doubt aware of, but the lure of keyworded content for visitors is worth emphasising. But content marketing (and content in general) carries exponential benefits to software companies which not only drives traffic but builds both brand awareness and reputation. Here are five ways in which adopting a strong content marketing strategy can help your SaaS business. 

Craft content for each stage of the buyer’s journey

Ultimately, you should be aiming to produce content that provides information capable of guiding customers through every stage of the sales funnel. This means that you should not only plan on spreading awareness of your business at the top of the funnel but also focus on converting interested visitors into paid customers and then retaining them.

Alexa, an Amazon-owned inbound marketing software details the significant stages of the sales funnel as ‘awareness’, ‘lead generation’, ‘trial sign-ups’, ‘conversion to paid customers’ and ‘customer retention.’

Build awareness by creating content that targets top keywords related to the industry as a means of gaining prominence of Google’s search results pages. Once customers are aware of your organisation and the software it provides, your goal should be to produce content that underlines the usefulness of your product and earn their trust in you. 

Trial signups are a great way of introducing your software in a practical sense, and the offering of free trials should be a central part of your publications as a result. To ensure a customer conversion from samplists to fully-fledged paid customers, it’s vital that you produce content that enables them to make successful use of your service. 

Finally, it’s important to remember that the customer journey isn’t complete after they make a purchase. Ensure that they continue to enjoy and learn new things about your service. Produce content that underlines any new features added, or place a regular spotlight on a new aspect of your software. 

Create customer-focused content

There’s no better way of luring customers onto the pages of your website than through crafting content that’s been written with them in mind.

When coming up with ideas for content, be sure to step into the shoes of your target audience. Take a moment to think of who they are, what they would be looking to achieve from reading your content, and what keywords they would likely be using to find your articles. 

There’s plenty of services available that helps you monitor recurring keywords that your prospective customers regularly search for. Ahrefs, in particular, features a powerful keyword explorer that can identify the recurring questions asked of Google by your target audience.

Image Source: Ahrefs

With numerous freelancing platforms at your disposal (e.g. UpWork and PPH), there’s always an option to let someone else take care of your copywriting (promo alert!). 

The art of the call-to-action

The call-to-action is arguably the most effective trick up the sleeve of content marketing. Even if a visitor reads your articles and develops an interest in your business, there’s no guarantee that they’ll make a purchase. However, an effective A/B-tested call-to-action and embedded inside your content can act as a catalyst in waking the reader up and forcing them into making a decision over whether or not to take their interest further. 

Image Source: HubSpot

A simple ‘sign up for a free trial now’ hyperlink to a sample of your product can make a significant difference in the number of conversions you’ll receive as a result. 

HubSpot found that their use of anchor text call-to-actions increased their conversion rates by 121%.

There are plenty of styles that are adopted in call-to-actions. From the more blatant direct address to the reader to an indirect promotion of your service and link to an offer or free trial. Both approaches can appeal to different audiences, and it pays to take a moment to think about the type of visitor that you’re aiming to appeal to. Alternatively, your call-to-action can always be A/B tested and scaled based on your levels of success.

Build trust

Your target audience is more likely to make a purchase on your website if they feel that they can trust your business and the service it provides. By producing quality content that exemplifies your knowledge surrounding the industry and technology you provide, you can position yourself as a trustworthy and reliable organisation in the eyes of the readers. 

Trust can be established by creating content that’s dedicated to providing a free insight into a topic that’s of interest to your audience. Free guides and how-tos of your services also make for an important stepping stone in building a level of trustworthiness. 

Bear in mind that a direct call-to-action may encourage more sales, but if a prospective customer feels as though they’re being bombarded with superficial marketing tactics they’re likely to be put off of revisiting your business’s pages. 

Ensure exposure

As touched upon before, content marketing is an effective and relatively cost-effective way of creating long-term and organic exposure for your business. 

This is especially effective if you’re a SaaS startup or fledgeling business. While your target audience may not have previously been aware of your organisation, through effective keyword optimisation and quality content, your business will guarantee its visibility on the top pages of Google’s search results pages. 

Be sure to conduct some keyword research in order to find the best terms to target. It could even be worth checking the question-and-answer pages of websites like Quora to see if there are any frequently asked questions that your business could answer as a solid reference point. 

Image Source: Quora

By strategising your content to answer the questions that your prospective audience are continually asking, you can not only build exposure but create a piece of evergreen content that will continue to generate leads long into the future.