How to win and keep customers with SaaS Content Marketing

In SaaS marketing the aim of your content is to generate leads, convert prospects, reduce churn and upsell additional services. To do that effectively you need to create content that meets the needs of your audience. Your inbound marketing strategy should include developing buyer personas and targeting appropriate content at different stages of the buyer’s journey.

But what topics make for a great piece of content for SaaS? Here are four tried and tested types of content that are effective and enduring.

Explainer – create content that educates and explains

A crucial type of content for SaaS is educational content. One of the typical challenges of SaaS content marketing is persuading people to move to SaaS from a boxed or in-house solution. You will be up against preconceptions, prejudices, and even potential political interference from vested interests.

Explaining what SaaS is, its features, how it differs from other solutions and the potential benefits of switching is essential as it drives potential customers in the awareness stage of the buyers journey further down the sales funnel. Put yourself in their shoes; they are trying to understand what your SaaS product is, looking for explanations, overviews, reasons to investigate further. If you can publish good quality, well optimised content that answers their questions and helps them formulate a strategy, they will lap it up. Your name will then become synonymous with being helpful, knowledgeable and approachable – making it far more likely they will come to you when they want to buy.

Also, having an educated buyer benefits you by pre-qualifying them for your product. They are far more likely to know what will work for them – which will save Sales time and avoid any mismatch between a buyer’s needs and your offering. If your service has advantages and features you can sell, it Is always much easier to sell these to an educated buyer – who will understand why those advantageous and features are important to them.

Statistics – present authentic data in attractive ways

Persuading people that SaaS is a viable option and that your solution brings benefits, is much easier to do if you present the audience with facts. Surveys and data are powerful persuaders – especially if presented in a clear and logical way, such as in an infographic or chart. They are also useful as ammunition for your potential buyers when they are making the case to their board or other financial gatekeepers.

Independent surveys from a recognised body have the most authority, but failing that, collect your own data and commission surveys to provide the basis for statistics based content. Choose one point to make with each chart or element of an infographic and illustrate it cleanly, attractively and with style.

If you only have a single piece of data – present it as a big quote in an image – this is known as a pull quote and is a very powerful way of not only emphasising the statistic, but it’s also a great way of catching the eye and getting people to read your copy too.

Moving to SaaS – overcoming objections

When selling anything, one of the classic steps in the process is overcoming objections. Make a list of all the possible barriers – real or perceived – to moving to SaaS. Talk to your existing clients and see what reservations they had before making the jump. Commission surveys if necessary, but establish a good list of reasons why a potential buyer might not want to go down the SaaS route. Then, write a series of blogs discussing these and showing the way forward. It is important to do these in depth and not to gloss over these objections – deal with each fairly and comprehensively. This previous post may help you generate some ideas: 30 Blog ideas for your SaaS company. 

Case Study – the mother of all effective content

The three types of content above can actually come together nicely in a case study. As soon as you have customers, you should consider publishing case studies. Well written case studies have a whole range of benefits including:

• Using actual clients gives you authority and proves you deliver in the real world
• Well-known clients give you even more credence, and potential customers will think, “well, if it’s good enough for them…”
• It helps to explain the process – telling a story but educating and guiding at the same time
• It strikes a chord with prospects – especially if they are facing the same problems
• If you can, add some data to the case study – especially relating to cost savings or other evidence of return on investment – it can really help sell your solution, especially to boards and other financial gatekeepers
• You can talk about the issues and the barriers and how they were addressed/overcome – so making the sales case, but in a less direct fashion

All these valuable elements can be incorporated into a case study – making it one of the most powerful types of content out there.

With SaaS in particular, a great approach to take with a case study is to follow a customer’s journey from sign up to renewal. This could be one, or a series of articles – each looking in depth at a period in the customers experience of using your SaaS. Start by documenting a customer’s first day or signup, then their first week, then return to them after a month or two and maybe even look at their first major renewal after six months or a year. At this point you would be looking at how they have benefited, what the returns have been and any tips or advice for new customers.

Of course, there are many other types of content that would be effective when content marketing for SaaS, but these four are a great basis for evergreen content that will attract and convert prospects. If you do not have the expertise in-house to produce content, you may consider hiring the services of an inbound marketing agency that specialises in SaaS.