The SaaS industry is expanding at breakneck speed. If you’re selling a cloud application (or planning to), effective SaaS content marketing can build your audience, grow your brand and bring you loyal customers.
The SaaS market grew from just over $5 billion to $157 billion between 2008 and 2020 – that’s a staggering 28-fold increase. And it shows no sign of slowing down, either, with the market predicted to reach an eye-watering $700 billion by 2030. Because of the market growth and size, SaaS content marketing can often be different to other types of copywriting.
So how can you make sure you stay ahead of the competition, and corner your share of this multi-billion dollar market? There’s no reason why you can’t – as long as you’re prepared to compete in a fiercely competitive and dynamic climate. To survive, you need to nail your strategy and continually adapt to a constantly developing market.
We’re talking about strategising, evolving and constantly adapting to gain new customers – and keep the existing ones keen.
Let’s think of marketing for the SaaS industry as a high-speed train in full flight – to be able to jump on, you’ve got to be moving at the same speed. Thankfully, there’s plenty you can do to ensure your SaaS marketing always hits the spot with potential and existing customers. Read on to find out more.
SaaS (Software as a Service) refers to cloud-based services where users access your application via an internet browser or your own app. So instead of customers downloading software, as they would with Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat Reader, your application is hosted on the cloud and sold as a subscription-based service.
Slack, Zoom, Dropbox, HubSpot, Canva and Trello are all examples of SaaS products that are in use by most people today.
SaaS content marketing is adopting a strategic approach to attract and retain users for your SaaS product, through powerful and persuasive content.
By reaching current and potential buyers through various forms of content – such as landing pages, blog posts, videos, social media posts, podcasts and email campaigns – you can take a multi-pronged approach to reach your audience wherever they are. Content marketing for SaaS should:
Selling SaaS requires a completely different approach to marketing a product with an immediately obvious purpose, such as a laptop, printer, catering service or fibre optic broadband. With these products, customers already understand the nuts and bolts of what’s on offer. As a marketer, you simply need to convince them why yours is better than all the rest.
In SaaS, products are unique, highly technical and often convoluted in their workings. It follows that the language used to describe them can often be complicated and confusing. Even before you’ve explained what your product does, you risk alienating potential customers with terms and ideas they’ve never heard of.
This is even truer if it’s a new SaaS product or company. If your potential audience has no knowledge about you, how are you going to let them know you’re there – and that they need you?
When marketing for SaaS, to keep your audience’s attention, you need to quickly establish how your SaaS product solves a problem the user is having.
PAS is a powerful tool that SaaS marketers can use to increase subscriptions. It takes readers through a three-step process to pique their interest and encourage action.
The PAS framework helps SaaS companies create more compelling and persuasive content. Use it in emails, landing pages, ad copy, blog posts and video scripts to create a buzz around your SaaS product.
Here’s how it works:
Identify a problem, pain point or challenge your target audience may be experiencing. This will catch their attention as they realise, “Yes, that’s happening to me.”
Next, empathise with your readers by showing them you understand and care. This has the effect of building connection and trust.
| E.g. Is your SME struggling with payroll? Are your payroll staff bogged down with time-consuming processes and complicated software? |
Intensify the problem and explain what the negative consequences are. This creates a sense of urgency, making the reader more likely to want to solve the problem – and more receptive to learning about your proposed solution.
| E.g. In a fast-paced professional environment, outdated payroll systems can be a real drain on your business. Mistakes may be costly, and staff may feel under strain and perform less effectively. The result? A sluggish workforce and lost revenue. |
Introduce your SaaS product as the solution to the problem you’ve described. Set out how it resolves the issue you highlighted and soothes the pain points mentioned.
Finish off with a compelling CTA (call to action) that encourages the reader to find out more – or even sign up to your service.
| E.g. PayQuick transforms the way businesses handle payroll. Ensure error-free calculations and comprehensive compliance with ever-evolving regulations, and unlock the power of data-driven insights to inform your strategic decisions. |
It’s important to remember to think like the customer when creating content for SaaS. Too many SaaS brands get stuck in their own industry – you and your investors care about being a SaaS business because of the recurring revenue and sticky tech. Customers will only think of what you’re selling as a product or service that can solve their problem.
As we’ve highlighted, the tech industry is moving fast. By following the steps below, you can create a targeted SaaS content marketing strategy that ensures you’re advancing at the same pace as your competitors.
Before you lay out your SaaS marketing strategy, it’s important to establish what you hope to achieve. Are you looking to drive sign-ups, build brand awareness, attract new customers, generate conversations or seek feedback?
How do you want to present yourself to the public? What do you want customers to think of when they see your branding or hear your name? In order for your SaaS marketing strategy to be effective, you need a clear voice and solid core messaging.
Who are you marketing SaaS products to, and what is your typical customer like? What pain points do they have that you can address? When you know who you’re talking to, you can tailor your content so that you’re speaking to the right people, in their language. Establishing buyer personas can be extremely useful here – there may be more than one.
Before starting to write, invest the necessary time into SEO research. Use research tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to find keywords for your content, or hire an SEO agency to assist with your SaaS SEO content strategy. Including metadata and ensuring the correct use of keywords will drive plenty of traffic from search engines, as well as making sure you’re answering the right questions.
Where – and how – do you intend to market your SaaS product? You may wish to publish articles, blogs, reviews, infographics and videos to disseminate information through your website, social media accounts and email channels.
Once you’ve pinpointed your brand identity, established your target audience, carried out SEO research and chosen your channels, it’s time to set to work crafting high-quality digital copy. If necessary, hire skilled technical copywriters who understand your product and know how to describe it effectively and persuasively.
So you’ve created your SaaS marketing strategy. The work doesn’t stop there. Remember what we said earlier about the train – the SaaS market is like a high speed engine spinning through the Japanese or French countryside, and it isn’t planning to slow down so you can get on anytime soon.
To keep up, you need to:
Once your marketing content strategy is up and running, regularly review your performance data to find out what works and learn more about your customers. Through graphs, charts and other data visualisation tools, you can see at a glance what works and what needs to change.
What’s going to keep your customers loyal when there are hundreds of new SaaS companies being founded each year? The key is to build a sense of trust in your company through insightful information and thought leadership posts that help position you as experts in your field.
People want to buy the products they see others using and benefitting from, so it’s important to create social proof that your offer works. To do this, carve out an online space for testimonials and reviews where potential customers can share information and learn more about your tech.
Unlike B2C content marketing for SaaS, B2B content marketing in the SaaS industry typically involves targeting decision-makers within businesses – the ones who are going to be choosing which tech products are rolled out company-wide. It’s key, then, to take a more targeted approach and hone in on their specific needs, challenges, and aspirations.
For B2B content marketing, follow the steps outlined in the post above, as well as paying particular attention to:
In your SaaS marketing strategy, include case studies that demonstrate how your software has solved problems for similar businesses to those you’re targeting.
Create content to share in-depth insights and specialised information relevant to your target industry. This may be through webinars, whitepapers, e-books, emails and specialised blog posts that solidify your brand as a thought leader in the minds of your audience.
Set your SaaS product apart from the competition by providing unique insights and perspectives. Proving how your tech solves specific and uncommon problems is an effective way to strengthen your authority.
To build your credibility within the B2B market, it’s a great idea to forge ties with industry experts and influencers who can help expand your reach. Business leaders are increasingly becoming influencers online, and as financially-savvy people with a large audience they’re easy to collaborate with. You could try co-creating content such as blog posts, webinars and podcasts to increase your audience base.
Keen to learn more? Get in touch to discuss your business’s unique offering and how we can ensure you stay firmly on the SaaS marketing bullet train.
For copy that hits your KPIs you need the right words in the right places. Solve tricky business challenges with a clever copywriting process.
We are powered by writers and business people, with a sprinkle of AI and a healthy dollop of clever processes.
Get our lovely jubbly tips and tricks and useful writing licks:
