The SaaS Content Marketing Playbook will help you build a stronger B2B B2B market

Most SaaS (software as a service) firms focus on short-term success. We've all been taught to concentrate on short-term wins, like more subscribers more sales and faster revenue growth however for some companies...sheer quantity! Volume was King (yes, just like content).

However, the landscape is changing. SaaS companies face decreasing budgets, and an uncertain environment where each effort is appreciated. This means that B2B marketers are doing better by using lesser. The truth is that the methods of marketing based on volume do nota lasting, long-lasting, and purpose-driven marketing strategy.

It's time to think about a different approach to SaaS Content Marketing. In this post we'll talk about the issues that are causing us to be tired in the field of content marketing. We'll also hear stories from marketers in the real world who've tested to prove new channels and methods that your company could take advantage of and apply.

Content marketer's Guide for B2B

1.     What's old in SaaS the world of marketing content
2.     The most efficient channel to use for SaaS content marketing
3.     SaaS marketing content examples to research
4.     Content marketing using video for B2B SaaS
5.     Content strategy strategies to SaaS businesses
6.     Closing up

What's been stale in SaaS marketing for content?

We'll look at some of the most frequently used media strategies for marketing that we don't suggest.

Cold, outbound emails with little or no information to back it up.

For those who aren't familiar with the concept the first cold pitch usually is sent via email to reach out with no supporting content or worth offering. The potential customer isn't sure why or what to do and hasn't been given the incentive to purchase your item or service.

The strategy may have been efficient in the past as customers were more susceptible to sales messages and constantly enticed to purchase however, it's not working anymore. Today, consumers are continuously bombarded by such ads, however, they usually to aren't interested because they don't provide any an actual benefit or give any insight about how your product can do for them.

Phil Strazzulla, the founder of SelectSoftware Reviews, a website designed to assist HR departments choose the most suitable SaaS platforms.

"The most efficient strategy for 2023 is cold-outbound emails without support. We all receive too many emails from unknown senders whom we've never even met, thanks to programs like Outreach, Apollo, and SalesLoft that make it simple to automate and scale the outbound marketing emails."

He further stated "Marketing teams need to pair this strategy with advertisements for brand that are geared toward the exact audience of customers, efforts to call or email, and also offline mailings if the budget allows it."

Content that isn't targeted to any one particular group of people

It's tempting to think that any piece of content is a good fit for all your audience members, however that's not the case. Each audience will have their own needs so you have to adapt the content you make to meet or exceed them.

B2B buyers want details on the best way to use your product or service in order to meet their requirements. They require proof that the product is effective but they're also looking for tips about how they can use the product more efficiently.

An excellent example is HubSpot. HubSpot's blog HubSpot blog is a resource with content to solve many issues that pertain to their audience that are digital marketers, salespeople and professionals in customer service.

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The long form content is for the love of it.

Long-form content won't go away anytime soon but it's not always able to attract the attention of people with a lot to accomplish and who are not so busy. It's true that a majority of B2B companies have the same information, so nurture sequences or gated deals don't seem as effective they did previously.

The same goes for longer pieces like white papers and research reports. These are also difficult to read as they are extremely technical and limited to a specific number of potential buyers. The long case studies, though beneficial as social proof, could lose the attention of prospective buyers. Do you really want to appear as an additional tab in the busy computer of a marketer?

If you've put money into lengthy written material, consider packaging the material into video that are short enough for quick use and distribution.

For example, Omniscient Digital, a content marketing agency Omniscient Digital offers brief video case studies as an alternative to the standard written cases. This can be a wonderful way to showcase results without having to require time to go through all of the content in case they prefer videos (which most of us would do).

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Imitating invisible competitors

It's all too typical: companies create blogs, and copies rivals' blogs with a succession of one after another. It's an incredibly common SEO play and is most common for companies that sell software to other companies as these firms often see other SaaS businesses as rivals, even though they're in different industries and niches.

Yash Chavan, the founder of SaaS-based Influencer Marketing Platform Saral agrees using other brands or blogs for marketing isn't a good idea. Chavan suggests:

"Understand that every market, product and their marketing strategies are unique... therefore there are various ways to work with every one. Utilize your strengths. As an for instance, if your service has the ability to gather great fresh data (e.g. tools to survey) Use the data to create fresh content. If your offering involves inviting other people to purchase it, get into referrals to boost your sales. Do not try to follow what blogs on marketing suggest - just do what you!"

The most efficient methods to utilize for SaaS marketing content

The best ways to get in touch to your clients are based on the interests of your customers as well as their needs. However, these are the four most effective channels you can utilize to use for SaaS content marketing, yes even video!

1. SEO, as well as content that is evergreen

Some examples of evergreen content are:

• Content from the product
• Instructions on how to
• Industry-leading practices
• Stories of customer success and testimonies from testimonials

To increase the visibility of your content to search engines You must ensure that it is more search engine-friendly such as Google as well as YouTube. This involves making backlinks (links from other websites), writing compelling text in your article, and including popular phrases in your articles' title and body to enhance the relevancy of the search engine.

2. Email

Email marketing is one of the oldest types of marketing via content, which is one of the most efficient. As we discussed above, email marketing tactics are evolving over time (bye cold calls, bye) but the technique is still a great method for SaaS marketers.

In the process of producing relevant content, we cover each phase of the customer's journey from nourishing users of blogs to acquaint new customers by delivering videos, to remind customers of their renewal date or offering discounts on upgrade discounts Email allows the sending of this content via targeted campaigns.

Email also provides a unique one-on-one experience between you and your prospects or customers...something SEO and social media lacks.

The example below taken from Zoom provides an example of the way SaaS enterprises can gain from emails for upgrade or renewals.

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3. Event (IRL or virtual)

Events in person, such as networking gatherings, seminars and conferences, although not as popular in the midst of the outbreak, are resurfacing and in a big way because people are seeking groups and live occasions.

These events can help you build and strengthen relationships with your clients and potential customers, gain insight into the marketplace and also validate any concepts for brand or product development as well as connect with potential collaborators, influencers and experts from the industry.

4. Social media

• Utilize your company's Facebook Page or Twitter page to convey important information to your intended customers. The people who are following your page via social media are more likely to believe in you, and they may make purchases from your business sometime in the future.
• Upload videos (videos!) of users who are using your product or service. Genuine content written by people using the product or service can cause them to feel more connected to the brand and eager to find out more about it.
• Interact with users who post comments or who have queries via social media platforms. You are able to reply with a directly messaging for more personal relationships with prospects.
• Don't forget about influencers and the industry's leadership! Reach out to them on social media platforms and inquire whether they'd be interested to share their knowledge to others through blog posts and videos or by speaking at events.

SaaS Content Marketing examples of content marketing to learn from

HubSpot

Hubspot is producing blog articles since 2014 and has since become one of the most successful story-telling success stories in content marketing.

The company uses its blog posts to attract new prospects and to provide value to current customers. The marketing section of the blog includes topics like automation of marketing as well as social media marketing as well as blogging.

However, what distinguishes HubSpot distinct is the use of different formats.

For instance, HubSpot uses a mixture of HubSpot ultimate guides, podcasts, and videos in blog posts, to offer its audience an option.

HubSpot Academy is a different crucial component of HubSpot's Content strategy. The online academy offers brief classes on everything from basic methods of marketing, such as identifying prospects on social media or designing the perfect drip email program until the more advanced levels of certification, such as the Certification in Inbound Marketing certificate..

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How do you make it work?

• A focus on helping clients to solve the real challenges
• A variety of different kinds of content to appeal to diverse audiences and tastes
• An authentic voice that doesn't try to try overly to come off as humorous or intelligent.

Microsoft

In the Office 365 blog, Microsoft has developed a library of valuable content that helps customers to understand the range of products and use cases and offers advice on ways to make the most out of the subscriptions they have.

Microsoft has created a great website with the Microsoft 365 University website. It was created to be an online community to students and teachers which allows users to get more information regarding Microsoft 365 products and services.

In addition, they provide the online course " Create Your First App," where you will learn to create applications using Visual Studio Code and Azure DevOps Services.

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What makes it work:

Microsoft focused on creating an eBook or video-based series that could be available for all year long and let customers to peruse the contents anytime. This eliminates the need to create new content and lets Microsoft to concentrate on meeting demands of the customer.

Adobe

Adobe launched CMO.com, a magazine/publication that offers the reader with value through its content that covers the top topics for digital managers. It includes essays of thought-leaders within the field, as well as perspectives by Adobe on technology, products and industry-specific innovations.

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It's a fantastic illustration of how SaaS companies can use content marketing to build and nurture customer relationships that will result in higher sales.

The reason why it works

The reason it works is because the content of CMO is non-product-specific, which means they don't focus on their company's products or services. Content is focused on the issues, trends and opportunities that can be avoided the digital disruption.

SARAL

SARAL is an influencer marketing platform which connects influencers with brands. Their blog offers valuable info about the particulars and benefits of marketing via influencers. The blog is not just used for advertising the product but also to assist users (marketers) in running efficient campaigns.

The company's founder does not just write blog articles and spreads the word about his two primary ideas across 50 social channels each week. This means that he is able to reach a larger public.

The reason why it works

Yash Chavan who is the creator of Saral said that changing his focus from publishing two blogs per week to the promotion of two concepts on fifty social networks significantly changed the way he markets through media.

Chavan conducted an experiment which showed that his site's traffic dropped by 35% after the content was not distributed for the course of a month. He also offers advice to the next generation of SaaS marketers and the founders of SaaS to create high-quality content in instead of content that is low quality and to share the content as widely as possible.

Video content marketing to B2B SaaS

The use of video marketing can be an extremely effective method for B2B as well as B2C companies. However, the video contents you make possess distinct objectives that are B2B or B2C (i.e. education or. engage).

In reality, HubSpot Blog Research found that 15 percent of B2B marketers make creating thought leadership to be a major objective of their video marketing strategies compared to only 9percent of B2C marketers.

There are many more methods that B2B SaaS firms use videos more often as B2C companies:

• Explainer videos
• Product demos
• Live streamed events
• Video clips of product
• Behind-the-scenes videos
• Our customers' testimonials and personal accounts

If you have a B2C firm the strategy for social media may be different from the one of a B2B SaaS firm. This is because the former is dependent on TikTok and Instagram while the latter probably use Twitter as well as LinkedIn often.

The reason is that these platforms are more suitable to their clients: B2C brands want to be able to communicate with customers directly and customers, while B2B SaaS businesses prefer to communicate with professionals in the industry with longer sales cycles , as well as being more influential.

Strategies for content SaaS businesses

Let's talk about the top methods to produce content to use by SaaS marketing pros in 2023.

Find out more information about the individuals that you're aiming at

In the process of creating content, it is important to know the people you're speaking to and what they're looking for from you and your business. In order to do that, do market research and speak to potential clients or users of your service or product. Learn what kind of information they're looking for and how they prefer consuming it via audio, video or even texts.

Develop personas that reflect the needs of your target audience and needs and use those personas as a guideline to create designs, layout, and then present your content.

The idea of conducting feedback surveys is an additional way to understand your audience. These surveys are beneficial since they permit you to collect the opinions and thoughts of actual users in order to determine the future direction of your services and products.

Professional Tip:Look at Google Trends to determine the keywords relevant to your business and then use the data to determine which topics you'll discuss in your blog posts or updates to social media.

Make changes to the information you already have

For SaaS companies, updating your content is an excellent method to keep your highly valuable content relevant and discoverable.

If you are creating video and written content, keep an eye on when the content becomes live. It is also important to monitor impact and traffic. Every quarter, you should go through your library to identify changes in the quantity of people using the library in your content, then prioritize the assets that require updates. As your product develops, you must make sure your content is in keeping with the most recent features of your software along with the correct imagery.

You can also modify the information you have already created by adding fresh content or data. It will be more useful to those who have searched for similar data in the past but didn't find what they were looking for on your website.

Prioritize distribution

If you don't have an an approach to disseminating your content, it will never reach the users who require it the most. It's essential to know what areas your users are surfing the web- whether that's websites, social media sites or discussion forums, and then come up with strategies for getting people to go to your site.

Find out which metrics are important to you.

It's essential to know which metrics matter for you and which is the most efficient method to measure them.

You may would like to boost brand recognition, provide value to your audience and boost customer loyalty. Content marketing can be an effective method to reach those goals -- especially when you employ a planned approach and create high-quality content that is able to resonate with the target market.

If you're looking to create leads, the content you write for marketing should be focused on bottom-of the-funnel (BOFU) content which naturally contains product information as well as opens at the areas of conversion (e.g. Demo requests or trial registrations which are totally free). You can also complement your content strategy with ads that are paid to draw more people to these resources as well as help you generate leads that are qualified.

Produce unique, data-driven content

Data-driven content is a great method of delivering the most recent knowledge to your clients. This can also be a fantastic method to distinguish yourself from your competitors.

SaaS firms have an edge in this field because they are able to access tons of information on their customers and potential clients. This information allows they can develop content that is directly addressed to their requirements and help them in solving the issues that they are facing.

SaaS marketer and co-founder of AdEspresso Massimo Chieruzzi believes that writing software based on AI are set to soon make it easier for people to create content. The quality of writing produced by these tools will far surpass those of copywriters. The only way to beat AI is to beat AI is to develop unique content.

"Quality is a variety of different items. This could include thought leadership featuring a distinctive (and certainly not controversial) perspective in the field. Also, it could be the writing of information-driven content using SaaS internal information . "

Massimo mentions the fact that during AdEspresso the company first invested into writing articles that analysed the millions of Facebook Ads managed through the platform. This approach paid off in building a reputation, creating trust and regular visitors. It also attracted many backlinks.

The wrap the

2023 will focus on offering your customers and prospects with specific and relevant information that is available with a range of formats, including, but especially, videos. SaaS clients are busy and want information that is long-lasting and has an original point of view.

Videos are a way to promote your business and let you stand out against your competition But remember to provide audience-focused, personalized details that give someone the most value, you'll crush your content marketing goals.

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