The Advanced Guide to B2B SaaS Content Marketing

What Makes SaaS Content Marketing Different

SaaS content marketing isn’t your average advertising. It’s trickier because it’s not about selling a physical thing you can touch. Instead, it’s about convincing businesses to trust and buy into a digital tool or service.

It’s complex because:

• The audience is different: You’re not selling to everyday folks, but to companies with specific needs and problems.
• The buying process is longer: Businesses don’t just click “buy now.” They research, compare, and often need approval from different people. Your content needs to guide them through this journey.
• The product is constantly changing: Unlike a physical product that stays the same, SaaS products are always updating and improving. Your content needs to keep up and show the latest value.

And on top of that, buyers are choosing to educate themselves before bringing sales to the table.

Cliff Simon, Chief Revenue Officer at Carabiner Group states, “In this environment, buyers are educating themselves more than ever. Its vital to have content that speaks to the customer and their needs. It’s just as important to create content for prospective clients as it is for existing ones.”

Establish Clear Positioning

Without clear positioning, your SaaS business swims against the current and you wind up losing momentum easily. With clear positioning, you flow with the current, as all of your content marketing is easier to produce and to generate results from. From the user perspective, with effective positioning your content resonates and feels as if it were written specifically for the target reader.

• Which part of the market do you serve?
• Are you a premium product, or the cheapest?
• Do you target specific verticals?
• Is your SaaS product for large enterprises, mid-sized companies, SMBs, or individuals?
• Is your software for a specific set of users?
• Do you care about the location of your users (one of our earliest SaaS clients targeted Japan and South Korea, for example)?

Identifying Your Target Audience

Did you know that 79% of B2B content marketers believe understanding their audience is key to successful content marketing?

It’s no surprise then that nailing down your target audience is the first step to creating a SaaS marketing strategy and engaging content.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to research. The best way to gather audience insights is to use a combination of methods:

• Internal resources: Analyze your performance metrics and CRM data, then consult with your sales and support teams for frontline insights.
• Analytics tools: Check website analytics (like Google Analytics) and marketing automation platforms to track user behavior, demographics, and interests. This quantitative data complements the qualitative insights gained from other methods.
• Customer interviews: Talking directly to your customers can uncover their needs, pain points, and preferences in their own words.
• Progressive profiling: Use tools and surveys to gather detailed information about your audience over time.
• Social listening: Gauge sentiment from relevant online forums or conversations on LinkedIn. Modern text analysis software can help you understand the language and emotions behind the chatter.

Build Audience Personas for Your SaaS Business

Once you’ve gathered enough information, create buyer personas. These are fictional representations of your ideal customers, based on real data.

In order to create content that resonates with potential customers and leads them to take the next step on the buyer journey, you should fully understand your audience. Defining your audience segments and building buyer personas around them gives you clarity about what your SaaS content marketing should look like.

Each segment of your audience should represent a distinct customer base you serve. For example, if you sell cloud-based HR software, one segment may be companies with more than 1,000 employees and another may be small businesses with 10 or fewer employees. Or, you may segment your audience by vertical.

Personas go beyond basic demographics like age and gender. They cover your audience’s:

• Goals and Challenges: What are they trying to achieve? What obstacles are they facing?
• Pain Points: What problems keep them up at night?
• Motivations: What drives their decision-making?
• Content Preferences: What type of content do they find most helpful and engaging?

Be sure to talk with your customers. Interview them. Really.

Prior to starting a new project, Stratabeat always asks our clients to introduce us to some of their customers. In certain cases, we go through 7-10 hours of interviews for a single client. If you want to know them, you need to talk directly with them!

Clarity on your audience segments and personas will make it much easier to execute an effective SaaS content marketing campaign from start to finish.

Map the Customer Journey

Next, map the customer journey from awareness to purchase and beyond.

The customer journey includes every touchpoint a customer has with your SaaS company as they try to achieve a specific objective (including but not limited to buying). The journey includes everything from the point at which they realize they have a problem to solve (or a goal to achieve), to the very first interaction with your brand, the content they read as they research their problem, the first purchase, and repeat purchases.

Obviously, the customer journey is never really linear and includes multiple touchpoints at each stage of the process. Thus the need to create a customer journey map that provides you with a visual representation of the entire journey.

Identify the key stages in the buyer’s decision-making process and create content touchpoints that address their needs at each stage. This could include:

• Top-of-funnel content: Blog posts, social media posts, infographics, and videos that educate and raise awareness.
• Middle-of-funnel content: Ebooks, whitepapers, webinars, and case studies that provide more in-depth information and build trust.
• Bottom-of-funnel content: Demos, free trials, and customer testimonials that help prospects make a purchasing decision.

The map should include all the places where a prospective customer engages with your brand. Once you understand all the different ways they are interacting with your brand, you can ensure that the content you’re creating at each touchpoint is relevant, answers their questions, and is optimized for maximum results.

What’s In It for Them?

Before you create any content, you need to have a foundational guiding principle in place that will guide all your efforts. Specifically, you need to determine why your audience will care about whatever piece of content you are creating.

• What value does the content add to your audience?
• Why should they spend their valuable time consuming it?
• Does it help them solve a problem or achieve an objective?
• Is there a particular reason they’ll love it and want to share it?
• How is it different than the many other pieces of similar content that have already been produced?
• How are they going to profit from your content? I mean, real cold, hard cash – PROFIT!

There is no shortage of valuable SaaS content being produced on a daily basis. If you want your SaaS content marketing to stand out and actually produce results, you need to create content that truly matters to your audience while increasing blogging frequency.

Be the brand that delivers the most value to your audience, bar none!

Research Topics and SEO Keywords

Topic and keyword research provides you with valuable insights into what your audience is searching for at each stage of the customer journey. And the information you gather at this stage goes beyond SEO purposes, although it certainly checks that box. You can use it to shape your SaaS content marketing efforts as a whole.

For example, say you offer a marketing automation tool for businesses. Keyword research around the phrases “marketing automation”, “marketing automation software”, and “email marketing automation” provides you with a large number of related topics and keywords that you can use in your marketing efforts.

These keywords help you get inside the minds of prospects. They give you insight into the challenges they’re facing, as well as what they want out of a marketing automation tool.

Keyword research also gives you insight into how your competitors are using content marketing to engage with their audience. Knowing this, you can look for creative ways to differentiate yourself.

For example, review Google page one for your top keywords. Study the SERP and understand what type of content is appearing for the different searches, and why.

In addition, use tools such as Ahrefs and BuzzSumo to see all the online content that has been published about your topic over the past year. Sort it by relevance. Then by date. By page traffic. Then by backlinks, and by Twitter shares. What you’ll uncover is the spectrum of related content by competitors.

Then, go deep. Filter by website, and go competitor by competitor to see all the related content by each company. See what’s performing well, and what appears not to be resonating.

Determine The Specific Questions Going through Their Minds

Similar to keyword research, you also want to determine the specific questions your prospects are asking as they progress through the buyer’s journey. Knowing the questions allows you to shape content that specifically answers those questions and removes any roadblocks that keeps them from moving forward.

What Eye Tracking Studies Reveal

If you don’t answer the specific questions running through their minds as they arrive on your website, you risk them abandoning your site and seeking their answers elsewhere. The Russian psychologist Alfred Lukyanovich Yarbus conducted eye tracking studies where he showed each study participant the same painting. But prior to showing each person, he would ask each individual a question. Depending on the question, the area of the painting they viewed was different.

For example, if he asked how old the people in the painting were, the study participant would look at their faces, and would not look elsewhere. If he asked what their status in society was, they would look at their clothing and the furniture, and would not look at their faces.

Relating this to your website, if your content is not aligned with specific questions running through their minds at that time, you’re likely going to miss the mark and lose them.

You can answer questions directly on your website, in blog posts, FAQ pages, tutorials, webinars, etc. What’s more, because so many Google searches are in the form of a question, providing direct answers to questions in your content increases the odds of you ranking on the first page of search results and even securing the featured snippet.

Uncovering Their Questions

If you’re not sure what questions your audience is asking, see the “People Also Ask” results in the Google SERPs. In addition, a tool like Answer The Public or AnswerSocrates can be very helpful. You simply type in any phrase and each tool returns variations on how that phrase is used in search queries.

For example, if you type in the phrase “marketing automation” into Answer The Public, they provide you with this lengthy list of questions:

You can also check out Google Question Hub, which lists questions that your audience is asking yet are as of yet unanswered online. This is an opportunity for you to get out ahead of your competitors. (Although keep in mind that Google Question Hub is still very much hit or miss. For some topics, the questions it presents are laughable at best.)

Conduct a Content Gap Analysis

Next, conduct a content gap analysis to help you identify areas where you’re missing content that addresses a specific need, question, problem, or challenge your customers have.

Examine your buyer funnel. Have content for each stage of the process? Each of their challenges? Each of your differentiators?

For example, if you sell ecommerce analytics software, a content gap analysis might show that potential customers are searching for guidance on effectively managing inventory levels and that you don’t have any content that addresses that issue. You could then craft a blog post that speaks directly to that issue in depth.

To conduct a content gap analysis that moves the needle, create a map of what your customers are looking for aligned with your customer journey map, and then list the content you have to meet their research needs. Identify not only where you need to fill the gaps, but also where your content is weak and needs reinforcing.

Building a Content Strategy

A well-defined content strategy provides direction, focus, and a roadmap for achieving your marketing goals. It’s also important to set goals that align with their organization’s objectives.

Start by establishing clear marketing goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

Common goals for B2B SaaS companies include:

• Awareness: Increasing brand visibility and reaching new audiences.
• Lead generation: Attracting and capturing qualified leads.
• Customer retention: Engaging existing customers and encouraging repeat business.

Caitlin DeAngelis, SEO & Content Strategist at Stratabeat states, “TOFU (top of the funnel) content is important for foundational education of your audience and creating entry points to the buyer journey. However, we’re definitely beginning to put even more weight into MOFU and BOFU content, which can’t always be easily summarized or commoditized by AI.”

Content Types That Resonate with B2B SaaS Audiences

What’s In It for Them?

Before you create any content, you need to have a foundational guiding principle in place that will guide all your efforts. Specifically, you need to determine why your audience will care about whatever piece of content you are creating.

• What value does the content add to your audience?
• Why should they spend their valuable time consuming it?
• Does it help them solve a problem or achieve an objective?
• Is there a particular reason they’ll love it and want to share it?
• How is it different than the many other pieces of similar content that have already been produced?
• How are they going to profit from your content? I mean, real cold, hard cash – PROFIT!

There is no shortage of valuable SaaS content being produced on a daily basis. If you want your SaaS content marketing to stand out and actually produce results, you need to create content that truly matters to your audience.

Be the brand that delivers the most value to your audience, bar none!

Focus on content formats that connect with your target audience. Recent research shows the three most popular content types are:

1. Short articles/posts (94%)
2. Videos (84%)
3. Case studies/customer stories (78%)

While short-form content is great for grabbing attention and driving organic traffic, it’s the more in-depth formats that often deliver the best results.

Case studies and customer stories are top performers for 53% of marketers. They provide real-world examples of how a product or service solves problems and delivers value. These stories build trust and credibility with potential buyers.

Videos are another powerful format. The same study highlights that 53% of marketers ranking them among their best content. Whether used for demos, tutorials, or thought leadership, videos offer an engaging and easy-to-understand way to share complex information. Youtube SEO is another way to get your videos in front of your audience.

Eduardo Casado, Head of Growth Marketing at Mouseflow states, “Video is one of the best formats to get your point across, and it offers a wide range of opportunities for repurposing. Yet, the most definitive aspect, in my opinion, is that almost all, if not all, algorithms favor this format. So, it’s a growth loop in itself: platforms favor video, which makes people create more of them. The longer people watch videos, the more time they spend on the platform and the more they return. Additionally, people often share videos outside the platform, driving referral traffic.”

Using AI and Automation

B2B SaaS companies aren’t immune to the AI and automation revolution.

72% of B2B marketers are experimenting with generative AI tools and AI generated content. They’re using them for tasks like brainstorming new topics, researching headlines and keywords, and outlining assignments.

Popular AI tools for B2B content marketing include Perplexity for research, Google Gemini for up-to-date information, and language models like ChatGPT and Claude for content generation and refinement.

As AI becomes more integrated into search engines, content marketers are adapting their SEO strategies. They’re focusing on user intent and creating more thought leadership and conversational content.

While AI may change the industry, experts advise focusing on creating comprehensive, high-quality content that addresses commercial intent queries.

Despite the growing adoption of AI, there are still concerns about accuracy, lack of training, and copyright issues. It’s important for organizations to establish clear guidelines for using generative AI tools. This helps address these concerns and ensure ethical and responsible use.

Cross-Channel Content Promotion

If no one sees your content, all that effort goes to waste. That’s where cross-channel content promotion comes in.

To get the most mileage out of your content, you need to spread the word across multiple platforms through your distribution strategy.

Best practices for cross-channel content promotion include:

Social Media

• Adapt your messaging and visuals to suit the specific audience and format of each channel
• Use visuals and compelling copy to stand out in busy feeds
• Engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages
• Use paid social advertising to target specific demographics and interests
• Use relevant hashtags to help your audience discover your content
• Experiment with different formats by sharing short videos, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or live Q&A sessions

Additionally, harness the power of employee advocacy. Encourage your team to share and promote content through their personal networks. This extends your content’s reach and adds a layer of trust and authenticity, as recommendations coming from real people within the company can significantly impact how audiences perceive and engage with your content.

When employees share interactive demos or personalized content experiences, like those on your SaaS platform, it can significantly enhance visibility and user engagement, leading to more demos and higher-intent meetings.

Email Marketing

• Send targeted emails to different segments of your audience based on their interests and stage in the buyer’s journey
• Use the recipient’s name and tailor the content to their specific needs
• Write catchy subject lines and preview text to increase open rates
• Optimize your email design for mobile devices
• Tell your subscribers what you want them to do with a clear call to action (CTA), whether it’s reading a blog post, downloading an ebook, or attending a webinar

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

• Use targeted keywords and ad copy to attract qualified leads
• Send users to dedicated landing pages optimized for conversion, rather than your homepage
• Monitor your campaigns regularly and adjust bids, keywords, and ad copy as needed
• Retarget website visitors with relevant ads to keep your brand top-of-mind

Amplify your content’s reach, engage with your audience on their preferred platforms, and ultimately drive more traffic, leads, and conversions.

Maximizing User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is authentic, relatable, and can significantly boost your brand’s credibility.

But how do you encourage and incorporate it into your content marketing strategy?

Productivity and note-taking tool, Notion, for example, reposts the creative ways its customers use the product.

Showing real-life examples of what people are doing with Notion showcases the software’s versatility.

Through initiatives like the Notion Creator Camp, they encourage their customer base to share their work and experiences with the Notion community. They make tutorials, videos, and blog posts that show off the tool’s capabilities and inspire others.

Notion creates a thriving community of passionate users happy to advocate for the brand and contribute to its success.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing involves partnering with industry experts, thought leaders, or even satisfied customers who have a significant following and influence within your target market.

You use their credibility and reach to amplify your brand message and build trust with potential customers.

Collaborating with influencers also results in backlinks, especially if you are SaaS link building, and social media mentions, which can positively impact your search engine rankings.

For example, Semrush, a leading SEO and marketing analytics platform, partners with influencers like Jess Cook, a Head of Content & Comms at Island and co-host of the That’s Marketing, Baby podcast.

Jess uses her expertise and influence to promote Semrush’s new AI-powered keyword research tool.

She generates interest in Semrush’s product by highlighting the tool’s unique features and benefits.

This partnership benefits both parties: Semrush gains exposure and credibility, while Jess provides valuable insights to her audience and strengthens her position as a thought leader in the content marketing space.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Measuring the success of your content marketing efforts pinpoints what works, what doesn’t, and where to invest your resources. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your content and its impact on your business goals.

According to research, the most frequently used metrics to assess content performance include:

• Conversions (73%): This measures the number of visitors who take a desired action, such as filling out a form, downloading a whitepaper, or requesting a demo.
• Email Engagement (71%): This includes metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates from email campaigns.
• Website Traffic (71%): This measures the number of visitors to your website and the sources of that traffic.
• Website Engagement (69%): This includes metrics like time on page, bounce rate, and pages per session.
• Social Media Analytics (65%): This tracks engagement on social media platforms, including likes, shares, comments, and follower growth.
• Quality of Leads (52%): This assesses the likelihood of a lead converting into a paying customer.
• Search Rankings (45%): This measures how well your content ranks in search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Quantity of Leads (41%): This tracks the number of leads generated by your content marketing efforts.

These KPIs offer a more comprehensive view of your content’s impact on B2B SaaS lead generation, SEO, and customer acquisition costs.

ROI of Content Marketing

Measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) of content marketing can be challenging for startups and established SaaS companies alike, but it’s essential to justify your budget and demonstrate the value of your efforts.

Content attribution plays a crucial role in this process. It involves tracking the impact of each piece of content on specific conversions, allowing you to identify which pieces are most effective at generating leads, nurturing prospects, and driving sales.

By understanding each piece of content’s role in the customer journey, you can optimize your content strategy for improved lead quality, increased conversions, and ultimately, a higher ROI for your B2B SaaS business.

Several tools can help you track and analyze content attribution, including:

• HubSpot: This all-in-one marketing platform offers robust content attribution features that track the entire customer journey, from initial touchpoint to final conversion.
• Google Analytics: While not specifically designed for content attribution, Google Analytics can provide valuable insights into how users interact with your content and which pieces are driving conversions.
• Ruler Analytics: This multi-touch attribution platform provides granular insights into the customer journey, allowing you to identify the most effective marketing channels and touchpoints.
• IP Detection Software: This technology helps identify the companies visiting your website based on their IP addresses, allowing you to see if you’re attracting the right business audience. Knowing which organizations are engaging with your content can help tailor your marketing efforts more effectively and ensure you’re reaching your target market.

By leveraging these tools and implementing a content attribution strategy, you can gain a deeper understanding of the ROI of your content marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions that drive business growth.

SaaS marketers need to anticipate emerging trends and adapt their strategies accordingly. Let’s dig deeper into these key areas that will shape B2B SaaS content in the future.

Emerging Trends

The Rise of High-Quality Content: As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, discerning consumers are increasingly seeking out authentic, well-researched, and high-quality content that offers genuine value. This shift underscores the importance of investing in expert-driven content that establishes your brand as a trusted authority.

The Video Boom: Video content continues to dominate, with short-form video and audio formats gaining traction. These snackable formats are ideal for capturing attention in a fast-paced digital world and can be easily repurposed across multiple platforms.

AI’s Impact on SEO: As AI becomes more integrated into search engines, marketers must adapt their SaaS SEO strategies to prioritize user intent, answer questions directly, and create thought leadership content that stands out from the crowd.

Increased Personalization: Personalization is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Tailoring content to individual preferences and needs improves engagement and drives conversions.

More Sophisticated Use of AI: While AI-generated content has its place, the future lies in using AI more strategically to enhance human creativity and productivity. This includes leveraging AI for tasks like data analysis, content optimization, and even personalized content recommendations.

Adapting to Changes

Your content marketing strategy must be agile and adaptable to stay relevant. Here’s how to stay ahead:

• Join Online Communities: Slack communities like Superpath offer valuable opportunities to connect with fellow marketers, exchange content ideas, and learn from industry experts.
• Attend conferences and events: Both virtual and in-person conferences like HubSpot’s INBOUND provide a wealth of knowledge and networking opportunities. Stay updated on the latest trends, hear from thought leaders, and connect with potential partners or customers.
• Use your network: Make use of your network’s knowledge and experience. Connect with peers, mentors, and industry leaders to gain insights and stay informed about emerging trends.
• Monitor industry publications, newsletters, and blogs: Stay on top of the latest news, research, and insights by following industry publications and blogs.

Stephan Wenger, Founder of b2bmarketingworld.com, states, “There has been always demand for high-quality content in B2B tech marketing. With the rise of AI, this becomes even more essential as thought leadership for complex high-tech, innovation and technology does not come by using AI marketing tools.”

A valuable content strategy is your differentiator. It’s the key to cutting through the noise, establishing thought leadership, and securing a loyal customer base.

Your marketing team wants to challenge conventional lead nurturing models and focus on building long-term customer relationships. If you’re not sure where to start, consider hiring a B2B SaaS content marketing agency like Stratabeat. We’ll help you claim your share of the market.