B2B Founder Thought Leadership for SaaS Startups: Crucial or Nice-to-have?

The impact of thought leadership can be pivotal in the life of a SaaS startup. It builds credibility, fosters trust, and influences buying behaviour. But what are the necessities and pitfalls in a sector challenged by rapid technology change, limited resources and high competition??

Successful B2B thought leaders don’t only share their knowledge.?

They position themselves as industry experts, become authoritative voices in their field, provide innovative solutions and guide their audience toward better-informed decisions. In other words, their insights shape the conversation.

Which is why thought leadership is crucial for SaaS startups.?

The recent 2024 LinkedIn-Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, notes how B2B growth is now driven by self-directed discovery, making thought leadership an essential addition to your startup playbook. However, success doesn’t come easy – it requires a concerted effort.?

Many founders take years to accumulate their hard-won credibility.?

Importance of Thought Leadership for SaaS Startups

For SaaS companies, two audiences are crucial: early adopters and investors.?

Attracting and engaging your right-fit people, and being seen as an innovative new entry are key to a startup’s survival. No matter whether you’re aiming to disrupt your industry, or looking to break through product-market fit with investor support, harnessing the power of thought leadership must form part of your go-to-market (GTM) strategy.

Thought leadership establishes you as an authority in your field. Both near and long term.

The practice of consistently sharing industry trends, best practices, and customer success stories demonstrates a close understanding of the market, users' pain points and the value your product offers. This is crucial for converting users and enticing prospective enterprises to become early adopters.

Offence is Your Best Defence

Sharing your insights, vision and learnings as a founder, effectively differentiates you from competitors. But in equal measure, resisting the effort to build your own thought leadership body of work, can steer existing and potential customers away from you:

• 70% of C-suite decision makers say a piece of thought leadership had at least occasionally led them to question whether they should continue working with an existing supplier.?

• 54% say the piece of thought leadership got them to realise there were other suppliers they could work with that had a better understanding of the challenges their organisation was facing.?
• 51% say the piece of thought leadership got them to realise that other suppliers were smarter or more visionary.?

Source: 2024 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report

How can this be? A large volume of B2B decision-makers and C-suite leaders are consistently consuming thought-leadership content.

• 52% of decision makers and 54% of C-level executives spend, on average, an hour or more per week reading thought-leadership content
• 3 in 4 decision makers say an organisation’s thought-leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competencies than its marketing materials and product sheets.

It’s clear that in the long term, high quality thought leadership content bestows credibility on a startup, which in turn attracts investors looking for insightful, forward-thinking leaders.?

Crafting High-Quality Thought Leadership Content for SaaS

The three essentials of high-quality SaaS thought leadership content: data-driven, authoritative and engaging. In addition it must:

• Cite original and respected research
• Include data specific to software and tech trends
• Incorporate storytelling techniques to improve engagement
• Feature the founder’s personal experiences with software development and entrepreneurship
• Utilise metaphors and analogies, to simplify complexities?
• Include authentic and unique perspectives
• Use visuals and infographics to make complex data more digestible
• Share insights on solving common and current SaaS challenges

Publish Often and Obviously

Consistency is also crucial.

It helps to maintain an engaged audience and maximise the compounding, long-tail effect of content. For many years, successful SaaS thought leaders like Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot and Eric Yuan of Zoom have worked to establish their exemplary thought leadership positions, and in turn have gained market traction and user loyalty.?

• Eric Yuan of Zoom leveraged his expertise in video conferencing to establish Zoom as a leading platform, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was named the 2020 Time Businessperson of the Year, and was included in the Time 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
• Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot regularly shares insights on inbound marketing and SaaS growth strategies. In 2013, Dharmesh published HubSpot’s Culture Code, which has garnered over five million views.

Leveraging Digital Platforms for SaaS Thought Leadership

Digital platforms are vital tools when building SaaS thought leadership. Company websites, LinkedIn, Medium and industry-specific forums are often used by SaaS thought leaders to publish and promote content, along with YouTube, webinars, industry events, speaking opportunities, print articles, podcasts and books.?

Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Moz and SparkToro, actively grows his business and standing in the SaaS industry through founder-led content and thought leadership.?

Founder-led Content Master Class of Build in Public (BIP)

Using consistent, high-quality content and taking a transparent, authentic approach, Fishkin’s built (in public) a reputation as a leading voice – providing a master-class in building a brand and driving SaaS growth. All through the use of thought leadership.

At Moz, Fishkin's "Whiteboard Friday" series became a staple for marketers seeking insights on SEO and digital strategies. By breaking down complex concepts into easily understandable segments, Fishkin established himself and Moz as the go-to resources for SEO knowledge. This series not only educated viewers but also showcased Moz's expertise, driving both brand awareness and customer trust.

After leaving Moz, Fishkin launched SparkToro, a SaaS tool for audience intelligence.?

He continued his thought leadership approach by openly sharing his entrepreneurial journey, including the challenges and lessons learned from starting a new SaaS company. Fishkin’s blog posts and speaking engagements often cover trends in marketing, startup strategies, and industry insights, further cementing his role as a thought leader.

Consistently providing valuable content and maintaining an authentic voice, allows SaaS founders to engage an audience, build trust, and differentiate themselves in a competitive market.

Impact, Resources and Skills for SaaS Thought Leadership?

Unsurprisingly, the 2024 Edelman-LinkedIn Impact Report noted the majority of B2B companies who use thought leadership, are seeking to drive business-generating outcomes.?

Most producers want it to drive positive sentiment toward their organisation or get potential clients to look at them more closely. In hard data, that translates to:

• 55% expect potential clients to think positively about their organisation
• 48% expect potential clients to reach out to them to get more information
• 40% expect potential clients to consider their products or services.

High-quality insights boost pricing power?

And impressively, thought leadership delivers on its promise.

Among decision-makers, many say thought leadership material has led them to research a product or service they hadn’t been considering:

• 9 in 10 are moderately or very likely to be more receptive to sales or marketing outreach from a company that consistently produces high-quality thought leadership
• 23% began buying from or working with that organisation
• 60% say good thought leadership makes them willing to pay a premium to work with that organisation.

However, there are two frequently cited barriers to not producing more effective, consistent and higher quality thought leadership materials:

• 50% say the area is under-resourced
• 26% say their organisation lacks the skills to produce high-quality content.

Common Challenges in SaaS Thought Leadership

For many founders, the biggest obstacle to becoming a thought leader is time.?

Running a company involves operations, meetings, stakeholders, and financial decisions, which leaves little room for writing. And not all founders are natural writers. Crafting compelling articles, whitepapers, or blog posts requires skill, creativity, and a deep understanding of the craft.

Some say delegation is the answer, but SaaS startups have resource constraints.?

These constraints limit the ability of small scrapy teams to consistently produce and scale high-quality content when there’s so many other tasks to complete. A cost-effective solution is to outsource thought leadership content to a ghostwriter, along with automated tools for scheduling and managing social posts. These ensure a quality, consistent online presence.

The use of ghostwriters is a common practice among successful founders, because they’re skilled at:

• Capturing the founder’s unique style and voice
• Ensuring every piece enhances the brand's credibility, resonates with the audience and reflects the founder’s expertise and vision
• Maintaining confidentiality.?

Both the quality and quantity of content are improved, plus it allows founders to retain oversight, while buying back time they can reinvest into other areas that matter for business growth and success.

Going Beyond the Usual Limits of Company Content

Establishing a SaaS thought leadership position sets you apart from the competition.?

Publishing content that shares expertise, insights, and perspectives on industry trends, challenges and opportunities, positions founders as SaaS industry experts. Those who lead through influence, innovation and inspiration attract internal support as well as investor attention.

While the journey to being a SaaS thought leader isn’t easy, it richly rewards those who master the art of simplifying the complex as well as influencing the conversation in a dynamic and changing market.

Ready to reclaim your time, and publish content to build a thought leadership position – all without having to do the work? Send me a secret DM – I won't tell anyone – with the word ‘GHOST’ and we can see if we're a fit.?

Visit my LinkedIn profile and connect. There are 20+ years’ writing experience packed in my keyboard and 3 options to work with me.

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