Why SaaS Businesses Need A Plan For Blog Content
Michael Brenner
VP of Thought Leadership | Author | Former SAP, Nielsen, Startup CMO, and Sales
Today’s SaaS businesses must learn how to get ahead in an increasingly competitive market.
There are currently over 10,000 private SaaS companies, and the average startup spends 92% of its first-year revenue on customer acquisition. So, it’s vital that SaaS companies have a plan for content marketing strategy in place to stand out from the competition.
Marketing SaaS products can be more challenging than marketing a traditional software product. Brand awareness is often an issue as many SaaS tools are produced by startups and small businesses that are not established in the marketplace.
SaaS tools also change more frequently than traditional software. It can be difficult to keep your audience up to date and position your product above your competitors.
Quick Takeaways:
- It’s not enough for SaaS companies to have a good product. Branding and content marketing are critical to rise above the competition.
- Developing a strong brand personality and voice is vital, as is clear brand positioning.
- Content and brand storytelling is a great way to get exposure for your new SaaS business.
Establish a Strong Brand Presence and Voice
Setting your brand apart from the competition is critical in an overcrowded marketplace. With many SaaS solutions having similar functionality and pricing, potential customers are likely to choose the option with the strongest branding.
Focus on your brand’s unique selling point. What makes you a better choice than the other options?
Gartner points out that today’s consumers are so flooded with information that they can be too overwhelmed to make a purchase decision. So establishing a strong brand is critical.
The key to successful brand positioning is clearly explaining the problem that your SaaS tool solves. For example:
- Asana simplifies the problem of excessive workloads by simplifying project management.
- Hubspot solves the problem of having too many marketing tools and having difficulty following up leads.
- Slack solves the problem of communication between teams being in several different places.
- Zendesk solves the problem of customer support tickets being lost or taking too long to resolve.
- Docusign solves the issue of documents and contracts needing physical signatures when communicating remotely.
- Dropbox solves the problem of keeping files synced between different devices and sharing them securely with others.
It’s common for SaaS companies to get so caught up with promoting their features that they overlook branding. But in a world where many similar products and services are vying for attention, branding is vital to get your name noticed and remembered.
The Importance of Content
Sometimes a good old-fashioned blog post can be the best way to let the world know about your product or service, particularly if you’re a brand-new company. But it’s got to be told in a story format.
Content Marketing for SaaS is so important for the fast-moving tech sector mainly because you can show results. Brands can use the “newsjacking” technique to jump on new trends and news stories and to raise awareness for their SaaS solutions at the same time.
Content marketing is not only important for getting the word out about your expertise. It also helps you to get links and mentions in social media and traditional media. Being mentioned in media publications also brings legitimacy to your brand, increases customer trust, and can be a big boost for SEO too.
A mention or link in a big online publication could bring you a huge increase in instant traffic, thousands of potential new customers, and that all-important social proof.
Investing in content marketing can be a very affordable form of PR too. You don’t need the services of a PR agency. A well-written article with data, images, or a newsworthy angle can do the job just as well.
Get Serious About Social
According to research by Sprout Social, 84% of consumers would prefer to buy from a brand they follow on social media over a competitor brand.
Your social media accounts are as important to branding as your logo. Ensure that you have clear social media guidelines written up, including details on brand “voice.”
With social media, it’s particularly important that your brand has a personality. Nobody wants to follow dull and generic corporate social media accounts.
The personality and tone of the language you use on social media is an important part of your branding. Make sure it matches your audience.
For example, time-tracking SaaS Toggl represents its friendly and fun brand personality on Facebook with casual language, emoticons, and colorful graphics.
According to research from Sprout Social, the brand personality traits consumers most value on social media are honesty, friendliness, and helpfulness. Keep this insight in mind when creating your brand personality.
Why SaaS Businesses Need to Invest in Content Marketing
Many SaaS brands are not household names like traditional software companies such as Adobe and Microsoft. Because of this, they need to work harder on brand awareness. Small companies also have a smaller budget to work with than the industry giants.
Plus, SaaS companies need to focus on building long-term relationships with their customers. Most SaaS brands are hoping to retain customers for several years. This is quite different from marketing traditional software, which may well focus on making a single sale for each customer.
These factors make content marketing an ideal fit for SaaS brands. High-quality content can inform an audience that your brand and product exists and demonstrate why they may need it.
SaaS solutions are often more affordable and flexible than traditional software. SaaS brands can use these advantages to promote their product. But some companies remain unaware of what exactly SaaS is or that it would be a good fit for them. Educational content can help these companies to understand the benefits they will get from switching to SaaS.
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