If you’re an entrepreneur or a business owner looking to harness the power of Software as a Service (SaaS) for your content creation needs, you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, we’ll explore the ins and outs of SaaS content creation to ensure you’re maximizing your organic growth potential. So, grab a cup of your drink of choice, and let’s dive into the world of SaaS content creation together!
What is SaaS Content Creation?
SaaS content creation means creating content that specifically caters to the needs and features of SaaS products.
The content should align with the software’s specific features and the needs of the target customers.
Types of SaaS content include:
- blogs
- white papers, ebooks, reports
- videos
- infographics, swipe files, templates
- webinars
- podcasts
- interactive content
Creating effective SaaS content involves understanding the software, its features, and the target audience in order to provide valuable and relevant information that resonates with customers.
In 2024, the content marketing game is evolving rapidly. Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) have commoditized content creation for all niches, including SaaS. It’s a double-edged sword—while creating some content is as easy now as pushing a button, the results rarely interest your customer.
Today, we need human, relatable, and pain point-focused content more than ever. Your audience has to know you took time and effort to craft a helpful piece of content for them – not just put it into ChatGPT and hope for the best.
Here’s how to create such content:
Identifying Your Audience and Their Pain Points
Audience analysis is a must for creating effective SaaS content. Understanding who your target customers are, what their needs and preferences are, and what challenges they face can help you tailor your content to resonate with them.
And no, regular marketing personas won’t cut it here. You need to know how a piece of information about your audience will influence your content creation.
You might’ve already encountered this meme:
As you see, demographics aren’t the most precise way to identify who you’re actually talking to.
To tackle this problem, we’ve built our own framework – Data, Context, Insight (DCI). It works like this:
- You take a piece of information (Data), e.g. Our customer is 25-35 female who use YouTube to consume content
- You add your Context on top of it, e.g. They are searching for makeup tutorials there
- And turn those two into an actionable Insight for your strategy, e.g. We’re going to record makeup tutorials that use our beauty products and collaborate with other beauty bloggers.
Before you do that, though, you need to find the data itself.
One way to identify your audience is by using tools like Google Analytics and Semrush. These tools can provide insights into your website visitors, including demographics, interests, and behaviors. By analyzing this data, you can gain a better understanding of who your audience is and what they are looking for.
Once you have identified your audience, it’s important to uncover their Fears, Frustrations, Goals, and Aspirations (FFGAs):
- What challenges do they face in their day-to-day work?
- What problems are they trying to solve?
- What makes them angry about their way of solving their problem now?
- What dreams and long-term plans do they have that you can help them achieve?
- How can your product enhance their reputation?
By understanding your audience’s FFGAs, you can create content that addresses these issues and provides solutions.
Gong, a popular Sales software, often uses their audience’s FFGAs in their blog posts. Here’s a great example:
You can immediately see that “pinpointing pain” and “clarifying solutions” are two big fears/frustrations of their customers. This blog post promises to help the reader overcome them, which contributes to engagement and enhances trust in Gong’s services.
By identifying your audience and their pain points, you can create content that is tailored to their needs and interests. This can help you attract and retain customers, drive engagement, and ultimately, increase conversions for your SaaS product.
Crafting a Detailed Content Strategy
A well-thought-out strategy will help you align your content with your business goals, track performance through key performance indicators (KPIs), and achieve targeted outcomes.
Here are the steps to crafting a detailed content strategy:
Define Your Goals:
Start by outlining clear and specific goals for your content marketing efforts. The easiest way to do it is to use (surprise!) SMART goals.
Here’s a table of SMART goals designed to guide your SaaS content creation, along with some explanations and tips:
| SMART Goal Category | Example SMART Goal | Explanation/Tips |
|---|---|---|
| Specific | Increase organic blog traffic by 20% within the next 6 months. | Clearly defines the focus (blog traffic) and the desired outcome (20% increase). |
| Measurable | Generate 50 qualified leads from downloadable case studies within the next quarter. | Sets a trackable target (50 leads) and the specific content type (case studies). |
| Achievable | Achieve a 5% click-through-rate (CTR) on email newsletters promoting blog content within 3 months. | Defines an ambitious yet realistic target based on industry benchmarks for email CTRs. |
| Relevant | Increase social media shares of blog content by 15% within the next quarter. | Aligns with SaaS content marketing goals of building brand awareness and reach. |
| Time-bound | Publish 2 in-depth, long-form pillar content pieces per month for the next 6 months. | Provides a clear deadline and production schedule for high-value content. |
Some extra tips for crafting SMART SaaS Content Goals:
- Start Small: Begin with a few attainable goals to build confidence before setting larger, stretch goals.
- Align with Business Objectives: Ensure content goals link to lead generation, sales, and customer retention.
- Utilize Analytics: Use your website analytics and marketing tools to establish benchmarks and track progress.
- Review and Revise: Analyze performance regularly and adjust goals as needed.
Remember to return to your goals regularly and monitor your progress. Also, ensure the documented goals are easily available for all team members. This will enhance accountability among the team and build a sense of moving in the same direction.
Identify Your Target Audience:
Building on the audience analysis discussed earlier, ensure that your content strategy is focused on addressing the needs and pain points of your target audience.
Understanding who you are creating content for will help you tailor your messaging and deliver relevant and valuable content.
Ensure to gather all info about your audience in one place. A simple Google doc will suffice:
Choose the Right Content Types:
Based on your goals and audience preferences, determine the types of content that will resonate with your target audience.
Whether it’s blog posts, videos, or podcasts, selecting the right content formats will help you effectively communicate your message.
Remember, you should choose formats your audience is already using. Trying to create content in a format your audience doesn’t consume will make you feel like you’re screaming into the void.
If it’s your first time creating content for your SaaS, start small. Pick 1-2 core formats and create exceptionally good content for them.
After a while, you may consider incorporating content repurposing strategies to reach a wider scope of your audience.
Here’s a sample content distribution flow we build for most of our clients:
Set KPIs:
Establish key performance indicators to measure the success of your content strategy. Whether it’s website traffic, engagement metrics, or conversion rates, tracking these KPIs will provide insights into the effectiveness of your content and help you make data-driven decisions.
Here’s a table of KPIs for SaaS content creation, along with how to measure them:
| KPI Category | KPI | How to Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic | Organic Traffic | Website analytics (e.g., Google Analytics) |
| Website Visitors | Website analytics | |
| Bounce Rate | Percentage of single-page visits (available in website analytics) | |
| Engagement | Average Time on Page | Website analytics |
| Pageviews per Session | Website analytics | |
| Social Media Shares | Social media platform analytics | |
| Lead Generation | Content Downloads (e.g., ebooks, whitepapers) | Marketing automation or lead tracking tools |
| Demo Requests / Free Trials from Content | Marketing automation or lead tracking (track lead source) | |
| Blog Subscriptions | Email marketing software | |
| Conversion | Click-through Rate (CTR) on CTAs | Website and email analytics |
| Conversion Rate of Leads Generated by Content | Marketing automation / CRM | |
| Overall Impact | Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) | Calculate with total marketing + sales spend divided by new customers acquired |
| Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) | (Average revenue per customer * Gross margin) / Customer churn rate |
Some crucial info before you start:
- KPIs to Track Over Time: Some KPIs take time to show significant changes. Track trends rather than focusing solely on moment-to-moment fluctuations.
- Choose the Right Focus: Not all KPIs will instantly be relevant. Prioritize KPIs based on your current business and content strategy goals.
- Tools: Utilize website analytics, marketing automation platforms, email marketing software, and your CRM to gather data for KPI monitoring.
Develop a Content Calendar and Batch the Content:
Create a content calendar outlining the topics, formats, and publishing schedule for your content. This will help you stay organized, maintain consistency, and ensure that your content aligns with your overall strategy.
I always recommend that my clients batch-create content at least one week in advance before they go live with it. Sometimes, life happens, and we don’t have time for content creation. Having a good backlog of content helps you remain consistent, regardless.
There are plenty of content calendar tools out there. Some of my favorites are:
You can also build your automated content calendar in Airtable. Here’s a fantastic tutorial from Stephen on how to do it:
Document Standard Operating Procedures:
Documenting your content creation processes, guidelines, and best practices is essential for maintaining content quality and consistency.
Standard operating procedures will help streamline your content production workflow and ensure that your team is aligned on content standards.
For our clients, we usually prepare:
- Voice & Tone guidelines: Ensures the content sounds like your company every time, no matter who creates it
- Content writing brief template: Facilitates communication with content writers
- “About us” One-pager: Informs external freelancers and collaborators about your company’s core offer
They all help your company reduce the redundant work and time spent on training new team members or freelancers.
Conduct Content Audits:
Regularly review and analyze your content performance through content audits. Assessing your content for relevance, quality, and effectiveness will help you identify areas for improvement, refine your strategy, and optimize future content creation efforts.
A great tool for auditing your content is the ROT scale.
This scale helps you identify content that is Redundant, Outdated, or Trivial, and should be either updated or removed from your website.
Here’s how the ROT scale works:
- Redundant: Content that repeats the same information or message multiple times across your website. Consolidate these duplicates into a single, comprehensive piece.
- Outdated: Content that contains information that is no longer accurate or relevant. Update this content with current data or trends to maintain its value.
- Trivial: Content that doesn’t add any value to your audience or doesn’t align with your business goals. Remove these pieces to declutter your website and improve user experience.
Regular content audits will help you maintain a high standard of content quality, keep your website up-to-date and relevant, and ensure that your content aligns with your business objectives.
By following these steps and crafting a detailed content strategy, you can ensure that your SaaS content creation efforts are aligned with your business goals, tailored to your target audience, and optimized for success in 2024 and beyond.
Leveraging Visuals and Interactive Content
Visual content has become increasingly vital in engaging audiences and capturing their attention. With the rise of platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, users are more drawn to visually appealing content than ever before. In the SaaS industry, leveraging visuals and multimedia can help you stand out and connect with your target audience effectively.
Examples of effective visual content in SaaS include:
- Infographics: Visual representations of data or information that are easy to digest and share. Infographics can help simplify complex concepts and make your content more engaging.
- Interactive Quizzes: Engage your audience by providing interactive quizzes that offer personalized results or insights. Quizzes can be a fun way to educate your audience about your product or industry.
- Videos: Video content is highly engaging and can convey information in a more compelling way than text. Whether it’s product demos, tutorials, or customer testimonials, videos can help showcase your SaaS product effectively.
Here’s a great example of interactive content from Contrast:
They allow their homepage visitors to click through the tool immediately. This is a brilliant move because it communicates the value of the product without any extra salesy copywriting needed.
It’s also a great example of product-led content.
Guidelines for creating and distributing multimedia content:
To create good visual and interactive SaaS content, you need to stick to a few rules:
- Tailor Content to Platform: Each social media platform has its own requirements and best practices for visual content. Make sure your visuals are optimized for each platform to maximize engagement.
- Consistent Branding: Maintain a consistent visual identity across all your content to reinforce your brand and make it easily recognizable to your audience.
- Quality Over Quantity: Focus on creating high-quality visuals that resonate with your audience rather than churning out a high volume of content. Quality visuals can leave a lasting impression on viewers.
- Engage with Your Audience: Encourage interaction with your visual content by asking questions, running polls, or hosting live sessions. Engagement can help build a community around your brand.
Multimedia content can be distributed across various platforms such as social media, email newsletters, your website, and third-party sites to reach a wider audience.
For example, after publishing a free tool on your website, you can announce it to your audience in a LinkedIn post, just like Taplio did it:
Creating interactive and multimedia SaaS content is what can make your product truly stand out among the sameness of AI-generated content.
Final Thoughts
SaaS content creation in 2024 requires a nuanced approach that goes beyond just creating generic content.
By identifying your audience, understanding their pain points, and crafting a detailed content strategy, you can create content that resonates with your target customers and drives results for your SaaS product.
Leveraging visual and interactive content can further enhance your content marketing efforts and help you stand out in a crowded digital landscape.
