My recent client’s B2B brand went from 19 sign-ups per month to 199 for his SaaS product.
Before the increase, the client was getting some credible monthly traffic of 69,000. But he only recorded got 19 sign-ups every month.
When a new content strategist came in, he started by analyzing the blog to get what was wrong.
He found out that the client’s content strategy was wrong. He was mainly focused on the Top of the Funnel (TOFU) content to get more eyes on his blog.
While that worked, people were not signing up.
So he suggested that we should now focus on the long-form bottom of the funnel( BOFU) content with a conversion-focused writing process.
With that simple change (and me in his content team) we turned the dormant blog into a cash cow.
In this guide, I’ll show you the step-by-step guide on how you can replicate the same content strategy in your SaaS business and get positive results.
If you’re looking for a conversion-focused writer who understands the power of well-written content for B2B SaaS brands, feel free to reach out.
Steps for Building a Content Plan for B2B SaaS Content Marketing
Ready to roll? Let’s get started.
1. Know Your Audience
Trying to build a successful content marketing strategy without identifying your target audience is like building a house without tools.
That’s why this step is critical. It lets you get into the heads of your audience.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What do they value?
- What they are looking for?
- Why do they choose one service provider over another.
This process can be as simple as looking at your current customer database and seeing who they are.
Or it could be more in-depth, such as conducting focus groups or interviewing current customers.
The insights you get will help you define your ideal customer and create a buyer persona. It’s what you need for your content creation.
Once you know who your audience is, you can begin to think about how you want to target them with your SaaS content marketing efforts.
2. Create a Content Based on Your Audience
After developing a successful content strategy plan, the next step is creating content that they want to see.
To ease your content creation process, create an outline for your blog posts or ebooks.
It can be as simple as bullet points. You don’t need a novel, just the points you’d want to talk about.
Once you have this mapped out, it is time to start writing!
Now, there are things to note here.
Remember my client who got huge traffic spikes with no signs-ups? You don’t want to make the same mistake.
First, determine where your readers are in your sales pipeline. This will give you an idea of whether to focus on TOFU, MOFU, or BOFU.
In each stage, including at least three pieces of content that speak to your customer’s specific needs so they will come back for more.
3. Evaluate Your Competitors
Knowing the ability of your competitors is a step forward.
Evaluating your competitors can be challenging, but it is crucial to determine where your content will rank in relation to your competitor’s content.
The best approach to this competition aspect is to analyze your competitor’s backlinks. As such, you will know the type of resources they use to draw their traffic.
In addition, analyze the published content in terms of the topics and the keywords used.
Researching your competitors helps you to know their strengths and weaknesses. Eventually, you will use such information to fill gaps and enrich your final content output.
Develop a strategy to combat any deficiency while incorporating any strengths that you identify into your marketing plan.
4. Identify the Pain Points
Another exciting content strategy plan is to know your pain points that motivate clients to buy the product. Tailoring your content strategy to their pain points means your audience will have a positive experience and return again and again.
How do you identify pain points? First, you should step into your clients’ shoes and develop a customer journey map.
Start by drawing out a map that illustrates how your customer moves from initial awareness of the problem they are trying to solve to a final decision to purchase your solution.
This journey should lure your clients to do the following:
- Visit your website
- Develop an interest in your product
- Become aware of your product
- Sign up for a product demo or free trial
- Drop or renew a subscription
After understanding the customer’s pain point, explain how your product will make their life easier in your content.
5. Search and Define Keywords
When creating your B2B SaaS content strategy, search for the most relevant keywords to your content. Start by using third-party tools or by performing a basic Google search.
Before you start typing in your keyword phrases, think about what questions your customers are asking.
Using the appropriate keywords in your content will help them locate your brand effortlessly.
Use these tools for keyword research: Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, Ubbersuggest, and SEMrush.
It is more important than ever to understand how your customers research the products they buy in the digital era.
This knowledge will help you create content, attract visitors looking for information, and be ready to purchase your product. One of the best ways to gather customer research is to use a keyword research tool.
It will be a waste of time and resources if you create content that none will see. The appropriate content should generate enough traffic to your blog posts.
The number one priority should be the organic search as you begin working on your content strategy. However, one should spice it up with a few tactics to get enough traffic and increase the number of conversions.
Similarly, you can use internal and external links as part of the organic search. However, let your linking come from reputable sources to make your content rank well on the search engines.
Not to forget, you can impact your ranking by meeting the SEO standards for your content, Meta information inclusive.
6. Determine the Type of Content You’ll Publish
Your content strategy might depend on your industry and the target audience.
If you want to reach millennials, think about what content will appeal to them to subscribe. Here are common types of content.
- Blog posts
- Videos
- Images
- Infographics
You can create self-service content for readers who want to solve an issue as quickly as possible. Present this content in a step-by-step format so that readers can follow along with no trouble at all.
For example, if you’re a SaaS company that provides webinars for businesses. You could create self-service content by creating a post that explains how to start up a webinar and distribute it digitally.
8. Determine the Frequency of Publishing Posts
One of the critical decisions you will need to make when establishing your content strategy is determining how often you publish new blog posts.
There are a few things to keep in mind when determining what frequency is best for your business.
First, you should not commit to a posting frequency unless it is a realistic expectation for your available time and resources.
Secondly, consider how often your target audience expects new content from your company.
To set the right expectations for your audience, ask yourself questions like:
a) How do my customers want to interact with me?
b) What is the purpose of my blog?
c) What is my goal with this blog?
d) Is there a consistent topic we will talk about on my blog?
9. Publish Your Content
The last section of your content strategy plan is to publish your content.
Publishing your content means sending it out into the world for all to see, whether that is via social media, email campaigns, paid ads, or any other digital marketing tactic.
Content should be published consistently and strategically across different channels to ensure customers come across it multiple times.
You should also publish new product announcements, seasonal specials, or similar marketing messages.
This ensures that you are always driving traffic back to your website and keeping people engaged with your content.
10. Track Your Progress
A content strategy is not a one-time thing. It requires a plan and consistent execution. That is why it is essential to track your progress as you implement your content strategy plan.
You want to know how well your content is performing. If you are not tracking data, you will not tell if your changes are working or need to make additional modifications.
Some brands will audit their content and website monthly, others quarterly, and some annually.
In addition, it will depend on how much change they need and if this is a new undertaking for them or not.
The critical thing is that they take the time to measure the results of their content strategy to see if their changes impact the way customers engage with their brand.
Online marketing is changing rapidly, and brands need to stay ahead of the curve. If they do not, they will fall behind and be left behind in customer engagement and revenue growth.
Update your business to withstand the market heat sparked by competition.
Conclusion
A strong content strategy plan is a valuable tool for B2B SaaS brands looking to craft high-quality and successful blog or social media marketing campaigns.
It helps you to set goals and objectives, define guidelines and best practices, identify segmentation, research the current environment, and craft a blueprint for winning the engagement.
The more you know about your audience, the better you can engage with them. You could have the best product in the world, but if your content strategy is wrong, you won’t get the results you envision.
The key is to know your audience and create a system that works.
If you establish a good content strategy, you will create content that your audience wants to read, make them feel like they are part of your community, and build trust.