Contents
Manufacturers of IT solutions for business customers face unique challenges when it comes to marketing their products: the applications are complex, the USP requires explanation, and potential customers have a high demand for information. In addition, experience shows that sales cycles are long—impulse purchases are not to be expected, but rather well-considered purchasing decisions.
Another major hurdle: not everyone can create content for technically sophisticated SaaS solutions. This is exactly where we come in at Leadeffect . We know the topics, technology, and language of software companies—and use this knowledge to develop content that convinces and generates leads.
In this article, we'll show you how we use B2B SaaS content marketing achieve lead generation for IT and software companies . Read on if this sounds exciting to you!
The most important things at a glance:
- It is not the product alone, but the customer, their needs, and their problems that must be at the center of the marketing approach. Customers buy solutions to problems!
- B2B SaaS content marketing makes solutions that require explanation understandable and highlights your unique selling proposition.
- B2B, and software as a service in particular, require different content formats than newspaper advertisements and Instagram posts.
- With B2B SaaS content marketing, you position your company as experts in your field. This builds trust among your target audience and drives conversions!
What is B2B SaaS content marketing?
B2B SaaS content marketing does not focus on copy and advertisements, but rather on informative content about the product that offers the target group real benefits—beyond purely promotional content. SaaS solutions that require explanation can be explained particularly well with technically sound blog articles, for example.
Why is content marketing so effective in B2B SaaS?
SaaS products are often complex and therefore require detailed explanations, even for an expert audience. Informative, high-quality content that is also easy to read is therefore particularly important for engaging the target group, providing clarity, and generating measurable demand.
Why B2B SaaS content is useful for you:
- Relevance instead of cold calling: Customers will notice you without you having to chase them up on the phone. This saves you time and stress, and is also more promising!
- Comprehensibility instead of technical jargon: B2B SaaS content marketing sets the stage for your product by thoroughly explaining its features. This illustrates the benefits and business impact for your customers.
- Expert status for your company: Good B2B SaaS content allows your company to shine as an expert while building trust with your potential customers. This cannot be achieved with mere claims and copy.
- Long-term lead quality: Well-informed leads ensure particularly high conversion rates. Your customers are in the know and choose your company because of the quality of your products, not because of snappy advertising slogans.
- Scalable growth channel: Well-researched , easily discoverable content has a long-term, continuous impact without requiring additional marketing budget.
Providing guidance to customers: Content formats for B2B SaaS for the entire customer journey
The basic marketing concept of the customer journey also applies to B2B SaaS content marketing. However, you need a specific content marketing strategy to turn prospects into customers who will ideally recommend your solution to others. You can use B2B SaaS content to engage decision-makers, from understanding the problem to selecting the seller. We explain which formats are best suited for this purpose.
Educational Content
Informative content provides information and is both easy to read and entertaining. After all, you want to reach people, not machines. Corporate blogs, guides to relevant issues in the respective industry, and SEO articles are an essential and informative aid for customers. They enable them to understand the problems that regularly arise in their everyday working lives—and draw their attention to the solution.
Educational content provides an opportunity to present your product offerings with a direct link to common business problems. With detailed and informative B2B SaaS content, you demonstrate a deep understanding of your target audience's search intent, engage with them, and genuinely help them, rather than just making advertising promises.
Product-related content
Product-related content such as specific use cases, helpful tutorials, and feature deep dives can be used to show how your solution works in detail. Interested customers now want to know more, and in the middle and at the end of the sales funnel, they are provided with exactly the practical information they need to decide on your solution and make a purchase.
Thought leadership
High visibility in the market is particularly important for complex SaaS landscapes. Informative posts on LinkedIn, well-structured white papers, and substantive studies will establish your company as the go-to source for your topic. Such expertise will not remain hidden from your target audience for long, but will make your company the first point of contact.
Proof formats
Formats that demonstrate the quality of your solution with practical examples are particularly authentic and convincing. Case studies are a suitable means of doing this, and social proof from satisfied customers is also immensely valuable in convincing the next customers. Return on investment calculators are also a helpful tool for your target group to substantiate a purchase decision from a business perspective.
All of these formats reduce the economic risk for the customer when making a purchase, because they are buying a proven product and not the proverbial pig in a poke. Proof formats help you build trust among potential customers and ensure quick purchasing decisions.
At Leadeffect, we see it as our job to provide companies with comprehensive advice on the strategic development of all the formats mentioned above and to take a hands-on approach to their practical implementation. As a specialized SaaS agency , we also have in-depth technical understanding of IT issues to position your company and your product for the long term.
With B2B SaaS content: Message-market fit in a nutshell
The most important goal of B2B SaaS content marketing is not the individual post alone, but rather the clarity of the message in terms of a successful message-market fit. As described above, this consists of various components and must meet the following criteria in order to be effective:
Problem-centered messages
Although B2B, unlike the consumer market, does not involve a great deal of emotion, customers do not simply buy software—they buy solutions to problems. Specifically, they buy solutions to problems and pain points that they encounter repeatedly in their everyday working lives and whose resolution offers them real added value.
The message of B2B SaaS content should therefore not focus solely on the product and its advantages without any context. It is much more important to concentrate the messages you send on the target group's problem and then present the product as the solution. This empathetic approach makes it clear that you know and understand your customers and their challenges and also have the solution at hand.
Clearly formulate product promises
Exaggerated promises sound implausible, but false modesty or too many technical details are also not the right way to position your product. If you have been involved in the development of a SaaS solution yourself, it is often particularly difficult to get to the heart of the product promise. After all, you want to tell the customer as much as possible about it!
However, the value propositions of your solution must be communicated clearly so that the specialist audience understands immediately. They must also offer measurable added value and differentiate your software from the competition without becoming empty advertising promises. This requires expertise and tact when formulating them.
Understanding buyer personas and buying committees
With B2B IT marketing , it is usually not necessary to convince individuals. Often, it is entire purchasing committees that decide on the acquisition of high-priced B2B products and solutions. Marketing for SaaS must therefore consider a different type of target group and purchasing decision-making process than, for example, end customers at the supermarket shelf.
In business, purchasing decisions are not made spontaneously and emotionally, but are planned well in advance and often weighed up collectively. With B2B SaaS content marketing, you can score points with an entire decision-making committee by demonstrating your technical and communication expertise.
Consistency across all channels
It is essential that consistency is ensured across all selected channels when it comes to B2B SaaS content. The message, tone, specific content, and product must all fit together and form a harmonious whole. The imagery, calls to action, and information architecture of the website must also be taken into account and integrated into the overall concept.
All of this is ensured by a well-thought-out and consistently implemented SaaS marketing strategy. With it, your company's entire marketing presence appears homogeneous and well-planned.
How to develop a SaaS marketing strategy that truly reaches your target audience
SaaS marketing must not get lost in uncoordinated individual measures! B2B SaaS content can only be successful if it is created with meaning, understanding, and strategy. In addition, it must be meaningfully integrated into your company's overall marketing strategy and must not lead an isolated life of its own.
With the following five steps, we ensure that marketing for SaaS does not fall on deaf ears, but rather reaches your target audience where they are and turns them into satisfied customers:
1. Analyze the market and competitors
No matter how convinced you are of your product, a thorough analysis of the market and your competitors is essential for a promising SaaS marketing strategy. It is important to put yourself in your target group's shoes: What do they do? What exactly are they looking for? What are the typical pain points in their everyday work for which they want a solution?
But that's not all; it's also highly relevant to identify competing products and possible alternatives to your product. Only those who understand the market and competitive landscape can effectively position their own product and set it apart from the competition.
2. Define the customer journey
The customer journey begins with the target group becoming aware of a specific problem and wanting to find out more about how to solve it. Based on the best possible content available online—keyword: B2B SaaS content—they evaluate which solution on the market might be particularly suitable, then seek out more detailed information before finally making a purchase decision.
At each stage of the customer journey, your future customer needs specific content that first draws their attention to your solution, convinces them of your expertise, and then prompts them to make a purchase. Good B2B SaaS content marketing delivers the content your customer needs to take an interest in your company and choose your solution in the medium and long term.
3. Develop content clusters and SEO strategy
An essential aspect of successful B2B SaaS content marketing is the development of a thematic landscape. Instead of sporadically writing individual, isolated articles on unrelated topics, a content cluster is required. The content should therefore follow a thematic thread and guide the reader.
A customized SEO strategy for search engine optimization of your content ensures that your high-quality content matches search queries and is found. After all, even the most intelligent content is of no use to anyone if it is hidden away on the last few pages of Google search results! Good search engine rankings require subject matter expertise and technical know-how.
4. Plan distribution clearly
B2B SaaS content can only be effective if it is visible. Therefore, it is essential to plan clearly and with the target group's habits in mind when, on which channels, and with which relevant keywords and search terms it will be displayed.
The optimal interplay of SEO-optimized blog articles, email marketing in the form of newsletters, and social media content such as LinkedIn posts must be carefully coordinated and implemented. A flood of content at the beginning followed by a trickle afterwards is useless—continuity and timing are key!
5. Introduce KPIs & feedback loops
Trust is good, control is better—and an indispensable tool for measuring success! Measuring KPIs quickly reveals which measures are effective. For example, it is worthwhile to track newsletter subscriptions and other sign-ups, regularly measure engagement on LinkedIn, and record the conversion rate of search-qualified leads.
This data should be collected in meaningful cycles and visualized in pipeline reports so that you know whether the marketing concept is successful and bringing you more customers. Regular feedback loops with your IT marketing service provider IT marketing ensure that the strategy works.
Practical example: How to develop a sustainable B2B SaaS content strategy
Sustainable B2B SaaS content marketing requires a clear strategy and careful implementation. A key step is to review existing content to identify areas for optimization.
We have been following this path with Emteria , which offers a solution for customizing and maintaining Android OS. We identified the unique selling points of the product and created in-depth, technically sound expert content based on them. Website texts, an SEO-optimized content hub, and Google Ads followed. Today, this content is the most important lead channel for Emteria—over 100 leads and 15,000 website visitors per month speak for themselves.
CASE STUDIES
Teresa Reidt
Marketing Manager
"We enjoy working successfully with Leadeffect. They have thoroughly familiarized themselves with our field. We can recommend the team to any B2B software company."
Android OS
Emteria GmbH
Initial Situation:
- Prospects could not grasp the benefits
- No leads via website
- Little visibility in the market
Activities:
- Product communication
- International B2B SEO & SEA campaign
Outcome:
- 15,000 monthly website visitors
- 40 leads per month
Kristin Luhmeyere Product Manager
“Amazingly good quality
in the leads. (…) Significantly
more inquiries. Can the
definitely recommend collaboration“
Quality Management Software
QM Pilot
Initial Situation:
- No inquiries via the website
Activities:
- Conversion Optimization
- B2B-SEO
- B2B Google Ads
Outcome:
- Doubling of new customers
- Over 25 leads per month
- Lead price under €100
Abel Systems, a provider of quality management software, we were able to use B2B SaaS content marketing to move them away from cold calling and toward a much more successful way of acquiring new customers. The result was a doubling of new customers in two fiscal years! With an eye on the various phases of the customer journey, the website was redesigned to highlight the benefits of the product at first glance.
A keyword analysis ensured that the target group was addressed without wastage and that typical quality management questions were answered with a corporate blog. We work closely with the customer to create blog articles that incorporate the customer's expertise without overburdening Abel Systems employees. Regular publication makes the website a go-to source of information.
Please don't: Common mistakes in B2B SaaS content marketing that are actually unnecessary
There are still companies that underestimate the complexity and relevance of B2B SaaS content marketing. This can quickly lead to mistakes that could actually be avoided. Our list will help you recognize and avoid the typical pitfalls:
- Marketing measures are too product-focused: This is particularly the case when developers are very confident about their product and want to explain every single feature in detail. However, customers want something completely different—they want solutions to their pain points, not lists of features that offer them no added value.
- Content distribution without a plan: Publishing content pieces on a whim and without a concept may lead to extra work, but it certainly won't lead to marketing success. Content distribution must follow an individual plan that takes into account the needs of your company and your target audience in equal measure.
- Unclear messages: Complex solutions in particular need clear messages about what they can do for customers. Without a real message-market fit, the chances of success are rather slim.
- Lack of measurability: Good B2B SaaS content must serve KPIs and not just generate clicks. A LinkedIn post with lots of likes does not necessarily lead to conversions – so pay attention to measurable and economically relevant key performance indicators.
Because B2B SaaS content marketing requires a concept, KPIs, and brains
You know your product, you know what it can do, and you know why your solution is a real help in business. To ensure that your target group knows this too and can get to know your product, you need B2B SaaS content marketing. It understands both complex products and the requirements for addressing target groups, clear communication, and conception. At Leadeffect, we see ourselves as a strategic partner that meets precisely these criteria.
We make your product and your company visible to buyer groups and develop a comprehensive concept for you, which we also implement. Our data-driven approach ensures that your marketing budget is well invested and that the measures pay off. Do you want to design the customer journey of your target group in such a way that they become customers? Then sign up today for a non-binding strategy meeting!
B2B SaaS Content Marketing - FAQ:
How does B2B SaaS content marketing specifically help with customer acquisition?
Successful B2B SaaS content marketing makes your SaaS solution visible to your target audience, sets it apart from the competition, and clearly positions it in the market. Careful keyword mapping, using the appropriate channels, and understanding the customer journey and purchasing decisions in the B2B sector help to turn marketing measures into qualified leads.
How long does it take for B2B SaaS content to deliver results?
The time it takes for B2B SaaS content to deliver initial results varies from case to case and always depends on the product in question. Experience shows that the first positive effects can be seen after around three months. For many of our customers, website visits increased noticeably within this time frame, and with them the number of leads.
Which content formats work particularly well in B2B SaaS?
Since SaaS solutions are usually aimed at business customers, formats such as a structured, search engine-optimized website including a corporate blog are ideal. Posts on LinkedIn can also achieve high reach and attract customers' attention. Email marketing via newsletters can be particularly useful for retaining regular customers. Content for Instagram & Co. is not promising.