Want to Successfully Market Your SaaS Platform? Do This

Content marketing has much in common with the philosophy of SaaS. It’s an ongoing process that incrementally increases value and satisfaction.

Not long from now, it’ll be difficult to explain to people that, once upon a time, consumers actually bought software programs. We installed them on our computers and they were what they were. Occasional upgrades were available. Big updates had to be purchased – often at prices not much less than what we originally paid. Oh, yeah, and they had to be installed from physical disks.

The concept of software as a service (SaaS) blew that out of the water. Today, we lease computer programs. In exchange for our ongoing investment to receive the service, we receive constant improvement. The software lives in the cloud, and every time we use it, we get the latest and greatest version.

There was initial pushback. We were used to paying once to be the owner, and then we played the caveat emptor game. Of course, we wanted the latest and greatest – but the idea of subscribing and having an ongoing payment didn’t float our boat. But SaaS is better for us, as well as the developer.

We get constantly upgraded software. Developers don’t have to undergo the process of re-selling us every time they have a major upgrade. All that marketing money gets redirected towards making a better product.

One thing hasn’t changed, though. Developers still have to find customers for their products. Customers usually make smaller monthly payments, which does away with the revenue spikes. It makes for a more predictable revenue stream, but it also means that marketing has to be far more effective. Here are the top ways you can successfully reach new customers.

1.  Content marketing

It’s not at the top of our list just because that’s what we do. It’s there because there’s no more effective way of reaching people and telling them the story of your product.

Content marketing is not advertising, and successful content marketing does not start with the solution. It builds your brand, attracts prospects, and converts them to customers by putting the problem first. Prospects approach finding solutions by validating their problems. It’s only after they find a company that can show them it understands their problem that they’re receptive to learning about a solution.

A steady stream of educational and informative articles positioning you as a subject matter expert on the problem guides prospects to willingly seek out the details of your solution. When they’re satisfied, they become customers.

Content marketing has much in common with the philosophy of SaaS. It’s an ongoing process that incrementally increases value and satisfaction. It also offers you the ability to take advantage of sharing different types of content to increase conversion.

• Articles: This is the core output of content marketing – but there are different flavors. You’re able to do deep dives into a problem you solve, and this helps prospects put your brand into their worldview. Content is mostly invisible to us unless it’s about a problem we have. Then we can’t get enough of it. We want details. And, when we conclude that a business really understands our problem, we’re ready for more types of content.
• White papers and eBooks: We live vicariously. Prospects want examples of how others had the same problem, and why. They want to know how others approached a solution and how it was resolved. White papers and eBooks quenches this thirst.
• Video and podcasts: We’ll skip throwing the latest statistics at you about the effectiveness of explainer videos and podcast interviews. Suffice it to say that there’s a growing public preference to consume content this way. It’s a powerful complement to text-based content, which tends to be dense with details.
• Webinars: At a key point in the sales funnel, prospects reach a point where they’re eager to interact with you at a deeper level. They’ve read your text-based articles and are satisfied that you really do understand their problem – and it’s also where you’ve established the key connective tissue of why you’ve created a solution.
  
  They’ve read your white papers and eBooks to gain perspective on how others have overcome the problem, and they have evidence of actual results. Webinars often are the deal-closers. The last of the objections are overcome by dialog between subject matter experts.

More ways?

Whoa, what kind of list has only one item? This one does because content marketing truly is the best way to successfully market your SaaS platform.

Embedded within content marketing are crucial sub-tasks like SEO, referral marketing, and retargeting. These efforts all have the same objective, though. They pull prospects back to your content marketing effort. Learn the secret to attracting more clients with custom content.