If there’s an industry that has unwavering faith in content marketing, it’s the SaaS industry. In fact, they invest anywhere from $342,000 to $1,080,000 on content marketing every year. And why shouldn’t they? Many brands report an astounding growth in lead generation, with increases of up to 400%.
However, the success of content marketing hinges on a marketer’s ability to accurately gauge the audience’s preferences and capitalize on emerging trends—both of which change quicker than a superhero swaps his costume. Therefore, you must keenly understand the dynamic landscape and incorporate the latest trends into your strategy.
To help you stay ahead of the curve, here are seven trends set to dominate SaaS content marketing in the coming days.
1. Focus on User Experience
UX, short for user experience, refers to users’ interaction and experience with a company’s products or services. In SaaS content marketing, UX translates to the visitors’ interaction with your site or any published content. Ensuring a positive UX can significantly impact your content’s engagement levels.
Google’s core web vitals are the guiding force of this trend. These are the metrics that measure a webpage’s speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Websites that perform better on these fronts are favoured by the Google’s algorithm in search results.
Therefore, marketers are increasingly publishing content that is not only informative but also easy to navigate and visually appealing. This includes responsive design for mobile devices, intuitive layouts, and fast-loading pages.
By enhancing UX, you can improve engagement rates, reduce bounce rates, and foster stronger customer relationships. At the same time, by implementing best practices like clear calls to action (CTAs), user-friendly interfaces, and accessible content, you can make a substantial difference in user satisfaction and conversion rates.
2. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic in the scientific community and pop culture for decades. It again picked up pace with the advent of generative AI technologies like ChatGPT and Dall-E. The technology will heavily impact SaaS content marketing throughout this decade.
SaaS marketers will leverage AI solutions to automate menial and repetitive tasks like research, content optimization, SEO, personalization, etc. Many brands have already given up on the traditional mode of content creation and embraced AI-generated content, primarily because it is faster and cheaper to produce.
Similarly, we’ll also see a broader integration of machine learning in SaaS content marketing. Marketers will use it to harness user data stored on their systems and use predictive modelling techniques to analyse user behaviour.
Backed by this new wisdom, you can tailor your content to the unique needs of your audiences. You can personalize content for a different subset of users and serve it at the relevant stages of their customer journey across marketing channels, thus boosting engagement and conversions.
3. Topical Authority
Establishing topical authority is essential for building trust and credibility in the SaaS industry. And it’s not just about establishing yourself as a thought leader, but it’s also critical from the perspective of SEO and improving visibility on search engines.
You can attain topical authority by consistently publishing comprehensive technology content that delves deeply into subjects that matter to your audience. This might include detailed blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and how-to guides that provide valuable insights and solutions. Publishing pillar pages interconnected with related content clusters is also an effective authority building strategy.
Search engines, as you know, reward websites for consistently producing high-quality content. By focusing on topical authority, you can significantly enhance your SEO efforts, driving more organic traffic to your site. This organic traffic is typically more engaged and more likely to convert, leading to a substantial boost in your return on investment (ROI) from content marketing.
4. Interactive Content
A glance at metrics like time spent on a page, scroll depth, and interaction rate reveals one thing—Internet audiences have a shorter attention span. Therefore, you must not assume every visitor will read your well-researched blog post. Instead, it’s time to embrace interactive content.
Interactive content includes quizzes, surveys, webinars, product demos, and walkthroughs. This type of content captures attention and captivates audiences by offering a participatory experience. Interactive elements, be it voting or answering a question, can significantly boost user engagement, making the content more memorable and shareable.
Additionally, you should also publish short-form videos to showcase product features, offer quick tips, or provide brief tutorials, making complex concepts easier to understand. Similarly, infographics can distil large amounts of data into visually appealing and easily digestible content.
5. Content Atomization
Content atomisation is the process of breaking down larger pieces of content into smaller, more manageable parts that can be distributed across various channels. This strategy maximises the reach and impact of content by repurposing it in different formats, such as blog posts, social media updates, videos, and infographics.
But beware—despite having essentially the same objective, content atomization isn’t exactly content repurposing. Repurposing is turning a blog post into social media post or podcast, while atomization would be a short video explaining one subhead from the blog or an infographic with pros and cons.
The idea is to take the core ideas from long-form content and create entirely new assets. This way, you can make the most of each piece of content by extracting maximum value from it.
6. Original Research
In the crowded SaaS market, standing out is essential, and this is equally true for SaaS content. So, chances are your content will be lost in the sea of information before it finds any takers. However, that won’t be the case if you latch on this next trend, i.e., original research.
More brands will invest in conducting and publishing proprietary studies, surveys, and reports. Unlike regular content, original research and studies offer fresh and, more importantly, data-backed insights. Audiences, who also happen to be senior executives and leaders, can use them to guide their decisions.
Besides building trust among audiences, such content is highly shareable. Unique findings and insights are more likely to be shared by industry influencers, amplifying your reach and visibility. Plus, earning backlinks from other reputed sites would be the perfect cherry on top.
7. Customer Retention Optimization
We are all well aware that a SaaS business’s success depends on its ability to retain customers and earn repeat business. While offering incentives is an effective strategy, in the future, we will see more SaaS brands utilise content to provide value beyond the initial sale.
How, you ask? By offering onboarding guides, product tutorials, and other educational content that helps customers maximize the use of the product.
Onboarding guides and product tutorials help new users get started quickly and effectively, reducing the likelihood of churn. Educational content, such as webinars and blog posts, keeps customers informed about new features and best practices, ensuring they get the most out of the product.
Similarly, case studies showcasing successful use cases can inspire customers to explore newer ways of using the product. At the same time, personalized content, such as newsletters and targeted emails, can keep them engaged and informed. By fostering a deeper connection with existing customers, SaaS companies can improve retention rates and encourage loyalty.
Wrapping Up
To succeed in SaaS content marketing, one must be aware of not only the ongoing but also the emerging trends. By embracing these trends, you can create a robust content marketing framework that attracts new customers and retains existing ones. This guarantees a competitive edge and long-term success in an ever-evolving SaaS market.