Written by: Poppy Malise, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I have a quick question for you, have you ever seen a customer buy your software within one day after finding your website?
Probably not.
When it comes to the SaaS sales cycle, its length generally increases with the complexity and price of the software.
But there is a solution.
If you’re looking to convert users into retaining customers, you need to guide their decision-making process as much as possible with a smart SaaS content marketing powered by a strong SEO strategy in each stage of your pipeline.
Content without SEO is practically invisible and SEO without content? Well, that hurts my brain to think about. You can’t have one without the other, and if you’re confused about where to start, you may want to consider working with a SaaS SEO Agency.
5 Stages of a Successful SaaS Content Marketing Sales Cycle
Let’s first look at the stages of the SaaS sales cycle.
Stage 1—Acknowledge the Buyer: Who is your audience?
Stage 2—Identify Specific Needs: What pain points or problems are they facing?
Stage 3—Provide Solutions: How does your software solve their problems?
Stage 4—Complete the Transaction: How will they become your customer?
Stage 5—Affirm Satisfaction: How to drive customer retention and advocacy?
Now let's consider utilizing brand content experience in your SaaS sales funnel to improve and ultimately shorten your sales cycle. User-centric inbound marketing can make all the difference in obtaining and retaining customers at every point in their journey.
In other words, content is the key to a shorter and successful SaaS sales cycle.'
Step 1: Building Brand Awareness
When users first enter your sales funnel, SaaS content marketing allows you to introduce your brand and products and make a memorable first impression.
By expressing how their struggles cost them time and money, showing the value of your software and telling the company story at the forefront of your marketing campaign powered with a strong SaaS SEO strategy, you can connect with high-value users who are likely to connect on a deeper level and convert.
In addition, SaaS inbound marketing provides the opportunity to establish a consistent brand experience and make you stand out in the industry. Your blog becomes your platform to build brand awareness, create a community and establish your SaaS company as an expert in the field.
Stage one of the SaaS sales process is brand awareness, the purpose of your brand content should be to make an introduction, gain attention, build credibility and lead users into stage two and three: understanding and positioning your software as the best solution to their needs.
Step 2: We Understand Your Struggles and From This Day Forward, We Are Your Helpful Partner
Now that they know you, this is your opportunity to show you understand them. If we were to compare this whole process to dating, the next step after the introduction would be the fun and exciting first date.
The SaaS content marketing plan for this stage is to create experiences, nurture the relationship, and show empathy as users navigate the customer journey path you have laid before them. In the realm of dating, this would be the equivalent of having a meaningful conversation that leads to connection and eventually commitment.
Rather than a blatant sales pitch, you’re simply sharing your story and, in doing so, your good qualities and features shine through. Talk about how you understand the struggles and how your software can solve their problems, establishing your brand as a thought leader in your industry. Back to the realm of dating, people are tired of multiple random dates. Creating meaningful conversations (or engaging content) is the beginning of a blossoming lovely relationship (or sales conversion, customer retention and advocacy.)
A smart SaaS SEO strategy provides the necessary visibility and UX your content needs to guide, assure and fasten their buying decision with the relevant information and automatically positions your brand at the top of their mind when they’re ready to buy.
Step 3: Buckle Up, We’re Driving Conversions
Awesome SaaS inbound marketing is the most effective long-term solution to drive conversions, yet so many SaaS companies overlook it.
Who doesn’t love a sweet proposal? Provide users with a free software trial, how-to video content, hard-to-resist one-time offer, first-month discount, or corporate rate to help them quickly solve their problems. Utilize brand content experience to show your high-value users how to save their valuable time and money.
Take the next step by partnering with a SaaS SEO agency to optimize your organic online visibility. Stop burning your marketing budget on PPC and start investing in inbound marketing to optimize your sales funnel, drive new organic revenue and establish long-term success.
An SEO strategy agency can wean you off expensive PPC budgets through strong organic positioning. After all, your SaaS website without visibility is just an expensive software brochure.
STEP 4: Retain Customers With An Unmatched User Experience
You’ve already worked so hard to earn new customers, but that doesn’t mean your content is off the hook. It costs a lot more to attract a new customer to your SaaS marketing funnel than to retain an existing one, especially when you already have an engaging content and SEO strategy in play.
From the moment your users convert into customers, your content’s role switches from attraction to retention.
Once you make it official with your significant other, you don’t just stop loving them and you better not. Any successful long-term relationship involves open communication, caring for their best interests and creating meaningful impact.
So why should your customer experience be any different?
Upon conversion, it’s your job to help your customers get off to a good start with engaging onboarding content. This means educating your customers on product features, answering questions and providing extended tutorials and how-tos.
Once they’re familiar with your software, your content focus changes to retaining and upgrading. This is where you can offer additional add-ons, holiday discount codes for monthly subscriptions, as well as new feature announcements and product development updates. All of these work together to encourage their next steps in your SaaS sales process.
While educating and upselling are essential for retaining customers, there’s another aspect often overlooked when it comes to brand content: community.
By publishing customer success stories, opening forums and offering exclusive content, your customers gain a sense of community that helps them engage with, learn from and influence other potential customers.
STEP 5: The Bread and Butter of Customer Advocacy
Now we know that retaining customers is easier than gaining new ones, therefore using your retained customers to gain new ones is the next best thing. That is where customer advocacy comes into play. SaaS content marketing (whether user- or brand-generated) is what gives your advocacy marketing efforts life.
A strong advocacy focused content strategy incorporates content of all types, including videos, images, articles, podcasts and more. Everything you put out is an opportunity for a customer to connect with a piece of content and, as a result, engage and share.
Another type of content, User Generated Content (UGC), provides a double win when it comes to advocacy. First, the content is created by your customers and creates a stronger sense of trust. Secondly, UGC posts are more likely to be shared than those created by the brand itself.
When your customers are happy and cared for, smart and engaging brand content experiences give them everything they need to introduce their friends, family and peers to your software.
And so, your sales cycle begins again.
Poppy Malise, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Originally born and raised in a small Indonesian city on Sumatra, Poppy is now the Founder and COO of LIVID creative digital marketing agency based in California and providing industry-leading content solutions to SaaS brands.
Through written SEO content, LIVID is able to create powerful brand experiences that drive first page rankings in Google and ROI. These catered content experiences also shorten sales cycles, lower customer acquisition costs and increase customer retention to further aid companies in achieving their marketing and revenue goals. In addition to written content, LIVID is also pushing the boundaries of short-form video content for Social Media that taps into the psychology of high-value audiences to drive engagement.
As a leader of a 15 person Remote First agency split in the middle between the US content team and Indonesian design and support team, Poppy is empowering other females and creative professionals in Indonesia to tap into the global economy while achieving work/life harmony.
When she takes a break from being a badass, boss female, you can find her chilling on the beach or relaxing in a cafe diving in on her latest Quantum Manifestation book.
