Inbound marketing for SaaS products can be highly effective. But how do you do it? In this guide, we walk through everything you need to know to set up an inbound marketing strategy for your SaaS company.
Create a Buyer Persona
The first step in creating a powerful inbound SaaS marketing strategy is identifying who it is you are looking to onboard as a customer. This will be a crucial early step in your inbound strategy.
This is a worthwhile exercise with benefits even beyond your marketing. It can be helpful to communicate this ideal customer to your sales and operation teams as well so they can best focus on delighting these customers!
Some important questions you might want to ask:
- How old are they?
- Is my product B2B or B2C? (Am I targeting business people with a solution that helps them get their job done or end consumers who want to improve their lives with your SaaS solution?)
- Have they raised money from investors? How much? How long ago?
- What position is my ideal customer at their organization?
- Where does my ideal customer spend time online?
- Are they male or female?
- Where do they live?
- Which social media platforms do they use?
Once you have a really solid grasp on who your ideal buyer is, you can move on to the next step…
Think “What type of content does my ideal buyer want to consume?”
Now that we know who we are targeting, it’s time to ask yourself, “What type of content would they want to engage with online?”
The best answer to this question is usually the following:
Content that adds value to their lives and makes their jobs or lives easier.
Examples of this could be:
- How-to guides
- Industry research reports
- Content that gets them thinking of things they previously hadn’t been thinking about.
- Analyses of industry tools or processes
Spending time here understanding how your ideal buyer spends time online and how to make their lives easier will go a long way when it comes to figuring out where to focus your content-creation efforts.
Create Amazing Content
Once you know where your ideal buyer is spending time online and what type of content will best add value to them it’s time to get started on your content creation.
Again, keep the idea of adding as much value as possible to your content consumers throughout the process.
Some popular types of content for an inbound SaaS marketing strategy:
- Newsletters
- Podcasts
- Blog Posts
- eBooks
- YouTube Videos
- Social Media Posts
All of these types of content can provide value at scale and attract new customers to your platform.
Some powerful tools for content creation include the following:
- Grammarly (for long-form content writing)
- VidIQ (for YouTube SEO and content ideas)
- Hubspot (for tracking customers and how they interact with your content)
- MailChimp (for newsletter and email marketing)
- Anchor (for podcast hosting)
For more helpful tools check out this full guide on the best inbound marketing tools for SaaS marketing.
Make Your Content Converting Machines
Once you have created some engaging content that your audience is enjoying it’s time to make sure the content is accomplishing its original purpose, converting customers!
Find low-friction ways to let your audience know about your product. If you have done a good job of building value-adding content and your reader fits your target buyer persona, they should find the call to action pleasant and helpful.
Common ways to plug your product in your content:
- In podcasts or YouTube videos: 30-second “powered by” messages within your episodes
- Blog posts: links within content (check the bottom of this article as an example!)
Related Content: How to Measure SaaS Content Marketing
Get Professional Help
Need help setting up an inbound marketing funnel for your SaaS product? It could be time to contact the pros at Coinbound. The Coinbound team has experience building highly-converting content (like this blog post!) that addresses ideal customers and converts them!
