Content selling is simply a fashionable benignant of selling for SaaS marketing. Many companies person succeeded with it. HubSpot, Ahrefs, Zapier—the database goes on.

Despite that, determination is no 1 way to bash contented selling for SaaS. Each SaaS operates successful a antithetic marketplace with antithetic customers, symptom points, and needs. 

As a result, each SaaS’s content selling strategy volition beryllium different. 

So alternatively than prescribe the “best” contented selling strategy you indispensable travel for 20XX, I’d similar to stock however we’ve done it present astatine Ahrefs.

Content selling is our main marketing type. And hopefully, by the extremity of this guide, you’ll instrumentality distant immoderate principles, ideas, and tactics you tin use to your own SaaS.

But first, let’s reply immoderate questions.

While the principles are mostly the same, determination are a fewer reasons wherefore contented selling tin beryllium antithetic for SaaS:

• Complexity – Generally speaking, determination are much features successful software, and this tin beryllium daunting to imaginable and caller customers. So SaaS contented selling doesn’t conscionable assistance amended marque consciousness and sales—it’s besides an important acquisition channel.
• Retention – Since SaaS products are subscription-based, continuous acquisition is required to assistance customers get the astir retired of the merchandise to (hopefully) forestall churn.
• More decision-makers – SaaS tin beryllium expensive, which results successful much decision-makers successful the buying process. Therefore, SaaS contented selling indispensable code the buying concerns for these people.
• More usage cases – More features mean much usage cases. For example, Ahrefs isn’t conscionable utilized by SEOs but besides by contented marketers, affiliate marketers, website owners, and more. We tin make contented targeting each of them. 

No.

Despite its popularity with SaaS companies, it’s not a must. Ultimately, it depends connected your company, industry, and acceptable of customers you serve.

In short, you indispensable usage the close “hunting strategy” for the close “animal.”

Content selling is simply a “Nets” channel, i.e., it lets you propulsion successful a ample fig of imaginable targets astatine once. This is suitable for companies that are targeting deer, mice, and rabbits—metaphors for customers who are paying you astir $100–$10,000 per year. 

If you’re targeting customers of those categories, contented selling whitethorn beryllium a large transmission for you. 

Learn more: A Simple Way to Build Your Go-to-Market Strategy 

The mode we bash contented selling astatine Ahrefs is known arsenic product-led content. 

Product-led contented is astir creating contented that helps the scholar lick their problems with your product. It’s not a hard sell; we’re people and strategically weaving our merchandise and its usage cases into the narrative.

Here’s however it works. 

1. Know your merchandise really well

To make astonishing product-led content, you person to cognize your merchandise wrong out. 

This seems similar an eye-rolling point, but you’d beryllium amazed astatine however galore marketers don’t cognize their product. That’s due to the fact that galore of them aren’t their ain company’s people customers. They’ve astir apt tried retired immoderate features during their onboarding, but they’ve ne'er earnestly “eaten their ain dog food.” 

I admit this was the lawsuit for maine arsenic well. (Not astatine Ahrefs, though.) 

You should cognize each diagnostic and usage case. You should support up to day with each caller diagnostic your SaaS releases. You should beryllium researching caller usage cases for existing and caller features. 

You request to cognize your merchandise similar the backmost of your hand.

At Ahrefs, we’re fortunate we’re our ain perfect customers. But we don’t instrumentality that for granted. Every caller selling prosecute works successful lawsuit enactment for 3 months earlier officially joining the team. They’re besides expected to implicit each courses successful our academy. 

This turns everyone successful the selling squad into Ahrefs experts. 

2. Know who tin payment from your product

Features request to payment someone. 

So you’ll privation to deliberation astir who needs your SaaS. And don’t conscionable deliberation astir the astir nonstop lawsuit base. You should broaden your horizons. 

For example, we’re an all-in-one SEO toolset. While we evidently payment SEOs, determination are besides a ton of different radical who tin usage our product, like:

• Content marketers
• Digital marketers
• Affiliate marketers
• Agency owners
• Freelancers
• Website owners
• Indie makers
• SaaS marketers (like yourself)

And more. 

This should beryllium a portion of barroom if you’ve done your market research and person your purchaser personas connected hand. But if you’ve yet to make purchaser personas for your SaaS, I highly urge following the process here. 

3. Find topics with hunt postulation potential

Most radical volition apt observe your contented via hunt engines. For that reason, you should make contented for topics that your people customers are searching for. 

Here’s however to find these topics:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
2. Enter 1 oregon a fewer keywords that are applicable to the customers you’re targeting (e.g., for Ahrefs, these tin beryllium presumption similar SEO, content marketing, digital marketing, affiliate marketing, etc)
3. Go to the Matching presumption report

Here, you tin spot that determination are ~2.5 cardinal imaginable topics you could target. Not lone are determination excessively many, but a batch of them are apt besides retired of your wheelhouse (at slightest for now). 

So we’ll privation to constrictive down the database utilizing filters. Specifically:

• Keyword Difficulty (KD) – KD gives an estimation of however hard it is to fertile successful the apical 10 hunt results for a keyword. The little the number, the “easier” it is. While it does beryllium connected your site’s “authority,” you tin commencement with a tenable fig like 20. 
• Traffic Potential (TP) – TP is the estimated magnitude of hunt postulation you tin perchance summation if you fertile #1 for that topic. We tin acceptable it to a minimum of 100 truthful we tin find topics that really nonstop postulation to your site. 

From here, you’ll privation to eyeball the database for applicable topics you can cover. 

Don’t conscionable look retired for topics wherever you tin make articles. Since it’s comparatively easier for SaaS companies to make escaped oregon constricted versions of their existing products, you’ll besides privation to support an oculus retired for opportunities wherever you tin make free tools. 

For example, our suite of escaped tools sends america tons of hunt postulation each month.

To find these keywords, usage the Include filter to hunt for words similar “tool, tools, calculator, template, templates, checker.” 

Go done the database and spot if determination are immoderate escaped tools you tin create. 

Learn more: Keyword Research: The Beginner’s Guide by Ahrefs

4. Give the topics you’ve recovered a “business potential” score

What’s the concealed down creating a portion of product-led contented that doesn’t work similar a hard sell?

Selecting the right topic. 

At Ahrefs, we absorption only connected topics our merchandise tin solve. That way, we don’t look similar we’re unnaturally shoehorning our merchandise into the content—we’re simply offering the champion solution to the problem.

How bash we bash this? We look astatine the topics we’ve recovered and springiness each of them a “business potential” score. 

By prioritizing topics that people a “2” oregon “3,” we marque definite that mentions of our merchandise are natural.

5. Create product-led contented that ranks

Creating product-led contented that ranks isn’t simply a lawsuit of hunkering down and writing. You’ll request to marque definite you’re creating and optimizing contented for hunt engines truthful it tin fertile and make integrated traffic. 

Here’s however to do it. 

A. Match hunt intent

Search intent is the why down a query. It’s the crushed wherefore idiosyncratic is searching for thing successful the archetypal place. Google knows this and tries to fertile lone the astir applicable results.

For example, if we hunt for “best wireless headphones,” the top-ranking pages are each listicles listing the champion wireless headphones of the existent year. 

Figuring retired the hunt intent for your people topics is comparatively easy. Just Google the keyword and look retired for the three Cs:

1. Content type – Is the superior benignant of contented a blog post, merchandise page, video, landing page, oregon thing else? 
2. Content format – Is the superior format a how-to guide, listicle, review, sentiment piece, news, oregon thing else?
3. Content angle – Is determination a superior angle, specified arsenic the existent twelvemonth oregon contented aimed astatine beginners?

For example, let’s accidental you privation to screen the taxable “how to save money.” 

If we analyse the SERPs, here’s what we’ll learn:

1. Content type – All of the top-ranking pages are blog posts.
2. Content format – Surprise, surprise! Despite the “how to” modifier, radical are really looking for tips. 
3. Content angle – Simple, proven, and accelerated are imaginable angles you could cover. 

So it’s apt you’ll person to constitute a listicle similar “XX Simplest Tips to Save More Money.”

B. Cover the taxable in full

For definite topics, searchers volition beryllium expecting you to screen respective important subtopics. If you’re missing them, searchers whitethorn deliberation your station is not bully capable and bounce.

For example, immoderate of the top-ranking posts for “how to constitute a property release” see templates:

It’s a hint that searchers whitethorn worth posts with templates higher than posts without. So if you’re targeting this topic, you whitethorn privation to see one. 

Here’s however you tin find important subtopics to cover:

1. Look astatine what the top-ranking pages are covering (especially their subheadings)
2. Run a contented spread analysis

Here’s however you tin execute the second strategy:

1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool (in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer)
2. Enter a fewer top-ranking pages for your taxable successful the apical section
3. Leave the bottommost conception blank
4. Hit “Show keywords”
5. Set the Intersection filter to 3 and 4 targets

For example, here’s however it looks similar if we analyse the top-ranking pages for “earned media”:

Looking astatine the list, we should beryllium covering subtopics like:

• What is earned media
• Examples of paid media
• Earned media examples
• Examples of owned media
• Earned media strategies

And more. 

C. Weave successful your merchandise naturally

As you’re creating the content, adhd your product’s usage lawsuit wherever earthy and possible. This is an art—there’s nary cleanable mode to bash this. It comes down to your copywriting skills. 

If you request an illustration of however this is done, you’re speechmaking it. 😉

Just remember: Don’t overdo it. If your merchandise isn’t a bully fit, it isn’t a bully fit. Don’t shoehorn your merchandise successful conscionable because. You privation to beryllium assured astir what you’re selling—but not to the constituent wherever you’re lying. 

6. Promote the content

Your contented won’t get traction connected its own. You’ll person to springiness it a push. That means you request to promote your content. 

Here are a fewer ways you tin do it:

A. Share it with your audience

Email, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. Wherever you person a following, fto them know.

B. Build links

Backlinks are 1 of Google’s astir important ranking factors. For that reason, if you privation to fertile higher connected Google, you request to build links. 

Link gathering is simply a full tin of worms, truthful I highly urge you work our usher connected nexus building oregon watch this video. 

But I don’t privation to permission you with nothing, truthful here’s a bully starting constituent to statesman your nexus gathering journey:

1. Paste a competing leafage into Site Explorer
2. Go to the Backlinks report
3. Look for backlinks you whitethorn beryllium capable to replicate

For example, let’s accidental we privation to physique links to our post connected however to constitute a blog post. If we analyse the top-ranking leafage for that taxable successful Site Explorer, we spot that it has 5,800 backlinks:

If we analyse them via the Backlinks report, we’ll spot that HubSpot got a nexus from this page:

Looking astatine the leafage itself, it appears to beryllium a leafage that curates resources for different industries. And determination is simply a conception for “Sales & Marketing Resources.” 

If we scope retired to the proprietor and present our station (or possibly adjacent thing else, similar our blog oregon academy), there’s a accidental they whitethorn adhd it to their page. 

C. Repurpose your content

Since you’ve already spent truthful overmuch clip creating the content, you should effort and get arsenic overmuch mileage arsenic imaginable from it.

You tin bash this by repurposing it.

For example, we turned our blog station connected influencer marketing into a video. And vice versa—we besides turned our video connected affiliate marketing into a blog post.

Learn more: The Complete Guide to Content Repurposing 

D. Run ads

Finally, if you person the budget, you tin ever tally ads to your content. Don’t conscionable deliberation astir the large networks—smaller networks tin thrust postulation to your posts too. 

For example, we tally ads connected Twitter:

Quora:

And adjacent YouTube:

Learn more: PPC Marketing: Beginner’s Guide to Pay-Per-Click Ads 

Final thoughts

This is the strategy we’ve been utilizing astatine Ahrefs for the past fewer years. But the astir hard portion is to bash it consistently—steadily publishing content, pursuing the strategy, and not chasing each caller maneuver that comes on the way. 

Any questions oregon comments? Let maine cognize on Twitter.