How to Develop a B2B SaaS Content Strategy That Drives Growth

Is the content you’re producing for your B2B SaaS business driving growth, or is it just adding to your expenses?

Converting prospects into customers requires a smart, focused content strategy. And when you nail your strategy, good things happen: managing your content becomes much easier, and your business grows.

Most content strategies stumble in three areas:

1. They rely on a traditional sales funnel that ends at purchase.
2. They produce too much top-funnel content focused on awareness.
3. They don’t prioritize high-converting bottom-funnel content.

The most effective strategy combines three approaches: an hourglass funnel to extend engagement post-purchase, pain point marketing to align content with real customer needs, and a bottom-up content creation focus that strengthens conversion potential.

The hourglass funnel: A foundation for success

Let’s set the stage with a framework. Marketing funnels come in a lot of variations, but the most common ones focus on the journey leading up to a one-time sale. They guide potential customers through stages like awareness, consideration, and decision. But they don't capture the full picture for B2B SaaS companies that rely on recurring revenue models.

The hourglass funnel goes beyond the purchase. It recognizes that acquiring new customers (the top half) is essential for B2B SaaS growth, but retaining and upselling existing ones (the bottom half) is just as important.

Here’s why this model, which includes post-purchase stages like onboarding, adoption, and advocacy, matters so much for B2B SaaS businesses:

Focuses on customer lifetime value (CLTV): By nurturing existing customers at the bottom of the hourglass, you increase their overall value to your business.

Reduces customer acquisition costs (CAC): Retaining happy customers is significantly cheaper than acquiring new ones.

Drives growth through advocacy: Loyal customers become brand advocates, attracting new users organically and feeding back into the top half of the funnel.

B2B SaaS growth relies on loyal customers who use the product long-term and refer others. For your strategy to be effective, it must include content focused on onboarding, product adoption, and advocacy that aligns with your overall content strategy.

Now, what is pain point marketing, and how do you integrate it into this hourglass funnel?

The power of pain point marketing

Imagine creating content around your target audience’s problems—no matter where they are in the journey. That’s the power of pain point marketing. Let’s dive in a little deeper.

What is pain point marketing?

Pain point marketing is a content strategy built around understanding your ideal customer’s pain points and developing content that directly addresses them. Here’s how it works:

1. Identify problems: Start by pinpointing the specific challenges your target audience faces through research and gathering user insights.
2. Link solutions to pain points: Map these pain points to specific features or services your product offers that can solve these problems.
3. Create targeted content: Develop a series of product-led content pieces tailored to these pain points, each for a different stage of the customer journey. The content type will vary with each stage.

For example, you might create blog posts to capture interest at the top of the funnel, centered around a common pain point. Then progress to a solution-focused webinar in the middle of the funnel that delves deeper into addressing the issue. At the decision stage, a product demo can be used to convert high-intent leads by demonstrating how your product solves the problems effectively. And don't overlook post-purchase content. Educational guides, explainer videos, and continuous support resources ensure your customers use and benefit from your product.

This approach (creating content based on features mapped to pain points) ensures your content speaks directly to user needs at every stage.

But that’s a lot of content, right? How do you prioritize what to create, and where do you start? That’s where the bottom-up approach comes in.

The benefits of this B2B SaaS content strategy

The combination of the hourglass funnel, pain point marketing, and a bottom-up content approach forms a B2B SaaS content strategy that drives outcomes.

Here’s what makes this strategy effective:

Guiding customers throughout their journey: The hourglass funnel covers the entire customer lifecycle, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. This approach helps convert leads and continues engaging them as loyal customers.

Content that connects: By focusing on your audience’s specific challenges and frustrations through pain point marketing, you create content that resonates and meets their exact needs.

Targeting ready-to-buy leads: The bottom-up approach focuses on creating detailed content for users at the decision stage of their buying process. It attracts users actively seeking solutions, leading to higher conversion rates.

What outcomes can you expect?

• Increased brand awareness and recognition as thought leaders.

• Enhanced lead generation and better lead qualification.

• Higher conversion rates from targeted, high-intent leads.

• Stronger, more sustained customer relationships.
  

In essence, this strategy allows you to craft content that is both strategically targeted and user-centric. Addressing user needs throughout the buyer’s journey sets the stage for sustainable growth in your B2B SaaS business.

Explore my Content Playbook for more actionable tips to elevate your content strategy game:

Step 5: Cultivate customer loyalty with post-purchase content

Remember, your B2B SaaS content strategy doesn’t end at conversion. Provide value with post-purchase content to build long-term relationships and increase customer lifetime value (CLTV). Here are some strategies to consider:

• Develop educational resources. Create guides, tutorials, and demos that help customers onboard, navigate your product’s features, and unlock its full potential.

• Provide ongoing support. Maintain a knowledge base with troubleshooting guides, FAQs, and community forums for customers to find answers and connect with support.

• Deliver success stories and best practices. Show how successful customers are using your product to achieve their goals. It demonstrates the value you provide.
  
  

Step 6: Analyze results and adapt strategies

• Track your results. Monitor metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, and social media engagement to measure the effectiveness of your content strategy.

• Refine your approach. Use your data to identify what’s working well and adjust where needed. Continuously adapt your content strategy based on audience insights and performance data.

From pain points to content: The bottom-up approach

First, let’s focus on customer acquisition. For a B2B SaaS content strategy to be effective, it should start by focusing on prospects who are on the verge of making a purchase decision. And bottom-funnel content has the highest conversion potential because it addresses their immediate readiness to buy.

So what does this mean? Prioritize these types of bottom-funnel content:

• Product and product-led content: Content that shows how your product and its features work.

• Customer success stories: Real-life examples of how your product has helped other businesses.

• Demos: Recorded video demonstrations of your product in action.

• Comparison pieces: Content that compares your product with competitors.
  
  

While top-funnel content is important for building awareness, addressing the needs of prospects closest to purchase first allows you to start generating returns quickly. Over time, you can build on that momentum by creating more top and middle-funnel content.

Implementing the bottom-up approach within the hourglass funnel

Why start at the bottom? Because developing top-funnel content without aligned bottom-funnel content leaves nowhere for you to channel prospects for conversion!

Bottom-funnel (BoFu) first: Begin by creating content that caters to the final decision-making stage, ensuring you have material to convert high-intent leads.

Expand upwards:

Middle-funnel (MoFu): Develop webinars and comparison pages that position your product as the best solution, helping leads evaluate their options.

Top-funnel (ToFu): Start with blog posts focused on your customer’s pain points that relate to your product’s capabilities. Once you’ve established a foundation, you can expand your content to cover broader topics like industry trends and challenges.

Building from the bottom up leads to more efficient and effective content.

Building your B2B SaaS content strategy: Putting it all together

Now that you’re familiar with the hourglass funnel framework, pain point marketing, and the bottom-up approach, let’s see how you can apply these concepts to develop your B2B SaaS content strategy.

Step 1: Identify your audience’s needs and pain points

• Who are you targeting? Develop buyer personas to define your ideal customer’s demographics, challenges, and goals.

• What are their main issues? Use market research, customer feedback, interviews, and social listening tools to pinpoint your audience’s problems.

• Where do they conduct research? Understand what platforms and websites your audience uses when researching problems and solutions.
  
  

Step 2: Conduct keyword research and map topics

• Find relevant keywords. Research terms your audience uses when searching for solutions like yours.

• Map keywords to the pain points identified earlier. This alignment helps you create relevant content topics optimized for search engines (SEO).
  
  

Step 3: Create content with a bottom-up focus

• Start with bottom-funnel content. Focus on creating detailed content, like product and product-led content, that appeal to purchase-ready users.

• Build a content ladder. After establishing bottom-funnel content, expand to create top and middle-funnel content.
  
  

Don't forget about your technical documentation! Integrating technical content into the pre-purchase stages of your strategy is a practical and effective way to educate potential buyers early in their journey. (Check out How to Include Technical Documentation in Your B2B SaaS Content Strategy for ideas)

Step 4: Promote and distribute your content

• Publish consistently. Maintain a content calendar for regular updates across various channels.

• Optimize for search engines. Apply SEO best practices to enhance your content’s online visibility.

• Use social media. Share your content on platforms where your audience is active.

• Consider paid advertising. Use paid strategies, like search engine marketing (SEM), to target users at the decision stage. Focus your ads on bottom-funnel content to increase conversion chances and maximize ROI.
  
  

Implementation tip: Create a spreadsheet to organize and track your strategy. Include columns for pain points, buyer stage, content type, title, CTAs, and keywords. Here’s a suggested layout for your spreadsheet to get you started: