{"id":144286,"date":"2022-11-10T12:36:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T12:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=144286"},"modified":"2022-11-10T12:36:21","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T12:36:21","slug":"10-saas-marketers-share-whats-not-working-in-content-marketing-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2022\/11\/10\/10-saas-marketers-share-whats-not-working-in-content-marketing-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"10 SaaS marketers share what’s NOT working in content marketing anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Content has become a traditional marketing channel for many SaaS companies. According to ProfitWell, content companies are likely to see <\/span>30 percent higher growth rates and 5 percent better retention rates<\/span><\/a> than those not using content marketing. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>The content marketing game is constantly changing \u2013 what used to work for SaaS companies years ago doesn\u2019t make the cut today. Having spent a good five years in the SaaS content marketing space I\u2019m always interested in tips, hacks, and low-hanging fruit that let you take a shortcut and speed up product growth.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I\u2019ve interviewed 10 SaaS marketers and founders who\u2019ve been creating SaaS content on a daily basis for years and asked them to share their insights \u2013 what\u2019s not working in SaaS content marketing anymore? Let\u2019s dive in and see what they have to share.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#1 Chasing big fat keywords<\/h2>\n

Everybody wants to rank for these fancy keywords with large amounts of search volume. But the truth is, large search volumes usually come with a crazy high competition and keyword difficulty. If your SaaS is in the social media space and you are just unfolding your content marketing, going after stuff like \u201csocial media management\u201d is literally wasting your time and money.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the bootstrapped startup that we are, we aim for actions that yield results. Our focus is on high-intent content marketing strategy. We pick keywords for blog posts not according to their search volume but according to their purchase intent. This helped us drive not only traffic but also sign ups with our blog being the only marketing channel today <\/span><\/i>\u201d says Dennis Vu, co-founder and CEO at <\/span>RingBlaze<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t agree more. The reason why our agency has been up and running for 2+ years is because we deliver not only traffic but also sign ups to SaaS clients. And the only way to do so with content marketing is to focus on high-intent keywords \u2013 think <\/span>\u201calternatives\u201d, \u201ccompetitors\u201d or \u201cvs\u201d keywords<\/span><\/a>. It works every single time so that\u2019s where I recommend starting your content marketing efforts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#2 Going outside of your niche<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve written hundreds of articles for the <\/span>Expandi blog<\/span><\/a> over the course of two years. Today, Google recognizes Expandi as an authority when it comes to all things LinkedIn \u2013LinkedIn cold outreach, LinkedIn recruitment, LinkedIn automation \u2013 no matter which LinkedIn-related article we\u2019d cover, it instantly ranks well on Google. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Recently, Expandi introduced new features, only this time they weren\u2019t about LinkedIn but about email outreach. Once we started writing email-related articles, we realized that they were not ranking well. Unfortunately, we haven\u2019t built the email marketing topical authority (yet) so Google didn\u2019t consider us experts in the niche. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>This doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t enter a new space and write about a new subject. Building the topical authority needed for recognizing you as a niche expert will require time and effort. If you decide to start a new category on a blog, you should keep this in mind. At the same time, if you aren\u2019t changing your product, keep in line with the topic you\u2019ve chosen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the article is written about CRM, but this is not your niche, it is challenging to get to the top of Google search,<\/span><\/i>\u201d says Andrew Chornyy, CEO at <\/span>Plerdy<\/span><\/a> where they write 30 blog articles per month.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#3 Posting articles lacking expertise<\/h2>\n

Have you ever read one of those articles where it looks good on the surface but once you\u2019ve read it you felt like there was absolutely nothing you\u2019ve learned from it? Pretty much all the content marketing experts I\u2019ve talked to agree on this \u2013 vague, watery content for the sake of content is a no-go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMost companies use copywriters to write their content. This doesn’t work anymore. As they are usually not an expert in the topic they write about, they will read our copywriters’ articles to research the topic. This results in an endless loop of already fluffy content being the input for even fluffier content,\u201d says Jeroen Corthout, co-founder and CEO at <\/span><\/i>Salesflare<\/span><\/i><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Be careful when you hire copywriters with no subject matter expertise \u2013 you might be risking your brand image. Ask about their previous writing examples covering a similar topic or niche. For example, when we chat with a wanna-be client from a niche we don\u2019t have experience with, we let them know about it straight away. Losing a potential client is way better than losing a reputation.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

If your topics are technical and your tech experts don\u2019t have time to write blog articles (which is usually the case) have your writers connect with experts on a quick call to get as many \u2018meaty\u2019 details as possible. Also, make sure to get those experts to proofread the post when it\u2019s ready.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#4 Prioritizing article length over quality<\/h2>\n

When Brian Dean introduced us to the skyscraper technique back in the day, everyone and his dog started creating content that\u2019s longer than those competing results ranking in Google top. However, long content doesn\u2019t necessarily mean comprehensive. What we see these days is blogs populated with 20-min reads that are vague, watery, and, let\u2019s be honest, don\u2019t bring much value to the table.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ioana Sima, marketing manager at <\/span>TextMagic<\/span><\/a> said, <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cLong-form written content as 90% of companies do it. The web is incredibly saturated with long-form articles that are written for the sake of being written. SaaS companies should not rely purely on long-form. <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>I would recommend experimenting with different formats and transforming articles that perform well into long-form content, while also including video summaries, templates, or rich media that can be distributed on other channels and quickly digested. Oh, and ALWAYS check SERPs to see the formats of top-performing pages.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It can be hard to pack your article with value when SurferSEO asks you to write a 5K words piece. Remember that longer doesn\u2019t always mean better. After all, this is what content marketing is about \u2013 writing for people, and bringing value while also catering to search engines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#5 Publishing articles under a wrong name<\/h2>\n

Ranktracker<\/span><\/a> is publishing 50 blog articles per month, translated into 12 languages. Felix Rose-Collins, the CMO, shares that articles they\u2019ve published under the name of unknown authors tend to have poor performance on Google. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cWe noticed that they don’t appear for our target keywords, we have now stopped posting for unknown authors. Once we\u2019ve started using well-known names (like CEO), we see them rank within two minutes after publishing in the top 3 results. Even for extremely competitive keywords,\u201d<\/span><\/i> says Felix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"clicks<\/span>RankTracker clicks and impressions over time<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In fact, this might be one of the reasons why you don\u2019t see the results from the guest posts published on your blog. Next time, when you accept a guest post, make sure to look up the author on Google. If there are no online publications, chances are it probably won\u2019t do your blog any good. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>On the other note, when you pitch a guest post to an editor, include your previous publications on major platforms. For example, that\u2019s how I got to write this post for Search Engine Watch \u2013 I shared my previous articles I wrote for Entrepreneur, HubSpot, Zapier, Foundr, and many more.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#6 Focusing on new content rather past articles<\/h2>\n

About five years ago I wasn\u2019t thinking much about updating old content. We were on a hamster wheel of creating more content, faster for Chanty, a company where I headed a content team. Then I ran into <\/span>this article by HubSpot <\/span><\/a>and realized I was missing out big time. So we went back to the older posts to update and optimize them. I can\u2019t share numbers as it was a long time ago but the results were huge. Since then we do this for our clients \u2013 if the article isn\u2019t performing well, it gets an update.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll find that most of your sign ups come from a handful of articles. Updating our lead-generating content is an ongoing work that never stops. After all, the supply of keywords relevant to your business isn\u2019t endless. While you are producing new content, older articles are going down. If you neglect updating older content you\u2019d be stuck with a traffic plateau and a business that doesn\u2019t grow,\u201d<\/span><\/i> says <\/span>Andrey Makhovskyi, founder and CEO at<\/span> Effy.ai<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SaaS<\/p>\n

One of Effy.ai updated article performance over time<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

#7 Contributing via Help a reporter out (HARO)<\/h2>\n

This might bring a lot of resentment but we had to discontinue HARO for our clients in 2022. If you are not familiar, HARO is a service that connects journalists\/ authors with experts in the field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Authors would request a quote from experts and experts would share their advice. Authors then would decide which quote to include in their article and credit experts by putting a link to the expert\u2019s website (similar to what I\u2019m doing in this article). This used to be a win-win case \u2013 authors would get meaty insights for their publications while experts would get attribution and links to their websites. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>It worked great until it turned into a red ocean zone and space got overcrowded. What used to be a great link building technique became a waste of time and effort. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAbout two years ago we used to get 25 backlinks out of 65 pitches for our clients. With time it went into a downward spiral. Today, nobody links to you just because you shared your advice. They also want a link back in return. We realized it no longer delivers the value it used to to our clients. We had to give up this service and focus on backlink building techniques that do work today, <\/span><\/i>\u201d says Iryna Kutnyak, director of operations at <\/span>Quoleady<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#8 Distributing content across communities<\/h2>\n

Emilia <\/span>Korczynska is a head of content at <\/span>UserPilot <\/span><\/a>and the hardest working marketer I\u2019ve ever met. Getting published a whopping 60 articles per month, she\u2019s tried distributing blog content on Quora, Reddit and social media. She says you have to be very cautious about how you spend time distributing blog posts. \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cResharing content in social media groups that are mostly dead or Slack channels requires a lot of effort, and with the miniscule organic reach and a high chance of getting banned by the admins just don’t justify it. Similarly with Quora\/Reddit and other Q&A sites,\u201d<\/span><\/i> says Emilia.<\/span><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t agree more \u2013 we stopped all of our Quora activities a long time ago because the results just weren’t worth it. What we realized is that people often come to Quora from Google search after typing your target keyword \u2013 the one you are optimizing an article for. It makes much more sense to get that blog article rank in the Google top (higher than the Quora result) rather than trying to compete with hundreds of Quora answers bugging your friends\/colleagues to upvote and comment. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>When it comes to sharing in social media groups \u2013 self promotion is usually against the group rules anyway. Unless you are an admin or have been constantly adding value to the group, your blatant distribution attempt will be quickly eliminated. At the same time, there are groups that allow this sort of promotion. I call them \u201cdistribution cemeteries\u201d. Nobody reads the avalanche of irrelevant content that\u2019s being posted there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#9 Prioritizing link building over content quality<\/h2>\n

Whenever I speak with a potential client on Zoom, I emphasize that content quality comes first. You can\u2019t have a piece of content that\u2019s thin and invaluable and expect it to rank well by building backlinks to it. It\u2019s like putting a fresh coat of paint on a car with no wheels and hoping it will ride.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve interviewed <\/span>Mohamed Sehwail,<\/span><\/i> CEO at <\/span><\/i>FullSession<\/span><\/i><\/a> and here\u2019s his input on this,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been building backlinks to our blog content for a while, yet we were able to maintain steady growth of traffic and sign ups. Article updates do its magic, boosting our positions and bringing our pages to the Google top.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"SaaS<\/p>\n

FullSession traffic growth over time<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Building backlinks will only help rank content better once your content is polished \u2013 it\u2019s valuable, well-structured, to the point, answers the search intent, etc. When that\u2019s in place and you are still not ranking well, it\u2019s time to add backlinks.<\/span><\/p>\n

#10 Overdosing with gated content<\/h2>\n

\u201cGive us your email and get access to an ebook, whitepaper, guide, checklist, etc.\u201d The classic <\/span>inbound approach<\/span><\/a> introduced by HubSpot back in the days might not work for everyone as of now. The amount of content online these days is insane. Why would they give you their email if they can get the same contact (if not better) openly elsewhere?<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201c<\/span>Instead of closing off certain content, we’ve found it’s more beneficial to create ‘additional resources’ as a complement allowing readers the option to download and creating a win-win scenario,\u201d says\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Elizabeth Pokorny, head of content at <\/span>Weglot<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

When you are putting together three already published articles on a topic and calling it a guide, it doesn\u2019t sound right. If it works for you \u2013 great. However, gated content does its best when it\u2019s unique, something you can\u2019t find easily online. <\/span><\/p>\n

It might help to review your gated content policy and experiment with the assets you share with your readers. Opening more of your content might bring extra organic traffic and result in more sign ups at the end of the day. On the other hand, if your content pieces are of great value and your website is the only place to get them, I\u2019d recommend keeping them gated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bottom line<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve interviewed dozens of content marketers and only top insights made it to this article. One thing that\u2019s clear as day \u2013 great content is here to stay. It\u2019s not about the amount of backlinks or length. Helpful, actionable, experience-based content written by an expert in the field is what you should be after when planning content pieces for your website.\u00a0 <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>When you develop your content marketing strategy, focus on high-intent keywords that will bring a highly-targeted flow of people who are ready to sign up. When you have a pool of articles that generate leads for you, make sure to cherish this content and update it regularly to give it a well-deserved Google boost.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Topical authority is a thing and gradually building authority around the topic that\u2019s most relevant to your business will help you rank your future articles faster and easier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When sharing content online, avoid the spray-and-pray approach (don\u2019t bury your content on the spooky \u2018distribution cemeteries\u2019), always check the results of your activities and double down only on those channels that are worth the effort.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Hopefully, this article and advice from the content marketing experts who\u2019ve learned their lesson through trial and error will help you save time and focus on things that work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Olga<\/span>\u00a0Mykhoparkina is a founder at\u00a0Quoleady<\/a>, a SaaS content marketing agency on a mission to help great software products get quality leads through top-notch evergreen content.<\/em><\/p>\n

Subscribe to the\u00a0Search Engine Watch newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for insights on SEO, the search landscape, search marketing, digital marketing, leadership, podcasts, and more.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Join the conversation with us on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Insights from folks who\u2019ve been creating SaaS content on a daily basis for years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":144290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[118,116],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-144286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content","category-industry","tag-content-marketing","tag-industry-trends"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":"Independent","tad_content_format":"Expert commentary"},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/10-SaaS-marketers-share-whats-NOT-working-in-content-marketing-anymore.png","category":"Content","timeago":"3y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144286"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=144286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}