The need for Software as a Service (SaaS) is growing rapidly and tech businesses would be wise to grasp the opportunity with both hands.  

Inbound marketing is the perfect way to create engaging, helpful, human content for your audience to turn visitors into leads and prospects into paying customers.  

Great inbound marketing fully considers a buyer's journey – including their questions and goals at certain stages of their defined ‘journey’.  

By understanding their concerns and pain points, you’re able to provide bespoke helpful content and tangible solutions to the issues or problems the customer is trying to solve. 

Providing the right content at the right stage is all about understanding where buyers are in the process and what content aligns with this. Software isn’t something your buyer can see, so you need to fully communicate the benefits, user experience and USPs of your product to make it stand out from your competition.  

There are three main stages of the SaaS buyers' journey. These are: 

• Awareness 
• Consideration 
• Decision 

Awareness  

This is the point where the defined ‘buyer’ realises they have a problem. At this stage they could be doing research in how to solve this issue.  

At this stage, helpful, informative content is key – not a hard sell. SaaS companies should use this opportunity to be an authoritative, trusted voice. Content could drive data capture at this stage – though gated premium content such as eBooks or whitepapers.  

Content should help the buyer begin to outline the cause of their issue – this will help drive interest at the consideration stage. 

Consideration  

The buyer at this stage is aware of the definition of their problem and could be researching software solutions to help them solve it.  

A business or individual, your buyer is now bought in and likely to be much more engaged than they were at the awareness stage. 

At this point in the buyer's journey, SaaS companies can assess the types of content required to nurture a buyer and drive them towards making a purchase or procuring a service. Content – such as blogs, videos or webinars, infographics or eBooks should be aligned to the buyer's specific problem – offering helpful content and real, tangible ways they can utilise software to solve their problem or need.  

Make use of any data gathered in the first stage and use an automated email marketing workflow, using an inbound platform such as HubSpot, to ensure you’re regularly engaging with a buyer and nurturing them at this critical stage.  

Software companies need to use their prime position in the consideration stage – drive awareness of how to solve an issue and signpost buyers to your services... 

Decision 

At the decision stage in the journey, a buyer is ready to make a purchase or take on a service. They’re fully up to speed with their issue and are ready to make a leap to resolve it.  

At this stage, content can be more direct, and sales messaging can play a part in content to drive forward a particular service or product. Whatever the issue, SaaS companies can make contact with potential buyers at this stage to seal the deal. Why not offer them a new customer discount code or freebie offer to get them over the line? 

So, what have we learned about the SaaS Buyer’s Journey? 

Each stage of the buyer journey offers different opportunities to communicate with a potent buyer or lead.  

If your business is a SaaS company, aligning content with the needs of a consumer is critical – do this well, and inbound marketing will help you quickly turn leads, into customers.  

Are you looking to improve your lead generation tactics? Download our latest eBook and discover how to implement effective marketing tactics that will fuel growth.