Hello!
So you have been tasked with creating a top-notch SaaS content marketing plan for your business to achieve organic growth? No pressure, right?
You’re basically the captain of the ship, navigating through rough waters (aka competition) and leading your crew (employees) towards your company goals. It’s like being in a cheesy action movie, but with spreadsheets instead of explosions.
Sure, startups and small businesses often rely on investors to get off the ground. But without a strong foundation of organic growth, it’s hard to keep afloat. That’s where content marketing comes in.
By creating valuable, relevant content that speaks directly to your target audience, you can establish your brand’s authority and build a loyal following. From there, you can leverage that audience to drive traffic, generate leads, and ultimately grow your business organically.
Alright, now that we’ve established the importance of content marketing, it’s time to ask yourself a crucial question: do you have the bandwidth to do this thing justice?
In other words, can you juggle all the demands of running a business while also implementing high-level content marketing strategies?
It’s like trying to pat your head and rub your belly at the same time, except instead of body parts, it’s different areas of your business. Can you do it all, or do you need to call in some reinforcements?
That’s where the question of whether to rely on your in-house team or outsource your SaaS content marketing comes into play. Do you have a team of content ninjas at your disposal, ready to tackle this challenge head-on?
Or are you more like the Karate Kid with a broomstick, struggling to keep up with the Cobra Kai of content marketing?
We know how confusing and overwhelming it can be to navigate the world of content marketing.
But here’s the thing: just like there are many roads that lead to Rome (or Disneyland, depending on your priorities), there are many paths you can take when it comes to content marketing. The key is finding the one that’s quickest, easiest, and most effective for your SaaS business.
So if you’re feeling torn between hiring a team of full-time employees or outsourcing to an agency, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve been there, done that, and we’re here to share our hard-earned wisdom with you.
By reading our post, you’ll gain a clear understanding of the pros and cons of each approach, so you can make an informed decision that’s right for your business. And who knows, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two that’ll make the journey a little less bumpy.
What Does it Mean to Outsource SaaS Content Marketing?
If you are about to launch your startup, you may not be aware of what exactly it means to outsource content marketing.
In many cases, businesses hire content writers to write and publish relevant, informative, interesting, and engaging content that captures the attention of their target audience while trying to achieve a favorable position in search engine results pages.
Many businesses prefer blogging to create content that generates interest in their brand and services. Their ultimate aim is to convince visitors to signup for their services and convert them into paying customers.
While blogging is preferred by many companies, ebooks, guides, social media posts, infographics, white papers, website content, and email campaigns are some other means through which content is created and shared.
Established SaaS companies prefer to write content on their own; however, there are some who hire agencies or marketing freelancers to take care of the content marketing aspect.
Mostly, small and medium businesses prefer outsourcing their SaaS content marketing to agencies due to a lack of experienced resources in their team.
Smaller businesses may not have the expertise to understand who their target audience is, what their pain points are, how to resolve their pain points, and how they prefer to receive information. The thumb rule of any content marketing team is to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.
The lack of experience may force some small businesses to seek help from agencies to create and publish content for their brand. In such cases, a professional SaaS content marketing team will strive to learn about your business first to help them craft content that resonates with your target audience.
Usually, they conduct interviews to gain a better understanding of your brand and services.
This will ultimately help them create top-quality content and drive marketing strategy success. Your company will also benefit greatly from the expertise of a third-party team, allowing you to focus on important aspects of your business.
Building a SaaS Content Marketing Team In-House
As you strive to establish a SaaS content marketing team within your organization, it’s essential to secure individuals who possess the precise skill set you require.
However, this can prove to be a daunting endeavor, especially if your expertise is not in content marketing or SEO and you lack the necessary background to evaluate if a candidate is suitable for a particular content-oriented role.
To begin with, it’s crucial to familiarize yourself with the typical content marketing positions required to construct an internal SaaS content marketing team.
- SaaS content writer. The primary responsibility of a SaaS content writer is to create informative content that delivers considerable value to the target audience by educating, and resolving their pain points. This is crucial in cultivating customer trust and loyalty. It’s essential to note that creating content solely for the purpose of promoting your services is unlikely to succeed, as today’s audience is knowledgeable enough to discern such tactics. Therefore, a skilled content writer should recognize their audience’s intelligence and tailor their writing accordingly, based on factors such as demographics, market trends, and the services being offered.
- SaaS content marketer. There is no point in crafting top-quality content if no one is going to read it. The role of a content marketer is to ensure that the crafted content reaches its target audience. A SaaS content marketing manager or specialist plays a crucial role in this by employing their SEO expertise and leveraging social media platforms to disseminate the content.
- SaaS content strategist. Before a content writer begins crafting content, they must first determine which topics and content types will best serve the goals of your SaaS content marketing and business objectives. This is where a SaaS content strategist becomes essential. In addition to developing and implementing content marketing strategies that align with your vision, a content strategist also identifies and fills content gaps that may exist, ensuring that the content produced addresses the needs of your target audience. Utilizing their expertise in the field, the content strategist plays a critical role in optimizing the content for success. As such, the success of the overall content marketing effort ultimately rests on the shoulders of the content strategist.
- SaaS content editor. Even small errors can distract readers from the valuable information in your content, making reviewing, proofreading, and editing crucial to developing high-quality content that accurately represents your brand. A content editor can play a vital role in this process, ensuring that not only the content is error-free but also that the brand voice and tone are consistently maintained throughout. With their expertise, a content editor can improvise the content and keep readers focused on the information being conveyed while also upholding the brand’s identity.
- Graphic designer. Including visuals in your SaaS content marketing is essential to grabbing the attention of your audience, simplifying complex concepts, and increasing organic visibility. With the human brain processing images 60,000 times faster than text and 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain being visual, it’s clear that quality visuals are a powerful tool in content marketing. To ensure your content stands out and generates more social engagement and views, having a skilled graphic designer on your team is crucial.
- Developer. Regularly updating your website is essential to stay relevant and increase brand exposure, which is why developers are a critical component of a successful content marketing team. With their expertise, they can improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) by implementing changes and enhancements that optimize the user experience, streamline navigation, and ensure your content is easy to find and access. By collaborating with your content marketing team, developers can help to enhance your online presence and drive more traffic to your website.
A decade ago, a content writer would have been enough for a company to implement its SaaS content marketing tasks effectively. The situation has completely changed today. The SaaS industry has been growing rapidly and has become more competitive.
To stand out in the hyper-competitive market, you need to have a strategic approach to get the desired results. Therefore, it is a wise decision to hire full-time employees for the above-mentioned roles if you are planning to do SaaS content marketing in-house.
Why You Should Outsource Your SaaS Content Marketing to an Agency
“Ideas don’t make you rich. The correct execution of ideas does.” – Felix Dennis.
If the success of a business depends only on the brilliance of the idea, then all businesses would be successful. Unfortunately, ideas without proper execution are just hallucinations.
The success of a business strongly depends on the execution of the strategies. That’s why having a solid team is so crucial to achieving your business goals.
Here are some reasons why you should outsource your SaaS content marketing to an experienced SaaS marketing agency.
You Get a Team of Experienced Professionals
The full-time employees that you hire may not have sufficient experience and expertise to get the job done for you.
Even if they have a proven track record with the previous companies they have worked in, it does not guarantee that they will be able to repeat the magic for your company as well.
The world of SaaS content marketing is fast-paced and constantly evolving. What was effective even just a few years ago may no longer be the best approach today. That’s why partnering with a SaaS content marketing agency can be such a valuable asset for your business.
Unlike an individual content marketer, an agency can offer a broader perspective and keep a finger on the pulse of industry trends and best practices by working with multiple clients simultaneously. With their deep experience and expertise, an agency can help you stay ahead of the curve and achieve your business goals more efficiently.
You Can Focus on Your Core Business Areas
Developing a strong in-house SaaS content marketing team from scratch is not a task that can be accomplished overnight. It requires an extensive search for skilled content writers, marketers, editors, developers, and designers, and molding them into a cohesive team, which could take many months, or even a year.
For business owners, this process can be a major distraction, taking away valuable time and focus from the core areas of the business. As a SaaS business owner, your main responsibility is sales and product development.
Outsourcing your SaaS content marketing to an agency can allow you to fully concentrate on your core responsibilities, while experts handle the content marketing aspects.
What Are the Problems You Can Face With an In-House Team?
Many companies tend to stick to the conventional method of hiring full-time employees for their SaaS content marketing needs, choosing to remain within their comfort zone.
Here are some problems you can face with an in-house team.
In-House Team Hiring Is a Time-Consuming Process
As we mentioned earlier, having a content writer alone is not sufficient to get started with your SaaS content marketing.
Considering the competitive landscape, you need a bigger team comprising developers, designers, marketers, strategists, editors, and so on. Building a full-time in-house SaaS content marketing team can be a time-consuming process.
Screening candidates for different roles, conducting interviews, and choosing the ones who are the right fit for your team can take some time.
Once the candidates have been selected for the respective roles, training them can take a significant amount of time.
They need to get a proper understanding of the brand, service, market, and target audience. Only when they gain a good understanding, they will be able to produce content that generates leads.
Lack of Hands-On Experience Can Lead to Failure
Merely building a team and providing training to its members is not enough to ensure high-quality content that generates leads.
Often, lack of hands-on experience or inadequate training is the root cause of this issue. Companies fail to train their content writers to produce contextually relevant content that addresses customer pain points and incorporates target keywords without resorting to keyword stuffing.
This results in a failure to build trust among the target audience, which can negatively impact the conversion rate. Therefore, research and a customer-centric approach are crucial for SaaS content marketing success, and hiring an experienced team or agency can greatly enhance the quality of content and increase the chances of success.
SaaS Content Marketing Outsource – Pros and Cons
As a SaaS business owner, it can be a difficult task to decide whether you need to hire a full-time in-house team for SaaS content marketing or outsource the work to an agency. Both these approaches have their own set of advantages and disadvantages.
This section will help you determine which is the right choice for your business.
Pros of Outsourcing SaaS Content Marketing
Here are some benefits of outsourcing your work to an agency.
#1. You Can Save Money
It is essential to hire at least five to six employees for your in-house team to ensure a successful content marketing strategy. While having excellent content is important, it is not enough if it is not reaching your target audience.
To achieve this, you will need to hire a content writer, SEO expert, developer, graphic designer, marketer, and strategist. These professionals play a critical role in ensuring that your content is well-received by your target audience.
However, keep in mind that hiring a full-time in-house team comes with expenses such as recruiting costs, salaries, health insurance, social security, and other benefits.
On the other hand, outsourcing can eliminate these expenses as you only have to pay a fixed monthly fee to an agency. Outsourcing is a much more cost-effective option compared to hiring a full-time in-house team when you consider the salaries and benefits you would have to pay to each employee.
#2. You Can Save Time
Outsourcing your SaaS content marketing can offer a significant advantage in terms of time savings.
Crafting high-quality content that effectively targets your audience requires more than just good writing skills. It involves integrating appropriate keywords and conducting market research and analysis, which can be time-consuming and divert your attention from core business activities.
In addition, training and educating full-time employees on these aspects can also take considerable time.
By outsourcing to an agency, you can benefit from their skilled and experienced workforce, who are known for quality content, timely delivery, and adherence to content calendar schedules.
Furthermore, you can leverage the expertise of subject matter experts who can complete entire projects in less time than it would take your in-house team to accomplish.
Outsourcing your SaaS content marketing to an agency can be a wise decision as they can jump on opportunities and address content gaps quickly.
#3. They are SEO Experts and Can Help You Keep Up With the Latest Trends
An established and reputed SaaS content marketing agency understands how Google works which helps them to position your piece of content to rank well in organic search.
Their team of experts possesses the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively utilize headers and related keywords, optimize sentence and paragraph structure, format images, and even prepare your website from a technical standpoint.
Their goal is to ensure that your content not only ranks high in search engines but also attracts potential customers to your website.
While it is important to stay up-to-date on industry and marketing trends, this can be challenging when you are investing most of your time in developing your SaaS platform and focusing on other core business activities.
This is where a SaaS content marketing agency can help by keeping you informed and up-to-date on the latest trends in SaaS marketing. They can refine and update your content marketing strategy to ensure that it remains relevant and trendy, while allowing you to focus on other critical aspects of your business.
#4. They Can Offer a Fresh Perspective
Keep in mind that a SaaS content marketing agency has worked with a diverse range of clients and can leverage this experience to bring the best practices to your business.
If you are not achieving the desired results or things are not going as planned, it may be time to seek an outside perspective from someone not closely connected to your brand.
A SaaS content marketing agency can provide this fresh perspective by identifying flaws in your service or any blind spots in your content marketing strategy that you may have overlooked.
This outside perspective can be invaluable in helping SaaS businesses to explore new ideas and tactics, ultimately helping to differentiate their content from competitors and stand out in the crowd.
An agency can also help you test the voice and tone of your content to determine the right match for your brand. In short, partnering with a SaaS content marketing agency provides an opportunity to receive crucial feedback and insights that can help refine and improve your overall content marketing strategy.
Cons of Outsourcing SaaS Content Marketing
There are always two sides to a coin. Outsourcing SaaS content marketing to an agency can bring laurels to your business; however, there are some cons of this approach that you need to be aware of.
#1. Less Communication
When collaborating with an agency, it can be challenging to closely monitor and track the daily progress of your project. While reputable SaaS companies typically provide weekly check-ins and updates, it may not be possible to receive daily status reports.
#2. Less Control Over Your Project
When working in-house, there is a high level of transparency as everything happens right in front of you. However, when outsourcing your project, transparency can become a issue, and you may have limited control over the project.
Certain agencies may not be transparent with their approach to SaaS content marketing and may not be open to feedback or making adjustments to the content.
When to Handle SaaS Content Marketing In-House
Now, you have some idea of what makes sense for your project. Here are some reasons why in-house SaaS content marketing might be the better option for your business.
When You Want to Gain Complete Control Over Your Project
If you want to monitor your SaaS content marketing continuously and keep track of each and every step, it is advisable to operate in-house. Unlike outsourcing, you will have complete insight into how your project is being handled.
When You Don’t Want Specific Information to be Accessible
If you are developing a trailblazing product or service and want to keep your strategies and business confidential, outsourcing your project may not be the best option.
In situations where you are dealing with sensitive information that you do not want to be accessible to parties outside of your company, it may be best to keep the project in-house.
Final Thoughts
Both approaches have pros and cons. If you want to focus on your actual service and can’t afford to waste time on planning, researching, and structuring, you should outsource SaaS content marketing. It will help you achieve your desired goals quickly.
On the other hand, if you are handling sensitive information and want to have complete control over your SaaS content marketing, you should operate in-house.
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