Did you know that, on average, customer acquisition costs SaaS companies 92% of their first's year's revenue?

There are a few reasons for this. Customer acquisition has gotten more expensive, trust in brands has declined, and B2B sales cycles are notoriously long. 

But what if we were to tell you there's a way you can solve all these problems in one go? There is, and it's called content marketing. 

Content marketing can shorten your sales cycle, drive trust, help retain customers, and establish you as an authority. However, it would help if you did more than throw out a few blog articles and expect SaaS buyers to storm your inbox. 

You must implement the right strategies to shorten your sales lifecycle through SEO and content marketing. Keep reading to find out the best ways to shorten your sales cycle as a SaaS company by leveraging content and SEO. 

Understand and Concentrate On Your Target Audience

All good strategies to shorten your sales cycle start with a deep understanding of your target audience. 

SaaS can be costly for companies, so there are usually multiple decision-makers in the buying process. Regarding B2B SaaS marketing, more is needed to conjure up a hypothetical buyer persona and call it a day. 

You must understand everyone typically involved in the buying decision and tailor your content appropriately. 

You should also zero in on your ideal buyer and focus your content marketing efforts exclusively on them. 

Define the Stages of Your Sales Cycle

At this point, it's indisputable that strong organic visibility across all buying cycle stages is a recipe for accelerated growth and customer acquisition. It's also incredibly critical for B2B companies.

To make this happen, the first thing to do is identify the different stages of your SaaS sales cycle. 

Most SaaS marketing sales funnels can be broken down into the following stages:

• Awareness
• Acquisition
• Activation
• Revenue
• Retention
• Referral

A targeted content marketing strategy can help you accelerate the time it takes for leads to travel from the awareness stage to the revenue stage. In addition, if your content strategy helps customers stay informed on new features and functionalities, it can boost retention and referrals. 

Target Each Sales Cycle Stage

Once you've defined the sales cycle stages, the next step is to determine what content to create. If you want to use content marketing and SEO to shorten your sales cycle, you need to tailor it for each stage. 

Stats show that B2B buying groups spend 27% of their time independently researching solutions online. So if your content can help them, you're in a great position to gain their business. 

Top-funnel content usually looks quite different from bottom-funnel content. At the top of the funnel, leads seek general information about a solution. Further down the sales funnel, you can get more specific and share industry case studies, white papers, etc. 

Whatever stage you're targeting, ensure you address your customers' most pressing challenges and pain points.

Targeting content at the different funnel stages isn't just a great way to give leads the necessary information. It can also help you tailor your CTAs. For instance, "sign up for a free trial" is a good CTA for content further down your funnel but not necessarily for the top of your sales funnel. 

Leads at the top of your sales funnel are busy exploring their options. Most B2B leads need more time to be ready to sign up, even for a free trial. Likewise, B2B SaaS solutions usually require some time for onboarding and adoption. 

Therefore, B2B SaaS leads need to spend longer researching their options before they put their teams or entire company through an onboarding process. 

Using Keyword Research for SERP Visibility 

Not only should you be tailoring your content to each stage of the buyer journey, but it should also be optimized to show up in the applicable searches.

To do this, you must create a keyword strategy that targets buyers at every funnel stage. Towards the bottom of the funnel, you'll likely need to target low-volume keywords. 

You can also look into creating topic clusters. Topic clusters provide in-depth value for your audience and help prevent keyword cannibalization. 

Remember that your keyword and content strategy should be a two-way conversation. Both should inform each other, and you can use your keyword research to help identify the type of content your target audience needs.

Good SEO (And Content) Shouldn't Stop With Your Website

If you're wondering how to shorten your sales cycle with content marketing, remember platforms like LinkedIn. Sharing informative, insightful content on LinkedIn is a great way to position your SaaS brand as a thought leader. 

LinkedIn has its SEO in place, but you should still optimize your posts with the right keywords. Ensure that your keyword strategy extends to your website, LinkedIn content, and social media posts. 

Do You Want to Shorten Your Sales Cycle Through Content Marketing?

These tips are a great starting point if you want to shorten your sales cycle. You can accelerate the buyer journey, build trust, and drive down customer acquisition costs by zeroing in on your ideal customer and finely targeting content and keywords for each sale funnel stage. 

Of course, creating a high-performing content marketing strategy takes time, knowledge, and resources. If you'd prefer to focus on core operations and put your content marketing in the hands of professionals, we can help. 

AccretionEngine offers a turnkey, agile solution for organizations at any stage in their SEO journey. We don't believe in stale retainers; instead, our services are built on the philosophy that SEO engagements should be driven by tangible outputs that achieve maximum value for our customers. 

Book a free analysis today and allow us to help you shorten your sales cycle.