Building Awareness Through Thought Leadership for SaaS Companies

When it comes to companies that offer software as a service (SaaS), it’s important to have:

1. Specialist knowledge that sets you apart from your competition
2. An emphasis on human connection within your brand
3. A strong reputation as a leader in your field

These aren’t the easiest things in the world to develop. They take time, dedication, and a lot of trial and error. 

In situations like these, it’s useful to think outside of the box. And one way you can go about changing your corporate landscape, building better brand awareness, and making a name for yourself is through the power of thought leadership. 

So let’s take a dive into what it is, why you need it, and how it can help you.

What is thought leadership?

First and foremost, you need to understand what we mean by ‘thought leadership’. 

In a nutshell, thought leaders are experts in their field who have an ability to predict, recognize, and act on trends which bolster their company or those around them. They’re often entrepreneurs, or at least have a great deal of vision which allows them to act decisively and do what’s best for their company and their customers.

There are many examples you almost certainly know of. And, now you know the definition of a thought leader, you’ll be able to go “oh, yeah, that makes sense” when you hear these people or companies described as such. To name a few, think of American Express, General Electric, or Microsoft. That last one’s particularly pertinent as it is, of course, an SaaS brand.

SaaS thought leaders

SaaS refers to the ability to deliver software applications over the internet. In this day and age, that could include pretty much anything. Even Netflix is considered a SaaS company since you stream online content through their systems. 

Accessibility of cloud-based apps is a key feature of SaaS operations, so people and companies who have pioneered the integration of cloud-tech or continue to use and expand it in interesting ways are the people you need to keep an eye on and draw inspiration from. 

Let’s have a look at some examples. 

• Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, founders and CEOs of Hubspot: Halligan and Shah not only focused on building Hubspot, but they also took the time to reach out, connect with others, and become a key source of information for how to build your own businesses, too. Hubspot’s simple integrations with Zoom, Google, and Slack have made it a versatile and essential CRM (customer relationship management) tool, used across the globe.

• Jason M. Lemkin: After his company, EchoSign, was acquired by Adobe and renamed to Adobe Sign in 2011, Lemkin went on to develop better avenues to allow SaaS enthusiasts and professionals to talk to one another. The outcome was SaaStr.com, which contains a host of tips and tricks about the industry, any ongoing events, e-books, and even their own university course to make getting started in SaaS a whole lot easier.

• Hiten Shah and Neil Patel, founders of Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics: Crazy Egg and Kissmetrics are two of the most well-known SaaS companies currently on the market. Shah and Patel took what they had learned through the development of these platforms and have gone on to provide information and startup advice to hundreds of new businesses. A wealth of knowledge can be found on their Twitter pages, and you can follow Patel via his podcast, Marketing School.  

The complexities of brand awareness

Some companies might not want lots of attention – say, for example, smaller start-ups who aren’t ready for customers arriving en-masse since they won’t have the ability to provide for everyone. But, at some point, every brand needs a bit of a publicity boost, a little something to garner more interest. 

This is especially true for SaaS businesses who have to contend with the hundreds of thousands of other competitors alive and thriving on the internet. 

Brand awareness cuts through the noise and puts a shining spotlight on you and what you have to offer. It also:

• Creates familiarity with your brand
• Helps generate more revenue 
• Increases a customer’s feeling of trust and loyalty with your company
• Provides important metrics you can track through KPIs

Thought leadership incorporates all of these areas. When used correctly, it can help you develop a strong, clear roadmap for how to make your brand more recognizable. And extending your knowledge and help to others builds good business and personal relations with people in your market, leading to the possibility of collaborations and greater outreach.

Developing brand awareness is at the top of the marketing tunnel – both online and in-person. So we cannot understate how important it is for you to get yourself known if you want to see any real growth in your company.

Developing a thought leadership roadmap

Here are some of the steps you can take to plan out your SaaS thought leadership route. Clarifying these details will make it easier to act on them, and give you a direct path forward.

Know what you can offer 

This seems pretty self-explanatory, but you need to have a clear view of what exactly you are offering before you can market it. 

Are you:

• Providing advice?
• Offering a single service or a multi-platform package?
• Granting opportunities for growth across the board or focusing on one specific problem?

You need to know where your abilities start and end, how great your strengths are, and how much of an impact your limitations may have. If you promise to do something that you can’t uphold, then there’s going to be a problem. 

Be confident in your area of expertise, and remember that you will always have the ability to learn more over time. Your plan doesn’t have to be perfect right off the bat. Every business goes through stages of growth, so keep your goals realistic to your current capabilities.

Know who your audience is 

You may find that you have quite a diverse target audience, so use techniques like design thinking to consider how best to spread the word to everyone. You can create buyer personas and character sheets to understand the needs of your customers and clients, what sort of a background they may be coming from, and how best you can help them.

Because of the accessible nature of SaaS marketing, you aren’t stuck to rigid ideas like demographics. Rather, you need to focus more on the ideas that people will want to explore. 

For example, you could be dealing with a middle-aged man looking to start a new career after decades of experience. Or you could be helping a young woman, fresh out of college, who has an idea for a startup. In both cases, you’re appealing to entrepreneurs, people with vision – whatever shape they may take. 

Know who your competition is

Once you know who you’re competing against, you can develop ways to get ahead of them. Keep these things in mind:

• Use keyword research to identify who they are
• Investigate what SEO strategies they use
• Look for niches or gaps in the market you can exploit
• How established are your competitors?
• What materials have they put out?

The only thing that could be considered cheating is direct plagiarism. Other than that, use all the tools at your disposal to become a top contender in your industry. 

But don’t forget the importance of collaborative work. Whilst direct competitive tactics like “our products are better than [X, Y, Z]’s” are all well and good, a little bit of friendly elbow rubbing can open more doors. Partnerships and joint-projects show good will and can introduce a new audience to your services. 

How can SaaS companies use thought leadership?

You have a lot of freedom with what you create on the internet. Just make sure that your marketing plans align with your brand image and core values. This will create a better sense of authenticity. 

But don’t be scared to experiment. Make use of the social media platforms you have available and make sure your content is accessible to everyone.

Blogs

Getting your thoughts down in writing and building a strong online presence for yourself can be a great asset. Whilst there are a number of ways you can go about creating and maintaining a blog, here are two key ways of writing to increase your foothold as a thought leader. 

• Writing blogs for your website creates a portfolio of your own ideas and observations, as well as updates on anything going on in the news within your field. You’ll become a reliable source of information. Just make sure to strike a good balance between the quality and quantity of what you’re writing. Churning out articles can be beneficial to grow your brand initially, but make sure to schedule and provide consistency. When people can expect a regular article one to two times a week, they begin to anticipate what you’ll put out next. This is better than info-dumping all at once and then disappearing.

• Guest blogging for other websites brings your name to the attention of different audiences. If you start cropping up all over the place writing insightful pieces for fellow brands, it creates a paper trail that leads back to your business. It also reinforces you as a source of knowledge, willing to share that knowledge with others. 

White papers 

More formal than a simple blog post, white papers will present your findings in a clear, informative way. They carry a more formal tone, which makes them perfect candidates for someone looking to develop a voice of knowledgeable authority in their field. 

When reaching a wide audience, you need to ensure that the services you’re offering will be understood by everyone. White papers give you the opportunity to clearly explain yourself, provide product guides, or troubleshoot any potential issues. By making your copy clear and understandable, you encourage more people to interact with you. 

Videos 

Who doesn’t love a good informational video? For those who prefer to process things visually or audibly, those who are on the go, or those who just don’t want to skim through an article trying to find an answer, videos are the perfect compromise. 

Given the range of complex topics SaaS covers, videos can make it a lot easier to digest and understand what a product or service is and how to use it. You can make them interesting and engaging, and explain SaaS concepts with the help of diagrams, visual cues, and the general assistance that comes from listening to a person’s inflections and tone of voice. 

It’s another way to include multimedia in your work. This way, you open yourself up to more avenues and opportunities to spread the word of your brand. Having a wide range of informational platforms which cater to different needs makes sure you’re accessible to everyone. 

Guest speakers 

Inviting already well-established SaaS thought leaders to come and chat with you and share some advice can be a huge help to your brand.

1. Firstly, it puts you in the same space with one another. Any sound bites, mentions, pictures, or blog posts they’ve written with your company’s name on it all helps to generate more awareness of who you are. If these leaders have a strong following, then you’ve instantly accessed a huge audience.
2. Secondly, it helps them to know you, too. Once you’ve made that first connection, the door is open for further collaboration. There’s a lot to be said for humble bragging rights. 
3. Virtual events allow your audience to directly interact and ask questions to thought leaders who may have been otherwise inaccessible. With the right digital marketing, these can be an enormous success. 

Are you ready to be a thought leader?

It might seem like a steep hill to climb, but there’s a lot you can do to make the hike easier on your way to becoming a thought leader. With how quickly the SaaS industry is expanding every day, there’s always something new to write about. You’re constantly presented with a plethora of opportunities to get your foot in the door and start making a name for yourself.

Make sure to take care of your online presence, and know clearly how you want to orient your brand. Remember that it’s hard to do it alone, so make sure you’ve got a good network of people you can work with and rely on to help you every step of the way.