What kind of content should you create? (Depending on your SaaS stage)

I get asked a lot of times what kind of content SaaS companies should create based on their current stage.

So here’s the breakdown of what activities you should do based on your current revenue.

I tried and tested all content types in all stages of business while consulting 20+ SaaS companies in the last year on their content marketing, here’s what I found to work the best:

🌱 Early-stage SaaS companies (up to $500k ARR):

✅ ROI-led content targeting high-intent and long-tail keywords (because it brings the most customers as soon as possible). Those are:

• Product review and comparison/alternative articles (i.e., We tried 5 Best Mailchimp Alternatives - Here’s the in-depth comparison)
• Product-led growth (PLG) articles target specific pain problems your potential customers might have and offer solutions to them by subtly promoting your product (i.e., How to build a custom-designed email newsletter without knowing HTML).
• Success Stories/Customer Stories - show the stories of people who’re getting success with your product

🌿 Mid-stage SaaS companies (from $500k to $5m ARR):

✅ ROI-led content

• Product review and comparison/alternative articles
• Product-led growth articles
• Success Stories/Customer Stories
• Sales-enablement content (If you depend on outbound reports, checklists, comparisons, ebooks, etc.)

✅ MOFU content (i.e., Best templates for X)

✅ Experiment with different types and forms of content

✅ Double-down on Content distribution

💰 Scale-up SaaS companies (from $5m to $20m ARR):

✅ Create as much content as possible for different stages of the funnel

✅ Start laying down the foundation for super-competitive TOFU keywords (i.e., keyword research, SEO, etc.)

✅ Start investing a significant amount of money in content distribution (paid ads, earned distribution inside communities, and social)

✅ Start creating content for different funnel stages (lead magnets and ebooks for TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU stages)

✅ Focus on other content types (video, podcast, newsletter, your community, etc.)

🦕 Enterprise companies (over $20m in ARR):

✅ Focus on thought leadership pieces

✅ Start promoting yourself and speaking at conferences, newsletters, other podcasts)

✅ Category building (build your category inside the market, i.e., what @Dave Gerhardt did with @Drift / Conversational Marketing)

✅ Don’t stop underestimating other types of content marketing mentioned above

Of course, you can work on all content types inside all stages of your business - but I think that instead of being a jack of all trades, you should focus on specific content types and make the most of them.

Also, this would vary from business to business.

But this is the “general” framework I would follow for most SaaS companies to get the most results from the content types we’re currently working on.

Where are you now, and what type of content are you focusing on?

Is there anything you would do differently?