Content growth strategies that match SaaS growth targets

SEO and SaaS – they’re ubiquitous terms in the marketing world. Search engine optimization is a critical strategy for small and big businesses alike, while software as a service is our bread and butter.

But it wasn’t until recently that I realized: Even SEO and SaaS revenue characteristics are very similar. 

Stay with me on this…

How Growth Happens in Software as a Service

Years ago, there was a moment when the power of SaaS returns clicked for me. 

Think about it: SaaS companies aren’t the fastest-growing companies. Outside of SaaS, most business models will get you to $1 and $10M a whole lot quicker. 

Instead of instant growth, the power of SaaS is in its compounding returns over time. Once you bring in a customer, they continue to pay dividends for months and usually years.

I realized this when building a cohort model to show how quickly marketing spends returned revenue at LogMeIn. Even if we cut marketing spending significantly, I saw that we’d continue to see revenue growth from the current base. That’s when I realized what a uniquely powerful model it was.

The learning was, if you have negative churn, and build cohorts of negative churn MoM, you build momentum and an unstoppable machine that continues to pay dividends over time.

Okay, so what about SEO?

How We Grow SEO

It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I realized the connection between SaaS revenue and SEO acquisition.

How does SEO compare to this invest-now-benefit-later model?

With SEO, you need a robust initial investment in your overall strategy. Maybe you hire an SEO tech. Maybe you pay for an SEO service. Excellent SEO requires a deep audit of your website and a thorough understanding of how your pages perform. 

A lot of companies are turned off by this massive front-end investment of time and money. But the companies who are willing to invest that time and money see dividends start paying off over the long term. 

Pages start ranking higher and better. Clicks start increasing. And conversions go up. That initial investment takes a little time to start showing results, but when it does, it just keeps going.


Final Thoughts: How SEO is Uniquely Powerful for SaaS Companies

In summary, both SaaS revenue and SEO acquisition:

  • Require upfront investment

  • Take time to get ROI

  • Become highly profitable in the long term

  • Are predictable revenue sources

  • Build unbelievable momentum for a business


Investors love SaaS because it compounds, and it is predictable and profitable. Once you get it started, it's tough to be stopped. 🚂 

SEO is an excellent complement to SaaS businesses because it has the same growth characteristics that most SaaS companies aspire to. This complementary relationship is especially powerful for non-viral SaaS companies that don't have built-in compounding growth.

An SEO strategy is the right way to start building compounding growth over the long term.


You also can check our Podcast page, we tackle all of the challenges of B2B marketers looking to build systems that scale.

        

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