Do You Really Need Content Marketing to Grow Your B2B SaaS? | HackerNoon

In nearly every industry, there’s one practice that’s so widely accepted that it feels like the default. In SaaS, we can say it’s content marketing.

While its prevalence stems from its results, it’s important to know if it’s the right fit for your business without jumping on the train because “everyone else is doing it.”

To answer the question that makes up the title, I spoke with experts and went down the rabbit hole. The insights from my quest make up the bulk of this article.

Let’s get right to it!

Growth in Context

Just so we’re on the same page, let’s clarify what growth means in this context.

For SaaS startups, especially in the early to mid-stages, growth means a consistent increase in qualified signups, activations, and revenue. It’s not about vanity metrics like pageviews or social media followers. While those metrics can signal early brand traction, they don’t necessarily guarantee the real traction that keeps your business afloat.

That said, let’s start from the ground up.

What is Content Marketing in SaaS?

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) content marketing is the practice of creating valuable, relevant, and consistent content that attracts potential customers, educates them about their pain points, and positions your cloud-based solution as the ideal fix, without being overly promotional.

Content takes many forms: blog posts, YouTube videos, podcasts, product tutorials, email series, whitepapers, eBooks, and many more. The key is helping prospects solve real problems while naturally guiding them towards your product as the right solution.

Why Most SaaS Startups Choose Content Marketing

Earlier on, I noted that content marketing is prevalent because it delivers results, meaning it’ll hardly be adopted if it doesn’t move the needle.

Here are a few reasons why it’s mostly used in the industry:

Builds Brand Awareness

Content puts you in front of prospects when they’re actively searching for solutions. For example, you can be seen when a person within your ideal customer profile (ICP) searches for information about a solution you offer. So, content marketing can be a way to connect your solution to them for the first time.

Establishes Thought Leadership

Quality content positions your company as an expert in your industry. When done right, you become a trusted voice that prospects turn to for guidance, giving you an edge over competitors.

More Cost-Effective

This isn’t to say content marketing is cheap—it’s not. It’s only comparatively more affordable than paid advertising channels. This makes it a smarter bet for startups that need predictable and sustainable growth strategies.

Builds Trust

Content serves as a trust lever for marketers. With 75% of consumers saying they don’t trust advertising, content is a way to bridge that gap. In fact, creating content that provides genuine value and addresses customers’ problems makes it easier to build trust.

These benefits—awareness, cost-effectiveness, authority, and trust—explain why content marketing has become the go-to strategy for many SaaS companies.

What Are the Alternatives to Content Marketing?

In the past few years, content marketing has dominated most SaaS marketing discussions, but it’s far from the only path to growth. Here are proven alternatives that may be better suited for your business:

Growth Loops

Unlike traditional marketing funnels, growth loops build virality directly into your product. Here, each user serves as a feedback loop for acquiring more users, creating a self-sustaining growth cycle.

Slack is a perfect example. When someone signs up, they’re naturally encouraged to invite other teammates. Each new team member then invites others, thus creating compounding growth without ongoing marketing spend.

This form of marketing focuses on building a space for customer support, where customers can interact with brands and other customers. Think webinars, exclusive Slack communities, or newsletters that nurture prospects and continually solve audience problems.

Gong does this well. They have different professional/social communities where their users get value from peer connections.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

As the name implies, PPC requires paying a certain amount to promote your brand or product to a broader audience. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads are commonly used channels in B2B.

Influencer Marketing

Although it’s relatively uncommon in B2B compared to B2C, influencer marketing can be a powerful addition to your marketing arsenal.

This approach involves partnering with industry experts and thought leaders who have built trust and credibility to promote products to their established audience.

Notably, the key difference between B2B and B2C influencer marketing is subtlety. Instead of obvious endorsements, these partnerships often show up as organic mentions, case studies, or thought leadership content that naturally mentions the brand.

A good example of my point is Sara Stella Lattanzio’s LinkedIn post about SEMrush. While from the outside it may seem like a casual professional insight post, for those familiar with influencer marketing dynamics, it’s what it is—strategic brand promotion.

Affiliate Marketing

This form of marketing essentially relies on word-of-mouth. It involves leveraging networks of people to sell your software to your target audience for a commission.

Case Study of Dropbox: Skipped Content (And Still Grew)

While some companies leaned towards content marketing as their core growth engine, others didn’t. Despite nearly everyone in SaaS leaning toward content, they defied the odds and still managed to grow.

In 2007, Dropbox was founded.

Dropbox entered the scene as a cloud-storage platform at a time when people couldn’t grasp the idea of saving files ‘in the air’—outside of FTP or local file servers they knew.

You can imagine what the marketing brainstorming session must’ve looked like within Dropbox’s team back then. How do you sell something people have never experienced?

But we know how the story goes: rather than educating the market through extensive content, they leaned into referral and product-led growth. This approach once drove 3900% user growth in 15 months.

Today, they’ve become the poster child for that strategy.

However, Dropbox launched a blog on December 18, 2007, yet they never made content their primary growth engine.

A review of their early content reveals posts focused mainly on product updates rather than traditional content marketing. To date, their referral program remains their core strategy and continues to drive growth.

Still, while this may seem promising, Dropbox is a unique case. Their product-market fit, simplicity, and B2B/B2C hybrid model provided them with levers that many startups lack. So, while they grew without much content, that playbook won’t work for every SaaS product.

So…is Content Marketing a Must?

Well, the short answer is no. The long answer is trickier, as with most things in marketing: it depends.

So, what does it depend on, exactly?

Let’s find out.

When Should a SaaS Startup Use Content Marketing?

Before you start mapping out your marketing strategy or executing anything, you should be sure it aligns with a few things, which are:

• Your buyer persona
• Your model
• Your goals
• Your resources
• Your product
• Your competitors

Let’s look at how each of them matters in your marketing decisions, shall we?

Who are your buyers?

As simple as my little question sounds, most businesses still miss the mark. If you’re taking the time to solve a problem, you should at least sell it where your ideal customers are most receptive.

The science behind this is understanding how potential buyers discover and make purchasing decisions. Understanding this will help you nail your marketing strategies, and influencing them becomes easier.

How you do this is by asking questions like:

You can conduct surveys and interviews with your existing customers to gain a deeper understanding of what works best for them. Use analytics tools to monitor their behavior. You never know how much this research will reveal compared to wild guesses and intuition.

It all comes down to understanding your audience, which gives you clarity before investing in content marketing.

I love how Jasmine Charbonier, a content marketing strategist, puts it: “Understanding your buyers isn’t just about creating personas—it’s about survival.” The weight of her statement hits hard when she cites examples of how companies burn dollars in marketing spend because they invest in a form of marketing without setting the foundation, understanding their audience’s needs.

It’s as simple as it sounds. Know your audience, and you’re ten times closer to making an informed decision.

How do you make money?

The model your business uses to make revenue is crucial. Your marketing decisions vary for each model.

That’s because each model targets different types of buyers and follows a different sales cycle.

• Are you a freemium SaaS product?
• Is your product subscription-based?
• Are you more of an enterprise “book a demo” type?

Answering this business model question will help you determine which marketing strategy is the best fit.

Take Zapier as an example; you can use their product without having to fill out the dreaded credit card form.

Most companies based on freemium or free trial models might need to cast a wider net (within their ICPs, of course) to promote free access and hook users. Hypothetically speaking, they work on the assumption that users will upgrade to unlock premium functionality.

For these businesses, paid advertising, influencer marketing, and affiliate programs might be the way to go. Technically, users have limited financial commitment, so it makes sense. Since they’re more focused on scale, their marketing goal is to attract as many qualified users as possible.

On the other hand, companies with higher ACVs generally need less content. Closing deals becomes more about building relationships than casting wide nets.

For enterprise SaaS, the focus shifts to building personal relationships—think “book a demo” pages, sales calls, account-based marketing, or content marketing. Before customers can commit to a major financial investment, they need to trust the company and its solution.

ServiceNow is an example.

Since we’re focusing on startups, those with an enterprise model might find it more effective to begin with direct outreaches, strategic relationship building, and sales efforts if the goal is to convert immediate sales.

Put simply, it varies across SaaS models. While a company like Zapier might benefit from aggressive advertising to drive increased awareness, that broad-reach approach may not be ideal for an enterprise-focused platform like ServiceNow.

What resources do you have?

I ask again, what resources do you have?

Regardless of the strategy you opt for, the truth is that marketing isn’t cheap. Your resources, here, can be in three categories: capital, capacity, and time. Capital is your marketing budget. Capacity is your team’s expertise and bandwidth. Time represents your runway.

Let’s look at each.

Capital

More often than not, SaaS startups operate with limited funds. In this case, prioritising lower-cost channels like content marketing, SEO, or growth loops becomes essential. However, “lower cost” doesn’t mean “no cost”—these strategies still require substantial investment.

VC-backed SaaS startups often value rapid growth over gradual marketing strategies. Here, it makes sense to invest in paid acquisition, aggressive hiring, and even running multiple marketing experiments simultaneously.

Capacity

I won’t dwell too long here—your budget largely determines your team’s capabilities. But at every growth stage, it’s essential to ask:

“Do we have the right people for where we’re headed?”

If the answer is no, you have three options: upskill existing team members, outsource specialised functions, or hire new talent.

Time

In business, time equals runway.

Your available timeframe can influence which marketing strategies you can realistically pursue:

• If you have a longer runway, you can invest in slower-growth strategies like SEO and email nurturing, among others.
• A shorter runway often means the pressure is high. In that case, faster-impact channels like paid advertising, outbound sales, influencer partnerships, or other tactics that generate immediate traction are good options.

Answering these questions is a great step in the right direction.

What are your goals?

Having defined growth in context at the start of this article, I must note that the term is often relative. For example, some founders may prioritise building awareness or thought leadership as opposed to converting immediate sales.

In such cases—and considering all the other factors discussed in this article—content marketing is a smart choice.

Conversely, if your primary objective aligns with our initial definition, content marketing may not be a must.

Ultimately, your current business goals should guide your marketing decisions just as much as any other factor.

Product Nature

Determining whether content marketing should be your starting point also depends on your product’s complexity.

For simple products, friction is relatively low. Think of tools with seamless onboarding, intuitive user experiences (UX), and minimal setup. These are typically self-serve and require little to no user education.

Products like Slack, Dropbox, and Calendly illustrate this well. For SaaS products built like them, content might be a second thought in your growth story.

On the flip side, if you have a more complex or technical product with a steep learning curve, treating content as an afterthought can hurt your growth.

In this scenario, content marketing is your friend. Everything from educational content, like in-depth guides, webinars, and product tutorials.

Competitors

It’d do well to clarify first that this isn’t about copying your competitors and calling it a day—no.

You’re simply gathering information to aid your own marketing decisions. According to Oluwasegun Oyebode, CMO at Beagital, you’re finding answers to these questions:

• Which channels do they use the most, and which ones aren’t entirely active on? This information could help you figure out where your company has to be to get a share of the market.
• Which channel seems to be offering them the most ROI?

To drive home this point, let’s look at Ahrefs and SEMrush.

Both companies offer SEO tools for digital marketers and businesses. They’re direct competitors with similar products and target audiences.

Granted, these two brands are industry giants in their respective solutions, but I’m onto something here.

We see that both brands leverage content marketing extensively—maintaining robust blogs, YouTube channels, and educational academies to nurture and convert users.

They offer free tools as lead magnets and host branded events: Ahrefs’ Evolve and SEMrush’s Spotlight. Their social media presence is another battleground where both brands are heavily active.

Despite these similarities, their paths split in some key areas.

For instance, SEMrush runs an affiliate program (as of the time of writing this—May 2025), while Ahrefs discontinued theirs approximately two years ago. Here’s an article by Tim Soulo, the CMO at Ahrefs, explaining why.

To save you the trouble, one of the things he mentioned was that 90% of their affiliate leads came from just 3% of affiliates. This prompted them to discontinue the program and work directly with top-performing partners.

Meanwhile, SEMrush’s affiliate program has proven successful—with a 400% increase in new partnership signups in 2025 alone.

While it’s still hard to pinpoint the exact performance data in their overall customer acquisition, the fact that SEMrush has kept the program running since 2009 and continues to promote and invest in the channel signals that it drives substantial results. Businesses don’t keep doubling down on a channel for over 15 years just because it’s nice—it clearly works for them.

The broader point is that when competitors consistently execute specific marketing tactics successfully, it often signals market validation for those approaches. As Oyebode puts it, “It puts you in the position to compete properly without getting left behind.”

However, as our case study shows, wholesale copycatting won’t cut it. The goal is strategic adaptation—understanding what works for you and aligning with other factors discussed in this article. This becomes especially critical for startups with disruptive solutions, where sticking too closely to established playbooks can limit your differentiation.

Putting It All Together Through the Lens of HubSpot

Tying everything together might seem overly simplistic, but walk with me here.

One SaaS brand exemplifies content marketing done right—HubSpot.

Since their founders, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, wrote a book titled “Inbound Marketing”, HubSpot has dominated the content marketing world. Their growth engine is primarily built on a content-first strategy.

But how did they come to achieve this? They’re a perfect example of aligning with this six-factor framework.

HubSpot’s core audience is SMBs looking to scale their CRM, sales, and marketing efforts. Ideally, these buyers don’t rely on RFPs or sales reps. Instead, they actively self-educate to solve their business problems.

In terms of business model fit, HubSpot thrives on retention. Their survival doesn’t hinge on one-off purchases, but on long-term customer relationships. Content is one of the many ways to go about that.

At the start, HubSpot didn’t chase instant profit. Instead, they staked their claim on first becoming a trusted industry authority. And, considering they were championing a new way to market, they had to focus on doing just that.

How do I know all this? Well, below is a 2012 article from HubSpot that perfectly captures their mindset and mission at the time. And yes, I understand that brands often tell stories to stretch beyond the “we want your money” narrative.

However, there’s only so much a brand can fake. HubSpot has consistently stayed committed to achieving its mission. This, too, explains why they’ve stuck to content (inbound marketing)—and today, it’s working for them.

On resources, I’m tempted to say HubSpot had it all. Unlike most startups, they enjoyed venture capital backing. So, to be fair, you might not want to place yourself on par with them, but this doesn’t mean you need outrageous funding to make content marketing work. Your good is good enough.

The difference is the focus. While HubSpot could invest in comprehensive academies and industry reports, resource-constrained startups need to pick one educational format and execute it exceptionally well.

Although their tool is less complex, they still needed content to reduce or remove any form of friction users may face.

Finally, I like that they captured my earlier point: if you’re bringing something disruptive, relying on a competitor’s playbook only limits you. While HubSpot launched years after their direct competitor—Salesforce—they didn’t mimic Salesforce’s strategies. They stuck with what they believed would work for them, and it did. That was content marketing.

How is it Working for Them?

In terms of revenue, HubSpot is doing impressively well. Their total revenue in 2024 was valued at $2.63 billion. Their revenue report for Q1 2025 was over $700 million, which is 14% higher than Q1’24.

Beyond financial metrics, their brand mentions, thought leadership position and community engagement show how well content marketing can yield results. You can’t scroll through marketing Twitter or LinkedIn without seeing HubSpot content, citations, or discussions.

At the end of the day, HubSpot isn’t just a case study of successful content marketing. They’re a case study in strategic alignment between content, product, buyer behaviour, and everything in between.

Quick Decision Matrix

You can use this scoring system to evaluate if content marketing is right for your startup:

Factor	High Content Marketing Fit (3 points)	Medium Fit (2 points)	Low Fit (1 point)	Your Score
Buyer Persona	Self-educating, research-heavy buyers	Mixed buying behavior	Relationship-driven, sales-led buyers	___/3
Business Model	Freemium, low-touch SaaS	Mid-market subscription	Enterprise, high-touch	___/3
Primary Goals	Brand awareness, thought leadership	Balanced growth approach	Immediate revenue focus	___/3
Resources	Long runway, limited budget	Moderate resources	Short runway, high budget	___/3
Product Complexity	Complex, needs education	Moderate complexity	Simple, intuitive	___/3
Competitive Landscape	Content-heavy competition	Mixed strategies	Relationship-focused competition	___/3

Scoring guide

·         15-18 points: Content marketing is essential for your growth

·         10-14 points: Content marketing should be part of your mix, but not necessarily primary

·         6-9 points: Consider alternatives first, content as a secondary strategy

Alternatively, feel free to use the image version for reference.

Final Thoughts

All things considered, we can agree that marketing is hardly a one-size-fits-all game.

As much as I’d love to say that one of these factors should be your top priority, I can’t. The bulk of the work is finding the sweet spot where all of these align, then doubling down and grow. It’s your call.

It’s also worth noting that if you find your sweet spot in content marketing, you must be willing to be dedicated. As Ryan Law and Jimmy Daly at Animalz put it, “Content isn’t a marketing tactic you can easily turn on and off.” Half-hearted content marketing is often worse than no content marketing at all.

Godspeed!