🏔️ SaaS Media Companies

Hey there,

Welcome to the SaaS Hill, a weekly newsletter that tries to predict the future of SaaS.

Let's discuss SaaS Media Companies.

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⭐️️ Intro

Almost a year ago, Patrick Campbell, Founder & CEO at ProfitWell, announced the launch of Paddle Studios, a media component that fuels Paddle's growth by offering unique and high-quality content such as podcasts, books, shows, teardowns, videos, and blog posts.

If we zoom out, we can see that some big names in the SaaS space such as Zapier, HubSpot, Pendo, Stripe, Mailchimp, SEMrush, Wistia, Drift, Gong, and Outreach follow the same path. They embed another GTM (go-to-market) strategy - media companies and owned media channels - that strengthens their primary GTM strategy such as sales, marketing or product.

They launch podcasts, niche newsletters, build communities, run virtual events and conferences, publish books, launch courses, academies, and product certifications.

This shift means that SaaS companies are adding a new dimension to their unit economics: audience.

These companies produce such good content that it attracts consumers who will eventually buy software.

Here are some elements of a SaaS media company:

1. Branded newsletters

2. Branded podcasts

3. Branded communities

4. Branded blogs

5. Branded media companies

6. B2B creators

🤔 Predictions

Let’s review these key elements.

1. 📰 Branded Newsletters

Since nearly every SaaS company out there has a newsletter, they all compete for our attention and time.

Eventually, readers will choose a few of them, and more likely they will select something that helps them improve their craft, learn more about industry trends, get new tips, ideas, frameworks, and playbooks.

Thus, a branded newsletter could be a great idea to win this "attention battle." For example:

1. Mutiny has a newsletter for B2B marketers

2. Lavender has Lavender Letter; a newsletter for sellers

3. PostHog has Product for Engineers; a newsletter for product people

4. Toplyne has Top of the Lyne; a newsletter for revenue leaders

5. Reply.io has Sales Pulse; a newsletter for sellers and salespeople

2. 🎤 Branded Podcasts

Similar to newsletters, branded podcasts could be a great idea to attract a new audience and win the "attention battle”.

1. ClickUp has when it clicked

2. PostHog has PostHog FM

3. Census has The Sequence Show

4. Toplyne has Top of The Lyne

5. Paddle has a few of them

6. PandaDoc has The Customer Engagement Lab

3. Branded Blogs

It's an amazing idea to refresh a blog on the website, as almost every SaaS company out there has a blog on their website, and they all compete for our attention and time.

A branded blog could be like a water splash and help increase website visitors' engagement with your content.

1. Notion has Tools & Craft

2. Mixpanel has The Signal

3. Apollo.io has Magazine

4. Loom has The Transcript

5. ZoomInfo has The Pipeline

4. 👥 Branded Communities

So more and more companies realize that they need a community of raving fans to continue their growth.

Thus, communities act as a multiplier on top of their product, marketing or sales-led growth engines.

1. Census has Operational Analytics Club

2. Mutiny has M2 Community

3. Pocus has Pocus Product-led Sales Community

4. tl;dv has Product Therapy

5. Tango has Change Enablers Community

6. Chargebee has Relay

7. Reply has Sales Pulse

5. Branded Media Companies

More and more SaaS companies understand that B2B buyers are more educated than ever before, and what they really want is cool, engaging, fun, and educational content that will help them succeed in the workspace or in their profession.

1. Zuora launched Zuora+

2. Clari launched Run Revenue

3. Lavender launched LavenderLand

4. Crossbeam launched Crossbeam Insider

5. HockeyStack launched the flow

6. Vidyard launched Sales Feed

7. Reveal launched Nearbound

8. Paddle launched Paddle Studios

6. B2B Creators

Probably, it's the hardest part when it comes to creating high-quality content:

1. It takes time to produce educational and practical pieces of content.

2. Ideally, these B2B creators should be "practitioners" themselves and know/understand what they are talking about.

3. They should be committed to creating content for long periods of time (probably, even years).

4. Losing 1 or 2 content creators could harm the whole "SaaS media company".

🐦️ X Thread

🤝 Related SaaS Trends

1. 🏔 Community Led Growth > or how to strengthen your PLG

2. 🏔 Creator Economy > raise of small businesses built by self-employed creators

3. 🏔 Building in Public > sharing journey leads to growth opportunities

4. 🏔️ SaaS + Media Company > boost your SaaS growth: add media

Thanks for reading. See you next time 👋
Best, Vlad

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