How to Design a Great Knowledge Center for a Software Company Website

A Knowledge Center is impactful to both lead generation and user retention.

Every SaaS company should spend time strategizing how to execute a great knowledge center that will support their objectives.

The key is to understand that the knowledge center truly is a driver for MRR.

The Knowledge Center for SaaS Lead Generation

There are several key uses that a Knowledge Center can play in lead generation and SaaS marketing.

Two big things that happen in the SaaS Sales Funnel are awareness and validation. Awareness is at the top of the funnel and brings your audience into the sales process. Validation builds confidence to that influences conversions - as confidence builds, it pushes visitors over their mental threshold into conversion.

With over 15,529 SaaS companies in the world as of June 2020 and growing at exponential rates, it is imperative to optimize your funnel against competitors and alternatives.

Search Optimization - Content

Educational content and inbound links are a huge part of improving your search rank. Obviously, your knowledge center will be full of content and valuable content as well.

Thinking of your help content as not just answering a user's question but also educating around their need is important.  You might answer how to do something in your SaaS, but linking to resources or adding content of why to do something not only adds value but will impact search.

A knowledge center should include a wide range of information as we'll talk about soon -- help, community, product updates, guides, and much more.

Search Optimization - Link Building

Inbound links are a sign of value to Google that inform them that others find that information useful.

If you create content that is useful beyond just answering a user's question, it can become solid link fodder.

Social Media

A core strategy for social channels is to share knowledge and showing the world that you create valuable support and educational information for your customers is perfect for Social.

Smart SaaS companies will look at adopting their content strategy in the knowledge center to media that is popular on social as a way to resonate with a wide range of audiences.

A TikTok video as a feature how-to is both a great way to present something valuable to your existing customers while creating interesting content for the web.

Validation

We believe that building confidence for a visitor is the key tenant across the SaaS sales funnel.  The entire process is about building confidence that you meet their needs and are trustworthy to the point the feel enough confidence to convert and take the risk of time or money to use your product.

As part of confidence building, a potential customer that see a strong knowledge and support center will feel confident that you are both established as a company and that they can get help if there are any issues.

The Knowledge Center for SaaS Retention

Reducing SaaS churn is one of the most important strategies to scale by ensuring revenue compounds and acquisitions are optimized.

There are a number of factors that help make a software product "sticky".

• User experience. It's not just about "easy-to-use", it's about ensuring that visitors achieve value as quickly as possible.
• Customer communications. Engaging visitors with education, product alerts, support, news and upsells at the right time.
• Product-market fit. In the first place attracting the right customers. Signups are fun, but not if they don't produce customers with high lifetime value.

But all of this comes down to users achieving value.

The challenge we have see with our own clients and other SaaS companies is that users don't know how to get to value.

That's where a knowledge center comes in.

• Quick answers. Knowledge centers help customers find timely and ready-made solutions to their problems.
• Expertise. Just because your customer has the desire to use your product for an outcome doesn't mean they know how to be successful. Teaching them how to be successful ensures they get value.
  
  As an example, if your product helps real estate investors. Education on how to make money as an investor helps your end game.
• Product training. Learning how to use the product to its fullest.
• Community. Providing others for support and encouragement locks them into a community and not feel alone.

67% of millennials have increased their expectations in the past year regarding customer support.

Beyond everything already mentioned, having a strong knowledge center is a sign of legitimacy. Many users who run into issues or have needs and can't find quick support, will lose confidence in the product instantly.

Even if a user does not utilize the knowledge center a lot, just its existence will provide them the confidence required to continue to buy into the product.

What Should Your SaaS Knowledge Center Include?

A knowledge center is a central location for all the resources of your software website. A knowledge center provides an internet-based community or system designed to help your software website share helpful information with its users.

Providing a knowledge center to your customers is your way of telling them that you actually care for them. For a while now, knowledge centers have been associated with great customer support and satisfaction.

A knowledge center can comprise several documents, including educational articles like blogs, software documentation, feature announcements, video series, step-by-step how-to guides relating to your software, and more. It can also include answers to customer FAQs regarding your software, introductory articles, a video demonstration of your software, technical glossaries and definition lists.

These knowledge centers should make it easy for people to find what they are looking for without having to ask for help. 60% of US consumers prefer a simple self-service tool for inquiries. Key features of knowledge centers include search boxes, topic lists, navigation by type, most viewed content, and recent content. 

• Frequently Asked Questions.
• API Documentation
• Feature Explainer Videos
• How-To Guides
• User Community
• Educational University
• Feature Announcements

Building A Dynamic Knowledge Center For Your Software Website

By creating a knowledge center for your customers, you build a warehouse of stellar solutions to their problems. Here's how you can make a knowledge center.

1. Knowing Your Audience

The first step towards putting in place a stellar knowledge center is knowing your target audience. Your efforts can never be fruitful if you don't know the needs of your customers. While determining your target audience, it’s advantageous if you think not only of your customers but your software company’s staff as well. 

Once you've researched your target audience, it's time to look at their requirements and determine your customers' and employees' expectations from your software company. Your customer representatives who are in frequent contact with your customers can tell you about the most common queries of your customers.

Look at the frequently asked questions, the software department that is mainly referred to by customers, and other valuable resources for content to add to your knowledge center. 

An overwhelming 91% of customers said they would use an online knowledge center if available and tailored to their needs. Use this knowledge to plan content that is bespoke and is tailored to your customer's needs. 

2. Determining The Type Of Knowledge Centers For Software Website

Once you've done your research on your target audience and their needs, it's time you start considering different types of knowledge centers around. Go for the kind that provides the most value to your customers and employees. 51% of customers prefer technical support through a knowledge center. Don’t disappoint these customers by choosing the wrong type of knowledge center. 

While determining the type of knowledge center that best suits your software company and customers, you need to consider several factors. These factors include the target audience, the accessibility to the general public, and your knowledge center hosting source.

Types of knowledge centers include:

• Internal knowledge center – A knowledge center designed exclusively for your employees.

• Hosted knowledge center – A knowledge center that stores and collects easy-to-access information that is of use to your internal and external stakeholders. 

• Self-hosted knowledge center – A knowledge center hosted on your software website's server.
• Customer knowledge center – A knowledge center designed especially for your customers and is very accessible and easy to use.
• Open-source knowledge center - Open-source knowledge center software can be helpful if your organization wants to allow developers or programmers to customize the source code according to business needs.

• External knowledge center – A knowledge center with resources and information that is public, and anyone can view it.

3. Developing The Infrastructure For Your Knowledge Center

While designing your knowledge center, you should be careful about its architecture and design. It should have a neat and organized flow of information. 

It would be best if you enriched your software knowledge center with quality content that is easily accessible by your target audience. Your knowledge center must interact with your customers in an intuitive fashion that is unmatched by other software companies.

A well-organized self-service knowledge center may assist you in increasing client fulfillment and retention, which will improve your profitability. 54% of companies offering web or mobile self-service have seen an increase in their website traffic. A good structure of your knowledge center helps you achieve that. 

You can organize your knowledge structure around your customer types, the activities of your software company, and the type of your software. 36% of customers say companies should improve their search functionality and website usability. Knowledge centers with search boxes to entertain queries can help you achieve that.

4. Enriching Your Knowledge Center With Strong Content

When you've organized and done your homework on developing a knowledge center, you're all set to gear your knowledge center with valuable content for your software customers. 

The content that you've added to your knowledge center should be easy to access and tailored around your user's needs. 55% of consumers fall in love with a brand when that brand offers easy access to information and support. Use your content to provide value to the customers and make it known to the customers that your software company cares about its customers.

Your content should be easy to understand, to the point, and free of any technical jargon and complex words. The resources should have content that is not monotonous and is easy to read. Keep your paragraphs short and use heading and subheadings where necessary to enhance the readability of your content.

You might also consider using graphics and other visual aids to make your knowledge centers engaging for the user. Ensure you include links to other valuable content that the readers may find helpful in your knowledge centers. This has the added benefit of generating organic traffic to your website and boosts your website's SEO.

5. Keeping Your Content Up-To-Date

You're done with creating an exemplary knowledge center; GREAT! But this isn't the end. You need always to keep the content and software information resources up-to-date in your knowledge center. 70% of customers prefer to use a company's website to get answers to their questions rather than use phone or email. Make sure your knowledge center provides value to your customers by keeping your content updated at all times. 

You should update your knowledge center based on the changing needs of your software customers. Look at how they view your information and what else they expect from your software company. Use these findings to make your knowledge center even more helpful for your target audience. Updating your content frequently also makes Google rank your website; this helps drive traffic to it.

Final Thoughts

Planning, designing, and putting an incredible knowledge center in place can be an arduous task, but it's not impossible. Once you've done all the hard work, your efforts will most definitely pay off. Knowledge centers have the benefit of retaining customers by providing solutions to their problems relating to your software in an easily accessible fashion. The cherry on top – they also help in boosting the SEO of your software website.