Your team has worked tirelessly to create the best SaaS platform conceivable.
Obtaining subscribers and users, on the other hand, entails far more than simply scattering a few social media postings out there and hoping for the best. A well-defined and effective Digital Marketing plan is critical to your overall success.
What’s the big deal about this? The software as a service (SaaS) market is thriving. As more industries become reliant on virtual technologies to stay in touch with their customers or members, the demand for enterprises like yours is only going to grow.
The only difficulty is that if they don’t know you exist, they can’t choose you over a competitor. And this is when having a solid marketing strategy comes in handy.
If you don’t, other companies will, and they’ll gladly steal your target market away in favour of their solution.
This article will explain what distinguishes this sort of marketing and why every SaaS company requires a well-organized digital advertising strategy.
In addition, we’ll go through seven outstanding tactics for increasing awareness of your SaaS platform.
Why is it crucial for SaaS firms to invest in Virtual presence?
The SaaS model’s success is a result of digital transformation. The ongoing development of new technologies, as well as the increased demand for digital items, have created a segment of clients who desire to employ high-quality software to execute various tasks in their everyday lives.
As you may be aware, Software as a Service is a distribution model in which a corporation creates an app and makes it available to clients via the Internet. In other words, users can access and use the information at any time and from any location.
As a result, it is only logical for SaaS companies to spend on their online presence. After all, this is the only way to reach the proper people. It is important to highlight here that this presence is not limited to advertising a product.
What Qualities Make SaaS Marketing Different?
Before getting into the specifics of SaaS marketing tactics, it’s crucial to grasp what makes this sort of digital advertising unique from others.
To begin, you’re selling an item that is based on something intangible, which means the buyer can’t touch, feel, or place it on the table in front of them.
It’s also not a service that they can immediately see the benefit of employing, as most people would if they hired a contractor to mow their lawn or paint a wall in their office.
Furthermore, there are two aspects that have a direct impact on how a marketing plan must be implemented in the SaaS scenario. Look into it.
- Complex buyer journey
Every lead generation and conversion strategy centre around the buyer journey, which is typically separated into three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. This trip is usually linear in most markets. The prospect first becomes aware of their own problem; then they seek information and examine various remedies.
Eventually, the consumer makes a purchasing decision and becomes a client. But, in the context of SaaS, this process is far more complicated.
- Lots of competition
We cannot emphasize this enough. The SaaS market is very competitive, owing to low entry barriers, the rapid development of new technologies, and the constant rise of new needs and expectations.
Yet, there is no reason to be concerned. This amount of rivalry is a good motivator to keep your company improving over time. It does, however, imply that, in addition to capitalizing on opportunities, it is critical to conduct benchmark analysis and prepare for dangers.
What are the top channels for SaaS marketing?
Regardless of the goal, one of the important elements to specify when a marketer constructs a plan is which channels are the most suited for the organization to use. This decision is made during the planning process, usually after the consumer persona has been developed.
Using the persona as a guide, you can discover the most cost-effective channels for advertising products and conducting branding initiatives. As a result, while the ideal means of communicating with the public will differ from business to business, some alternatives are always important for SaaS. Take a look at them down below –
- Email marketing – Email, as one of the most conventional marketing platforms, is still effective in generating and educating leads. Once you’ve established a good contact network, you can focus on segmentation and creating messages that have a genuine impact on the leads that receive them. This way, you’ll be able to assist your prospects through the entire marketing funnel, providing the material that is appropriate for each stage of the buyer’s journey. This is especially significant with SaaS because the client lifecycle is longer. Email marketing can be used to announce major news, educate leads about a product, give special promotions, or contact clients who have cancelled their membership.
- Social Media – It is difficult to discuss Digital Marketing strategy without including social media. Networks like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn have progressed from being merely social platforms to locations brimming with business prospects.
You can utilize it to bring your character a little closer to you, in addition to filling your social networks with content linked to your solutions.
Contemporary consumers are accustomed to connecting with brands via social media and may even conduct sales while doing so.
- Webinars – Webinars are excellent for educational purposes, making them ideal for SaaS marketing efforts. Simply put, these are internet-based seminars that allow presenters to communicate with a large number of spectators.
- Organic Marketing – Many SaaS marketers spend a significant portion of their budget on paid ads, such as campaigns generated in Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and others. This is an efficient strategy to reach a highly targeted audience, but it is not recommended that you rely completely on it.
For starters, because it is an expense that not every firm can afford, it can eventually impair the company’s financial health. Second, you can contact a large number of individuals without spending a dime. You should look into organic marketing for this.
What kind of SaaS Marketing Metrics should you Consider?
Once you’ve decided on your marketing message and begun promoting your SaaS product through digital advertising, you’ll need to start measuring metrics.
This is critical since it informs you of what your organization should expand and what you should minimize or delete from your strategy.
Unfortunately, not all statistics are treated equally. The four most crucial ones to remember are
- Particular Visitors
You should keep track of how many people visit your landing page, see your adverts, or go to your website. Take note of traffic source factors such as organic, paid advertising, social media, and so on.
- Lead to Customer Rate
This is the number of people who act and sign up for more information, eventually becoming a customer or subscribers.
- Churn Rate
The churn rate in SaaS marketing is the number of members lost at the end of the month. You want your new subscription rate to be consistently higher than your churn rate and to be increasing.
- Customer Lifetime Value
This is the average value of what your company gets from one user throughout the course of their subscription to your SaaS platform.
12 Best SaaS Marketing Strategy,
Fortunately, we have some super effective SaaS marketing strategies to aid you to upgrade your growth.
These types of initiatives are extremely effective and provide a fresh take on standard B2B sales.
The good news is that most of them are really simple to launch and need very little effort to maintain. Even better, they demonstrate how collaborating with your platform may alleviate specific pain areas for your target clients.
Here are our top twelve recommendations for your SaaS platform –
- Provide a Trial Period or Free Demo
Customers of SaaS intended to understand the worth value of the investment into your product. Yet, most decision-makers aren’t certain your features are exactly what they need until they test them.
This strikes an intriguing mix between giving in and providing free platform access while still providing enough functionality to convert them to paying members in the future. Offering a free demo or trial period becomes an excellent SaaS marketing approach at this point.
- Propose Referral Bonuses
Consider rewarding existing subscribers who bring another organization on board as a paying member. This is another excellent SaaS marketing technique that is simple to adopt and does not deplete your company’s resources.
We like this approach since it can be used for almost any SaaS vertical. Whether your product is a platform for churches or enables boutique hotels to rent out more rooms, your subscriber is likely to speak with someone else in their field.
A little referral bonus is insignificant in comparison to the value of word-of-mouth marketing, and it ensures that satisfied clients will go out of their way to tell others about our service.
- Content Marketing
In SaaS marketing, sharing knowledge that is relevant to your niche or industry is the best way to stand your company as a professional.
This is the reason compatible Content Marketing Tactics is so crucial to your firm.
How will you accomplish this?
Consider all of the things your target consumer might look up online. Then, around these topics, produce keyword-optimized articles and blogs.
- Recommend Outbound Marketing
The main problem of Digital Marketing is that more often companies forget that they can also do outbound Marketing as well. This is especially true if your SaaS is expensive or aimed toward enterprise-level clients.
In that case, your decision-makers at your target customer company will be significantly higher up the organizational ladder. This is when having a dedicated sales team ready to reach out and get in touch comes in handy.
- User Education & Support
In the end, this SaaS marketing strategy is about providing outstanding customer service rather than selling. Providing your users with appropriate training and assistance throughout their trial term, on the other hand, is an excellent technique for eventually converting them into paying clients.
Assume you have a fantastic knowledge base with hundreds of professional videos on how to use your platform. Send out reminder emails to your trial or demo users throughout their free trial time to encourage them to join up. Provide this useful information while you’re doing it to help them use the product more effectively and reduce the total learning curve.
Product support has long been recognized as an important aspect of why a firm or individual invests in SaaS. As a result, you should take advantage of this as much as possible by putting everything out there during the trial period.
- Customer Testimonials
If your SaaS platform is more established and you already have a solid customer base, you can definitely leverage user testimonials as a marketing technique. It not only addresses your target lead’s pain points, but it also adds credibility by demonstrating that others have found a solution by selecting your organization.
Getting these endorsements is frequently straightforward. Send a bulk email to your paid subscribers, asking them to respond with their thoughts.
They can receive a voucher for a percentage off their next subscription cycle or even a free month in exchange for agreeing to utilize their honest comments to promote your SaaS platform. Of course, the rules differ from place to jurisdiction, so make sure you’re adhering to any fair practice guidelines in your area.
Once you’ve gathered a sufficient number of testimonials, include them in your website’s sales pages. Write a marketing email to your free or trial members that explains why others who chose to upgrade are so pleased. Use them in your social media paid marketing as well.
- Go Offline to Market Online
In the end, don’t be hesitant to experiment with offline techniques to reach out to clients online. It may appear counterproductive for a digital company to undertake old-school marketing, yet it can succeed.
Attending a trade show or networking with folks in your SaaS vertical or specialty may be a smart choice depending on your SaaS vertical or niche. You can also choose to place print ads in journals or magazines relevant to your target market.
Direct mail can be extremely effective in some situations. Consider a SaaS platform created specifically for landscaping businesses. Sending a letter or brochure with information on how to obtain a free trial is an excellent technique to contact this type of business.
Nonetheless, regardless of the offline route you pick, make sure the approach to your website is simple.
- SEO
One of the pillars of Content Marketing is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It refers to a set of procedures and techniques used on blog posts and other content to improve their SERP ranks. This considerably raises the chances of your persona discovering your materials on the internet.
An effective SEO plan may drive massive organic traffic to your website, boosting your digital reach, and generating more leads. It is also critical to establish authority for your brand, as organizations that rank first on Google tend to convey far more credibility.
- Google Ads
Organic traffic is fantastic, but it is not always sufficient to produce all of the changes you require. This is why Google AdWords is such an important part of any marketing strategy.
The platform is as powerful as you’d expect from a Google product, allowing you to design persona-based campaigns and target them precisely to the people you want to reach, influencing them throughout the buying cycle.
- Comarketing
Comarketing is an excellent method for developing cost-effective campaigns based on strategic relationships. It typically involves two organizations with the same target customer but selling different solutions.
The products/services could be complementary or completely unrelated. It is a common practice in Content Marketing, particularly through link development.
Assume your SaaS is aimed at small businesses looking to boost their lead generation. You’ve created numerous blog entries addressing the most relevant pain points to educate your persona, but you’re missing the right material to help your readers comprehend how much more they’d earn if they generated more opportunities.
Simultaneously, another company has created rich, interactive content, such as an ROI calculator, but does not rely on blog posts to reach the top and middle of the funnel. Can you see where we’re going?
- Product tours
Clients will want to know if the software you’re giving is truly working and can assist them to solve their difficulties before subscribing to your product.
It is up to you to supply them with the tools they need to reach this decision, and in such a situation, nothing beats setting up product tours. Make meaningful experiences that showcase the major benefits your product may provide to users.
- CTA optimization
Calls to Action play an important role in conversions that occur during the buyer’s journey. It is vital to take a strategic approach when writing a CTA because the way you write it may eventually influence how many people click on it.
Use UX writing and UX design to develop buttons that have an impact on the persona and lead them further into your material.
It is critical to assess and analyze the performance of your CTAs in order to optimize them. Run A/B tests to learn more about user preferences and to consistently improve conversion rates.
Without question, SaaS marketing strategy is unlike any other sort of business-to-business (B2B) advertising.
Yet, once you present your product or platform as the solution to your target client’s demands, it becomes exceedingly simple. That, of course, requires a thorough understanding of your buyer persona and customer avatar.
You may position your firm as an industry leader while offering your ideal customers the opportunity to recognize your brand by implementing the seven effective SaaS marketing tactics we’ve described above.
Finally, this provides numerous options to expand your subscriber base and scale your whole marketing strategy.