If you already are into the SaaS market, you would very well know that creating a SaaS marketing strategy, by no means, anywhere close to creating a regular marketing strategy.
Traditional businesses and marketing strategies are more aligned on following traditional methods for steady business growth. When it comes to SaaS companies, though, since they follow a rather differentiated business model as a whole, they also need to follow differentiated marketing strategies. SaaS marketing strategies are more of a digital-oriented marketing strategy as a means to reach and convert potential customers.
To make the ride a little bit easier for you, here we are! Listed below are 12 of the best SaaS marketing tactics that educate, nurture, and convert the user to eventually become a brand advocate.
1. Invest In Content Marketing
For a customer to be really able to believe in your SaaS company and to choose you over anybody else, you need to devise an effective content marketing strategy. Focus on gaining customers through content that educates and creates awareness in your potential customer about how well you work and why your company is advantageous.
With just effective content marketing, even on an otherwise low budgeted marketing allowance, you can attract, educate, and convert audiences to customers.
- Device a list of keywords your potential customers are most likely to enter when searching for software like yours. You could even take the help of keyword tools to identify the keywords relevant to your niche
- Curate crisp, easily readable, and engaging social posts to reach out to larger audiences in order to create awareness about your software
- Create authentic and viable comparisons with your vendors through case studies and testimonials to, with proof, claim your superiority over your competitors
- Try and create different kinds of posts with an aim to personalize them for all types of potential customer demographics, based on their location preferences, age groups, profession, etc.
2. Understand the Utility of Paid Advertising (PPC)
One of the most reliant methods for solid lead generation without having to invest too much time, PPC, hence, is one of the best marketing tactics for business growth that you can invest in.
- PPC is costly and more so if you target high competition keywords. If your budget is rather limited, you will most likely exhaust your money in a short period of time if you target high competition keywords. To save yourself this roadblock early on, it is rather recommended to target low competition yet relevant keywords.
- Look for tools that can help you manage and optimize your PPC campaign instead of going forward aimlessly
- Use Google Display Network to advertise your SaaS product since CPC bids on Display Network are smaller than what you would pay on the Google Search Network.
- Run campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms to potentially increase your sign-ups on a limited budget.
- Gmail ads can help you reach potential customers that already receive emails from your competitors, expanding your potential market, raising your chances of conversion.
- Quora can also be used to run your paid ads because currently, not a lot of companies are investing in Quora. If you hit the iron when it’s hot, or in other words when the competition is low, you automatically will have higher chances of conversion.
- Run funnel-based remarketing campaigns to ensure relevant ads reach relevant customers. For example, if the user is at the last stage of the funnel, run an ad that offers them a certain percentage of additional discount to increase the chances of conversion.
3. Generate Organic Leads Through SEO Techniques
Top-notch organic content can do wonders when it comes to marketing a SaaS company and that’s where SEO comes to play. Effective SEO can create a lot of leads and help you convert them to actual consumers, here are a few tips on how-
- Keywords: Identify the keywords already prevalent in the market, the ones already being used by your potential consumers. The relevant keywords can also be found by using automated search suggestions when typing in a search query on Google.
- Create, in bulk, well-written and authentic-looking links to get your site ranked on top of all relevant searched keywords.
- Create Calls to Action (CTAs) to have your page visitors sign up for a trial, even if it is just as an impulse. Such CTAs should not only be displayed on your home page, but also on as many pages as possible on your website, especially your blog page because that is where most organic traffic is likely to arrive.
- Ensure That your technical SEO and keywords are optimally placed. For example, the main keyword should ideally appear at least once in the title, description, the H1 of headings, and in the first paragraph of the text body.
4. Simplified Sign Up Forms
The very purpose of a registration or a signup form is to convert your potential customer to an actual customer and hence, your sign up form should be devised to do just that. Reduce all unnecessary clutter and noise from your sign up form, making it as one-dimensional as possible. Make a registration form that is short, has as little fields as possible, and is crisp, quick to fill, requiring the kind of information readily available with a potential consumer.
5. Think of Offering a Free Trial
Who does not like a free lunch! If viable you should (or at least test it with a cohort) offer a free trial of your SaaS product because that, really, is the only viable way to have your potential consumers try your product and understand how well your claims hold the truth. The potential consumers, by having access to a free trial, can also understand how exactly is your product better than others, helping them make a better decision.
However, having said that, try and see if you can keep some of your product features locked for the free trial period. This way, since the consumer will anyway be hooked to your limited features, they will most likely buy the full-feature plan when the trial period ends.
6. Implement Email Marketing
Email marketing, an underdog of ROI-friendly marketing strategies, can prove to be one of the most successful marketing tactics for SaaS companies. Email marketing, if implemented effectively, can help gain some major customer loyalty, customer retention, and customer advocacy, and so, is recommended to be used at later stages of the funnel.
7. Gated Content For New and Qualified Leads
Gated content is the kind of content a user gains access to only after providing certain information about themselves. Gated content, undeniably, does not create a great user experience but it sure is a great way to generate leads. You can always make up for the sign-up hassle by creating kickass content for them to feed on as a reward!
8. Explore The Possibilities Of An Affiliate Marketing Program
Affiliate programs work great for companies that are looking out for a constant flow of leads, SaaS companies being no exception. You could probably loop in your existing consumers by paying them a commission reward if they are able to gather more users for you as a referral program. This win-win situation can help reap some major benefits for your SaaS company because while it gives your affiliates a constant source of some extra income, it gets you a constant flow of leads. Besides, an affiliate program is also rather risk-free because you need to pay out only after you really have closed a deal.
9. Upselling and Cross-Selling
While by means of upselling you can have an $8 paying customer to buy into a $10 program; with cross-selling, you can have the $8 paying customer buy some additional add-ons, not necessarily relevant to the original product, at an additional cost.
An example of an upsold product would be to have your consumer buy into the quarterly plan as against a monthly plan; cross-selling would be when you have your consumers buy “10 extra credits for 5$” on the quarterly plan.
A viable strategy of upselling/cross-selling would be to first study the past buying behaviors of your targeted customers and to have your sales team assist specifically targeted customers. Always remember, your long-term loyal customers, logically, will be more open to up buying or cross buying as against newly subscribed customers.
10. Find A Way To Get Listed on SaaS Review Sites
All your potential users will obviously have access to the internet and they can very well lookup on the web to determine if your SaaS company is really good enough to invest in. It is also not very difficult for consumers to draw a comparison between you and your competitors through the information they collect online. Having said that, it only becomes necessary that you have your company listed on the SaaS review sites and get yourself the kind of credibility that helps your product sell.
Not only will having yourself listed on SaaS review sites be enough, but you should also aim at getting your actual users to comment and review on your listing for some extra points on credibility. G2crowd, Capterra, SaaSGenius, Software Advice, Trustradius, Top Ten Reviews, and Discover Cloud are some of the websites you should aim to appear at.
11. Invest in Influencer Marketing
Influencers are people with a pre-existing fanbase that trusts in them and chooses to buy in products on the basis of their reviews and comments. By collaborating with a relevant tech influencer, they would essentially then try out your product against payment and if they do like you, they would then instead recommend you to their followers.
By using an influencer for your SaaS product, you basically are investing in a huge pool of potential leads and earning recognition for your company.
12. Great Customer Service Wins All Hearts!
As a SaaS company, you will have a lot of users who need a lot of technical information and for that, you need to have a lot of customer support associates ready at all times. Poor or delayed responses from your customer support team might mean your customers losing out on time at work. Hence, if you do not have a solid customer support team, you will most likely be replaced by another software that can take care of the customer needs better than you.
- Hire support executives that really are professional and train them well not only with all the relevant information but also on soft skills like patience and voice modulation
- Have your customer support information easily and readily accessible on your website
- Try and have your customers rate your support executives. This way, you will know it when an executive is ruining your efforts as against helping your company grow
- Try and have more ‘real people’ attend to your customers instead of giving them automated bot-based responses that can potentially fuel their irritation. This does not always have to be voice support, you can have agents supporting your customers on live chats too
- Formulate a list of FAQs basis the most common queries your agents attend to, saving time for your agents as well as your customers
- Offer customer support not only via your website but also, possibly, via social media platforms
Final Takeaway
SaaS marketing, though different from regular modes of marketing, is not really as difficult as it is otherwise perceived to be. Always ensure that, since you are not a physical product company, your focus should not only be on acquisition and monetization, but also on customer retention and satisfaction. If you follow the right set of strategies and actualize all the feedback you receive from your clients, there is nothing that can hold you back from being the SaaS king!
