SaaS marketing refers to the marketing strategies used by software as service companies. It is a specific combination of techniques and activities which you can use in your business to connect with potential customers, get new leads, and grow in the industry. Although SaaS marketing can sometimes overlap with standard digital marketing strategies, it has its tactics.
In comparison to companies that sell physical products, SaaS companies provide an intangible product and must constantly demonstrate to existing and new consumers that their subscription service is worth the monthly charge.
SaaS Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy of any SaaS business is as difficult as it is important. The strategy should fit the goals, stage, and product of the company. There are several different ways that can help you with driving more prospects, traffic, and sales from your website.
Before you begin promoting your SaaS, you must first develop a SaaS marketing plan.
Your marketing approach is determined by the stage of your company. If you are still in the early phases, your major strategy should focus on:
- Establishing your reputation as an expert in your field
- Brand awareness
- Validating the product/market fit
- Identifying your genuine costs of lead acquisition (CPL) and customer acquisition.
Investor confidence is influenced by product/market fit. This occurs when your product satisfactorily meets the problem of your target customers, and there are many more new customers.
If you are an emerging/growing SaaS with established product/market fit, your approach should center on:
- Marketing Expansion: Investigating new methods to increase reach while minimizing acquisition costs.
- Brand Amplification: Using highly targeted PR to keep your brand at the top of your target audience’s minds.
- Reducing Acquisition Costs: Identifying and reducing acquisition costs using traffic, conversion, and lead quality analytics.
- Conversion Funnel Optimization: Increasing lead conversion rates by improving the on-site experience on chat and landing pages.
- Channel Optimization: Extending established channel, persona, and message combinations as quickly as possible.
Tactics that work in SaaS Marketing: Converting Leads into Paying Customers
If you’re offering a genuine Software as a Service, you should be able to provide a free trial, a freemium product, or at the very least a demo. Each has advantages and cons, and one may be a better match for your business than the other. Alternatively, you may discover that the tactic you picked isn’t producing the desired results and that you need to move to a new one.
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Free Trial
Offering a free trial is a way to get more leads from your SaaS business. Not only does it help you grow your customer base, but also it helps you improve your sales process by getting quality feedback about your product. Free trials are widely used in SaaS and have become an important tool in the sales funnel.
Free trials work well in niche markets with specific problems to solve. The conversion rate is often 30% or higher, indicating that most customers are serious about solving their problems and eager to pay.
The problem is to keep conversion costs under control, as free trials may eat up a lot of time and resources, especially during the onboarding process. To keep individuals involved throughout and after the trial, effective marketing communication is essential.
By combining a free trial with other choices such as a demo, you can guarantee that prospects aren’t put off throughout the setup process.
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Freemium
SaaS companies in most cases rely on the freemium model to get into the market. In the freemium model, a basic version is offered for free, but only part of its capabilities can be used and is limited compared to the premium version. It provides your products a lot of exposure, builds a loyal following, and gives you access to user data.
A freemium approach, however, has several disadvantages, including the fact that it costs money to operate and that customers may never realize the value of upgrading.
Rather of relying primarily on converting free users into paying customers, another method to boost income under this strategy is to provide additional revenue streams, such as advertising or selling similar products.
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Demos
Demonstrating your product gives an engaging place where you can develop a personal connection, establish trust, address any issues possible customers may have, and evaluate if your product is a good match. There are a variety of formats that you can use:, Webinars, 1:1 videos, Facebook Live, Instagram Lives.
How to execute a SaaS Marketing Plan
The benefits that make “software as a service” such a fantastic value for your customers are also the obstacles that distinguish its market. While the initial costs and hurdles to entry are modest, your customers can cancel at any time.
So, what strategies could marketers employ to prove that a subscription service is worth the monthly investment? We’ll look into several successful Inbound, Outbound, and Account-based Marketing strategies.
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Inbound Marketing
There’s no doubt that inbound marketing is continually growing. Great content is important, but so is the channel you use to deliver it. Inbound marketing plays a crucial role in SaaS (software as a service). Gatekeepers such as Google, Apple and Microsoft control the millions of businesses that use their platforms. Marketing to them is not easy. To succeed with inbound marketing, you need to focus on quality content and thought leadership.
– Customize & Segment Emails: If you are in Saas business, your success relies on how many new customers you can bring onboard and how much they will stay with you. And there is only one thing that can guarantee your success: The ability to customize & personalize your marketing action as much as possible (the more personalized it is, the higher the chance of conversion) so that every customer gets a 100% individualized treatment and helps bringing him/her on board.
– Content: Consider email marketing, blogs, webinars, tradeshow materials, podcasts, and other forms of content distribution. Quizzes, dynamic infographics, and GIFs may all help your readers become more engaging. You may also use a form to keep them logged in by capturing their contact information. It’s vital to have a SaaS marketing plan that includes both gated and widely available information.
– Customer Testimonials and Review Sites: Customer reviews are an essential part of the buying decision process. It has become important to your customers to read the experiences others have had while using your product before selecting a product that will solve their business needs. Case studies and testimonials are wonderful SaaS marketing tools.
– Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing has become a popular form of content marketing for SaaS companies and established businesses alike. This is because it combines the best features of email campaigns and social media marketing. Influencer marketing allows you to tap into your existing social media network while also expanding your reach to new communities and audiences. What’s more, the concept is relatively simple to understand in terms of what you are trying to achieve.
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Outbound Marketing
In contrast, Outbound marketing refers to more conventional marketing tactics that send your message ‘out’ into the world, perhaps interrupting your audience with information they don’t always want or need. Trade exhibitions, seminars, cold calling, Pay per Click (PPC), and print advertising are all examples of this. They still have a purpose and should be pursued, but only in a strategic way:
Determine which ones to utilize based on the pricing point, industry maturity, and brand recognition of your SaaS.
To make sure you’re putting your message in front of the appropriate individuals, narrow down your target audience. Know who makes the decisions in the company and where they hang out. You’ll waste a lot of money preaching to the wrong people if you don’t!
SaaS Marketing Metrics to Track & Analyze
Because SaaS products are essential services, it’s crucial to track not just the sales journey (top, middle, and bottom), but also the post-sales/customer retention rate. While it’s critical to track each stage on a micro level, you’ll also need macro-level analytics to get a full picture of your SaaS marketing efforts.
Keep an eye on this metrics:
- Cost per Lead
- Lead Quality
- Traffic
- Conversion
4 metrics to help you measure customer success
- Revenue Churn: In very simple terms, Revenue Churn is nothing more than the answer to the question: “How much revenue did your company stop receiving in a period of time?”
- CAC: is a metric that company use to determine the amount of money it costs to acquire a customer using paid advertising.
- Lifetime Revenue: This metric helps us put everything into perspective regarding how much money customers are spending within our business.
- CAC to LTR: This metric shows the relationship between the cost of acquiring a customer versus the value attributable to that customer
You can track and analyze tons of Data Revenue metrics with Radix. It is easy to use and understand. The best? It’s 100% Free if your MRR is under %10K. Sign Up for Free Here!
Now it’s Up to you…
Customers aren’t one size fits all, and you target your prospects based on the needs they have. This is because you’re looking to meet their needs and in return bolster your revenue model. An effective SaaS Marketing Strategy includes going after the right customers with the right product. The key here is to find customers that will convert into paying customers.
It’s your turn to create a great SaaS Marketing plan!
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