Recent statistics predict that Software as a Service (SaaS) could be worth $623 billion by 2023. But creating an effective SaaS marketing strategy is not easy. It has its own set of rules. In recent years, SaaS adopted SEO, PPC, Email marketing campaigns, social media, and more. But it is not enough. Enlisted below SaaS marketing strategies that can help in winning over new customers and retain them.
1. ABM Outreach Campaign – A powerful SaaS Marketing Strategy
Account-based marketing (ABM) is an approach designed to engage target accounts and get them to the point of sales-readiness. According to ITSMA, 80% of marketers consider ABM to be reaping higher ROI than any other marketing investment. ABM is an underutilized SaaS marketing strategy. But it can make companies enter new marketplaces and engage prospects for an event/product release.
For an ABM campaign to prove efficient for your SaaS, it must identify qualified leads that fit the buyer persona. In addition, it must create relevant content that provides information for Awareness, pricing details for Consideration, and immediacy of Conversion.
This SaaS marketing strategy requires hand-in-glove collaboration between sales and marketing teams, involving high costs. It improves lead quality, expedites funnel velocity, and the effectiveness of targeted outreach. First, it requires identifying the target accounts you want to influence, gaining an in-depth understanding of their pain points, challenges, and preferred communication channels. Then, it allows you to create content that resonates with them and easily persuade them to love your SaaS.
2. Boosting Acquisition With Free Trials
Free trials are influential in selling SaaS. Users understand how your software works and solve their problems. Leading SaaS companies such as Xero feature free trials on their websites. A freemium model offers a free version to users forever. But only the paying subscribers can access the exclusive features. It gives your customers a taste of the benefits and converts them into paying subscribers. Free trials are an advantage that SaaS companies have over the traditional business models.
SaaS companies offering free trials lead to new customers with increasing recurring revenue. Besides, there is little or no cost involved in letting potential users try out your offering. Thus, there is little to lose in this SaaS marketing strategy.
Free trials don’t just show off your product, but customer service and support as well. If a product fits your target audience, you can see conversions happen effortlessly. The end of a trial period allows you to gain insights into the likes/dislikes of potential users while they undertake a test drive on your SaaS platform. This feedback is invaluable – to your product, sales, and marketing teams.
3. Give Users a Reason to Make Referrals
Referral marketing is digital equal to word-of-mouth. It involves getting existing customers to recommend your product/service to people they know. Referral Marketing is a common SaaS marketing strategy in the market that works well. For instance, Dropbox created a referral program, increasing its user base by 3,900% in 15 months and driving incredible growth. So did companies such as PayPal, Airbnb, Uber, etc.
Marketers are primarily aware of the value of referrals. 82% of Americans seek recommendations from family and friends when considering a purchase. Positive reviews from reliable sources shape a prospective buyer’s view of your brand. But getting customers to share positive thoughts about your brand isn’t easy without offering them something in return. Dropbox grew its user base to over 4,000,000 in 15 months by providing 16GB of free storage in exchange for referrals.
Brands incentivize referrals and make it a win for acquisition and retention. Many businesses have also developed their affiliate marketing programs to earn new users. Envato Market’s affiliate program makes users an extension of their sales team. It offers them a 30% commission on the first purchase by a referred user.
A referral program is a powerful SaaS marketing strategy. It gets your names out to prospective customers and increases the chances of ushering qualified leads. In a study by Nielsen, 92% of people were found to trust recommendations by people they know. Besides, people are four times more inclined to buy when referred by a friend, making referral programs lucrative. Referrals are critical to customer acquisition. It creates brand awareness, increases the lifetime value of customers by 16%, reduces the customer acquisition cost, and increases revenue.
4. Embrace Content Marketing
SaaS companies embracing a content marketing strategy saw 30% higher growth rates and 5-10% increased retention rates.
Content marketing is a solid SaaS marketing strategy for lead generation. Posting high-quality content relevant to your target audience attracts more website visitors. But, creating unique content regularly can be a big challenge. Tools such as HubSpot help you discover the best-performing content on the internet. Then, they guide you through producing relevant content and getting traction.
Content marketing involves publishing high-quality content. Optimizing content with keywords and writing on industry topics can attract the right audience. Running a blog can help you get established as an industry thought leader and generate qualified leads. Moz, for instance, is one such SaaS provider that runs its blog. SaaS Companies that post blogs regularly are 13 times more likely to reap an efficient ROI.
Most SaaS companies by now create content that the audience wants to read. Content marketing educates users about products, builds trust and credibility in a brand. SaaS businesses can generate excitement for their brand by maximizing content marketing. It is a proven model of getting more traffic to your website.
5. Leveraging Webinars is a Robust SaaS Marketing Strategy
Webinars engage visitors on your website and determine those who are interested in your company. Webinars captivate new and existing users. It educates them about getting the most value out of a SaaS product/service and reduces customer churn. Besides, it establishes a brand’s credibility and thought leadership in your niche.
Webinars are a rage right for all the right reasons. According to GoToWebinar, SaaS companies offer a quarter of all webinars. In addition, three-fourths of sales leaders from B2b Marketing Agencies deem webinars as an effective SaaS marketing strategy for generating high-quality leads.
6. Curate Reviews & Customer Success Stories to Make SaaS Marketing Strategy Effective
Getting your SaaS product/service featured in third-party review sites acts as social proof for your business. These review sites, in return, offer your website a backlink, which is excellent for your SEO. But these websites allow prospects to compare many similar products and choose the one they consider the best fit. This can be quite challenging if you are new to the market. To overcome this challenge, ask your customers to leave a review on your product listings. People trust reviews and personal recommendations. So, social proof and positive reviews are critical to a SaaS marketing strategy. SaaS companies often leverage third-party review sites such as –
Gartner that includes Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice;
G2 Crowd that requires users to verify themselves via their LinkedIn, making the reviews more genuine;
Trustpilot ranks well on Google SERPs and showcases reviews for all kinds of products;
Product Hunt; and
Optinmonster promotes various on-site testimonials, allowing businesses to exhibit their social proof.
Groove data found that testimonials and social proof ensure higher conversions. Hence, being featured and reviewed on sites that collate customer feedback holds significance for SaaS.
7. Automate & Nurture Leads To Boost Your SaaS Marketing Strategy
Some prospects may come to the website many times or visit competitor sites before signing up for your product/service. So it is vital to keep evaluating and updating your website content, refining user experience, and automating it. For example, companies that automate lead nurturing see a 10% increase in revenue within 6-9 months.
SaaS companies usually fail to persuade leads into paying customers. Automated lead nurturing enables companies to develop and maintain connections with prospects. Resultantly, implementing automated lead nurturing strategy can skyrocket conversion rates and ROI.
Nurturing leads increases sales by 50% at a 33% lesser cost. A SaaS website needs engaging content. Ranging from case studies, instructional videos, white papers, user guides, etc., it must establish your connection with your marketplace. Unfortunately, lead nurturing doesn’t happen overnight. SaaS products can take time to sell. It takes time to build a stack of compelling content and a significant database of engaged prospects.
An automated lead nurturing program includes –
- Identifying an exciting topic for prospective customers;
- Experiment with content in various formats that appeals to prospects at all the stages of the sales funnel; and
- Automating lead nurturing workflows to fasten conversions.
Once you have got a database of engaged prospects, design and send them emails, set up workflows with automation software, and let the conversions begin.
8. Dig Into Your Customer Data & Analytics
SaaS businesses are rooted in data. Companies leverage social media to sustain and nourish their relationships with consumers. But social media is much more than just a communication channel. SaaS marketing strategists recognize the power of social media. They realize how it can be a source of business intelligence in driving businesses ahead.
For instance, endless data points influence your product marketing decisions. Some fundamental data points include – product usage data of users, Average Churn Rate, Landing Page Conversion rate(s), Customer lifetime value, Organic traffic, Top-performing Ads, and marketing messages. But they don’t even scratch the tip of what SaaS companies can track. Regularly looking at social media analytics allows SaaS marketers to make more informed decisions and fetch more ROI.
9. Impactful SaaS Marketing Strategy Using Drip Marketing
Drip marketing is a predetermined set of marketing actions. It is delivered through an automated sequence. For example, drip email marketing campaigns are a series of related emails. They are triggered by an event and delivered over a few weeks. It dispenses valuable information, nudging users towards a desired action.
Although it is a non-dynamic marketing strategy, it is easy to engage with potential customers over several weeks and months. With the availability of low-cost automation tools, it is easier to bolster social media/email marketing with timely, relevant content without micromanagement.
10. Enrich Your SaaS Marketing Strategy With Podcasts
There is more to digital content than videos and blog posts. Podcast video marketing is an intensely powerful media. It provides foundational information by industry experts and impacts Customer Acquisition Costs(CAC). Leads generated through podcasts incur less CAC.
SaaS companies such as Drift, Shopify, and HubSpot offer valuable, free content. By leveraging content writing principles, they have built an engaged audience of podcast listeners. A relatively new medium, Podcast marketing provides a competitive advantage to any SaaS company. With very few documented and proven case studies, this low-cost setup offers organizations a chance to experiment. Libsyn and Soundcloud are some essential podcast marketing tools used for podcast hosting.
Fine-Tune Your SaaS Marketing Strategy
Even when it is different from what traditional marketers are accustomed to, SaaS marketing is still marketing at its core. The abovementioned tactics are fundamental in SaaS marketing strategy given by SaaS Marketing Agency. If you are willing to invest effort and time through analytics and experimentation, achieving steady growth is possible.