SaaS has skyrocketed in recent years and the industry is expected to grow from $251.17 billion in 2022 to $883.34 billion by 2029.
If you’re a SaaS founder that’s both good and bad.
It’s good because you’re in a high-growth market that’s sticking around for the long haul.
The bad news?
As the SaaS industry becomes increasingly competitive, businesses need effective marketing strategies to stand out.
In this article, we’ll look at what SaaS marketing is and 11 strategies you can combine to develop an effective SaaS marketing strategy.
We’ll also highlight some key focus areas and provide some tips to take your SaaS marketing strategy to new heights.
This Article Contains:
- What is SaaS Marketing?
- 11 SaaS Marketing Strategies
- What to Prioritize in a SaaS Marketing Strategy
- A Few Extra Tips to Help You Stand Out
Let’s dive in.
What is SaaS Marketing?
SaaS marketing may sound like another branch of regular marketing.
You have a product you want to sell — so you market it.
However, SaaS products aren’t like other products, so you can’t rely solely on traditional marketing techniques.
Since SaaS products are entirely digital, a SaaS marketing strategy needs to focus on promoting these products in the digital space, keeping in mind your buyer persona.
This is often achieved through content marketing, paid advertising, and social media.
Here are a few ways SaaS marketing differs from traditional marketing:
- Target audience: Based on the buyer persona, a SaaS business will generally position its products in front of a tech-savvy audience. This means B2B SaaS marketing strategies often focus on digital marketing channels.
- Customer retention: While many traditional businesses operate on a one-time purchase model, many SaaS businesses operate on a subscription-based model. As such, customer retention and building long-term relationships are key focus points for a SaaS business.
- Education is a priority: SaaS products often require learning and onboarding for the user to fully understand its value. As a result, SaaS companies generally need to invest more in creating educational content, like blog posts, tutorials, and videos.
With the SaaS market growing at the rate it is, having a rock-solid marketing strategy is more important than ever.
Let’s look at 11 B2B SaaS marketing strategies you can employ in your SaaS business.
11 SaaS Marketing Strategies
Here are a few potential strategies you can apply to help boost your marketing efforts:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The importance of SEO for SaaS marketing can’t be overstated.
You can get your content to rank on search engines by carrying out keyword research, creating high-quality SaaS content, and implementing technical SEO best practices. This can organically drive leads through your sales funnel without continuously paying for ads.
SEO can generally be split into on-page and off-page SEO:
- On-page SEO: This includes all the things you have direct control over, such as creating high-quality content, carrying out keyword research, and generating keyword strategies. It also involves technical SEO aspects like website speed, XML sitemaps, and website structure.
- Off-page SEO: This refers to actions taken off your website, such as securing backlinks, guest posting, and social media marketing.
2. Content Marketing
Content marketing and SEO are extremely effective inbound marketing tactics when used together. One significant advantage of SaaS content marketing is that it increases in value over time.
Where other forms of advertising, such as pay-per-click, will only drive leads for as long as you’re paying for it, SaaS content marketing continues driving leads for months, if not years.
What’s more, a good content marketing strategy can help attract better-quality leads.
Regularly publishing high-quality content will make readers more likely to purchase from you. You can then place a call-to-action (CTA) somewhere in your content.
3. Product Trials
For a potential new customer, not much beats being able to try the SaaS product before committing to a purchase.
Product trials can be an especially effective marketing channel if you’re selling to a tech-savvy audience who would rather have a hands-on experience than speak to a sales rep.
They’re also a strong indicator of buyer intent. If a new customer spends time getting to know your offering, it suggests they are pretty likely to buy. These are commonly known as Product Qualified Leads (PQLs).
To maximize your SaaS product trials, consider asking only for the most basic information, providing outstanding customer support, and making upgrading painless.
4. Referral Marketing
A successful referral program can work wonders for your digital marketing strategy.
DropBox is an excellent example of successful referral marketing. DropBox began its referral program in 2008, rewarding each existing customer with 500MB of free storage for every customer they referred, up to 16GB.
Fifteen months later, DropBox’s subscribers had surged from 100,000 to over 4 million. To put that into perspective, they doubled their subscriber count every three months.
To start your own referral program, you could create a landing page on your website where people can refer others to your SaaS platform.
5. Google Adwords
Although inbound marketing efforts may cut your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising spend, search engine ads are still a very popular means of getting in front of your target audience.
As an outbound marketing strategy, PPC is very scalable, so you can increase or reduce your spending as you need.
Companies will tend to pay for a Google ad targeting a specific keyword. To maximize your Google ad spend, run some tests. Google Analytics can help determine which activity offers the best ROI.
6. Co-marketing
Co-marketing is a strategy where two companies work together to expand their reach.
It’s a popular marketing strategy among SaaS businesses that generally involves collaborating on SaaS content, webinars, or publishing research. The brands will then share the costs and the leads generated.
Co-marketing can be highly effective if both companies are aligned. It can help expand your reach, improve brand awareness, enhance credibility, and provide access to new markets.
7. Opt For A Freemium Business Model
A freemium model is a pricing strategy that offers basic features at no cost and charges a premium for additional features.
The freemium model allows any potential customer to try your product before committing. They will be more inclined to upgrade if they like the basic version.
The benefits of employing a freemium model in your SaaS business include:
- Lowering customer acquisition costs
- Enhancing conversions
- Increasing retention rates
8. Email Marketing
Email is an excellent B2B marketing strategy, particularly for frequent, one-on-one customer contact. In fact, 64% of B2B marketers say email marketing effectively helped meet business goals in 2021, so make it an important component in your marketing campaign.
There are also plenty of tools to analyze the performance of your email marketing campaign so you can make adjustments to your outbound marketing strategy as needed.
Here are a few tips to help improve your email marketing efforts:
- Keep your emails concise
- Include an engaging subject line
- Personalize your emails
9. Social Media
Leveraging the power of social media can reinforce your other B2B marketing efforts and expand your reach.
Social media is also highly effective at connecting with customers and building relationships. Further, frequent interactions with your audience go a long way in enhancing brand awareness.
Social media is the perfect place for:
- Supporting customers across various stages of the buyer’s journey
- Announcing new products and features
- Promoting your top-of-funnel content
10. Video Marketing
Video content is becoming increasingly important as people slowly start preferring shorter bursts of content. Research found that 89% of people were convinced to purchase after watching a brand’s video.
To stand out from the crowd, publishing various kinds of videos is a good idea:
- Explainer videos: These videos allow you to educate your audience by showcasing your product in action.
- Case studies: Highlight results with specific metrics, and add graphs so viewers can easily compare data.
- Social videos: These are short videos you can create to quickly tell a story or highlight an achievement.
11. Leverage Deals and Discounts
Offering your product for a reduced price can help prospective customers feel they’re getting more value. Deals are also great for upselling and cross-selling.
However, the key to discounts is only to offer them on occasion.
Offering deals too frequently will make them less attractive, and people will start seeing the reduced price as the regular price.
What to Prioritize in a SaaS Marketing Strategy
Now that we’ve looked at various SaaS marketing strategies, there are additional activities you can do to help streamline your marketing efforts.
1. Streamline Communication with Customers
Communicating quickly and effectively with a potential SaaS customer can be the difference between landing a long-term user and a lost lead.
Research by PWC revealed that one in three consumers would walk away from a brand after just one bad experience.
Social customer care is becoming increasingly important in this regard. Twitter is a popular channel for customers to ask questions, which you can monitor and respond to.
2. Curate Reviews and Success Stories
93% of consumers say online reviews affect their purchasing decision. To leverage that power, you can collate reviews from sites like G2, Product Hunt, and Capterra and share them on your website and social media.
Similarly, publish case studies highlighting tangible results a potential SaaS customer can relate to.
3. Promote top-of-funnel content
Research has found that 44% of respondents read between three and five pieces of content before purchasing.
Couple that with a lengthening buyers’ journey, and your top-of-funnel content becomes even more important.
Social media is an excellent place to promote this content. Twitter is perfect for promoting your blogs, while LinkedIn is ideal for sharing downloadable content.
4. Make Sign-Ups Painless
To reduce friction in the sales funnel, consider only asking for an email address when users sign up for a trial.
You can always ask for further information later. Similarly, avoid asking for credit card information, which may put some prospects off.
You should also clearly explain the limitations of the demo, such as how long it’s valid for or the number of users allowed.
5. Study Customer Data and Analytics
Your SaaS company likely has a mountain of data that can provide valuable insights into your growth marketing efforts. The following are some essential metrics you could analyze:
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
- Churn rate
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Keeping a close eye on your business’s data will lead to more informed decisions, which can help understand customer behavior, identify new market opportunities, improve customer retention, and more.
6. Empower People to Make the Most of Your Products
Having a dedicated repository of educational material can go a long way in improving customer success. Educational content helps:
- Prospects extract the maximum value from your product
- Reduce time spent on customer service
- Build trust
- Improve customer journey
7. Optimize Your Website for Conversions
Optimizing your website for conversion essentially means structuring your website to increase the chances that visitors will take a specific action.
Implementing conversion rate optimization (CRO) best practices ensures a great user experience, your website loads quickly, and your CTA is compelling.
Tools like Microsoft Clarity and Screaming Frog can be beneficial for CRO.
Next, let’s look at a few important things you can do to improve your customer acquisition efforts further.
A Few Extra Tips to Help You Stand Out
To ensure your SaaS marketing strategy is as effective as possible, here are a few other things you can do to give your business an edge over the competition.
1. Define Your Value Proposition
Sometimes, it’s best to cut to the chase.
What problem are you solving, and what are the benefits of purchasing from your SaaS company?
Spell it out clearly on your homepage so visitors can see exactly what problem your offering aims to solve.
2. Showcase Your Company Culture
Consumers increasingly expect brands to take a stand on social, political, and environmental issues.
Your company culture, values, and philanthropy are all elements you can use to connect with your customer base and differentiate yourself from competitors.
Social media can highlight your values and add a human element to your brand.
3. Devise a UI/UX Strategy
A robust user experience (IX) and user interface (UI) are crucial for a SaaS business. If you’re wondering if any elements need improvement, ask your visitors.
Pop-up surveys are a popular means of gathering feedback from visitors to pinpoint the aspects needing improvement.
4. Opt for a Long-Term Business Model
Establishing a long-term business model helps ensure sustainability and customer success over time.
Whether or not you’re looking for investment, a long-term business model can help you secure funding down the line.
Investors typically favor companies with a solid long-term strategy, high recurring revenue, and a clear path toward sustainable growth.
Planning a long-term business model also helps ensure you remain competitive, helps differentiate your offerings from competitors, and improves the customer journey by providing unique value.
5. Compete on Value Rather Than Price
While the cost of your offering remains an important factor in the purchasing decision, competing on value allows you to create a unique selling proposition.
Focusing on value means prioritizing quality, reliability, and customer service.
Delivering on these attributes means you can charge a premium for your product and create a loyal existing customer base willing to pay for it.
6. Limit Customer Choice
Reducing the number of options on your SaaS platform for prospective customers may sound counterintuitive.
However, there’s an effect known as “choice overload.” By limiting the options you offer customers, they can focus on the specific features and benefits relevant to them.
Additionally, limiting options will help differentiate your offering from competitors by emphasizing what makes your product unique.
However, ensure you provide enough relevant choices to meet the needs of different customers.
Combine These to Revolutionize Your SaaS Marketing Strategy
Marketing a SaaS business isn’t easy, especially considering the competitive landscape.
To ensure a successful SaaS marketing strategy, consider combining several growth marketing strategies to ensure you continue driving sales and boosting recurring revenue. Then, reinforce those strategies with social proof, a commitment to customer satisfaction, and excellent value.
But, if you need some assistance with generating organic leads through a robust content marketing strategy and SEO, get in touch with Startup Voyager.
With clients going from 0 to 100k organic visitors in a year’s time, our tried and tested content and SEO strategies can help catapult your organic search traffic.