Gartner has predicted that business software spending will increase in 2023 by up to 11.8%, a growth from last year’s 9.8%. That’s an incredible growth in enterprise spending for the SaaS industry and tech companies.
Technological advances have propelled software development while driving most B2B businesses to deploy strategic software that enhances visibility with real-time data, supporting stronger customer satisfaction. Modern technologies also help B2B companies to take data-backed decisions, which have become a top priority in today’s business realm with the rise of Big Data.
On that account, most B2B businesses rely on SaaS software to enhance business performance. These software have also increased operational efficiency without investing in on-premise software that requires hefty funds and long deployment times.
But with so many SaaS software available, it is extremely challenging for SaaS companies to secure leads and generate sustainable growth.
That’s why we’ve compiled some of the best SaaS marketing strategies companies can leverage to reach their target audience and grow their business. Let’s go through them.
Table of Contents
1. Embrace SaaS Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the most rewarding B2B marketing strategies that help reach the target audience, drive visitors to the website, and generate quality leads. Around 91% of B2B businesses use content marketing as a primary strategy for growth.
Creating content and putting it out there further helps to establish B2B SaaS brands as industry thought leaders, naturally upgrading brand image.
When developing a strategy for content marketing, it’s important to prioritize quality, informative, and engaging content designed to appeal to the target audience and help solve specific problems. In addition, all of the content must be well-optimized for SERPs so that when potential prospects search for answers, they can easily find you.
Also, creating various types of content pieces is crucial to make a massive appeal. This could include blog posts, e-books, case studies, etc.
A B2B brand that has built a reputation with thought leadership content is Moz. The brand posts content to its blog almost daily, creates guides and features Whiteboard Friday Videos to generate qualified leads.
2. Free Product Trials
One of the best SaaS marketing strategies is to offer free product trials, typically self-serving, ensuring continuous lead generation with little marketing investment. Nothing beats giving a test drive of your product, and SaaS companies should consider making a trial available via their website or email campaigns.
This opportunity is to promote a product and for B2B SaaS companies to highlight their fantastic customer service and support. If the product is suitable, they might see a free trial converting to a paid subscription with no additional effort.
Furthermore, the end of the trial is also the chance to reach out to potential users and acquire feedback about the product. However, it’s essential to practice a few guidelines:
- Depending upon the complexity of the product, even in free trials, offer your users a lending hand with setup and use. This could be through webinars, YouTube videos, one-to-one calls, etc.
- Make sure your signup process for a free subscription is straightforward. Otherwise, you will lose an excellent opportunity to generate leads. Do not ask for additional information like full address, company details, university information, etc.
- Some SaaS companies often ask for information about credit cards or debit cards before providing a free trial. A valuable suggestion is to avoid asking for such details as it’s a huge turn-off.
3. Practice Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is a powerful marketing tool for B2B SaaS marketers that focuses on optimizing websites and content for SERPs. It helps attract qualified leads to the B2B brand actively looking for related products or services. Additionally, SaaS marketers can build trust and authority with long-term SEO practices, ultimately improving their website ranking on search engines.
The first step is to understand your primary prospects and uncover keywords they’re using to search about your industry. It is followed by reviewing your content pieces and meta-data and optimizing with keywords to improve ranking.
Also, more SEO tactics, such as link building and SEO-optimized landing pages and page clusters, help to boost visibility around your business.
4. Invest Heavily in Email Campaigns
Around 4 billion people use email daily, making email marketing a must-use tactic for SaaS marketing strategy. In fact, 64% of B2B marketers have stated that email marketing strategy helped meet their business goals. By sending out regular newsletters to subscribers, SaaS businesses can stay on the top of their minds and build long-term relationships with potential prospects.
But SaaS companies need to understand that email campaigns must not just be used to acquire new leads and generate conversions. It should be a consistent part of their marketing to ensure the retention of clients.
Notably, SaaS products often require assistance. SaaS companies can increase retention rates by regularly checking in with follow-up and customer support emails.
Some best practices for SaaS email campaigns are:
- According to HubSpot blog research, 2021, B2B marketers have said that new product or feature announcement emails have seen the highest click-through rates.
- Share informative resources such as blog posts, whitepapers, YouTube video links, etc.
- Inform prospective customers via email newsletters about discount offers or exclusive product launches.
5. Interact Via Social Media
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools, with over 4.26 billion users in 2021, a number expected to increase to almost six billion in 2027, as per Statista.
B2B SaaS companies must leverage these channels to extend content reach to a wide audience and enhance brand awareness and engagement.
Furthermore, marketers can use social media to reinforce other marketing material, such as infographics, product videos, and blogs.
SaaS social media strategies that work are:
- Collaborate with relevant social media influencers that the SaaS audience knows and follows
- Use video content as it helps to break down complex information about SaaS products and is preferred by most audiences as per HubSpot report. A demo video, for instance, can showcase your product in action to customers. More than showing your product features, it can explain how these features can solve customers’ problems.
- Venngage, a design tool, further found that original graphics such as infographics and illustrations, and videos are incredibly engaging tools. The importance of such graphics is particularly high in social media, enabling SaaS marketers to create informative and attractive content that engages the audience.
- Create groups on social media so users can post queries and get answers to their questions from leaders in the industry.
6. Harness the Power of SaaS Review Sites
A great SaaS marketing strategy is harnessing the power of SaaS Review Sites. Whether a company is new in the market or an established entity, potential customers often look for reviews and feedback before making a purchase. More precisely, 82% of buyers find review websites valuable in their search.
These platforms enable SaaS companies to connect with prospective clients and showcase the quality and benefits of using their solutions. Marketers can also share case studies, product features, and testimonials from other users to reinforce their brand image.
SaaS review sites also offer valuable marketing tools like web optimization and paid advertisements to help reach even more ideal customers as per B2B SaaS offerings.
Some prominent SaaS review sites are G2 crowd and Capterra to gain exposure, website authority, and more insight.
7. Leverage Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing is another great B2B SaaS marketing strategy that is often a personalized marketing approach to generate better-qualified leads. This approach is a go-to for B2B businesses that sell to other companies. It enables marketers to tailor their sales pitches and marketing campaigns to meet the needs of a specific account, increasing the chances of conversion.
At the same time, ABM provides SaaS marketers with insights into what strategy works and what’s not, so they can tweak their efforts to generate results.
The key to successful ABM is to research target accounts – pinpoint their specific needs and concerns, and tailor content to address them. Moreover, to enhance outcomes, follow a multichannel approach – emails, social media, online ads, and more.
8. Referral Marketing Is Important
Referral marketing is how you encourage satisfied and loyal customers to refer your product or service to someone else. By building a B2B referral program, SaaS companies can expand revenue, spend reasonably on customer acquisition, and boost sales.
According to a study in the Harvard Business Review, around 84% of B2B sales are initiated with referrals and peer recommendations influence more than 90% of B2B buying decisions.
Take a look at Plan M8, a yacht maintenance SaaS software that developed a referral program at the earliest stage of product development. When the company released its product, it offered personalized deals to authoritative individuals in their niche. The more yachts they would bring on, the more premium benefits they would avail, including a limited-period loyalty program.
It is important to note that the reward cannot be standard or basic, businesses have to give B2B audiences something worth their precious time. For instance, for every referral a customer brings, they could get a free monthly subscription and access to more paid features. Or perhaps, they could receive an all-access pass to technical events or conferences if they bring three or four referrals. SaaS companies can further develop a sense of urgency by putting a time limit for redeeming rewards.
9. Focus On PPC Ad Campaigns
PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, has gained quite a popularity over the last few years as it helps B2B companies generate leads and sales cost-effectively. With PPC, marketers place ads on search engines such as Google and only pay when the prospect has clicked on the ad.
Furthermore, it allows companies to target those leads who are actively searching for your SaaS product or service.
Often, SaaS companies have seen higher results on Google with retargeting and text-based organic search advertisements. However, when it comes to PPC advertising for B2B SaaS marketing strategy, pay attention to the following points:
- Include relevant keywords in your Ad campaign that are being used by the audience to search within the industry
- Make sure to create compelling ad copy and include a persuasive Call-to-action (CTA) that encourages users to click
- A/B Testing is essential to identify what source offers the best conversions to optimize your PPC campaigns
10. Give Importance to Retargeting
By giving importance to retargeting, B2B SaaS businesses can convince website visitors who had visited their website but left without taking action. Be it signing up for an email newsletter, leveraging a free trial, downloading an ebook, etc.
Retargeting tracks these users and then displays online ads to them as they visit users places on the web. Many B2B businesses lead the way with retargeting by offering more exciting offers with ads that lure their audience back to the website.
Furthermore, some retargeting tools allow B2B SaaS companies to re-engage prospects beyond website visitors. To that end, someone who opened your email or attended your webinar can also be retargeted.
Summing Up
With these B2B SaaS marketing strategies, SaaS companies can attract qualified leads, generate higher conversion, and increase brand awareness and engagement, ultimately increasing business growth.
However, it is advised that before implementing any strategy, you identify your ideal audience segment and define your marketing goals. With that information, you can select from the above strategies the ones to help you achieve your desired results.
Try experimenting with different marketing strategies and channels to ensure the best outcomes.
