SaaS marketing is a unique beast. The entire sales and marketing functions are typically focused on growing a pipeline, addicting users, and driving revenue. The challenge with SaaS marketing is if it’s not part of a bigger, company-level strategy, it can feel more like an island than a united front.
Why you shouldn’t outsource your marketing
Outsourcing it pretty much takes all the control and accountability away from your company, so although you might save some money in the short term, you will have no real guarantee that you will reach your long term growth and revenue goals. What's more, if you outsource your marketing then it’s very likely that the people you hire are not going to be as passionate about the product as your team members who have started the business from the ground up. The other downside is that your marketing budget or resource is now split among several different teams which ultimately limits the amount of work and marketing results that you can produce with that same budget. In fact, because of all this, once it becomes clear there is a problem with your current process or staff member(s), it could easily spiral out of control if they are not replaced quickly enough.
How to develop a content strategy for your SaaS
When starting out, a single blog post isn’t going to get you a lot of traffic. However, if you combine that with a strong content strategy, you can quickly and efficiently reach more people. While it may not be possible to create new content for the blog every day (like a news site), you can use your posts to drive interested readers to supplementary material via an ebook, free course, or roundtable discussions. This is content which require the reader to download additional files. Example: Mobile SEO tips white paper download)
How to get more out of your events by looking at the room
If people aren't in the audience for your event, YOU as the speaker are wasting your time and theirs. We have been to 6 SaaS conference/events this year so far in 2021. In each case, we have gone to see if the attendee list had a good balance of gender, spoke language and the diversity makeup of those who had signed up. If you go to an event and there is even a hint that it doesn't have a good mix of attendees... move on. You want balanced audience so you can get broad feedback on your content, regardless of whether it is positive or less-positive feedback. If it's just you talking to an audience of geeks, chances are good you will be dismissed by that audience... because they can listen to you at any time for free (in fact we would argue getting paid to speak doesn't give speakers more street cred, it just puts them in danger of being dismissed as "sellouts"). We also look for other key signals that tell us if the attendee list will be relevant.
The 3 best metrics to use when doing marketing analytics (and how to track them)
Let’s first talk about the three key metrics I want to track after each campaign (the three best metrics to use when doing marketing analytics):
Website traffic: Is the campaign driving more traffic to my web properties? Lead generation: IS my lead gen funnel working?
Conversion: How many people who interact with my content actually convert to a paid user, and if they don't where do they fall out?
Retention: Is this user session leading to more sessions in the future? The most effective way I’ve found to track these metrics is through Google Analytics, which can measure site-wide, individual page, and campaign specific metrics.
These 3 key metrics help drive your marketing initiatives, because they give us actionable insight into how we can improve user engagement. For example, if visitor behavior indicates that people who convert on a landing page also visit another landing page within 30 days, then we can build out that page and make it a better experience. I’m also a fan of using KISS Metrics to track conversions and revenue data. Lately, I’ve been using MixPanel for large scale systems like determining which email campaigns are driving more site traffic Topic Expansion: Now that I’ve laid-out my 3 key metrics for analytics (and you understand why they’re important), let's talk about how to track them:
For number 1 (website traffic) – this means a few things. I need to know what areas of my website users are visiting, and where they’re coming from (via AdWords or Content)
For number 2 (Conversion) - I need to understand which funnel a user is entering my content sphere and when are they dropping off. More so which type of user is engaging with which type of content that leads to a higher conversion rate
For number 3 (Retention) - What is my activity usage, am I meant to measure DAU, WAU or MAU ? What are the 30 day trailing period retention of customer and how are users re-engaging with the product
How to get your customers to advocate for you
There is no better way to get your prospects to buy your product than for them to do it themselves. That is why you need advocates of your product. An advocate is a user of your product who steps up and tells others why they should be using it too. They are willing to go out of their way to recommend the use of your product as an essential tool in the success of both their personal and professional lives. Advocates may not be willing to go to trade shows and market but they do place positive word-of-mouth references about you into the social media sphere. This increases the likelihood that a prospect researches you further, thus increasing sales opportunities. Another easy way to do this is offering a two way benefit engine, Dropbox were famous for offering extra storage space for every referral a person brought onboard. Similarly so Smartwriter offer 5000 extra words for their AI copywriting software
Referral programs are one of the fastest ways to get new customers, and this tactic works particularly well when applied to a network of friends or business acquaintances. Setting up a system where existing customers get rewarded for bringing in new customers makes it worth their while and ensures that both new and old customers will keep coming back. It’s easy to set up online, usually involving sending an email asking a customer if they know anyone who might be interested in buying your product or service. If an affiliate program is not possible due to legal reasons or other reasons, then you could always give a discount code that can only be
How to develop a Sales content strategy
Selling software usually involves a bit of education. People are not used to learning about software, so you'll have to engage and educate your audience about how the software works and why it's better than their current alternatives. After you've gotten them interested in your product, you need to be creating landing pages for the different features of your product, with calls-to-action directing people to the appropriate forms or walkthroughs. You can even help them get started by offering a free trial of your software. Remember, cold outreach is one of the hardest job functions other than closing sales. A good outbound marketing person or outbound marketing team will consist of a mixture of creativity, tenacity and desire to win. It’ll also need to be responsible for determining personalised outbound engagement paths for people across the funnel and monitoring this progress.
How to maintain your SaaS brand on social media
Create a target persona who will be your ideal customer and persona Write a profile for your brand that a visitor would want to follow on social media List their needs and expectations to create content that is interesting and useful. Ensure it's personal, and not just an industry trend: unless you're engaging with an audience of industry experts, your content should always focus on the challenges users face at work and in their personal life If you are starting out marketing on social media you don't need to worry about the Social Media Marketing Software, until you start getting more traction. Its all about HUMAN BEING TO HUMAN BEING CONTACT at the beginning.
