Marketing your SaaS (software-as-a-service) product can be more complex than marketing a physical product.
With product marketing, you can demonstrate the product’s features and how it works in plain terms, which can make it easier and relatable.
As for SaaS marketing, you need to focus on explaining how the software works and how it will help your potential customers solve their problems through its features.
We will be sharing a few digital marketing strategies for your SaaS business to implement in order to attract leads, convert them into customers and retain them through SEO tactics, content marketing tips, and many more.
Create an Effective Content Marketing Strategy
Creating an effective content strategy is essential for any business. But for SaaS companies, your content marketing strategy needs to focus on creating and sharing valuable content with your target audience.
By producing relevant, high-quality, and useful content, not only will you educate your customers on how your service will benefit them but you also educate them surrounding their problems.
For instance, blog content. Blogs can help you build trust with your customers by acting as a foundation for helping your customers with their problems. If they can’t find the answers they need on your blog, they’ll go elsewhere for their answers. So, take advantage of your blog to help them solve their problems.
The content you create doesn’t stop with blogs. Your content should include social media posts, e-books, case studies on how your SaaS product helped one of your clients, how-to videos, comparative competitor content and more. With this, you need to take a look at the different marketing channels that you would want to use for distributing your content.
When creating your content plan, it is important to consider your buyer personas and the sales cycle, in relation to the type of content that you will provide for them. For example, a potential customer might be interested in your upcoming live training on social media marketing for SaaS services. The content you can provide to this prospect can be a short but enticing registration page that is easy to fill up.
Additionally, you might want to consider publishing content regularly as it will help increase your website’s search engine ranking, which can help attract new prospects when they search about SaaS products, SaaS industry news, or anything in relation to it.
Use SEO to Grow Your Leads and Increase Site Traffic
Search engine optimization (SEO) is increasingly becoming an important part of any successful digital marketing campaign. More and more companies are looking to SEO to help them grow their leads, increase site traffic, and provide a stream of qualified prospects.
No matter how great your website content is, if it doesn’t appear on the top of the SERPs of the users who search about information or topics relevant to your SaaS product, chances are, only a few people will ever see your website and its contents. This is why SEO is so important: it helps you ensure that your site appears as high up on the list as possible.
But SEO can be overwhelming because there are many different aspects you need to consider in order for your website to perform well in search engines. If you’re not an expert on the best SEO practices, the signals that Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines are using to determine the most relevant websites can be confusing.
There are four main factors that will have the biggest impact on your website’s rank in the search engine results which we have broken down below:
- Keyword Research – Build a list of relevant keywords to target
The first step in SEO is to build a list of relevant keywords to target. By conducting keyword research, you will be able to find the most popular search terms that people use when they are looking for information related to your service. You can then use these keywords in your content, meta tags, and even on your page’s URL. The more specific your keywords are, the better you will rank for those searches and the more views and leads you will generate.
- Content Optimization – Ensure that your site has content that matches user intent
The next step in SEO is to ensure that your site has content that matches user intent. This means you should write engaging content that answers your users’ questions and solves their pain points. If you do this, they will be more likely to share your content with others in their network, which will further help drive traffic to your site
- Site Structure – Use a logical hierarchy of webpages
The structure of your site is another important factor in successful SEO. Your site should have a clear hierarchy, with your most important pages placed at the top level of the navigational menu. This means that users who are searching for information related to your website will be able to find it more easily without having to comb through various lower-level subpages. It also ensures that search engines can index all of your pages and understand how they are related to one another.
- Backlinks – Build links from other websites to drive targeted traffic
The final step in SEO is building backlinks from other relevant websites to your web pages or site as a whole. To do this, you can contact bloggers that have written about topics related to your industry. You should provide them with engaging content and links that will drive readers back to your site from their blog.
By following the steps above and ensuring that your website is available across the web, you will be able to generate new leads and drive traffic to your site.
Try Referral Marketing for Your SaaS Product
You’ve built a great product and your customers enjoy using it. They’re enthusiastic about it and its helpful features…but you aren’t reaching your growth goals.
There’s no denying how difficult it can be when acquiring new customers for web-based products. Areas like SEM and social media are becoming more and more saturated and increasingly difficult to break through the noise.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that many successful SaaS companies are using referral marketing to fuel their growth engine. The basic premise is simple enough: convince your existing customers to refer new customers. For each successful referral they make, you give the referring customer a reward – often in the form of free usage or discounts.
This creates two positive effects:
- You acquire new customers at a lower cost than other channels like paid ads
- Customers who receive incentives for referrals generally become more loyal and engaged because the referral program increases the perceived value of the product
Some businesses go the extra mile by giving their customers an incentive to share with their friends and colleagues. In turn, their friends become customers if they decide to take action on the referred incentive. Both the referrer and new customer get a reward!
Make Your Call to Actions as Clear as Possible
One of the best ways to ensure that your customers take the desired action is by making your call to actions as clear as possible. You can do this by adding concise CTAs on your website, emails, blog posts or social media posts.
A good call to action has a tone that is friendly and direct at the same time. If you are too sales-y with your CTAs, then customers will be turned off. If you are too laidback, your message won’t be taken seriously.
When creating a call to action, make sure that the text is short and sweet. The writing should immediately grab their attention and make them want to know more. You can use powerful words but avoid using complicated words as it will push your visitors away. Take a look at the examples below for inspiration:
- Try for free
- Learn more
- Click here
- Get started today
- Subscribe
- Book a free consultation
- Enter your email address for a chance to win a prize!
When writing your you CTAs, keep the following questions in mind:
- What do you want the customer to do?
- What will happen after they have done that task?
- Why should they follow through with your direction?
If you have any other ideas on how to make CTAs as clear as possible, please feel free to share them in the comment section.
Have Your SaaS Product Reviewed on SaaS Review Sites
If you are a startup in the digital age, getting legitimate, unbiased feedback will help you iterate on your product and make it valuable for users. But this isn’t the only reason why you should aim to garner reviews.
Reviews are extremely valuable when it comes to showcasing how useful or relevant your SaaS product really is. Since people read online reviews before they buy something, having your product reviewed on sites like G2 helps potential customers to better understand what you are offering. When people see that you have been reviewed by a third party site, they will be even more confident in buying your SaaS product because they know it is worth their money.
This could be a great option to build credibility because the companies or individuals reviewing your product will vouch that it is useful and valuable.
There are many review sites out there and we’ve listed a few that you might want to take a look at:
Reaching out to these sites for your product to be reviewed is worth considering as it is a great way to promote your product and its value proposition.
Offer Free Trials
It has become an industry standard to offer free trials of your SaaS product to your potential customers. There are numerous ways that you can promote your service via a free trial and we’ve put together a list of 5 tips on how you can maximise the effectiveness of your SaaS trials:
- Include an Exclusive Usage Limit for the Trial Period
The main purpose of a free trial is to give customers a sneak peek of your product before committing to purchase it.
However, limiting usage can help improve conversions in your SaaS trials. For example, if the trial only includes limited storage capacity and you don’t offer unlimited plans until after the trial has ended, you are more likely to have customers convert into paying customers.
- Give them a Discount for Sticking With You for the Long Haul
Another great way of allowing your SaaS trial users to continue using your product is by giving them discounts if they stay with you once their free trial ends. This will give them even more reason to continue using your product, rather than switching to a competing alternative.
This also has the added benefit of making them feel more loyal towards your business and will have higher brand loyalty in the long run.
- Include a Money-Back Guarantee
This is another tactic that will certainly catch the eye of potential customers. This means that you are confident enough in your product to offer money-back guarantees for those who don’t like it.
You can price these refunds so they are beneficial to your business too. For example, if someone requests their refund within the first week of using the product, they will receive it at the expense of your time and effort. But if they wait until after 30 days, you might ask them to pay for the service until the contract ends so you don’t lose out on money either.
Offering money-back guarantees shows that you are confident in what you are selling and can be a great way of attracting sales.
- Turn Your ‘Trial’ Into a Real Free Trial
In some cases, people might become hesitant to sign-up for your trial as they feel that it is just another one of those time-limited trials that will lead to them being tied into a long term contract. So offer real free trials by removing any mention of a ‘trial’ and allow your customers to use your product for as long as they want without you even asking them for their credit card.
This will give them a chance to try out your SaaS product in their own time with no risk or obligation involved. You can then ask these users that enjoy the product to sign up for a paid account
- Encourage them to Upgrade with Limited Time Offers
Offering limited-time offers is another effective tactic that can be used to help convince your SaaS trial users to upgrade. For example, if you were offering a free trial for an email marketing tool and one of the features included in your paid plan is an integration with Google Analytics, why not include this as one of your limited time offers to the trial users.
This way you can help them make better use of your product and make sure they get more value for their money. This should encourage them to upgrade without much effort.
The main benefit of offering free trials is that it will help you gain potential customers that would have otherwise shied away from signing up for a paid account. It also makes the trial to first sale process much easier as prospects are more likely to convert if they have already made use of your product.
Make Your Sign-Ups Hassle-free
No one wants to be stuck in a sign-up process that is too lengthy or too difficult to go through. If you don’t want your potential customers to lose interest, give them an experience that makes signing up easy and delightful.
If you think about it, the sign-up process should also be considered as a selling point.
Sign-ups should be quick and hassle-free while still creating an excellent impression on your customers. Here are 3 simple tips to make your sign-ups effortless:
- Keep it Short
If someone is willing to give up their time just to try your service, it’s a clear indication that the product is promising enough. So you want to make sure that the sign-up process is as short as possible.
A great way to keep it simple is by creating a form that asks for only the necessary information. Provide clear instructions to the sections that need it most.
- Make it Personal
Adding a personal touch to the sign-up process creates an amazing first impression on your customers. It shows them that you care about their time, which is why you are giving them the best experience possible.
There are many ways to make your sign-ups more personal. For example, by using real names instead of usernames or company logos on the sign-up form, you are creating a more friendly environment that makes people feel more at home. Clients also appreciate it when you give them an idea of what to expect after they sign up.
- Take a look at your processes from your customer’s point of view
Look for the areas which can be further simplified if you were viewing it from the customer’s perspective. It might be helpful to ask yourself, “how many steps does it take to purchase the SaaS product?”
Remember, even if you already have a client base, it is important to not lose your potential customers. Making sign-ups easy for them will help to ensure their satisfaction with your service. If your leads can easily navigate through the sign-up process, they’ll be more likely to recommend the product or use it.
Customer experience
The best customer experiences are the ones that are personal and tailored to what the individual needs. There are many ways to make the customer experience a fantastic one, such as establishing a hassle-free sign-up process, offering free trials or providing helpful content.
A few other ways to make the experience for the customer more enjoyable could include:
- Accessible email, chat or phone support
- Email Follow-ups
- An assistive live demo of your product
You can get as creative as you want in ensuring the customer is satisfied with their experience of using your service.
Customers that are satisfied by the experience are more willing to refer you to others. It is also easier for these people to be convinced of upgrading their account if they feel like this has been an enjoyable process thus far, ending in a win-win situation.
Try Experimenting with PPC
PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, can be a great way to get your service in front of potential customers. You have the liberty to create targeted ads that will appear on the search results when people search for specific keywords related to your business. When people decide to click on your ad, they will be taken to your website.
However, this will require you to allot a budget for your campaign and strategize how to get the most out of the budget that you have set. There are many ways to go about it, but you can start with the basics. Try out different headlines, descriptions and related keywords, make multiple changes in granularity of the ad copy, try adding or removing your call-to-action on all variations of ads that you create. The more experiments you run, the more likely it is that you will find out what is working for your campaign.
Use the Right tools
There are many different tools that can help you execute your digital marketing strategies and you will need to choose which ones will serve you best. For instance, Google Analytics is a great tool used for traffic analysis of your website, while Facebook Business Manager can help you manage your Facebook or Instagram likes, impressions and other metrics. On the other hand, Ahrefs can help you research the best keywords to use that are related to your service through filters.
A few digital marketing tools that you might want to explore are:
Conclusion
Digital marketing for SaaS companies is not always easy to execute, but with the appropriate tools, the right strategies and well-researched information, you can identify which ones to use and eventually create a successful SaaS marketing strategy that suits your service. The most important thing that you need to remember is that your customers are the reason why you want to market your service in the first place. Keep these things in mind as you continue to develop your digital marketing strategy for your SaaS company and you’re sure to see positive results.
Need help putting this together? Get your FREE no-obligation Strategy Session. Call today on 03 9068 6905 to book your free consultation, or you shoot me through a message here: https://digitalbond.com.au/strategy/
