Once you’ve created and documented your B2B SaaS marketing plan, it’s time to put your strategies into action. In this blog, we’re sharing our secret recipe for SaaS success. Every ingredient has been carefully chosen and tested by the Bay Leaf Digital team. Experience has shown us that the right combination of these tactics will build brand awareness and generate leads for any SaaS – including yours.
The SaaS marketplace is notorious for long buying cycles and multiple decision makers. To help their companies scale, marketers need a detailed strategy customized for each step in the conversion funnel. That’s why a SaaS marketing plan is typically more complex than one that would be appropriate in another industry. Your plan must help you attract prospects, convert them to customers, retain those users, and consistently grow customer lifetime value (CLV). To do that, it’s got to include ideas and motions that are sure to create success at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Lead Aquisition
There’s no single lead acquisition strategy that works for all SaaS companies. The best choices depend on understanding how aware your target customers are of your brand and your product. Armed with that knowledge, you’ll be able to determine which lead generation tactics and channels are likely to be most effective.
Begin with SEO
SaaS SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a comprehensive set of practices and actions aimed at increasing visits to your website by improving search results. Use a tool like SEMRush to ground your marketing in keyword research, boosting the value of your marketing efforts and maximizing the return on your investment. In addition, be sure to devote attention to:
- On-Site SEO, the optimization of website elements such as content and HTML source code to improve visibility and search engine results page (SERP) rankings.
- Off-Site SEO, actions outside of your own website, including link building and managing online reputation, will impact your SERP rankings, building awareness of your brand and generating new business.
- Technical SEO, improving the technical aspects of your website to enhance the crawling and indexing by search engines with steps including optimizing site structure and ensuring mobile responsiveness.
Draw Attention with Superior Content
Begin by determining the types of content that will resonate with your target audience. This will likely be a mix of blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, case studies, videos, infographics, and more. Offer a variety to engage prospects at every stage of the funnel. Create a content calendar and use it to implement effective content marketing for SaaS by publishing valuable content regularly. Supported with search engine optimization (SEO) and eye-catching graphics, useful and valuable articles form a lead generation engine that grows in power over time.
Capture Serious Buyers with Paid Ads
Leverage content as the foundation of your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising marketing plans. Use it to connect with potential users on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media platforms and as part of your Google Ads and Microsoft Ads strategies. Experiment with the best channels, times of day and demographics to optimize the response from your target audience.
Create Brand Awareness
If you are in a cutting-edge vertical with little demand because potential clients don’t know about your service, invest time and money in driving brand awareness. In addition to content marketing and paid advertising motions, you can partner with industry influencers and complementary SaaS providers to offer joint webinars, guest blogging with link exchanges, and co-branded content. Attend conferences and trade shows and speak at them whenever possible. Pay for sponsored placements in industry publications if your budget allows.
Build Trust with Strong Reviews
One Capterra study found that 64% of software buyers want to read at least six reviews before purchasing. Recruit your current fans to help you attract new ones. Actively solicit positive online reviews and publicly thank users for leaving them. Create a referral program in which current users are rewarded for introducing your product to others.
Let Users Try Your Product
The best way to help potential users really understand how your SaaS will improve their lives is to give them a no-commitment way to try it for themselves. First, you’ll have to decide between freemium vs free trial options. A free trial offers full access to the premium features of your software for a limited time, allowing potential customers to experience the product’s full value and encouraging quicker purchase decisions. This model is ideal for products with a clear, immediate value proposition and short sales cycles. On the other hand, the freemium model provides basic features for free indefinitely with the option to upgrade to premium features. The freemium approach can help build a larger user base, foster long-term user engagement, and gradually convert free users to paying customers. Regardless of which option you prefer, integrate it holistically into your B2B SaaS marketing plan, and support it with paid advertising and social media campaigns.
Lead Conversion
Now that you’ve gotten some attention or even some content downloads or free trial sign ups, people have given you permission to start talking to them. Use that privilege wisely. Leverage it to convince people to use your product and understand how it will make their lives easier, more fun, or less painful.
Keep Solving Problems
Emphasize the value of working with your company. Provide easily downloadable resources that help prospects or trial users achieve their goals. Share practical tips, trade secrets, or relevant data that can assist users in leveraging your product more effectively.
Deliver the Right Message at the Right Time
Develop messaging campaigns with content triggered based on what people are doing with your product. If they’ve registered for a trial, send a welcome email. If that gets opened, send another message with links to videos, how-to articles, or references. Test alternative communication methods like texts to connect as well.
Meet Leads Where They Are and Guide Them
Some leads won’t understand their need or the value of your SaaS product. Cultivate these leads by recognizing them, determining where they are on their journey, and engaging with them based on what you discover. Keep these interactions soft-touch and highly relevant. Whether you communicate through display ads or email, the information you share should be valuable and timely.
Let the Product Sell Itself
84% of users go on to continue using the service after a free trial. Your software plays an important role in helping users realize its value. A SaaS free trial or freemium offer is going to help people fall in love with your product and want to pay for it. Guide users to early success and maximize the effectiveness of your offer by optimizing usability and adding tool tips and hints inside the application.
Customer Retention and Upsell
Because most SaaS companies use a subscription-based pricing model rather than one that requires an outright purchase, the barriers to leaving are lower than those for other software sales. Boost customer lifetime value (CLV) by prioritizing engaging existing users and upselling them to the next subscription tier part of your B2B SaaS marketing plan.
Keep Usage Up
In a recent survey, nearly a third of respondents reported that they waste 20-39% of their total SaaS spend on unused or underutilized SaaS licenses. This can be the biggest hurdle to achieving your customer retention goals. Overcome it by confirming that your subscribers are actually using the product. Help users dive in and experience the benefits of your software with regular messaging across a spectrum of channels.
Open the Lines of Communication
Add chat links to the website and the application. Create a newsletter and send regular emails to keep users updated about product improvements and added features so they’ll see its usefulness increasing over time. Solicit feedback regularly. Your users are the ones who know what’s working in your SaaS, and what needs improvement.
Pick the Right Moment to Upsell
Monitor user engagement. When users are at a pivotal moment of engagement, upsell with a combination of on-site and email messages. Marketing guru Neil Patel recommends creating upsell offers that impart a sense of achievement to customers. Try complimenting frequent users on their hard work and suggesting an upgrade with better features or expanded capacity to commemorate the success.
Reward Loyalty
Don’t focus on generating leads to the exclusion of paying customers. Those satisfied users will become your rave reviewers and referral machines. To keep them engaged, try offering an unexpected gift. Marketing Science Institute research found that surprise rewards dropped customer churn for committed users by 5.1%.
Put Your Website to Work for You
Much of a consumer’s initial interactions will take place on your website, so it should be optimized for attraction and conversion. Craft your headlines and above-the-fold content based on your ideal customers’ priorities and goals.
Offer Easy Answers
Design your website with responsive search so people can find specific details when needed. Even better, offer chat for fast answers from any page. When configured thoughtfully, chatbots and live chat can be potent tools to convert as well as to engage users. Leverage the latest technology to expand the availability and capabilities of these features.
Test to Optimize
Run A/B testing on key elements of your website. For example, simple changes in call-to-action (CTA) design, placement and wording can increase the subscription rate. Even the pricing grid layout can motivate or deter buyers. While it’s generally accepted that fewer input fields increase conversions, that’s not the case in every situation. Test sign-up forms to see what your audience prefers. Always test elements singly and sequentially, modifying only one at a time so that you’re sure of which changes lead to results.
Be Data-Oriented
Put a strong SaaS marketing analytics tracking system in place to quantify the effectiveness of your efforts. At every step, measure performance against your goals and generally accepted SaaS marketing benchmarks. Add or remove tactics until you find the program that works best. Once the tracking & measuring fundamentals are covered, you can then focus your attention on optimizing acquisition, conversion, retention and upsell.
The Best Way to Put Your Plans into Action
For maximum effectiveness, pause before implementing any marketing motion to ensure that it supports the carefully researched and meticulously crafted preliminary aspects of the B2B SaaS marketing plan, including:
- Business Objectives
- Target Market, Competitor, and Marketplace Analysis
- Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
- Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Personas
- Messaging Pillars
- Brand Voice
- Marketing Mix
- Budget
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Once you’re certain that your intended actions are in alignment with your plans, it’s time to get started. Your B2B SaaS marketing plan doesn’t have to incorporate every step we’ve suggested to be successful. Whether you’re still seeking product-market fit or expanding your market presence, our marketing plans are designed to meet you where you are and guide you to success. You can start with a few and expand when you’re ready.
Would your company benefit from expert assistance in strategizing and implementing marketing motions that will boost brand awareness and generate the leads you need to grow? Our team of experienced specialists is ready to lend a hand. Contact Bay Leaf Digital today.
