Saas (software as a service) is the process of selling subscriptions to get digital access to tools and apps. As a consumer, you likely encounter Saas brands when you turn on Netflix, record calories in a diet app, or check your Gmail. While apps and digital software are widely used by anyone who has a smartphone or WiFi connection, Saas brands still need to develop targeted marketing strategies in order to get noticed. This is where a Saas marketing agency can help. Here are three tips for developing your Saas marketing strategy.
1. Develop a diverse marketing portfolio.
Saas companies that want to develop a steady stream of new customers need to attract qualified leads from a variety of sources. People will likely find your brand through organic SEO efforts, paid PPC promotions, and social media channels. Even when customers find your brand, they might not convert immediately. This buyer journey is often displayed in the sales funnel. Your customers will need to interact with your brand – including your product landing pages and content marketing materials – multiple times before they decide to use your service.
Having a diverse digital marketing portfolio doesn’t mean you need a large promotions budget. However, it does mean developing a healthy balance between different channels. Your SaaS marketing agency should be able to advise you on where to invest and when to pull back or drive harder into certain areas.
2. Customer service representatives can help with marketing.
For a Saas company, customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition. If your customers are willing to keep paying for your product each month, then your brand will have a steady stream of income that you can count on.
There’s an adage in business that it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain one. In the Saas world, that number can be much higher.
To better retain customers, work with your customer care representatives to teach them sales and marketing best practices. They don’t just need to know the Saas platform, they also need to understand the pain points of users and how to address them. Your team should set goals for customer retention over time to see how these efforts grow your profitability.
3. Content marketing materials can help your sales team.
The more expensive, complex, or personal your Saas platform is, the more customers will associate it with risk. For example, downloading a free app is low-risk, but paying even a few dollars for it could be seen as too high a barrier to entry. In the B2B Saas world, some software tools will sell for thousands of dollars or more and will require businesses to trust the Saas platform with personal customer data like passwords and credit card information.
Your sales team and your content marketing department can team up to bring customers through the sales funnel. As your sales team meets with qualified leads, they can answer their questions and encourage potential customers to read the various whitepapers, ebooks, and blog articles related to the topic. This content establishes the brand as an authority in the industry, reducing the perceived risk for leads. As you develop a content plan, meet with your salespeople to see what they need and what information can help them close major deals.
While Saas marketing might seem different from traditional sales and promotions at first, its core principles remain the same: you need a strategic plan that addresses who you will target, how you will market, and how you will measure success. With these three features, you can win people over to your product and convert long-term users.
