SaaS Marketing: A Comprehensive List of Effective Strategies

Undoubtedly, there is exponential growth in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry. This prolific growth has been accelerated by the global pandemic in the last two years. According to a Gartner report, the SaaS industry has grown its revenue from $120.69 billion to $171.92 billion in just two years. This translates to a 40% growth recorded between 2020 and 2023.

SaaS providers target other businesses as their main clients, and they need to leverage this boom period to anchor their products in the market strongly. SaaS marketing through a professional company plays a major role in selling SaaS products and growing the reputation of the company. Businesses opt for managed SEO services to save time, effort, and money. 

Experts say that digital marketing is boosted by the growth of search engines, blogs, Q&A sites, and social media platforms that have overtaken the old marketing strategies as consumers want to seek information on their own as businesses prefer to use social media schedulers to post their content on different platforms. Owning a Facebook post scheduler can be the cherry on the cake. Therefore, SaaS owners and marketers should focus on digital marketing strategies.

Considerations Before Implementing SaaS Strategies

There are over ten SaaS marketing strategies you can utilize for your business to stand out amid the high demand for the services and tight competition from the service providers. The strategies aim to bring as many visitors as possible to a SaaS website and convert them into buying customers or lead them to subscribe to the service, as it is commonly known. These strategies are a vital point of your sales funnel planning. But, before you implement the strategies, keep the following in mind. But before you implement the strategies, keep the following in mind.

Have a strong product

Businesses are tired of in-house software solutions that become outdated quickly and hardly get enough support. They are turning to SaaS, which is a solution that is accessible online through a web platform, API, or apps on a subscription basis. Troop Messenger is one such SaaS-based product that allows enterprises to ease their communication and collaboration challenges. This pay-as-you-go subscription model offers affordable plans for all-sized business enterprises. As a provider of such a solution, you should differentiate your product and make it stand out before you market or sell it.

Why? Users want a convenient solution to their needs and something affordable as well. You have no option but to package the products enticingly, especially if you want to have a conversion rate of 10% as advised by marketing professionals.

Understand your customers

After the product, knowing your target customer is another key consideration. Do you want to sell your SaaS to banks, schools, accountants, human resource experts, or retailers? What are their current needs and challenges? All these questions and more will give you an idea of what SaaS marketing strategies to use. A freelance marketer will also be able to help you with these questions. Alternatively, an agency like Virayo can initiate SaaS growth with ICP-driven SEO.

Know your competitors

Marketing your SaaS products without an understanding of your competitors is a bad gamble. You need to know the strategies they are using and how they are working for them so that you can deploy effective strategies. So, why should you stay in the dark when you have an opportunity to look for a competitive advantage? Grab it.

When these considerations have been factored in, a SaaS entrepreneur, with the help of a professional SaaS marketer, should deploy effective marketing strategies. Rocket SaaS and other SaaS marketing professionals agree that 2023 has some of the most effective strategies to offer.

Let’s dive into an exhaustive list of the best.

1. SaaS Website SEO Strategy

Online visibility is the beginning of digital marketing. Before making use of paid ads, you should ensure your website is in good order and visible to as many users as possible in search engines. So, how can you go about this effectively? There are many approaches to this.

• Have a smooth website with keyword-enhanced content – Over 90% of searches use keywords to generate results. Posting high-value keyword-rich content has a lot of power in ranking. Whether you are writing product descriptions or useful blogs related to your SaaS products, ensure your content is rich in trendy keywords. Fortunately, experts in this field will help you hit the bullseye.
• Ensure content uniqueness – The originality of your blog content plays a key role in ranking a website high in search engines. Don't forget to check the uniqueness of your blogs related to SaaS products through online plagiarism-checking tools. A plagiarism checker scans your blog content all over the internet and highlights the plagiarized phrases or sentences in it. In this way, you can make sure of the originality of your blogs to rank them high in SERPs.
• Add rich media – Surprisingly, search engines are now using media to rank; it should be rich but not heavy to run smoothly and should be relevant to the accompanying information. Use clear and sharp photos and high-resolution videos on your website.
• Use outbound and inbound links to boost SaaS SEO – linking builds a reputation for your website, and search engines also recognize that. So, create organic linking to and from your website for effective results.

If there is any other strategy, a professional SaaS marketer will help you implement it.

2. SaaS Video Marketing Strategy

Undoubtedly, people are visual and would prefer to watch videos than read a full page of content. According to a report by Demand Metric, 83% of marketers view video marketing as a better strategy than content marketing. However, there is a catch; it is harder to make consistent videos for your audience than content.

But even with difficulties in making relevant videos for SaaS businesses, many businesses are still using this option. Through their report, Wyzol shows that 86% of SaaS businesses and others use video marketing that convinces 84% of consumers to buy a product.

SaaS businesses and marketers should adopt a video marketing strategy too by creating channels on streaming platforms, social media websites, and the main website as well. The most important thing is to create useful videos and ensure they are consistent.

Short videos could also be used as paid ads that are closely targeted to the right audience. Again, a professional marketer will help you work around this.

3. SaaS Social Media Marketing Strategy

Does your SaaS have a social media account? If not, you are missing a lot. Gone are the days when Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms were used as meet and chat platforms; they are now effective marketing platforms with all customers of all verticals. Make your customers the voice of your brand with UGC marketing strategies.

A SaaS social media strategy is quite effective yet easy to plan and execute. As mentioned, the starting point is to have official social media accounts for your SaaS company. Then you should focus on attracting a huge following and leverage this to sell your SaaS products.

So, how do you go about this?

• Post engaging and relevant content and ensure it is appealing. This will start creating a following on the page or handle.
• Engage followers with enticing conversations and activities. Ensure you answer all queries accordingly while making a call to action.
• Use social media ads on other platforms to reach out to as many potential customers as possible. You can also save ads in the Facebook ads library this way streamlines your workflow and consistently produces winning creative assets that drive results.

4. SaaS PPC Campaign and Paid Ad Strategy

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a strategy that works best when SEO and content marketing are not moving your website up the ranking ladder. Although they are costly and require the input of a professional, PPC is quite a boost to an SEO strategy.

Essentially, the clickable ads are strategically positioned on different platforms where potential SaaS clients are to entice them to click. According to reports, about 49% of people click on text ads while 16% click on video ads and get directed to specific websites. We all know what follows after this curiosity; your website landing page should be attractive enough to lock in the customer.

Other paid ads may not necessarily direct web users to SaaS websites, but they quickly give information about the SaaS company. But it makes sense for them to direct the user to a website where they will get more information.

5. SaaS Email Marketing Strategy

Since the inception of email communication, this method has not lost its focus. It is getting better by the day. SaaS email marketing gives an ROI of 4,200%, believe it or not. According to experts, for every dollar you spend on SaaS email marketing, you will get a return of $42. Hence, this is one of the most effective SaaS marketing strategies.

SaaS email marketing does not require a professional marketer; you can do it yourself or use an admin in your company. It involves sending customized marketing emails to known contacts. The list could have been collected from your website, social media platforms, point of sale, or bought from data experts. Some businesses mail prospective customers barcodes, QR codes, or URLs and have them read barcodes or click URLs, which will take them to the web page they want.

Here are some tips to consider when deploying a SaaS email marketing strategy.

• Keep your emails to the point and ensure they have informative content.
• Add media or illustrations to engage your customers; a video could do.
• The subject line is key; it should be catchy and summarize the content in the body.
• Make a call to action.
• Include relevant contact information for the reader to inquire about your SaaS products.
• invest in segmentation.
• Include a signature in your email, and make sure to add a link or create a QR code for your website.

6. SaaS Referral and Endorsement Strategy

Experienced marketers understand that building a strong referral pillar for a SaaS business is crucial. Referrals are mostly given by previous customers who feel that your services are exceptional. Some companies also use SMS alerts to keep customers notified and engaged in the process. However, a SaaS company marketing team can influence referrals and endorsement by applying some tactics.

• Referrals are a signal of quality by SaaS providers. According to experts, 1 direct referral out of 3 is likely to work to your advantage. However, referral programs incentivized by the seller are more aggressive and effective.
• A SaaS company should build referral programs that loyal customers will subscribe to and earn from the programs when they bring in new customers. It is a win-win situation. Apart from bringing in new customers, referral programs and endorsements help spread the word about your brand. By providing exciting referral incentives, you can engage customers more and make them endorse your brand better.
• The program should have a compelling incentive, introduce discounts to the subscriber, and provide support in the format of training, informative materials, etc. Lastly, it should have a tracking system to show progress and gauge success.

7. Lead Generation Campaigns

After all the strategies we have mentioned, there is one that utilizes them all to achieve its goal. Lead generation campaigns are a dynamic strategy that aims to bring in as many customers as possible into a lead funnel and then proceed to filter them downwards as they get converted into buying customers.

Lead generation for a SaaS business is not a rookie’s job; it requires a marketing professional. Would you like to utilize this in your SaaS business? Here are simple but effective strategies to use.

• Create captivating content on your website, as mentioned, and have a comment section to engage readers and bring them into the lead funnel.
• Create captivating content for social media users engage followers through chats and bring them into the funnel as well.
• Engage potential SaaS customers with webinars, useful tools, and guides. This will entice them to learn more about your products.
• Create an effective referral program that will have as many customers as possible on board. Nurture them and convert them into buying customers.
• Target new potential clients with free and paid ads and then direct them into your funnel for conversion.
• Use a B2B lead finder tool.

All said and done, the next part is to convert the potential customers in the funnel. A typical SaaS lead generation funnel has three parts: the bottom, middle, and top. All these require different approaches to convert.

The bottom leads are more engaged potential clients who are looking for specific information and are most primed for conversion according to SaaS marketing experts. Probably, they are here through a referral, and what they need most is a demo or trial system before they buy.

The middle leads, who are still making considerations, are maybe looking for answers to questions and interactions with SaaS marketing emails and may ask for demos as well. It is prudent for a SaaS company, especially the marketing team, to nurture these prospects carefully to push them to the bottom, where they are easily converted.

The top part has many leads. It is the entry point, and effective campaigns must be launched. In the case of SaaS marketing, these prospects need a lot of information to be convinced to drop to the bottom. Blogs, product websites, videos, and paid ads work for them. They are not yet ready to use demos and ask questions.

If SaaS marketers understand this strategy well, it could contribute up to 80% of marketing results since it combines all other strategies.

Final Thoughts

Any SaaS company that would apply these strategies is in a better place to scale up within a short time. However, it is quite costly to combine all of them at once; hence, it is better to plan well and use a professional who will help to plan, execute, and measure results.

To comprehend how SaaS marketing works, it is essential to research more even after reading this comprehensive guide. The digital world evolves overnight, which is why an ambitious SaaS entrepreneur or marketer should keep tabs on emerging trends in marketing strategies. For now, this guide will give you a lead.