What is SaaS Marketing?
SaaS stands for Software as a Service. This gives users the ability to connect and use cloud-based apps over the Internet.
In other words, you hire the use of an application for your business so that users can connect over the Internet, usually with a browser. SaaS marketing is simply the method you use to market this kind of software as services.
Growth of the Saas industry?
Back in 2011, Marc Andreessen announced- “software is eating the world.“
Seven years later, his thesis was right. Software as a service (SaaS) companies have and will continue to take over or disrupt large parts of the economy. Undoubtedly, the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry is growing at a rapid rate.
According to Statista, this year its value is predicted to reach around $124.53 billion worldwide.
While growth is excellent news, it also means that your competition is getting stronger. SaaS companies need to keep up if they want to stand out, and one of the best ways to stay ahead is to tap into marketing practices that are sometimes overlooked by your competition.
SaaS Marketing: Challenging enough?
No wonder, marketing is hard. But what about marketing something that has no physical presence? Or marketing something that is constantly changing? Or marketing something that has some goofy name? Or marketing something that doesn’t even make sense to the average person?
YES, you’re right! SaaS marketing is way more challenging and difficult than product marketing because there is no tangible product that you can show. It is more difficult to convince someone to integrate your software into their daily processes than to ask them to simply buy a pair of shoes. This is why you need proven SaaS marketing strategies to convince consumers and get more conversions.
3 Saas Marketing strategies that you might have overlooked
1. Use Interactive Content to Offer Personalized Solutions
Creating interactive contents (like quizzes, surveys, polls, and calculators) is one of the best ways to attract new customers and engage them in a conversation. According to Kapost, interactive content generates twice as many conversions as passive content. And around 88% of marketers who use it say that interactive content helps them stand out from competitors.
Why? Interactive content is solution-oriented. It taps into the primary need of an average SaaS customer.
And in return, it enables you to learn more about your customers (about, for instance, any problems and issues they might be facing or goals they’re looking to achieve). Then you can offer them a personalized solution that will cater to their specific individual needs. After all, your software already solves a particular problem. Be it organizing employees, setting up an accounting system, or helping someone lose weight.
Put simply, when you start off creating interactive content, you’ll want to think about the following questions:
- Who is your customer?
- What problem are you trying to solve?
- Which solutions and features do you offer?
2. Use “Passive” Content to Nurture Leads
Around 70% of people who leave your website will never come back. Collecting their email addresses using interactive content is an insurance policy against this problem and a way to stay in touch. If they’re not interested in your product, of course, they’re likely to unsubscribe. As long as they remain on your list, though, you keep the opportunity to offer them the right answer at the right time.
Having access to your potential and existing customer’s inbox is a perfect opportunity to build and nurture a good relationship. High-quality, personalized blog content enables you to assert yourself as an industry authority and a friendly partner to your customers.
But what does make a high-quality blog content?
According to Single Grain, some of the most important lead nurturing content practices include:
Adjusting content to your sales funnel
Using interactive content allows you to understand the level of customer’s buyer readiness, which dictates how “sales-y” your content should be. For example, if you sparked a customer’s interest but they didn’t purchase your product yet, you may want to use content to educate them. You can start with basic guides and 101-themed posts, and slowly build up their knowledge to more specific topics.
Personalizing content
Personalization comes in different forms. It starts with basic things, like using a personalized subject line that addresses the person by name. This small detail increases your open rate by as much as 50%. It’s also important to email your leads according to their time zone and location.
But personalization also means crafting content that responds to the person’s specific needs. A small business owner and manager in a large corporation may use your software. But they probably use it differently, face separate challenges, and have different goals and benchmarks.
Here’s an example of an email of Zest. One of their projects is creating an algorithm that will display super personalized content for each user inside the browser.
Finally, here’s an amazing example from Grammarly of personalizing content in a less formal way. Every week, they inform you about your writing stats:
Using marketing automation
Once your email list grows to a certain point, using automation becomes a must. Marketing automation allows you to analyze your lead’s interaction with emails and your content, and optimize them for maximum effect.
Most importantly, automation enables you to forward the right messages to the right people at the desired time, without having to waste a lot of time doing everything manually. There’s a wide variety of available marketing automation tools that can help you scale your lead qualification and nurturing efforts.
3. Gain Credibility with White Papers and Case Studies
While white papers and case studies are one type of classical passive content, they deserve special attention in SaaS marketing. In B2B SaaS, you’re going to engage with people who are professionals in their industry. And wowing them takes more than a good ad copy or engaging blog post. They want to see credibility and authority.
White papers
White papers are used in numerous fields, but the general definition is an authoritative report that addresses certain issues and offers solutions for them. In terms of SaaS marketing, a white paper represents a theory behind your product or technology. Just like with blog posts, its main purpose is to educate customers and help them make a decision.
A high-quality white paper typically includes:
Structure and length– While a white paper is longer than a blog post, it’s still shorter than an ebook. It has at least six pages and can take between a few weeks and a few months to write.
Format and style– A white paper is formal, detailed, and informative, often written in an “academic” style (i.e., it shouldn’t sound like marketing, even if it is).
Good design– Even though the tone might be academic, that doesn’t mean your white paper should look like a college essay. Compelling design is a must!
The white paper’s main purpose is to assert yourself as a credible, authoritative solution and source of guidance. More than half of business-to-business marketers consider white paper effective marketing tool. Check out this sample of Google’s white paper for a little inspiration.
Case studies
Case studies can also take a long time, although they are easier to assemble than a white paper. While they can be written in an informal style, and require only essential information, they still demand serious research.
But it’s worth the hard work. Case studies help convert and accelerate leads, according to Marketing Charts. A case study can give a huge boost to your credibility, people automatically feel more confident about your software if they see you are working with big brands they already know and trust.
The case study requires your client or customer to be ready to reveal their specific, detailed business strategy, show you and the rest of the world their numbers, and prove that it was your software that helped them reach great results.
However, making your name in the crowded SaaS world isn’t easy, but it becomes easier when you realize that your marketing strategy stems from the specific nature of your product. As you’re building software, build it with the user in mind. You want to make things simpler and more effective for them. SaaS marketing is all about communicating these thoughts to the customers.
If you are looking to promote or market your SAAS product in Bangladesh, you can contact us for a consultation. If you’re up for seeing more content from us, subscribe to the resource hub below.
