In order for any business to operate smoothly and have profitable growth, commerce between businesses is a necessity. SaaS companies are no exception, as many businesses need these software services in order to thrive.

Marketing your software might seem like a challenge at first, but with a thorough strategic approach, the right companies will find you and remain loyal to your brand. Here is a comprehensive look into what makes a successful marketing strategy.

The Fundamentals of Strategy

Like any approach to promoting a product, there are a few cornerstones to recognize:

Tell Me About Your Brand

Market Position and Brand Equity

Of course it’s essential to be aware of what your product is and how it works in order to efficiently market it. Beyond this, awareness of your brand’s market position can not only provide a springboard for creating a credible narrative for consumers to connect with, but also illuminates untapped opportunities in the market that your product can fill against competition.

Consumer perception of a brand is everything, which is why developing a positive brand equity is at the forefront of any good marketing strategy. It’s about creating an identity that potential customers will come to recognize as something valuable, either by way of price, usefulness, or benefits, just to name a few. 

The second part of brand equity, after provoking awareness, is using that momentum to generate a positive user experience. A positive reputation can go sour if the customer comes up against irritating roadblocks, or if they feel somehow excluded or abandoned on their buyer journey. Keeping the customer happy will maintain and strengthen the relationship between their business and yours.

With proper application of these ideals, your product will be valued for its name alone. In other words, a high ROI.

Human Connection Through Narrative 

A successful brand narrative is influential in the kind of perception you wish to generate. Sure, leads need to be enticed to interact with your company, and that’s certainly an important goal in marketing a product, but keep in mind that your story wants to outlast the initial attention-grabbing headline with rich substance that lingers in customers’ minds. 

People respond to authenticity and transparency, so show them where your company has come from, where you are now, and where you are going. Include them in the narrative. You want them to trust that your company has purpose, that their values align with yours, and there is room for them to join in on your journey. It’s not all about what your company can do for others, it’s how you will work together.

Team Structure

A marketing strategy is only as good as the team that sees it through. With so many moving parts in a single department, it’s crucial that each discipline competently coordinates their efforts. Although many of the groups under the umbrella of “marketing team” often overlap, there are five main groups to be aware of, with a general set of responsibilities:

1: Strategist

  • Guides the team
  • Experiments with various marketing tactics
  • Analyzes the acquired data and measures lead response levels
  • Adjusts the strategy to build on that which performs best

2: Communications 

  • Manages the brand narrative
  • Manages public relations and how people view the company

3: Optimization Strategist

  • Growth hacking
  • Utilizes SEO and CRO
  • Improves online presence including resolving technical issues
  • Optimizes the various avenues for potential leads

4: Product Marketing

  • Understands personas and their needs/pain points
  • Segments the audience for more targeted marketing
  • Develops pricing plans for each segment
  • Nurtures customers’ journeys with the company
  • Aware of how the product is being utilized by customers

5: Content Marketing

  • Able to craft content unique to each platform
  • Tailors content for customers on every level of their buyer journey
  • Savvy in keywords and trends

For a larger marketing team, these divisions can be broken down into a more focused set of responsibilities:

Data Analyst

  • Analyzes performance of each marketing tactic
  • Formulates a strategy for improvement

Paid Acquisition Manager

  • Tracks paid marketing campaigns and demand generation 
  • Tests and uses data to improve successful campaign strategies
  • Knows where to invest the marketing budget because they see the levels of response on each advertisement 

Social Media Manager

  • Active across all platforms
  • Creates and nurtures a following 
  • Humanizes your company

You want to hire people who have the drive to succeed, the bravery to try new things, and the ingenuity to take the data collected by marketing tactics and identify the growth opportunities.

Budget 

The size of your team depends on the amount allocated for the marketing department. Most SaaS marketing budgets are situational, meaning the guidelines depend on whatever works for your particular company under its target revenue goals. It’s a bit more complex than a fixed percentage of revenue, but it isn’t impossible to calculate. Here are a few basic practices to keep in mind:

Sustainability

Make sure you’re spending what you can afford to maintain, which includes marketing campaigns and full-time employees.

Quality Is Key

Successful marketing doesn’t always mean spending a ton of money; it can be as simple as making good on your promises to the customer or having a follow-up plan in place for leads after they make a purchase. Credibility can be built on more than how much is spent on advertising.

Scalability

The amount going into a marketing budget will expand along with the company’s growth. Not only this, but the return on client investments is high considering the cost it takes to maintain these customers as they stay with your company for several years.

It starts with how much of your predictable sales cost is coming out of the annual returning revenue. The amount left over, ideally, should be spent on marketing. For newer companies, this percentage will be high in order to gain a foothold in the market, generally about 20%. This amount will decrease over time as consumers become aware of your brand and word-of-mouth marketing becomes a viable practice. The exact amount to begin with depends on several factors, such as cost of marketing infrastructure, maturity of the company, desired growth, and payback periods.

Pricing

The methods used to calculate a subscription price can be a strategy that boosts the growth of a company. The amount you charge will depend on variables like the size of your company, its finances, and your competitor’s prices, so when deciding on a number it must be one that fits your situation. 

It’s certainly important to come up with a price for your product that more than covers the operating cost to profit from the sale, while also offering competitive pricing to stand out in the industry, but focusing on your target audience is the best way to go.

By offering a scale of prices relative to the given services, it entices the customer to choose which package works for their company. It secures a wider scope of customers while staying competitive. But remember, it all boils down to ensuring the success of the company, so don’t set these prices in stone or undersell your product. 

Besides the obvious fact that this will lose money for the company, in consumers’ minds, a higher price equates to high value. If you validate the worth of your software with a reasonable price, clients will believe in the vision you’ve set. Also, it’s much easier to lower a price that’s too high than to raise one that’s too low, so be aware that the set prices are adjustable and will change as your company grows.

It might be difficult to know where to start when a new business simply hasn’t accrued enough data to know how their audience responds to a product. A good place to begin is with conversation–an honest dialogue with clients through several meetings can help pinpoint initial prices as you learn your customer’s perception of the product. 

Knowing your company’s position in the market is another asset. Once you have a target audience, the price should match what they’re used to spending. If a startup company comes right out of the gate with a price that’s much higher than others in that market position, consumers will be less likely to respond as they don’t yet trust the brand.

Competition 

The more you know about where your company stands in the market, the better off you’ll be when designing a strategy that works. Competitive analysis shows the blind spots in your strategy and can help to improve overall performance. In knowing the position of other companies in your field, you gain the opportunity to define your value proposition in a unique way that sets your company apart from the group. A business narrative and marketing strategy can then be developed around the idea of filling a void that the industry might be lacking, and fulfilling the needs of consumers who aren’t finding the right solutions to their problems.

Studying the competition is also a way to track industry trends and use that data to see what’s succeeding and what’s failing. What are other companies offering? What are their prices? How do customers feel about the product? You can find all of this information and use it to your advantage to build a better buyer experience.

When it comes to marketing tactics, research how other companies similar to yours generate leads, and fold the profitable strategies into your own. This is extremely helpful when it comes to things like paid advertising, which can be a costly mistake if mishandled.

Know Your Audience

Identifying your buyer personas is a way to target your message to the right set of people. 

Create User Personas 

Who are you selling to? What are they looking for? Once you know what your product can do, it’s easier to tailor your marketing strategy to resonate with the people who will eventually use it.

Identify Value

What problems do they need to be solved, and how will your product achieve that? These consumers are looking for results, so market your software in a way that illustrates how it will help. By researching their pain points, it’s easier to describe your product’s features and benefits as a solution.

Clarify Audience’s Position

Where are they in their business stage? This step goes deeper into marketing funnel metrics, but knowing where a company is in their growth process tells you how specific your marketing tactics can be. Do they know exactly what product they’re looking for and are ready to make a purchase, or do they need more nurturing down the sales funnel? The marketing should be tailored to fit each segmented group of your audience so it better resonates and guides them to a sale. 

Tactics Towards Brand Awareness and Lead Generation

Now that you know your product and your target audience from every angle, it’s time to introduce them. In order for a customer to find your company, you have to provide opportunities to interact with what you have to offer. This means sharing your brand so it’s available on various digital platforms, such as:

  • Search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing
  • Website
  • Social media
  • Email marketing
  • Pay-per-click (PPC)

SEO, Keywords, and the Stages of a Content Plan

More effective and less intrusive than interruptive marketing, inbound marketing’s goal is to attract rather than annoy. If a lot of content is built around a product, as consumers search for answers to their particular problems, they’ll be able to find it more easily. This step is the top of the sales funnel–simply providing enough useful information about your software and why it has value to attract a large number of people, some of which will be enticed into taking the next step towards visiting your website and converting into a lead. 

Content marketing is a more organic and cost-effective avenue for lead generation than something like PPC, because it utilizes keywords relevant to your product rather than spending a lot of money to rank high in a search engine.

Successful SEO begins with, well, the search engine. You want to be sure that your webpage has been crawled and indexed so it shows up in search results. If SERPs can’t discover your content, then neither will anyone else. Once a webpage is searchable, it can be ranked higher by way of backlinks or internal links, pushing your content closer to the top of the list. This tactic works the same way as a referral, as it proves that your link is more trustworthy if quality third-party web pages are willing to vouch for it.

This is where content and keywords come in. The interesting thing about how ranking works is its focus on finding the best results for a search, which is useful when creating content because you can optimize keyword usage to rank higher while simultaneously satisfying the query. Keywords should be chosen based on:

  • relevance to your product
  • healthy search volume

Besides choosing keywords that pertain to your product, the amount of words used matters too. A specific set of terms, or “long-tail search queries”, have a lower search demand than something like a single word. This is advantageous because the more niche a set of keywords are, the less search results will appear, and yours will have a fighting chance of showing up towards the top. Google Trends offers a list of topics and their search rate which can determine whether or not your keywords are frequently used.

Knowing your target audience and their problems means anticipating the keywords they’ll use when searching, from every stage of their awareness of your brand. Referring back to funnel metrics, content and target keywords that attract a wide audience will be more generic, and as users journey down the funnel stages, their search queries will use different specific keywords that you can work into supporting content. Eventually, this leads to a learned trust that your product is the best solution and, ideally, a purchase is made. 

Blog content is a great way to start, as it’s cheap to produce with a big ROI. They are a way to illustrate a brand narrative while informing readers about a particular topic. The writing humanizes a company, offering a helping hand to people searching for answers. Essentially, it’s free advice.

Publishing regularly provides an opportunity to attract more visitors with a wide net of content. And as people enjoy what you’ve written, they’ll return to read more, and come to know your brand as a trustworthy name with experience and solutions. Keep them engaged, and make sure a CTA is available to those visitors who are ready to move to the next step in the buyer journey.

It’s important to utilize the data you receive from this content as well. Analyze how users are responding and reacting, and update the content plan accordingly.

Website Flow and Design

Optimizing how your product is received is another important step. People respond higher to a design layout that provides a good user experience. This includes web pages that are clear, easy to navigate, that load quickly, and are mobile-friendly.

The product’s landing page should have ease of information, meaning it contains: 

  • a value proposition
  • a description of what you’re selling
  • the cost of the product
  • an uncomplicated CTA
  • links to any social media profiles or blog posts

Your value proposition might very well be the first thing a user reads on your homepage, so make sure it’s memorable, concise, and presents the reason why your product benefits the people visiting your site.

The description should answer any possible questions the consumer might have. What exactly are you selling? How does it solve a persona’s problem? Remember, they came to you because they believe you have the solution, so show them how your product will accomplish this. Engage them to scroll beyond the fold with elements like visuals and screenshots of your product, or bold headers leading to the information they’re looking for.

How does the product work? Is it complex or simple? Does it integrate with other tools? For a quick and efficient way to answer basic questions, include brief illustrative videos for a demonstration of the product.

Allowing a free-trial option or low-stakes sign up (money back guarantee) can prompt a lead to follow through with the purchase if they’re led to feel comfortable testing it themselves.

How much does it cost? Be upfront with the pricing, and if possible, offer a variety of purchase options. Each buyer journey is different based on the size of the user’s business, so make it easier for them to choose the package that fits their needs.

If your CTA is a purchase, make it easy for users to do so. If they are forced to jump through too many hoops to get to your product, chances are they’ll abandon the purchase right at the finish line. 

Provide discernable links to any social media platforms that lead to your brand’s profile. Besides the fact that they can engage with your company in a different way, social media is a very shareable avenue. Basically, the user can spread brand awareness for you.

Social Media Marketing

Speaking of social media, make your brand available on whatever platform is viable for successful marketing. As these are social channels and aimed more for consumers, they should be used carefully when trying to engage with B2B marketing.

YouTube is a great place to start. Your page can provide more in-depth demonstrations of the software that didn’t fit on the homepage. You can also include testimonials from happy customers as social proof of how your product benefits other businesses. The number of views can be boosted by making these videos shareable, an easy thing for users to do on the website itself, or by embedding them into blog posts and marketing emails to reach your other subscribers.

With the percentage of podcast listeners increasing each year, it’s no wonder businesses are investing in podcast ads as part of their marketing strategy. Popular business podcasts such as Startups For The Rest Of Us and Online Marketing Made Easy, and even some that are more niche like The SaaS Revolution Show, attract a wide audience looking to learn about the specifics of business. The key to running ads during these podcasts is partnering with one where your brand will be received well, either by way of a podcast discussing a relevant topic or simply that the host is a fan of your product and can promote it authentically. Cost for running these ads varies on the amount of listeners, but with different rates for 10, 30, and 60-second ads, it can be worked into most marketing budgets.

LinkedIn is another obvious choice, as the site is business-specific, but targeted advertising can get expensive. If your budget allows, it could be a good investment considering you’ll have a better chance of targeting an audience of business professionals. And since this website is a great place for networking, marketing on LinkedIn can bulk up your email list and further generate leads.

Email Marketing

Emails are a huge part of moving leads down the sales funnel. Providing a simple way to sign up on the website or during checkout is the easiest way to acquire emails from leads who are interested in your product or demoed a trial subscription. Besides being more cost effective, growing your list in this way is also more organic. It’s a gamble to use lists compiled by other companies–since these leads didn’t seek out your product themselves, there’s less of a chance that they’ll want to pursue your products, and it might even negatively affect your brand equity if your emails come across as intrusive or annoying.

Setting up a welcome sequence is a great way to further encourage brand awareness towards an eventual purchase. The messaging in these initial emails introduces the company, offers descriptions of products, and highlights the more popular products or those that users have already demoed. This is the phase of the funnel to show how your product will help ease their pain points over what your competitors are offering.

The body of the emails should vary with each segment of your audience, not only to efficiently nurture their individual buyer journeys, but also to ensure their experience with your company is tailored to a personal level of care. A customer who has been loyal for the past month shouldn’t receive the same email marketing as one who is still on the fence about making a purchase.

For users who are past the welcome sequence and even through the sales funnel, messaging can be geared more towards customer retention and reminding them of all the benefits your brand has to offer. This can be done through tactics like monthly emails that link customers with informational blog posts and demonstration videos, or pre-launch announcements of a new product they might be interested in.

Besides nurturing a sales lead, emails are also a way to gather data for better optimization of marketing tactics. Encouraging feedback from the consumer is the most direct way for a new company to learn what’s working, what isn’t, and how to adjust their marketing tactics accordingly.

PPC

It’s true that paid advertising campaigns cost more than other methods of inbound marketing, but none have results as immediate. However, it does help to have some persona data from SEO beforehand so the first ad designs aren’t a complete shot in the dark. To ensure your money isn’t going to waste, here are a few tips to optimize PPC marketing and improve an ad’s click-through rate: 

1. Utilize your persona data

  • Anticipate their keywords, including long-tail searches
  • Understand their needs and pain points
  • Know their position in the sales funnel

2. Have specific goals for each ad

  • Target ad campaigns for each funnel level

3. Make the offer attractive and compelling

  • Include social proof if possible

4. Ease of entry into the funnel

  • Provide a well-designed landing page
  • Foster a positive buyer experience

5. A/B testing

  • Test your audience segmentation
  • Familiarize yourself with different platforms and networks
  • Track all of your data 

6. Refresh ads monthly or biweekly

  • Use the testing data
  • Don’t become stagnant

7. Retargeting

  • Direct ads towards users who’ve been on your page already
  • Make sure this content is relevant to their experience on your page

Calculating a budget for first-time PPC ads might be tricky, but becomes more defined once data is collected from past campaigns. You’ll need to know the amount of traffic required for generating new customers, your conversion rates, payback period for ROI, and cost per click. If you don’t have much data on any of these points, it doesn’t hurt to run a few campaigns and test from there.

Product Launch

Organizing the sequence to a product launch can be approached in a variety of ways depending on your product, your target audience, and the company’s goals. No matter the situation, there are a series of elements that shouldn’t be excluded:

Set a Goal

Realistic targets will guide the launch strategy towards achievable goals. Understanding the itinerary of each step in the process plus the desired amount of sales increase will suggest a reasonable timeline for your team to show results. Defining a goal comes from market research as well as competitive analysis to better predict what makes a timeline reasonable and the steps necessary for the project to reach its goal. 

Prepare Your Team

Developing a shared roadmap will keep everyone on schedule while providing the same set of information to everyone involved. This allows your marketing team to work towards the launch goal under an organized set of predefined roles so that everyone is aware of their responsibilities amongst the rest of the group.

Announce the Launch

This is the phase where intrigue is your ally. Use blog posts, social media platforms, and email subscriptions to give a sneak peek of this new product throughout the pre-launch timeline. This tactic will keep you on current customers’ radar while also motivating new leads to look into your business.

Gather Feedback

By allowing early access to a small group of beta testers and influencers, the buzz can kickstart anticipation for a launch and provide social proof that your product has value. It also offers a chance to adjust marketing tactics into a more targeted strategy as feedback is collected and optimized.

Bottom Line

The tactics surrounding B2B SaaS marketing are vast and intricate, but this list is a great place to start so the process doesn’t seem so daunting. The key things to remember are:

  • Research your target audience and your competition
  • Utilize the tools available to help share your product across all platforms
  • Keep track of the data and use it to update your marketing strategy
  • Meet the growth goals of your business by guiding customers through positive buyer experiences, by maintaining the relationships your team has built, and by staying honest and relevant in the market