Every SaaS marketer knows that creating an effective strategy to promote their business isn’t easy. Sticking with traditional, out-of-the-box marketing tactics just isn’t an option because SaaS brands have a unique business model. After all, convincing a customer to adopt a non-physical, digital product and make it part of their lives for the long haul is much harder than getting someone to make a one-time purchase.
Attracting and retaining ongoing subscriptions is vital to growing your SaaS business, and to do so you have to adopt a comprehensive approach. In this post, we’ll look at some of the marketing tactics that are particularly effective for helping SaaS companies build their brand and scale their business.
Content marketing
Content marketing is one of the most valuable marketing tactics a SaaS organization can use. That’s because it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Great content can be reused, repurposed, and disseminated far and wide for very little cost. The key to effective content marketing is educating your audience and providing them with useful information. Through your content, you can help your customers solve their problems, while also showing them where your solution fits into the equation.
It’s important to offer the right content at the right time, so map out the customer journey from when they become aware of you through to conversion and retention. Identify the points at which they might get stuck, and where a webinar, eBook, or email will help them. Helpful engagement through great content boosts trust and builds relationships.
Offer free trials
Providing free trials is one of the most widely used and effective SaaS marketing strategies, and one that’s a great form of lead generation. During the trial period, users will recognize the value of your product and hopefully decide to pay to use it full time or to unlock additional features that aren’t available as part of the trial.
There’s nothing like testing out a product first hand before deciding to commit. When a customer experiences a digital product first-hand and sees it’s a good fit, they are more likely to become a subscriber when the trial ends, so they can continue to use your service. Tech-savvy audiences are particularly attracted to free trials. Often, they don’t want to talk to a salesperson about how something works, they want to see it for themselves. And because free trials are easy for someone to sign up to with just the click of a button, they can usually manage them on their own.
Of course, to convert, prospective customers need to have a positive experience when trialing your product. As such, consider providing some support, whether that’s a one-to-one check-in or simply pointing them to free webinars to help ensure they’re getting the most out of your solution.
Implement a referral program
When people refer products and services to their friends, families, and colleagues, they do so because they’re happy with what they have purchased. With a great referral program, you can leverage your customers to do your marketing for you. Simply offer happy customers a discount, a free upgrade, or some other incentive to motivate them to participate. Chances are that if they’re happy with your product, they’ll be recommending it anyway. Establishing a referral program just helps systematize that process so that it becomes more effective.
Referrals are one of the most effective types of leads. Plus, they’re low cost and tend to close relatively quickly. You can either invest in software that can power your referral program, or take the simpler route and create a landing page. Either way, it’s not much work to earn a decent reward.
Co-marketing
Collaboration is another great way to market SaaS products. Many SaaS companies collaborate by running co-marketing campaigns with other businesses that offer complementary products or business-adjacent solutions. This marketing could take the form of joint research, a webinar, or an eBook. Both companies share the cost involved and the leads that are generated. By leveraging each other’s following to promote the content, they have the opportunity to reach new audiences.
As long as both businesses share the same expectations and are committed to creating high-value content, co-marketing can be a very effective and low cost way to obtain new leads.
Simple tactics that work
SaaS businesses operate differently, so they need to be marketed differently. The traditional methods of promoting and attracting leads just aren’t enough. Luckily, all of these SaaS marketing tactics are relatively inexpensive, easy to implement, and can produce great results. Adopt some of these now and see how they can work for your company.