How is SaaS marketing different from marketing for other industries?

How is SaaS marketing different from marketing for other industries?

What is SaaS Marketing?

‘SaaS marketing’ stands for software as a service marketing. It’s a type of marketing that focuses on digitally promoting and generating leads for subscription based software. Software as a service (SaaS) is generally cloud based. 

SaaS marketing’s purpose is to

1. Increase brand awareness

2. Drive traffic to your website

3. Growth in new demos and user sign-ups

4. Upgrades to paid versions

A key fact

Generating traffic and leads is the #1 challenge that marketers or business owners face, as per HubSpot state of marketing report 2024. Generating traffic / leads/ sales is the problem that I am solving with INNMCO.

How is SaaS marketing different from marketing for other industries?

1. SaaS software models focuses on multiple decision makers (in B2B)

SaaS software models doesn’t focus on individual business decision makers (in the case of B2B). It needs to attract different audience segments, due to the nature of B2B buying journey and decision makers involved in the purchase decision.

2. Customer churn is a big issue in SaaS

SaaS doesn’t sell a once off product. Hence, customer churn is a big issue. SaaS products need a strategy that encourages customer retention and long lasting relationships with customers. 

3. No physical product in SaaS

Similar to B2B services, there is no physical product to sell in SaaS. SaaS marketers need to communicate what the software actually does, while promoting product features. Marketers need to create content for each stage of the buyer’s journey. In the absence of a physical product, this helps in establishing trust with your prospective buyer.

4. Product and content needs to work together

In the world of agile software development and product road maps, SaaS companies frequently release new features for their product. SaaS marketers need to ensure up-to-date marketing material for their SaaS product.

5. More reliance on marketing teams to generate quality leads

With the rise of product led growth, self service analytics and low cost SaaS products, sales teams aren’t always needed to close a deal.

6. Pricing of SaaS products 

Pricing for SaaS products is generally tiered and based on the number of users and company size. Marketers need to make this information as clear and detailed as possible to ensure leads don’t lose patience at the very start of the marketing funnel.

To succeed, you will need a strong brand, create engaging and relevant content for the prospective buyer.

What are the best SaaS marketing strategies?

A few SaaS marketing strategies to grow your SaaS business:

1. Content Marketing

2. Social Media Marketing

3. Organic Search (SEO)

4. Google Ads

5. Personalisation

6. Try before you buy

How important is content for SaaS marketing?

Content is the crux of SaaS marketing. Create and distribute high quality content that addresses needs, goals and challenges of your target audience. This could take the form of blogs, web pages, webinars, social media posts and emails.

Along side high quality content, implement relevant keywords that gets your website pages ranked in search engine result pages. 

What are the metrics for SaaS marketing success?

There are many metrics that we use to define and measure the success of SaaS marketing, including:

1. Website Traffic

2. Branded search volume

3. Product page entrances

4. Leads

5. Conversion Rate

6. Quality of your leads

7. Cost per lead (CPL)

8. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

9. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

10. Customer Churn

How do I know if my SaaS marketing strategy is working?

Your SaaS marketing strategy is working, if you start seeing an increase in relevant website traffic, growth in new demos and user sign-ups and upgrades to paid versions.

Conclusion

Convinced with the differences between SaaS marketing campaigns and marketing campaigns for other industries? What are you waiting for? Go ahead! Create a SaaS marketing strategy for your business! You don’t have to do this alone! Let’s talk about the work that’s important to you and get started!

Written by Anees Misbahudeen

Founder & Digital Marketing Director, INNMCO

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