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As the whole world shifts to the online space, so is the need for more digital solutions. In fact, the SaaS industry has shown an aggressive adoption with an 18% annual growth. It is also expected that 99% of firms will be utilizing one or more SaaS solutions by the end of 2021.
That said, more and more businesses are now looking to implement a SaaS marketing strategy as they look for ways on how to grow their brand faster. Conversely, if you are thinking about starting a business in the SaaS market, then this article is for you.
Here are 10 proven marketing strategies to grow your brand faster that are essential for any company looking to succeed in the competitive world of SaaS marketing.
Free trials are a cost-effective way to market your business. This is essential for any SaaS company looking to expand its customer base as it allows prospects to try out the features of your product or service without having them pay first. It also gives you the opportunity to make yourself known and familiarize users with what you have on offer. In fact, research has shown that companies offering free trials see an increase in signups by 24% compared to those who don't provide one at all.
You may also consider using a freemium model. A freemium is a business strategy that provides basic features for free but charges a premium for extra or sophisticated features. This allows you to give prospects easy access to your platform for free. It also allows you to increase brand awareness and hook potential SaaS customers.
SaaS companies should invest a lot of their time and resources into creating excellent content. Content marketing will allow you to maximize your efforts as it can be used to generate traffic, build authority, boost engagement on social media platforms, improve brand visibility, and, more importantly, establish yourself as an industry expert.
Another effective SaaS marketing strategy to grow your brand faster is investing in an SEO strategy. Search Engine Optimization or SEO involves making changes on a website that will allow it to increase its rankings within the search engine results pages (SERPs). This affects how visible you are online and increases your chances of being discovered by potential customers, resulting in more leads for your business.
Keyword research is an important element of any SEO strategy. The goal here is to come up with a list of keywords that can be used to optimize your content and website for search engines. When you conduct keyword research, you should identify keywords that are low in competition and high in search volume. You can then optimize your content by using these keywords as titles, headings, subheadings and sprinkling them throughout the body of your articles.
This is one way to increase rankings on Google. Having a content marketing strategy in place has been proven time and again as one of the best ways to rank high among SERPs because Google prefers websites with new quality information over those without any new posts.
Another effective SaaS marketing strategy for SEO is link building which refers to getting other websites to mention you and link back to your content, website, or social media accounts. This is a great way of increasing brand awareness because the more links you have from other websites pointing back to yours, the more authoritative your website will be seen by Google.
Search engine optimization is a long-term investment that can take a lot of time and effort. Nonetheless, it's a sustainable and tested SaaS marketing strategy. Therefore, it does free lead generation and can bring organic search traffic to your page, which means more potential clients at no cost!
One of the most effective SaaS marketing strategies to grow your brand faster is using a sales funnel. A sales funnel can be defined as "the buying process that leads customers towards conversion". It's essentially an organized, step-by-step approach used to guide prospects through different stages of awareness till they make a purchase.
The key here is to map your customers' journey from the moment they first come into contact with your website to the moment they become a customer. You can then place yourself into that journey and determine where you need some intervention to help move them along towards the following stages.
For instance, you could do this by mapping out how many people visit your website each month but don't sign up for an account or purchase anything from you and then use that information to help guide them towards conversion at a later stage in their journey.
Like internet word-of-mouth advertising, referral marketing is a kind of viral marketing. Referral marketing entails getting current SaaS customers to recommend your service to people they know privately via emails or publicly on platforms like LinkedIn or forums such as Reddit and Quora. It's an effective SaaS marketing strategy since it raises the likelihood of converting qualified leads.
Additionally, referral marketing helps you get more free publicity, builds trust among your target market, and enhances customer loyalty.
Online reviews can make or break a business, and it's no different for SaaS companies. Reviews affect your brand and can be an effective ranking factor on search engines like Google, which implies that you should take the time to manage and build your reputation in review sites such as Gartner, Capterra, Trust Radius, etc.
One of the best ways to build your brand is by staying engaged with your community and offering support. Community engagement can come in many forms, such as blogging, participating in forums, social media management, etc. Still, it's an effective SaaS marketing strategy because it builds trust among potential clients, eventually leading to increased sales opportunities.
Additionally, if you can get more customers engaged and share their experiences with your company, the better it is for your brand. Not only does this make them feel like a part of something, but it also creates social proof, which means more people will want what they have since doing so would put them in good standing within their circle of influence.
A PPC (or pay-per-click) campaign is an advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher when their ads are clicked.
Paid search has become one of the most popular SaaS marketing strategies because it offers quick visibility and can be targeted precisely, which means you're more likely to get qualified leads.
For instance, you could target ads by location or keyword and even get to know exactly how many people click on an ad, which helps fine-tune your campaigns to perform better in the future.
Google Ads is a good example of a PPC platform for B2B SaaS companies that is very easy to use. However, mind your Google ad quality score and bid responsibly to avoid wasting money on ad placements that won't convert.
Consider your marketing budget well when doing a PPC campaign, as paid ads quickly get expensive, especially for competitive spaces.
Customer service is often taken for granted by many SaaS companies until they have to deal with angry customers, dropping customer retention rates, and mounting customer acquisition costs.
Since the online market is very competitive these days, SaaS customers can easily switch providers if they aren't satisfied with their experience. It's best to invest in a robust help desk system that allows them to submit tickets quickly and get issues resolved efficiently.
Another important aspect of customer service is getting your clients involved in product development, updates, and feedback so that you can enhance your SaaS product in a way that best serves your target market. Additionally, you can use their insights to tailor your marketing efforts to their needs.
In fact, providing an excellent customer experience has been proven to be one of the best SaaS marketing strategies. It creates loyal clients and can also increase revenue per client and improve customer retention rates, which ultimately reduces acquisition costs.
Last but not least, offering support that's free or included in your product can really help you stand out from other SaaS platforms.
The final SaaS marketing strategy is to use data that you get from various sources.
By using tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, Mixpanel, and others, you can better refine your market approach based on real-time feedback from your site visitors and existing customers, which will enable you to get a clearer idea of what's working and what isn't so that your digital marketing strategy is highly targeted.
For instance, you can measure how long it takes for a new user to complete their first action on your website, which will help you find bottlenecks in the signup process or tweak things like copywriting or design to make them more effective.
Additionally, by harnessing data from various sources, SaaS companies are better able to identify gaps in the market, allowing them to create and position products that customers actually want. This results in higher sales and higher customer satisfaction, which reduces overall churn rates and customer acquisition costs.
To recap, there are a number of SaaS marketing strategies that you can use to grow your SaaS business. However, the key is in knowing which of these methods will work best for your company and then implementing those strategies accordingly.
But ultimately, when it comes to formulating a successful SaaS marketing strategy, there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work. Every SaaS company is different, so it's best to experiment with each marketing channel and see what works for your business.