Ten Good Marketing Strategies for SaaS Products

It is undeniable that Software as a Service (SaaS) has changed the global business landscape. For companies, cloud computing proved to be a boon which has allowed them to experience the benefits of implementing SaaS to their businesses.

38% of companies state they are running almost completely on SaaS. This number will probably continue to grow. The reason for its popularity among companies is that it is a more effective and cheaper solution compared to a software that needs to be purchased one time and it’s quite expensive.

For companies that use SaaS for their internal processes, the technology is great. However, the companies that build SaaS applications might be facing challenges in promoting their product. SaaS is not a physical product but a service which could make it difficult for marketers to create a marketing strategy.

Let’s review ten good marketing strategies you can use to promote your SaaS products.

1. Content Strategy

Content is king, as Bill Gates said long ago in his famous essay published on the Microsoft website. Having useful content on your website is crucial nowadays and it’s not something new.

Content marketing is a long-term investment as the content continues to attract customers and increases its value over time. If you create a blog and follow an editorial calendar, posting articles related to your SaaS product, Google will love you and its algorithms will rank your content higher.

You need to make your customers come to your site and spend time there. The way to do it is to publish high-quality content that your website visitors will be happy to read.

Let’s take Moz as an example. Their blog is probably the first place marketers search when they want to know more about specific topics such as keywords, marketing, SEO, link building, etc.

Their blog is beneficial to its audience, but it’s actually been created because of its product which is a complete SEO tool. Creating a blog is a well-known marketing tool. If you are unsure what content you should publish in your blog, you can start with tutorials showing the most important features of your SaaS. Later on, you can add other topics related to your SaaS or you can answer your customers’ pain points.

2. SEO Is Mandatory

Content marketing goes hand by hand with SEO optimization. This means if you create content for your customers, it needs to also speak to the search engine’s language to rank higher on Google.

There are two SEO categories that you need to keep in mind: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

On-Page SEO

When we say on-page SEO, this means optimizing keywords, following keyword strategy, internal linking of your content, and optimizing title tags and descriptions, website speed and user experience.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is all about link building. Links are crucial as this is one of the key factors when ranking your content higher on search engines. To rank in the first place, you need to acquire links from trusted websites with high domain authority. Sоcial media is alsо impоrtant as shares and links frоm influential sоcial accounts are another quality indicator.

3. Offer Free Product Trials

SaaS are often services that are innovative and cutting-edge. So how can you describe and sell a service that nobody has ever experienced? One way is to let people test it for free.

Giving out a product free is pretty standard practice in the world of SaaS marketing. The “free trial” is a widely accepted practice because it gives customers the possibility to test the service and see if it responds to their needs.

Product trials are an essential source of lead generation for SaaS products. Trials are effective because they allow customers to experience the product before deciding whether they will need it or not.

When you offer a trial, you need to be sure people have a positive experience when testing it. You need to be ready to provide additional guidance or support to your customers, depending on your product’s complexity. You could prepare personal calls, webinars, downloadables, additional team onboarding, or automated emails. Whatever works for you and your audience.

Besides offering fewer product variations, limit the choices to 2-3 options of your SaaS products. Too many options might confuse customers who might end up going to your competitors.

4. Offer a Clear Pricing Structure

Since you are going to offer different pricing plans, it is essential to make sure they are clear and your clients understand what’s included in each plan.

Regardless of what your pricing structure is, there shouldn’t be any secrets. Don’t hide important details on your pricing pages. You must clarify what the customers will get with each pricing plan so that there won’t be surprises.

Let’s take a look at the pricing plans SaaS BPM offers. It has four options the customers can choose from – Free, Basic, Standard and Pro. Notice there are clear details of what features are included in each plan. There is a 14-days free trial period for each plan where the clients could test and decide if they will pay the subscription.

5. Don’t Underestimate Organic Social Media Posts

Organic social media should also be part of your SaaS marketing strategy. What you need to do is to identify the key social media channels that your target audience uses, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. If your software is B2B oriented you might focus on a LinkedIn strategy.

You can work on ways to interact with your customers, publish interesting or useful content for your targets.

Why don’t you try the following social media ideas?

• Interact directly with customers and answer their questions.
• Announce new features and products.
• Promote top-of-funnel content (blog posts, videos).
• Highlight industry news and earned media.
• Show off your company culture and share your employee’s stories.
• Curate customer reviews.

6. Invest in PPC and Social Media Ads

Pay-per-click ads are one of your strongest weapons. You have different options to promote your products or services across social media. You can create different campaigns, promotions or you can boost your organic posts.

The key is to experiment and see what will work for you. If you organize webinars or publish case studies, then paid ads on social media would be the best place to reach out to your audience and increase your sales.

The good thing about those social media platforms is that you have access to data where you can track your performance. This way, you can continuously improve your campaigns and make educated decisions.

7. Retarget the Interested Customers

Customers are flooded with information and it’s normal that they will forget they’ve checked your website. Through retargeting campaigns, you can make them return to your page. The retargeting approach utilizes those “cookies” that sites often inform us about by tracking customers visits to the site and displaying ads relevant to them.

You can display retargeting ads when you have a pixel code on your website. The code sets a cookie in the user’s browser. When the visitor takes actions on your page the cookie sends the information to your system and you can use this data to display relevant ads.

You can use Google Ads, Facebook ads, or email marketing. Use the channels where your target audience hangs out so you could retarget them accurately.

8. Host а Webinar

According to GoToWebinar, 29% of all webinars are produced by software and technology companies. Webinars are an excellent opportunity to present your product and interact with your website visitors or clients. You can organize a webinar to show your SaaS product’s new features or share tips and tricks, or respond to customers’ questions.

You can organize your webinar as a live demo where you can communicate with your clients, record it, send it out via a newsletter, or upload it to your website where the customers can access it anytime.

If your SaaS product requires constant upgrades and improvements, you can even create a YouTube channel and build your audience there and keep them updated. It will be super useful for your clientele as they will have easy access to all the news related to the SaaS service they’ve subscribed to.

9. Create a Social Community of Early Adopters

You can create a community at social media channels where you can connect with your early adopters. You can use it to make a VIP list of clients where you can provide special offers like discounts, free lifetime use of specific SaaS products, reward to the first signups, or affiliate programs.

You can keep leads and signups on a special list. This way, you will create a community that will be loyal to your brand and where you can even test out new features and ask for feedback.

If you are unsure where to find early adopters, you might try the Beta Testers Hub. This is a platform where you can find early people willing to give your product or service a shot. Later on they can also provide you with feedback on your products so you can improve and make them impeccable.

10. Try Co-Marketing

Co-marketing can be beneficial for any business that wants to broaden its audience, increase brand awareness, or offer a new content type. The idea of the process is to grow two or more businesses together at the same time by working together.

Many businesses decide to collaborate in the SaaS industry by running co-marketing campaigns with other companies that effectively complement their product offerings and/or share similar views or business approaches. An example of such a collaboration is HubSpot and LinkedIn. The two companies created an integration where customers can use LinkedIn Sales Navigator insights on their HubSpot contact and company records.

Usually, both companies cooperate across one idea and develop it together. It could be eBook, host a webinar, or publish research together.

By joining forces, both companies can work as a team and understand the expectations from their start.

Wrapping up

In the digital world, marketing is essential. Your SaaS business needs to develop and then apply marketing strategies that will attract more customers and help your business grow.

However, to succeed, you’ll need to have an impeccable product. If your product is poor, no matter how good the marketing campaign is, it will eventually fail. Create an outstanding SaaS product that responds to your customer’s needs and promote it properly.