Digital marketing for SaaS is a tight and challenging race. Without the right strategies and techniques, it’s easy to fall behind your competitors.
If you’re struggling to get more people to visit your SaaS startup website or download your software, it might be time to get creative with your digital marketing strategy.
The good news is that there are many effective ways you can improve your online visibility.
The bad news is that you need to start investing time and resources into developing an effective digital marketing strategy that works for your business.
Read on for a detailed overview of what you need to know about digital marketing as a SaaS startup.
Why is digital marketing important for SaaS startups?
Your customers are online.
Period.
While you might be spending a lot of time offline in your office, your prospects are spending their time on their computers, mobile devices, and tablets.
You need to be present where they are. And that’s why digital marketing is important for SaaS startups. It’s the only way you can reach your target customers and start building relationships with them.
When you know your target customers better, you can create the right product, service, and marketing messages for them.
You can also better understand what problem you are solving for them and why they should choose your product over others. Your SaaS startup needs a strong digital marketing strategy to get discovered in the digital marketplace.
You need to build your reputation online, drive targeted traffic to your website from the search engines, and get more people to sign up for your free trial.
That will make it easier for you to grow your customer base, increase your revenue, and ultimately achieve the growth goals you set for your business. Digital marketing is also very affordable.
You can start with as little as $0. If you have a limited budget, you can prioritize your digital marketing efforts to focus on the channels that give you the biggest return on investment.
When you have a great digital marketing plan in place, you will be able to get more people to visit your website, download your software, and buy your products or services. You will also get more referrals and word-of-mouth referrals.
Digital marketing is one of the best long-term investments you can make in your business.
8 steps to implement a successful digital marketing strategy for SaaS businesses
If you want to see serious results from your digital marketing efforts, you need to create a detailed digital marketing strategy. It’s an essential part of every SaaS startup marketing plan.
Your digital marketing strategy will help you identify the right digital channels to focus on, the optimal ways to use those channels, and the amount of time you need to spend on these efforts each week.
So, make sure you follow these 8 steps to implement a successful digital marketing strategy for SaaS businesses.
1. Create a detailed marketing plan
Before you can implement a digital marketing strategy, you must first create a detailed marketing plan.
Your marketing plan will help you identify the problems your prospects are facing, your target audience, the language and tone you should use in your marketing messages, and your competition.
For instance, you can use a Lean Business Model Canvas – a tool used to document and map out the product’s key features, functions, and value proposition. It can be used by both product managers and business stakeholders to improve communication about the product.
There are different ways to create a Lean Business Model Canvas. One way is to start with an existing wireframe or prototype, then add new features and functionality until something resembling the final version is revealed.
Another way is to start from scratch and start visualizing how the product will work from day one. The main goal of a Lean Business Model Canvas is to communicate the core features of the product as they relate to its value proposition. With this in mind, it can be helpful to include a timeline and brainstorming questions so that you can better understand your target customers’ needs and motivations.
Once you have a marketing plan in place, you will be able to better understand which digital marketing channels to focus on and the right ways to use them.
2. Create a digital marketing strategy
Once you create a detailed marketing plan, you can move on to create a digital marketing strategy. Your digital marketing strategy will help you choose the best digital marketing channels for your business, decide how and when to use those channels, and create a timeline for your marketing activities.
Start with researching and reviewing the most common digital marketing channels to see which ones would make the most sense for your SaaS startup.
Next, think about how you can use each channel to reach your target customers, drive more traffic to your website, and nurture your leads to make them buy more from you.
3. Create a detailed digital marketing plan and schedule
Once you have identified the digital marketing channels you want to focus on, you can create a detailed digital marketing plan and schedule for your business.
Your plan should include the specific goals you want to achieve, the metrics you want to track, and the resources you will need to invest in each channel. As you create a digital marketing plan, make sure you align your efforts with your business goals and have a timeline for when you want to achieve each goal.
Your digital marketing plan should not just focus on the tactics you will use, but also how you will measure their results.
You should have specific metrics in place to track how many people visit your website, download your software, subscribe to your email list, and purchase your products.
» How to measure crucial marketing KPIs for SaaS product?
4. Set a digital marketing budget
Once you have created a digital marketing plan, it’s time to set a digital marketing budget.
You need to know how much money you want to invest in digital marketing and which channels you want to prioritize.
Digital marketing is a long-term investment.
So, it’s important to invest your limited resources in the right digital marketing channels that will give you the best return on investment.
Try to invest more in the channels that have a lower cost per acquisition and offer you a good return.
5. Create a marketing strategy for social media
Social media is a common digital marketing channel for many businesses. But not all social media platforms are created equal. Some are more beneficial for your business than others.
Some are better at driving traffic to your website, while others are better at helping you build a reputation online. Start by identifying which social media platforms are the best fit for your business.
Think about where your target customers are spending their time on social media, and create a social media marketing strategy around those platforms.
6. Create a content marketing strategy
Every business needs to create and publish high-quality content to engage their audience, get more referrals, and increase their search engine rankings.
Unfortunately, not all businesses know where to start or what type of content to create.
That’s where a content marketing strategy comes in. It will help you create the right type of content for your audience and the best platforms to publish it on.
Start by creating a list of topics you can write about, and choose the ones that your customers care about the most.
Check our blog post about content marketing for SaaS companies: https://0101marketing.com/is-content-marketing-in-your-saas-company-good-enough/
Create a content calendar to decide when you are going to publish each piece of content and the platforms you are going to publish it on.
7. Create a referral program
Referral programs are an excellent way to get more customers and increase your revenue.
Many businesses have seen significant growth after they have implemented referral programs in their marketing strategies.
To create a successful referral program, you need to identify the right type of offer to promote, the best way to promote it, and the best platforms to manage your program.
You can offer different types of incentives, but it’s important to choose the right ones that will make your customers want to participate in your program.
The most common referral programs offer discounts, free trials, and free gifts.
8. Create a marketing automation strategy
Marketing automation is an advanced digital marketing strategy that allows you to effectively manage your leads and customers.
It allows you to create personalized marketing messages for each customer and send them on the path to purchase from the moment they sign up for your email list.
Marketing automation tools help you create better lead generation campaigns, run more effective marketing campaigns, and provide your team with a centralized platform to manage all of their marketing activities. For example you can use Expandi for LinkedIn automation.
2 ways to promote your free trial
The best way to start marketing your SaaS product is by offering a free trial.
Your product can be free for a number of reasons:
- it might be priced low,
- it might be part of a B2B SaaS model,
- or you might be looking to build your email list rather than make sales.
Regardless of the reason, giving your product away for free allows you to get more people to try it, which can help you achieve the following marketing objectives:
Build social proof: One of the most effective ways to build social proof is to show people how many people are currently using your product.
When you offer a free trial, you get to showcase how many people are actively using your software to solve their problems.
Gather customer insight: Getting your product into more people’s hands can help you better understand what about your service resonates with your customers. It can also help you uncover any areas of improvement that you should focus on moving forward.
4 ways to advertise your SaaS Software
As you continue to grow your SaaS business, you’ll likely end up needing to invest in advertising at some point.
There are four main types of SaaS advertising you can focus on to grow your customer base:
Display advertising: Display advertising is great for targeting groups of people who are already interested in your product. You usually only pay when someone clicks on your ad, making it much more cost-efficient than other types of advertising.
Social advertising: Social advertising is a great way to reach a new audience that you might not be able to target with other types of advertising. It’s also a way to engage with your current audience and encourage them to share your ads with their friends.
Email advertising: Email advertising is the oldest form of digital marketing, but it’s still one of the most effective. It’s best to use email advertising to nurture your existing customer base, which can help you increase your lifetime value.
Email marketing is also a great way to stay top of mind with people who have downloaded your product in the past but haven’t purchased recently.
Influencer marketing: Influencer marketing can be a great way to get your product in front of a new audience, but it’s best to focus on partnering with people who have a similar audience to yours.
When you partner with influencers who have a large and interested audience, you can help get your product in front of people who might not have heard of it otherwise.
5 steps to nurture and engage your audience with email marketing
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to cultivate leads, engage with new and existing customers, and grow your business.
However, it’s important to note that it’s not a quick fix.
Once you’ve started to engage with your audience through email marketing, you need to be sure to continue the conversation over a long period of time.
Here are 5 tips for leveraging email marketing to grow your SaaS business:
Create a welcome email: The first email you send to your subscribers should be your welcome email, which should both welcome new subscribers and provide them with a link to download your product.
Create an onboarding email: The next email you send to your subscribers should be your onboarding email, which is designed to help new subscribers get started with your product as quickly as possible.
Create an email outlining your pricing: When you first start to get customers, it’s essential that you provide them with a quick and easy way to contact you. However, it’s also essential that you provide them with information they need to make the decision to purchase from you.
Create an email outlining what’s next: Once customers have purchased from you and are using your product, it’s essential that you keep in touch with them. An email that outlines what’s next for them and encourages them to keep using your product is a great way to keep the relationship going.
Create an email outlining your new product: If you have a new product you’re excited about, it can be a great idea to create an email that not only shares the new product with your subscribers, but also provides them with a discount for purchasing it.
Conclusion
Digital marketing can be an intimidating process, but it’s essential for any SaaS business to succeed.
When done right, digital marketing can help you bring in more customers, convert more sales, and increase your lifetime value.
When you’re first getting started with your digital marketing strategy, it’s important to focus on acquiring new leads.
Once you’ve acquired more leads, you can use digital marketing to help convert those leads into sales.
