The way people buy things these days have changed a lot. At present, the customers are not swayed away by the flashy advertisements on digital marketing. Instead, the focus has shifted towards more online research and then buying things. Did you know that 57% of the customers these days do online research before buying?
What this means is, you have to focus more on creating a proper lead generation strategy. It is true that successful pipeline marketing varies through different industries and product types. However, for software-as-a-service organizations (SaaS), there are numerous SaaS marketing strategies that have proved to be effective over time.
In this blog today, we are going to share the best and most effective ways to generate leads with SaaS marketing. Here is what you need to do.
What are the differences between the present and previous marketing process?
One of the primary differences between the previous and present marketing planning process is the funnel has changed. In the old funnels, the marketers needed to create a top of funnel awareness campaigns. Without this, the consumers cannot discover the brands.
But after that, websites like Yelp and Amazon started growing by collecting people’s reviews on a certain product. Now, things have changed a lot. You can choose your own brands, evaluate the options, and be much more aware of what is available and what is not.
Now the challenge is to adapt to this reality. So how can SaaS marketers make the best of the present situation? Here is how you can change things.
Prioritize the brand more than your website
Remember that the brand is more important than your website. It is not like that the website doesn’t matter. The difference is, more brand awareness will increase website visitors and traffic automatically.
The bottom funnel websites don’t rank anymore. Let us share an example. If you do a quick search with a B2B keyword “best day trading software”, you will see there are four ads above the fold.
The CTR will not vary a lot from the fourth to the first spot. The CPC will be ok. The third-party review sites and SERP features are lower down.
Now, for a B2B query of “best accounting software”, the SERP features come up at the top, then there are ads and then other review sites.
The point is the way search engines work now, has changed. It’s not that a website has a bad SEO or something. The consumers, these days are more interested in checking out what other people have to say. Whether they buy a $5 burrito or a $2000 software.
Thus, Google has decided to put the searcher first. Thus, if you are not coming up in those queries, you will miss out on 30% of the market share.
Whether it is an On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO, or Local SEO, it is no longer about getting your website to rank. It is more about customer perception.
Also, some third-party review sites are bidding which is driving up the CPC and reducing the profitability. The new reality is, you have to be aware of it.
Consider the organic CTR
Most of the SaaS marketers use Google Ad services but that is not the best option. The average CTR on Google Ads is 2-4%. The better option is to avail organic CTR is to list on a third-party website.
If you can place your brand in a strong spot you can grab the first spot and increase 32% of the market share. It improves discoverability which is very important to drive marketing qualified leads (MQLs).
A lot of SaaS companies feel that the lower the CPA (cost per acquisition) the better it is. So what they do is stop bidding on the most expensive terms. But, remember that sometimes the most expensive terms are also the most valuable terms.
Even though a lot of third-party sites have higher CPCs, they also have better close rates and cost per opportunity. Thus, they are getting more qualified leads.
The financial model in SaaS Marketing
How you decide to allocate the funds is a very important part of SaaS marketing. Follow the LTV: CAC modeling. There are two types of it. One is the LTV: CAC SaaS non-trial and the other is LTV: CAC SaaS free trial.
LTV: CAC SaaS non-trial
If you are a SaaS firm and you are not offering a free trial, then you will need a proper spreadsheet and budget template to figure out different scenarios.
Look at all the channels in real-time. It will help you in putting all the numbers. Calculate them and run through different scenarios. This will help you in making a better alignment with CFO and build trust with CMO.
LTV: CAC SaaS free trial
If you offer a free trial then you can use a simple model where you will see the team costs, software costs, ad expenses, customer requirements, and more.
It will compute the LTV: CAC ratio and the number of months to recover. Use this as a log to forecast the budget.
Validated Tactics
Do not miss out on the validated tactics that include:
- Google Ads
- Podcasts
- Review Sites
- Sponsored Webinars
- Terminus
Organic Tactics
- Content
- SEO
- Partner Marketing
- PR
Make sure that anyone in your team can get into the marketing platform and get the data they need.
Next is, focus on OCT (Offline Conversion Tracking). You can do this by integrating SalesForce into Google Ads. You can now trust the Google Smart Bidding.
Smart Broad Campaigns
You have to trust Google’s Search engine but after you integrate SalesForce with OCT, run broad keywords. It is important to manage your account daily.
Conversation Ads
With conversation ads, the advertisers can start a conversion with professionals and decision-makers of a business through LinkedIn Messaging. You can use it to book a discovery call or use it to gift an offer and a lot more.
Content Marketing
Content writing and marketing is tough for those SaaS companies that don’t have a recognized brand. If there is no distribution plan, then it is better not to create content. You have to find a promotional strategy for it. PR will be tough because you have to be a guest. Instead of doing all this, you can opt for:
- Sour interviews
- Friday Roundtables
- SaaS marketing competition
This is a better content marketing campaign.
In the end, it is important to remember that whether it is digital marketing or SaaS marketing, everything starts with your team. You have to create a culture where your team can submit new ideas and new marketing models.
