As the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here's a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.

Define your target audience

It’s essential to understand the needs and preferences of your target audience. This information can be gathered through market research, customer surveys, and analyzing demographic data.

This process is also known as segmentation. In order to make your marketing targeted, you need to separate your potential customers by their characteristics and preferences.

What is market segmentation?
Knowing your audience is marketing 101, but knowing how your product can benefit your audience in a market oversaturated with competitors takes a little more finesse. Segmentation arms you with the data needed to fulfill your target customers’ needs

Luckily Future of SaaS is jam-packed full of articles and resources especially tailored to helping you gain insights on user essential customer data. We're here to ensure that you’re creating a product that doesn’t just sound cool in your head, but actually has a tangible use-case that will positively benefit your customers' lives.

Establishing a customer marketing strategy and developing advocates
I’m Bozena, Director of Marketing at Maze, and I’m the host for today’s chat with Valeria, Senior Marketing Manager for Customer Marketing at Zendesk - and, as of September 2022, is now working on customer marketing programs at Airtable.

Position your brand

Develop a unique value proposition that differentiates your product from the competition. Highlight the benefits of your software and how it solves the problems of your target audience.

Your brand is the face of your company that you greet the market with. A strong brand can significantly elevate a competent product to a must-have. Find out more right here.

Positioning across the SaaS funnel (Q&A with Sellics)
Priscilla Tenggara, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sellics, discusses: how to determine if your current positioning is working, tips for running ads on social media, examples of positioning done right, plus more.

Develop a content marketing strategy

Create valuable content that educates and informs your target audience. Blog posts, infographics, ebooks, webinars, and case studies are excellent ways to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.

For modern audiences, who are more savvy to traditional marketing methods, a strong content marketing strategy can position your brand as a trusted voice in the industry. Find out how here.

How to leverage blog content to generate leads
Blogging is more than just sharing company news, events, or updates with your users. When it’s done properly, it can elevate you to thought-leader status and establish your service as the authority in your industry.

Optimize your website for search engines

Having great content doesn’t count for much if your website isn’t search engine optimized (SEO) for ranking well on search engine results pages (SERPs).

This will increase the visibility of your website and attract more organic traffic. It helps if your keyword research is informed by the needs and pain points of your customers.

Search engine queries are a window into the lives of your customers’ problems, and having a firm handle on them can help you to tailor a solution towards that problem. Conduct thorough research into your customer personas and find out what they’re likely to search for.

How thought leadership can boost your SaaS org to scale
Building a successful SaaS org isn’t just about growing your customer base, it’s also about creating a firm foundation of trust with your existing customers to ensure solid retention

Utilize social media

Social media is a powerful tool for SaaS companies to connect with their target audience, share content, and build relationships. Choose the platforms that are most relevant to your target audience and engage with them regularly.

How to boost your customer retention with social media
Social media is one of the best channels to use to improve your retention. With over 3.6 billion people using social media globally, it’s not only great for reaching out to wider audiences, but also for getting to know and engaging with current clients.

Apart from that there are various other unique channels that you can utlize to generate to attract potential leads, such as events and conferences.

B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and after
B2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.

Invest in pay-per-click advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows you to place your ads in front of your target audience when they search for keywords related to your product. Google AdWords and Bing Ads are popular PPC platforms.

Apart from that there are various other unique channels that you can utlize to generate to attract potential leads, such as events and conferences.

Partner with influencers and affiliates

Partnering with influencers and affiliates can help you reach a wider audience and generate more leads. Influencers can promote your product to their followers, and affiliates can earn a commission for every sale they generate. Influencers are part and parcel of your brand image.

Finding the right influencers for your brand
Influencer marketing has been picking up momentum in recent years. It’s an effective form of marketing that has the potential to generate a large ROI.

How do your users picture their life improving once they adopt your product, and is there an influencer out there who matches that ideal in their current lifestyle or demeanor? If so, they may be the ideal partner for you. This could be the difference between a generic approach to marketing and personalized approach.

Personalize your B2B marketing with AI
In this article, we’re going to take a look at the different applications for AI in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship.

Offer a free trial

Offering a free trial is an excellent way to get potential customers to try your product and see the value it offers. This can lead to increased conversions and customer loyalty. However, a free trial has to be a spoke on the wheel of your drive towards profitability.

Relying on a freemium model alone is unlikely to get you there. Find out how you can utilize free trials for guiding your users to finding the value in your product. From there, you can turn them into paying customers.

How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?
Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.

Measure and track your results

Regularly monitor and analyze your marketing metrics to see what is working and what isn't. This information can be used to make data-driven decisions and improve your marketing strategy.

Making brand marketing more data-driven [Q&A with Hotjar]
Customer data is about as real as it gets, but unfortunately, many marketers still struggle with where to find it, how to access it, and how to analyze it. Luckily for us Hotjar’s VP of Marketing, Sharon Biggar was on hand to answer all our questions on the data-driven future of brand marketing.

Build and organize your marketing team

From demand gen, to content marketing, to product marketing, there are many cogs that have to be in motion in order for your marketing machine to turn out profitable results.

Like any well- oiled machine, it has to be composed of quality materials, and each of those parts must be in sync. But in order to make this a reality, you must know how to organize and structure your marketing team. That’s where we come in.

Structuring an agile marketing team for success
Trying to move your team into agile marketing but worried that you need to retrain everyone? Or completely flatten your department’s structure? Or lay off half of your team? Don’t panic! There’s no need for layoffs or completely changing your department’s structure.

Build your marketing tech stack

In order to scale your marketing, it's crucial you leverage technology to ensure that you can cover and multiple channels and establish a consistent cadence over time. There are also various tools that you can utilize to create attractive, eye-catching content, which will be integral in establshing your brand identity, an essential tenet of marketing.

Top SaaS marketing and content tools
A high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.

To sum up

A successful SaaS marketing strategy requires a combination of inbound and outbound tactics. By understanding your target audience, creating valuable content, and utilizing paid advertising, you can drive traffic to your website, generate leads, and increase conversions.

How to get the ultimate marketing team [podcast] | Future of SaaS
What’s the ultimate SaaS marketing team? Jordi Capdevila, formerly of ForceManager, talks you through the steps you need to take to perfect your department.

No one said it was easy, and especially if you’re new to marketing you’re going to need to immerse yourself in insights from marketing gurus who’ve achieved success in the SaaS sphere.

Luckily, Future of Saas is a rich treasure trove of content from marketing leaders across the globe. No SaaS org is the same, but among the wealth of material on our blog, we’re sure we have just the ticket for you.


Like what you see? Why not check out more of our comprehensive guides right here. 👇

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