5 Essential Tips for SaaS Lead Generation that Doesn’t Break the Bank

Acquiring a dollar of new business for a SaaS company costs $1.18. Yes, you pay more than you get initially. Of course, your SaaS lead generation tactics vary according to industry and the value of the annual contract. For some, it may be profitable to invest in expensive Google AdWords and get a quick ROI, while for other companies the long-term inbound game is a better alternative.

But what do we do when our SaaS lead generation budgets aren’t unlimited?

We come up with marketing strategies and techniques that bring ROI without breaking the bank.

Here are some of the strategies we implemented for several SaaS companies with excellent results:

1. All Budget-Friendly SaaS Lead Generation Campaigns Begin with the Right Buyer Persona

If you’re on a tight budget, the worst thing you can do is focus your attention (and funds!) on the wrong people. There will always be those who won’t try your SaaS solution and that’s perfectly fine. Your job is to identify them and remove them from your targeting.

When you create your buyers persona, go into as much detail as possible. Assign a name and even a photo to their profile, so it’s easier for you to find the right tone of voice to address them.

Don’t focus solely on your buyer persona’s professional life. Find out what they do when they leave the office, which social networks they like and where they like to hang out online. This is where you and your content need to be.

We have very thin lines between our personal and professional lives nowadays. You may think that your buyer persona is on Facebook only to look at cat videos and chat with family. But this doesn’t mean that, if they see an ad for a product that helps their professional life amidst cat videos, they won’t click on it.

2. An Email Drip Campaign

Even if you don’t have a huge email list, you can start building it by adding “Signup to newsletter” forms. It doesn’t matter if you have 100 emails or 1.000.000, as long as they are within your target.

You can create email marketing campaigns that don’t just sell your SaaS solution. You need to educate, remind and inform people about the benefits of your solution.

Send them newsletters with any piece of new content you create, from blog posts to white papers and e-books. Ask them to join your webinars or listen to your podcasts. The more informative, evergreen content you have to share with your list, the more successful your drip campaigns will be.

The next thing you have to do is establish the frequency of the emails. You may be tempted to send a lot of blasts, but it’s important to resist that urge. No one likes to be spammed, especially in a time when we already receive hundreds of emails every day. Ideally, you should start with weekly emails then, after a month, decrease to bi-weekly ones.

3. Create as Much Content as You Can

I know you’re sick of hearing that content is king. But you hear this so often because it’s true. Your potential customers are already accustomed to getting free, valuable and excellent content. Blog as often as possible, write white papers, join conversations on social media, host webinars.

Why? I recently wrote about this at length in a guest post for SiteProNews. I’ll just add the highlights here:

• Content marketing is the best way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry
• Content marketing is great for brand discovery
• Content marketing helps you educate your target audience
• Content marketing brings in website traffic
• Content marketing helps you with client retention
• Content marketing helps undecided buyers to make a decision

There are few more affordable SaaS lead generation strategies than content marketing. Whether you do it in-house or pair up with an agency, you’ve got to be in this game.

Did you know that 47% of buyers view 3-5 pieces of content before even speaking to a sales rep? That’s right; today’s buyers are Internet savvy and prefer to get information on their own before even considering buying a product. The era of inbound sales has begun and you can’t stay afloat in any market without content marketing.

4. Borrow E-Commerce Tactics

Remember how every time you shop online, immediately after making the purchase, you are prompted to share it on social media? E-commerce marketers are doing this to leverage your “a-ha moment” aka the moment when you are most satisfied with your purchase.

Doing the same for your solution is an excellent SaaS lead generation technique. A recommendation from a friend can bring you a lot of new leads, most of which will be qualified ones. Remember that recommendations still weigh heavily in our purchase decisions!

5. Case Studies and Testimonials

Ask your clients for help in writing a few case studies that you can feature on your website. Most of them will be quite thrilled to share their opinion and get some brand awareness in the process.

Focus on explaining how your SaaS solution helped clients solve specific problems. People will be more prone to buying your solution if they recognize their own pain points in your case studies.

And while most of your potential customers understand that case studies can be biased, the same thing can’t be said about testimonials on third party websites. This is an incredibly powerful SaaS lead generation and lead nurturing technique. Plus, it helps a lot with brand awareness!

Simply having a few reviews on websites like G2 Crowd or on your own Facebook page can bring in more leads than the best written blog post.

Need help with your SaaS lead generation strategy? Our experts can help! Fill in the form below and we’ll get in touch with you ASAP!