7 Essential SaaS Marketing Tips

You can’t speak about efficient SaaS marketing tips without acknowledging the challenges associated with this industry first. Creating effective marketing campaigns for SaaS providers is, perhaps, one of the biggest challenges for modern marketers. SaaS companies don’t just have to attract new clients; they also have to retain them and create enough revenue to fund rolling out new products and features that the market demands.

According to ForEntrepreneurs, the median cost for a SaaS company to acquire a dollar of new customer revenue is $1.18. This may seem quite grim – you actually have to pay more than you earn!–, but the good news comes from the upselling stats. When you upsell a client is costs only $0.28 per each new dollar of revenue said client brings.

Any SaaS marketing campaign has to take into consideration these stats and create funnels that are not only efficient from a client acquisition and retention point of view, but also from a cost and upsell one. This is what makes SaaS marketing especially difficult: every stage of the funnel and every stage of the buyer’s journey have to be continuously updated and thoroughly tested. Let’s take a look at a few SaaS marketing tips that will help you do just that:

Saas Marketing Tips: 1 – Establish Clear Goals

The first things we have settle with Idunn’s clients are the goals. The typical brief sounds something like: “we have a SaaS product, we want clients for it”. OK, but what clients? And how many? In what time frame? And what are your long-term product development plan?

These are just a few of the questions we use to draw useful information from our clients. Why? Because no coherent marketing campaign can start without clear goals. And “we want clients” is not a clear goal. SaaS companies need to have specific objectives if they want to stay afloat. Here are some examples:

• 150 “basic” clients and 50 “platinum” clients in the first quarter
• Client retention ratio: 80% after six months
• 20% revenue boost year over year

These are random numbers, so don’t rush into putting them in a marketing plan. The actual numbers have to be thoroughly researched and feasible. A plan with unrealistic objectives serves no purpose.

SaaS Marketing Tips: 2 – Give Something for Free, but Not Everything

Offering a free trial is the cornerstone of client acquisition for SaaS companies. But don’t give away everything! Most likely, you have different plans. Your free trial should be for the “middle ground” – not the cheapest plan, and never the most expensive. You need to save the latter one for upsell.

This strategy helps you give your leads a taste of what your solution can do for them. Your final aim is to keep them in the long run, so consider allowing them to sign up for the free trial without a credit card. Most people are suspicious if you ask for that information firsthand. And rightly so! I’ve seen countless SaaS companies who ask for credit card information for the free trial signup hoping that the client will forget to discontinue the subscription. This may work and you’ll even get a few dollars. But you won’t get to keep the client in the long run.

When you set up the length of the free trial, try to find the middle ground again. You want them to get comfortable with your service and get a chance to explore all its features. You want them to really understand what you can bring to the table. What you don’t want them to do is reach their goals within your free trial period.

For instance, Sendible offers a 30-day free trial. You have a full month to get accustomed to spending much less time on social media scheduling. The next month, you’ll be overwhelmed again, so you’ll most likely start paying for their services. I was hooked after less than 10 days, but that’s just me. As a SaaS provider, you have to get accustomed with people feeling as soon as the free trial is over and maybe even moving to your competitor’s free trial. There is little point in trying to convert leads who are only after freebies.

SaaS Marketing Tips: 3 – Emphasize on Value, not Price

Granted, you should always cast an eye at your competitor’s pricing plan, but don’t copy it entirely. Instead, think about the added value your product brings. If any, this should be reflected in the product price. If there is none or if your competitor’s product has more features, you should have lower prices and target different customers.

Many of our customer worry that their potential customers will point out their higher prices compared to those of the competitors. In these cases, we always recommend emphasis on the value. Point out the added benefits and the clients will respond accordingly. If you look at the stats above (it’s much cheaper to upsell an existing customer than convince a new one), you will see why this makes sense. The clients who appreciate your service for what it offers them, not for its price tag are the ones you want to keep in the long run.

SaaS Marketing Tips: 4 – Don’t Be Afraid to Speak about Money

Yes, your SaaS solution has a user-friendly interface, analytics, reporting and precise targeting parameters. But what do all these mean to your customer? They should mean extra revenue! Point this out. Instead of speaking about you and your features, speak about them and their benefits. Here’s how:

• User-friendly interface => no learning curve; you can use it to attract more clients immediately
• Reporting => see exactly where your money is being spent on
• Analytics => see what works and what doesn’t. Adjust accordingly and get more revenue with a smaller investment
• Precise targeting parameters => don’t waste money on targeting people who will never buy from you; target only those who matter

Bottom line: as a SaaS solution provider, you know exactly what these features mean. After all, that’s why you put them there. But the customer doesn’t. Plus, he doesn’t really care about the inner workings of your solution. He only cares about his ROI, so let him know right from that start that’s what you care about, too.

SaaS Marketing Tips: 5 – Show You’re Reliable

Your solution can bring me revenue, but will it be there when I need it the most? Savvy tech buyers already know that uptime can be a problem for SaaS providers and many of them still distrust the cloud.

So how do you respond to this? First of all, be honest! Don’t say that nothing will ever happen; that’s impossible and hard to believe. Instead, tell them that you have a dedicated support team and are prepared to solve any issue in the shortest time possible. Offering time frames (that you can actually uphold!) is also a great idea.

SaaS Marketing Tips: 6 – Create and Use Case Studies

Go beyond the short testimonials and show potential customers what you can do to improve their business or life. Talk to your most loyal customers and ask them to answer a few questions. Don’t worry about imposing on them; most of your clients will answer gladly. We did so for our Sendible case study – we loved telling the whole world about how it helped us grow.

In your case studies, try to start with the pain point. What problem drew the customer to resort to your solution? Then move on to show exactly how you helped. Don’t add to the truth; people can tell. Just allow your customer to “tell it like it is”.

Also, make sure to choose clients from as many industries as possible (if you appeal to more than one) or with as many different profiles as possible. You want to give potential customers who read them the chance to imagine their own success story powered by you.

Lastly, place your case study in a visible spot on your website and be sure to email your leads as soon as you add a new one to the list. You can never know which case study will speak to those leads who haven’t converted yet!

SaaS Marketing Tips 7: Offer Loyalty Incentives

Small gifts, freebies, valuable content like e-books and white papers, special discounts on new features or products – all of these show your loyal customers that you value them. Remember that it’s much easier to upsell even the client that brings you the lowest revenue than it is to convert a new one, so never take them for granted.

We’ve put together 6 great ways to reward loyal customers here; feel free to take a look and draw some inspiration.

Need help with your SaaS marketing strategy? You’ve got it!