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Software as a service, or SaaS, is a market you can expect to grow in 2022. More and more, it’s becoming easier for anyone to create a SaaS because of tools like no-code. Now more than ever, if you have a good idea, can fill a gap in the market, and meet the needs of potential customers, creating or acquiring a SaaS is a great idea!
Once you’ve got your SaaS company up and running, this will be your go-to guide for marketing your new business!
Digital Marketing
When marketing SaaS, it’s vital that you have a strategy! Without a strategic plan, you may not accomplish the goals you’re hoping to. SaaS companies can use general digital marketing strategies with slight tweaks to make them more compatible with software sales. Let’s take a deeper dive into how you can use social media, paid ads, podcasts, influencers, SEO, and blogs as you seek to reach your target audience.
Social Media
Social media is a useful tool for many companies, but for SaaS businesses, it's especially important! If you’re selling SaaS, then it's important to engage with potential customers and influencers on social media in order to connect with your customer base, learn about their needs, and gain market insights. There are many social media platforms that will get the job done, but one of the most common platforms used to promote SaaS businesses is Twitter.
Twitter allows you to connect with your customers in a fun and easy way. Twitter is also a great place to ask questions and get feedback from potential customers. This feedback is vital for sales in today's business environment.
Having this information can help you tailor your product or service to better fit the needs of your customers and increase sales. For example, if survey results or comments are showing that customers have problems with a certain feature, or are paying for a feature they don’t need, you can address these issues by eliminating or debugging certain features. Really, you can come up with any number of solutions that would otherwise be inaccessible without customer feedback.
SEO and Ads
Using the power of search engine optimization (SEO) and ads are a powerful way to promote your new business. If you can select keywords that customers using your product would search for, you can advertise to those individuals in specific.
You can buy ads on almost any website nowadays, but if you’re hoping to reach as many people as possible, consider buying ads on sites or apps you know your customer base will visit on a daily basis. These could include:
- TikTok
- YouTube
Email Marketing
Emails are another great way to reach those you’re hoping to reach! Emails are a great way to connect with customers, let them know about some cool upgrades coming up, or announce added features. Once someone visits your website and asks to learn more or starts a free trial, be sure to send them welcome emails with instructions of how to use your software. This is also a great time to offer them deals (20% off for the next 6 months) after their free trial ends.
Podcasts
Podcasts are another great way to reach your target audience. Advertising on popular podcasts is a great way to reach a lot of people, but that could get expensive, especially for a new startup. If you know you have a product you’re hoping to sell to a niche group of people, do some market research about what podcasts they would be most likely to listen to. Try to start out by finding the smaller podcasts and advertise there. This way, you can reach a niche group of people without breaking the bank.
Podcasts are becoming a daily part of many people’s lives and are a great way of making a personal connection with potential customers. There are also many tech podcasts to choose from when deciding where to promote your SaaS business.
SEO and Blogs
A trend that many tech companies are catching on to this year is keeping up a company blog. In these blogs, you could talk about anything that would lead people to your website. A blog is a great place to explain the nature of your business and what you’re selling, but it’s also the perfect place to generate leads.
Conduct market research and learn what questions your target audience is typing into Google. For example, if you sell a SaaS that allows for easy screen recording, consider topics for your blog such as “the potential uses of screen recording” or “how to start a screen recording”. This way, anyone learning about screen recordings in general could be directed to your website because your blog answers their question.
SaaS Influencers
Believe it or not, SaaS influencers do exist! Most of us have seen physical products promoted by our favorite celebrities or YouTube channels, and just like companies pay influencers to promote physical products, you can pay influencers to promote SaaS products as well.
Using influencers to promote your SaaS business increases brand awareness and sales conversions. It’s simple. People are much more likely to buy something when someone they know and love is advocating for it.
Gain Customers Through….
Now that we’ve gone over some commonly used digital marketing techniques, let’s talk about how to convert leads into paying customers! The two most common ways SaaS companies convert leads into sales are through the use of freemium and free trial strategies.
Free Trials
A free trial is a period in time when a customer has full access to your product for a specific amount of time. Common free day trials are anywhere from 7 days-3 months. When choosing how long your free trial is, make sure you choose a time period that allows your customers to fall in love with your product!
You want to make sure they have time to both learn how to use the software, and develop the need to use it on a daily basis. You want your customers to see how much easier your software makes their day-to-day activities so that when their trial is over, they will pay for your product.
Freemium
Freemium pricing includes offering a free version of the software (with limited features) for an unlimited amount of time. This gets potential customers using the most basic version of your product to test the waters and see how much they like it.
The freemium pricing strategy also includes having tiers, or levels, of plans for customers to buy. The more the customer pays, the more features they will have access to. Ideally though, your free version of the software will still be a product that meets a need for your users. This way, you can gain a lot of users quickly, but if users need even more features, they can simply upgrade their plan.
Freemium pricing is a great marketing strategy if you’re just looking to get as many users as possible. This will generate more traffic to your website, and then, instead of the majority of your profits coming from your software, the profits could come through ads that others buy on your site.
Remember This
Marketing your SaaS business will usually be a slow and steady process, as you’re not selling to just one customer but rather targeting a large group of people. However, with careful planning and persistence, it is possible for you to market your SaaS successfully.
Take advantage of social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn to reach out to potential customers and inform them about your business. Because of the fast-paced nature of social media, many people rely on these platforms as their main source of information. If you can get in front of people quickly with a well-developed SaaS business, it can help you gain traction fast.
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