REVENUE DRIVEN FOR OUR CLIENTS
$500 million and countingAs we step into 2024, new trends, technologies, and strategies are reshaping how businesses approach B2B SaaS marketing. B2B SaaS marketing is all about selling your software or service to other businesses. Think of it as pitching your tools—like accounting software, HR platforms, or project management apps—to companies that need them.
For starters, B2B SaaS marketing is different because you’ve got to hit the bullseye with your audience. For instance, if you’re marketing an email tool, your pitch to an agency will differ from your pitch to an e-commerce company. Each segment has unique needs, and your marketing should speak directly to them.
This merely scratches the surface of this topic. So, buckle up; there’s a lot more to explore.
In this guide, we will provide an in-depth look at what sets B2B SaaS marketing apart and how you can develop an effective strategy tailored for the year ahead.
B2B SaaS (Business-to-Business Software as a Service) marketing involves promoting software solutions to other businesses. Unlike traditional software models that require physical installation, SaaS products are hosted on the cloud and accessed via the Internet. This fundamental difference influences how these products are marketed.
B2B SaaS marketing differs from other types of marketing in several ways:
A well-defined B2B SaaS marketing strategy with adequate wiggle room to pivot and improvise is essential for several reasons:
For your B2B SaaS marketing strategy to be effective, a lot of things have to go right at the same time. While this might seem like a long shot, the followng step-by-step approach can increase your odds of success.
Here are the several key steps involved in developing a B2B SaaS marketing strategy:
Begin by setting clear, measurable goals. These might include increasing website traffic, generating more leads, improving conversion rates, or reducing customer churn. Ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
Here’s an example of SMART goal setting:
Increase the number of unique visitors to the website by 25% over the next 6 months through targeted SEO strategies, regular content updates, and enhanced social media engagement.
Determine your budget and allocate resources strategically. This involves deciding how much to invest in various marketing channels, from content creation and SEO to paid advertising and events.
While the budget bifurcation may vary depending on where your SaaS product stands, a general thumb rule is to invest 20% in paid channels and 80% in organic marketing.
Flip the order of budget allocation during the peak season or when you are running exclusive offers on your product. Put simply, invest 80% in paid channels when you want high visibility and sign-ups in a short amount of time to meet your short-term revenue goals.
If unsure, let a SaaS PPC agency like Wytlabs handle the entire process for you – right from keyword research to ad creation, optimization, and reporting.
Your marketing tactics will form the backbone of your strategy. These can be broadly categorized into inbound and outbound marketing.
Inbound marketing focuses on attracting potential customers through valuable content and experiences. You set a bait so compelling that customers can’t help but take it. Inbound marketing, once set in motion, can bring in ludicrous amounts of leads without any additional efforts.
But there’s a method to the madness. The following components, when pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle, turn inbound marketing into a strong lead magnet.
Content marketing establishes your brand as a thought leader and helps attract organic traffic. Create and distribute high-quality content that addresses the needs and pain points of your target audience. This can include blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, and case studies.
Content marketing is a time-consuming process. From researching the topic to creating an outline to typing it all out can eat up your entire day. Your job as a subject matter expert should be to provide the research material and outline to the writer, who can then weave a narrative around the topic and create supplementary promotional material to give your pillar posts a little bit of extra push. Better yet, you can let a SaaS content agency do the heavy lifting, and all you are left to do is review and approve the content before posting.
Monalisa – the famous oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci – hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris and attracts millions of visitors every year. Imagine if the painting was never retrieved from the Vinci’s collection.
The same goes for a well-put-together website that never gets discovered by the intended audience. Optimizing your website and content for search engines is crucial to improve visibility and attract organic traffic. This involves keyword research, on-page optimization, and building high-quality backlinks. Utilizing SaaS SEO services, like Wytlabs can significantly enhance your visibility and increase sign-ups.
Also read: SaaS SEO: A four-step strategy for growth
Word of mouth is one of the greatest forms of advertising. If you are relatively new to the industry, your prospects are likely to pass on your SaaS product because they don’t trust it yet. And one of the best ways to build trust and credibility is to leverage customer testimonials and case studies. Potential customers are more likely to trust the word of existing users as opposed to self advertising.
With the rise of social media, influencer marketing has emerged as a powerful medium to spread the word. For a reasonable sponsor fee, you can leverage the effort and credibility of the influencer to promote your product. Influencers can help amplify your message and send a lot of hot leads your way. However, due diligence is necessary to make sure that you hire an influencer with genuine reach and followers. Before onboarding an influencer, ask for their analytics and previous collaborations so that you can negotiate the contract and manage your expectations accordingly.
Recipients are more likely to respond to emails and messages that address them by their first name. However, with the ever-increasing outreach data quality, you can build a relationship that goes beyond the first-name basis. Learn about your recipient’s designation, common pain points, and overarching goals, and use that information to craft a personalized email. Personalization is key to increasing open and click-through rates.
You can even reach out to your existing customers via email for cross-selling and upselling, creating an additional revenue stream without investing extra time, money, and effort in customer acquisition.
Link building in B2B SaaS marketing focuses on acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable, industry-specific websites to improve search engine rankings and drive targeted traffic. Key strategies include creating high-value content like white papers and case studies that attract natural links, contributing guest posts to respected industry blogs, and developing partnerships for co-authored content and mutual promotions. Utilizing press releases to generate backlinks from authoritative news sites, getting listed on relevant industry directories, and providing testimonials for partners are also effective.
Also read: SaaS link building: 15 strategies to capture traffic
While inbound marketing requires a long-term commitment, outbound marketing involves proactively reaching out to potential customers to make direct sales. Outbound marketing is ideal for brands who need immediate cashflow to stay afloat. The only downside of outbound marketing is that it requires ongoing efforts to generate leads, unlike inbound approach, which keeps generating leads with minimal iterations.
Here are the main components of outbound marketing.
Invest in paid advertising, such as Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and industry-specific platforms. While targeted ads can drive traffic and generate leads right away, choosing the right advertising platform is key here. Circle back to your buyer persona and find out where they spend their most time. It’s never recommended to go all out with a single platform. Diversify your advertising budget and conduct A/B testing to weed out campaigns that are not yielding results.
While often seen as traditional, cold calling can still be effective in B2B SaaS marketing. Ensure your sales team is well-prepared and has a deep understanding of your product and the prospect’s needs. You can even use call attribution software to recognize and incentivize employees who bring in the most business.
Participating in industry events and webinars provides opportunities to showcase your expertise, engage with potential customers, and generate leads. If your marketing budget permits, consider hosting an event to invite your prospects and other decision-makers in the industry. Having in-person conversations at such events can have a far more lasting impact than using passive channels.
How do you tell your marketing strategy has been success or require rethinking? There are certain metrics that gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns so you can focus your efforts on things that didn’t work and double down on what yielded good results.
Here are key metrics to track:
Monitor the number of visitors to your website. An increase in traffic indicates that your marketing efforts are successfully attracting potential customers. It also signals search engines that your website is a perfect match for the keywords that users typically search for. As a result, your website will get considerable ranking boost, which means more visitors and further up your website goes in search rankings.
Track the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as signing up for a trial or downloading a resource. A high conversion rate indicates that your website and landing pages are effectively converting visitors into leads. However, if you are getting high traffic but a relatively low conversion rate, that means either you need to revisit your keyword selection process or your landing page requires major tweaks.
Assess the quality of the leads generated. High-quality leads are more likely to convert into paying customers. Use lead scoring systems to evaluate and prioritize leads based on their potential value. For instance, a Chief Technology Officer at a 200-employee company who visits the website five times and requests a demo scores 45 points, indicating high conversion potential. In contrast, an IT Support Specialist at a 50-employee company with minimal engagement scores only 19 points.
Calculating the cost of acquiring each lead helps in assessing the efficiency of your marketing spend. Lowering the cost per lead while maintaining lead quality is a key objective of every marketing strategy. If your marketing campaign costs $10,000 and it generates 500 leads, your cost per lead is $20. This metric helps you determine the efficiency of your marketing spend. For instance, if you can reduce your CPL to $15 while maintaining the same lead quality, you effectively increase your campaign’s efficiency and potential profitability.
Monitor the rate at which customers cancel their subscriptions. High churn rates can indicate issues with your product or customer satisfaction. Reducing churn is crucial for long-term growth. If you start with 1,000 customers at the beginning of the month and 50 of them cancel by the end, your churn rate is 5%. By identifying and addressing the reasons for churn, such as improving customer support or product features, you can work towards reducing this rate and ensuring long-term customer retention.
Estimate the total revenue a customer is expected to generate during their relationship with your company. Increasing CLTV indicates that your customers are finding value in your product and staying longer. If an average customer spends $100 per month and typically stays with your company for 24 months, the CLTV is $2,400. Increasing CLTV, for example, by improving product features or offering superior customer support, shows that customers find ongoing value in your product, which enhances your revenue over time.
Calculate the total cost of acquiring a new customer. Compare this with the CLTV to ensure that your acquisition costs are justified by the revenue generated. If you spend $50,000 on sales and marketing in a month and acquire 100 new customers, your CAC is $500. It’s important to compare this with your CLTV. For instance, if your CLTV is $2,400 and your CAC is $500, the revenue generated by the customer significantly outweighs the cost of acquisition, indicating a healthy balance.
This ratio helps you understand the return on investment of your marketing efforts. A healthy CAC to CLTV ratio indicates that the revenue from customers significantly exceeds the cost of acquiring them. If your CAC is $500 and your CLTV is $2,400, the CAC to CLTV ratio is 1:4.8. This means for every dollar spent on acquiring a customer, you generate $4.80 in return. A healthy ratio typically indicates that your marketing and sales efforts are effective and that your business model is sustainable. For instance, a ratio of 1:3 or higher is often considered good, showing that the revenue from customers justifies the cost of acquiring them.
In 2024, B2B SaaS marketing is poised for continued evolution, driven by advancements in technology and changing customer expectations. By setting clear goals, strategically allocating resources, and employing a mix of inbound and outbound marketing tactics, you can develop an effective B2B SaaS marketing strategy. Regularly measuring key metrics will ensure that your efforts are yielding the desired results, paving the way for sustained growth and success.
© 2024 WYTLABS (A Brand of Digimagnet INC.) All Right Reserved.