6 Strategies That Can Offer Impressive Results In Marketing B2B SaaS Products — The Crowdfire blog
By: Rakshit Hirapara
Tags: SEO, B2b Sales, B2b Marketing, Saas Marketing, SaaS

B2B SaaS product marketing is perhaps one of the most challenging tasks for digital marketers. It is like marketing something that hardly 10 B2B firms would show interest in, or trying to sell something with a goofy name, and no physical presence. Put simply; it may not even make sense to an average individual. It’s critically different in comparison with other marketing activities, and considerably challenging.

The marketplaces in most countries are full of Software as a Service solution(s) for finance, project management, file storage, and every possible category. So, growing SaaS business proves tougher with each passing day. However, one cannot ignore that the market for such a service is set to reach $143 billion by 2022.

Here’re some strategies that have proved relevant for marketing Software as a Service product.

#1. Defining and validating ICPs

Ideal Customer Profile or ICP refers to the organization or companies that the B2B SaaS vendor chooses as targets. Selecting them is a complicated task. As a marketer, you should choose firms that would get the best out of the products or services, and not just someone whom you want as a customer.

The first step should be to identify your best customers out of the existing lot and conduct in-depth research on them. Segment them, and build a list of their competitors. Once the names are in place, the next step is validating these ICPs with the help of LinkedIn outreach campaigns, display ads, snail mail. Firms, marketers need to select the best possible outreach strategy, advertising, and content to target them and grab their attention. The success ratio is dependent on distributing marketing content at places where the key decision-makers from these firms spend time.

#2. Retargeting and re-engaging

Re-engaging with visitors who left the website without downloading the ebook, or opting for a free-trial after spending considerable time on the portal can be a good idea. The strategy has helped several marketers to increase conversions.

Roughly only around two percent of the website visitors turn into customers. There are many retargeting tools available in the market that can help track these visitors and target them with your ads on other websites. Several e-commerce firms use the same technique to track visitors who browse products and then show them ads related to the same products on social networking sites. The method helps in luring these prospects back to the site.

Retargeting software solutions can prove useful for almost every industry. These tools can give another chance to your business for establishing its credibility and earning trust. Presumably, it happens to be the most tried and tested strategy for SaaS marketing during recent years.

Let your project managers host Q & A sessions on social networking sites.

Project managers from several B2B SaaS vendors conduct live events and meetings where prospects raise their concerns. Software contracts are worth millions. Firms won’t make decisions with regard to essential marketing tools based on Facebook or Instagram conversations. However, software acquisition team members from these firms may have some questions that project managers can answer. Educating consumers and prospects can help in building trust towards the team.

Advertise all the details for the Q&A session well in advance on relevant platforms. Give priority to LinkedIn, and seek questions from existing clients as well.

#3. Share data-heavy case studies

Most SaaS vendors have access to a chunk of first-hand industry data. Sharing the same in the form of case studies can help in building brand reputation and gaining appreciation.

The SaaS consultant can share studies based on trends observed in various industries that their clients represent. Posting such data-rich content as a part of advertising campaigns can lure relevant visitors to the website because key decision-makers love data-rich studies.

#4. The ‘free trial’ strategy still works

When it comes to the top strategies that help in the acquisition and onboarding of new customers for ACV SaaS products, the ‘free trial’ strategy still works. It’s widely accepted and is one of the most standard practices.

If you search for B2B SaaS products, you will surely come across software solutions with a free trial period. There are several iterations for the free model like- limited features free-trial, 90-day free trial, trial-to-purchase, and the freemium model. Signing up for the trial should be as easy as possible because someone who is not fully committed to the product may not appreciate too many upfront steps.

#5. Using visuals for comprehension

After spending a fortune on finding the right set of prospects, targeting them with appropriate content is crucial. Prospects may consume visuals faster in comparison to text. So, graphics and images can help you prove how your product can assist the client’s business.

Using animated videos, GIFs, infographics, and third party reviews concerning the benefits of the products should be a part of your marketing material. Videos featuring case studies about current clients and their testimonial videos can be of great help.

The videos’ message should match the text reviews, images, and graphics about the product everywhere on the internet. Images, videos should be of the correct resolution.

#6. Focus on retention more than acquisition

Existing SaaS clients bring most of the revenue for vendors. point out that roughly 20 percent of the firm’s existing customers may account for 80 percent of the firm’s future income.

As per insights highlighted by Bain & Co, improving retention percentage by five percent can result in as much as 75 percent improvement in the business profitability in the future. Thus, experts believe the SaaS marketing success depends on how well the vendor understands the existing clients’ lifetime value and retention percentages. Analyzing the reasons behind customer churn, and focusing on retention can be even more fruitful than working towards customer acquisition.

Vendors for products offered by giants like Google, Adobe, Slack, Shopify, MailChimp, Salesforce, Hubspot, ServiceNow, Square, Splunk, Zendesk, etc. use some of these strategies. However, you must remember that proper planning is crucial for their success.