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The Software-as-a-Service industry is different from other industries in many ways. 

For many people, the SaaS business model is something completely new. Users are accustomed to downloading the software directly to their PCs. With SaaS, they need to get accustomed to paying for a membership and using the cloud. 

As the name says, the SaaS model doesn’t offer any physical products - there’s isn’t anything tangible that exchanges hands. The business model mainly depends on the user experience provided by the software in question. 

It’s not surprising that SaaS companies need to have a rather unique approach to marketing. 

And that’s what we’re going to discuss today… 

The Most Effective SaaS Marketing Strategies

There are possibly countless marketing strategies out there. However, thus far, only a handful has turned out to be successful for SaaS companies. Here are a few ways to get the maximum out of your SaaS marketing campaign. 

Inbound Marketing

Every inbound marketing strategy has four main phases. But before you can start work on a strategy of your own, you need to dissect your product, analyze potential customers, and come up with an ideal buyer persona. Once you find out that, you’ll be able to come up with a strategy. 

Facebook Ads

Facebook gives you a great opportunity to target specific groups of consumers. If you know what your target audience is, you can easily target them using publicly-available information like age, location, and gender, to create Facebook Ads. 

Google Ads

When it comes to targeting, Google is another company that offers plenty of options. Plus, Google’s ample reporting options and analytics tools allow you to tweak your ad campaign on the go and make the most out of your investment. 

Best Marketing Channels for SaaS Companies

Do you know any marketers? Then ask them how many marketing channels they use over the course of an average campaign. The answer will probably be a dozen or so. When you’re working on a modest budget, you can’t use that many channels. That means that you need to make the most of a few channels you got. Here are the best channels for SaaS marketing… 

Paid Search

Paid search is actually a great platform, no matter the industry. Did you know that almost 90% of Google’s overall revenue comes from advertising? Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo have auction-based ad platforms that are easy to use for both experienced marketers as well as new business owners. They allow you to make changes to ads and budget daily. 

Retargeting

Speaking of ads, one of the best ways to sell SaaS software is to use the power of remarketing. This channel allows you to show ads to consumers after they visit your website. By placing a Google Pixel on your website, for example, you can have your ads displayed on other sites and platforms. Just like you create CTA buttons for your landing pages, you can create CTAs that encourage people to visit your website again and buy what they’re looking for. 

Paid Content Discovery

When you visit most news websites nowadays, you can see a widget containing related articles with links to other websites. When that happens, you’re staring eye-to-eye with paid content discovery. These platforms allow you to promote blog posts on other, high traffic websites. You pay these platforms on a CPC basis. 

The Three SaaS Growth Marketing Rules

Knowing the best channels and strategies won’t do you any good if you don’t know how SaaS marketing really works. The SaaS industry is huge at the moment. The industry revenue is reportedly around $80 billion and in the next two years, it will grow to $143 billion.

That means you have a lot of competition in the field. If you want to beat that competition, you can’t slack in any aspect of the business. To dominate the competition, you need to learn the three rules of growth marketing and use them wisely. 

Not All SaaS is Created Equal

What’s the purpose of your tool? What problems does it solve? How much does it cost? All of these pieces of information will dictate your marketing campaign. Different products appeal to different users in different ways. For instance, video editing software requires a lot of video content, case studies, and presentations. Your product will dictate your content creation, which in turn will dictate your overall marketing strategy. 

Retention is Equal to Acquisition

While some companies only need to attract customers, SaaS businesses need to find a way to keep them. The success of your company depends not on how many new users you find but on how many of the current you get to keep. For that reason, you need to constantly deliver valuable features and content to your users. The main goal of your marketing campaign is to build meaningful relationships with your customers that will last for years to come. 

Constantly Upgrade Your Strategy

One of the most interesting aspects of SaaS tools is that they’re ever-evolving. In order to keep your customers on board and beat your competitors, you need to monitor the market constantly. In turn, this will help you add new functions and features. Every time you add something to your product, you need to make an update to your marketing strategy. That’s the only way to build loyalty and attract new customers at the same time. 

The Bottom Line 

In the end, it’s all about making smart decisions. Running a company comes with a ton of obligations and at times, one may feel overwhelmed. But you can’t forget about the importance of marketing, especially if you make SaaS software.

Here’s what you need to remember about SaaS marketing:

• Marketing is different for every SaaS product
• If you want to profit put effort into customer retention
• Every time you update your product update the marketing strategy

You can’t hope to capture the attention of an audience that doesn’t even know you exist, right?