The software as a service (SaaS) industry has been booming in the past decade all over the world. This should come as no surprise seeing as how modern customers (individuals and companies) require technology to be successful. Now is the right time to launch a SaaS business. Before you do, you should understand how competitive this sector has become. In order to stand out, you need to invest in SaaS marketing.
Marketing is the driving force behind SaaS success. Why? Because there are so many competitors in every niche. Chances are you are surrounded by competitors yourself who are offering a similar product to yours. Even if you do have a superior product, it’s features alone don’t set it apart from the rest.
5 SaaS marketing best practices
In this blog article, we will take a look at five powerful SaaS marketing practices to help you drive growth and success this year and beyond.
1. It all starts with SaaS branding
First and foremost, you can only achieve your desired results if you have powerful branding. In today’s over-saturated SaaS market, brand-building has become a crucial step to success. All growth-oriented companies must build their brand to separate their products from their competitors. It’s important to build brand reputation and trust. Also, it’s crucial to create a meaningful connection with online audience and customers.
After all, what else is there to keep your customers from switching the software they use the moment they spot a better deal? As you might have guessed, it’s not about the product, it’s about their loyalty to the brand. With that in mind, you’ll need to develop a unique brand identity. This includes having a set of brand values that will resonate with your target demographic. Make sure to complement your brand identity and personality with a distinct set of visuals. This will help you make your company and your products more memorable.
2. Give free trials and product tours
Nowadays, people don’t want to take your word for it. They want to experience the product for themselves. People don’t just want half of it or a handful of features. They want the complete experience. And you can’t blame them. How else are they supposed to know that your software is perfect for their short, mid, and long-term needs? This is why you need to offer free trials that will help transform quality leads into subscribers and brand advocates.
However, it’s also important to note that it takes time and effort to convince a potential customer to sign up for your free trial. Before they do, they will try to gather as much information about your brand and your software as they can. This is why you need to lead them towards opting in by offering comprehensive product tours instead of lengthy product descriptions. They are more engaging, get the point across, and can often have interactive features to dazzle your customers.
3. Use analytics to create data-driven content
The SaaS industry is always evolving with the new industry and consumer trends, If you’re using your intuition to make major product, marketing, and sales decisions, you’re setting yourself up for failure in the long run. Every marketing decision you make should be backed by relevant and verifiable data. You should use the right SaaS analytics tools to collect, collate, and transform important information into actionable insights.
The key objective here is to stay as flexible and agile as possible. You’ll need to be able to adapt your marketing approach, sales, and offers depending on how the market shifts. How does your online audience reacts to your product and your brand? Stay on top of your key performance indicators (KPIs), gather your findings into reports regularly, and use the information to stay ahead of the competition and craft better marketing campaigns.
4. Showcase customer reviews and testimonials
Nowadays, online reputation management is paramount for long-term success and growth. This is especially true when you’re operating in a field where people are literally entrusting you with their business or crucial aspects of their company. Whatever your software might do, you can bet that it’s a big deal in the eyes of your potential customers. Before they decide to buy, they will scour the web for negative reviews.
This is why it’s so important to take reputation management seriously. It’s critical to showcase your positive reviews, testimonials, and customer success stories on your website, social media, and everywhere in-between. As for the negative reviews, your goals should be to transform them into success stories. Or, at the very least, show the world that you have done your best to resolve the issue.
5. Offer non-stop availability and customer support
Lastly, always remember that modern customers demand that the brands they work with are constantly available to provide support and guidance where needed. No one will wait around for you to answer their email. They might be losing money if your software is malfunctioning or if they clicked the wrong button. This is why you have to ensure non-stop availability and stellar customer support. Rest assured that news of your stellar customer service will reach the eyes and ears of new potential customers, who will feel more inclined to put their trust in your brand.
Wrapping up SaaS marketing best practices
No matter how amazing your product might be, you need to keep innovating in the fields of marketing and sales in order to keep up with the changes in the industry, and to stay ahead of the competition. Introduce these marketing practices into your growth strategy and you will be able to reach new heights of success in 2020 and the years to come.
This guest blog post was written by Elaine Bennett who is a digital marketing specialist focused on helping startups and small businesses grow. She’s a regular contributor for Bizzmark Blog. Elaine writes hands-on articles about business and marketing.