Advertising to promote SaaS

Even the best IT product needs advertising. Offering software products on a subscription basis must meet the needs of the target audience, encourage potential customers. They are offered to try the product, to make sure of its quality, to subscribe to it despite similar market offers. If a paying user relies on the product, gets used to it, he will become a regular customer in the future.

SaaS marketing is based on selling software as a service and is fundamentally different from classic marketing:

• the service is intangible, it is necessary to show its benefits by any available marketing means;
• the competition is extremely high, so only professionals should be engaged in promotion;
• promotion is expensive, the rational allocation of the budget depends on the literacy of the choice of effective channels.

How to evaluate the effectiveness of SaaS

Marketing of software as a service is assessed by a number of indicators:

• CAS – the cost of attracting paying customers for each marketing channel. However, when working with organic channels (content marketing, organic social networks) measuring CAS is difficult.
• CLV/CLTV/LTV – lifetime customer value for the business, which is made up of the price of the subscription, its duration and the number of customers;
• Customer churn rate – shows how many paying customers opt out of subscriptions.
• Promoter Score is a survey that shows the likelihood that users will self-promote (offer to friends and colleagues) an IT product.

It is necessary to clearly track all advertising channels according to the above indicators in order to work only with those that turn users who try a new product into paying customers. By promoting IT products as SaaS, a company invests in a fruitful relationship with each customer in the future.

As a result of professional SaaS promotion the target traffic increases, new leads are obtained that turn into loyal customers, competitors are bypassed and a niche in the difficult market of software products as services is occupied.

SaaS marketing strategies

Methods and strategies for promoting SaaS products improve the conversion rate of a web resource, expand the tools for advertising, and increase subscriber loyalty. It is important to emphasize how the purchase of an IT product will simplify the buyer’s life, to emphasize the personal benefit.

Almost all companies that offer the SaaS model create trial (free) versions of the product. The user should see for himself that the product really solves specific problems, and feel the difference between the offers of competing companies.

Having experienced an intangible product in action, users are not always in a hurry to buy it, so it cannot act as the main promotion strategy. The clearer the wording of the value proposition, the higher the probability of purchasing the product.

Other strategies aimed at increasing the number of sales are:

• A strong brand. Gives a reputation as an expert in its niche, makes it stand out among competitors, and encourages people to buy services from a reliable developer.
• Useful content. Educating readers as part of creating an image of an expert. It is necessary to create clear and accessible instructions that simplify mastering the product and ease the burden on the technical support service.
• Partnership with SaaS companies in the IT sphere. Getting the influx of your CA from your partner, increasing your visibility and brand awareness, cross-promoting your offers.
• Referral marketing campaigns. Client base enlargement through your old customers (your referred friend gets points, you can move to more advanced plans, etc.).
• Constant technical support to clients with a fast response time. Instant auto-responses to leads, to warm up interest, not to give an opportunity to leave to competitors.
• Showing links to satisfied customers, demonstrating success through the use of the product.
• Optimization of tariff plans. You should know users’ preferences and offer them ready-made solutions. Always emphasize the advantages and benefits, your competitive advantages.
• Demonstration of the product emphasizes the solution to the user’s problem, not the features of the offer. You have to sell a ready-made solution. To keep users from canceling trial subscriptions and renewing them for a fee, you need to give a full picture of the product’s strengths.
• Short sales cycle. SaaS products age quickly, so you need to automate all sales. It’s better to sell a small number of products, minimizing advertising efforts.
• Increasing the price of the product. For a real solution to their problems, customers are willing to buy software even at premium prices. Moreover, an increase in value is often a marker of acquisition value. Having conquered a certain niche in the IT market, you can reduce the cost of your products to refocus on a broader market.

Marketing SaaS products: the best channels

Each company should test, experiment, and isolate effective channels that meet the specific objectives of promotion and its target market.

It is advisable to combine long-term strategies (SEO, content marketing) with those that demonstrate results faster (influencer marketing). The competent marketing of SaaS products constantly monitors conversions and evaluates the profitability of promotion.

• Search Engine Optimization. Creating content adapted to search queries, selecting keywords, identifying all technical deficiencies on web pages (usability, security, loading speed, etc.).

Focusing on B2B makes SEO a priority channel. It is important to carefully select keywords, including low-frequency and relevant ones.

• Content marketing. Distribution of quality content created for marketing purposes through various channels and formats (text, visual, audio).
• SMM. Promotion through paid advertising, organic posts, personalization in text. To achieve a tangible result, you need time, constant work and investment. The advertising campaign, launched in social networks, should be adapted to the format of each publique – longreads, photos, announcements and videos. This increases the reach and engagement of the audience and increases the relevance of the content.
• Influencer marketing. Attracting micro-influencers from among bloggers and developers to promote the product.

What the full cycle of marketing services for SaaS looks like

SaaS marketing is a set of strategies, tactics and actions aimed at clear positioning and growth of product sales to new customers through subscriptions. The main emphasis in product promotion of cloud platforms is on simplicity. If you add to the excellent quality of the product clearly working tech support, connect the word of mouth, the flow of customers will begin to increase.

If you take the uniqueness of each SaaS product as a basis, then the recipe for success of a SaaS marketing strategy requires flexible thinking and a tendency to experiment. You need to quickly scale working channels based on the skills of marketers and the target market.

Work on promotion after getting to know the client, discussing the goals and objectives of the company is built as follows:

• Development of a turnkey selling website.
• Approval of an optimized strategy based on an analysis of the company’s capabilities, market and competitors.
• Testing of different advertising channels, audiences, creatives to create a unique marketing campaign.
• Providing content distribution through the media, thematic resources, and social networks.
• Improving the reputation of the brand.
• Support for the launch of a new SaaS product on the market (presence on online thematic platforms, attracting the target audience, ensuring competitiveness).
• Full report with analytics on the goals achieved.

There is no right or wrong marketing strategy for a SaaS product. To get promoted and increase sales, you need to create hypotheses and test each one to develop your own recipe for promotion.