For SaaS companies, digital marketing is essential. When you have a product, particularly a market disruptor, you need great SaaS digital marketing to get it out there. But knowing where to start can be tough. But, whether you’re new to the world of SaaS or a long-time pro, we’re here to give you some inspiration.
In this article, we’re going to run through 8 great, simple ways you can increase SaaS sales through digital marketing. We’ll cover:
1. You need great SEO
We get it. You’ve probably heard this ad nauseum. In fact, you’ve probably heard it at just about every conference, talk and ‘how-to’ guide you’ve ever attended or read. But it is absolutely vital for boosting organic traffic, and helping bring the leads to you.
But SEO is about much more than just beautifully placing keywords about a text. Nowadays, Google takes into account how well a page is laid out, how good its links are, and even how informative the page is. This means that the days of pages ranking well due to keyword repetition alone will soon be a thing of the past. So next time you look for that chocolate cake recipe, you won’t have to scroll through someone’s life story first.
This is such a big change that, if you don’t have an in-house SEO human, now might be a good time to think about getting one.
2. Paid channels are the way forward
In the olden days of the mid-2010s, you might have just posted a few YouTube or Facebook ads. But times have changed. When it comes to paid channels, you need to be diverse – and you need to be on it.
Take TikTok as an example. The video clip platform exploded during the pandemic, and now almost 1-in-8 people in the world use it. Naturally, its use as an ad platform has also grown. In fact, $774 million will be spent on TikTok ads alone this year. Equally, Instagram and YouTube continue to rake in $billions from ad spend.
Put together, this means that you need to pay attention to your paid channels, but also think about it creatively. After all, there’s still room for B2B on platforms like TikTok. If that busy CMO is unwinding with some scrolling time after a long day, and they see your killer ad, you might well have just generated a lead through your digital marketing.
This nicely leads to the next point.
3. Get a sense of the entire customer journey
This is easier said than done, but knowing your customer journey is essential for both getting and nurturing your leads. By knowing what sorts of people and industries you’re attracting, you can really hone in on your key personas.
In addition to that, you’ll get to know where your drop-off points are. Once you know that, you can set about removing those roadblocks. This guide is a great way to get started. Some roadblocks, like finding time with someone from your sales team, are predictable. But knowledge on your entire customer journey can help you find the unexpected ones.
Of particular importance is working out where leads normally drop off. When they reach that point, you know when to begin nurturing your SaaS leads.
4. Nurture your leads with email marketing
Nurturing is a vital part of the sales process, but it’s one that marketing normally covers. Far too often, we find ourselves sending and receiving emails which, no matter how the warm tone, feel oddly generic and distant.
This is where data driven marketing can be a lifesaver. Once you have a clear understanding of your personas, you can tailor your nurturing emails. Think of it this way, if you know your customer journey usually ends in a drop-off for Heads of B2B Sales, then you begin to craft nurturing emails targeted specifically at this persona.
By doing this, you end up including only relevant info for them and their needs in your digital marketing. Think of it this way, telling a Head of Sales that your product helps the HR process isn’t really of use to them. By tailoring, you can streamline the nurturing process in your digital marketing.
5. Make your call-to-action perfect
That all important CTA can turn a potential bounce rate stat into someone who enters your funnel. But what makes for a good CTA, especially in the world of SaaS?
A good CTA has to be inviting. The visitor to your site has to want to click it. A great example comes from newsletter signups. Instead of saying something like, “Sign up to our newsletter here”, say something like, “Click here to receive exclusive industry insights and offers every week”. It’s much more enticing to the visitor than the idea of simply having yet another newsletter land in their inbox every week.
But we get it. Trying to think as a visitor to your site would can be tough. So here’s a little inspiration to get you started, courtesy of HubSpot. Once you’ve got your CTA looking tip-top, you can start thinking about your CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization.
6. Introduce CRO
Conversion rate optimization is jargon. It basically means compelling your visitors to do something, like sign up for a demo, by creating the best on-page experience possible, meaning that you have more control over how visitors interact with a given page.
Now you might well be thinking, “isn’t this just an extension of SEO?” The answer is: not really. The main focus of SEO is driving visitors to your site; while the main focus of CRO is more focused on how people interact with your site once there.
Working CRO into your site takes some UX knowledge, but a great way to start is by using a heat map tool, like Kameleoon, to work out where the hotspots are on your best-performing pages. Once you know that, you can put in a CTA or an obvious link to where you want any given visitor to go.
After all, if a visitor spends enough time on your site, then they can become that all-important prospect.
This nicely leads to a nifty digital marketing trick when it comes to CRO.
7. Ungate your content
It might seem odd, but as digital marketing moves from pure lead generation to nurturing the entire funnel, ungating your content is the way to go. Think of it this way: someone is casually browsing your site and they come across a report or presentation that catches their interest. The only problem is it’s gated. If that visitor isn’t yet at a stage where they could become a lead, it’s quite possible that they’ll just leave your site all together.
By ungating your content, you can have more people engage with your content, and really show them that your SaaS company is an industry leader. There’s also the potential for an SEO boost. If something’s gated, Google discounts it. Whereas Google treats ungated content as it would any other page.
Ungated content can also result in higher quality leads. If your leads are more informed about your SaaS product and its benefits, then it’s entirely possible that they’ll become stronger prospects.
8. Take a look at the competition
We all know that you need to keep an eye on the competition, but it’s how you do it that counts. Try looking at your competitors through the eyes of a visitor. Better still, get someone new to the company with fresher eyes to take a look.
Think about how a visitor would move through the site. Also think about how they would access content, particularly if it’s their first visit. Is it easily navigable? What does the CRO look like? Does it make for a great user experience? If their content is ungated, how is it similar or different from your own?
If one of your competitors is doing something particularly great with their digital marketing, don’t be afraid to borrow it. No matter how big or small the competitor is, a good idea is a good idea.
The Key Takeaways
If you’re looking to boost your SaaS sales through digital marketing, then there are some steps you can take to make a proactive start.
Top of the pile is SEO. Without great SEO, you’re going to struggle to bring in the punters to your site, and to get your product in front of them. But compliment that with really pushing into paid channels. LinkedIn might be the natural choice for B2B, but don’t be afraid to expand into others like TikTok.
But in addition to this, you’ll need to get a sense of your customer journey. Through this, you’ll have a better understanding of where your leads drop off. Once you know this, you can begin to build a better understanding of how to nurture your leads, and which of your personas need nurturing the most.
But all successful nurturing needs a great CTA, as does every solid page. Take the time to experiment with your CTAs to get it right, and to boost your CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation). Don’t forget to try ungating your content, as it can aid your visitors’ journey through the site, helping with CRO.
Lastly, never forget to take a look at the competition and what they’re doing.
With these 8 tips, you’ll be off to a great start in boosting your SaaS sales through digital marketing.
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