Schedule a consultation with our marketing experts today
Download the PDF to save this content for later:
SaaS marketing is constantly evolving, and with that evolution come opportunities and challenges. Continuous innovation enables companies to utilize technologies in ways they might’ve never considered before, while market shifts and changing customer expectations pressure them to get each new step right while adapting on the fly.
Customer behaviors and search engine optimization (SEO) have shifted significantly due to AI-driven search and content creation technologies. The rise of answer engine optimization (AEO) means marketers must create content that anticipates what users may ask while also focusing on creating unique, value-driven thought leadership content with unique insights to achieve high search-engine rankings and build authority.
As data privacy and compliance requirements change, companies must balance personalization and regulatory compliance. The right marketing technologies are essential for implementing hyper-personalization tactics at scale while walking the fine line between automation and authenticity.
Rising customer acquisition costs require marketers to do more with less to maximize their return on investment (ROI). Competition from low-cost alternatives requires companies to articulate their value proposition effectively. Meanwhile, you need a strategic approach to navigate longer sales cycles and complex buyer journeys.
Tired yet? We’ve got your back. This guide will discuss the fundamentals of effective SaaS marketing and how to build a solid strategy, integrate the latest technologies, implement the essential components, and turn insights into action with the right tools.
SaaS marketing differs from traditional marketing in many ways. Most notably, marketers must navigate multi-stage, non-linear buyer journeys, appeal to stakeholders in cross-functional buying teams, leverage data analytics to drive decisions, and address customer retention. Additionally, they must stay on top of SaaS trends to communicate their solutions’ value and relevance as customer demand changes.
These six SaaS trends have significant impacts on customer behaviors and priorities. Here’s how to address them in your SaaS marketing strategy.
B2B buyers want solutions with features that directly address industry-specific challenges. Incorporate your niche's unique problems, regulations, and trends into your messaging and highlight how your solution solves the sector’s pain points. Leverage online advertising platforms’ segmentation capabilities to reach target audiences.
Publish thought leadership articles with industry insights and case studies to show how your solution benefits similar companies. Also, incorporate long-tail, industry-specific keywords into your SEO strategy to attract leads with high purchase intent.
An IBM survey found that 42% of enterprises have actively deployed AI technologies. B2B tech buyers want to know how SaaS vendors incorporate AI into their platforms and product roadmaps and how it may integrate with their operations.
Highlight how your solution leverages AI technologies with a clear value proposition. Showcase real-world use cases and create interactive demos or video content to demonstrate AI features in action. Additionally, emphasize responsible AI usage and how your solution addresses data privacy as AI technologies evolve.
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a unique SaaS marketing focus because it’s an indicator of long-term profitability. Getting people to sign up for your free tier is just the first step — you must also convert them into loyal, paying customers.
Highlight premium functionalities strategically to entice customers to upgrade. Leverage content like case studies and video demos to showcase these paid features. Also, you may offer various pricing models (e.g., usage-based pricing) and payment methods (e.g., “buy now, pay later) to meet customer expectations.
With more users interacting with SaaS platforms via smartphones and tablets, you must deliver a mobile-first user experience. Emphasize how your software works seamlessly across devices and highlight mobile-first benefits.
Also, highlight your app’s mobile user interface in your marketing content and leverage app store optimization (ASO) tactics to increase visibility and discoverability. Adapt your SaaS marketing with a mobile-centric approach, focusing on responsive emails, SMS campaigns, and push notifications to engage users.
The increased use of mobile devices prompts SaaS companies to embrace edge computing to improve speed and performance, especially for applications that require real-time data processing or must keep running and collecting data even when cloud services are down.
If your SaaS platform employs edge computing technology, highlight your solution's added reliability, especially for users in the field or on the go. You may also promote how redundant data storage enhances resiliency and how lower latency improves the user experience.
Many SaaS platforms include advanced embedded analytics to deliver actionable insights directly within the user interface. Promote your data analytics features with role-based messaging and showcase visualization and reporting capabilities in product demos and explainer videos.
Also, you must address data security concerns that often come with the increased use of data analytics. For example, you may create content on industry standards relevant to your audience (e.g., HIPAA, PCI DSS, CCPA) and how your solution helps ensure they stay compliant.
Our team participates in quarterly training days, joins roundtables and discussions, and dedicates time to keeping up with the latest trends and industry certifications. We meet weekly to discuss what has been successful for our clients and see how we may apply the insights to other accounts.
— Madison Rivera, Account Manager at Spot On
Besides addressing the latest SaaS trends, startups must also tackle additional SaaS marketing challenges as they strive to gain traction while competing against established players. Let’s review how to set your company up for success.
SaaS startups must go beyond checking off a list of marketing activities to foster trust with prospects and establish their brands in the market. Incorporate these essential components in your SaaS marketing strategy to build a foundation for long-term success:
|
Allocate sufficient SaaS marketing resourcesSuccessful SaaS companies allocate a healthy portion of their budgets to marketing. The average organization spends around 30% of its annual budget on marketing, with some big brands allocating as much as 80% or more! The good news is that SaaS startups don’t need to hire a large marketing team or have all that expertise in-house. Working with an agency that understands the challenges of startup SaaS marketing is often the most cost-effective way to get results. |
|
Speak your audience’s languageYour target audience often doesn’t have the time or engineering background to understand the technical aspects of your product. Meet your audience where they are and demonstrate how your solution can help them achieve results. Additionally, segment your audience and use role-based messaging to appeal to different stakeholders. Craft buyer personas that represent stakeholders in a typical buying committee to understand their challenges and desired outcomes. |
|
Create content with context and purposeSimply publishing a ton of content stuffed with keywords no longer works as search engine algorithms evolve and readers become more discerning. Instead, add context to your content by including internal links and creating pillar pages to connect posts of similar themes. Every piece of content you create should be part of a larger web, cast strategically to reinforce your SaaS startup’s brand image and unique value proposition while capturing as many qualified leads as possible. |
|
Leverage data analytics for SaaS marketing insightsData analytics in marketing enables you to understand how prospects perceive your messaging and how website visitors interact with your content. These insights help you identify trends and support continuous improvement. You may use AI-powered automation software to deliver a personalized customer experience at scale and leverage predictive analytics for lead scoring to identify hot leads. Meanwhile, data insights from online advertising platforms help optimize ad placement and bidding strategy.
— Rebecca Graves, Co-Founder at Spot On |
Your SaaS marketing strategy is the blueprint to guide your tactics. It helps you focus on what matters most and avoid chasing bright, shiny objects that could waste time and money or dilute your core messaging. Let’s explore essential SaaS marketing objectives and the key components of an effective strategy.
The subscription-based nature of a SaaS business model means that a B2B SaaS marketing strategy must go beyond attracting and converting leads to retaining customers and increasing their lifetime value. Here are the four key objectives of B2B SaaS marketing and how to support them with your strategy:
|
Improve SaaS customer acquisitionTo acquire more customers, you must build brand awareness, get in front of high-quality leads, and gain your audience’s trust. Optimize your SEO strategy to reach a target audience actively researching a solution and publish high-quality thought leadership content to strengthen your reputation and grow authority. Also, leverage the power of referrals in your B2B SaaS marketing strategy by making it easy for customers to tell others about your company. For example, you may create a landing page for existing users to make referrals and add a call to action (CTA) on the software interface to drive traffic. |
|
Nurture B2B SaaS leadsAs the B2B sales cycle becomes more complex, you must build and maintain relationships with multiple stakeholders throughout the buyer journey. Stay on prospects’ radars with regular and relevant communication through newsletters, webinars, social media posts, and personalized email nurture sequences. Implement a content marketing strategy and create high-quality content to educate leads about your solution. For example, you may create case studies and product comparisons to facilitate decision-making. Additionally, shorten the sales cycle with a personalization strategy to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. |
|
Boost SaaS conversion ratesOf course, you must turn leads into paying customers for a sustainable business. However, most website visitors don’t convert on their first few visits. Retargeting is pivotal in driving leads back to your website to continue the customer journey and take the next step, such as signing up for a free trial. Be sure to deliver a frictionless trial experience that highlights your solution’s benefits without overwhelming users. Follow up after a trial sign-up with a phone call, webinar, or email series to support a well-orchestrated onboarding process. Also, make it easy for users to upgrade to your paid plans by providing comprehensive product information, pricing details, and customer success stories on your website. |
|
Drive SaaS customer retentionSuccessful customer retention often translates into higher CLV. Therefore, you must consider the post-sales experience to reduce churn rates. Ensure you’re offering seamless customer support with comprehensive training during onboarding, an easy-to-use, searchable knowledge base, and responsive customer care. Analyze data to see why users leave and make targeted improvements, such as improving the onboarding process, attracting better leads, and developing new features. Also, support upselling and cross-selling by encouraging users to explore additional features and upgrade to premium plans. Driving recurring revenue sales with a multifaceted marketing plan See how we help Core Solutions, a well-established software provider in the behavioral health space, bring its new behavioral health electronic health record (EHR) platform to market and achieve a jump in recurring revenue, improved marketing performance, and increased deal activity. |
While every SaaS marketing strategy must address the company's unique circumstances, it should contain some essential components to reach its objectives. Let’s look at the 10 elements to include.
These foundational elements of a SaaS marketing strategy work together to help you deliver an always-on, omnichannel, and converting customer experience:
Content marketing. Address your target audience’s pain points and explain how your solution solves their challenges through blog articles, social media posts, email campaigns, white papers, and case studies.
SEO. Implement the latest SEO best practices to support your content marketing strategy. Incorporate relevant keywords, implement internal linking, and optimize metadata to signal relevance and boost your ranking.
Website optimization. Align website content with your SaaS marketing strategy to deliver a seamless experience, communicate how your solution addresses your audience’s priorities, and convert visitors into leads and customers.
Online advertising. Target high-intent keywords with pay-per-click (PPC) ads to attract high-quality leads. You can also use ads to drive traffic to your content to jumpstart your SEO and content marketing efforts.
Video marketing. Engage your audience through various video formats, such as explainer videos, social media videos, testimonials, customer reviews, step-by-step demos, new feature teaser videos, and new customer onboarding videos.
Social media marketing. Build brand awareness, reach a broader audience, and foster trust through engagement to support your content marketing strategy and lead generation efforts.
B2B email marketing. Deliver targeted content with a granular audience segmentation strategy. Each email should have a clear CTA that aligns with the recipient’s customer lifecycle stage to progress them down the marketing funnel.
Free trial offers. Encourage prospects to experience your solution’s benefits first-hand to accelerate the pipeline. Support the experience with role-based content and craft a follow-up sequence to turn trial users into paying customers.
Reviews and testimonials. Leverage social proof to build instant trust, demonstrate how your solution benefits users in real-world scenarios, and encourage qualified leads who are sitting on the fence to move forward.
Strategic alliances. Reach a broader audience by collaborating with partners who offer complementary products to a similar market and building relationships with professional associations and industry influencers.
All these components are critical to marketing success but won’t be effective if you don’t position and market your products competitively. Let's explore the steps to building an effective SaaS product marketing plan.
A solid SaaS product marketing strategy must consider the entire customer lifecycle, from awareness and conversion to loyalty and advocacy. Here’s how to build a SaaS marketing plan that works.
First, create buyer personas to understand your target audience. Then, define your unique selling proposition (USP) to communicate why they should buy your solution. Use the insights to build the right features and position your solution strategically to capture attention and gain traction.
When developing your SaaS marketing plan, identify marketing metrics that align with your business goals to measure success. For SaaS startups with limited resources, focus on growing website traffic, email subscribers, and qualified leads while reducing churn rates to maximize ROI.
Regularly publishing high-value content helps you foster trust and nurture relationships. Define your content core by connecting the dots between your solution's benefits and the topics your audience cares about. Then, identify the best channels to distribute and promote your content to high-quality prospects.
Implement an SEO strategy to incorporate relevant keywords in your content to reach B2B tech buyers researching solutions online. While content marketing and SEO take time to yield results, paid ads allow you to hit the ground running and acquire new leads immediately while signaling relevance to search engines to boost organic reach.
Your SaaS marketing strategy must include a plan to turn prospects into paying customers. Deliver relevant content through email marketing with a segmentation strategy and automation software to nurture relationships, educate recipients about your solution, and persuade them to sign up for a free trial or connect with a sales rep.
As mentioned above, your SaaS marketing strategy should include a free trial or free tier for users to experience your solution first-hand. Encourage visitors to sign up with a CTA on every web page and optimize the registration process to minimize friction (e.g., simplify your forms and include clear instructions).
Use email marketing to continue delivering value and nurturing relationships after prospects become customers (e.g., send exclusive tips on using new features). Implement data analytics, personalization techniques, and marketing automation software to promote add-on features or higher-level plans to increase CLV.
Also, provide outstanding customer support to ensure users get the most from your software and remain satisfied with the experience. Create comprehensive, user-friendly onboarding training, tutorials, and a searchable knowledge base. Make it easy for users to reach a team member via multiple channels to address complex issues.
Having a deep understanding of the B2B customer lifecycle stages is critical to SaaS marketing success. Each stage, from awareness to retention, presents unique challenges and opportunities. A strategic, data-driven approach ensures you deliver the right message at the right time to drive conversions. Without this knowledge, you risk missing key engagement opportunities that fuel long-term growth and retention.
— Madeline Cathers, Account Manager at Spot On
A SaaS marketing strategy isn’t a “set it and forget it” exercise. You must continuously iterate your approach to maximize outcomes.
You’re probably familiar with the concept of continuous improvement in software development. Did you know you can apply a similar iterative mindset to SaaS marketing to stay current with the fast-shifting market? Let’s explore how to integrate data analytics and continuous improvement into your SaaS marketing strategy.
Your audience’s needs, challenges, and preferences evolve, and so should your SaaS buyer personas. Conduct regular interviews and surveys to verify that they align with real-world customers and prospects. Don’t just seek positive feedback — dissatisfied customers often give you the most constructive insights.
To improve the customer experience, understand how prospects’ priorities change throughout the customer lifecycle and address them with the right messaging at the right time. Also, analyze customer data to evaluate the buying experience and eliminate friction along the buyer journey.
To implement continuous improvement in content marketing, perform regular audits to evaluate existing content for relevance, accuracy, and performance. Identify high-performance pieces and update or repurpose them to amplify results. Keep up with content marketing trends and use data analytics to identify topics your audience cares about and content types they prefer.
Search engine optimization (SEO) evolves quickly, and continuous improvement is critical for ongoing success. Conduct technical, on-page, and off-page SEO audits to identify areas for improvement. Also, stay current with the latest search engine algorithm changes and adapt your content strategy to achieve and maintain top rankings.
Per-per-click (PPC) advertising complements your SEO strategy to drive high-quality traffic. Besides using metrics to refine your targeting and bidding strategy, leverage immediate and granular insights from these campaigns to inform continuous improvement in your SEO, content marketing, and audience segmentation strategy.
Data-driven website design analyzes user data and behaviors to inform decisions. It supports continuous improvement through the cyclical process of planning, building, learning, and iterating. This approach leverages data insights to enable ongoing adaptation to shifting market demand and customer expectations.
Your email campaigns’ open rates, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates show whether your strategy effectively moves leads down the marketing funnel. The data insights can help you evaluate your audience segmentation strategy and refine your marketing personalization tactics.
Semrush enables us to benchmark and evaluate SEO and domain authority growth. Databox shows us all metrics in one spot, helping us save time while delivering insightful monthly reports.
— Madison Rivera, Account Manager at Spot On
Now that you know what goes into a successful SaaS marketing strategy, you must put insights into action by implementing the fundamental elements.
SaaS marketing is unique because you must nurture relationships and stay on a prospect’s radar throughout the lengthy B2B buyer journey. Content and video marketing are essential for delivering value and building trust, while a website provides the home base for guiding prospects down your marketing funnel.
Let’s explore how to support an effective SaaS marketing strategy with these foundational elements.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 73% of B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy to help them build credibility, attract prospects with high purchase intent, and drive conversions throughout the B2B buyer journey. Here's how to build an effective SaaS content marketing strategy.
|
Map your content to the B2B buyer journeyYour content must keep prospects engaged at every customer lifecycle stage by providing the information they need to move to the next step in the buyer journey. Include a clear, compelling, and relevant call to action (CTA) in each piece of content (e.g., request a demo for prospects in the consideration stage) to accelerate the sales cycle. |
|
Define objectives and SaaS content marketing KPIsTracking meaningful metrics for each customer journey stage is key to SaaS content marketing success. For example, use traffic and click-based goals for top-of-funnel content, engagement and lead generation KPIs for mid-funnel activities, and sales metrics for bottom-of-funnel pieces. |
|
Publish educational contentEducational content generates 14% more organic traffic than pieces on company news or product launches while helping you build credibility. Share practical solutions to your target audience’s challenges and incorporate real-life examples, step-by-step instructions, and visual aids like screenshots and diagrams to increase engagement. |
|
Consider user intent in your keyword strategyYour SaaS content marketing strategy must consider why a user enters a specific search term into a search engine — the search intent — to create content with the highest chance of converting qualified prospects. For example, you may target long-tail keywords or phrases prospects use when looking for your solution. |
|
Incorporate answer engine optimization (AEO) techniquesOptimize your content for featured snippets and knowledge graphs to rank high on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs). Also, adapt your content for voice/conversational search, make your website “answer-rich,” and use on-page and off-page SEO techniques to help search engines understand intent and context. |
|
Improve retention and cultivate loyaltyYour SaaS content marketing objectives should include increasing customer loyalty, advocacy, and retention to drive profitability. Offer customer-only, high-value content such as a resource library, webinars, and in-depth training on how people can use your solution to execute industry best practices to drive adoption. |
|
Distribute and promote your contentPromote your content through various channels (e.g., email and social media) and partner with influencers to build backlinks and drive website traffic. Establish a content publishing calendar, identify where your audience seeks information, and publish thought leadership content in trusted industry publications to build credibility. Videos have become an increasingly popular content format in B2B tech marketing. Are you leveraging SaaS video marketing throughout the customer journey? |
Videos are essential in SaaS marketing because they help explain complicated concepts, showcase complex software functionalities, and engage prospects throughout lengthy sales cycles. Let’s explore how you may use videos to humanize your brand, improve SaaS customer support, and enhance customer loyalty.
Align your videos’ tone and message with your SaaS marketing objectives. Then, define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your tactics’ effectiveness. Consider each video’s purpose and target audience. It should address viewers’ pain points and challenges, while the CTA should be appropriate for the customer lifecycle stage.
Keep your videos under two minutes and lead with the main idea. The content should resonate with the audience's emotions and engage them with storytelling techniques while showing how your product solves their challenges. Use high-quality visuals, well-crafted animations, and cohesive branding to reinforce a polished and professional image.
Meet audience preferences by incorporating different video types into your strategy:
Demo/explainer videos simplify complex concepts, demonstrate how your software helps users, and let prospects see it in action.
Start with thorough keyword research to identify relevant terms for your content. Craft a keyword-rich title and description and incorporate target keywords into metadata (e.g., filenames and tags). Also, enhance accessibility and indexability with transcripts and closed captions and submit a video sitemap to search engines for efficient indexing.
Evaluate channels based on features, functionality, audience reach, analytics capabilities, integration options, and viewer preferences to identify platforms that align with your objectives. LinkedIn is particularly effective for many B2B companies because it helps them reach decision-makers directly, build relationships, and generate qualified leads.
While AI technologies can’t replace human creativity, they can help streamline video production and data analytics. For example, you may automate time-consuming tasks like video editing, captioning, and thumbnail creation, generate personalized video content, and create interactive videos that adapt to viewer behaviors in real time.
Use videos to demonstrate how viewers can leverage your solution to achieve long-term value and produce case studies to inspire users to try different features. Incorporate videos in your customer support strategy to offer troubleshooting tips and step-by-step tutorials to streamline the user experience and drive adoption.
Track metrics like views, engagement, click-through rates, and conversion rates to measure your videos’ impact, understand audience behavior, and identify areas for improvement. Also, use the insights to help you allocate resources strategically to best-performing content types, formats, and channels.
Effective content helps build awareness, foster trust, and drive traffic. AI-powered tools can give you numerous competitive advantages. For example, AI-assisted research helps identify new angles on old topics to fill industry gaps, while personalization technologies distribute content to strengthen connection with buyers and keep them moving through the funnel.
— Kay Keough, Content Director at Spot On
To maximize the impact of your content and video strategy, you need a website to convert readers and viewers into leads and customers.
Since your website is often prospects’ first interaction with your brand, it should make a positive impression and demonstrate how your solution can solve visitors’ challenges. Here are the six elements a SaaS website must include to attract traffic, engage visitors, convert them into leads, and turn them into paying customers.
The latest trends in SaaS website design emphasize a clean and modern aesthetic that showcases the software’s UI and incorporates the human touch for an engaging experience. We’re seeing more designs that use boxed-in sections to define content and visuals, creating a structured yet dynamic layout.
— Erica Pierce, Creative Director at Spot On
Now, it’s time to put a robust strategy to work. The complexity of SaaS marketing means you must use the right tools and technologies to support your processes. Let’s explore what you need to turn knowledge into results.
A SaaS marketing strategy won’t do any good if you can’t implement it effectively to achieve the intended outcomes. Having the right tools and creating a feedback loop is key to ongoing success. Let’s explore the details.
The right SaaS marketing tools can help you do more with less. But how do you choose the best applications for your business without spending money on those you don’t need? Here are the six areas your SaaS marketing tools must cover:
Spot On team’s top SaaS marketing tools
In addition to HubSpot, we use a few other SaaS marketing tools to help our clients implement a robust strategy:
Semrush — This sophisticated SEO tool goes beyond keyword tracking to provide insights into marketing performance.
Seventh Sense — This email delivery optimization system helps determine the right time and frequency to send your campaigns.
Wistia — The platform helps you create and deploy professional videos and evaluate their effectiveness.
Grammarly — Besides spell-checking, Grammarly scans content against 400+ grammar rules and provides recommendations to help you strike the right tone.
SaaS marketing tools give you a never-ending flow of customer and performance data. However, too much information can lead to frustration and confusion.
Track these 10 metrics to help you stay focused and achieve tangible and meaningful business outcomes.
Unique visitors. More unique visitors typically translate into more people signing up for a free trial and becoming customers. This metric helps you understand your audience size and assess the effectiveness of your SEO strategy.
Conversion rates. This SaaS marketing metric gauges the quality of your website traffic and how effectively you’re engaging prospects by measuring your success in getting visitors to sign up for free trials.
Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs), and/or Product Qualified Leads (PQLs). MQLs are website visitors who show purchase intent. PQLs have used your free version and are interested in upgrading. SQLs demonstrate behaviors suggesting they’re ready to buy.
Qualified lead velocity rate (LVR). This leading indicator measures the month-over-month growth rate of SQLs to help evaluate pipeline health and predict future sales and revenue growth.
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR). This SaaS marketing KPI represents your predictable and recurring monthly income and reflects revenue stability and scalability.
Customer churn rate (CCR) and revenue churn rate (RCR). CCR is the percentage of customers who cancel or don't renew their subscriptions. However, lowering CCR doesn’t automatically improve profitability. To reduce the impact of churn on revenue, you must track RCR and invest in retaining high-value relationships.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC). This metric tells you how much it costs to gain a customer. Generally, you should recover your CAC within 12 months of acquiring a customer to ensure the long-term viability of your business.
Customer lifetime value (CLV). This measures the total revenue you expect from a customer throughout their relationship with your company to show the long-term value of acquiring and retaining customers.
CLV to CAC ratio. The ideal CLV to CAC ratio is 3:1, meaning each customer should be worth 3 times more than it costs you to get them. If the ratio is too low (e.g., 1:1), you lose money for every customer you acquire. But if it’s too high (e.g., 5:1), you aren’t spending enough and risk losing prospects to competitors.
Net promoter score (NPS). This SaaS marketing metric offers a tangible measurement of customer loyalty and advocacy by showing how likely it is your customers will recommend your solution to others.
