7 best B2B SaaS marketing strategies to increase business revenue and ROI

Intro

Business revenue is the ultimate objective for any company. And to achieve this objective, a strong marketing strategy plays an important role. However, a marketing strategy that helped one brand may not necessarily help other brands. This is because there are many reasons that influence the marketing mix.

A Peek into B2B SaaS marketing

For the uninitiated, the marketing of SaaS to other businesses in the industry is referred to as B2B SaaS marketing. With competition getting stiffer day after day, companies in B2B SaaS need to focus on fresh marketing strategies that help generate results and revenue, of course. B2B SaaS marketing is focused on a smaller group of audience who are the decision-makers and also have the power of buying. Software-as-a-Service buying is essentially driven by financial incentives meaning discounts, the efficiency of the product, and also logic. It is wrong to assume that there won’t be any negotiations, planning, or even analysis.

Major concerns of B2B SaaS marketers

The problems faced by B2B SaaS marketers keep on changing depending on the market conditions and other problems. However, some of them remain the same throughout. Like they are not able to generate leads on a continual basis. B2B SaaS companies can even hire freelancers to improve the quality of their leads. And the major problem is converting the leads or closing them. Once they acquire the customers, the common issue faced is retaining them or making them brand loyal. All this can be solved if companies cross-sell and upsell their B2B SaaS products. When customers are satisfied they will automatically refer the product to others through word of mouth. The post talks about how to overcome challenges faced by B2B companies through sure-shot marketing strategies that work well for almost all companies.

7 best B2B Saas marketing strategies

1. Content is the King

B2B SaaS companies need to invest in their content. This is because the content is the king when it comes to marketing. What you say and how you say is all that matters. B2B SaaS buyers hover more on the website when the content is interesting. This increases the chances of them getting converted into clients.

It is difficult for marketers to convince clients on call by sales representatives. Every customer does his research before buying a product. And thanks to the internet, this research now happens on Google. Customers educate themselves about the product, the value it delivers, what others are saying about the product, etc.

Hence, marketers are advised to maintain the website, keep on updating blogs about the product, and ask present customers to review the product on Google and the like. The more the content and the better it is, play an important role to tap new clients in the industry. Customers read blogs, research through videos and surveys, look deeper into findings and search e-books on products if any.

Marketers need to interact with potential clientele through several mediums and make sure that the content used is of high quality and relevance. The reason content is strategy number one under this list is that content is more important than any other technique there is. Your content should be such that it is helpful to your reader in some way.

To increase the efficiency of the content, you need to complement it with images, references and even graphs. Support the claims in the content through links to outer content. The content should be formatted and thus, easy-to-read. Optimise your content for mobile. The added value is showing statistics that your product has benefitted other clients in the past.

2. Buyer Persona is very important

The success of B2B SaaS marketing campaigns is dependent primarily on the structure that it follows. This structure requires marketers to define the persona of the buyer in detail. Customer research is the DNA of every business. In absence of proper customer insight, it is difficult for marketers to build the product required by customers.

When the research is in place, marketers are able to create campaigns that help in customer acquisition and customer retention. Hence, defining buyer persona is quite essential. It makes sure that customers get what they want. Their preferences are met, problems are solved and their needs are catered to. The pitch of the marketers is dependent heavily on the persona of the buyer and when defined accurately, marketers are able to use the right tools to close the deals.

3. Comparison with competitors

Parents these days explain to their kids that competition is not important, it is participation that matters. However, in business, there is cut-throat competition. And if a business is not able to survive, then comparing the progress with competitors becomes a necessity. When a business is new in the market, it is difficult to think that the new websites get ranked for competitive keywords. Hence, comparison posts work well in such situations.

Comparison posts are quite successful. This is because people willing to buy B2B SaaS products hop on Google to evaluate the products. They are looking to compare their product preference with other brands. Hence, posts that help buyers explore different alternatives of the product through longer-tail keywords are very helpful.

It is necessary for marketers to understand the pain points of the target market. When the blog posts help the potential clientele by solving their problems, then the brand receives brownie points. It comes to the notice of the people. When writing comparison posts, marketers need to discuss the alternate product at length. However, you need to position your SaaS as the better alternative.

4. The lead-funnel approach

In a business, leads travel through different levels of an imaginary funnel. This depends on the way they respond to the stimuli. When a lead gets pushed towards the bottom of the funnel, it means that it has been converted into sales.

B2B SaaS marketers need to nurture the acquired leads and apply strategies to push them to sales. This is done through an apt content strategy. Herein the lead is encouraged to buy the product by pushing the right content at the right time. With the help of buyer persona (discussed above), marketers can enrich the leads and educate the customers about the products.

5. Artificial Intelligence to the rescue

AI can actually be put to good use by marketers to tap the customers. It is a myth that AI is very expensive and does not yield results. On the contrary, companies are benefitting from digital transformation to a great extent. Tools like chatbots, Grammarly, and even CRM platforms have transformed companies, making them contemporary and customer-friendly.

In many ways, AI has brought down the dependency of marketers on humans. Earlier customers had to wait for representatives to answer their queries. However, now visitors to the website are greeted by chatbots. Robots help manage customer queries in an intelligent manner. This ultimately helps in customer acquisition and even retention.

Artificial Intelligence can be put to great use by B2B SaaS marketers for creating content, email marketing, web design, predictive analysis, etc. Marketers are utilizing AI for content curation, digital advertising, enhancing User Experience and User Interaction, and influencing searches.

6. Free Trials of the Product

This is not a new or novel marketing strategy. This has been used by Antivirus software for many years now. When clients get comfortable using the software, the company inspires them to buy the product. The reason for this was that customers required education regarding the software and its benefits.

Experts maintain that free trials of SaaS help raise conversions considerably. One of the companies that noticed an increasing bounce rate introduced free trials to tap potential clients. Free trials are like a CTA that asks customers to at least try the product if not buy. It has been observed that potential customers are more likely to click for free trials.

There is an increase in sales due to free trials. Customers get to experience the product for a short period of time before making a big investment. It is a win-win situation. This is because companies are not offering a physical product and running into a loss. It is a trial version of the actual software for a short period of time.

7. Perks of using Social Media

B2B SaaS marketers require specific branding strategies for achieving the objectives. Using social media platforms helps tap potential clientele effectively. Social media platforms help marketers reach out to clients that fit the persona of the buyer.

There are several ways to promote content on social media. One can post articles and share blog posts and videos. Social media can also be used to collect data by asking them to fill out relevant forms. Social media has become a strong platform for converting potential customers into future clients.

Wrap-Up

Just like any other business, B2B companies require that they spread awareness about their product. They need to educate their customers and even convince them about their products. Clients are always interested in getting to know the reason they should be buying SaaS. They are interested in knowing how the product will impact their business and how much they will be able to save as opposed to buying software. Apart from ROI, B2B SaaS customers expect efficiency and expertise while buying products. They look for long-term solutions rather than meeting immediate requirements. The buying behaviour of such customers does not change except for major changes in technology or industry.