The SaaS market is booming and new software is being introduced every day with potential. In other words, the competition is on the rise, and converting leads into paying customers is getting more complicated than ever before.
When you’re in the SaaS business, you know that inbound marketing for SaaS companies is different from other marketing strategies. You also probably know by now that content is king and that content marketing is integral to any SaaS business.
With that being said, an inbound SaaS marketing strategy is the present and the future of SaaS, and we’ll tell you why.
What Is an Inbound SaaS Marketing Strategy?
Let’s start with the basics. Marketing is categorized as either push or pull. As the name indicates, push marketing is direct, in-your-face marketing. Everything from billboards to cold calls and even those annoying YouTube ads that pop up in the middle of your video are push marketing strategies.
To cut it short, push, or outbound marketing, is not everyone’s favorite. Consumers are using ad blockers, turning off tracking, and simply skipping push ads whenever they’re bombarded with them. So unless you want people to avoid your SaaS content, then outbound marketing is not your ideal strategy.
Pull marketing, or inbound marketing, on the other hand, is all about attraction. Instead of popping up in the middle of someone’s YouTube video, inbound marketing focuses on attracting, engaging, and delighting your target audience in a natural, non-intrusive manner.
Inbound marketing relies on creating content that your target audience is looking for such as blogs, videos, events, social media posts, and any other form of information-sharing medium which they will find through search engine research.
This strategy aims to focus on making the consumer’s journey as smooth and as satisfying as can be and leading them down the marketing funnel to eventually become loyal customers.
The Inbound Marketing Buyer’s Journey SaaS
The SaaS inbound marketing buyer’s journey starts from the awareness stage where the customer meets the business for the first time. Then, the consideration stage is where the customer goes deeper into the business and how it can solve their problem, before finally sealing the deal at the decision-making stage by being nurtured and having their concerns and needs met.
Here’s what the SaaS inbound marketing buyer’s journey looks like in detail:
Awareness
At this stage, consumers are facing a problem and looking for an answer. They are most likely unaware of your software and how it can solve their problem. That’s why it’s important for you to introduce your software and your business as the solution to their problem. Make sure your content explains and expands on the problem at hand, tackling their pain points one by one. Then, explain the solutions with your software positioned as the most suitable one.
E.g. informational blog posts, social media infographics, etc.
Consideration
At this stage, consumers are actively looking for solutions to their problems. They are considering and evaluating the different software available. Here’s where you provide information presenting your software’s unique propositions and how they’re better than the competition’s. You need to be as clear as possible and make it easy for the customer to understand each feature and its benefit.
E.g. comparison blogs, demo videos, etc.
Decision
At this stage, the customer is aware of their problem, and aware of your software. It’s time for you to seal the deal and entice them to make a purchasing decision in your favor. While you cannot force anyone to buy, you can definitely help them make an informed decision by convincing them of your software’s effectiveness. You can do so by addressing their objections head-on by providing evidence, social proof, and other important data.
E.g. case studies, statistics, testimonials, etc.
Why Inbound Marketing for SaaS Companies Is the Best Option
SaaS inbound marketing highly depends on digital content since inbound marketing is a form of digital marketing. In simple terms, your clients, whether current or prospective, have a problem, your software offers the solution, and you need to show them that it is the best answer to their problem.
Here are a few examples of exactly why an inbound marketing strategy is vital for SaaS marketing.
Short sales cycle
The SaaS sales cycle is uniquely rapid and fast compared to other sales cycles. Unlike other B2B marketing strategies, SaaS products priced below $2,000 annually typically have a 14 days buyer’s journey from awareness to decision.
This goes back to the nature of the software as a product as it’s always evolving and changing with time and new user data. What also contributes to this fast cycle is the simplicity and user-friendly interface of the software itself. The easier it is to navigate, the easier it is for customers to use it and make a purchasing decision in favor of the SaaS provider.
With this fast-paced funnel, customers are bound to have doubts and objections, and here’s where inbound marketing for SaaS companies comes to the rescue.
Creating detailed, valuable, and relevant content allows you to provide your clients with the necessary information about your software and help them make their educated purchasing decision with confidence.
When customers find the answers and receive the support they need along their buyer’s journey, they are more likely to seal the deal and convert faster.
Valuable content
Content is your greatest asset as a SaaS business. Your software solves existing problems and makes people’s and businesses’ lives easier, and it’s often targeting a certain niche.
As a SaaS marketer, you need to position yourself as an industry expert so that your target audience trusts you and accepts the information that you are providing. You do so by sharing information, offering solutions on different platforms, and using diverse types of content that answer customers’ questions.
Think of Buffer, as an example: their high-ranking blogs are in fact not their end product. They ultimately want their target audience to try out their social media services and they’re doing so by providing them with valuable information about everything related to social media, marketing, and business.
That’s why an effective inbound marketing strategy for SaaS companies aims to provide reliable and valuable information that leads your target audience to the ultimate source of information, your software.
SaaS-specific KPIs
Inbound marketing for SaaS companies works on engaging with consumers at all levels of the marketing funnel that complement the specific SaaS KPIs and the SaaS inbound marketing buyer’s journey.
Some of the related SaaS KPIs, like unique website visits, churn rate, customer lifetime value (CLV), and customer engagement are specifically targeted by strategies of inbound marketing for SaaS companies. Here’s how:
In SaaS inbound marketing, your goal is not only conversions but also retention of existing customers and upselling new features which in turn serves the SaaS KPIs.
Customer retention is one critical matter in SaaS marketing, because as little as 20% of your existing customers will generate about 80% of your future profits, according to the Gartner Group.
By nurturing, delighting, and empowering your existing customers through effective inbound marketing strategies, they will become loyal, open to your upsells, and happy to refer you to others.
For a better look at how the SaaS marketing KPIs relate to inbound marketing, here’s what the inbound SaaS marketing strategy funnel looks like and how the KPIs relate to each stage:
- Attract
Publishing content that establishes your business as a source of authority in the field will work on attracting unique website visitors (the number of individuals visiting your website during a period of time).
- Engage
Creating content that proves that you’re the best solution for your target audience’s problems on different platforms will contribute to increasing customer engagement, which is tracked by specific parameters set by your company.
- Close
Working with your paying customers to get to know your software and navigate it with ease will increase your customer satisfaction, which in turn will reflect on your customer loyalty and referrals.
- Delight
Offering continuous nurturing to improve customers’ experience, encourage loyalty, and offer upsells will help your churn rate and increase your customer’s lifetime value.
These are just a few examples of how inbound marketing is tightly integrated with the SaaS-specific KPIs. In fact, if you simply compare inbound marketing goals with the SaaS marketing goals, you’ll find that they both aim to attract and close the sale by convincing the customer of the product, or in our case the SaaS, and its benefits.
Final Thoughts
Inbound marketing and SaaS companies are truly a match made in heaven. Unlike push marketing, focusing on content, helping customers understand the solution, and retaining existing customers are only a few of the main reasons why inbound marketing for SaaS companies works.
Effective inbound marketing strategies for SaaS companies are not impossible to create. In fact, they’re simple, straight to the point, and just what customers want. All you need to do is to understand your target audience, what they are looking for, and know how to make them happy.
Do you want to know more about effective inbound marketing strategies for SaaS companies? Learn about the 7 effective inbound marketing strategies for SaaS companies.
Are you convinced with inbound marketing for your SaaS company and cannot wait to get started? We can help! All you have to do is book a free consultation!
