9 Fundamentals For SaaS Marketing
Are you launching a new SaaS business? Have you been charged with ramping up awareness, growth or sales for a SaaS business? After years of working with multiple SaaS companies and learning what works and what doesn’t, we’ve developed a list of 9 fundamentals for SaaS marketing. Ensuring that you’re following these 9 fundamentals for SaaS marketing will help you reach the growth goals you’re looking for.
1. Research, research, research
The more you know about your competitors, the industry landscape, who is winning and who is losing the better you’ll be positioned to find opportunities, gaps in content and low-hanging fruit that you can capitalize on. So, really study the pages that are winning. Ask yourself, “what is it about this content, or its structure that is getting Google to rank it #1?” Reverse engineering that formula is a key piece to this research, so don’t disregard it.
2. It’s about quality not quantity
Early on you’re better off using a sniper mentality than a shotgun approach. Try to be as deliberate as possible when targeting. Yes, you want to increase traffic – but don’t do it at the expense of quality. I’d take 1/10 of the traffic, if they’re all qualified buyers. Having clarity about your target will also help you cater to their very specific needs and help them solve their very specific problem.
3. Do what others aren’t willing to do
Use an unbiased lens to look at what your competitors are doing from a content generation perspective. Are they blogging daily? Are they delivering robust, quality content every time? Most of the time, they aren’t – why you ask? Because it is a huge investment and the payoff takes time. So, if your industry only has 1 or 2 competitors who are really rock’n the content – there is your opportunity. Most aren’t willing to do this and that creates a big opening for you to set yourself apart.
4. Show you know your stuff
One great way to set your company apart is by showing your domain knowledge. When you’re sitting down to schedule topics to write about make sure you’re leveraging the research you’ve done and layer on your own point of view. Having a point of view matters – taking a stand and challenging the status quo generates buzz and conversations.
5. Build an audience and base of support
It is so important to get started early on building your audience. You need to have a group of people who are already familiar with what you’re working on even prior to launch. Having a large base of support to draw from once you go live is one of the fundamentals that many SaaS marketers overlook.
6. Gain the support of industry influencers
Public relations might sound a little old school or too analog for a high-tech SaaS company, but don’t be fooled. One way to gain additional credibility is to leverage the credibility of others. Spend time identifying the bloggers, industry journals, thought leaders and influencers that are writing about your industry or solution. Make friends, play nice and make sure you’re bringing a reciprocal mindset to the table.
7. Ben Franklin was right: “Patience is a Virtue”
Building the domain authority and brand awareness that will earn you the quality traffic you’re desperately looking for takes time. There are no shortcuts. You have to develop a plan that you can actually execute on a consistent basis. Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew and definitely don’t try to boil the ocean of keywords. Stay focused, be persistent and patient.
8. Don’t forget about the bots
Of course your content needs to be engaging and useful to the humans who are reading it. But, don’t forget the bots. Don’t just take my word for it. Guys like Matt Cutts, who prior to moving on to the USDS was running Google’s algorithm, was constantly telling people to ensure your website is crawlable. Take a look and see how your site renders in a text browser. If you’re not paying attention to crawlability you’re not going to get the results you’re looking for.
9. Leverage your fellow SaaS marketers
Successful SaaS marketers don’t just learn from their own experiences, they actively seek out and connect with other SaaS marketers in the hopes of learning from their experiences as well. Make sure you’re taking the time to build and nurture relationships with other SaaS marketers at non-competing companies. Look for opportunities to co-market, write guest posts, co-host webinars. All of this can lead to larger product partnerships and possible cross sell opportunities.
Want More SaaS Content?
If you’re looking for more thought leadership that goes beyond the 9 fundamentals for SaaS Marketing, we’ve been curating amazing articles by SaaS marketers for SaaS marketers at SaaS Scoop.
