Gaining B2B customers for a Software as a Service (SaaS) product is often crucial to business success. Yet B2B marketing requires a totally different approach to B2C marketing. Here’s how you can improve your B2B SaaS marketing to experience greater rewards.
Anyone who works in SaaS knows that this way of delivering software is both popular and efficient. As cloud-based services, SaaS products mean that users do not have to download software to a computer or computer network in order to access it. As long as a customer has an internet connection, SaaS is often a preferred way of accessing a piece of software.
For those working in B2B SaaS marketing, this is one of the great advantages that helps convert customers. While downloading traditional software can be costly, time-consuming and face compatibility issues, SaaS is more readily available, often at a fraction of the cost too. However, the fact a business has not committed to a traditional software download means they are more likely to shop around among different SaaS products.
The process for getting a business to choose your product is also much lengthier than it would be for B2C marketing. Procurement processes, budgets and checking a product’s usefulness across colleagues who work in different areas of a business can all take time.
So how can you overcome some of the common issues with the B2B marketing of SaaS? Here are some tips and tricks you should try.
Record Screencasts
One reason many possible customers never even contact you is because they don’t really understand what your SaaS product does. Often the functionalities are described in words and ‘what’s included’ lists on the pricing plan web page, but prospective customers can’t actually visualize what the software does. This is why recording screencasts is really important in SaaS marketing. Show prospective customers what the product does in various different screencasts that show off different aspects of the software. Invest in some good quality audio and subtitling to go with it too.
If you have some existing customers who already love your software, consider recording a promotional video with them, incorporating some screencast elements into it. This can be a powerful asset for your B2B marketing, as it will demonstrate the software and help potential customers understand why it is so useful.
Offer a Free Trial
Most prospective customers expect a free trial before they buy any software these days. So don’t miss out by being one of the few SaaS companies that does not offer this! As well as showing off the capabilities of your software, a trial period is also a great way to show the other brilliant aspects of your business. Demonstrate your good customer service, have helpful humans at the end of an email or live chat if they’re needed, plus show any added extras you offer paying customers. At the end of the free trial period, offer a great discount for the first month of subscription. This will make it difficult for them to not sign up.
Use Paid Advertising
Most marketing professionals have some advertising budget, and using this on targeted paid advertising is an effective method for promoting SaaS. Social platforms such as LinkedIn and Meta (Facebook) can offer great targeting, to help you get your adverts in front of the right people. Google AdWords is another must for most SaaS marketing campaigns. One key tip is to focus budget specifically on desktop users. Research shows that prospective customers who are searching for software for their business are mostly doing so on desktop computers. This is against the norm for most other types of advertising, which increasingly focus on mobile, so this will help you channel your advertising budget towards serious prospects.
Create Expert Content
One struggle many SaaS marketers have is to find new ways of describing their product, or they find it difficult to bring it to life. Often there is only so much you can do with a product description alone. This is where a content strategy can really help. Developing original and interesting content has multiple benefits. It helps to consolidate the idea that you are experts in your field, it helps you describe your product from different angles, and it is great for search engine optimization (SEO). Any additional content you create can be repurposed for marketing purposes on multiple channels.
When you are first creating a content marketing strategy, think as broadly as possible about what topics and themes your company is knowledgeable about. What different industries can your software support? Who are the people behind the company and what are their stories? Can you create some case studies of how your software has helped some customers? What kind of advice and ‘how to’ guides would you be able to give as a company? These are all the building blocks of creating a thriving blog and content marketing strategy, which will help you push your business further.