December 21, 2022 •Devin Dabney
SaaS product marketing is, in short, the ever-evolving strategy for marketing a specific digital product or service. When done well, a SaaS marketing strategy takes into account all stages of the user journey. It can do all of the following, and more:
- Change alongside the product
- Educate new users
- Promote high user retention
- Help reduce churn
While any business should be adaptable, the strategy for marketing SaaS companies has to be even more adaptable, as both the product and the market are constantly changing. Creating a continuous stream of fresh SaaS content might seem like an impossible task, but with a few best practices to fall back on, you’ll always have a starting point for marketing your product—whatever it is!
What Makes SaaS Marketing Unique?
Marketing SaaS companies is notably different from marketing a physical product or service. There are some similarities in the principles used, but SaaS being a digital product adds an entirely new dimension to how it is best marketed. To highlight the differences, let's say you have a good idea for a B2B SaaS product: an add-on for Microsoft Office that makes dashboard creation easier. Now, let’s compare selling that add-on to selling something radically different: Girl Scout cookies. There are many differences between marketing these two products:
SaaS Products Are Digital
A SaaS product can be tricky to explain. It’s easy to place a box of Thin Mints cookies in someone’s hand, but it’s tough to summarize a nuanced digital service—especially if it’s innovative. You also (usually) can’t place it in someone’s hand. However, having a digital product can also be seen as an advantage. After all, your product is available anywhere there’s an internet connection, which means you don’t have to go door-to-door!
The Value of SaaS Products Isn’t (Always) Obvious
In the same way that SaaS products are complex to explain, they can be just as complex to showcase. For contrast, you know what you’re getting into if you buy Girl Scout cookies—cookies! Also, while cookies are a universal product that don’t aim to solve a specific problem (unless you’re craving them), oftentimes SaaS products provide specific answers for specific problems. An add-on for Microsoft Office dashboard generation is a targeted solution, which means in order to sell it, your customer has to:
- Know what it is
- Know that they need it
- Feel that your add-on is the best choice
On top of all that, even if your product solves a huge pain point for consumers, they may not even fully know or understand that problem to begin with. A little bit of education can go a long way in communicating your product, and the more nuanced your product is, the wider your education gap will be to make sales.
SaaS Products Are Usually Subscription-Based
Whereas Girl Scout Cookies unfortunately don’t have a subscription system, SaaS products are almost always built around this model. Services like Spotify, Monday.com, or Slack are aiming to have long-term commitments and keep consumers happy for extended periods of time. While this does mean you have to work harder to get the kind of sales you really want, it also means that once you’ve made the sales, your customers should stick around—if your product is good. It also does mean they can quit your services at any moment, which is why customer satisfaction is so important.
Now that we’ve laid out a few things that make SaaS marketing unique, let’s talk about how to market a SaaS product.
SaaS Marketing Best Practices
Have a Plan for Pre-Launch
The sales you make in SaaS are not over once they’ve been closed. As the product and the market change, you need to make sure that not only do your customers stay happy, but that they can continually engage with your product in a new way. Marketing content should facilitate consumers’ exploration of your product.
Cast of Wide Net—Made of All Kinds of Threads
The content you’re making should be focused on a wide variety of relevant topics, threads, and problems related to your product. Remember, people are going to come to you with a wide range of knowledge and exposure to their pain points (and your solutions), so the more threads you can lay down, the wider your reach will be.
Pay Attention to Your Customers
This means not just knowing your ideal clients, but what they’re searching for, and whether they know about your product or not. Good SaaS marketing has the ability to respond to current industry trends and what people are already looking at. This doesn’t mean your product needs to change to match internet trends, but rather what words you use and what you choose to talk about when marketing your product.
Of course, a good portion of the strategy will depend on what your product or service is, but each of these practices can be seen in the best B2B SaaS marketing campaigns. For example, Spotify introduces features like Spotify Wrapped to keep their subscribers anticipating something around the end of the year, and Wistia uses podcasts & videos to educate consumers. Using these tactics alongside others will help keep your marketing fresh, sustainable, and beneficial to your business.
Now, It’s Time to Build Your Marketing Strategy
In a saturated digital marketplace, it’s not enough to simply have an awesome product or service; you also have to have a strong plan of action for sharing it, and that’s what great marketing can do for you. Marketing is arguably just as important as having a good idea, though obviously that helps. And as we’ve discussed, the best SaaS marketing campaigns are multi-pronged, educational, and can adapt to customer needs and trends.
This is where DemandJump can help take your marketing to the next level. Our Insights Platform gives you valuable consumer data—what they’re searching for, what questions they have, and what problems they’re looking to solve—then we help you turn those insights into an actionable marketing strategy, complete with interlinked, comprehensive webs of content to help you dominate the search engines.
Reach out to us when you’re ready to see your page-one rankings skyrocket. Our customers have already done amazing things with our help, and you can too!
