You’ve worked countless hours developing your new software and are ready to put it out to the world. The process may seem simple – your software solves a major problem – so it should be an easy sell. But, in today’s oversaturated market, marketing a SaaS startup has become a monster to tackle.
So, we’ve put together this blog to guide you through some of the steps that you should take to get your new SaaS company noticed and start selling.
Read More – A Complete Guide to B2B SaaS Marketing
You may be excited and ready to jump into more meticulous marketing tactics, but before you’re ready to market your software, you need to define who you’re marketing towards. One of the best ways to get a very clear definition of who you’re selling to is to create an ideal customer profile (ICP).
With this exercise, you will create a character that represents your ideal target customer. You can do this for B2B marketing, by treating a business as your character. This forces you to think deeply about who your target audience is.
Asking some of the following questions can help get this process started:
Once you have a deep understanding of the businesses (or consumers) you’re marketing to, it's time to get started on your strongest marketing tool: your website.
Your website will provide the first impression to your future customers, and many times it will be where they decide whether or not your software is something they will consider further. So, it is crucial that your imagery, messaging, and SEO are on point before launching your site.
Your color scheme should be visually appealing, but also consistent with your brand. You should choose your imagery wisely, avoid using images that look good but don’t add value to the contents of your site.
One of the most important things to perfect when creating your website is your messaging. When a customer arrives at your website, they should easily be able to determine what problem your software solves and how to buy it.
The key is found in efficiency. Simply present what your software does, how it can solve the customers problem, and how they can buy it.
Now that your website has great imagery and messaging, you have to consider how Google and other search engines will view your site and content. You can optimize this by using SEO best practices.
An easy way to get your SEO strategy started is to put yourself in your ideal customer's shoes. Ask yourself, if I were looking to buy this software, or solve this problem, what would I search? You can start by searching these questions and using a keyword research site to determine the relevancy, difficulty, and cost of certain keywords.
After determining what your audience is searching, you can answer their questions on your site through blogs, strategically placing relevant and low difficulty keywords throughout your content. This let’s Google know what your content is about and who they should show it to.
At the end of the day, your goal in marketing is to generate more leads who eventually turn into clients. There are two ways to generate leads as a B2B SaaS startup.
Outbound marketing includes cold outreach to potential customers and pitching them your software. You can use the information you’ve gathered about your target audience, find businesses that match that, and contact them directly.
Outbound marketing can be effective, but much of the market is oversaturated with these tactics, which has left prospects bitter towards cold outreach attempts.
A new and more organic approach to lead generation is inbound marketing. Inbound marketing means using your website as a hub for content that entices and informs your visitors. If done correctly, SEO will drive organic traffic to you, allowing your leads to find you on their own terms.
It is important to note that calls-to-action (CTA’s) are very important to achieve this. Make sure your CTAs are clear, concise, and relevant to your goal. A good way to turn a website visitor into a lead is by having them fill out a form with their contact information.
In short, an inbound system will involve your target audience searching for a solution to your problem, coming across your website (due to effective SEO), learning about your software, seamlessly being directed to your call to action, and entering themselves as a lead.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of these steps, there are marketing agencies that will take care of this process for you. Here at Open Path Digital, we create premium inbound marketing funnels for B2B SaaS companies. Our strategies create lasting results, generating organic leads for clients that scale their business.
One of our recent clients was able to boost their lead generation by 25x and their new business quotes by 19x. We avoid using paid ads and other short term methods, so our system is lasting, generating leads long after they’re in place.
Learn more about how Open Path can help with your SaaS marketing strategy.