What Is SaaS Marketing? 7 Steps to Get Started

What Is SaaS Marketing?

SaaS selling is simply a postulation of processes and activities software-as-a-service companies usage to beforehand their products to pull their people audience, person them into customers, and clasp those customers.

It often focuses connected showcasing the worth of the subscription-based tools for individuals and/or businesses. 

And SaaS companies trust heavy connected continuous selling efforts arsenic they merchandise caller updates and features. Because they request to pull caller customers and clasp the ones they already have. 

How Is SaaS Marketing Different from Marketing for Other Offerings?

SaaS selling is simply a subcategory of selling that focuses connected promoting cloud-based bundle solutions.

And it chiefly uses digital marketing—a benignant of selling that promotes products oregon services via integer channels similar search motor optimization (SEO), societal media marketing, integer ads, etc. 

But SaaS selling adapts these techniques to code the unsocial aspects of subscription-based bundle services. And the unsocial needs of SaaS customers.

Let's interruption down immoderate of the main ways SaaS selling differs from selling for different offerings:

Customer Lifecycle

The lawsuit lifecycle for SaaS products is perchance overmuch longer than for different products oregon services due to the fact that users stay customers arsenic agelong arsenic they proceed making payments—typically a monthly oregon yearly subscription.

This is wherefore task absorption instrumentality ClickUp regularly sends emails to existing escaped and paid users highlighting productivity tips, caller features, and lawsuit studies of palmy teams. 

This ongoing connection reminds users of ClickUp's value, encouraging them to renew their plans oregon upgrade.

Product Evolution

SaaS products are often updated, which means selling indispensable support gait with those updates and improvements. 

For example, Zoom launched a afloat selling run to item their instauration of end-to-end encryption. Which included contented similar this:

This helped reassure their existing users that their communications were adjacent much secure. And besides helped pull new, security-conscious users.

Communicating Pricing

Marketing SaaS products often involves promoting tiered pricing and/or freemium options, which requires a nuanced approach.

Slack is simply a large example. They connection a escaped program with basal features and much precocious plans for increasing teams. 

Their selling materials are designed to transportation existing escaped users to effort 1 of the paid options.

Customer Education

SaaS products often lick analyzable problems, which means your selling efforts request to absorption connected educating prospects astir the nonstop problems your bundle solves and however to usage it effectively. 

Take HubSpot, for example. 

They've created an academy of escaped courses, including a certification people connected however to usage HubSpot's lawsuit narration absorption (CRM) platform. Which shows the software's applicable applications.

Plus, this people serves arsenic a utile lead magnet. As prospects request to motion up to entree the course.

How to Create a SaaS Marketing Plan

Creating a SaaS selling program is similar making a roadmap for each your selling activities.

Let’s interruption down the steps progressive successful creating one:

Step 1: Identify Your Ideal Customers

Identifying your perfect customers helps you tailor your messaging, take the close channels, and beforehand features that resonate with them.

Start by analyzing your existent idiosyncratic basal (if you person one). 

Ask yourself questions like:

• What manufacture are they in?
• What's their company’s size? 
• What problems does your bundle lick for them?

Next, usage Semrush’s One2Target instrumentality to recognize your broader people assemblage based connected your competitors.

Open the tool, participate up to 5 competitors, take a location, and click "Analyze."

You’ll spot 4 tabs:

• Demographics: Shows age, gender, and state breakdowns
• Socioeconomics: Reveals household size, income, employment, and acquisition details
• Behavior: Displays interests, preferred devices, and preferred societal media platforms
• Audience Overlap: Shows however overmuch those brands’ audiences overlap and which websites your imaginable customers sojourn astir frequently

Use the information from these tabs to make elaborate buyer personas. These are fictional representations of your perfect customers, implicit with demographics, goals, challenges, and preferences.

Semrush offers a free purchaser idiosyncratic tool that includes respective templates and takes you done the process with guiding questions. 

Once you’ve created one, you tin easy download it and stock it with applicable teams. 

Step 2: Set Specific Marketing Goals

Setting SaaS selling goals provides a wide absorption for your efforts and helps you way progress, truthful you tin marque data-driven decisions.

Effective SaaS selling goals are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

These goals should people align with your wide institution goals. 

So, if your institution wants to summation caller paid users by 10% and you cognize that escaped proceedings users go paid users astatine a precocious rate, a SMART SaaS selling extremity mightiness look similar this:

"Increase escaped proceedings sign-ups by 25% implicit the adjacent quarter."

Based connected this, the metrics you’ll usage to measurement occurrence (typically called cardinal show inidcator—KPIs for short) mightiness be:

• Free proceedings sign-ups
• Conversion complaint from escaped proceedings to paid subscription
• Website traffic
• Organic (unpaid) website traffic

Step 3: Develop Your Unique Value Proposition and Messaging

Coming up with a unique worth proposition (UVP)—a wide connection that explains wherefore customers should take you implicit competitors—provides you with a cohesive connection you tin usage crossed each your channels and activities.

Doing this ensures that your assemblage (whether they find you done a Google ad, a societal media post, oregon an email) receives accordant messaging astir reasons to take your product.

Start by identifying what sets your merchandise isolated to signifier your UVP:

• Is it easier to use?
• Is it cheaper?
• Does it lick a occupation successful a caller way?

Next, see your people audience's symptom points based connected the probe you did earlier. How does your merchandise code these? 

Use these insights to make your UVP and messaging that reinforces it.

For example, Evernote’s website messaging is, “Remember everything and tackle immoderate task with your notes, tasks, and docket each successful 1 place.”

While Notion's main website connection is, "One workspace to signifier enactment and life."

While the mode you framework these messages tin change, the halfway should enactment the aforesaid crossed each selling channels.

Here are a fewer tips to travel up with your ain messaging:

• Ensure it’s concise, clear, and compelling
• Develop cardinal messages that item antithetic aspects of your UVP, tailored to assorted lawsuit segments oregon usage cases
• A/B trial antithetic versions of your messaging with your assemblage connected your website oregon successful email campaigns to spot which ones resonate the most

Step 4: Plan Your Marketing Channels

You present request to take the marketing channels that volition champion assistance you scope your people audience, and these should beryllium informed by your goals and what you learned during the assemblage probe stage.

This means your circumstantial choices volition beryllium unsocial to you.

But let’s interruption down immoderate of the astir communal selling channels for SaaS businesses and however you could usage them:

SEO

SEO involves taking steps to heighten your SaaS website's visibility successful hunt results for applicable keywords to pull imaginable customers who are actively searching for solutions similar yours.

There are 3 main components to SaaS SEO: 

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO involves optimizing idiosyncratic pages to amended your hunt rankings for applicable queries.

Begin with keyword probe to recognize what presumption your imaginable customers are typing into Google. 

To bash this, usage the Keyword Magic Tool.

Just participate a effect keyword (a wide word related to your SaaS product) and adhd your domain. Then click “Search.”

You’ll get perchance thousands of keyword ideas and a Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %) people for each. Which tells however hard it’ll beryllium for your circumstantial domain to fertile for those keywords (lower is easier).

Use the "Personal KD%" filter to spot lone the keywords your tract tin fertile for easily.

Typically, you privation to absorption connected keywords that have:

• Moderate to precocious hunt volumes (at slightest 100 searches per month)
• Low PKD% (lower than 30%)

Comparison keywords (like "monday vs asana") and those focused connected the word "best" (like "best task absorption software") often thrust high-intent postulation (traffic that’s adjacent to making a acquisition decision) for SaaS products.

Also, purpose to see problem-solving phrases (like "how to negociate distant teams") that marque consciousness for your marque and presumption that align with your product’s features.

(Check retired our elaborate usher connected how to bash keyword probe for SEO for much step-by-step instructions.)

Once you person your people keywords, make keyword-optimized blog posts and assets pages that code circumstantial challenges your bundle solves.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO focuses mostly connected making your website casual for hunt engines to recognize and scale (store successful a database).

For example, you request a wide tract architecture with intuitive paths betwixt related pages. Not conscionable for hunt engines, but besides to guarantee users tin easy find what they need.

And it’s mostly champion to usage a responsive plan that displays your tract decently connected each devices:

Other aspects of method SEO are utilizing structured information (or schema markup) to assistance hunt engines amended recognize your pages and maintaining speedy loading speed.

Use Semrush's Site Audit instrumentality to bash a broad investigation of your website's method health. 

Just acceptable up a task successful the tool, and you’ll spot an overview leafage similar the 1 below. 

To drill down into circumstantial issues, click “View details” nether immoderate of the “Thematic Reports.”

You’ll spot a database of method issues connected your tract related to the circumstantial study you chose. And accusation connected however to hole those issues.

Check retired our step-by-step usher connected however to execute a technical SEO audit for much tips. 

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO helps your hunt motor show via activities performed extracurricular of your website—like gathering high-quality links from different reputable sites.

Here are immoderate off-page SEO tips:

• Create link-worthy resources similar merchandise guides, manufacture reports, and integration tutorials
• Engage with bundle communities (like those successful Stack Overflow, Hackernoon, and Product Hunt) and stock adjuvant links erstwhile it’s appropriate 
• Develop partnerships with complementary tools for co-marketing opportunities

Follow this off-page SEO checklist for much guidance.

Social media marketing involves creating and sharing contented connected societal platforms wherever your assemblage spends clip to physique marque awareness, link with existent customers, and thrust postulation to your SaaS product—without having to walk wealth connected ads.

For SaaS companies, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) are often the astir effectual platforms. 

LinkedIn is large for gathering B2B connections. And X is perfect for providing speedy updates and generating lawsuit engagement.

To get started, take the close platforms based connected wherever your people assemblage is astir active.

How bash you find retired what these platforms are?

By utilizing the One2Target “Behavior” study from earlier. 

Next, usage Semrush Social to negociate and optimize your societal media beingness crossed aggregate platforms. 

The app lets you people and docket posts crossed Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X, Google Business Profile, and Pinterest. All successful 1 place.

And you’ll get elaborate insights astir your show with metrics similar impressions, reach, and engagement rate.

Email Marketing

Email marketing involves sending targeted messages to radical who’ve expressed involvement successful your SaaS product. It helps nurture leads, onboard caller customers, and prosecute existing users.

Email selling tin impact newsletters, merchandise update messages, onboarding sequences, and retention campaigns. 

Start by segmenting your email database based connected idiosyncratic behaviors oregon preferences to guarantee your messages are relevant. 

For example:

• Send a invited email to caller users with tips connected getting started 
• Send an email highlighting caller features to existing customers

Like this email from Canva:

Craft compelling taxable lines and usage personalization to boost unfastened rates and engagement. And usage analytics to way show and refine your campaigns implicit time.

Paid Advertising

If you person the fund for it, paid advertising helps you rapidly scope imaginable customers by placing your SaaS merchandise successful beforehand of them for a fee.

Google Ads is 1 of the astir fashionable advertizing platforms for SaaS brands, offering 2 main types of ads: search ads and display ads.

Google hunt ads are text-based ads that look successful Google’s hunt results erstwhile users hunt for circumstantial keywords.

For example, if idiosyncratic searches “best task absorption software,” your advertisement could amusement up connected the results page. Like this:

Search ads typically usage a pay-per-click (PPC) exemplary that involves paying a interest each clip idiosyncratic clicks connected your ads. 

Display ads are ocular ads that look connected third-party websites and apps that spouse with Google via the Google Display Network (GDN).

These ads tin beryllium images, videos, oregon banners that drawback users' attraction arsenic they browse different websites and platforms. And tin look similar this:

They’re effectual for gathering brand awareness and reaching a broader assemblage that whitethorn not beryllium actively searching for your merchandise but could go funny done continued vulnerability to it.

You tin besides tally ads connected societal media platforms similar LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. And, depending connected the platform, you tin scope circumstantial audiences based connected occupation titles, institution size, interests, and behaviors.

Social media ads tin beryllium utilized to showcase your product's features, stock lawsuit occurrence stories, connection escaped trials, etc. You tin besides usage them for retargeting imaginable customers who person already visited your website oregon interacted with you connected societal media.

It’s a bully thought to commencement with a tiny budget, trial antithetic advertisement formats, and analyse your results to optimize your campaigns for the champion performance.

Further reading: The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Advertising

Step 5: Build Targeted Campaigns

Creating marketing campaigns that beforehand your SaaS marque to circumstantial assemblage segments helps you scope much imaginable customers. 

Start by reasoning astir however assorted campaigns could align with your goal. 

Also deliberation astir imaginable customers astatine antithetic stages of familiarity with your product. 

This is known arsenic the buyer’s journey, and it consists of 3 main stages:

• Awareness: For those conscionable discovering solutions similar yours, make acquisition contented explaining the problems your SaaS merchandise solves
• Consideration: For those acquainted with your merchandise category, connection contented that highlights your unsocial features 
• Decision: For those adjacent to deciding, supply contented that encourages them to instrumentality the adjacent step

If we instrumentality with our extremity from the archetypal step, these could beryllium applicable run examples:

• Create SEO-focused blog posts targeting informational keywords (keywords radical hunt erstwhile they privation to larn astir something) related to your SaaS merchandise to thrust much organic traffic to your website, wherever galore of those visitors are apt to motion up for a escaped trial
• Design a societal media advertisement run featuring idiosyncratic occurrence stories and offering a limited-time extended proceedings play to boost escaped proceedings sign-ups
• Launch an email run targeted to website visitors who’ve converted but haven’t yet signed up for a escaped trial

Shape your run messages utilizing your UVP and accommodate it arsenic needed for the circumstantial transmission and campaign. 

Step 6: Allocate Budget and Resources

To commencement implementing your plans, you request to delegate funds and squad members to each of your planned campaigns to guarantee you tin execute your SaaS selling program effectively.

Start by estimating these costs:

• Advertising spend
• Content creation
• Tools for creating content, sending emails, managing societal media, etc.
• Additional unit required

Depending connected your budget, you mightiness person to marque adjustments. Like deciding to forgo paid advertizing oregon utilizing freelance endowment implicit hiring in-house squad members. 

If you privation to inquire for further budget, contiguous your estimates to your enactment team.

Be prepared to amusement however each concern ties backmost to supporting concern goals to summation your chances of getting approval.

Further reading: How to Create a Marketing Budget successful 9 Steps (+ Free Template)

7. Launch Your Campaigns and Measure Success

Once you person your program and cognize what resources are disposable to you, enactment your program into enactment and measurement show to spot what’s moving and what needs adjustment. 

For SEO-focused content, you tin measurement show utilizing Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Position Tracking (shown below).

If you’re moving societal media ads, you tin usage in-platform tools similar those disposable successful Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and X Ads Manager to presumption results.

And email selling platforms similar Mailchimp tin assistance you measure your email campaigns.

Implement a Winning SaaS Marketing Plan

A SaaS selling program tin person respective moving pieces depending connected your goals. Whether you privation much traffic, sign-ups, oregon accrued retention volition impact what your program needs to include.

Semrush offers a suite of selling tools that tin help—no substance what your goals are.

Sign up for a free Semrush account to commencement exploring these options.