Growth Marketing Strategies Every SaaS Startup Should Be Using

At a glance:

- Build a Content Marketing Plan
- Build a Two-Way Referral Program
- Leverage Influencer Marketing & Social Media
- Personalize Your Email Campaigns
- Create a Perfect Landing Page For Your Product
- Optimize Your App Store Listing

Are you a part of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry? In order to ensure effective & consistent growth in the realm of SaaS products, you must be equipped with an actionable growth marketing plan. Your marketing team must proactively reach customers in creative ways since leads and prospects aren't just going to appear of their own accord. To succeed in a crowded marketplace, you must understand your customers' behaviors and adapt your acquisition strategy accordingly. And to achieve the success you’re shooting for, you’ll need to generate leads and drive sales across multiple channels.

Developing a clear growth strategy will help your business accelerate and establish your brand as one of market leadership. Here are some effective growth marketing strategies that you can implement for your SaaS startup in 2022:

1. Build a Content Marketing Plan

It's no surprise that content marketing is a major factor in the success of many SaaS startups. It's a tried and true method for building brand awareness and generating leads. It is a long-term strategy that requires you to think beyond the sale. However, according to data shared by Cision, nearly 15% of SaaS companies still don’t have blogs.

SaaS content marketing is about more than just blogging or social media content. It's about creating and sharing valuable information with your target audience in order to build trust and credibility, so that they choose your product over that of the competition when it’s time to make a purchase decision.

Therefore, instead of putting your resources in just videos, blogs, or social media, zero in on formulating an extensive strategy that uses multiple marketing channels for increasing your outreach to the highest number of prospects possible. Here are some proven practices suggested by HubSpot that you can apply to build an ideal SaaS content strategy:

• Utilize engaging content to gather the contact information of users, such as gated content, blog subscription popups, etc.

• Create and publish quality, persona-driven, and relevant content regularly. Make sure that it addresses the pain points of your audience and is well-optimized for search engines.

• Encourage customer retention through your content by sharing useful content like video tutorials, FAQs, guides, and more.

Learn more about how to create a content marketing strategy to grow your business here.

2. Build a Two-Way Referral Program

One of the best ways to grow your user base quickly is by providing your customers with an incentive to refer new users. And what better way to incentivize referrals than by offering something that gives both the referrer and the referee value?

A two-way referral program provides incentives for both parties—your current customer gets a discount for referring new users, and the new user also receives a discount on your product. This creates a win-win situation in which you not only get more users but retain your existing ones as well. Therefore, make sure that you include a two-way referral program in your SaaS digital marketing strategy.

That said, it’s important not to create overly complicated referral programs, or they won’t be effective. It should be easy for your users to refer other people and understand how they will benefit from doing so.

One of the most impactful referral programs that we have seen is that by Dropbox. In their referral program, every person who signs up for Dropbox gets 500MB of extra space for every person they refer. They also have an incentive for the person who was referred: If a referral signs up, both parties get an additional 500MB. This model gives users a reason to share Dropbox with their friends without giving away too much space, which would be very costly in the long run.

3. Leverage Influencer Marketing & Social Media

Influencer marketing has been around for a long time, but it’s becoming more prevalent in the SaaS industry. Influencers are people who have gained a large following on social media or other platforms and can influence others through their recommendations. They can help you spread your message and get your brand out there. As such, your SaaS digital marketing strategy should also incorporate the assistance of influential people.

The key is to find influencers who have similar audiences as your target market and provide value for them by offering free access to your product or service in exchange for promotion on their social media channels. This helps you build relationships with people who will promote your brand organically on their own channels while also increasing brand recognition among their followers.

Read our complete guide on influencer marketing for your business!

Social media is an important part of every business, but it’s especially important for SaaS startups because it allows them to interact with potential customers on a personal level and showcase what makes their product different from the competition. Your social media strategy should include posting content regularly and engaging with people who comment on it or share it with their friends. Using channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn will help you reach a wider audience. If you want to reach out to specific groups, you can use Facebook Groups or Instagram hashtags.

To learn more about how to make the best use of social media marketing for your business, read this!

4. Personalize Your Email Campaigns

There's a good chance that you've already heard the advice to personalize your email marketing campaigns. The reason it's so important is that it works, plain and simple. According to research by HubSpot, over 20 percent of marketers mention that personalization can enhance email engagement. Also, 80 percent of customers are more inclined to buy from brands that provide personalized experiences. When it comes to SaaS digital marketing, personalizing your emails can be as simple as using the recipient's first name in the subject line or body of the email; this will help get the attention of the reader and make them feel like you're talking directly to them, which can increase how likely they are to open it in the first place, and then read through to completion.

You can also segment your email lists based on attributes like age group, gender, or location to send out relevant content that fits your reader. This will make them more likely to engage with the content they receive because they'll find it valuable, which can lead them down the path toward becoming a customer.

To find out what type of content would be most useful for each segment, consider sending an automated survey email asking subscribers about their preferences. You might ask for their occupation or position, or what kind of topics they'd like to hear.

Discover 6 actionable email marketing tips to maximize ROI!

5. Create a Perfect Landing Page for Your Product

When it comes to SaaS digital marketing, landing pages play a vital role in helping users discover the value of your product. With the right layout, content, and messaging, you can convert visitors into paying customers.

A landing page is also an opportunity for you to tell a story—to showcase the personality of your startup and why you stand out from the competition. Here are some best practices and tips on how to create a good landing page for your product:

• Put yourself in the shoes of your target customer, and understand what problems they have that you can solve. Write content that speaks directly to them and makes them feel like you know what they need.

• Keep it simple, make sure the first thing someone sees when they visit your landing page is a clear explanation of what you do or how you can help them. If it takes more than one sentence, add a brief description underneath. Avoid using industry jargon, because many people that read your site might not understand what it means—instead, use language that everyone can understand.

• Make sure all of the key information about your product or service is easily accessible and digestible. Consider adding feature pages or an FAQ section where interested customers can find useful information related to their queries.

Check out our 6-point checklist for creating an effective landing page!

6. Optimize Your App Store Listing

Last but not the least, to have a complete SaaS marketing strategy, make sure that you carefully optimize your app store listing. This includes optimizing the name, description, screenshots, and keywords associated with your application. The goal here is to make sure that the search results for your app are as compelling as possible.

One way to do this is by using an A/B testing tool like Optimizely or Visual Website Optimizer (VWO). You can use these tools to test different variations of your descriptions, names, and screenshots against each other and find out what works best.

You should also consider using a tool like AppTweak or Mobile Action which will allow you to monitor how well your competitors are doing in terms of downloads and revenue per user (ARPPU). This will help you decide which features are working best for them and which ones you should be focusing on to beat them out on those metrics

So, if you're wondering how to create a growth marketing and customer acquisition strategy for your SaaS startup or business, we hope the strategies above help shed some light on what's possible. Experiment with different marketing channels and techniques, work hand-in-hand with your customer success data, have fun with it, and tweak along the way. Your end goal is to find that magical combination of tactics that resonates with your target audience and converts into paying customers.

Need cost-effective growth marketing services for your SaaS agency? Here at Parkyd Digital, we provide a broad umbrella of digital marketing solutions to small businesses, startups, eCommerce agencies, and more. Book a free consultation with us to discuss your requirements.

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