12 Proven SaaS Marketing Strategies from SaaS Experts

It’s estimated that global cloud spending will grow 21.7% in 2022. This trend offers SaaS businesses a lucrative opportunity to increase their market share and MRR.

In order to take advantage of this opportunity, SaaS companies need to move fast. A SaaS marketing team typically engages in multiple SaaS marketing tactics to stay ahead of the curve.

SaaS marketing is a whole new ballgame to traditional B2B marketing. SaaS marketing strategies focus heavily on lead generation, customer retention, and minimizing customer churn by optimizing their SaaS marketing funnel.

B2B SaaS marketers should be educating customers on their solution to optimize their SaaS marketing funnel… but not too much. A study by Gartner found that customers find absorbing too much information overwhelming—so don’t overdo it.

Drawing up an effective SaaS marketing strategy can be a tad tricky, but we’ll walk you through some digital marketing strategies so you can take your SaaS business’s growth to the next level.

SaaS Marketing Strategies to try in 2022

Strategy 1: Supercharge your comms

The faster you can respond to existing customers or leads, the better.

All SaaS companies want to respond to their customers and leads right away, but that can be tricky when you’re managing multiple marketing channels. Tricky, but not impossible.

Many SaaS companies–like ClickUp–are acing their customer-facing communications.

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ClickUp’s social media marketing game is hitting the nail on the head. They don’t only answer grievances; they respond to almost all types of communications—customer feedback, queries, and appreciation.

They even jump into conversations where the user hasn’t tagged them but has mentioned the product.

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Being proactive goes a long way in the SaaS industry. Keep putting your name out there, and you will see results.

Strategy 2: Use content marketing to highlight your value

If you’ve only just started marketing your SaaS product that’s still in its infancy, you might find it daunting to compete with the big wigs.

Your website won’t have a high enough domain authority to rank for keywords with high keyword difficulty, meaning you’ll find it hard to dethrone the top rankers. Luckily for you, you don’t have to.

Instead of focusing on top of the funnel (ToFu) content, focus on the low-hanging fruits. Do some keyword research and find keywords with low competition and high intent.

Workzone—the project management tool—does this well. It competes with SaaS companies like Asana and Monday.com–and guess what you’ll find at the top of the SERP when searching for Asana alternatives?

John Doherty, Founder and CEO of Credo, agrees that focusing on low-volume, high-intent keywords is a good SaaS marketing strategy. He explains:

“With B2B SaaS SEO, it’s important to focus on high intent keywords. While ranking number one for that keyword may only drive 100 clicks in that month, you know that a relatively high percentage (10–20%) are going to become users. 

Do this 10 times over with various keywords and you’re at 100+ new signups per month. Depending on your price point (which in B2B should be healthy), this can mean a solid base of profitable growth off of which to grow.”

When comparing your SaaS products with your competitors, be objective. Your goal is not to focus on where competitors are losing, but to highlight where you’re winning.

Strategy 3: Building topical authority through guide content

SaaS companies that invest in content marketing can see ROI as high as 647%. Whilst you shouldn’t take this number as gospel, it’s definitely an indicator of content marketing’s potential.

A strategy we’ve noticed works well for our SaaS customers at Skale is positioning them as industry thought leaders. We tend to do this through heavily-researched, deep-dive guides.

That doesn’t mean reading the first ten results on Google, rehashing the content, and establishing yourself as an authoritative brand. You should study your target audience and cater to their specific needs.

Provide them with the value that your competitor’s content doesn’t, and do it in a more user-friendly way. Back your content and claims with up-to-date statistics and in-house research data where possible. Share expert opinions to build your brand’s credibility and address your reader’s pain point.

As our SEO Growth Strategist, Madison Holroyd, explains:

“It seems like many SEO specialists think of authority as only a ranking factor and not the tool for persuasion it is. 

Missing the idea that once you not only establish yourself as an authority in Google’s eyes but in the minds of those in the market place you’ve won half the battle to convert. This is because once you have authority in a marketplace potential clients will automatically trust you over competitors and seek out your advice.”

You should view building industry authority also as a sales strategy, not just a ranking factor. Focus on answering your reader’s questions and go above and beyond the target keyword.

Strategy 4: Make signing up easy and offer a free trial

Signing up shouldn’t be tedious. Making the signup process quick and easy is a no-brainer for SaaS providers.

Populate your landing pages with clear, strategically-placed CTAs. Mention that the user can sign up and solve their problem with a single click–highlight how easy the process is with some simple copy.

For instance, look at how Pipedrive has a call to action (CTA) on its homepage. From this pop-up, you can create an account and activate your 14-day free trial with a single click.

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Speaking of trials—they can help accelerate your customer acquisition efforts. The freemium model has long been a topic of debate in SaaS—with experts like Neil Patel having argued that a free trial could be dangerous for SaaS companies.

However, the cost-benefit almost always justifies offering a free trial for a SaaS company. There’s very little cost to providing a free trial for a SaaS product. 

Put simply, free trials are a very low-cost SaaS marketing strategy where you can highlight your: 

• Amazing product
• Top-notch customer success and support teams

Strategy 5: Iterate use cases and automate page creation

You can also aim to rank for keywords for your use cases—where and how businesses tend to use your product. Determine your software’s use cases and workflows and automate page creation to rank for relevant search terms for each individual use case.

HappyScribe, one of our SaaS clients, transcribes audiovisual content into a downloadable text file. There’s just one caveat—there are countless audio and video formats out there.

HappyScribe tackled this caveat by creating a page dedicated to each format. The website has a different landing page for Mp3 to text, Mp4 to text, M4a to text… you get the gist. 

They also have different pages for all the languages available on their platform, including English, Spanish, and German.

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Note that all pages look exactly the same, except for the relevant format or language. Now, you could argue that it’s duplicate content—but the strategy has worked very well for HappyScribe.

Our SEO Growth Strategist Jordi Cubiró explains why this strategy adds value to your search engine optimization efforts:

“The truth is that even though the pages contain almost the exact same text, they are serving different purposes and they are doing it properly.

If we were to look at user behavior metrics within those pages we would see that time on the page is high and that the exit rate is super low, since users find the tool useful and sign up. 

That’s why spending time defining your user personas and use cases is so important because, in the end, it will help you determine which kind of workflows your software helps users achieve.”

Strategy 6: Create case studies

82% of tech marketers use case studies because they find them to be persuasive. Your customers are more likely to trust unpaid recommendations over traditional marketing.

Take Skale’s case study, for example. It showcases results immediately in the heading: 4.5x increase in signups in less than 12 months. There are also several other Skale’s case studies as well as quotes from clients on our homepage that act as social proof.

People love stories. Case studies are stories of your business’s success from your biggest advocates—satisfied clients who are happy to recommend your product.

If case studies sound intimidating, don’t worry. Use HubSpot’s guide and template to create your first case study and start showcasing results to your potential customers.

Strategy 7: Create free tools

SaaS providers often have the resources to create free tools like calculators cost-effectively. Free tools are an excellent way to put your brand in front of users who aren’t directly looking for your product, but searching for a related keyword you don’t currently rank for.

Take SurveyMoney’s AB Testing Calculator for instance. It’s a free tool that provides value and introduces site visitors to SurveyMonkey.

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Free tools aren’t only a great way to bring more site visitors—they’re also great for link building as they typically get a lot of backlinks from other websites.

Strategy 8: Use Capterra PPC Ads to capture demand

Capterra’s PPC (pay-per-click) program is a low-cost alternative to Google Ads for yielding high-intent traffic. Users come to Capterra with a buying mindset to compare the software solutions available to them.

PPC campaigns on Capterra work more or less the same way as Google Ads or Facebook Ads. You can target your audience by category and geography.

However, bidding works differently on Capterra than Google Ads. Capterra places paid ads before all organic results, and bids are set in increments of $0.25. 

You will get no impressions on Google Ads with a very low bid, but you still might get a few on Capterra given that your ad will still be above all organic results.

If you’re keen on adding Capterra’s PPC to your SaaS marketing plan, our SEO Growth Strategist Ryan Prior has some advice for you.

Ryan explains that to run a successful Capterra PPC campaign, you should carefully study the categories before bidding. Consider your positioning, ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), and analyze your competition. He sheds more light on this using an example:

“For example, for Toggl Plan, the project management software category (on Capterra) had, by far, the most volume. It was also, however, the most competitive and had the highest cost-per-click. 

Plus, even though Toggl Plan is indeed a project management software, we found through user interviews that our ICP’s biggest reason to use Toggl Plan was for resource capacity planning. Guess what? That category was much cheaper, and the sign-ups activated & converted at a higher rate. Win-win!”

Strategy 9: Create high-intent solution-focused content

Ranking for high-intent keywords will allow you to be more aggressive with your CTAs and offer better conversions. You’ll also have enough organic search traffic to dial your marketing efforts down with supporting content like webinars.

‘How-to’ guides are a great example of the high-intent, solution-focused content that your content marketing strategy should include. When you create content that ranks for high-intent keywords, you put your brand’s name in front of potential customers exactly when they’re interested in the solution you provide.

Look at the current content ranking in the SERPs before you create your content. Is it a listicle? Is it a step-by-step guide? Does it include video?

Here are some excellent examples of ‘How-to‘ content that converts clicks into marketing qualified leads (MQLs):

• 10 Simple Ways To Measure Brand Awareness by Attest
• How To Create An Employee Benefits Package by Perkbox
• How To Hire A Graphic Designer by TestGorilla

Strategy 10: Get your product on customer review sites

Websites like G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius are so big because customers trust the reviews they see to better inform their decision.

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Your potential customers may be comparing SaaS products on one of these websites so you should aim to include them in your SaaS marketing strategy.

It’s not tough, either–you can get your product on review sites by contacting the review site’s editorial team.

Don’t just think of review sites as a stage for showcasing your product. It’s a place where customers will comment on aspects of your product that you hadn’t thought of yourself. Make good use of feedback to see what you can improve, and keep doing what your existing customers love about you.

Strategy 11: Introduce incentives for referral marketing

SaaS marketing is a world apart from marketing for other businesses. However, there’s still one thing that works equally well for them—referrals. Unsurprisingly, B2B companies with referrals experience a 70% higher conversion rate.

You’d be surprised how much effort your customer might put in to get that one extra month of premium subscription. However, the more you can sweeten the pot, the more referrals you’ll get.

Be careful never to low-ball your customers, though. You probably won’t see much action in your referral program if you offer $2 for every signup. You must make it worth your customer’s time.

For instance, Airtable offers $10 in credit for every referral that signs up. You can use it to upgrade to a premium plan or extend your current plan. Oh, and you also get the referral incentives for adding collaborators. Neat, huh?

Strategy 12: Collaborate with related SaaS companies

68% of customers make buying decisions—without feeling the need to speak with a sales rep—after seeing a co-marketing campaign.

Adding a co-marketing campaign to your SaaS marketing strategy can help you reach a new audience within the industry. This is why co-marketing is an excellent way to generate leads and earn a potential customer’s confidence.

As J.C. Granger, CEO of Infinity Marketing Group, explains:

“Partnerships created through co-marketing can help boost business in a number of ways. By presenting a co-marketed offer, you show that not only do you both have a lot to offer but that you also endorse each other’s services—which goes a long way in building trust and value within your industry.”

Start by identifying SaaS companies with a product that aligns well with your solution. Next, create proposals and get in touch with those companies to find out if they’d be interested in collaborating on a co-marketing campaign.

Provide details about the budget and how you’ll split the costs, as well as any other information you believe might be relevant for the decision-makers.

Which SaaS Marketing Strategy Will You Try First?

There are lots of moving parts when it comes to a successful SaaS marketing strategy. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, but take it step by step.

Regardless of which SaaS niche you’re serving, you’ll be able to use the marketing strategies discussed in this guide. Start getting your hands dirty with these tactics, experiment a little, and you’ll start seeing results. Once you start getting the hang of it, you could even create your own thought-leading SaaS marketing playbook.

Of course, if you’ve got too many hats to wear, you can always seek help from an experienced SaaS marketing agency. They’ll handle all the tricky bits so you can focus on what you do best—get in touch.

SaaS Marketing Strategies FAQs