Software as a service (SaaS) is a business model that is gaining huge popularity day by day. Security, usability, accessibility, and affordability are a few of its major advantages that make SaaS a preferred choice for many businesses. There are more than 21,000 SaaS companies and the SaaS market is projected to get bigger and reach $380 million by the end of 2021.

As the statistics suggest that the SaaS industry will grow more competitive, making it essential for SaaS companies to get their marketing game strong. When it comes to promoting your SaaS business, marketers experience a unique set of challenges. The marketing funnel and buyer’s journey are entirely different from traditional businesses. There is no tangible product that you can show to your prospects, making it more challenging for SaaS marketers to reach the target audience.

For SaaS companies, convincing potential customers to integrate their software product into their business strategy is no easy feat. Whether you want to create brand awareness, earn an email address or encourage prospects to sign up for a free or premium version, marketing your SaaS product can help you achieve your goals.

Implementing some of the best SaaS marketing strategies will definitely convince your future consumers to buy your product and get more conversions.  

Let’s discover.

SaaS Marketing Strategies

1. FREE Product Trials

Every SaaS business should implement the strategy of product trials into their marketing plan to get more leads. Believe it or not, trials are the most effective tools for SaaS companies to sell their software products to their tech-savvy audience. By giving your potential customers an opportunity to trial your product, you can increase your chances of driving more sales.

A study conducted by Invespcro suggests that 70% of trial users are more likely to buy a premium version after reaching the free limit. So, incorporate free trials into your SaaS marketing plan and encourage people to use your product and explore the benefits your product has in store for them.

2. Effortless Signup

Obviously, no one wants to experience a frustrating registration process to use your product. Offering a hassle-free signup process will have a positive impact on your conversion rate. You can use third-party authentication services to make the signup process easier and smoother. Integrating Google, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn into your registration process will eliminate the need for email verification.

To make the signup process easier, remove unnecessary fields from the form. For instance, if your signup form includes company name, designation, number of employees, chances are you will have a significant reduction in the conversion rate.

A study suggests that companies that don’t require credit card details at the time of registration successfully convert 2X more paying customers than those who ask for a credit card for the signup process. If you want more and more people to try the software platform, don’t ask for credit card information in a free trial. Remember, hassle-free signup process is the key to successful SaaS marketing. 

3. Clear Pricing Strategy

It is one of the most effective SaaS marketing strategies that can help you achieve the desired results. No matter what pricing structure you follow, the key is to make it visible to the users. Clearly state what features you offer with each pricing plan to eliminate any ambiguities of your customers. This way, your potential customers will set the right expectations when they browse the pricing plan.  

Source: Wave.Video

Approximately 40% of SaaS companies take a value-based approach for the pricing strategy, while 50% of SaaS businesses prefer user-based pricing plans. List down the features of specific plans on the pricing page; don’t forget to mention annual or monthly billing structure. Show a crystal clear comparison of annual and monthly plans to help users choose the cost-saving option.

4. Introduce Deals and Discounts

There is no denying the fact that customers prefer brands that offer special discounts and promotional offers. Especially, when it comes to buying a SaaS product, people don’t want to pay full price. SaaS businesses can also take maximum advantage of this important marketing strategy to entice users to try their products. By offering exclusive discounts, you can attract more and more users and tell them what they can get with the offer.

According to a study, only 31% of SaaS companies are ready to offer discounts and usually 30 days is the free trial period. Many SaaS companies don’t prefer to offer discounts and only offer very little or occasional discounts and deals. To promote your business to a wider and right audience, start offering deals and discounts to fulfill customers’ expectations.

5. Limit Customer Choice

Offering your customers a variety of products is a great thing, but when it comes to SaaS marketing, it is exactly not the case. Believe it or not, limiting the range of options for SaaS customers is a great SaaS marketing strategy that works best. For SaaS companies, it is always a sensible approach to offer only a few choices to help make the purchase decision.

Provide your customers with fewer pricing plans so that they can easily choose from the available options. Make sure each plan clearly states the value proposition. This way, consumers can explore what each has in store for them and choose between them.

6. Create and Promote Content

It’s no wonder that content marketing is a result-driven SaaS marketing strategy that has become the preferred choice for many SaaS companies. Creating informative blog posts and interesting video content can help your prospective customers understand how to use your product and what are its amazing features.

One of the best things about content marketing is that it is a smart investment that gives you the best return on investment. Content has the ability to generate more leads while other forms of SaaS marketing such as PPC advertising will be effective only when you invest. Today, many SaaS businesses are using different types of content to promote their offerings and generate more leads.

Source: Dropbox 

Let’s take an example of Dropbox. The famous file sharing and storage service provider is creating targeted content for its prospective customers. You will find informative blog posts for businesses, tech-savvy customers and developers. Moreover, they frequently host webinars to bring awareness of their brand and explain the features to prospective clients.  

Your brand can also take maximum advantage of content marketing and highlight your product by using different strategies. For instance, you can host webinars, create blog posts, informative guides, share templates, video series, and podcasts.

7. Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is one of the best SaaS marketing strategies that can help your business generate high-quality leads. According to a survey, 80% of B2B marketers said that referrals are the primary source of lead generation. But the question is how to generate referrals?

Incentivize your customers to encourage them to refer your product in their circle. Running a loyalty program is another great idea that rewards customers by referring your product to other customers. Dropbox is using a successful referral marketing tactic to promote its services. They provide 16 GB of extra storage to those who invite their friends to signup for Dropbox.

Source: Dropbox

To Wrap Up

So here you go. These are a few actionable and proven SaaS marketing strategies that you should follow to achieve your business goals. Depending on your product’s features and the target audience, some strategies might work better than others. The key is to experiment with all these tips and tricks and choose the one that gives you the best results. You can analyze and optimize your SaaS marketing plan over time by figuring out what works best for your target audience. Hopefully, these SaaS marketing strategies will help you generate more leads, higher ROI and retain more customers.