How To Promote A SaaS Product: 9 Proven Ways
Did you know that the SaaS market is expected to reach $195 billion in 2023? That’s a lot of potential customers and revenue to be gained.
The thing is, you’re not the only one who recognizes this huge opportunity. As the market increases, so does the competition. More and more SaaS businesses are popping up, making it harder for you to stand out among all of the noise.
So how do you make sure your SaaS product stands out and gets noticed?
In this article, we will talk about how to promote a SaaS product. We’ll look at strategies and efforts that will help your product stand out and get noticed.
So let’s begin.
1) Defining Your Target Audience
When it comes to selling and promoting a SaaS product, the first step should always be to know who you’re selling it to.
Different types of people have different needs, so it’s important to identify the right target audience for your product.
More specifically, you need to establish your ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer personas.
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Your ICP is a description of the customers you want to attract and target with your product. It should include information that would help you identify how these customers would use your product, how they search for solutions, and how they make their decisions.
This information, in turn, would help you decide how to best reach out and engage with them.
Creating An ICP For B2C SaaS Marketing
If you’re offering a business-to-consumer (B2C) solution and are targeting everyday consumers, you may want to add the demographic and psychographic information relevant to your ICP.
The demographics could include their age, gender, occupation, and income. While the psychographics would include how they think, how they behave, and other personal beliefs they may have.
Creating An ICP For B2B SaaS Marketing
On the other hand, if you have a business-to-business (B2B) solution and are targeting business owners and executives, you may want to include your ideal customer’s firmographic information.
This would include company size, industry, revenue, and other business-related information as part of your ICP.
Whatever type of product you are selling or however complex it is, always start by defining your target audience before doing any kind of promotion.
You see, throughout this article, there are a lot of possible ways to sell and promote a SaaS product. But all these methods won’t be successful if you don’t have a clear idea of who your target audience is.
Buyer Personas
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of the ideal customer you want to target. It includes information about how that customer behaves and interacts with your product, how they make decisions, and how they fit in the bigger picture.
Creating buyer personas is important as it allows you to get a better understanding of how customers interact with your product. This can help you tailor your messaging, design, and delivery toward that audience.
When creating your buyer personas, make sure to include details such as their age, gender, occupation, income level, interests, and motivation for buying your SaaS product.
Let’s look at a few examples of buyer personas you can have:
The Executive
The executive persona is usually a senior-level business owner or decision maker who seeks solutions to their business needs. They are often looking for products with features and benefits that can help them increase revenue and profits.
The Manager
The manager persona is the key decision maker when it comes to selecting solutions for their team. They are usually looking for cost-effective solutions that will help them and their team get the job done quickly and efficiently.
The Developer
The developer persona is typically a more technical type of user who wants tools and features that will help them do their job better. They want products with advanced features and capabilities that can make their life easier.
You see, there are a lot of possibilities when it comes to creating buyer personas for your SaaS product.
So how about your SaaS solution? What types of people will be interested in it?
By creating and developing buyer personas, you’ll be able to identify how best to target them. This will enable you to create more effective messaging, design, and delivery of your product.
2) Product Marketing
For some SaaS entrepreneurs, product marketing is a non-negotiable when it comes to promoting a SaaS product, especially if you’re running a SaaS startup or a relatively young SaaS company.
SaaS product marketing involves driving brand awareness and demand for your product, but the focus is on your product itself.
It involves sharing how your product can help customers solve their problems, how it is different from the competition, and how people can use it to achieve success.
In many ways, product marketing lays the groundwork for many other aspects of your overall SaaS marketing strategy.
Let’s look at some key components of SaaS product marketing:
Features & Benefits
In SaaS marketing, what you’re really selling are the benefits of your product and how it can help your customers. So product marketing focuses more on the features of your SaaS platform and emphasizes the benefit and value that it can deliver to your customers.
To do this, you need to clearly communicate how your SaaS product can help customers achieve success. What features does it have? How will they benefit them? Will they save money, save time, or make their lives simpler?
Of course, these benefits may vary for each buyer persona, so you will need to make sure that you’re communicating the right benefits to the right persona.
Product Messaging
Product messaging is how you “package” your product.
And the most essential “packaging” you need for messaging is your value proposition.
A value proposition is a statement that communicates the value that your product brings to customers. It’s how you will sell your product and how you’ll explain why it’s the right solution for them.
For example, let’s say you have a SaaS platform that helps manage inventory. Your value proposition might be something like, “[Your SaaS product name] helps you save time and money by streamlining your inventory management processes.”
Your value proposition should be concise, clear, and easy to understand as this is how people will make decisions on whether or not your SaaS product is a great fit for their needs.
Differentiation
Differentiation is how you set your product apart from the competition. It’s how you make your product stand out in a crowded market.
When it comes to differentiation, there are a few things to consider: features, pricing, customer service, etc. You need to identify what sets your SaaS product apart and how this will help customers achieve success.
For instance, if your SaaS solution has an innovative feature that no one else has, then use that as part of your unique selling proposition (USP) and messaging.
Or if you offer great customer service compared to other competitors in the market, make sure that you communicate that to your target audience.
3) Content Marketing
When it comes to marketing a SaaS product, inbound marketing is the best way to go. And content marketing is almost synonymous with inbound marketing.
Content marketing is all about attracting and engaging your potential customers by creating and distributing content that is valuable to them.
The goal of content marketing is to build up a relationship with your target audience so they become more familiar with your product and will be more likely to purchase it.
Here are some content marketing strategies you can use:
Do Your Keyword Research
Before you even make a list of topics for your content, you need to make sure that they are relevant to your target audience.
That’s why you need to do the necessary keyword research to see what keywords your target audience is searching for and how competitive they are.
This will help you create content that resonates with them and also rank highly in search engines.
Mix Up Different Types Of Content
In the world of SaaS content marketing, the most common content type being used are blog posts because they can be relatively easy to produce.
However, you shouldn’t limit yourself to just one content type. Mix up different types of content to keep your audience engaged and help them learn more about how your SaaS product can help.
Let’s look at video marketing, for example. More and more people nowadays prefer watching videos rather than reading articles. So having a YouTube channel for your informative content may be worth a try.
You can also produce other types of content, such as infographics, podcasts, interactive content (i.e. quizzes, ROI calculators, etc.), and more.
Build A Content Funnel
When we see things from the perspective of the SaaS sales funnel, content should be used to move customers through the funnel.
This means that you should create content that caters to each stage of the customer’s journey.
Top Of Funnel Content
For instance, let’s say someone is in the Awareness stage at the top of the funnel. At this stage, they may not even know about your SaaS product yet. But they have a certain pain point and are looking for solutions online.
The best content for them would be educational content, such as how-to guides or tutorials that address their immediate pain point. This will help gain their trust and generate leads that you can then nurture and move down the funnel.
Middle Of Funnel Content
Let’s have another example in the Consideration stage at the middle of the funnel. At this stage, your potential customer already knows about your SaaS product and how it can help them.
However, they would need more detailed information on how the product works before they make a decision whether to buy it or not. You may create content such as case studies that demonstrate how other people have been able to use your product and how effective it is.
Or you could create product comparisons that showcase how your product is different from others.
By providing these types of content, you can give your potential customers the information they need to make informed decisions and move through the funnel.
4) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When it comes to digital marketing (especially content marketing), one of the biggest challenges is how to get your content seen by the right people.
This is where SEO comes in.
SEO helps make sure that your content is optimized for search engines, so it can be found more easily when people are searching for related keywords or phrases.
There are three main components of a well-rounded SEO strategy: On-page SEO, technical SEO, and link-building.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO involves optimizing your content itself to make it more relevant in the eyes of search engines and their web crawlers.
Here are some of the most common on-page SEO practices:
Add Relevant Keywords Throughout Your Content
Using the appropriate keywords throughout your content can help search engines better understand what it is about and how useful it may be for searchers.
However, when adding keywords to your content, make sure not to “stuff” them in unnaturally or excessively as this could get you penalized by search engines.
Optimize Your Meta Title & Meta Descriptions
Your title tags and meta descriptions are how search engine crawlers determine how relevant your content is to a user’s query.
What’s more, these are the first things about your content page or web page that potential customers will see in the search engine results pages (SERPs)
So make sure your meta title and meta descriptions match the topic of your page and entice people to click on your link.
Use Subheadings To Structure Your Content
Using H2, H3, and even H4 subheadings to break up your content into smaller, more digestible parts will help both readers and search engines understand how your content is organized.
This also makes it easier for people to skim through your content and find what they’re looking for quickly.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO refers to how your website is structured and how easy it is for search engine crawlers to crawl through and index your site.
The goal of technical SEO is to optimize your website in terms of “crawlability”, performance, and “indexability.”
Here are some practices that can help you do that:
Improve Your Website Structure
How your website is structured can have a huge impact on how easily search engine crawlers can go through it.
Make sure your site hierarchy is organized and logical so that the crawlers can find their way around. This will make it easier for them to index more content and help your rankings in the process.
A lot of content marketers say that a hierarchical or siloed structure is the most SEO-friendly website structure. It enables you to organize your content into sections and categories (or “siloes”) so that pages with related topics are grouped together.
This can help web crawlers understand the relationship between your content pages and therefore can improve your rankings in the SERPs.
Set Up An XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the pages of your website and makes it easier for search engines to find them.
This sitemap is extremely important if you have a lot of pages or if your website has a complicated structure.
Without it, search engine crawlers may have trouble finding all your pages and indexing them correctly.
You can generate an XML sitemap with free tools such as XML-Sitemaps or Screaming Frog’s XML Sitemap Generator.
Improve Your Website’s Loading Speed
Having a slow loading website can negatively affect how well your content ranks in SERPs and how many people actually stay on your site after clicking through from the results page.
To improve your website speed, you can use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to get insights into how you can make improvements.
You can also use caching plugins, which will store a version of your site on each visitor’s computer and serve that cached version when they come back to the site.
This can help speed up how fast it takes for pages to load.
Link-Building
Link-building is how you get other websites to link back to your own. These links, in turn, are called backlinks.
This is important because search engine crawlers use backlinks as a ranking signal or a vote of confidence. So the more high-quality sites that link to your content, the better it will rank in SERPs.
Here are some link-building tips for you:
Find Unlinked Mentions
One of the easiest ways to build links is to find sites that have already mentioned your SaaS company or content without linking to it.
You can use tools like Google Alerts to find websites that have already talked about your SaaS product but haven’t linked back to it.
When you find these unlinked mentions, you can then reach out to the webmasters of those sites and politely request that they add a link back to your website.
Guest Posting
Guest posting is when you write an article and post it on someone else’s website. As a result, you get a link back to your own website or content.
You can find websites in your industry that accept guest posts by simply using Google search. You can type “(your topic) + guest post” to find relevant sites that accept guest posts.
Once you’ve found potential sites, make sure they have good domain authority before approaching them with your pitch. That way, the links you get from them will be beneficial for SEO purposes.
Broken Link Building
Broken link building is a technique where you search for broken links on other sites, contact their webmasters or owners, and offer to replace the broken link with a link to your own content.
This works because it gives websites an easy way to update their content without having to create something new. And in return, you get a backlink from that website.
To find broken links, use tools like the Ahrefs Broken Link Checker. Then go through each of those links and make sure they relate to your topic before contacting the webmaster.
5) Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is how you get third-party websites or bloggers to promote your SaaS product for a commission for each customer or lead they bring to your SaaS company.
This is one of the most sustainable and scalable ways to promote your product. All you need is an affiliate program, a unique tracking link for each affiliate, and affiliate partners who are willing to market your product.
What’s more, affiliates usually already have an established audience you can reach. So it’s a great way to tap into new audiences.
Here are some tips to help you maximize your affiliate marketing strategy:
Work With Different Types Of Affiliates
There are bloggers, YouTubers, TikTokers—whatever type of content creator you can think of—who are all potential affiliates. So, don’t limit yourself to just one type when creating your affiliate program.
Make sure to also reach out to influencers and other websites who could be interested in joining your program. Once you have a good mix of different types of affiliates, you’ll be able to better track how each is performing.
Offer Good Commissions
The more money that an affiliate makes from promoting your product, the more likely they are to keep recommending it to their audience.
Usually, commissions for affiliate partners only happen when they manage to bring in a customer who actually buys your SaaS product. However, you may also choose to pay a lower commission for each high-quality lead they bring to your SaaS business.
By offering good commissions, you’ll be able to incentivize affiliate partners and increase the effectiveness of your affiliate program.
Provide Marketing Assets To Your Affiliate Partners
In order to make sure your affiliates are successful in their promotions, you should provide them with marketing materials that they can use to promote your product.
These could include things like banners, ads, or other visuals that they can easily share on their website or social media channels. You may even want to create content specifically for them to share with their audience.
This will help ensure that your affiliates are equipped with the tools they need to be successful in promoting your SaaS product.
Track Your Affiliates’ Performance
Don’t forget to track how each of your affiliate partners is performing so you can give them the feedback and guidance they need to maximize their success. With a good affiliate program, you should be able to get more people to know about your SaaS product and bring in more leads.
What’s more, you may also offer performance-based rewards for your top-performing affiliates, like bonuses or higher commissions. This will help motivate them to continue promoting your product.
6) Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is how you get influencers, such as bloggers or YouTubers, to promote your SaaS product. Like most affiliate partners, influencers have their own following and can help spread the word about your product.
However, the SaaS market is diverse. And how influencers look may vary depending on your target audience.
B2C Influencers
If you’re targeting a B2C market, Instagram or YouTube influencers might be best since the content they create is more visual and engaging.
Make sure to find influencers who have an appropriate audience for your SaaS product.
For example, if your SaaS product is in the music niche, you’ll want to find influencers who are well-known in the music industry, not just any random influencer. Or if you’re in the graphic design area, look for influencers who are interested in graphic design.
You may even want to reach out to micro-influencers with smaller but highly engaged audiences. They may be more willing to promote your SaaS product as well as negotiate better prices for your campaign.
B2B Influencers
If you’re targeting a B2B market, LinkedIn is the best platform to find influencers. Here you can connect with industry leaders and experts who have an engaged following. You may even find them attending or speaking at in-person events, such as trade shows or conferences.
Look for those who are knowledgeable about your particular niche or product offering and have the right kind of content that resonates with their audience.
Once you find them, don’t forget to create attractive offers and collaborate on creative campaigns so they can easily promote your SaaS product.
7) Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of the most powerful platforms to reach potential customers.
Not only can you use it to promote your SaaS product, but also to share valuable content related to your industry and engage with your target audience.
So let’s talk about how you can maximize this platform to promote your SaaS product.
Create & Post Highly Visual Content
When it comes to social media content, visuals are key. You want to create and post highly visual content on your social media channels that will grab people’s attention.
For example, how-to videos and tutorials work great for SaaS products as they can show your potential customer how easy it is to use your product
What’s more, you could also create useful infographics or even memes related to your industry that can engage viewers more easily than text-based posts.
Be careful about using memes, though. For them to really work, they have to be really funny. If you’re just trying too hard, people may find them cringe-worthy.
Engage & Respond to Users
Also, don’t forget to engage with your audience on social media and respond to their comments or questions.
This will help create a sense of community around your SaaS product and show people how much you care about its users.
Social media can also be great for customer service as it allows you to address any issues quickly and efficiently. It’s also an effective way of getting feedback from customers which helps make sure that your product is always up-to-date with what the market needs.
Organize Live Events
One very useful feature on most social media platforms today is the ability to broadcast yourself live.
You can use this feature to promote your SaaS product, host webinars, and Q&A sessions, and give potential customers a chance to interact with you in real time.
These live events are great for connecting with people and building relationships which can help strengthen your SaaS brand’s credibility and increase customers’ trust in your product.
8) Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most proven ways to effectively promote a SaaS product and nurture leads.
This is especially true if you’re targeting a B2B audience. Businessmen and professionals tend to look through their email inboxes as a part of their work routine.
So if you can reach them through email and educate them about how your SaaS product can help their business, you’ll be able to convert more sales.
Let’s talk about some tips to boost your email marketing efforts:
Build Your Own Email List (Don’t Buy Leads)
When it comes to email marketing, building your own list of leads is much more effective than buying them.
While paid leads may be cheap and easy to get, they lack the personal touch needed for successful conversions. What’s more, bought leads tend to be bad ones that never convert into paying customers anyway.
Your best bet is to create a website or landing page that offers something of value in exchange for an email address. This could be anything like a free eBook or other types of gated content.
This will help you generate high-quality leads that are more likely to convert into customers.
Create Compelling Subject Lines
The key to successful email marketing is creating compelling subject lines that will grab people’s attention and make them open the email.
To do this, try to use action-oriented words like “Discover” or “Unlock” as these tend to work better than generic phrases like “Check this out!” Just be careful not to use spam trigger words in your subject lines.
What’s more, personalization works great in emails. If possible, include the person’s name in the subject line so they feel like it was written just for them. This increases the chances of them opening your message and engaging with your content.
Create Engaging Content
Getting people to open your email is not the end goal here. So you also need to make sure to create compelling content that will keep their interest.
So try to use visuals such as images and GIFs in your emails as these tend to engage viewers more than text-based messages.
Also, focus on how your SaaS product can help solve the customer’s problem or increase their productivity. This will help them understand how using your product can benefit them and make them more likely to convert into paying customers.
Most importantly, give your call-to-action (CTA) a strategic wording, layout, and positioning. This could make or break your efforts to get your prospective customer to click through to your website.
9) Paid Advertising
Sometimes, organic digital marketing strategies may not be enough to reach your goals. In such cases, paid advertising can be a great way to give your SaaS product an extra boost and get more attention from potential customers.
There are many different types of paid advertisements you can use for promoting your SaaS product.
Social Media Ads
One of the most popular ones are social media ads, as they allow you to target specific audiences and track how your campaigns are performing in real-time.
You can also use retargeting ads on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter which allows you to reach people who have already interacted with your website or product page in the past.
This is a great way to re-engage customers who may be interested in buying your SaaS product but just need a little nudge.
Google Ads
Another useful type of paid advertising is Google Ads. This allows you to create text-based ads that will show up on relevant search queries and get more eyes onto your SaaS product page.
Google Ads also allows you to target users based on their geographic location, interests, and past behaviors. This makes it easier for you to reach more people that are more likely to convert into paying customers.
Final Thoughts: How To Promote A SaaS Product
Promoting your SaaS product doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. With the right strategies in place, you can reach more leads, engage them with compelling content, and convert them into paying customers.
The key is to focus on building relationships with potential customers, so that they trust you and understand how your product can help them achieve their goals.
Want more guides to help you grow your SaaS business? Check out our blog site here.
