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What is SaaS Marketing?
The abbreviation “SaaS” stands for Software as a Service, and SaaS marketing refers to the strategies and activities used to market your SaaS in order to promote sales so that customers commit to your SaaS for a long period of time.
SaaS is not about a one-time sale but a monthly or annual subscription to software. It is therefore important to continuously work on the customer relationship. This is also what makes SaaS marketing different from the marketing of most other companies.
How do you create a successful SaaS marketing strategy?
A successful SaaS marketing strategy revolves around understanding your ideal customer, communicating your message clearly, and choosing the right channels to reach your customers. Applying models such as the Bow-Tie model helps to win and retain customers. With clear goals and KPIs, you can steer and optimize the strategy for maximum growth.
Start by researching your ideal customer profile
If you know exactly which customers fit your ideal customer profile (or ICP), the implementation of your marketing strategy will generate much better leads and ultimately more paying customers. So start by researching your ideal customer profile by:
- Identifying what makes your solution unique compared to competitors.
- Identifying your target audience, for example based on industry, number of employees, specific technology (e.g., HubSpot CRM users), etc.
- Determining who the decision-makers are and who influences the decision-makers.
- Discovering which pain points you solve for them or which “jobs to be done” you make easier for them.
- What does your target group ultimately gain from this, what is the end result?
Tip: always start in a niche market to limit the number of challenges. If you know exactly who your potential customers are and what problem you are going to solve for them, it is much easier to target them and distinguish yourself positively from competitors.
From there, you can grow with “niche stacking” and/or “geo stacking” (adding other countries). You will already have gained credibility. In addition, you need to build up a decent cash flow to appeal to a wider audience and thus capture a larger market share.
Tip: use Clay or LinkedIn Sales Navigator to map out your Total Addressable Market (TAM) and Serviceable Available Market (SAM). These are our favorite tools, and we often combine lists to ultimately gain clarity about the ICP. Make sure you also discuss and share this with sales, so there is already marketing and sales alignment about the ICP.
Determine your positioning
Ask yourself: what is your SaaS solution really worth? What problems do you solve for your customers? Look at your product, but also look at your competitors. What do they offer, and where can you differentiate yourself? This is the time to determine your unique value proposition (UVP). Your UVP is the core of your positioning. It should make it clear why your solution is better and why customers should come to you.
But positioning is not just about your product. It’s about your customer. Who is your ideal customer? What keeps them awake at night? What do they want to achieve? These are the questions you need to answer. Start with your customer profile. Determine who your target audience is, what their pain points are, and how your solution helps them alleviate those pains. Use personas to visualize your target audience. This will allow you to tailor your message precisely.
Here is a simple structure you can use to determine your UVP:
1. For (target audience), who (problem), (your product) is the (category) that (key benefit).
2. Instead of (counterpart or competitor), (your product) offers (what makes your solution unique).
Example:
For small business owners who struggle to automate their marketing tasks, MarketingBot is the marketing software that combines social media, email, and analytics automation in one user-friendly interface.
Instead of multiple separate tools, MarketingBot offers an all-in-one solution that saves time and improves results.
Determine your messaging
Now that your positioning is in place, it’s time for messaging. You already have the essence of your message—but how do you convey it? Start by creating a consistent message that is repeated in the same way in every communication. This means repeating the same keywords, promises, and benefits in your communications, but with nuance. What you say should be short and powerful, but also emotionally resonant. Your message should touch the customer, not just inform them.
For example, suppose your SaaS solution helps companies automate their marketing processes. Your message could be: “Save time, increase conversions, automate your marketing.” This is short and concise, but it gets to the heart of the problem (lack of time) and the benefits (time savings and increased conversions).
The style of your communication plays an important role here. You need to know how you want your brand to sound. Is it friendly and accessible? Or professional and authoritative? This determines the tone of your messages and helps to create a consistent image for your brand.
A good messaging strategy always has one goal: to build a bridge between your product and the customer. And that is only possible if your positioning and messaging are in harmony, with each part of your communication reinforcing the other.
You can use the storytelling framework for SaaS marketing once your positioning and messaging are clear.
Selecting the right marketing channels
Choosing the right marketing channels is essential to effectively convey your message. You need to know where your ideal customer is and which channels best reach them. Whether it’s social media, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), or paid advertising, each channel has its own advantages and requirements. It’s important to align your choices with the customer journey and your goals. In the next section, we’ll dive deeper into 13 different tactics and channels you can use for an effective SaaS marketing strategy.
Our advice at the beginning is always: choose one target audience in one country with one type of messaging and proposition in one channel, LinkedIn for example. This works best because it means you don’t spread all your resources across different channels.
Apply the Bow-Tie model to your SaaS marketing strategy
The Bow-Tie model by Jacco van der Kooij of Winning by Design is a powerful way to structure your SaaS marketing strategy, from acquisition to retention. The model visualizes the customer journey as a bow-tie shape: the left side represents the customer acquisition phase, the knot in the middle is where conversion takes place, and the right side focuses on retention and upsell.
On the left side, acquisition is all about attracting leads. Here, you use your marketing channels to reach potential customers and make them aware of your product. Think of content marketing, advertisements, and social media campaigns. The goal is to generate as many qualified leads as possible.
The knot in the middle is the moment of conversion. This is where you need to convert leads into paying customers. The message must be clear, the offer convincing, and the call-to-action strong. Ensure a smooth onboarding experience so that customers immediately feel valued and can get started easily.
On the right side of the “bow tie,” it’s all about retention and upsell. It’s not enough to just bring in customers. You have to actively retain them through valuable content, customer support, and product updates. In addition, this is the time to further guide them toward additional products or premium features that can help them get even more value from your solution.
By applying the Bow-Tie model, you can optimally manage the customer journey and ensure that you both attract new customers and continue to serve and expand your existing customer base.
Set clear goals and KPIs
Setting clear goals and KPIs is crucial for measuring the progress of your SaaS marketing strategy. Without concrete goals, you don’t know what you’re working towards, and without KPIs, you can’t determine whether you’re on the right track. Consider metrics such as customer acquisition costs, customer retention, and LTV (Lifetime Value). For a detailed explanation of these terms and other KPIs, read on further in the article.
13 best marketing tactics and channels for your SaaS marketing campaigns
As a SaaS startup, you don’t have an endless budget to invest in marketing. This means that you don’t have large amounts of money to spend on paid advertising, for example. So you’ll have to make a big impact with a limited budget. Choose the right Go-To-Market motion for your SaaS and, based on that, the right marketing tactics. Consider:
1. Content marketing
Content marketing revolves around creating and sharing valuable, relevant content to inform and attract potential customers. This includes educational blog posts, compelling case studies, in-depth white papers, and product videos. By consistently providing valuable content, you build trust, demonstrate your expertise, and guide your prospects through the entire buyer journey, from awareness to purchase decision.
See also: What is demand generation?
2. Search engine optimization (SEO) and AI search optimization (GEO)
You can also use this when prospects are already searching Google with keywords that are relevant to your SaaS. If your SaaS is in a new software category, this can be a bit tricky. With our own SaaS, that recognizes companies that visit your website, we had this problem because no one was searching for “recognize companies.” Our SEO strategy was to focus on creating content higher up in the funnel about “B2B lead generation.”
Our advice is – if there is demand in Google – to start with bottom of funnel keywords and content for demand capture, to ‘capture the demand’. These are ‘best category’ pages, comparisons with competitors, integrations. Also read our SaaS search engine optimization (SEO) framework and AI Search & GEO for SaaS: become visible in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI.
3. Google Ads (PPC) for demand capture campaigns
Google Ads is also useful for demand capture. Our advice is not to advertise too broadly at the top of the funnel, but rather to advertise on bottom of funnel keywords. These are people who are already looking for your solution, and this also keeps your budget reasonably limited.
Also read the extensive article on how to use Google Ads for B2B SaaS.
4. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
For high-ticket SaaS, Account-Based Marketing is one of the best tactics to use. You work with sales on a small list of accounts to approach them.
5. LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn marketing campaigns are a great way to reach your target audience. If you already have some traffic to your site, it’s a no-brainer to set up a retargeting campaign on LinkedIn. The extensive targeting options allow you to target exactly the right buyer personas. In the retargeting campaign, you can show more conversion-oriented ads.
You can also set up a cold campaign for your target audience. These are prospects who have not yet heard of your company and probably do not yet know that they need a solution that you offer. In the cold campaign, you therefore mainly show awareness ads: pain points that you solve, results by using your SaaS.
LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads are particularly great to use. These are ads in the feed of real people (e.g., a video post from the founder), not a company profile. This makes them look like organic posts rather than ads.
6. Micro-influencers
Using influencers is a regular part of many B2C campaigns. In SaaS marketing, the use of micro-influencers is also becoming more common. Think of connecting with the host of a podcast in your market, freelancers, or consultants with an active LinkedIn profile and network.
7. Social media marketing
Social media marketing is essential for SaaS companies because prospects are active there. In B2B in particular, you will need to be active on LinkedIn by sharing valuable content based on your expertise. You can do this by sharing content from the founder or with subject matter experts for B2B SaaS Marketing.
8. Guest blogs
Writing guest blogs on relevant sites that your target audience visits is still a good way to attract visitors. This was one of the most important tactics of our own SaaS. Not only good for visitors but also for relevant links for your Google ranking.
You can also create articles (or other forms of content) together with a company that serves the same target audience. This is a form of co-marketing for SaaS.
9. Email marketing
Email marketing helps build strong customer relationships, increase engagement, and drive conversions by staying in regular contact with your target audience and providing them with relevant information. This allows prospects to see you not only as a software provider but also as a guide in the market.
10. Review platforms such as G2 and Capterra
Prospects always look for reviews, and some prospects also use review platforms such as G2 and Capterra to start their customer journey. So make sure you are present here with good reviews. You can also purchase leads through these platforms.
11. Referral marketing
With a referral marketing strategy, you leverage the positive experiences of users to generate new leads and customers. What’s more, referral marketing reduces acquisition costs and increases retention, as referred customers tend to be more engaged and loyal.
By implementing these tactics, you can achieve great results even without a large marketing budget. With the help of small experiments, you can see whether your marketing efforts are successful. And when you notice that an experiment is working, you can then scale it up.
12. Free tools
A smart way to promote your SaaS product is to offer your own free tools. At a SaaS company we work with, we release new free tools almost every quarter, which we then share on Producthunt and other platforms.
Think, for example, of a handy Chrome plugin that solves a problem your target audience encounters on a daily basis, or a website analysis tool that helps users improve their site performance. Another example is offering a free audit, such as a security audit or a digital marketing scan, which provides valuable insights without requiring an immediate purchase.
These tools are not only attractive to your target audience, but also ensure that your brand is naturally put in the spotlight. By offering a free tool, you give potential customers a taste of the value that your complete SaaS solution offers. Tools such as the Grammarly browser extension or the HubSpot Website Grader are great examples of how free tools can help increase brand awareness and build trust.
13. Video marketing
Video offers a unique opportunity to personalize your SaaS offering. Anyone can make software, but video allows you to present your product in a human way. By creating videos that showcase not only your product, but also yourself or your team, people get to know you. This increases the likelihood that they will trust you. Think, for example, of product demonstrations, customer stories, or even behind-the-scenes content.
And on YouTube, you can share longer, informative videos, while LinkedIn is well suited for shorter clips. What’s more, video is a powerful tool for sharing knowledge, which is an important part of thought leadership. When you share valuable insights, you position yourself as an authority in your field, which further strengthens your brand.
Finally, video is always the source of content for the collaboration with all our clients. In a one-hour video call each month, we record the founder or another subject matter expert to create content for all relevant channels for that month. This results in at least one blog article, videos for LinkedIn, and videos for YouTube. We then use the best LinkedIn videos in Thought Leadership Ads to approach the target audience.
Here are some example of short videos for LinkedIn that we created:
4 ways to attract new users for your SaaS
It’s not easy to get people to sign up for a subscription out of the blue. That’s why most SaaS companies let their potential customers “try out” their service in one way or another. After all, the best argument you have as a marketer for selling your service is the service itself. There are various ways to introduce people to your product in an accessible way. To find out what works best for your company, it’s best to experiment with different methods. The method you choose also depends on the pricing model of your SaaS and the complexity of the software.
The freemium version
A popular way to get people to switch to a paid SaaS subscription is to offer what is called a freemium version of the service. This means that in addition to your paid service, you also present a free service online. This service is accessible to everyone.
A freemium has enough similarities to the paid version to let people experience the relevance of your product. But it lacks enough features to make people crave the paid version. An example of this is Dropbox where you can store data in their cloud.
A characteristic of the freemium model is that it is free and has no time limit: basically, people can keep using the free version without ever switching to a subscription. This is also the biggest disadvantage of the freemium model: it costs quite a bit of money to run a freemium and in practice, it is sometimes difficult to recoup that from the users who eventually become paying customers.
So if you choose the freemium model, it might be a good idea to consider whether you’re adding another source of income to it. Think of income from ads or selling other products that complement the free version.
A side benefit of running a freemium version is that it gives you a lot of exposure for your business. In addition, you get free access to a large amount of user data. You can then use that user data to improve your product.
Free trial
Instead of offering a stripped-down version for an unlimited time, you can choose to provide your full service for a limited time. That way, prospective paying users can experience for themselves all the benefits of your SaaS. Typically, such a trial period lasts anywhere from 14 to 60 days. During that time, prospective customers can test whether your product meets their needs and whether they think your service is worth the money. Hopefully, this will get them hooked on your service.
This method works particularly well if your service is in a niche and solves a very specific problem. Your users are extra motivated to find out if your service actually makes their lives easier and are willing to pay if it does. Many social media publishing tools and CRM systems use the free trial to acquire new customers.
Try out at a reduced rate
Trying out doesn’t always have to be free. If you have a good service, it’s okay to charge money for the trial period. This can actually enhance the perceived value of your service. You can choose to offer a trial week or a trial month at a reduced rate.
By doing so, you may also be pre-selecting: the people who come to try your software in this scenario are already interested enough to pay even for an introduction. A switch to a paid subscription is already a little less far away.
Demos
Giving a demo is also a proven tactic in SaaS marketing to introduce people to a product. With a demo, you give potential customers a chance to interactively get in touch with what your SaaS has to offer. That way you work on connecting, building trust, and dispelling any doubts.
In short: you give people the chance to see if your service is the right choice. For example, you can use Google Meet, Zoom, or Teams for this purpose. But you can also choose to organize webinars or set up 1-on-1 videos.
Measuring SaaS marketing success
There are several metrics you need to keep an eye on to determine whether your SaaS marketing is effective and how your SaaS business is doing. We always set up a dashboard for this, which can be done in Hubspot or Google Looker Studio. Below you will find the most important KPIs and explanations of the terms:
- Visitors: The more visitors you have, the more new customers you (hopefully) have. This depends on:
- Conversion: Conversion measures what percentage of visitors to your website do what you want them to do. You don’t just want to look at the number of visitors who ultimately take out a paid subscription, but at every step in the sales funnel. This gives you insight into the number of initial leads that ultimately convert into long-term customers, step by step. Also check the average B2B SaaS conversion rates.
- Customer Churn: This is the figure that measures how many customers cancel their subscription. This is an important metric for SaaS companies, because it is much cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones. Ideally, you want a churn rate of less than 5% per year for B2B SaaS. This is a good percentage because it indicates that your customers are satisfied, get value from your product, and are willing to continue using it in the long term.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): This figure indicates how much a paying customer is worth to your company on average. You calculate this by multiplying the average subscription price by the average lifetime of a customer. Divide the total by the number of customers.
- Customer Acquisition Cost: This metric indicates how much it costs to acquire a customer. You calculate this by dividing your marketing costs over a certain period by the number of customers you have acquired. When you are just starting out, this amount will be high. As you continue, you want this figure to decrease.
- CAC-to-LTV Ratio: This metric shows you how the Customer Acquisition Cost and the Customer Lifetime Value relate to each other. The lower this number, the better. You will then spend relatively little marketing money to obtain value from your customers.
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): This is the total amount your SaaS company generates from all active paying customers per month. It does not include one-time payments. MRR allows you to assess the financial health of your SaaS and project future revenue based on active subscriptions.
Frequently asked questions
What is unique about SaaS marketing and how does it differ from other types of marketing?
The fact that a SaaS company does not offer a physical product or a one-time purchase means that its marketing is structured very differently from that of a ‘traditional’ company. And that makes sense: if you sell your customers a product, you cannot improve your product after purchase. With SaaS, it works differently: if the customer feels that the user costs no longer outweigh the user experience, they can simply cancel their subscription. This also puts an end to the revenue (churn).
How long does it take for SaaS marketing to deliver results?
The time it takes for SaaS marketing to deliver results varies, but in our experience, you build some brand awareness and collect important data to test and adjust your strategy within the first 1 to 3 months. In the next 3-6 months, the first paying customers may start to come in, depending on the length of the sales cycle.
Real, consistent growth and customer acquisition often only start after 6 to 9 months, when your marketing efforts begin to scale up. At this stage, you can expect better conversion rates, customer loyalty, and scalable results. Patience is essential, as growth often becomes exponential as you collect more data and refine your strategies.
What are the best B2B SaaS marketing channels?
The best B2B SaaS marketing channels really depend on your business goals and strategy. If you are targeting a specific customer group, you could opt for account-based marketing (ABM). In our experience, this works well because it allows you to advertise more specifically via LinkedIn, among other channels, and use channels that fit your sales cycle. If you want to generate leads quickly, Google Ads and event marketing can be very effective because you see immediate results. But for building long-term customer relationships and attracting a broader customer base, content marketing, email marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) are the best choices, although it often takes a little longer to reap the benefits. We usually use a mix of channels depending on your target audience, budget, and objectives.
Start small, think big!
Of course, you want to conquer the world with your SaaS. Still, it makes sense to start by conquering a niche. Knowing exactly who your potential customers are and what problem you will solve for them, makes it much easier to target them and differentiate yourself positively from competitors.
By then, you will have already gained credibility and start to grow. Moreover, you need to build a decent cash flow to appeal to a wider audience in order to capture a larger market share.
Also read: B2B SaaS marketing trends
Frequently asked questions
What is unique about SaaS marketing and how does it differ from other types of marketing?
The fact that a SaaS company does not offer a physical product or a one-time purchase means that its marketing is structured very differently from that of a ‘traditional’ company. And that makes sense: if you sell your customers a product, you cannot improve it after purchase.
With SaaS, it works differently: if the customer no longer feels that the user costs outweigh the user experience, they can simply cancel their subscription. This also means an end to revenue (churn).
How long does it take for SaaS marketing to deliver results?
The time it takes for SaaS marketing to deliver results varies, but in our experience, you build some brand awareness and collect important data to test and adjust your strategy within the first 1 to 3 months. In the next 3-6 months, the first paying customers may start to come in, depending on the length of the sales cycle.
Real, consistent growth and customer acquisition often only start after 6 to 9 months, when your marketing efforts begin to scale up. In this phase, you can expect better conversion rates, customer loyalty, and scalable results. Patience is essential, as growth often becomes exponential as you collect more data and refine your strategies.
What are the best B2B SaaS marketing channels?
The best B2B SaaS marketing channels really depend on your business goals and strategy. If you are targeting a specific customer group, you could opt for account-based marketing (ABM).
In our experience, this works well because it allows you to advertise more targeted ads via LinkedIn company pages or LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads, among other channels, and use channels that fit your sales cycle.
If you want to generate leads quickly, Google Ads and event marketing can be very effective, as you see immediate results. But for building long-term customer relationships and attracting a broader customer base, content marketing, email marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) are the best choices, although it often takes a little longer to reap the benefits. We usually use a mix of channels depending on your target audience, budget, and objectives.
