What you will learn in this post
B2B businesses require a different approach than the traditional marketing strategies of B2C companies. With a reliance on subscription-based modelling, each business targeted should be done so in a personalised, nuanced way that improves ROI and builds relationships with stakeholders.
Here’s how to do it.
Key Components of a Successful B2B SaaS Marketing Strategy
A comprehensive and effective B2B SaaS marketing strategy begins with an assessment and evaluation of key areas to be tackled.
By that we mean establishing a solid foundation: creating buyer personas, establishing pain points, and assessing competitors.
In doing this, B2B SaaS businesses can establish a demand generation strategy that includes audience segmentation, a solid value proposition, and highlight why their product is the best choice.
Audience segmentation
Any B2B SaaS marketing strategy should have a variety of different approaches, depending on the target audience segment. The messaging, offers, and value points highlighted will differ depending on the industry, company size or buyer persona within the company that is targeted.
Building out buyer personas based on established data provides demographic information and details such as buying behaviour, preferences, and desired outcomes. From this, SaaS companies can create a profile that informs them how to approach their marketing.
By segmenting your audience and targeting based on company type and role within the company, a B2B SaaS marketing strategy can become highly nuanced, and personalised to resonate with a business’s specific needs.
Value proposition development
A value proposition is achieved by identifying the pain points of businesses targeted, and telling them how the SaaS product solves them. This highlights how it improves their ability to hit KPIs, streamlines their processes, or solves a problem within their corporate software structure, for example.
In order to do this, the first key step is market research and a competitor audit. The audit includes keyword research and will tell you of gaps and missed opportunities by your competitors, while the market research will inform on competitor strengths, weaknesses, and the strategies they’re employing.
This is a highly effective strategy in B2B SaaS marketing, allowing you to find the gap in the market, and strategise accordingly.
Addressing potential roadblocks
One of the biggest obstacles in B2B SaaS marketing is the need for a whole committee to agree to purchase your product. This is particularly true of enterprise-sized businesses which generally have multiple key stakeholders weighing in on large software purchasing decisions.
To anticipate this, a SaaS business should proactively address potential concerns, such as any safeguarding or security concerns, and provide proof that the software is a worthy investment for the company.
This is largely achieved through building trust and relationships within the industry. Create white papers, case studies and share testimonials from other, if possible similar, users. This builds confidence in the product and showcases real scenarios where the solution has been tried, tested and proven, with data-driven evidence of its efficacy.
Considering these key aspects in each stage of the marketing funnel and each piece of content created to support it allows for an effective marketing strategy that appeals to company stakeholders.
Leveraging Content Marketing for B2B SaaS
A key part of any strategy is content marketing. Having a solid content marketing strategy that is tied to each part of the sales funnel is one of the most highly effective components of inbound marketing, and is essential in building trust and authority.
There are various types of content that can be used as part of your strategy, including blog articles, landing pages, white papers, case studies, and webinars.
These provide informative content that informs the user and establishes the company as a thought leader in the field. But at different points in the funnel, different pieces of content can be more effective, based on customer needs and industry trends.
Content marketing through the sales funnel
At the top-of-the-funnel, a B2B SaaS company will be looking to build out brand awareness and establish thought leadership. This is largely achieved through informative blog articles that target valuable keywords in the field, without linking directly to the product.
At this stage, the intent of the content isn’t to encourage purchasing, but to develop authority as a brand by showing expertise on the topics their customers care about.
As a buyer moves through the marketing funnel, through PPC ads, SEO and other tactics, they will be delivered content that more specifically focuses on the actual SaaS solution the company is selling.
First, this could mean comparison guides, industry reports and whitepapers that offer actionable insights. Suppose a customer signs up to receive information, or a free download. Then, you can start targeting them more specifically through email marketing and offering options such as free trials or demonstrations.
Later in the funnel, companies start to get more targeted and specific with their content. Case studies, interviews with experts, testimonials and webinars all serve to highlight why a customer should choose you, and demonstrate your company’s understanding of pain points and how to solve them.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategies for B2B SaaS
In 2023, the average net retention rate across SaaS companies was 102%. This continues from previous years, showcasing how one of the biggest drivers of profit for B2B SaaS businesses is in retention and upselling to existing customers.
One of the most effective ways to do that? Account-based marketing (ABM).
Using ABM, you can target specific high-value key accounts and stakeholders. This is a highly nuanced, targeted form of marketing, that requires you to build personal relationships with individuals in that company.
Show understanding of that specific business’s needs and pain points with tailored messaging and personalised outreach.
Take the time to understand that specific accounts pain points and challenges, and deliver actionable insights and data-driven suggestions that ultimately drive engagement with the stakeholders.
The after-care sales team are instrumental in developing ABM strategies. Use their knowledge to ensure content marketing strategies and messaging aligns with what existing customers are looking to improve upon and prioritise key accounts accordingly.
Optimising Lead Generation and Conversion
One of the key goals of content marketing and the entire B2B SaaS marketing funnel is lead generation.
As potential customers work their way down the marketing funnel, you want to offer them incentives to sign up in some meaningful way to receive your content. Usually this will be by asking for their email to download a whitepaper, sign up for a free trial, or receive some sort of special offer.
This allows you to capture their information and use it for remarketing purposes, which is highly effective, particularly if utilising PPC marketing.
Once your leads are in the funnel, marketing automation, including email marketing funnels, segmentation and personalised content allows you to develop a path for your leads based on actionable insights and data.
This nurtures the lead through your sales funnel, making them more likely to convert.
The importance of tracking in lead generation
In order to do this and to deliver the insights we’ve mentioned above, you need to have a well-integrated tracking system for your own processes.
Approaching your lead strategy holistically, and ensuring data is trackable across platforms like your email software, CRM and analytics dashboards, provides actionable data-driven insights for use for lead conversion.
This makes it easier to see where your high-value opportunities are. You can then provide appropriate follow-ups with insights and content that will develop the relationship with the lead.
In using these strategies, your lead generation processes become streamlined and cohesive, ultimately making them more likely to convert.
Building Trust and Credibility in B2B SaaS Marketing
Building trust and credibility is essential in B2B SaaS marketing. It’s the bread and butter of customer retention and lead generation. Essentially, you need to prove you know what you’re talking about.
A holistic B2B SaaS marketing campaign will show that not only do you understand your product, but the specific industry, the gap it’s filling, and the customer needs it answers.
By sharing valuable educational content on the industry as a whole, you position yourself as a leader int eh field and establish the company as a trusted source of information and knowledge.
This can be achieved through:
Educational Content: Building out general thought leadership styled articles as covered in our content marketing section, establishes authority and showcases understanding of the industry as a whole. Instead of marketing directly, this informs the potential customer and makes you their touchpoint for new knowledge and data-driven insights into the industry.
Testimonials & Case Studies: Develop a strategy that showcases real-world case studies and that known companies within the industry use your software. These real-world examples provide tangible and relatable examples of how your software has supported other businesses and demonstrates your software’s effectiveness in the most powerful way: through word of mouth. The approach of “don’t just take OUR word for it” works well as it provides real-world examples of how your tech is used and regarded.
Industry Partnerships: Mutually beneficial collaborations with other companies can boost both sides profits and lead generation. This can be approached in a number of ways: creating a collaborative offer between two companies, developing integrations with multiple related products, or creating a joint marketing venture. For example, we work with Elmtec, a digital design company that partners with resellers for additional reach.
Embracing Data and Analytics for B2B SaaS Growth
Despite there being a huge number of metrics to track, a B2B marketer should know to hone in on specific data points and analytics that provide actionable insights.
Anything else is just vanity metrics, that might look good, but fail to provide any information on how to improve your b2b marketing strategy.
Two of the most important metrics any B2B SaaS company should be monitoring are:
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): The total cost of acquiring a new customer
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The total revenue a customer generates across their lifetime
Naturally, the CLV needs to outweigh the CAC for business success.
Data collection
Collecting data is important for remarketing, any Google Ad campaigns you might want to run, and search engine optimisation. It tells you the best channels, messaging and strategy for your specific target audience across each stage of the customer journey.
As part of this it’s essential cookie policy requirements are followed so that data collected is done so with the consent of the potential customer. Once collected, the data can be used to inform targeting and messaging along each stage of the marketing journey for a comprehensive attribution model.
By basing tactics on analytics and shifting industry trends, you can be reactive and make data-driven changes that improve engagement and the likelihood of a customer converting.
Scaling and Iterating Your B2B SaaS Marketing Strategy
SaaS businesses should always be on the lookout for new opportunities to scale. That could mean through regional geographic expansion, vertical targeting or looking at how to go international with their software.
To do this, you’ll need to establish appropriate strategies that are based on market research, and proactively adapt to new challenges like any national regulations that need to be adhered to.
If you’re an educational SaaS company looking to expand abroad, for example, you’ll need an evidence-based understanding of the relevant compliance laws for higher education companies.
This is achieved by developing marketing frameworks that are informed by data insights, user feedback and marketing demands for your new target audience. Don’t forget to look at what’s worked well in the past, and how it can be adapted for a new strategy.
Concluding Thoughts on Effective B2B SaaS Marketing
B2B Marketing requires a nuanced approach that targets every stage of the marketing funnel, with a special emphasis on customer retention, and account-based marketing.
By understanding the unique needs and pain points of targeted businesses, you can build out effective, scalable strategies that place you as a thought leader in the industry and improve ROI.
Or, you can ask a B2B SaaS marketing agency, with proven success in increasing customer acquisition rates and lifetime value, to do it for you. Hint: that’s what we do.
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More about the author
Daniel Bianchini
Co-founder & CEO
Our CEO and co-founder with over a decade of experience across 100’s of companies, Daniel’s goal for Common Ground is to empower brands of any size to grow their business online through the power of search.
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