by Alter | Nov 27, 2021 | Blog, SaaS Blog
Do you want to expand your market and automate marketing processes for your SaaS product? Then you could largely benefit from an effective SaaS digital marketing agency.
In this day and age, all the major sectors such as real estate, retail, financial services, transportation, hospitality, etc. rely heavily on software to go about their business. An effective SaaS digital marketing agency can help you shine with success by increasing your customer base and generating more qualified leads. It is estimated that in the next 3 years, the global SaaS market will be worth more than 60 billion dollars. If there was ever a good time to invest in digital marketing for SaaS companies, that time is now!
However, it won’t be smooth sailing, especially if you end up hiring a digital marketing agency that is not worth your time and money. When hiring a digital marketing agency for SaaS, there are several substantial errors that can cost you your hard-earned money and can lead to stagnation in terms of growth. In this article, you will learn how to choose the best digital marketing agency for your SaaS product. But before that, let’s briefly delve into:
The benefits of B2B SaaS Digital Marketing Agency
While you may have all the technical prowess in SaaS, you may not have the required knowledge about marketing. Some of the major benefits you could reap from hiring a SaaS digital marketing agency are:
- Deal with and overcome SaaS marketing challenges.
- They are experts in SaaS lead generation.
- Accurate tracking and relevant analytics.
- Save time and money
- Creating an integrated digital strategy to achieve your goal
- Having multiple experts from different aspects of marketing work on your company
- Consistent and regular efforts in marketing
- Guide you in choosing the right platforms to market on depending upon your target customer
How To Choose The Best Digital Marketing Agency
Choosing the right digital marketing agency for SaaS can get quite tricky. Especially when every agency claims to be the best at what they do. However, focusing on the below mentioned key areas is a must before hiring:
1. Prioritize Goals: Make the agency aware of the goals and objectives that you expect to be achieved. When you are clear about what you want, so will be your marketing agency. They can evaluate and get back to you on their take on the goals – what can be practically achieved and what can’t. Judge their take and then make an informed decision.
2. Experience: A SaaS marketing agency with a great deal of experience should always be your preferred choice. You need an experienced agency that has a team of experts who are not new to this field and can add to your success with their experience.
3. Case Studies and Testimonials:
There’s no better way to evaluate a SaaS marketing company’s experience than by going through their case studies. A case study provides an in-depth analysis of the success the agency was able to achieve with its previous of current client. It should give you an insight on
– The problem their client was facing
– The solution that was proposed (and followed)
– The outcomes they achieved
Case studies help you determine if the agency has the problem-solving skill that you are looking for. They give you a fair idea if the agency was able to generate high-quality and convert leads for their clients.
Another way to check for the authenticity of any agency’s work is to check for their client testimonials. Testimonials are written or recorded statements that support the agency’s credibility and level of expertise from the perspective of their clients.
So, always ask for case studies and testimonials.
4. Long Term and Short Term Strategy:
A good marketing agency will follow all the right practices to strike a balance between short-term marketing strategies that have a very quick return and others that have a far longer return?
The Long term strategy builds your SEO and Content marketing over a period of time. The right agency will develop impressive and compelling content for your intended audience to keep them interested and engaged. Ask yourself if they can deliver high-quality content which aligns with your brand value.
Paid ads fall into the category of short-term strategy. Paid ads when done right can have a very quick return – but are also less scalable, and inhibit exponential growth.
The marketing agency that you are looking for should be able to formulate both long term and short terms strategies otherwise you are looking at a situation where you will end up working with multiple agencies.
5. SaaS Marketing Trends: A good SaaS digital marketing agency will keep itself updated with the changing trends. Can the agency focus on SaaS marketing trends and help you keep up with them? Hiring a team of the right SaaS professionals who stay updated with market trends will boost your lead generation, client retention, and customer acquisition.
6. Robust Internal Processes: A good marketing agency will have tested systems and processes. The best way to identify a professional agency from an amature one is by asking them to describe their internal processes. These internal processes are extremely important right from internal briefing, client onboarding to sending out the expected deliverables. When an agency has the right processes in place, they will invariably be able to consistently deliver on their promises and outperform their benchmarks. So the best question to ask a prospective agency is “ Explain to me your process of onboarding a client, quality control and setting benchmarks for results” . The answer to these questions can save you thousands of dollars.
Some Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. How do you digitally market a software product?
A. To start with, have proper and well-planned digital marketing strategies in place and follow some tactics that work. Create a comprehensive knowledge base to support your customers with your content offers. Also, consider offering free demos or free trial versions of the product.
Q. How do software companies get clients?
The first step is to identify a specific niche to target and have a content marketing strategy. The content you promote should be targeted to a particular audience and provide them with real value — to convert them into clients. Establish yourself as a subject matter expert and reliable resource for information, to gain your potential client’s trust. Getting referrals from previous clients is also a good way of getting new clients. Having a good marketing team on board is a definite booster!
Q. How do I market my software house?
Invest in getting a dynamic, fast-loading, and mobile responsive website design. Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your content offers and opt for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising to generate leads. Getting an effective SaaS digital marketing agency on board is also a great way of marketing your software house or company to increase brand visibility.
If you’re an IT company or a SaaS company looking to buff up your marketing strategies and tactics to make more profits, reach out to Alter Marketing Solutions at 099864 60086 or email us at [email protected]. These days, SaaS is more competitive than ever. Trust our experts to make your business stand out from the competition.
Want to learn more about creating the perfect growth plan for your SaaS product? Get Free Access To Our SaaS Growth Plan EBook.Download Now!
by Alter | Nov 25, 2021 | Blog, SaaS Blog
The internet is an ever-evolving digital organism that allows complex breeding grounds for unparalleled and unimaginable opportunities. 21st-century capitalism plays out on the internet and in a capitalist market, the winner is who captures the attention of its patrons better.
SaaS, or Software as a Service products need marketing, in ways true to themselves, largely using digital channels to garner awareness, position the product, and bring it to the market.
Customers won’t care about any particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way. ~ Peter Thiel, co-founder – PayPal
Far too many nifty digital solutions slip through the market every year because they either weren’t marketed to the right audience or not marketed in the right way using the right tools. But how do you figure out if your marketing strategies are working before it’s too late?
That’s when we talk about ROI in SaaS digital marketing.
This guide will teach you about ROI (Return On Investment) in SaaS, the metrics to focus on, and ways to boost your returns. Let’s dig in, shall we?
ROI in SaaS Marketing
ROI refers to the profitability ratio to evaluate the quality of fruits your marketing labours bear. When it comes to SaaS, marketing profitability is key because of the saturation of the market, and the increased competitiveness it fosters. 92% of year-one revenue of SaaS-based businesses is spent on client acquisition through marketing.
Suffice it to say it is imperative that every rupee is spent in the right place if you want your service to fare well. ROI assists you in doing just that, by gauging the viability of your marketing campaigns and channels, what is working well, what isn’t, and where the room for improvement lies.
Let’s begin with a very fundamental metric: overall growth or profit. It is the ratio of the difference between returns and investment in a particular period of time, to the investment.
Here’s the formula for overall ROI for a set period of time:
(Total return – Total investment)÷Total Investment=ROI
This is helpful for understanding the extent of profitability of your marketing efforts. However, not so when it comes to understanding which marketing efforts are doing the heavy lifting and which ones are being carried.
To gain that knowledge, we need to look at more specific metrics.
Calculation of ROI by Channel:
A marketing campaign has multiple components running together to generate leads that eventually convert into sales. Naturally, you want to magnify the marketing channels that promise the most potential and discard or modify the ones that underperform.
Tracking the leads generated is essential for this pursuit. There are certain CRM softwares that provide this particular service. It is important to track the leads generated from individual channels such as email marketing, newsletters, content marketing, social media marketing, and the rest.
Let’s take the example of Email Marketing ROI:
The crux of the concept for calculating the ROI remains the same as above. To begin with, you want the number for total investment (costs) towards email marketing.
Total marketing costs = X (Email marketing team allowance) + Y (Email Marketing software). So X + Y is total investment.
Next is the calculation of revenue generated.
Revenue = Leads generated through email marketing x lead conversion rate x average sales value = Z
Now, let’s use these values to find email marketing ROI:
ROI = Z – (X+Y)÷(X+Y)
There you go! We’ve just calculated the return on investment for the email marketing channel for your company. Use this same formula to calculate the ROI for other channels and equip yourself with the knowledge you need to take the next step: improve your ROI.
Get to the Heart of the Matter
Getting all the numbers on spreadsheets is well and good, but if you don’t know what to do with them, it’s akin to trash.
The entire point of this exercise is to ultimately increase your sales and profits, and grow your company. Calculation of returns provides you with insights about which channels are more fruitful than others, but you need more than that.
You need to possess answers to two key questions: ‘’why?” and “how?”
- Why do certain channels work and certain do not?
- How to improvise key factors that can boost the ROI, and by extension, your company’s growth?
To answer these questions, you first need to learn more about said key factors that determine the success of your marketing channels.
The number of people visiting your website/app/blog. These numbers also provide insight into which channels are bringing the traffic to help you analyze trends and patterns.
MQLs and SQLs, or Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads, respectively. The former refers to a potential lead who is likely to show interest in your product or service, and the latter is a candidate with tangible potential to turn into a customer.
These metrics are key because they inform you about the trends in conversion rates of MQLs to SQLs for particular channels and campaigns, and further gauge their effectiveness.
- Customer Acquisition Costs
CAC is a fairly straightforward metric, all things considered. As the name suggests, it is the overall cost of acquiring a new customer. The calculation is simple enough, with the ratio of total marketing costs endured to the total number of customers acquired.
Calculate the CAC for your overall marketing efforts as well as individual channels, to dig deeper into the efficiencies of each channel and campaign.
It’s no good if you only convert one sale from a thousand leads. You need to define and regulate the quality of leads acquired, and a BANT rating is an effective way to do it.
Budget – The prospect’s willingness and ability to spend on your solution.
Authority – Are they the authority figure to make the ultimate decision on the sale?
Need – Does the prospect have a need for your solution?
Timeline – How long would the prospect need for a purchasing decision?
Rate each of these factors on a scale of 1 to 5, add all of them, and multiply the sum with 5. This will give you the score on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 having no chance of being a customer and 100 being the best possible chance.
Data ⇒ Insights
The pile of spreadsheets on your desk, or the excel sheets on your computer (it’s 2021, after all) are just a means to an end. The end being increased leads, sales, and profits, and probably a Forbes magazine feature.
From all the metrics we discussed today, a plethora of actionable insights and plans of action can be derived.
For example, if your email newsletter campaign turns out a roaring success, you can pinpoint the reasons by using the metrics. Information about targeted keywords, audience demographics, content quality, all those inputs may be used for another campaign like social media ads to attract more and more leads for that channel.
All that to say all the information in the world is redundant, if you do not understand how to leverage it properly.
Final Word
The idea is to be aware of the right performance indicators to track, and then implement accurate tracking systems for them.
After you have the data, it is incumbent upon you and your marketing team to derive actionable insights to grow your SaaS business.
But if you’re not tech-savvy enough to understand these numbers, don’t worry! All is not lost yet. We, at Alter Marketing Solutions, employ a marketing team of highly proficient number-crunchers that come up with the best, personalized marketing strategies for your company. Drop us a message at [email protected], or call us at +91 99864 60086.
Want to learn more about creating the perfect growth plan for your SaaS product? Get Free Access To Our SaaS Growth Plan EBook.Download Now!
by Alter | Nov 18, 2021 | Blog, SaaS Blog
‘How to grow a software business?’ is a question on the mind of every startup company. Most B2B buyers bank heavily on the internet as their primary resource when looking for new business solutions. So, the question all struggling software companies need to address is ‘Are we doing enough to showcase our brand over the internet? If not, please be aware that your competitors most definitely are doing more than just ‘enough’.
The software development industry is in high demand, but the competition is also cutthroat. Every day it is becoming tougher and tougher to attract new clients, especially if you are a small startup. This is one of the major reasons why software developers allocate a huge amount of time and resources to research marketing strategies and their implementation.
Strong digital marketing for software companies is easier said than done. Every product has to simplify its own complexities while fighting for a strong digital presence. A sound digital marketing strategy effectively connects your clients to the services you offer through social media, blogs, websites, forums, etc.
This article covers 7 of the most bankable digital marketing strategies that software companies need to establish a strong digital presence.
1. Define Your Goals
The first question that needs addressing before formulating an effective digital marketing strategy is “What do I want to accomplish”? It can be anything —attracting more clients, brand awareness, or promoting the software that you have developed. A blueprint to success can only be drafted if you have well-defined goals for your organization.
2. Define your Target Audience
Your target audience is a group of people who are most likely to benefit from the services offered by you. Awareness about your target audience helps choose the right strategy to push more traffic to your sales funnel. You need not just know who is going to use your services but also who will be your buyer. Hence, it becomes imperative to develop targeted content that appeals to your buyers’ expectations and demands. While doing so, concentration on the following criteria that you have you define your ideals customers better:
Demographics (Age, Location, Gender, Income level, Education level)
Psychographics (Personality, Attitudes, Values, Interests/hobbies, Lifestyles)
Behavior – purchasing patterns such as price sensitivity, brand loyalty
Business segmentation – business size, nature of business, structure, etc.
3. Create a strong website
Your website is the virtual address of your SaaS Company and is a great place to put your business and USPs on display. Your website should provide relevant information about your company and offerings. Because that is what your target audience wants to give them.
Make sure your website ticks all the checkboxes mentioned below to convert a visit into a sale:
✅ Effectively portrays your brand
✅ Sleek web design
✅ Builds credibility
✅ Content and flow optimised for high conversion rate
4. Bet on SEO
It’s not just about creating a usable website, it’s about creating pages that appeal to the senses of your target audience and attract them to your page to drive traffic. One of the most crucial factors in having a strong SEO game is to get a first-page ranking on search engines. Identify the keywords that drive traffic and create optimized landing pages, frequent quality blogs circulating those keywords and create backlinks with your keywords to point the traffic toward your main product pages.
The rule of thumb when it comes to successful SEO implementation are:
-Technical and on-page SEO to enhance your website relevance to target keywords
-Creating 4-10 quality backlinks per month
-On-site blog posting at least once a week.
5. Invest in Paid Ads
According to a recent survey, more than 28% of online searches convert into a sale. And 28% is a towering number. Paid ads are the second-best performing lead generation channel for Most SaaS companies after organic search and SEO.
Google Ads is the go-to place to get started on your campaigns. With google ads, you also get access to more advanced remarketing strategies. This feature advertises to those potential buyers who have already visited sites related to your market or have searched for pertinent keywords in the past.
Explore multiple social outlets. Choosing the right platform is half the battle won.
Linkedin: Highly relevant if your software services are aimed at B25B space
Facebook and Twitter: Great to engage with your target audience and spread brand awareness. Their paid remarketing system allows you to grow a following in no time.
Youtube: Best place to post relevant videos and tutorials of your products and services. Give people insight into your solution while also driving traffic to your website.
6. Create tutorials and guides
Understand what is the problem faced by your customers and show in the visual form how your products and services can solve those problems for them. How-to tutorials, best practices, demo videos are some of the content buckets you can invest in.
Helpful, value-based content creates ripples of exposure and address. Provide what your customers want and be generous.
7. Build Impactful Reviews
Websites with a good number of user reviews, rank higher on Google because of their tie-ups with giant software companies. Look out for independent third-party review sites as well as work to increase the level of reviews you gain from users. Search for “software directories” or review sites and add and verify your profile there. Building impactful user reviews will provide greater exposure and credibility to your offering.
Put a plan in place to build reviews from real customers. Leverage your social media accounts and engage with your happy users to review you on certain platforms. Make sure the reviews are unbiased.
So that was our 7! If you are interested in more tactics that work for software development companies, click here.
Some Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. How to promote my software development business?
A. To start with, have proper and well-planned digital marketing strategies in place and follow some tactics that work. Create a comprehensive knowledge base to support your customers with your content offers. Also, consider offering free demos or free trial versions of the product.
Q. How do software companies get clients?
The first step is to identify a specific niche to target and have a content marketing strategy. The content you promote should target a particular audience and provide them with real value — to convert them into clients. Establish yourself as a subject matter expert and reliable resource for information to gain your potential clients’ trust. Getting referrals from previous clients is also a good way of getting new clients.
Q. How do I market my software house?
Invest in getting a dynamic, fast-loading, and mobile responsive website design. Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your content offers and opt for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising to generate leads. Social media marketing is also a great way of marketing your software house or company to increase brand visibility.
The competition in the B2B Tech industry is fierce. So, take advantage of what the online world and social media platforms have to offer. You may find an untapped source of clients looking for your services. No matter how new or old, big or small your company is, you can outrun your competitors with the right approach to digital media.
And if you’re an IT company or a SaaS company, you’ll need a full-proof SaaS digital marketing strategy and tactics to make more profits; reach out to Alter Marketing Solutions at 099864 60086 or email us at [email protected].
Want to learn more about creating the perfect growth plan for your SaaS product? Get Free Access To Our SaaS Growth Plan EBook.Download Now!
