How to stop losing SaaS market share? 30 Methods.
SaaS marketing share, who wants to lose it? No one. With this guide, I’ll put forward some methods that you can utilize to put the break on your market share erosion and keep it sweet and increasing.
Your LTV, TCV and all other flavorful metrhics will be in your favor if you do things right.
Well, like you agree, that, in today’s highly competitive SaaS market, retaining market share is getting difficult to sustain success.
New SaaS apps are popping up everyday. You need to do something.
I’d try my best, but If you can’t find the meaningful knowledge you were looking for, then, I am always available for a free call, schedule it and you might get your pearls of wisdom.
There are multiple strings you can pull to start gaining marketshare, but my focus here will be the string of digital marketing. One of the most strongest pillar in SaaS madness.
Here are 30 meticulous digital marketing strategies to prevent the loss of SaaS market share in a saturated market:
Customer Retention Campaigns:
Develop targeted email campaigns and in-app messages to nurture existing customers, encourage renewals, and reduce churn rates.
Personalized Onboarding Experience:
Tailor the onboarding process for new users based on their specific needs and goals to improve product adoption and retention.
Referral Programs:
Incentivize satisfied customers to refer new users by offering discounts, credits, or other rewards for successful referrals.
Product Education Resources:
Provide comprehensive tutorials, knowledge bases, and webinars to educate users on product features, best practices, and use cases.
Continuous Product Improvement:
Gather feedback from customers through surveys, user testing, and support interactions to identify areas for product enhancement and innovation.
Social Proof and Testimonials:
Showcase customer success stories, case studies, and testimonials to build credibility and trust with potential buyers.
Strategic Pricing and Packaging:
Review pricing plans and packaging options to ensure they align with market trends, customer preferences, and value proposition.
Content Marketing Strategy:
Develop high-quality blog posts, eBooks, and whitepapers that address common pain points and provide valuable insights for your target audience.
SEO Optimization:
Optimize website content, meta tags, and backlinks to improve organic search visibility and attract qualified traffic.
PPC Advertising Campaigns:
Launch targeted PPC campaigns on platforms like Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and generate leads.
Webinars and Online Events:
Host educational webinars, workshops, or virtual events to engage prospects, showcase thought leadership, and generate leads.
Customer Feedback and Surveys:
Solicit feedback from customers through surveys, polls, and feedback forms to identify areas for improvement and address customer needs.
Partnership Collaborations:
Forge strategic partnerships with complementary businesses or industry influencers to co-market products and expand reach.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM):
Develop personalized marketing campaigns and messaging tailored to specific target accounts or high-value prospects.
AI-Powered Chatbots:
Implement AI-powered chatbots on your website to engage visitors, provide real-time support, and capture valuable lead information.
Email Marketing Automation:
Set up automated email workflows to deliver targeted content, nurture leads, and re-engage inactive users.
Social Media Engagement:
Build a strong presence on relevant social media platforms and engage with your audience through organic and paid content.
Customer Success Programs:
Establish proactive customer success programs to onboard, train, and support customers throughout their lifecycle.
Competitive Analysis:
Conduct regular competitive analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in the market, and adjust marketing strategies accordingly.
User Experience (UX) Optimization:
Continuously optimize the UIUX of your website and app to ensure easy navigation, fast loading times, and intuitive design.
Mobile Optimization:
Ensure your website and app are fully optimized for mobile devices to provide a seamless user experience for mobile users.
Localized Marketing Initiatives:
Tailor marketing campaigns, content, and messaging to specific geographic regions or target markets to address local preferences and needs.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO):
This is my favorite. Test and optimize website design, landing pages, and conversion funnels to improve conversion rates and maximize ROI.
Customer Advocacy Programs:
Mobilize satisfied customers to become brand advocates and champions by recognizing their loyalty and incentivizing referrals.
Data-Driven Decision Making:
Utilize analytics and data insights to track key metrics, measure campaign performance, and make informed marketing decisions.
Thought Leadership Content:
Publish thought leadership content, research reports, and industry insights to establish your brand as a trusted authority in the SaaS industry.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
Implement a CRM system to manage customer interactions, track leads, and nurture relationships throughout the sales cycle.
Influencer Marketing Collaborations:
Partner with industry influencers or thought leaders to amplify your brand message, reach new audiences, and drive engagement.
Cross-Sell and Upsell Opportunities:
Identify opportunities to cross-sell or upsell existing customers on additional products or features to increase customer lifetime value.
Continuous Monitoring and Optimization:
Monitor market trends, customer feedback, and competitive landscape regularly, and adapt your digital marketing strategies accordingly to stay ahead of the competition.
If you are successful in implementing these 30 meticulous digital marketing strategies can help SaaS companies safeguard their market share and thrive in a competitive landscape.
Secret BANT SEO Strategy No-one is using
BANT SEO Strategy. Have you heard about it before? I bet you didn’t. Unless you are reading this article after a long time and many others have broadcasted it already.
BANT is mostly used in sales, but you can also implement it in the SEO realm.
What is BANT?
B = Budget
A = Authority
N = Need
T = Timeline
You might already be using some of this SEO strategy of BANT but might not know it already.
Well, after this, you will.
In a sales funnel, BANT is used to confirm whether the lead qualifies to go to the next level.
First BD or sales consultant confirms they have the potential customer’s budget, authority to make decision, need for the product or service, and timeline that aligns with the vendor.
Let’s put the BANT methodology into SEO.
Can you? Really?
Budget:
Start with budget.
You need to attract the right clients who have the budget.
Create content around titles like:
- Which product is best under X budget?
- How much X costs annually?
Think about any possible content that relates with the price, budget and costs, then go on start creating content around it: be it on blog, pricing page, FAQs, knowledgebase, or anywhere else. It could be text, video, infographic and anything else.
Authority:
Move to those authority.
Okay, traffic is good, but if all you attract are people who will never become your customers then it means you need to attract people who call the shots and move cards.
Create content around alluring the people who have authority, people who fall into your ICP (ideal customer profile).
If your customers are in the b2b, specifically those holding c-suite of information technology. Then, you will create content around titles like e.g. Best Tools for [industry] [job title] like “Best Tools for [manufacturing] [CTOs]”.
Need:
Now, you want to target as many people with needs as possible.
Create content around terms like e.g. Who have the best [use case] like “Who have the best video editor for instagram”.
Imagine and research many other titles and keywords like these.
Timeline:
Now, you want to target as many people with needs as possible.
Create content around terms like e.g. Fastest [use case] like “Fastest Android Video Editor”.
Good thing to know:
At the end of this exercise, you will have tons of keywords, titles and ideas to create just about any content for BANT SEO.
When someone will fall into the leads through BANT methodology, your hose will be bigger and these leads will be vetted to drive the maximum ROI.
16 Powerful Growth Hacking Strategies for B2B SaaS Apps
Growth Hacking Strategy for B2B SaaS Apps is not as difficult as it sounds.
I am going to share some SaaS Growth Strategies that are easy to implement and will take your customer acquisition to the next level.
What are you waiting for? Put your time and people to good use with these growth hacking strategies.
Note, I am not going into nitty-gritty or the semantics of what is growth hacking, and what is growth marketing. Simple idea is to do something awesome that can get your real big fruits.
Let’s begin our program:
1- Micro-Influencer Collaborations:
The idea is to identify niche-specific micro-influencers with engaged audiences in your target industry. Collaborate with them to create authentic content like DIY, case studies or product reviews, and leverage their credibility to reach new customers.
Micro-influencer collaboration cost varies depending on influencer fees, content creation, and potential incentives; you can even do barter with some of them.
Consider offering free access to your SaaS app or revenue-sharing (affiliate marketing) arrangements if you can’t afford monetary compensation.
2- Strategic LinkedIn Content Syndication:
What you can do is you can develop insightful and actionable LinkedIn posts or articles addressing common pain points or industry trends around your niche.
Syndicate this content across relevant LinkedIn groups, forums, and communities to increase visibility and drive traffic.
Hint: Use watermarks, logos, infographics, PDF, PPT.
About its Costs: Minimal costs are involved in content creation and potential outreach efforts.
You can get LinkedIn Premium for enhanced targeting and messaging capabilities.
3- Exclusive Industry Reports and Insights:
Might look difficult but compile proprietary industry data (tons of resources on the internet) and insights into comprehensive reports and studies. Offer these reports as opt-in content on your website, requiring email sign-up for access and capture leads and establish authority.
Its costs includes research, data analysis, sometimes paying license fees and report copy/design.
Consider outsourcing data collection or hiring industry experts for insights.
4- Partnership with Niche Software Review Peeps:
I know, seems difficult, but try to forge partnerships with niche software review websites (blogs, vlogs etc) catering to your target audience.
You can offer exclusive deals, discounts, or early access to your SaaS app for their users in exchange for featured listings and positive reviews.
The cost varies depending on partnership terms and potential incentives.
Consider offering revenue-sharing or performance-based compensation models.
5- AI-Powered Chatbot for Lead Qualification:
Implement an AI-powered chatbot on your website to engage visitors and qualify leads in real-time.
Customize the chatbot’s responses based on queries, user behavior and intent to provide personalized assistance and capture valuable lead information like name, mobile, phone, budget etc.
Costs are cheap, there are lot of free and paid options.
6- Customer Referral Gamification:
Merge or Implement a gamified customer referral program where users earn points, badges, or rewards for referring new customers or completing specific actions within your SaaS app. Okay maybe not too complicated but at least have it in some form.
At small price, you can implement it within your users’ admin dashboard.
7- Interactive ROI Calculator Tool:
Something like this, but kind of develop an interactive ROI calculator tool that allows prospects to estimate potential cost savings, competitor comparison or business benefits by using your SaaS app that users will get.
Embed this tool on your website and promote it through targeted campaigns to generate leads.
Depending on how sweet you want it, costs can vary anywhere between 1 day of your developer time or a month, or even more, but no need to dive very deep.
8- Content-rich Knowledge Hub:
Create a comprehensive knowledge hub or resource center on your website with valuable content, tutorials, FAQs, and best practices related to your industry or product offering.
Position your brand as a go-to source for expertise and insights (HINT: HubSpot have one of the biggest blogs).
Cost to make content-rick knowledge hub includes content creation, website development, and potentially hiring subject matter experts or content writers.
9- Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Campaigns:
Identify high-value target accounts or key decision-makers within organizations and create customized marketing campaigns tailored to their specific needs and pain points.
Leverage personalized content, outreach, and account-based advertising to engage prospects.
Make Targeted Account-Based Retargeting (ABR) a part of it as well.
Cost includes account identification tools, personalized content creation, and potentially hiring ABM specialists or agencies. Consider leveraging account-based advertising platforms for targeted outreach.
10- SaaS App Integration Partnerships:
Again, a difficult one to crack but nonetheless an important one.
You have to forge partnerships with complementary SaaS apps or platforms that share your target audience but have no conflict of interest.
Integrate your SaaS app with these partners’ platforms to offer seamless workflows and added value to mutual customers.
11- Personalized Video Outreach Campaigns:
Use AI to create personalized video messages or demos tailored to individual prospects or target accounts.
Use video outreach to grab attention, demonstrate value, and establish rapport with decision-makers.
Its costs includes video production, editing, and potentially hiring videographers or video editors.
12- Innovative Social Media Challenges or Campaigns:
Launch creative social media quizzes, challenges, contests, or campaigns that encourage user participation and engagement while promoting your SaaS app.
That’s where your creativity comes in.
Leverage trending hashtags, viral content, and user-generated contributions to amplify reach and visibility.
These campaigns will give you great social media outreach.
13- Data-driven Personalization Campaigns:
Use data for all your campaigns, especially paid campaigns like ads. Utilize data analytics, reports and user segmentation to deliver personalized marketing campaigns, email, and product recommendations based on user behavior, preferences, and past interactions.
14- Interactive Email Campaigns with Progressive Profiling:
You might think this method has gotten old but that’s not the truth. Even if people do it they’re not doing it well enough.
Develop interactive email campaigns that adapt and personalize content based on recipient interactions and preferences.
Incorporate progressive profiling techniques to collect additional user data over time and refine targeting.
You can use R statistical language to quickly see through complex data.
The Costs includes email marketing automation tools, dynamic content creation, and potentially hiring email marketing specialists.
Try using AI-powered email platforms for advanced personalization and segmentation.
15- Targeted Quora Answer Campaigns:
Identify relevant questions on Quora related to your industry or product offering. Craft insightful and value-packed answers that address user queries while subtly promoting your SaaS app. Leverage Quora’s organic reach to drive traffic and generate leads.
Less costly, just put your fresh grad resources to get some experience early on.
16- Expert-led Webinar Series:
Host a series of expert-led webinars covering advanced topics, emerging trends, or specialized use cases relevant to your target audience. Invite industry thought leaders, influencers, or internal experts to share insights and best practices.
TIP: Use sticky, or pop-up to get maximum webinar sign ups.
Free also possible but usually the cost includes webinar platform subscriptions, speaker fees, and promotional efforts. Consider offering on-demand access or recordings for wider audience reach and ongoing lead generation.
AK’s User Acquisition Strategy for SaaS Apps
User Acquisition Strategy for SaaS Apps…
Oh lord, are we discussing this again?
Yes, sure we are.
I don’t know how many articles or books you’ve read, how many videos you’ve watched, and how many hours you’ve spent brain-storming to increase users for your SaaS. I’ll try my best to share some pearls of wisdom with you that will take you far ahead in this marathon.
I didn’t say sprint, I said marathon. What does that relate to? It relates to keep running (and sometimes walking) towards the direction you want to reach. In a marathon, you go through lot of destinations. Passing each destination is equally important.
Memorize 2 Laws:
1 – Law of Innovation
2- Law of Repetition
Both laws are equally important and must be followed. Some people follow them throughout their lives without knowing what they are and without naming them.
Law of Repetition.
It is about repeating the steps that you know will reward you each time you take a dig at it.
This law applies differently on each marketing channel but nevertheless, it is always in action.
SEO repeats steps they know will return results. Social media expert does their own. Ads expert, and other marketing specialists [the list goes on].
Your responsibility is to ensure that all the steps you are taking are valuable. Don’t keep digging without finding any minerals.
Dig where you know you are getting minerals.
Once you find the best places to dig, then think about scaling the repetition.
Many teams waste time on tasks that return nothing of value. Make sure you don’t follow the same footsteps. Ask your team and experts what they are doing daily every now and then, and correct their steps if you find something not fitting your bill.
For SEO, this law is about finding new keywords, implementing those keywords, writing content, submitting to key websites etc etc. I am not saying your SEO is not awesome, all I am saying is to make sure they don’t go astray without your supervision.
Your goal is to make sure law of repetition is being followed in the right direction, once you find it’s in the right direction, then you try to make that process faster, easier and get the bigger fruit every time at the end of each exercise.
Law of Innovation.
The exercise of innovation is sometimes more important than repetition.
It’s easier to repeat things, every expert of xyz marketing channel can do this, but what takes a real genius is to differentiate between innovation and repetition.
This genius (could be you) will be solely focused on innovating marketing strategy, from top of the funnel till the closing, everything.
This person will innovate and present (train) your experts on what to do next.
If you think I gave very surface level details, and you want nitty-gritty, then schedule a call with me. Don’t worry, it’s free.
Think growth hacking, performance marketing, monthly report with suggestions – think along these lines and you’ll have multiple recipes.
How to find, interview and hire a CMO? Guide.
How to find, interview and hire the best of breed CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)? also known as Head of Marketing, and sometimes you just want director/VP of marketing.
I will put the guide here on placing your best bet to find the most excellent marketers who could take on leadership responsibilities and strive forward through all the clutter, mess and fog.
What are the recipes, responsibilities, salary, questions, checklist to find the best?
What would be the difference in Apple, Adidas, Coca Cola, JP Morgan, Mc Donalds or small business hiring a CMO? There are 2 parts. First is what you know and what you expect. Second is what to-be-CMO knows, expect and can achieve. It’s not about Fortune 50 but these 2 things.
Anyways, making long story short, lets’ talk about finding, interviewing and hiring a CMO. Remember, CMO in our scenario is any marketing leader whom you want to be at the top of the layer and play all the cards while reporting you on updates every now and then.
I have divided this section into 3 parts: i) find ii) interview iii) hire
Part 1 = Find
There’s no sure place, a pond that magically gives you the CMO you dream of. You need to play all the cards available in your capacity to make sure you are hiring the right marketing leader. Yes, do your due-diligence but don’t overdo it that you end up pissing off the candidates.
I have hired multiple marketing leaders throughout my career. There was a guy whom I interviewed hardly 15 minutes, and sent the offer the very next day. Turns out, that was the best resource I could find, especially under company’s budget. The guy was hardly 6 months experienced, but from the very first impression I saw him I knew this is the guy I am looking for.
This person was the top performer within 3 months. This is what I call “Finding diamond in the dirt”. If you have unending budget then sure you can hire someone coming from big company with big pay and has backing of wealthy alumni, but if you are like most people or rather try to spend wisely then you will try to dig to find the best in line.
Your HR department can do due-diligence and things alike but you as a decision maker who will be calling shots should ensure you are pulling the right person from the huge pool of candidates.
No matter where the candidate is coming from: Ivy, regular university, without university, acquaintance, facebook group, do your work.
First, Cast a wide net to get the maximum candidates, don’t be lazy and don’t take decisions in a hurry. You won’t believe how many great candidates are not as active on LinkedIn than other platforms. That’s why it’s important to cast a wide net. Also, tell your HR send you as many marketer CVs as possible not just 2 or 3 shortlisted ones. You are the one who is placing bet here not HR.
Second, confirm if they have worked in CMO/Head of marketing, Director/VP/Manager capacity before. If they haven’t, confirm if they were some how related to product-market fit, business development, reported to CEO or any C-suite, have the vision and can translate difficult industry and company wide strategy into easy language like Slides, PDF, small paragraph and move people. This step is important.
Third, analyze their resume fully. AI is useful with flexible settings, but AI will not do your job. Sure, use AI to exclude resumes of people who never once worked in marketing but don’t rely too much on AI. Once AI has found people, analyze their resumes.
Best thing that could happen is that the person is working in your industry for last 10 years in the same role and line of business as you are hiring for. But don’t call check-mate yet, still there are few steps left like interviewing and the offer.
Shortlist people with any or all of the following traits:
- Same title as you want
- Same niche/industry as you require
- Achieved KPIs relevant to you
- Worked on platforms you require
Part 2 = Interview
Lot of people will make it to the interview phase. Don’t include people whom you think are not fit.
I use the following method when asking questions:
- Start with 2 or 3 extremely simple questions (remember, not so simple that it’s negligible). An example is, Ask social media marketer, how do you automate social media posting. or, Why are backlinks useful? or What are your 5 favorite marketing tools.
- Second, ask extremely complicated questions. I have fun with this especially if I am interviewing for a junior or mid-level position. If someone can rapidly answer the most complicated answers that even genius think twice, that means you already have found the dream match.
- Move between asking simple to most extreme questions.
- Notice, how I didn’t mention questions like ‘tell me about yourself’, if these questions are good for you to find gems then sure use them.
- One type of questions that I always ask, especially for in-person interviews are: How will you handle hard winter if you don’t have anything to keep you warm? Weird question I know, but it shows how creative they are.
- Ask scenario based questions. What would you do if I give you $100 million annual budget marketing budget?, or What would be your strategy to 10x our SaaS ARR? Really, think about scenario they would be dealing with and ask question from that perspective.
- Ask hiring question. How would you go about building a team? Do you think micro managing is a good strategy?
- Ask, how would you assess your team performance.
- Ask, do you prefer new team or take existing team forward?
- Ask, how would you gain trust and confidence of your team.
Now, the answer to these questions will depend on your requirements and use cases. I can’t really pin point what’s the best answer. But, for starters, micro managing is not good, they should be comfortable taking existing team forward, be articulate in how they will hire and spend marketing budget.
Part 3 = Hire
Now, you’re ready to hire. If you find lot of great people, and your budget allows them to hire them then place them strategically in your organization.
One thing that you need to understand is that you can’t be 100% sure, nothing will 100% confirm that the person you are going to hire are not lazy, have good work ethics and so on and so forth. No HR can ever find pre-hiring that someone is one way or the other. This is where your talent to finding needle in haystack comes in use.
