Advice on the Opportunities for SaaS Solutions.

Effective Account Based Marketing for SaaS solutions

The SaaS market is growing over 600% faster than the global economy. Where does that put you? Forecasts predict the SaaS sector will be worth over $623 billion by 2023. Being in the SaaS world, you are in a booming industry. That means plenty of increasing competition across many verticals for you to think about.

The million-dollar question is, how will you stand out from the crowd?

You need a marketing strategy that works. How can we grow faster than we have in the past?

We will look at some of the most effective SaaS marketing strategies used right now, including but not limited to:

• Tried and tested techniques – Account-Based Marketing (ABM).

Whether a beginner or an experienced entrepreneur in the SaaS sector, there will hopefully be information you can use in this article.

Tried and Tested SaaS Marketing Techniques.

You need to start by taking a step back to assess your current B2B SaaS marketing strategy and make corrections – its effectiveness and areas to improve on. SaaS platforms often focus on leads and price instead of selling solutions and value.

You need to get creative in marketing a SaaS product, as most are intangible and complex with various features. It needs to be simple and catchy but allowing your audience to see it will solve their problems.

Start by creating a plan for your specific solution. Start with the basics:

• Provide an accurate description of your product and make sure you articulate your target audience’s pain points that it solves, and value it creates.
• Identify your niche, account-based target market.

Account Based Marketing

The core approach is to align marketing and sales with building relationships with targeted accounts.

No wasted time trying to sell to unqualified leads. Imagine a day where you start selling directly to the highest value, best-fit customers – we are talking about efficiency.

The process allows you to weed out the less valuable companies while keeping your sales and marketing aligned. This allows your sales team to jump into engaging sales processes more quickly.

Maximize your business’s relevance among high-value accounts.

By working with ABM, it is as if you are working with individual markets. You can personalize the lead’s journey, content, and all communications. The campaigns can now be focused on showing more significant ROI and boosting customer loyalty.

Building blocks of your ABM search strategy:

• Business Overview
• Key Business Initiatives
• Customer Relationship Landscape
• Customer Products and Revenue
• Account Competitor Analysis
• Buying Process and Selling Points
• Relationship Goals & Strategy
• Sales Opportunities, Targets and Risks

Your strategy will be unique, but the basics remain the same. Your audience’s urge to buy will come from your ability to show them you can solve their problem – first and foremost, you need to identify that problem and show evidence of solving it. Add a call to action to stimulate a response.

For your messages to resonate, everyone in your company needs to understand the unique conditions of the SaaS market – the value proposition has changed, which is your company’s unique differentiator. In large accounts you are targeting, there will typically be decision influencers and decision makers. You need to reach all of them!

The next step is building your content strategy.

Your software meets a specific need. There are people with an idea of how your product works, but a much larger audience has no idea. You must help this audience understand what it does – also why it is needed.

Content marketing plays this role and shows why it is better than competitors. Content marketing could include:

• Blogging
• Datasheets
• eBooks
• landing pages
• webinars
• infographics
• Video Series
• Interviews
• Workshops

There are many options – find what works for you and your audience. This aspect of marketing makes people aware of your product and shows them how it could potentially solve a problem they have. This will generate brand awareness and traffic to your landing pages and website.

Now develop an action plan. Here are some broad ideas to consider:

1. Create an ideal customer profile and identify key accounts.
2. Then the critical tactic for ABM is relevance and personalization. Create offers that are built for specific target markets. These communications are more likely to be read by potential buyers as they will carry valuable information.
3. Retarget to keep your brand in front of accounts. Repeatedly engage each identified account.
4. Personalize the account’s experience on your website. An effective tactic is personalizing your landing page with appropriate images, offers and custom copy. Preferably do not display the client’s name – that may make them suspicious and nervous.
5. Test direct mail with selective executives. Executives seldom register for white papers, seminars, or email subscriptions. Send them a direct email offer they will not be able to refuse.

Account-based Marketing is labour intensive requiring the buy-in from everyone, including upper management all the way to the sales and marketing department – this cannot be done like B2B marketing strategies. Have an effective plan and practical resources. Done correctly, this will pay massive dividends!