A successful SaaS business will expand by drawing in new customers and keeping the ones they already have. This opens up opportunities for them to do the following:
- Acquire more of your target audience.
- Preserve them for as long as possible and help them bring in new business and expand.
- At the outset, this book will focus on how to grow your customer base.
One thing that all successful SaaS marketing have in common is an obsession with getting more customers. For a startup, this may make the difference between success and failure. Master the basics of customer acquisition for software as service companies.
- Pricing and packaging
- Conversion
- Provisioning access to your product
- And how your revenue infrastructure can support your strategy
What is a customer acquisition strategy?
Acquiring a constant flow of new customers is essential for growth. It often happens after the customer hits the “buy button” or when the contract is signed. Your go-to-market strategy should be the driving force behind everything you do to advertise your product and bring in new customers.
- How is your product priced?
- Who are your ideal clients are
- What channels you’ll use to contact them till you’ve successfully converted leads or even free users into paying customers who are using your product regularly thanks to a streamlined onboarding procedure
Read more: 13 App Marketing Strategies That Startups Must Know
Primary challenges In Saas Marketing
Cost
The success or failure of your business in the marketplace might hinge on your pricing approach. When prices are set excessively high, they may scare away potential consumers who might otherwise be suitable matches, while establishing prices that are too low may result in lower earnings. Determine a fair price for your product or service by first learning about the market and how much your target consumers are willing to pay for similar offerings from your competition. After carefully analyzing your target market’s requirements and competitors’ tactics, you may decide which pricing strategy is best for you.
Competition
Despite intense competition, many businesses are squeezing their clients to be the best choice. To survive in today’s market, companies must consistently innovate their products and deliver substantial added value to their consumers. By analyzing the strategies of established SaaS providers, startups can gain insight into how to differentiate themselves. Researching your company’s performance might reveal critical ways to differentiate yourself.
Security and privacy
SaaS has several advantages over traditional methods and programs. A company’s control and access to its data are severely limited when using cloud-based services. Regulations in critical markets, like the GDPR, have made data upkeep more critical. HIPAA mandates strict rules for handling patients’ health data.
Find out more: 7 Startup Challenges to Avoid When Scaling Your Business
How to establish a customer acquisition plan
Consider these points when you map out your strategy for expanding your customer base:
1. Identify your ideal customers
Gathering information about your present and potential clientele is the first step in expanding your consumer base. Researching the competition and poring through data from the Census and Pew Research Center are examples of this category. When you know who you’re selling to, you can better define your marketing strategy and focus on achieving specific results.
- Is there a specific function that your product enables?
- Where do your consumers think you need the most developed when it comes to your business?
- Who makes up the bulk of your clientele, and how did you determine this?
- How you respond to this inquiry will shape the trajectory of your business. What do people receive out of purchasing your product or products?
- Who are the people most likely to buy your goods, and where can they find out more about it?
- Why wouldn’t they buy your products?
- At what point do you think your perfect customer will buy from you?
Having this demographic and psychographic data about your clients at the ready will allow you to more effectively segment your market as your business expands and target new demographics. Your advertising efforts will be most effective if they are concentrated on the characteristics and behaviors of your most valuable clients.
2. Define your product catalog
Consider the benefits of your product and how they may be highlighted in a box or other container. The provision of free and paid service levels is standard practice. While some subscription services provide bulk savings on various commodities, others may only sell specific products.
3. Decide how you will monetize it
Your pricing approach may be influenced by the following factors: the frequency with which you want to bill your clients, the duration of your billing cycles, and the availability of promotional offers such as free trials and price discounts for new customers.
4. Choose your customer acquisition channels
The first stages in developing a winning strategy are identifying your target market and establishing your client acquisition objectives. Think about the outcomes of your studies when selecting how to distribute your material and across what platforms it will have the most significant impact.
Several advertising methods might be used to bring in new business. Everything that introduces a potential customer to your company is a customer acquisition channel, whether paid advertising, organic search, or social media. Common approaches to expanding clientele include:
- Instagram is a picture and video-sharing social media platform.
- Facebook’s strong points are its live video streaming, private messaging, and ability to act as a venue for hyper-specific advertising.
- Videos on YouTube have gotten longer, more interesting, and more entertaining.
- To optimize work for indexing by search engines, or SEO, one must write encyclopedic works with that goal in mind.
- Advertisements on social media platforms tend to be concise and visually appealing if they cost money.
- As a gesture of gratitude for spreading the word, customers receive monetary incentives and priority service.
5. Develop a unique strategy for each channel
The temptation to rapidly expand your customer base at the expense of quality may be substantial. For instance, if millennials make up the bulk of your target demographic, you may find that Instagram and TikTok are where they spend most of their time online. Save money on successful Facebook or Google Shopping advertisements. Think about the following when you develop a marketing plan for each platform:
- Determine which material will most effectively reach your intended audience and explain why they will do so.
- What kind of content are your rivals marketing?
- Key performance indicators and what they might tell you about your business.
You should reevaluate your TikTok investment if a sizable portion of your target audience already resides on Facebook. Social media sites like YouTube and Instagram work better for you if you want to convey your ideas visually. If you want to maximize the effectiveness of your attempts to attract new consumers, you must investigate the most efficient tactics for each channel you utilize.
6. Communicate with your customer base
With input from your target audience, it may be easier to determine where your client acquisition process is missing. If you want to learn something useful, you’ll have to ask for it. Design a strategy for keeping in touch with your clientele. Customer contact forms, interviews, social media updates, and blog entries are some of the most efficient methods to engage with your clients. You may advertise a deal, get input, and make yourself known.
7. Price, learn, repeat
There is no way to value anything accurately. Doing things well the first time is complex, and even if you do, what worked in the beginning, will serve you better as you expand. Based on customer feedback and an examination of use and income statistics, ProfitWell suggests doing a price review every six months.
Customer acquisition vs retention
Customer acquisition refers to gaining new buyers and keeping in touch with the consumer after the sale is crucial if you want to maintain them as clients for the long haul. Among the various methods for attracting and retaining customers is offering consistently high-quality service. Proactively cultivating relationships with existing customers can reduce the need for costly marketing campaigns aimed at bringing in new consumers.
Deep dive: How to Acquire the First 20 Customers for Your Startup
Seven best customer acquisition techniques
Get your items in front of more potential customers using one or more of these seven customer acquisition strategies.
1. Content marketing
Blog articles, guides, manuals, infographics, videos, and podcasts are all content marketing strategies that may be used to promote your business, address customer concerns, and answer common inquiries. Content marketing is a fascinating and persuading strategy for turning website visitors into paying clients. Demand Metric found that compared to outbound marketing, inbound marketing generated nearly three times as many leads for 62% less money.
2. Social media marketing
Recently, there has been a rise in the popularity of advertising via social media. Most people today own a smartphone and use it often to do Internet searches on a wide range of topics. The corporate world has seen a dramatic transformation due to the internet. The impact of the Internet on companies should be considered while developing a marketing strategy. It’s crucial to include it in your overall marketing strategy.
- Using social media marketing, you may get in touch with your customers and clients more personally. It’s a great tool that lets you devote more time and effort to creating content and engaging with your target demographic.
- Take these measures if you’re serious about reaping the full benefits of social media for your company or organization.
3. Search Marketing
When considering the many tools available to help new businesses find an audience, search engine marketing (SEM) stands out. The maintenance of a steady stream of customers requires this measure. Once your company has solid ground, expanding your customer base will be less of a hassle.
- Consumers are eager to increase their financial commitment to your market region as a direct result of their use of a search engine. Your products and services may go unnoticed unless you expose them to your target audience.
- The value of a search engine is not dependent on whether or not the user types the exact name of the product or service being researched into the search box; instead, it is proportional to the number of users who perform “related searches” to learn more about the product or service.
4. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization, sometimes known as SEO, is modifying a website’s content to improve its visibility in search engine results pages. Optimizing a website for search engines like Google and Bing is essential for any online company as more and more people rely on them to obtain the information they need. For this reason, it is a fantastic instrument for expanding your business.
Learn more: Web App Vs. Website: Which is Right For Your Business?
5. Email marketing
Do you know how thriving business owners use the leads generated by search engine optimization and content marketing? People are added to a mailing list. New subscriptions are the ideal monetary outcome of increased traffic, even more so than direct sales.
Discounts, new features, and exclusive material are a few examples of things that might be included in a promotional email. In terms of return on investment, email marketing is among the top methods available today. According to research by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing may provide an astounding 38 cents in profit for every $1 invested.
6. Referral program
Whenever you’ve looked for a specific service or product, you’ve probably already come across one. Programs that compensate users for recommending their friends are a low-effort technique for building a business’ client base. More individuals you refer means more money or perks for you in the program.
7. Paid advertising
Paid advertising is essential for a new business or online store to gain clients. Compared to other forms of marketing, advertising’s immediate returns on investment (ROI) in the form of increased site traffic, new prospects, and sales are hard to beat. PPC ads might aid in SEO by revealing fruitful keyword targets for use in organic SEM.
Dig deeper: 13 App Marketing Strategies That Startups Must Know
Conclusion
Marketing a SaaS product can be challenging, but with the right approach, it’s possible to acquire and retain customers effectively. By following best practices for customer acquisition and retention, such as focusing on a specific target market, creating valuable content, and using marketing automation, you can improve your chances of success.
By working with a reputable marketing agency like NeoITO, you can access the expertise and resources you need to create and execute a successful marketing strategy. With NeoITO, you can identify the best channels and tactics to reach your target audience and plan a strategy to help you acquire new customers and retain existing ones. However, even with the best system in place, it’s essential to be prepared to adapt and evolve as the market changes.
