B2B Marketing Inbound Marketing

8 Ways Inbound Marketing Will Generate and Nurture Leads for Your SaaS Company

JannelleChemko
ByJannelleChemko

Inbound Marketing is all about attracting qualified leads and can be a successful tool for any industry. Online competition is fierce, and the pressure is really building up for businesses to differentiate their brand, nurture a community, and increase conversions and customer acquisition.

For SaaS-based companies specifically, leveraging an inbound marketing strategy can work especially well.

To Attract New Customers:

1. Success Stories

Publishing case studies of some of your most successful client implementations will show new customers that they, too, can find solutions to their challenges with your software. Try to include specific stats or ROI numbers (ie: “Switching to our software improved ABC Ltd.’s conversions by 25%”), or positive quotes from management.

Success Stories for Inbound Marketing.jpg

2. Engage with the Community

If you’ve never heard of Quora before, it’s an online platform where people go to gain and share knowledge within a community of users. And it’s a great way to engage with your potential customers. You can login and easily add value to conversations which are relevant to your business or industry, all the while subtly promoting your brand and software product(s).

You can do the same on any online social platform where conversations are held: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn; investing in well-thought out content and promoting it will help to drive engagement and the right traffic straight to your website.

3. Gated Content

Gated content is premium content that visitors can only gain access to after providing information: for example, filling out a form with their name, company name, job title, etc. Once this information is submitted, the user gets access to the premium content, and the business gets access to the user’s contact details in order to nurture the lead into a potential conversion.

SaaS companies can really take advantage of this strategy by offering resources such as white papers or downloadable guides that provide solutions to common customer problems, show ROI results, or demonstrate how your software can help benefit target users.

It’s a good idea to tie these types of content to your PPC campaigns as well, by linking your PPC ads to a gated content landing page. Start by targeting the keywords your customers are searching for, and when they click on your ad it will take them to a landing page with a form they’ll need to complete to get access.

4. Nurture Campaigns

Once visitors have provided you with their contact details in order to download gated content, it’s time to nurture them until they move to the next phase of your sales & marketing funnel.  Enlist the use of marketing automation tools to send those contacts useful and educational resources, or additional gated content that specifically relates to your software offerings and how they can benefit from them.

For example, you could offer industry-specific case studies, software comparison tools, Magic Quadrant or Wave reports or pricing sheets.

5. Free Trials

Offering free trials (unlimited access to your SaaS tool for a set period of time) is an awesome way to get users to try your product or service for free. Ideally, this trial should easily demonstrate to your users the benefit of your software and what they can expect by using it. 

Once they have signed up for their free trial, your marketing automation tools can also send them personalized communications that offer assistance, 24×7 support, user guides or other useful resources to help them really get to know the software during their trial access.

To Keep or Nurture Existing Customers:

6. Provide On-going Resources

To retain or nurture existing customers, it’s a great idea to provide them with a resource section on your website. This section can include in-depth “best practice” guides, new features or enhancements and how to use them, or user guides and tips to to using your software.

You can also host periodic webinars or recorded demos to encourage on-going education or introduce new features. The better your users know how to use your software, the more satisifed they will be using it.

Resource Guides for Inbound Marketing.jpg

7. Freemiums

Freemiums are like Free Trials, except instead of full access for a limited period of time, they offer limited access for an unlimited period of time. This form of lead generation assumes that for the majority of users, it will become necessary to upgrade to the paid version in order to maximize the benefit the SaaS tool brings to the table. Generally, some major piece of functionality or benefit is not included in the Freemium, which acts as incentive for users to upgrade.

8. Encourage Referrals

Happy customers will spread the word, and especially for an incentive. Offer a discount off the next month’s payment or $$ off an upgrade fee in return for referrals. You could also offer the same for new prospects: for example, if they are referred by a current customer, they can get access to an extended free trial period, say for two weeks instead of one.

So, have we sold you on the benefits of inbound methodology for your SaaS business? Do you need help taking the next step towards developing an integrated strategy? Our free inbound assessment will offer you advice on creating, enhancing and optimizing your current approach to marketing.

About the Author

JannelleChemko

JannelleChemko

Numbers Ninja & Digital Dynamo
Jannelle Chemko has been working in Operations and Accounting since 2007. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in English, she is now in the midst of her CGA designation.

As strange as it sounds, Jannelle is a numbers and a letters guru: in addition to extensive full-cycle accounting experience in the technology and retail industries, Jannelle is also passionate about writing. In between crunching numbers and building excel reports, she researches, creates content, and keeps up to date with digital trends.

When she’s not working to meet school and month-end deadlines, you can find Jannelle outside walking her dog, and enjoying the beautiful Vancouver air.
Follow Me On: Facebook

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