What Is SaaS Marketing?

Key takeaways

Software as a service (SaaS) marketing benefits companies looking to increase brand awareness and reach niche, target audiences. Explore key facts:

• By 2030, the projected global market size for SaaS marketing may reach over $819 billion [1].

• Popular SaaS brands include Zoom, Monday.com, and Toggl Track.

• You can implement SaaS marketing by developing a strategy, analyzing data, and targeting your content to your audience.

Continue reading to gain a deeper insight into SaaS marketing and its applications. Afterward, consider enrolling in IBM’s Technical Support Professional Certificate, designed to give you the opportunity to learn hardware and software skills that help users select, install, and configure their devices, operating systems, and applications. Upon completion, add this shareable credential to your resume or LinkedIn profile. 

Who uses SaaS marketing?

Companies that sell software as a service use SaaS marketing. You likely use SaaS yourself. If you use email, shareable calendars, or office suites like Microsoft Office, you use SaaS products. Additional SaaS brands include:

• Zoom, a video conferencing platform

• Monday.com, a project management platform

• Toggl Track, a time-tracking tool

All of the mentioned software is on-demand and marketed by a SaaS marketer or team.

Pros of SaaS marketing

Marketers often lean on free trials to promote SaaS. This technique not only incentivizes customers to try it but also allows them to see how it can help their company. From a customer’s perspective, a free trial reduces the risk of making a bad purchase.

SaaS brands usually have monthly subscriptions. Brands sometimes prefer monthly fees, which users can adjust depending on needs, instead of paying higher upfront costs.

Read more: IaaS vs. PaaS vs. SaaS: Intro to Cloud Computing

Cons of SaaS marketing

SaaS marketers face stiff competition. According to Grand View Research, the projected global market size for SaaS will be over $819 billion by 2030 [1]. While companies are willing to spend more on digital solutions, experts believe more software solutions will enter the market, making it even harder for current SaaS brands to stand out. 

SaaS tends to target a specific niche. SaaS has a smaller user pool than commonly used products like toilet paper or pillows. As a result, SaaS marketers need to define their audience and generate leads that fit within that segment. 

What does SaaS marketing mean?

SaaS marketing means developing marketing strategies to encourage customers to discover software services, usually those that require a subscription. Whereas some types of marketing may promote physical products, SaaS marketing promotes subscriptions to software that may better your business.

The importance of SaaS marketing

SaaS marketers educate customers and promote software solutions. Furthermore, they play a vital role in the company's success by undertaking the following responsibilities:

• Generating brand awareness

• Identifying niche audiences that can benefit from SaaS

• Guiding leads through a specified sales funnel

• Creating engagement for prospects throughout various stages of interest

• Defining and measuring metrics to assess marketing effectiveness

• Utilizing diverse marketing channels to reach a target audience

To succeed in fulfilling the aforementioned job goals, SaaS marketers direct their attention to three core areas: search engine optimization (SEO), defining a target audience, and conducting competitive analysis.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

As a cloud-based solution, it's crucial for SaaS brands to create a strong online presence. To help prospective clients learn about a company, SaaS marketers leverage SEO. SEO elevates search rankings and organically grows website traffic by using relevant keywords.

Target audience

Hyper-targeted promotion is a key aspect of SaaS marketing. However, prior to crafting any collateral, a clear understanding of the target audience is vital. SaaS marketers acquire this understanding by collecting customer data, which helps in constructing buyer personas that delve into the shared characteristics of the customer base. Traits of these buyer personas can include:

• Values

• Wants

• Needs 

• Goals

• Lifestyle choices

• Profession

• Personality traits

• Pain points

• Buying behaviors

Competitive market analysis

SaaS marketing teams often need to conduct competitive market analysis to propel promotional efforts. To do so, marketers engage with customers to learn how they use the product, identify problem areas, and learn more about individual users.

SaaS marketers also conduct focus groups, hold one-on-one interviews, or launch customer satisfaction surveys, all in an effort to refine their marketing tactics.

How to implement a SaaS marketing strategy

Implementing a SaaS strategy takes some forethought. You may want to consider these three steps to get started: 

1. Develop a strategy.

Every good marketing strategy needs a plan. Get the team together and consider how you'll reach your audience and what campaigns you'll create. More specifically, you can do the following:

• Identify your target audience.

• Set goals and identify key performance indicators (KPIs) you plan to track. 

• Choose marketing channels.

2. Analyze the data.

Aim to build a strategy based on data rather than assumptions. During your planning phase, identify KPIs you'll track and check during and after the campaign. Refer to your metrics for campaign guidance. If you don't achieve your goal, adjust your next campaign.

Metrics that usually play a role in this kind of marketing include:

• Customer retention

• Sign-up rates

• Number of upgrades

• Leads generated

• Conversions

3. Target your content.

Create content that's tailored to your audience and its needs at various stages. Your content plan may include:

• Owned media: Content that you create, like blogs, newsletters, and downloads

• Paid media: Any kind of content you pay for, such as social ads or sponsored content

• Earned media: Content hosted by others, like guest blogs or an interview on a podcast

Each piece of content should not only target your audience but also cater to different phases of your sales funnel. For instance, a customer who visits your website for the first time has different needs than a customer who just wrapped up a free week-long demo. Explore your sales funnel and make sure your brand offers content for each step in the customer journey.

SaaS marketing vs. traditional marketing

With SaaS marketing, you're promoting software as a solution, which means you'll likely rely on free trials to attract customers. In traditional marketing, giveaways aren't common.

SaaS marketers build long-term relationships. Since service is a part of a SaaS brand, customers stick around after an initial sale and, as a result, require ongoing attention and nurturing. Traditional marketers typically focus on driving immediate sales.

Marketers in the SaaS niche tend to rely on content marketing to help educate customers. They work to create a variety of assets that not only offer brand awareness but also relevant information that helps position the brand as an industry leader. 

Discover professional growth resources

Looking to elevate your marketing career? Subscribe to our Career Chat newsletter on LinkedIn for tips, trends, and the opportunity to network with industry professionals. Then, explore free, digital resources designed to optimize your career growth:

• Watch on YouTube: 3 Ways AI is Changing Marketing

• Explore jobs: Digital Marketing Career Progression: Job Levels & Skills to Advance

• Learn from experts: Marketing Career Path: How I Became a Brand Marketing Manager at Coursera

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