10 Successful Marketing Strategies for Technology, Software and SaaS

In the competitive world of technology, software and SaaS, having a great marketing strategy in place is incredibly important. In order to be competitive, attract new customers and drive sales, you need to have a dynamic, creative and innovative approach to marketing your business.

Furthermore, as part of the tech sector, it is important to be seen as using the latest technology and approaches! Here is a look at the 10 best marketing strategies for technology, software and SaaS companies and products.

SEO

Search engine optimization is one of the most important marketing strategies for any business, and no more so when it comes to technology, software and SaaS. Having a great SEO for SaaS in place will drive traffic to your site, thus driving sales leads, delivering sales and growing your business.

As Google’s algorithm becomes increasing more complex, so does SEO. There are a variety of ways to improve your site’s SEO, some of the key ones being: keywords, citations and references, backlinks to your site, internal links and technical SEO. An expert Digital Marketing agency can help you to develop a comprehensive SEO strategy to exponentially boost traffic to your site.

Link Building

Link building is a highly effective form of marketing because it is a great way to both improve your site’s SEO, and drive organic traffic to your site. Link building involves generating links from other, reputable and well-recognized sites back to your site.

Depending on your product and your business, you may wish to tailor your link building for local SEO, rather than more general strategies which operate on a national or international level. Check this local SEO link building guide for more on local link building.

Content Marketing

Content marketing, in a nutshell, is the process of creating and distributing content which does not directly sell your products or services but promotes your brand. The options are practically endless when it comes to types of content: not just blog articles but also videos, ebooks, infographics, webinars, email newsletters and much more. When done well and using quality, interesting and useful content, this strategy can be highly effective in bringing in leads, growing your customer base and driving sales. The reason content marketing is so successful is that it offers something of real value, rather than simply pushing more advertising on ad-weary consumers.

Product Trials

For SaaS and software companies, using product trials can be a great way to generate leads, many of which will turn into long term customers if your product is good enough. Having a free trial available for your product lets customers test out the product and make sure they like it before committing to buying or subscribing. This is a great way of overcoming many purchase barriers.

This approach also reflects the modern technology-savvy audience, which would rather try out a product on their own terms rather than deal with a sales rep. To execute this strategy effectively, you will need to make sure that these leads have a great experience while trialling your product. If you want to absolutely make sure this is the case, and take the strategy to the next level, you could consider offering on-boarding and support to all trial users as you would your paying customers.

Develop an Online Community

Creating a strong customer base is all about building loyalty and a strong connection with your customers. A great way to do this is through online communities, such as forums or social media groups. These are fantastic for engaging with your customers and particularly effective for technology, software and SaaS companies as they are a great platform for tech tips and tricks, as well as troubleshooting issues.

PPC Advertising

PPC (pay-per-click) advertising offers great potential in advertising to the millions of people who use search engines on a daily basis. What’s more, studies show that although the average CTC (click through rate) for search engine ads is just 2%, this still amounts to millions of users every day.

If you are effectively using inbound marketing techniques such as content marketing and link building you will not need to heavily invest in PPC advertising. However, adding this to the mix of marketing strategies you use could greatly increase sales leads.

Customer Referral Programs

Customer referral programs are a great way to formalize one of the best forms of marketing there is: word of mouth. Customer referral programs offer your existing customers a reward – such as a free product upgrade or discount – in return for referring a friend or colleague to you. This is a great way to find new customers and drive sales leads. This is particularly true for software and SaaS as areas where user experience is highly important, therefore recommendations from someone they know is a major motivating factor for customers.

Customer Loyalty Programs

Another way to make the most of your existing customer base is through a customer loyalty program. There are different options on how to execute a loyalty program: you may offer a free product or bonus after a certain length of time or a certain value spent. Alternatively, you could offer a discount for long-term programs. Essentially a loyalty program simply needs to reward your customers for the more they buy.

Public Relations

With the dizzying array of digital marketing options available, PR may be overlooked by the tech industry as somewhat “old hat”. However, especially when applied in a way which takes advantage of the modern landscape, public relations can be very effective in marketing technology, software and SaaS. A PR strategy in 2018 should focus on both traditional and online publications, with outreach through networking, press releases and pitching editorials and articles. Press releases are also a useful tool for building more links to your site.

Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies around, with an ROI of over 400 percent. Creating a distributing engaging and informative emails in combination with a strong email list can be a highly effective marketing strategy. Gather contacts through your website, social media, potential sales leads and networking and send them email newsletters, product offers or updates.

Technology, software and SaaS companies have plenty of great options when it comes to marketing their business. Though many strategies are heavily based in digital marketing such as content marketing and link building, more traditional strategies such as PR and customer loyalty programs also still have a role to play.