(B2B) SaaS Marketing - Everything You Need to Know About It

1. SaaS marketing - what is it really?
2. SaaS marketing is the art of staging a SaaS product in such a way that it is relevant, appeals to the target group and stimulates them to learn more about it, try it out and ultimately subscribe.
3. Growth Startup Scaleup
4. Nevertheless, the different types of growth hacks can be roughly divided: there's the creation of content that is so good that it encourages sharing, guest posts (like this one), social sharing, viral loops (i.e. awareness through recommendations) or CRM automation.
5. , are a valuable channel for (paid) B2B SaaS marketing. If you are represented on them with a concise product description and attractive images in all relevant categories, this usually brings visibility, better reach and qualified traffic.
6. Neutral ratings are not counted when calculating the NPS. Instead, you subtract the percentage of Detractors from that of Promoters, with a result between -100 to 100. The higher the score over 0, the better. If the values are below 0, you should be worried.
7. How do you do that? Please do not do it with a 180-degree turn in the marketing strategy, but rather with a clever combination of B2B SaaS marketing strategies that deliver both short-term and sustainable results.
8. Making it Easier - Helpful Tools for SaaS Marketing
9. 3 Tips for (Even) Better SaaS Marketing
10. Conclusion: Drive individual strategies and automate what is possible

Imagine you have developed software and are now generating demand to scale your business and fill your pipeline with new customers from your target audience, so that the CAC is finally not disproportionately high compared to the CLV.

What at first sounds like we're just randomly throwing around buzzwords, is actually SaaS marketing - marketing for sometimes highly complicated Software-as-a-Service solutions that want to be brought to men and women in a simple and understandable way.

This article helps you understand SaaS marketing better. Our guest author Tim Rath from YOYABA explains to you what SaaS marketing is, how it works and what matters when you want to take your SaaS marketing game to the next level. In addition, we show you some helpful tools and software on OMR Reviews that support you in all this.

SaaS marketing - what is it really?

SaaS marketing is basically nothing more than marketing that is geared towards very specific software products. The abbreviation "SaaS" stands for "Software-as-a-Service" - software applications that you can use flexibly from anywhere and anytime based on a subscription via the cloud. All users have to do is pay a monthly (or annual) fee and log in through their account. Installation, server, maintenance & Co. lie entirely with the provider.

Most SaaS products operate in the B2B sector - they are designed to meet the needs of larger companies and are sold from business to business. So when we talk about SaaS marketing here, we actually mean B2B SaaS marketing. Some of the most successful players and newcomers in the B2B SaaS business are currently, for exampleSalesforce Sales CloudWorkday HCMHubSpot Sales HubShopify and yokoy as well as Storyblok or

.

Because such software – especially when it comes to innovative products with many functions – is not always easy to explain, they need very special marketing: SaaS marketing must appeal to (prospective) users, take into account their problems and needs and skillfully market the products as solutions.That means: SaaS ads must capture attention and convince, SaaS content must pick up (potential) users at exactly the right point in the Customer Journey and SaaS companies must be present on social networks with a strong brand.In other words:

SaaS marketing is the art of staging a SaaS product in such a way that it is relevant, appeals to the target group and stimulates them to learn more about it, try it out and ultimately subscribe.

Why is SaaS marketing different from "normal" marketing?

• SaaS marketing is therefore different from "normal" online marketing because you
• market products that are offered as a subscription and not for one-time purchase,
• advertise purely digital products that are not physically tangible and usually do not include a service, and

promote products that never really have their final form. There are constantly new updates and features.

This means, when you do SaaS marketing, not only do you have to get (potential) users to buy a SaaS solution once. You also need to keep them interested and convince them that the service is worth a monthly subscription. If you fail to do this, your company's so-called "churn" rate increases – one of the most important KPIs for B2B SaaS companies, especially for investors. More on that later.

SaaS marketing is basically a constant struggle - with competitors and for the attention of customers. The fact that a seemingly better offer is usually only one or two clicks away makes the situation even more complicated.

Growth Startup Scaleup

What can SaaS marketing look like? Different approachesSuccessful SaaS companies don't just invent a cool and unique product, but above all something that adds true value. Something that the target audience really

needs. The basis for good SaaS marketing is therefore a deep understanding of who is to be addressed, what these people need, where their problems lie and what solutions they desire.

Really successful SaaS companies even go a step further and combine inbound marketing, growth hacking, ABM & Co into a holistic SaaS marketing strategy. We will, of course, explain to you what this means in detail.

Inbound MarketingYou might already suspect: Inbound marketing means using channels that attract customers to come to you

- and not the other way around. This works best with really good content that makes people interested in your product. Once they are "there", the goal of inbound SaaS marketing is to turn them into leads (contacts) and ultimately into real customers.

You can try to generate organic traffic on your website via blog posts, white papers, SEO & Co. (Organic Growth) or use paid marketing to address, reach, bind and convert target groups as quickly as possible (Paid Growth).

Our tip: Anyone who is familiar with the world of SaaS marketing combines both and scales their business even more efficiently and faster.

Account-based Marketing (ABM)Account-based Marketing (ABM) combines inbound and outbound techniques, each focused and completelyindividual tailored to specific, important customers.

This means that you run a targeted marketing strategy with ABM, which is specifically tailored to selected, valuable large customers where it is most likely that they will generate a particularly high Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

The focus is therefore much narrower, which enables the marketing messages or offers to be tailored better, creates closer relationships and makes marketing more efficient overall.

Classic Marketing vs. ABM

1. For successful ABM you need to consider four things:
2. You need to identify and specifically address the large customers who are most likely to bring revenue.
3. Your content should be personalized and tailored directly to the needs of these customers.
4. You should involve all important decision-makers from the customers' side into your marketing measures. Pro-tip: Influencers also contribute significantly to decisions in companies. The people who ultimately use your product on a daily basis should be taken on board and enlightened.

You should track your results continuously and continuously optimize your strategy.

Growth HackingGrowth Hacking is, so to speak, the cherry on the SaaS marketing cream. The term describes clever, usually free

techniques and tricks (so-called "hacks") that can extremely quickly boost a company's growth (if done properly).The focus is on agility and fast ideas that increase conversions and stimulate sales.

If an idea doesn't work, it is simply discarded and a new one tried out. The ultimate goal is always to ensure that a start-up grows as quickly as possible.

All of this only works with a healthy dose of creativity, curiosity and analytical thinking. Most growth hacks are also so specific that they only work for one company and its customers.

Nevertheless, the different types of growth hacks can be roughly divided: there's the creation of content that is so good that it encourages sharing, guest posts (like this one), social sharing, viral loops (i.e. awareness through recommendations) or CRM automation.

Where does SaaS marketing occur? The most important channels & strategies

Inbound, Outbound, ABM or Hacks – in SaaS marketing you can get creative with different types of marketing. We recommend: Find a good mix of Inbound and Outbound. Where you want to focus depends entirely on you and your company or your product.

We have compiled a list of the most important channels and strategies from the "SaaS World-of-Marketing" for you. So you can draw on a full range of options for your next SaaS marketing strategy.

Customer Journey

Organic Growth: Content Marketing, SEO & Social MediaContent marketing in the SaaS field falls under inbound marketing. With Whitepapers, blog posts, landing pages, one-pagers, infographics, video and audio content you can convince at every stage of the customer journey and set the right impulses. Interestingly to note: Before they convert, customers interact with an average of 11.4 pieces of content.

Moreover, 70 percent of customers prefer to learn about a company through blog articles rather than ads.Also, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should definitely play a role in your content marketing strategy. Why? Because almost all online experiences start with a Google search.

What is searched for on the internet is the first touchpoint with your (future) customers. It reflects what your target audience (Target Audience) is currently concerned with - relevant, tailor-made and solution-oriented content that is optimized for the right keywords and is at the top of the search results, will then lead them directly to you and your product.For an optimal result, always keep an eye on the current SEO trends and implement appropriate measures (both Onpage as well as Offpage) and get support through SEO tools

.Your Website

is the first point of contact for customers and prospects, where you bring your product and brand to life – with the right words, relevant info and a good design.Also a well-played and frequented Social Media Channel should not be missing in SaaS marketing. LinkedIn

is particularly suitable as a business platform. Posting your own articles regularly there, not only providing ads (more on that later), but also giving behind-the-scenes glimpses, announcing product updates and interacting with the community, makes your brand more approachable, trustworthy and emotional.In short: You are building via social media a strong brand with recognizability

. But even more private platforms like Facebook or Instagram can be interesting for SaaS marketers and contribute to a rounded branding.

Email Marketing and NewsletterA real classic, which has become a bit tricky in the EU, is Email Marketing.

Readers must have given their consent to be contacted by email. You are not allowed to just send a newsletter to someone whose email address you have randomly discovered online.

• Everything else you need for email marketing is
• a landing page or registration form to collect leads
• a strategy to drive traffic to this page

convincing emails and newsletter texts that build trust and position you as experts among your subscribers

The main advantage of email marketing is its simplicity: The email is probably the most effective channel for lead generation, you can get started quite easily and relatively uncomplicated, for example with a weekly newsletter, convert leads to customers. Also, this way you stay in contact with your customers. Once you have built an audience, you can further improve your email marketing with Marketing Automation Tools

and, for example, automatically send personalized emails based on interactions with your website.

Content Planning Symbol Image

Paid Growth: Performance Marketing (SEA & Paid Social)However, content and emails alone do not make a complete SaaS marketing. You should also use paid Advertising campaigns and ads, e.g. in the form of Search Engine Advertising and Social Ads

(on LinkedIn and Meta, i.e. Facebook and Instagram), to attract interested parties to your product and to arouse curiosity. Ideally, of course, with your ads you touch a nerve among your customers and are remembered. In any case, don’t forget: Tracking, Attribution, Conversion Optimization & Co.To reach a larger audience via social media, you can also rely on Influencer Marketing

- i.e., contact influencers and win them over to advertise your products on their channels for a fee. The cost of such a campaign depends on how many followers the selected influencers have and how engaged the community is.

For SaaS companies, micro-influencers (between 1,000 and 100,000 followers) are usually the most effective. So focus on smaller bloggers, podcasters & Co. from your niche who have an audience that suits your product.In addition, Review sites

, are a valuable channel for (paid) B2B SaaS marketing. If you are represented on them with a concise product description and attractive images in all relevant categories, this usually brings visibility, better reach and qualified traffic.

SaaS marketing measurement: the most important metrics at a glance

CAC, CLV, MRR - the SaaS marketing world is full of abbreviations and technical terms. Most of them will meet you when it comes to measuring SaaS marketing. Knowing what's behind these abbreviations is essential to understanding how this type of marketing works. We therefore introduce you to the most important terms once.

Analytics Symbol Image

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), are the costs for customer acquisition - the amount in euros that you have to take in hand per new customer to win them over a certain marketing channel.

You calculate your CAC quite simply by dividing all expenses for a marketing channel by the number of paying customers resulting from it. So if you spend, for example, €1,000 on Google Ads and gain 10 paying customers from it, then the CAC is €100.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the value that individual paying customers provide to your company on average.

You can calculate the CLV by multiplying the average subscription price by the average customer lifetime (length of the subscription) and then dividing by the number of customers.

CLV:CAC Ratio

The CLV:CAC ratio is quite simply the relationship between lifetime value and acquisition costs. This tells you how profitable your business is. A value of 1 would be too low, for example, because it means that a customer brings you exactly as much as you paid for the acquisition.

You calculate the CLV:CAC ratio by dividing the CAC by the CLV. So if it costs you €50 to generate a customer and a customer is worth on average €150, then the CLV:CAC ratio is 3.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) means "monthly recurring revenue" and is simply the sum of the contributions that your customers pay monthly. Annual or quarterly subscriptions are not included.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) can be translated as "annual recurring revenue" and describes the sum of the monthly recurring revenues (MRR) of a whole year - i.e. the part of your company's annual revenue that is made repeatedly and at regular intervals (for example through subscriptions).

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is one of the most important metrics in the Software-as-a-Service area. It measures the percentage of revenue retained from existing customers over a certain period (usually monthly or annually), including upgrades, downgrades, cross-sells and cancellations.

The value helps you understand how many existing customers actually remain loyal to you and renew their subscription.

To calculate the NRR, you need at least two comparison periods, usually the ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) of the previous year is compared with the current ARR value. Mathematically, it's about which percentage of sales from a base period (previous year) could be realized in the current period.

Customer Churn Rate

The Churn rate is the percentage of paying customers who cancel their subscription within any period.

To calculate the Churn rate, you need (1) a period, (2) the number of users who left during this period, (3) the sum of the available users.

The formula then looks like this: Users who left in period X divided by the sum of the available users times 100.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

• Many start-ups and SaaS companies use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to check how likely it is that users will advertise for their products. It is a simple one-question survey where customers rate on a scale of 1 to 10 how likely they are to recommend a product.Anyone who gives a score of 9 or 10 is considered a Promoter
• and is likely to speak positively about your product.Customers who rate with a number between 1 and 6 are considered Detractors
• and will likely speak negatively about you.A rating of 7 or 8 is considered neutral.

These customers are satisfied, but will not necessarily talk about your product, whether positive or negative.

Net Promoter Score

Calculating the NPS

Neutral ratings are not counted when calculating the NPS. Instead, you subtract the percentage of Detractors from that of Promoters, with a result between -100 to 100. The higher the score over 0, the better. If the values are below 0, you should be worried.

Out with the old? The difference between Lead Gen and Demand Gen

In the text you have now read again and again about "leads" that you generate through SaaS marketing. At the same time, it was also about creating attention and arousing interest. There are two terms that hit the nail on the head: Lead Generation and Demand Generation. For successful SaaS marketing, it is important to know the difference and how to use both correctly.

Demand Generation vs. Lead GenerationDemand Generation

(or Demand Gen) encompasses everything you do from a marketing perspective to make your brand known, raise people's interest in your product, and – as the name suggests – create demand.Your goal with Lead Generation

(also called Lead Gen) on the other hand, is to collect information about your potential customers to move them further down the funnel, i.e., closer to or to the subscription, in the case of B2B SaaS products. Basically, it encompasses everything you do once someone has raised their hand and signaled "Yes, I'm interested!".

Now, when we first introduced you to the basics of SaaS marketing, we initially lumped both together. There's a reason for that: The two concepts build on each other – and for successful, scalable B2B SaaS marketing, you need both.

Demand Generation builds trust in the brand and awareness of your product as a solution to their current problems or "pain points" among the target audience. Through Lead Generation, you prepare prospects to choose your product and become paying customers. With one, you focus, so to speak, on the "low-hanging fruits" (Lead Gen), while with the other you plant the tree that will "feed" you in the future (Demand Gen).

As tempting as it is to focus entirely on reaping the sweet fruits of success as quickly as possible, it is just as important (if not more so) for B2B SaaS businesses that want to be successful in the long term to plant trees that will grow new fruit.

• What that means is: SaaS businesses need leads, because without leads there are no deals and without deals there is no growth. The best leads are those who are already advanced in the customer journey, who practically already have their wallet out. However, there are only a few of these on the market. That's why more is needed: You need to generate demand and
• pick up the people who don't even realize they have a problem that your product can solve.
• reach people who know their problem but don't yet see the urgency to change, and

address people who fit both, but are not yet actively looking for solutions.In short:

You have to sneak into the minds of your target group with your brand and product much earlier in the customer journey to fully leverage the potential of the market and truly scale your B2B SaaS business successfully.

How do you do that? Please do not do it with a 180-degree turn in the marketing strategy, but rather with a clever combination of B2B SaaS marketing strategies that deliver both short-term and sustainable results.

B2B SaaS marketing - a very special challenge?Does all this sound incredibly complicated in your ears so far? It is. Marketing for B2B SaaS products is significantly more comprehensive and complex

than "ordinary" marketing. You have significantly longer sales cycles, which require quite different tactics and strategies than pure consumer advertising, which is aimed directly at consumers.

The competition in the SaaS field is large and the products are not aimed at billions of consumers, but at best at a few million companies from a niche, which are usually located in several regions. These you have to convince to buy your software and not a competitor's.

Good B2B SaaS marketing therefore accompanies the entire sales cycle (over 6 to 12 months) and maintains the relationships with the (potential) customers. For this, impulses are set again and again at certain touchpoints, the contacts are thus enriched in a sense - for example through special SQL campaigns, which then provide for leads (in this case so-called Sales-Qualified-Leads).

In addition, successful B2B SaaS marketing requires a deep understanding of the SaaS metrics introduced earlier, i.e. SaaS marketers need to know not only how they can be calculated, but also what values they should aim for. For example, what CLV:CAC ratio is ideal. At this point we can already spoil: 3:1 is a good ratio.

Another special feature and challenge in B2B marketing, in general and especially in the SaaS area, are larger Buying Committees. This means, the task of B2B marketers is not only to know the target group very well and to speak to them in a personalized way. In most companies, during a pitch, several people are sitting opposite, so basically a whole committee. Each person in the committee has their own background and personal preferences which should also be considered in order to convince with a product.

Making it Easier - Helpful Tools for SaaS Marketing

Thankfully, there are some tools and aids that can make your SaaS marketing day-to-day easier. They take over especially unpleasant, repetitive tasks, freeing you up for strategic topics.

Here are some of the best tools from the OMR Reviews community:

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a must in online marketing. The analysis tool shows you how your website, individual landing pages, ads etc. perform and which content is popular.

Dealfront is a sales intelligence platform that assists you with artificial intelligence in refining your target group.

Ahrefs describes itself as a complete SEO toolbox. Especially an initial competitor analysis can be performed well with it, by investigating other websites for example regarding number of keywords and backlinks, backlink sources, best pages, development over time, etc. in the site explorer.

Semrush is an SEO toolbox, which comes with many helpful features especially for keyword research.

Storyblok is a powerful headless CMS system that ensures fast websites and is particularly useful for enterprises.

HubSpot Marketing Hub : The HubSpot Marketing Hub is one of the best tools for marketing automation, lead generation and CRM. It is therefore an excellent tool for better marketing-to-sales alignment.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator: The LinkedIn Sales Navigator supports sales teams in addressing potential customers and is therefore extremely valuable for individual ABM.

PlayPlay: The collaborative video creation platform helps marketers and communicators create videos in a very short time (only 15 minutes) – without prior knowledge, agency or in-house editor.

Of course, you can also compare all tools and software on OMR Reviews. There you will not only find many more tools and extensive reviews, but also user experiences.

3 Tips for (Even) Better SaaS Marketing

After all the theory, there are some practical tips at the end - in the form of three golden rules  for (even) better B2B SaaS marketing.

#1 Put on the customer glasses

For good SaaS marketing you definitely need a good, no an excellent target audience understanding. Therefore, put on the customer glasses all the way and literally see the world through the eyes of your customers when planning your campaigns.

This includes, for example, the creation of so-called Buyer Personas and a detailed "Value Proposition Canvas". That is, you should give a fictitious face to your typical customers to better understand their needs, challenges, and actions.

#2 Don't lose sight of branding

Especially in "crowded categories", a highly competitive market, you should focus on strong branding - and consistently follow through with it. Because even if SaaS and B2B at first glance seem rather dry, marketing is always about emotions.

A strong, emotionally charged branding that sticks in the memory makes you unique, highlights the added value of your product and builds trust with your target audience.

Brand Marketing

#3 Test, Learn, Improve, Repeat!

No matter for which channels and strategies you choose: B2B SaaS Marketing does not work without testing.

Therefore, it is best to constantly set Growth Sprints, which help to become one to two percent better in performance in an iterative manner. This may sound trivial at first, but over a complete year it results in up to 36-fold growth. And that doesn't sound so bad, does it?!

Make small successes

Conclusion: Drive individual strategies and automate what is possible

In summary, it can be said: Yes, SaaS marketing for B2B business is complex and incredibly extensive. This article gives you a good first overview if you are just starting to delve into the world of SaaS marketing - but does not say by far everything there is to say about SaaS marketing.

In a nutshell, for successful SaaS marketing you need:

• a good product that solves "real" problems,
• individual messages and strategies that are perfectly tailored to your target group,
• an understanding of the right channels,
• fitting tools that allow as many steps in the SaaS marketing process to be automated as possible,
• and lots of curiosity, creativity and expertise.

B2B SaaS marketing in general has quite a few stumbling blocks and is not something you "just do" or leave to chance. Those who want to scale their business quickly and effectively should therefore also consider getting support from experts who know all the tricks and subtleties in SaaS marketing.