SaaS Marketing: How to Bring Your Software to the Users

1. Software directories are becoming increasingly important for SaaS companies
2. Which platform is the right one depends on various factors
3. That's how you find the right platform for your SaaS product
4. SaaS Marketing is not a no-brainer
5. Invest cleverly in Ads with Account Based Marketing
6. Building trust and shortening sales cycles

You have successfully developed a software? Congratulations! Now your product just needs to find its way to the end devices of this world. To make this work well, Björn Sjut, co-founder and managing director of Front Row (formerly. Finc3 or BizMut), shared his most important tips in our online seminar on SaaS Marketing. It's clear: The market is fierce and a good marketing mix for software vendors is becoming increasingly crucial. An important component of this marketing mix are software discovery platforms like OMR Reviews. Which ones are out there, what advantages they offer you, and what else you can get out of your SaaS marketing, you'll find out in our recap.

Did you miss our online seminar? No problem! We'll tell you how to get the recording.

Software directories are becoming increasingly important for SaaS companies

The competition in the SaaS market has never been greater. SaaS companies can launch products easier than ever before, which often leads to strong competition. Many software vendors try to counter this with clever marketing activities, Björn knows. It always takes longer for customers to become profitable. So, software providers must persevere in order to effectively convert their traffic into sales.

For this they need insights into the market, especially data. These give an overview of which companies or potential users are on the market and looking for information about certain software or software categories. A source for such data are software comparison platforms. On them, interested parties can compare software products and inform themselves extensively and independently about them.

As a software provider, according to Björn, you should include such directories in your marketing mix, take care of good rankings and use the data obtained for your customer acquisition. According to Björn, this also has major advantages over budgets for Paid Search via Google or Bing: If you mainly invest in ads, you are doing Demand Capturing, but not Demand Generation. So, you mainly cover the already existing demand, but hardly generate any new ones. However, if you start further up in theB2B Marketing Funnel, for example using software directories, you can generate much earlier and broader attention for your products.

Upper Funnel Keywords often have highCPCs. Here, it can be budget-technically clever to rely on software comparison platforms instead.

Which platform is the right one depends on various factors

Software Discovery Platforms like OMR Reviews enable an effective placement and promotion of software products. Depending on the platform, you have different options to enhance your profiles with content, guide potential leads to your website and appear in informative content such as blog articles. This way, you can already capture valuable traffic in the Upper Funnel for your product, for example when companies are looking for software categories, but not about a specific tool.

Such software discovery platforms can work very differently. You should take their various focuses into account when choosing. At Front Row there is a list with well over 100 platforms that contains information about countries, active markets, reach, pricing models and industries. In addition to these factors, Björn mainly distinguishes between two types of software discovery platforms:

• Click-out focused platforms earn money with each redirect to the landing page of the software provider. So, the focus here is on quickly mediating potential buyers to SaaS companies. These platforms achieve this with eye-catching buttons and calls to action.
• Buying-Intent-focused platforms give users a guidance and thus generate a purchase intention. Here, interested parties should stay as long as possible, read, see o listen to informative content and compare software products intensively. With sophisticated content and SEO strategies, these platforms specifically reach people who are on the lookout.

In addition, it can be important whether a platform operates regionally or globally: For many German customers, for example, international content or tools are often less interesting due to strict data protection regulations. They are more likely to inform themselves on platforms with a focus on the DACH market. Large, internationally operating corporations, on the other hand, can place very different requirements on the content on comparison platforms.

In addition to click-out and buying intent, transactions are crucial on other platforms: WithSecret companies receive software products at attractive conditions, similar to a shopping club. However, this can have a negative effect on price perception and complicate the establishment of profitable pricing models, warns Björn. Appsumo should be interesting for new businesses. They can offer their products to early adopters at attractive lifetime conditions on the platform.

Björn's tip: The lifetime deals should not stay in the Google index forever, so they won't cause confusion later on with adjusted pricing.

For new software, Björn brings Product Hunt into play: The platform for early adopters is mainly about testing and improving. The feedback from real users can be particularly interesting for the further development of MVPs.

That's how you find the right platform for your SaaS product

Software Discovery Platforms give potential buyers an overview of the software market and help them find the right tools for their daily business. Those who allow public honest feedback build trust with potential customers. This effect should not be underestimated, says Björn. Independent evaluation platforms are, in his opinion, a kind of Stiftung Warentest for software and quickly provide interested parties with important orientation.

To find the appropriate platform for your marketing mix, you should first determine the target market for your software product:

• Which markets or industries is your product aimed at?
• Who are your target customers?
• Who are the decision-makers and what are their needs?

In the next step, you can deal with the platforms:

• Which platforms is your target group on and what reach do they have? (Organic/Paid Search)
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the platforms? What distinguishes them?

Before you decide on a software discovery platform, you should also check the CPC of your discovery keywords: Depending on the product, it may be worthwhile to invest in Paid Search (SEA) rather than focus on comparison platforms. Often, however, the competition here is quite large, which drives CPCs in the Upper Funnel upstairs. Means: Ads in Google or Bing, which are played during the general search for software categories, can be very expensive. Often, a profile on comparison platforms and the investment in Review Marketing is more worthwhile.

In our online seminar Björn Sjut shared his most important tips for your SaaS Marketing. We have summarized the most important ones for you to read. We also reveal how you can even get the recording afterwards.

SaaS Marketing is not a no-brainer

Those who want to successfully market their software and bring it to the computers of this world must make an effort. The market is contested in many areas, different user needs however also enable a wide offer. To make your product stand out from the competition, you should develop a good marketing strategy. If you include software comparison platforms in your marketing mix, it makes sense to consider a content and advertising strategy for each platform:

• Consider your own profile: What should the product description look like? Which functions and advantages do you want to highlight? Are there testimonials that can be incorporated into your profile?
• Think about your review marketing: How can you reach your users to generate reviews?
• What can you buy on the platform? E.g. traffic, buying-intent data, profiles, leads, trust indicators, reviews?

Björn's tip: When you buy click-outs, you should redirect users from the platform to a special landing page and not just to your homepage. There you can go more specifically into the benefits communication and use badges from the platform or communicate your rating.

In addition, a well-constructed profile can be used as a landing page for retargeting, says Björn. This allows you to build trust with good reviews about your platform profile.

Invest cleverly in Ads with Account Based Marketing

Software comparison platforms like OMR Reviews regularly provide their customers with helpful buyer intent data. They help software providers to identify potential customers and to attract their attention to their product with targeted marketing measures. For this, the platforms determine, for example, which profiles - also from competitors - a user has viewed and what content he or she has been looking for. With the help of the data obtained, providers can learn more about the company behind the user and judge whether it is an interesting potential lead.

Such buyer intent data can be a good basis for Retargeting measures and help to use ads budget more selectively. For example, despite high CPCs, you can reach potential buyers on LinkedIn who have previously dealt intensively with your product or the relevant category. Since: If you know in advance which company is currently looking for new software, you can reach decision-makers of a company by retargeting and use your ads budget sensibly.

Björn's tip: Be sure to track not the person but the company, i.e. the account, behind it. After all, often several people within a company are involved in the search for new software (our study on software decisions has also shown this). If an employee in a junior position is commissioned with a screening of the market and thus moves on comparison platforms, their tracking would normally not bring you much. Because, in the end, employees in higher positions make the decision to buy. The task is to persuade them to buy by means of advertising measures.

By the way: At OMR Reviews we are currently working on getting even more out of the intent data. For this, we are developing a scoring system that tells software providers how strong the purchase intention of the platform visitors is.

Building trust and shortening sales cycles

Marketing of software products requires good strategies and a meaningful marketing mix. Which measures and channels you include in these depends not least on your product, your target group, and the market you are moving in. Software Discovery Platforms like OMR Reviews can be an important address that you should definitely pay attention to. They help to significantly shorten the long sales cycles in the B2B sector, help you build trust and inform potential customers about the benefits of your software.

Profiles on such comparison platforms, however, also involve work: In order to convince interested parties of your product, you should continuously collect reviews. Review marketing is not always an easy task, but it pays off and rewards you with reach and important data for your marketing game.

In addition to a placement on software comparison platforms, according to Björn: Education first. Especially for complex products, it is worthwhile, in his opinion, to develop learning content around your software. HubSpot Marketing Hub gives an example with his HubSpot Academy. And also value-adding content like white papers, checklists, or online seminars like our Tool Talks are important levers you should consider in your SaaS marketing mix. That way, you not only provide your customers with a good product, but also useful input for its use.

Did you miss the online seminar? That's no problem. Here is the recording of our online seminar on SaaS Marketing. Enjoy!

You want to know how to optimally integrate OMR Reviews as the most relevant German-speaking software information platform into your SaaS marketing mix? No problem: more information and contact options can be found here. Your software does not yet have a profile on OMR Reviews? You can also catch up on this quickly: Simply submit your request for the placement of your tools on OMR Reviews.