Your SaaS is a carefully tuned machine designed to help, and the digital marketing services you choose to promote it should exemplify that notion.
I love talking about SaaS, because it is such a great industry for inbound marketing, but so widely misguided when it comes to finding new business. You're still using purchased lists, spamming your contacts, and generally disrupting your prospects' days when making your introductions.
The worst part is that when you DO have their attention, you often let them slip away before giving them the chance to engage with your platform.
But there are tools and marketing tactics that you can start deploying today that will change all of that - tools and tactics that are totally cohesive and complimentary to your mission - that will validate your value proposition, and engage prospects through the sales and onboarding process.
It's important to denote the fact that we are putting together a list of tools and tactics that contribute to a SaaS platforms that are specifically designed to streamline and add value that is calculable to its customers.
Yes, this describes 99% of you out there. What is the point of a SaaS if it cannot streamline something in our lives?
Your marketing and other outreach efforts shouldn't stray from that idea, because the minute they do, your mission statement becomes a lie... and nobody wants that.
1. Ongoing Website Design Services
Your website is the soul to your SaaS, and regardless of how great your platform is or how much it does, your website is going to make our break you upon first impression.
The big thing here is that websites are no longer a static marketing asset that you swap out every 5-10 years. No, today, they are a much bigger and more interactive component to your digital marketing strategy, and it's a great idea to have somebody managing its growth and development.
This means revising the on-page SEO strategy, reviewing and improving conversion points, and finding new ways to improve overall performance.
2. Blog Writing Services
What is a digital marketing campaign without a carefully crafted blogging strategy that is executed consistently and within Google's quality standards?
It's a campaign with diminishing returns, that's what.
Your blog is what will feed your site with traffic and engaged visitors that are ready to convert into leads and customers.
I love asking the question, "why do you blog," because it seems to be met with awkward silence 9 times out of 10. Why do you blog?
The answer is simple... it's a link in the overall digital marketing chain, and without it, the process does not succeed. Blogging engages visitors, draws traffic through SEO, and helps you explore ideas and concepts in an interactive community. You can even promote content with it (and you should).
Don't use your blog to promote your SaaS or its features, or to teach people how to use it. Those each have their place in your digital presence, but they don't belong in your blog. No, that's for education. Don't forget that.
Like your website (and all of these digital marketing services, actually), blog writing is something you're going to want on an indefinite basis.
3. Social Media Management Services
Your software is here to make life easier for its users, so make sure you remember that when you start posting on social media. You don't want to alienate your audience by making mistakes that a lot of the larger companies are making.
The number 1 cardinal sin being committed causing this alienation?
Broadcast advertising in what should be considered a social environment. I see this a lot with software as a service companies, primarily because it's often not given its due respect or positioned behind the right marketing objectives.
But if you were to tie it directly to the success of your program, that might change things.
Number 1, we want customers... peeling that back, we want a certain number of leads to reach those customers... then we need a certain number of visitors to reach our lead numbers.
Social media helps us reach our goals trough those metrics by connecting our conversion points to the rest of the world, and engaging in live interaction with our prospective clients. Part of this process means being social on social media. That's right... social.
4. Professional SEO Services
SEO is often mistakenly given an upgrade once every couple of years. However, because the landscape is always changing (words that yeild favorable metrics today don't always stack up tomorrow), this is another area that requires a hands-on approach.
Besides, blogging is a huge component of SEO, so we want to continue contributing there!
However you dice this one, there are a few places worth mentioning that you should steer clear of...
- Link farming services: This is something that is often initiated on purpose, but could even be an unintended side effect by simply having your email out there or by clicking on some analysis website to determine what's wrong with your SEO.
- Ninja SEO Services: These so-called SEO marketing experts use tactics that they don't share with you... meaning, they have a "secret" formula that only they can know about, which means it's probably against the rules... which means you'll be dealing with problems, big ones, in the not-too-distant future.
Having SEO services constantly rowing in the same direction as the rest of your company will help you identify positive trends and things that are negatively impacting the business, so you can take appropriate levels of action.
5. Email Marketing Services
Once they're signed up on the trial, it's game over, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong, actually.
Letting your trial and paid users drift into the unknown when they sign up for your software service is like driving at night with your headlights off... yes, you may stumble upon where you're trying to go based on being pointed in the right direction and making a couple of lucky, well-timed changes in direction.
BUT, there are ways to turn on those lights, and a strategically developed drip campaign is one of them.
Both your trial AND your paid users should have an automated email strategy that helps them figure out how to use the program and how to get the most out of it. This is actually going to be one of your SaaS most important marketing activities, because in addition to engaging your audiences, you'll be able to identify those who are struggling to connect to it.
CONCLUSION:
There are tons of digital marketing services out there, so finding the right solutions for your SaaS can be a difficult process. For that reason, we wrote this handy ebook that will help you connect the dots between digital marketing's most popular methodology, "inbound," and YOUR business. It's free for you to download at your convenience!
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