I love SaaS because it marries science to artistry - just like inbound marketing, and just like Hubspot.
Yes, Hubspot is also a SaaS, so, it almost goes without saying, HOWEVER, no two SaaS' are the same, and this particular app will save you from making a lot of misguided investments for yours.
Why they're so good together:
SaaS is good at logical and pragmatic approaches to solving problems, but where they tend to struggle (if anywhere) is bedside manner, and applying the art of spoken and written language to what they do.
When we get new SaaS clients, we see the struggle occurring at all levels, beyond just the straight-forward marketing materials and website copy, which is what we're typically hired to fix...
But there are so many other points of contact between the customer and the app that typically need help, especially when their marketing starts taking on a life of its own. The tone and overall qualities of your communication should be consistent at every point, and inbound using Hubspot will help you see and achieve that.
What that means at the end of the day is more interest, more buyers, and increased retention and overall satisfaction.
Your SaaS is innovative, and it will change peoples lives so long as you can communicate that in a manner that is effective and cohesive to your mission, but what about your SaaS' marketing? Here are 4 ways to apply Hubspot & inbound marketing to your SaaS' mission of overall growth and industry dominance:
SaaS: Okay, so it's no mystery that in order to succeed with a subscription-based software service, you must find a way to improve the productivity of your subscribers. That's the whole point, isn't it?
Inbound: With inbound, you can actually improve your app's ability to deliver on this promise. This happens because it's a very reactive style of marketing.
You are going to get direct feedback from customers and prospects through social media, and if you're really paying attention and getting involved in the conversations, you will learn even more about how your program can help the world by monitoring outside conversations and the impact that your social presence is having on your website's performance.
Hubspot: With Hubspot, you handle the large majority of your tactical execution under one login. You don't need separate subscriptions and logins for social media, email, blogging, or developing landing pages. You can even track and apply your SEO strategy.
And, because it's all tied together, even your analytics, you will be able to signficiantly reduce challenges associated with integrations, and you'll be able to find ways to boost interest and engagement, for prospects AND customers!
Hubspot will allow you to communicate based on automated list segmentation rules, which will short-cut database management challenges AND make your emails that much more targeted, and... dare I say it... Productive!
SaaS: Your app has to prove that it can save revenue. One can easily point to increased productivity and say "There's your revenue savings as well," but your consumers need more than increased productivity to commit to a subscription service for any significant period, so I imagine the same goes for you in terms of hiring another SaaS to help you grow.
Inbound: This is a big world, so I will try to be succinct.
First of all, inbound marketing for SaaS is going to help you increase revenue by attracting visitors to your website, converting them into leads with gated content offers, and help you nurture them into customers through emails and internal sales alerts.
It's going to help you save revenue because you'll have a natural source of traffic (many, actually - social media, organic, referrals, etc) to boost and eventually overtake your paid ads. Inbound leads are cheaper too.
Hubspot: If I know you, and I think I do, there is a natural inclination for you to want to build your own marketing automation software as well. You'll probably start off piecing it together to save money, but you'll realize the manpower you're investing far outweighs the cost of a more premium all-in-one service like Hubspot.
The reality is that it's going to save you a TON of time and money since you won't be investing your own resources into competing with juggernauts that already have 10 years of development and hundreds of millions of dollars invested over you.
Unless marketing automation software subscription services IS your business, I'd stick to investing in your own product, and spend the 200 - $2,400/month on Hubspot.
SaaS: This is not just about where certain buttons are, but how the program itself communicates.
You have to speak the language to be successful, but there's more to it than just speaking English. There are varying qualities and styles, and there's also context, nuance, and tonality. All of those things should be considered with your app, of course, because UX is just as valuable as the deliverable itself.
But, again, I do run into this as a problem area with many businesses I've worked with, because they just need TLC from a seasoned marketer, and didn't have an investment in that area when they were originally building the program.
Of course, once you launch, UX improvements are usually on the top of the to-do list, as they should be.
Inbound: If you're trying to teach yourself how to market your app, so you don't have to hire anybody, then I'd be lying if I said that learning about how inbound works from tooth to tail will be a snap. Because it won't.
However, inbound IS intuitive, and you can make your app easier to adopt and use by applying inbound marketing to your outreach efforts, here's how:
Hubspot: Well, let's just run down that list again...
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SaaS: You have to constantly reinvent yourself to stay ahead of the competition. Everybody knows that, but that is especially true in the world of SaaS. When you come up with something ground-breaking, you're never there alone very long, so to KEEP succeeding, you have to keep on reinventing.
Inbound: Inbound will help you do this because it is a form of marketing that is constantly moving.
You publish in social media every day. You post blogs every week. You email every month. You develop and update content offers every month. And you review your keyword strategy to see what's getting people to the site, and what types of clicks are converting into revenue.
Hubspot: Analytics are critical at this juncture, and many have historically used 3rd party software (or reinvented their own) to identify trends and opportunities. But doesn't it make sense for the software that you used to deliver to also provide data on what's working and what isn't?
Of course, it does, and of course, Hubspot does as well. Dashboards and spreadsheets - oh, my! Never make a marketing decision again without data to help drive you.
CONCLUSION:
We are looking for a formulaic approach to business, and it's here. Your SaaS follows one, and so does inbound marketing ... and Hubspot. However, packaging and communication styles are just as important, and inbound delivered through Hubspot will help you find your customers and connect them logically and emotionally to your software's deliverables.
Interested in seeing how Hubspot & inbound can contribute to the growth of your software business? Schedule a free consultation with Orange Pegs today!