6 Steps to an Effective SaaS Inbound Marketing Strategy
Successful B2B SaaS inbound marketing campaigns create a user experience that nurtures long-term relationships by distributing valuable content throughout the buyer’s journey. With 82% of marketers actively investing in content marketing, creating an effective inbound strategy is necessary to align with customer buying behaviors and stay abreast with industry advancements to keep your business ahead of the curve.
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of the inbound model and provide six tips to create an effective marketing strategy for your B2B SaaS business that attracts and retains customers.
SaaS Inbound vs. Outbound
For many teams, marketing for SaaS companies typically begins with creating Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns designed to generate quick wins and drive revenue. As effective as these channels are, investing in your online presence with inbound marketing methods will provide the long-term growth and ROI needed to reduce or even eliminate costly outbound efforts.
Importance of Inbound Marketing Efforts
Suppose a lead converts on a Google Ad promoting a retail inventory management software and signs up for a freemium subscription. During the trial, they begin crawling the website for content—looking for ideas to reduce inventory storage costs and informational support about the product’s automated tracking functionality and integration capabilities with a particular business tax software. Unable to source website content that addresses these topics, the lead returns to Google to find answers.
Once again, the freemium subscription ad sits at the top of the page. This time, the once lead scrolls down the page to find an alternate solution that provides the informational content and support needed to move the potential buyer from consideration to the decision stage.
Tips to Create an Effective Inbound SaaS Strategy
The best inbound marketing strategies take an omnichannel approach–incorporating tactics and techniques from all areas of digital marketing. When executed correctly, you’ll deliver an experience designed to attract and engage potential customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Follow these six inbound strategies to create an effective SaaS inbound marketing strategy of your own:
1. Define Your Target Audience
Inbound Marketing starts with attracting visitors. Attracting visitors to your business is all about creating and promoting engaging, valuable content that resonates with your readers. But before creating these highly targeted pieces of content, you must first define and fully understand the audience(s) your inbound marketing campaigns will target. Conducting market research around your product, service, and sales strategies allows you to create fictional representations of your potential customers called buyer personas. Establish and utilize detailed personas for segmentation, content mapping, and lead nurturing to create stronger B2B marketing campaigns.
2. Develop Your Content Strategy
Now that you have a deep understanding of your target audience’s challenges and goals and created a detailed fictional representation for each demographic, the next step to creating a powerful Saas inbound campaign is determining the type of content you will create and how you will deliver it. Using a combination of blog posts, videos, webinars, e-books, whitepapers, and case studies, you can align your content and delivery with your target audience’s needs and preferences. A fully optimized content strategy will include research and implementation of the following:
- Keyword Analysis–what are your prospects searching for, what questions are they asking, and how? Use an SEO Analysis Tool like SEMrush and Moz to track performance and get key insights on content and keyword ranking.
- Competitor Research–what are your competitors doing well or not so well? How does your strategy stack up against theirs?
- Channel Trends–which channels are your prospects using, and at what time of day are they most actively involved?
- Editorial Calendar–a visual outline that helps track content types, publish dates, channels, and authors. Download your free template from HubSpot
3. SEO (all four)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for SaaS companies to increase organic traffic and generate more high-quality leads. While many businesses’ primary focus is on-page efforts, four types of SEO need to be considered–On-page, Off-page, Local, and Technical SEO. Each one plays a significant role in increasing online visibility, driving organic traffic, and providing an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly experience that provides information relevant to their search query.
On-Page SEO is optimizing your current website content to increase online visibility. With the information collected for your new content strategy, you’ll apply this knowledge across all web elements on your site–making it easier for popular search engines like Google SERPs to crawl your site and present it as a viable SaaS solution to potential customers. On-page SEO elements include:
- Website Content
- URL Structure
- Title Tags
- Internal Links
- Meta Descriptions
- Web Images and more
Off-Page SEO refers to the elements that occur externally, away from your website. Off-page efforts ensure that your website is considered a trustworthy and relevant source of information–improving brand recognition and boosting SERP ranking for your content. Off-Site SEO tactics include:
- Link Building / Backlinks
- Content Marketing
- Social Media
- Guest Blogs
- Podcasts and more
Local SEO is used to compete on a regional scale and ensure visibility for potential customers searching for services in your area. Local SEO optimization includes:
- Google My Business
- Customer Reviews
- Local Backlinks
- Smart Content
Technical SEO is an ongoing process of reviewing and optimizing your website structure to monitor performance and potential errors. Consider monthly website maintenance at a minimum to increase page speed, avoid duplicate titles and content, ensure mobile functionality, and fix broken internal and outbound links.
4. Optimize For Conversions
Ensure your hard work doesn’t go to waste–optimizing web pages and landing pages for conversions is the next step to a successful inbound campaign. The SaaS sector is one of the most competitive industries–eliminating visitor drop-off by optimizing for conversions (CRO) should be at the forefront of your marketing strategy. If your pages suffer from a high bounce rate, you may be losing potential business simply due to poorly defined actions or web elements. Optimize your web pages for conversions and make it easier for visitors to navigate your site.
- Use clear and concise messaging
- Have a strong call-to-action (CTA)
- Optimize content above the first fold
- A/B testing
5. Leverage Blog and Social Media Channels
With the majority of consumers conducting research online before completing their purchase, Saas companies looking to increase organic traffic and generate more sales should utilize their blog and social media channels to provide and promote the compelling and relevant content their prospects are searching for. Build trust and credibility with your prospects and customers by leveraging your SEO-optimized content and newly updated landing pages designed to convert.
- Create a blog section on your website and regularly publish informative and educational blog posts that appeal to your target audience
- Share your blog posts on social media and other relevant channels
- Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to engage with your audience
- Share your content, engage in conversations, and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry
6. B2B Marketing Automation
The best inbound marketing tools will handle your marketing efforts and automate processes to deliver a seamless data-driven B2B SaaS inbound campaign. These tools will track lead behavior, identify the highest-quality leads early, incorporate multi-channel marketing, and monitor campaign performance. Use this information to understand what is working and what is not so that you can adjust your campaign strategy.
Optimize Your SaaS Inbound Marketing Campaign
By following these steps, you can implement an effective inbound marketing campaign that creates a user experience that nurtures long-term relationships. Attract, engage, and convert leads into customers with an effective SaaS Inbound Marketing Strategy. Do you need help creating an inbound strategy for your business, or are you looking to optimize your existing strategy? Contact our team of expert marketers to learn more about how we can help.
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