Marketing is one of the most important aspects of a business and has everything to do with whether a business will thrive or not.
In fact, the B2B SaaS market is one of the fastest-thriving markets in the world today. Gartner reported that companies spend approximately $145 billion per year on B2B SaaS technology, and experts predict a YoY (year-over-year) growth of 40%.
Amazing, right?
If you are a B2B SaaS startup, there is so much potential for you out there. However, there are many mistakes B2B SaaS startups make that do not allow them to reach their full potential. Most times, a lot of these mistakes are in their marketing departments.
Therefore, in this article, we will be examining the most repeated deadly marketing mistakes B2B SaaS startups make and how they can fix them. All B2B startups that scaled and do so well today had zero users at first. Let's look at a few of them, what they did differently, and how it changed their game.
First of All, B2B Marketing Is Different
Understanding that B2B SaaS marketing is different from other types of marketing will help shape your approach. Here are reasons why it is so:
1. SaaS Products Are Subscription Based
In SaaS marketing, you are trying to get prospects to subscribe to your product monthly. Unlike physical purchases, once you purchase an item, it's yours to keep forever. This means you want your customers to return every month to renew their subscriptions and reduce your churn rate.
“Churn rate” is the rate at which customers stop subscribing to your product over a given period. For example, at the end of January, you had 120 people subscribed to your product in January, then, by the end of February, you had 100 subscriptions. That means 20 people stopped subscribing. Now, here is how to calculate your churn rate:
Using that formula, your churn rate=20/120 × 100 = 16.7%
According to Outbound Engine, acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer. Therefore, in B2B SAAS marketing, customer retention is paramount.
2. B2B Relies Heavily on Information Marketing:
The B2B SaaS industry relies heavily on content marketing for publicity and awareness generation. Content marketing channels such as blogs and social media platforms are more effective ways and significant sources for publicity and customer acquisition.
This is because that's where the potential customers are. If content marketing is not done well, the chances of a B2B SaaS startup scaling are reduced. Quality investment must therefore be made into content generation and distribution. Having these two points in mind will help guide your marketing strategy as a SaaS founder.
Down to the meat of the content, here are 7 marketing mistakes B2B SaaS startups are making and how to fix them:
Mistake 1. Bad Content Marketing
This is a crucial strategy SaaS companies need to get right, and yet, it is where many get it wrong. Examples of such content marketing mistakes are:
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Having no well-documented content strategy. Getting some topics related to your product and having writers mass-produce content on them is not an advisable content strategy.
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Prioritizing quantity over quality by hiring freelance writers to churn out regurgitated article after article, week in and week out.
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Neglecting the "marketing" part of content marketing. A lot of companies create content, and that's it. They use the publish and pray approach. They publish, then sit and pray for the traffic to come without promoting it, and in most cases, they never come.
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Competing for high-volume keywords with the top dogs of the industry. You are a startup that just created your blog and is looking to fill it with content that will drive traffic and lead to conversions. Your site still has low authority with the Google algorithm; you cannot afford to compete for high-volume TOFU (top of the funnel) keywords.
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Not mentioning your product in your content or just mentioning it as an afterthought at the end.
Here is What You Should Do Instead
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Have a well-documented content strategy: This strategy should contain the goals you have for the blog. Is it to drive traffic, and if so, how much traffic within how much time? Is it to drive sales? Is it to build brand authority? Have it written down.
Also, have your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) written down. How will you measure your goals? For instance, with Google search console, you can measure monthly traffic. With marketing tools such as Semrush, you can monitor your customer's journey and evaluate how many conversions your blog content brought.
After which, you conduct detailed research on your ideal customer persona(ICP). Then, you can get a topic cluster on your niche and produce quality product-led content on each topic. Working with a topic cluster helps you gradually gain authority and get your articles to rank. Here is an article by Victor Eduoh Consulting(VEC) explaining more on topic clusters and their topic cluster framework is shown below.
A well-documented content strategy is the first step to successful content marketing.
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Hire writers who actually know what they are doing: As a startup trying to drive conversion, your content strategy should target SEO content BOFU (bottom of the funnel) pieces such as
Software review articles
Software comparison articles
Software pricing and plans
Software pros and cons, and
Software alternatives blog posts.
These are content with business intent and lesser competition that are much easier to rank for and drive conversions. Don't just create content; distribute as well.
Share and promote your content on your social media pages and email newsletters. You can also repurpose it into podcasts, webinars, and videos. According to Wyzowl's 2020 report, 89% of video marketers say video content gives them a good ROI. Promoting your content will not just increase traffic but will improve your site's authority as well.
Mistake 2. Not Leveraging Social Media Enough
A lot of B2B SaaS social media pages need to be updated. The last post, in most cases, was made several months ago. B2B SaaS companies must know that customers also check their social media handles. An up-and-running social media page with great content will
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Put you out in front of your audience and increase your visibility
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Improve your branding and customer perception
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Display authority and position you like the thought leader that you are
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Gives you an edge over your competitors who have neglected theirs
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Increases brand loyalty
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Promote your product and
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Ultimately drive sales
LinkedIn is a social media platform B2B SaaS companies should leverage as it contains professionals who are there for professional reasons. Examples of SaaS companies making good use of their social media handles are
If you are a B2B SaaS company guilty of this, this is your cue to get that page up and running. Here is what you should do to start leveraging social media. You can create:
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Memes
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Questionnaires
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Helpful tips that will help your target audience.
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Contribute to industry trends.
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Twitter threads.
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Carousels
Post quality content consistently and leverage social media communities.
Mistake 3. No Ease of Use/High Learning Curve
One of the greatest mistakes a SaaS company can make is to have a product that is not easy to navigate. I once spent 3 hours trying to navigate a SaaS product and couldn't find helpful content online.
That is a deadly combination and a massive turn-off for users, thus leading to a high churn rate.
As much as possible, your user experience must be top-notch.
According to Userpilot, this is what it means for a SaaS product to be easy to use:
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People can use it without asking questions.
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Employees know what to do by looking at the screen.
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Being able to use it without any assistance.
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Only requires a little training (or no training at all).
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New users can adapt to it easily.
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Easy to learn in a day.
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Without a steep learning curve.
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Saves on training time with employees.
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Simplifying software use for all ages.
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Older employees will be able to use it without difficulty.
No one wants to spend too much time learning how to use a product. Apart from having functional customer service, ensure you have helpful content published for your users. This can be in the form of frequently asked questions, knowledge-based articles, and troubleshooting guides.
Mistake 4. Not Leveraging Ads
Organic content is good. However, paid campaigns can help you reach a wider audience, especially if you are a startup and have yet to establish a solid online presence.
Ads, when done right, can scale up your SaaS.
For example, here is a case study on how Powered by Search increased leads for TouchBistro by 200% using Facebook ads.
Apart from Facebook ads, you can implement LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and google ads. How do you know which platform to carry out the ad? The best social media platform to implement your ad depends on a number of factors, such as:
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Your product and your target audience.
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The kind of content you want to put out. If you want to put out written content, Facebook or LinkedIn would be preferred. If you want to put out visuals, Instagram would be your best shot.
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Your available resources.
However, the platform where you have the most engagement has a high chance of ad success.
Mistake 5. No Free Trials/Freemium
You may say, "Ooh, but we have a one-month free trial over here; I bet this does not apply to us" You may have a free trial, but how smooth is the onboarding? Do you request credit card details before granting the one-month trial? Requesting a credit card has its advantages; whether you are to ask for credit card information or not depends on your goal.
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If your goal is to generate more leads, do not request for credit card
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You can request credit card details if your goal is to generate and streamline quality leads.
The aim of free trials/freemium is to whet the appetite of your customers and have them level up to the paid subscription plan. Do not give too few features, but also not too many. Give just enough to make them want to subscribe for more.
Mistake 6. Not Capitalizing On Your Unique Selling Point (USP)
There are quite a several software with the same basic functions as yours. For example, if you have a project management tool, other product management tools are also out there. Why should people go for yours? What makes you stand out among the crowd? That's your unique selling point.
Most times, the unique selling point is the story of why the product was created. For instance, Maildroppa is an email marketing tool. While there are several email marketing tools out there, the CEO, Marcus Biel, created Maildroppa when he realized that most of the emails he sends to his subscribers went to spam. With Maildroppa, your mail has a higher chance of entering your recipient's mail, thus increasing the open rate. That's the unique selling point. Anyone facing the same problem will likely give Maildroppa a thought.
What is your unique selling point as a software? Why should your audience pick you over your competitors? What is your story? Learn to sell your product with your story.
Mistake 7. Obsessing Over New Customer Acquisition While Paying No Attention To Existing Customers
I get it; it is normal to obsess over customer acquisition. It is normal to want to move from 100 subscribers to 500 and then to more. However, a grave marketing mistake you will not like to make as a B2B SaaS startup is getting distracted from customer retention. It is way easier to retain your old customers than to get new ones.
B2B startup owners need to understand that B2B marketing is an entirely different ballgame and be more intentional about it. Only then can the company scale up and be successful.