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In a competitive industry with high churn rates, sluggish lead generation is a big obstacle for many SaaS businesses. You know you have a great product that could help thousands of customers, but getting the engagement and commitment from the right audience can be tricky. After all, you have to translate the value of a multifaceted and technical service while justifying the cost – often subscription-based – to the customer.
In a B2B scenario where the decision-making process is even more layered, you have to work extra hard to not only find the right leads but also to approach them in the most effective manner.
The great news is that, with an inbound marketing strategy, you can mobilise growth and increase the volume of high-quality leads coming into your business.
Before you begin though, you need to establish your key performance indicators (KPIs). This will allow you to measure your progress and fine-tune your campaigns to get quick, sustainable results.
Ask yourself and your team these questions:
- What is the core messaging at the heart of our brand?
- What are our business goals and what is the timeframe within which we need to achieve them?
- Who are our buyer personas?
- What channels will work best for our particular product and how will we measure their effectiveness?
Once you have the answers, you will be able to align your actions with the end goal in mind, ensuring that your message is consistent and tailored to the ideal buyer.
Tools for lead generation
Build a referral network
One of the best ways for acquiring good quality leads is by encouraging existing customers to promote your services to their contacts.
Leveraging the relationships you already have to generate positive interactions with new prospects is one of your greatest assets because there is already an inbuilt element of trust.
So, give your purchasers the option to share details about your product across their social networks, ask them for permission to get in touch their contacts, or incentivise the option for them to invite contacts who may be a match for your service.
It’s always important to be open and honest about your intentions and to give appreciation to your existing customers for spreading the good word.
Create content
SaaS products require a significant degree of education for the consumer. They are bound to have a lot of questions and will need assurances that your product is going to serve their needs.
It’s critical to ensure that your content offers real value and informs your audience about your offering, directly relating to their pain points. For this reason, you must create content for each stage of the buyer’s journey:
- Awareness: The person has identified that they have a problem or need a software solution. This stage is particularly important when trying to generate leads. Pushy blogs, incessant pop-ups or repeatedly referring back to your brand will be off-putting. Here, you simply want to offer education, objectivity and a personal tone.
- Consideration: The problem is now clearly defined, and the person is ready for deeper level information such as expert guides and live interactions. You can embed your eBooks, blog posts and social media publications with the appropriate calls-to-action (CTAs) that nudge the visitor to take the desired action.
- Decision: This stage s typically where the visitor would sign-up your free trial or make a final comparison between competitors. You must make the path clear and transparent for the potential customer at this point.
Live chat and chatbots
Customers browsing your website will appreciate speed and efficiency when it comes to getting their questions answered. After all, SaaS integrations are usually all about streamlining and speeding up organisational tasks. Showing that your business is capable of giving around the clock support plays a huge role in generating leads and eventually converting them.
With HubSpot, you can build your own chatbot to help qualify leads, set up meetings and support your customers. It makes sure your door is always open, and your website is always welcoming new visitors.
Free trials
A free trial is the best way to:
- Get leads onboard with your service.
- Collect customer details so you can nurture them towards becoming paying customers..
- Make sure that you are getting the right fit customer for your product.
It may seem counterintuitive to give away your entire suite—or even a limited portion—for free, but with something like SaaS, experience really is key. Allowing customers to get a feel of your interface, to evaluate the tools and features and to really understand how your product will add value to their business is the only way to truly get buy-in.
When you set up your free trial ensure that you collect the user’s details. This will allow you to follow up on their experience and nurture them through emails as they discover your product.
Influencers
With the popularity of podcasts, YouTube channels and blog sites, many notable voices have established themselves online and harnessed a niche following. If you select carefully, you could partner with an influencer who can get your product in front of their audience and help to direct leads to your website by endorsing the benefits of your offering.
When choosing an influencer to work with, make sure that this person speaks to the audience that is most likely to be interested in your product. For example, if you’re selling a productivity application, approach influencers who speak to individuals that are looking to be more organised and effective in their daily tasks, not a gaming community.
Arrange events and face-to-face meetings
There is a lot to be said for the old fashioned approach of structuring industry-specific meetings that allow your guests to network and learn about your products at the same time. This helps you to generate a wealth of useful information while creating a platform to showcase your product, unveil any upgrades and get feedback from current users.
Host webinars and live video events
A fantastic way to reach a broad audience is to invite them to a live online event that gives you the opportunity to interact with new prospects, answer their questions and demonstrate key product features – all in real time. This creates a particular element of excitement about the product, plus it gives you the opportunity to collect contact details or invite followers to your social media channels.
When looking to supercharge your SaaS lead generation, there are many useful tools at your fingertips. Diversifying your arsenal is vital, however. Sticking to one particular tactic or not measuring how your progress is a surefire way to hit a slump, but with a little bit of guidance and support from the right marketing agency, it won’t be long before the new clients start flooding in.
If you’re looking to generate more leads for your SaaS business the inbound way, download the 3 step lead generating blueprint below.
