Retention, Referral, and Revenue: How to Create an Effective…

Marketing plans provide a framework for funneling customers from awareness to purchasing decision.

When it comes to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings, these plans should take into account the recurring nature of SaaS solutions. Special attention is given to retention and referrals compared to purchases and loyalty.

Here’s what you need to know about SaaS marketing plans, what differentiates them from traditional structures, and how your company can create a plan that increases revenue.

What makes SaaS marketing different?

SaaS marketing is different because you’re selling an ongoing, subscription-based service. Unlike a traditional product with a single purchase point, customers pay monthly or annually for SaaS solutions.

As a result, the objectives of traditional and SaaS marketing are different. The goal of a traditional marketing plan is to convert potential customers into buyers who purchase a product in a single transaction. If these customers are happy with the products, they may return for additional transactions.

The goal of SaaS marketing plans is to convert interested parties into customers willing to sign on for monthly or annual plans. You’ll want buyers to renew these plans when they expire and refer other customers to your service.

Simply put, traditional plans focus on revenue per transaction. SaaS plans prioritize revenue over time.

Why do SaaS marketing plans matter?

These plans matter for many reasons.

First, a solid marketing plan helps build a clear picture of your target market. What are they looking for in SaaS solutions? How much are they willing to spend? What will keep them from coming back?

Next is better use of time and resources. The plans offer a data-driven framework to help SaaS companies create campaigns that align with customer expectations.

In turn, businesses can streamline the process of engagement, active interest, and conversion. This means less time and money spent per customer. Budget can be spent on improving and maintaining SaaS offerings over time.

Finally, marketing plans offer a blueprint for developing and maintaining customer relationships. From connecting directly with customers to creating customized offers, you’ll want to find ways to increase customer satisfaction. This increases the likelihood of SaaS renewal as terms extend.

1. Pinpoint your buyer personas.

The first step in creating a SaaS marketing plan is to identify buyer personas. These personas are idealized, fictional versions of customers that help you define marketing strategies.

For example, a buyer persona for your CRM SaaS tool might be an HR leader at a medium-sized enterprise. They may currently struggle with fragmented benefits and payroll processes in their organization.

By defining these key pain points and how your solution solves them, you can create marketing copy that speaks to your ideal audience.

2. Research the competition.

The next step is to research the competition. The more you learn about what other SaaS providers are doing, the better prepared you will be to outperform. Integrating this information into your marketing plan helps ensure that campaigns aren’t treading ground already covered by your competitors.

3. Identify key goals.

Key goals help you measure the success of your marketing plan. These goals should be SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

Let’s say you’re looking to increase SaaS sales.

• You decide to prioritize the number of new, unique visitors to your site that fit your buyer persona. It is responsible for “s”
• For measurement, you track traffic sources to determine where they are coming from and how they were sent to your site.
• Achievement requires the use of analytics and data-tracking tools.
• Setting realistic goals means looking at your nearest competitors to see what their market share is like.

Finally, it is important to define a set period for the measurement. Once the period is over, compare the current measurements to previous data and see if there is any improvement.

4. Select your channel.

How and where you connect with prospects matters and is an essential part of your marketing plan. Here, research into your customer base informs the ideal channel combination.

Consider the impact of demographics. While 64% of Baby Boomers preferred email communication, only 22% said social media was their preferred channel. Meanwhile, for Gen Z, social media ranked first at 46%. This reflects the need for channel marketing that is tailored to the expectations of the target audience.

5. Set your budget.

Next is setting your budget. Each channel comes with an associated cost, and the quicker you want results, the more you will have to spend. As a result, it’s worth sitting down with the marketing, sales and finance teams to create a budget. This should provide enough room to complete the job without damaging the bank.

6. Measure your progress.

No marketing plan is complete without a clear description of what you’re measuring, how often, and what results you want to see. By defining metrics before you begin, you are better prepared to ensure that results meet expectations.

7. Test, test, test.

Finally, make sure your marketing plan is ready in time for both initial and ongoing testing.

These tests can be straight up A/B analyzes to see which of the two campaigns delivers better performance. They can also take the form of more in-depth user sentiment surveys and social media analysis.

The four main principles of a SaaS marketing plan

1. Goal setting

For growth to be sustainable, it must be supported by clear goals and an operational framework.

When it comes to a marketing plan, it has two distinct parts. The first is to align your marketing and sales teams. The second is to give them the resources they need to succeed.

Marketing and Sales Alignment

If you haven’t done so yet, now is the time to establish a revenue or lead commitment based on your goals. Then, anchor these goals with a service-level agreement between your marketing and sales teams.

From here, define how many marketing-qualified leads should be delivered to sales in a given month. Then, decide what percentage of those will become sales-worthy, then opportunities, then customers.

These metrics allow you to determine how many account executives you will need for your sales team. This will also help you determine how many visitors the marketing team needs to generate to achieve their goals.

marketing budget

There are many different areas of consideration when it comes to setting a budget.

According to Deloitte, marketing will account for around 13.6% of a company’s total budget in 2023. Businesses under five years old typically spend 12-20% of their revenue on marketing.

Whatever model you choose, it’s important to make sure you’ve set aside resources to achieve your goals.

2. device

Audience targeting and segmentation

You’ve probably spent a lot of time understanding your audience. If you haven’t already, enter this information as buyer personas. This understanding will form the basis of every decision you make moving forward.

Even if you’ve already done this, check them again to make sure they’re still accurate. In fact, doing this was one of the key factors that enabled us to double our blog leads.

keep the content flowing

In 2023, inbound marketing is table stakes for SaaS companies. Of course, for the content to be successful, the strategy must be high-value to be successful.

In your marketing plan, look at some examples of successful content to get the creative juices flowing. Then define key topics and content types and how they relate to your ongoing initiatives.

Paid Content Promotion and Retargeting

Many SaaS companies have seen success with various types of paid advertising. It is important to test the channels that best suit your business. When done correctly, it is possible to reduce cost-per-lead and acquisition.

Develop complete email conversion paths for each persona

Recognizing that as your lead velocity and team scale, the importance of marketing automation will increase. This means that effective lead nurturing should be prioritized at the top of the funnel and in the later stages of your free trial or demo.

Approach this by creating nurture streams and experiences for each buyer persona. This allows you to resell your value proposition and provide them with information to re-engage.

In some instances, these campaigns can run for an entire year, with email cadences of 1, 4, 7, 14, 21, 30, and 45 days, and then every two weeks.

3. Resources

This is a time to assess the resources you will need to achieve your growth goals. This includes the following.

In-house or outsourced

First, ask what will be done in-house and what will be outsourced to an agency. Companies are increasingly turning to agencies for employees, executives, and freelancers for content creation.

marketing team structure

If the team is being built in-house, specialize your team based on the funnel stage. In doing so, prioritize the top of the funnel first, as investing in these leads makes everything else possible downstream.

4. evaluation

Of course, any good marketing plan will include how it will be measured. Here are the key metrics you should focus on when measuring the marketing success of your SaaS.

mql velocity

MQL velocity has been called “the most important metric in SaaS”. By looking at MQL Velocity, you can see forward-looking insights beyond traditional pipeline reports.

SaaS metrics

As the business grows, the key metrics you focus on will become less relevant as your user base expands. Here is one of my favorite graphics representing this development.

image Source

SaaS Marketing Planning Best Practices

Best practices are important to avoid pitfalls and help make your SaaS marketing plan successful. Let’s find some below.

1. Skipping discounts

Discounts often seem like a win-win: Customers get a better deal, and you get new customers.

Problem? Discounted rates on SaaS products can attract customers outside your target audience. Once their discounted rate expires, they often turn to other providers who offer similar discounts.

Instead of competing on low prices, compete on performance: What do you offer that other businesses don’t? What sets you apart?

2. Reading Reviews

The more you know about what users want, the better. As a result, it is worth reading SaaS review sites to get information about user pain points. It’s also a good idea to submit your solution for review.

Although it can be difficult to hear specific feedback, it provides an opportunity to improve your product and generate more revenue.

3. Offering payment options

Choice helps in retaining customers. While some customers may prefer a year-long contract paid month-to-month, others are willing to pay more per month for shorter terms.

Others prefer to pay upfront for a year’s service (or more) if paying in full helps keep the price down. Offering multiple options helps you build a wider customer network.

4. Telling the truth

Never exaggerate your abilities or lie about your features. This means that if you have a new feature in the pipeline that should go live in two months, take it out of the marketing plan.

Here’s why: Long-term relationships depend on trust. If you make promises you can’t keep, customers will go elsewhere.

5. Rising subscription costs

It may seem counterintuitive, but increasing your costs can actually increase your customer base.

The reason for this is: customers are willing to pay more for best-in-class services. If you can show how your SaaS product solves their problems, you can charge a higher price while growing your customer base.

Making the Most of SaaS Marketing

Creating a comprehensive SaaS marketing plan can be difficult, but having a clear strategy at the beginning will set you up for success.

Now, it’s time to get started.