Feeling stuck in a rut with your marketing?
Looking for some inspiration?
We feel you!
In 2021, there are SO many different marketing channels you could use, it can really be overwhelming at times.
Which is why we created this guide - to compile every single B2B SaaS marketing strategy into a single resource!
From PPC to SEO, we’ve got it all!
Read on to discover everything we’re going to cover...
25+ B2B SaaS Marketing Strategies [Complete List]
In this guide, we're going to cover different types of marketing strategies, including...
- SEO & Content Marketing. Rich on manpower, but poor on marketing budget? SEO and Content is the best way to get your name out there without spending too much on advertising.
- PPC. To make money, you need to spend money. Learn how to run profitable ads with these SaaS marketing strategies.
- Partnerships. You’re not alone in this. Learn how you can use partnerships to drive growth and revenue.
- Direct Outreach. Cold emails aren’t dead! Directly reach out to decision-makers in companies and get them hooked on your B2B SaaS Software.
- Public Relations. Want to get featured on TechCrunch, without having to spend 5-figures on a PR agency? We'll cover 2 strategies on how to do that.
So, depending on what you're looking for, feel free to skip ahead using the ToC:
SEO & Content Marketing
Strategy #1 - Create Product Comparison Content
One of the most straightforward SEO tactics for driving qualified buyers is to create product comparison content.
Let’s say you’re selling project management software.
If your product or brand is already pretty famous, you could create comparison guides of your product to its competitors…
- Your Product VS Asana
- Your Product VS Monday
If you Google “asana vs basecamp,” you’ll see that Asana is already doing this…
Or, on the other hand, you could also write comparison guides for your competitor products (or products in complementary niches), and upsell your solution as a third alternative. For example:
- Asana VS Trello
- Bitrix 24 VS Monday
Chanty, a team chat app, does something like this…
At the end of the introduction, they include an upsell for their product…
Strategy #2 - Create Top Software Roundups
Alternatively, you could also create comparison content on specific software types.
For example…
- Best CRM tools
- Top productivity tools
- Team productivity software
- BPM tools
And so on.
As a given, you’d want to mention your product as #1 in your comparison guide.
If you Google “CRM tools,” you’ll see that Scoro is doing just that…
PRO TIP
Want to rank for comparison keywords? You’ll need to come up with an actual framework for benchmarking the different products.
If all you do is keep saying “Product X has very good UX / UI, and is very beautiful look-wise,” you’re not gonna go far.
Your audience consists of sharp businessmen, not moms reading up listicles on Buzzfeed about “Top X Bjutiful CRM Softwares in 2k19”
Some things you could compare are:
- Product features
- Pricing models
- Use-cases
- Best for (SMBs? Freelancers? Enterprises?)
- Pros
- Cons
- User reviews
- Support quality
- Use-case based (or feature-based) ranking system]
Strategy #3 - Rank your landing pages
Unless you have a completely ground-breaking, innovative software, chances are, your potential clients are already looking for software solutions such as yours.
If you run “project management software” through SEMRush, you’ll see that the keyword has over 22,200 searches per month.
If you ranked in the top 5 results on the first page, you’d have a TON of qualified leads knocking on your doorstep every day.
So, how do you do that?
The first step is to identify all the product keywords you want to rank for.
Let’s say you own a team task management B2B SaaS. Some of the keywords you could use are...
- Project management software
- Task management software
- Team productivity software
To compile a very comprehensive list, just think of different variations for...
“[Your Use-Case] + software”
Some more ideas could be
- Client project management software
- Product management software
- Team management software
Or, for another example, let’s say you have a time tracking software. You could target keywords such as…
- Timesheet app
- Timesheet calculator
- Time reporting
Once you’ve identified a bunch of keywords you want to target, the first step is to create the relevant landing pages.
Make sure to tailor each page to the keyword, and talk about the use-case. It shouldn’t be a copy-paste of your homepage.
For a good example of this, check out Integrify’s workflow system page…
Once you’ve got your landing pages up and running, you should optimize them for SEO.
If your website is based on WordPress, you can use the YoastSEO plugin for that. It tells you EXACTLY what you have to do in order to optimize your page for the keyword.
On the other hand, if you have a hand-built website, you can use the Content Analysis tool. Just copy and paste your landing page copy, and follow the instructions.
Finally, make sure to link to these landing pages in your blog post (and anywhere else on your site) whenever possible. The more links you have for any given page, the more important it is in the eyes of Google.
You can also include your top pages in your footer so that they’re linked to from all of your web pages. For example:
Finally, the last and most important step is to get backlinks for each of these pages.
In a competitive industry, this is going to be what determines whether your content ranks or not.
Chances are, most SaaS companies in your niche already have such pages. To get ahead of them, you’ll need to beat them with backlinks.
We’re not going to get into too much detail on HOW to get backlinks (since that would require 10,000 word guide on its own).
You can, however, check out Backlinko’s guide to link building - it’s hands down THE most comprehensive resource out there.
Strategy #4 - Create SEO content
SEO content is content created with the intention of ranking on Google.
You could come up with keywords associated with your B2B SaaS business, and create related content.
Let’s say, for example, you’re selling business process management software. You’d want to create content on keywords such as…
- Business Process Management
- Business Process Improvement
- Workflow Management
- And more.
Chances are, anyone looking up information on these topics is also interested in using your SaaS software.
Creating SEO content is a 4-step process…
- Keyword Research. Finding the keywords you want to rank for.
- Creating the Right Content. Creating 2x - 10x better content than whatever is already ranking on the keyword.
- Optimizing It. Use YoastSEO (if you’re using WordPress) or Content Analysis tool (if you’re not) to optimize it for Google.
- Getting Backlinks. Reach out to websites in your niche and ask them for a quick link.
Want to learn more about SEO for SaaS? Check out our mega-guide to SaaS SEO!
Blog post not ranking?
Grab our FREE checklist and discover why!
According to the statistics from research done by the Content Marketing Institute, over 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach their customers.
And that’s for a good reason - SaaS content marketing can not only bring you more leads, but also help establish authority, strengthen your brand, and more!
Content marketing can be divided into 2 main parts...
- Content Creation
- Content Promotion
The tl;dr here is: you create authoritative content that helps your audience solve a problem, and then you make sure that your audience gets to read it.
For example, let’s say you’re a process management software company.
Your audience probably consists of COOs and other operations-management roles. So, what type of content could you create to reach them?
You could create a huge blog post titled “99+ Process Improvement Ideas for Every Business” and make it as practical as possible.
Now, once you create an article, you might be tempted to just put it on your blog, call it a day, and chill.
| “If someone cares about my article, they’ll find it themselves!” - Quote from The Diaries of a Failed Content Marketer, 2021. |
No, no they won’t. You could write THE best thing ever written in the history of mankind, but if no one gets to read it except for your mom, you won’t go too far.
The next step is to create a giant outreach list of your target audience and make sure that they see your blog post.
In the process management example we mentioned, your target audience could be…
- COOs / Heads of Operations / Operations Managers
- Works in the tech industry. Let’s say that tech is your current focus, but this could be any other industry too.
- Company size: 50 - 100+. Why? Because it’s a lot more likely to get your content noticed by COOs in medium-sized companies. Chances are, if you’re emailing C-suite of a large corporation, they won’t even look at your email.
So, create that outreach list, use tools like LeadConnect or ClearBit Connect to find the emails for your leads, and start sending!
PRO TIP
Most companies really misunderstand content marketing. They hire a blogger, ask them to pump out a couple of 500-word articles per week, and call it a day.
Well, that’s not how you do it. No one cares about your generic “why should you use a project management software” article.
To really win at content marketing, you need to create interesting, comprehensive, long-form content that provides real value with every sentence, just like this post (haha).
Strategy #6 - Write an E-Book
Ever fantasized about writing a book?
Well, here’s your chance.
An e-book can help your marketing efforts in several ways…
- It helps establish your brand as an authority
- You can use it to capture site visitor emails (and then upsell your product)
- It can help you create a ton of social buzz, especially if you manage to get it in front of the right people
So, how do you market an e-book?
Well, that’s another 10k word blog post on its own, but here’s a tl;dr:
Step #1 - Pick the right topic. It should be somehow related to a MAJOR problem your target audience has. For example, if you’re a tool for finding lead email addresses and contact information, you could write a very comprehensive guide to email outreach.
Step #2 - Get quotes and insights from influencers in your niche. Just drop them a line, let them know about your initiative, and ask them to help contribute. More often than not, they’ll be more than happy to help.
LeadFuze did just that with their champions guide to outreach...
Other than the value they’ll provide, you’ll also be able to ask for their help in promoting the content once you’ve published it 😉 Worst case, they’ll just give you a share. Best case? They’ll let every single person they know, about your e-book.
Step #3 - Create a lead capture landing page. At the very least, you should ask for an e-mail in exchange for the e-book. If you want to be extra greedy, you can also ask for a share or a tweet. If you’re using WordPress, you can use Social Locker for that.
Step #4 - Once you’re done with the e-book, it’s time to promote it. Here’s a quick checklist on how to do that…
- Promote it on your social media channels
- E-mail blast your user-base about it
- Email all the influencers that helped you out with the e-book and ask them to share it
- Run a remarketing ad campaign with the e-book to all your website visitors
- Create a list of your top 100 ideal clients, and cold email the e-book
- Run a cold traffic Facebook ad to anyone that’s interested in the topic
Strategy #7 - Write a Round-Up Post
Writing a round-up post is an easy & efficient way to generate traffic, backlinks, AND leads.
What’s a round-up post?
You’ve probably seen them before. It’s the…
“Top X Influencers / Products in [Y Niche]” type of blog post.
What you do here is, find all the top influencers in your niche, and write a blog post about them.
You could, for example, write a blog post on…
“Top X SEO Influencers in 2021” and mention me.
If you drop me an email saying, “Hey, we featured you on this blog post because you’re so awesome,” it’s going to be very hard for me to say “No” to a quick share + backlink.
So you know, I’ll be waiting 😉
Jokes aside, pick a niche related to your product and give this a go. You’ll see the results yourself.
Search Engine Journal did this exact thing with their SEO experts blog post...
And you can see the results - over 6.3k shares.
Strategy #8 - Write a Guest Post
Guest posts are awesome. They help you…
- Establish yourself as an authority by getting your name out there
- Get backlinks to your top articles
- Generate leads (as long as the blog you’re posting on is relevant for your niche)
Most big blogs accept guest posts, as long as the content you’re publishing is relevant to their audience.
To get the most out of your guest posting, though, we’d recommend using one of these 2 strategies:
- Guest post on complementary product blogs. For example, let’s say you’re a team communication software company. You could guest-post on a project management blog, like Wrike or TeamGantt.
- Guest post on media where your audience hangs out. For example, TheNextWeb and TechCrunch both have a huge audience of tech entrepreneurs.
Strategy #9 - Create an Infographic
Everyone loves infographics, especially marketers.
As with content, this is done in 2 parts:
- Creating the infographic
- Promoting the hell out of it
We’re not going to discuss the first part - it’s pretty straightforward. You either use an in-house designer or find one on UpWork.
In terms of promoting it, though, here are several strategies you could use:
- Send it to industry-leading blogs. If the infographic looks cool, this is going to get you a guest post AND a link.
- Send it to relevant online media. Is the infographic related to tech? TechCrunch might love it.
- Submit it to online communities, such as Reddit or Pinterest.
Strategy #10 - Publish a Case Study
Think fast - what kind of results can your SaaS deliver?
No, we’re not asking about your product’s features.
What’s the impact you can have on your client’s bottom line?
After all, at the end of the day, that’s what your software should accomplish.
Publishing a case study is a great way to convince your customer base to buy your product. It’s not going to help you generate leads per se, but it’s definitely going to help improve conversions.
Especially if your product is high-ticket (or enterprise), you should have several case studies clearly visible on your website.
Want to see how it’s done? HubSpot has some of the best CRM case studies we’ve seen...
To get this done, we’d recommend approaching some of your best (and happiest!) clients, and offering them an incentive for creating a case study with you.
Paid Advertising
Strategy #11 - Run Search Ads
One of the most straightforward and fastest ways to generate B2B leads is to run Google Search Ads.
Anyone that searches on Google for your type of software is a pre-qualified lead.
So, all you have to do is run the ads.
Keep in mind, though, that in most industries, this isn’t going to be cheap. Some of the top players could be bidding on your keywords, and it’s pretty hard to compete.
In the end, it all boils down to crunching numbers. Let’s say you’re trying to advertise for the “project management software” keyword.