What is SaaS?
SaaS (software-as-a-service) is a concept that has revolutionized the way we buy and use the software. Long story short, SaaS (unlike on-premise software) allows you to use a certain app or software without downloading it, installing it, or having to buy any sort of hardware that contains the app in question. So the software is stored and maintained online, by a SaaS service provider. SaaS companies usually use a subscription fee business model and charge fees on a monthly or yearly basis.
Today, more and more companies are relying on some sort of SaaS in order to run their business more easily and smoothly. In addition, an average company should expect that roughly half of their current SaaS stack will have to be replaced in the next two years. This simply means they’ll need to buy more software and spend more money on SaaS in the forthcoming period.
One of the best ways to stand out from the competition and take advantage of the imminent growth of SaaS worldwide is by investing in digital marketing. SaaS companies can be very different in terms of their specific industry, IT infrastructure, or customer base, but they do have one thing in common. They all exist in the online realm, so the most reasonable thing to do is to reach out to new customers on the internet and try to redirect them to your website or your product. And there are very few better ways to do it than social media marketing. Here’s how it can help your SaaS business grow.
Know your audience
First of all, in order to get anything out of your social media efforts, you have to be familiar with your audience and your customers. Basically, anything you do about your social media presence has to be driven by accurate and comprehensive data about your customers.
A reliable CRM platform can help you gather this sort of customer info and immediately apply what you found out in real-time. It will help your marketing strategists, content creators, customer service reps, and even product developers do a better job. Knowing what your customers and your audience are about is absolutely necessary if you wish to advertise and sell to them successfully.
Create quality content
Content creation should be the central part of your social media marketing efforts. By creating and posting quality content you’re introducing consumers to your brand and drawing their attention towards your company, your website, and your products. There are many different types of content you can utilize to improve your SaaS business.
How-to’s
The basis of any kind of content marketing is to make your content helpful, relevant, and to address your customers’ specific questions and needs. In general, you should try to keep most of your content educational instead of purely promotional. That’s why how-to’s can be very valuable for improving your online presence.
You can use them to explain how your product or its specific problematic features work. You can also help people solve common problems related to similar products or in some other way associated with your industry. You’ll need reliable data about your customers’ demographics, interests, search queries, and browsing history in order to maximize the potential of this type of content.
Explainer videos
All this seems to be even more profitable if you do it in video format. Over the last few years, video marketing has proven to be ridiculously effective.
For instance, 85% of users are more likely to buy something after seeing an explainer video about it, while 64% of them have already purchased a product after watching a video on social media. In general, going for educational content on your social accounts is great, and if you decide to put it in video format, even better.
Success stories and testimonials
Unsurprisingly, consumers tend to believe other consumers more than they tend to believe brands themselves. As a matter of fact, 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
That’s why you should ask some of your genuinely satisfied clients to put in a few good words for you. If they allow you to post this publicly, it can be great proof of your trustworthiness. Just make sure this testimonial is authentic and truthful, or otherwise, it can only have a negative effect.
Images and infographics
Adding images to your content on social media is proved to increase engagement and information retention. So try including photos in your posts whenever it’s possible and reasonable.
You can also go for content that’s visual and informative at the same time. Posting interesting charts, infographics, or even breaking news from the industry in the form of a photo can be both educational and entertaining for your audience.
Content promotion
Social networks are especially beneficial to brands when it comes to content promotion. Here, we’re speaking about content that’s already been published elsewhere (e.g. your website) but can be made more visible by promoting it on social media.
This way, by growing your social networks you’ll also have a chance to boost the traffic on your website. It’s becoming increasingly easy to do this if you have a few bucks to spend on sponsored posts. Especially given that you can use these posts to target precisely the right demographics with precisely the right messages.
Use social media as a storefront
With good content, you’re basically building online presence and trust, while at the same time improving brand image, which brings many benefits to your business in the long run. But social media can bring value to your business in the short run as well. Namely, social media can help you sell your product or service in a more direct way, by simply showcasing it on your accounts or demonstrating how it can help the user.
Now obviously, a SaaS business usually can’t showcase their physical product, since they don’t have one. But using your social media to show screenshots or short recorded sequences, and explain your services and different plans can all be very useful. This way you’re basically using your social media as a storefront, letting people see for themselves what your company has to offer.
Customer service
More and more consumers consider that brands should be available via multiple channels and around the clock. As much as 83% of people think that brands should respond to comments in a day or less, while 38% of them wouldn’t wait for more than an hour.
Hence you have a great opportunity to use your social media to demonstrate the quality of your customer service. People will be much more eager to send a message and ask about a product or look for help if you ensure they get a swift and helpful response via a channel of their choice.
And as for bad public comments and negative feedback, they don’t have to be necessarily harmful to you. You can turn this into an opportunity to display your attentiveness and professionalism. For this, you’ll evidently need accomplished and knowledgeable customer service reps who can offer top-class tech support and solve problems in a matter of minutes.
The power of influencers
Hiring influencers is a great way to spread the word about your product and positively affect your online reputation. The trickiest and most important thing in this process is finding the right ones for your brand.
Obviously, SaaS companies aren’t going to look for a generic Instagram fitness model or a travel blogger. You’ll need a tech or marketing influencer, followed by users who are already interested in products similar to yours. Customer data can help you here once again since you’ll need to analyze an influencer’s follower base and check if it overlaps with your own customer base.
Influencers you choose to hire also need to be skilled content creators. They have to be able to advertise your product in such a way that it seems like an integral part of their content. This builds trust and interest for your product among their followers.
Special offers and giveaways
Social media is a good place to inform people about your discounts or loyalty programs. Those who regularly engage with your content will be timely informed about any sort of special offers you’re providing.
Also, offering users perks and small rewards in return for recommendations on social media can be an effective strategy. Remember, the ultimate goal of social media marketing is turning your social media followers into customers. So by growing your audience you’ll have a chance to convert more followers into buyers in the long run.
Showcase your culture
Putting a human face on your business can help you establish a positive brand image. Publishing posts and videos about the inner workings of your company from time to time will show that your business includes real people doing real jobs and living real lives.
This can be very important for SaaS companies that operate in a hard-to-understand digital realm using the newest technologies, so they usually seem even more remote to an average user than other brands. Thus showing that your company is not some dystopian faceless tech villain can make it easier for consumers to relate to it.
Conclusion
Running a SaaS company today means a lot of new opportunities, but also a huge amount of competition. In order to stand out and be noticed, SaaS brands will have to care a lot about their digital presence, because the digital realm is where they find their customers.
Social media will be one of the keys to success, especially for young startups that need to grow quickly in order to survive. Sure, your product is the most important thing and without a genuinely good product, you stand no chance. But it’s all the same when you have a good product that nobody has heard about. Using social media the right way helps you reach your target audience, boost your brand image, develop trust, and advertise your products in the most efficient way.
About the Author
Mihajlo Radivojevic writes for Really Simple Systems. He writes mostly about marketing and sales and anything that can be marketed and sold… which is, well, everything. As for hobbies, he likes getting into one too many YouTube projects, which leaves him with no time to sleep and just enough time to watch 3rd tier football.