How to Create a Winning SaaS Marketing Plan: Step-by-step Guide

With the global Software as a Service (SaaS) market size expected to reach $883.34 billion by 2029, it’s more important than ever to have a solid SaaS marketing plan. At Quoleady, we help our SaaS clients grow, and in this article, we’ll share actionable tips on creating a winning marketing plan that will bring you more customers.

What is a SaaS marketing plan?

A SaaS marketing plan details how a software company promotes its product. It includes a comprehensive analysis of the company’s:

• Target audience
• Competitors
• Goals
• Budget and resources
• Product key features, benefits and USP
• Marketing channels
• Marketing tactics
• Marketing metrics

Why is a SaaS marketing plan important?

A well-crafted marketing plan:

• Provides a clear direction
• Establishes goals and helps you achieve them
• Helps to manage resources effectively

SaaS marketing plan vs. traditional marketing plan

Let’s look at a table comparing traditional and SaaS marketing:

Of course, this is a general breakdown and doesn’t apply to every traditional and SaaS business, but it should help you understand the primary differences between these models.

Key takeaways:

• As SaaS products are digital solutions, digital marketing plays a huge part in their business strategy.
• As SaaS marketing is mostly B2B, it is more complex and needs a more strategic and comprehensive approach, as it targets a team of professionals, not just individuals.
• As SaaS businesses need their customers to renew subscriptions, they need to build long-term relationships with customers by improving their SaaS products, providing exceptional customer service and creating valuable content to solve their pain points even after they buy.

How to create a SaaS marketing plan

Creating a SaaS marketing plan is not a walk in the park but will save you time and money in the long run. Follow the steps below to create a marketing plan from scratch.

Create your buyer persona

Speaking to everyone is a recipe for disaster. It is crucial to know who you’re speaking to and that someone should be your ideal client that you can help with your product.

Answer these questions about your target audience:

• What are their fears and challenges?
• What do they want?
• What interests them?
• What are their values?
• What is their job?
• Where do they spend the most time online?
• How can your product help them?

Image source: Stratwell

Here are additional steps you can take:

• Conduct 1-on-1 interviews and identify trends
• Launch a customer survey

Work on competitor research

Competitor research allows you to see what’s working and what isn’t and how your product compares to that of your competitors. Here’s what you can do:

1. Identify your competitors: Create a list of companies offering a similar product.
2. Analyze their products: Analyze the features, USPs and pros and cons of your competitors’ products.
3. Research their marketing: Study their marketing channels, tactics and messaging.
4. Analyze their pricing: Study their pricing strategy, including the pricing plans, discounts, free trials etc.
5. Check customer reviews: Check customer testimonials and reviews on third-party sites such as G2.

Craft your unique selling proposition and analyze the benefits of your product

Now that you have done your competitor analysis, think about what makes you different from the competition and craft your unique selling proposition (USP). Do you:

• Provide more advanced features?
• Offer superior customer service?
• Have more integrations?

Make your USP clear, concise and easy to understand for your potential SaaS customers.

Also, list all the features that make your product awesome and how they help solve customer problems. Why would customers choose your company over your competitors? Sell yourself on the product first to be able to present it to your target audience confidently.

Define your budget and resources

The average percentage of ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) SaaS companies spend on marketing is 10%. Do your research and define how much you can spend on marketing and what resources you have. You can choose to hire in-house marketers or outsource marketing to another company.

Set goals

What is a plan without goals to check how successful the plan is? Here are the two goal-setting frameworks that can help you.

1. SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals

Example:

Increase the website traffic from 0 to 20k and bring 1,000 new leads in four months with an SEO content marketing strategy (by the way, you can read about how we reached this goal here)

2. OKR (Objectives and Key Results)

Example:

Objective: Increase website traffic

Key result: Increase website traffic from 0 to 20k by the end of this quarter

Choose content types

Content marketing strategy involves creating and sharing valuable content with your audience to promote your brand. We love SaaS content marketing because it’s about promoting your product through education and providing value for the customers. It can include:

• Blog posts
• Videos
• Email newsletters
• Webinars/virtual events
• Social media posts
• Ebooks
• Whitepapers
• Podcasts
• Infographics and more

You can choose the content type that appeals to you the most, ask your audience what content type they find the most valuable or engaging and experiment to see what brings the best results.

Choose the right marketing channels

When choosing marketing channels, it’s essential to consider your target audience and where they spend time online. You can ask your existing customers how they heard about your company. Focus on one channel your audience uses the most, then scale for the best results.

Here are the marketing channels you can use:

Blog

Here’s why your blog can be an excellent marketing channel:

• Of all the content types they use, 93% of B2B marketers said blog posts produced the best overall content marketing results.
• Companies with blogs generate +67% leads per month.
• Blogging leads to 55% more website visitors.

Using a blog as a marketing channel can provide fantastic results for software companies, generating more traffic and leads.

For more information, read our B2B SaaS blog writing tips or check out our guides on B2B SaaS copywriting and SaaS content writing.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves increasing your website’s and content visibility by optimizing them for the keywords your buying personas are searching for. It’s a long-term strategy that can help you attract organic traffic.

Here is how you can optimize your website and SaaS blog for SEO:

• Conduct SaaS keyword research, focus on high-intent keywords and organize them into content clusters.
• Build the website structure based on keyword research and interlink all the pages on your SaaS website in a logical hierarchical way.
• Take care of technical optimization (page loading speed, mobile responsiveness, broken links, redirects, robot.txt file, site map, schema markup etc.).
• Include keywords in SEO and title tags, subheadings, meta descriptions, URLs, alt tags and in the content as per SurferSEO recommendations.
• Develop a SaaS link-building strategy and choose high-quality websites for SaaS link building.

In an interview our client Stefan Smulders from Expandi gave, he talked about the six ingredients of their success, one of which is SEO:

Whether you are looking for a SaaS blog writing company or a SaaS SEO agency, we are happy to help. Book a free call to learn how we can get you signups with quality content!

Social media

It’s no secret that social media is a great way to build brand awareness, engage with your audience or promote content.

Here’s what the statistics tell us:

• 86% of consumers use social media when researching potential IT purchases.
• 67% of online users have purchased a service or product after seeing an ad on social media.
• 71% of consumers who had a positive experience with a company on social media recommend it to their family and friends.

Follow these steps to get started with social media:

1. Choose the platforms where your target audience is most active, whether it’s LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter etc.
2. Define your tone, messaging and content themes that align with your brand and target audience.
3. Create a content calendar and plan the content that engages and provides value.
4. Schedule posts in advance and publish regularly (but don’t sacrifice quality).
5. Engage with your audience by responding to comments and questions and asking for feedback.
6. Use social media analytics tools to monitor what’s working and what isn’t, test different content types and posting times and adjust the strategy accordingly.

The best way to learn is by analyzing examples, seeing what you like and testing it. Let’s look at some examples that can inspire you:

Semrush, an online visibility management platform, is an excellent example of a fun online presence on LinkedIn. They post memes and jokes while also sharing valuable information, resulting in high engagement.

Image source: LinkedIn

Canva, a design tool, is another fantastic example of a SaaS company with a huge following on Instagram. They make great use of videos, sharing design tips and presenting new features in a fun way.

Image source: Instagram

Asana, a project management software, is another example of a company sharing jokes, unicorns, productivity motivation and valuable information.

Image source: LinkedIn

Email marketing

Email marketing can help you stay top-of-mind, nurture leads and drive conversions.

You can use email marketing to:

• Welcome/onboard new/potential customers
• Promote new offers
• Present new product features
• Inform about the ending of a free trial and explain the next steps
• Invite subscribers to a virtual event
• Share helpful tips, guides or blog posts
• Celebrate milestones
• Encourage inactive users to return
• Launch a survey

Image source: Target Audience

Here are the steps you can take to launch an email marketing campaign:

1. Choose an email marketing platform, such as MailerLite, SendFox, Sendinblue etc.
2. Build your email list by adding a signup form to your website, offering a lead magnet etc.
3. Segment your email list based on demographics, behavior and interests to tailor your messaging to each group.
4. Create engaging email content consistent with your brand, include a CTA and dedicate time to creating compelling subject lines that grab readers’ attention.
5. Don’t spam and include an unsubscribe option for those who don’t want to receive emails anymore.
6. Track the metrics, such as open, click-through and conversion rates, test different email types and adjust accordingly.

Paid search

Paid search involves placing ads on search engines, social media platforms and other websites to increase reach.

It can be a good decision if you:

• Have enough resources
• Want fast results
• Want to rank for a competitive keyword

Follow these steps to start with paid marketing:

1. Set specific campaign goals.
2. Choose your PPC platform, such as Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising.
3. Determine your PPC budget.
4. Choose targeting options, such as locale, age and interests.
5. Make a list of keywords you want to include in your paid search campaign based on keyword research.
6. Create a compelling ad copy with a target keyword and CTA.
7. Make sure the page the ad leads to is relevant and delivers on the promise.
8. Track metrics, run A/B tests and adjust accordingly.

Employ different tactics

Here are some tactics you can employ in your SaaS marketing strategy.

Easy sign-up

Make it easy for potential customers to sign up and start using your product instead of jumping through hoops. Get feedback on your sign-up process and check for ways to make it simpler or shorter.

Image source: Arengu

Free trial

Offering free trials is a tactic many SaaS companies employ to increase conversions. A free trial provides free access to all or limited features of the product for a limited time, so customers can see whether they like the product and want to pay a monthly or annual fee.

Freemium

Freemium or a free plan is similar to a free trial but differs in that it provides free access to some of the product features without a time limit.

However, you should be very careful with the freemium as it’s a huge load on the support system and infrastructure. We wouldn’t recommend bootstrapped companies to use this approach.

Product demos

Another option for showing your product’s features and benefits is through a product demo that allows your customers to try the product before buying.

Referral programs

77% of people are more likely to buy a product when learning about it from friends and family. Referral programs help you expand your customer base by incentivizing customers to recommend your product to people they know.

Image source: ReferralRock

SaaS review websites

B2B buyers are 57-70% through their buying research before contacting sales. Before buying a product, most customers check software review websites to help them make a buying decision. Reach out to the editorial teams of major software review websites such as G2 or Capterra and ask them to be featured to increase your reach.

Customer success stories

Share success stories, testimonials and case studies, highlighting what results you achieved and how. Real-world examples of how your product helps can build credibility and increase conversion rates.

Call-to-action

Your call-to-action (CTA) should be clear, eye-catching and compelling. You can make it prominent by using a color contrasting the rest of the website.

The way to make it compelling is to use strong wording that will actually encourage your customer to act. You can do this by transforming your CTAs to CTVs (call-to-values), emphasizing what the customers will get if they perform a specific action. For example, instead of saying, “Download now,” you can say, “Get your step-by-step guide.”

Image source: Saastitute

Pricing strategy

We vouch for transparent pricing that will help you build trust and create less friction in a buyer’s journey. It can also help you reduce sales and marketing costs as you won’t have to deal with pricing inquiries and waste time on customers who cannot afford your product.

You can use tiered pricing, which allows you to offer different levels of service for different prices and appeal to a broader range of customers. Value your customers’ time and explain clearly how your pricing plans differ and what they get with each.

Measure the success of your SaaS marketing plan

There are many SaaS marketing metrics you can track to measure the success of your marketing efforts depending on the marketing channel you use, but here we’ll list the marketing metrics we track for our clients:

• Traffic: the number of people visiting your website
• Engagement: how visitors interact with your website (pageview, average time on page, scroll depth, social shares, comments etc.)
• Conversion rate: the percentage of website visitors taking a desired action on your website, such as signing up for a free trial or filling out a form
• Bounce rate: the percentage of visitors leaving your website after viewing only one page
• Traffic sources: the sources of traffic to your website, such as search engines, social media and other websites (useful for content distribution)
• Time on page: the average time a visitor spends on a specific page
• Website DR/DA: Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) measure the overall quality and authority of your website domain, telling you how strong your website backlink profile is
• Keyword rankings: the position of your website in search engine results for specific keywords

To measure these, you can use:

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs
• Moz

The ultimate goal of your SaaS marketing strategies is higher ARR, but this metric is dependent upon many factors and, as such, cannot be a standalone marketing metric, even though marketing can help you increase revenue.

Another helpful metric to determine the health of your marketing strategies is CLV:CAC ratio. Let’s see first what CLV and CAC are.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the cost of acquiring a new customer. These are all the expenses you spend to attract new customers and convert them into paying ones, such as advertising, promotion events and salaries of the sales and marketing teams.

CAC = Total sales and marketing costs / Number of new customers acquired

Customer lifetime value (CLV or CLTV) is the revenue a company expects to generate from a single customer throughout their relationship.

CLV = Average annual revenue per customer x Average lifetime of a customer

Now that you know what CAC and CLV are, we can explain the CLV:CAC ratio, which would be a more useful metric than CAC and CLV alone. Divide your CLV by your CAC to get your CLV:CAC ratio.

A ratio of 3:1 or higher is considered good because it indicates that the profit is three times greater than the cost of acquiring a new customer. A high CLV:CAC ratio means you are getting a good return on investment (ROI) for your marketing efforts.

How can Quoleady help with your SaaS marketing plan?

Here’s how our team of SaaS marketers can help you:

• We can conduct competitor and keyword research to devise a SaaS content marketing strategy
• We can create informative, actionable and well-researched blog posts that will establish you as an expert and generate leads
• We can optimize your blog posts to bring more organic traffic
• We can build high-quality backlinks to your website to help your content rank better
• We can perform a technical SEO or SaaS content audit to detect and fix technical issues and update content
• We can set up your GA4 that will provide you with more relevant data about your customers’ journey
• We can provide consulting services, whether about your content strategy, link building or conversion optimization

Hop on a free call with us to discuss your specific needs!

Conclusion

Creating a winning SaaS marketing plan requires time and hard work, but the direction, clarity and better resource management you get as a result are worth the effort. In short, you should:

1. Create your buyer persona
2. Conduct competitor research
3. Identify your product’s key features and benefits and craft a USP
4. Define your resources and budget
5. Set measurable goals
6. Choose the content types
7. Choose the marketing channels
8. Employ the tactics outlined in this article
9. Measure the results

If you want long-term and sustainable growth content marketing provides, we can help you. Book a free call to see how.

FAQs

How do I create a marketing plan for SaaS?

1. Create your buyer persona
2. Do competitor and market research
3. Identify your unique selling proposition and the benefits your product provides
4. Define your budget and resources
5. Set goals
6. Choose the content types you’ll use
7. Choose the right marketing channels
8. Employ different tactics listed in this article
9. Measure the results

How to do SEO for a SaaS company?

1. Conduct keyword research, focus on high-intent keywords and organize them into topic clusters
2. Take care of technical optimization
3. Link between the pages on your website
4. Optimize your SEO and title tags, subheadings, URLs, alt tags, meta descriptions and blog posts
5. Build high-quality backlinks to your website

How do you structure a marketing plan?

Your marketing plan should include a comprehensive analysis of your:

• Target audience
• Competitors
• Goals
• Budget and resources
• Your product’s key features, benefits and USP
• Marketing channels and content types
• Marketing tactics
• Marketing metrics

How is marketing for SaaS different?

Marketing for SaaS is different because its goal is to promote subscription-based digital solutions instead of physical products or services, which makes it more important for SaaS companies to build long-term relationships with customers through content marketing and exceptional service.