12 Key Lead Generation Strategies for SaaS Startups by StartUP MQL | Part 2 of 2

“Lead generation is easy and demand generation is hard. The difference in the two is quality and knowing your best-fit accounts to go after.”
- Sangram Vajre, Co-Founder Terminus

Maintaining a full pipeline of sales leads is a critical success factor for SaaS startups of any size. But with so many lead generation strategies available, which ones produce the best results? We've listed down 12 of your best options.

As a SaaS company, you have one goal in mind: to generate more leads. Lead generation is important to the success of your business because these are prospects who are actually interested in what you have to offer. They could become customers down the road if they’re treated correctly during their initial contact with your brand. So, how do you generate more leads? In this post, we’re going to explore 12 strategies that SaaS companies can implement into their lead generation plan. By following these guidelines, you’ll be able to dramatically increase your lead flow within a few months.

Part 1 of the 12 Key Lead Generation Strategies for SaaS Startups is linked here.

7. Live Chat

As a SaaS startup, you know that the success of your business depends on how many customers you acquire. Live chat can help you generate leads, but you need to use it as part of a comprehensive strategy. In the early days, Live chat was a novelty feature for websites. Today, Live chat is a must-have. But Live chat cannot be successful by itself: you need to use Live chat in combination with other marketing strategies.

For Live chat to be successful:

• Live chat hosts need to be well trained and friendly.

• Live chat hosts must also mirror your company's image to the best of their abilities.

• Live chats must always start with a positive tone and a friendly welcome.

• Live chat hosts should be trained to redirect visitors to other channels, such as email or phone.

Are you a SaaS startup struggling with how to implement live chat into your website in order to maximize lead generation? Drift has developed an amazing Live Chat and AI Chat bot which can be easily installed into your website.

8. PPC Advertising 

For those looking to "get found" by potential clients on Google, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising offers a viable solution.

In PPC campaigns, ads will appear to those searching for specific keywords on search result pages. PPC campaigns are typically managed by professional PPC agencies, like StartUP MQL.

Pay Per Click campaigns are managed via PPC management platforms, such as Google Ads and their legacy platform Google Adwords. PPC platforms typically include tools for keyword management, bidding strategies, landing page creation and testing, etc.!

PPC is a great way to get found by new leads, but PPC ads need to match the keywords being searched. PPC keywords should only be used when they are relevant to the PPC ad or PPC landing page. PPC ads that don't match PPC keywords will be marked as spam, and PPC performance can suffer.

PPC landing pages must match the PPC ads. Landing pages should only be used if there is relevance between PPC keywords, PPC ads and PPC landing page content. Landing pages should be optimized to the PPC keywords, if not, then your Pay Per Click ads will perform poorly

9. Referrals 

Referrals remain one of the best lead generation strategies for SaaS companies. Word-of-mouth referrals are highly persuasive and carry more weight with prospects than anything a company says about itself in any marketing asset.Yet, they should not be overlooked even by the most technologically advanced SaaS companies.Referrals should be systematically pursued with a formal referral campaign. An effective campaign engages customers, suppliers, friends, family, and business associates. Your program can also reward the referrer with a referral fee or commission.

The goals of your referral program should be to increase demand generation, improve lead quality and generate positive revenue growth.

An effective referral program must be planned with purpose to capture referrals that are relevant, targeted and consistent with your prospect’s assessment of value.

Your referral program should consist of the following components:

• A single point of contact to coordinate your referral activities.

• An online form to capture the referral.

• A tracking mechanism to identify and reward referrers.

• A team that prioritizes, requests and closes referrals.

• A plan to track the results of your referral program.

We highly recommend a single point of contact should be assigned to coordinate your referral activities. This individual can also serve as the primary contact for your referral program.

10. SEO

The SEO lead generation strategy for SaaS startups is affected by different SEO metrics. Search Engine Optimization in this context consists in targeting keywords that are likely to attract qualified prospects interested in the products and services of the startup.

SEO lead generation strategies for SaaS startups must ensure a website SEO score that is high enough to rank well in search engine results pages. SEO-friendly websites usually feature a lot of SEO metrics such as a high number of indexed pages, which is a significant SEO ranking factor.  SEO leads are the most valuable kind for B2B startups, but they have a limited lifespan. SEO leads work best when SEO campaigns target specific keywords and SEO strategies target certain pages. SEO experts usually measure SEO efficiency by SEO score and not SEO leads.

SEO experts recommend the following to SEO leads for SaaS startups:

1. SEO goals must be specific and measurable

Any SEO campaign needs a clearly defined goal that would serve as SEO score's benchmark. SEO campaigns might end up generating SEO leads but it is important to ascertain that the SEO tactics employed will deliver the user intent crucial for SEO success. SEO experts recommend SaaS startups to start with generating SEO leads for three months, monitor all SEO metrics (SEO score, lead nurturing, SEO-to-sales closed conversions), and then assess SEO success (or the need to implement further SEO tactics).

2. SEO campaigns must be built around SEO-friendly keywords

SEO campaigns should incorporate SEO-friendly keywords that are also high in SEO volume. SEO experts recommend SaaS startups to conduct SEO keyword research and prioritize SEO-friendly keywords that are most relevant to the business (or SEO-to-sales closed conversion) and SEO-volume (high SEO volume ensures SEO success).

3. SEO keywords must be associated with SEO-friendly landing pages

Keywords are SEO-friendly if they are closely tied to the campaign's SEO goals. SEO keywords targeted for SEO leads must be associated with SEO-friendly landing pages. SEO-friendly keywords can offer SEO leads when they are directly associated with SEO-friendly landing pages. SEO experts recommend SaaS startups to SEO-optimize landing pages, and provide SEO leads by giving relevant information whenever possible.

4. SEO campaigns must be built around SEO-friendly backlinks

SEO campaigns need SEO-friendly backlinks in order to be effective. SEO experts recommend SaaS startups to build SEO-friendly backlinks with SEO-friendly anchor texts. SEO experts also recommend SEO campaigns to be built around SEO metrics such as SEO score, lead nurturing, SEO-to-sales closed conversions. SEO experts monitor SEO metrics to assess SEO efficiency (or the need for SEO tactics).

11. Social Media Marketing

With B2B marketing campaigns now being powered by social media, your business needs to have a well thought-out lead generation strategy in place.

If you do not have one yet, and you wish to use social media as part of your overall marketing plan, here are some tips:

• Integrate your social media campaign with other lead generation activities. Lead generation is an ongoing process that continues throughout the entire customer life cycle. Social media can play an important role in nurturing potential customers along the customer life cycle.

• Use social media to bring prospects closer to your brand.

• Use social media to create active dialogue with prospects and customers.

• Use social media to monitor customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

• Use social media to gain insights into customer needs.

• Use social media to share product updates and other information that is relevant to potential customers.

• Use social media to create buzz about your brand.

• Use social media marketing as a way of building relationships with prospective customers and strengthen customer relationships.

• Use social media to build thought leadership that will help drive more leads into your company's sales funnel.

Social media campaigns must include the systematic sharing of content that supports lead generation, engaging followers in as close to real time as possible, and the careful evaluation of campaign KPIs.

Use social media to engage your potential customers. Social media is not just about you - it's also about engaging people in conversations which will attract prospects to you.

12. Webinars

If you're a young SaaS firm, webinars are essential to generating leads both from warm prospects and cold. A webinar is typically a web-based seminar that you host to showcase your product or service. You can either charge users for entry or offer it as a free webinar. A webinar is the ideal platform for walking prospects through the software's features, benefits, and overall value proposition. Webinars are popular among SaaS firms because webinars are the perfect platform for demonstrating software's abilities, and webinar registration is an easy way to capture leads.

Especially in this post-COVID environment, webinars have become a virtual necessity both for B2B firms trying to engage multiple users within a single company, and B2C firms trying to reach a broad swath of prospects.Webinars can provide strong offers and blend well with PPC and email marketing campaigns. If you're a webinar host, it's important to maximize each webinar. You should always have an offer that allows webinar registrants to either download the webinar recording or access your product through a free trial.

Webinars are successful when you know how to engage your webinar attendees before, during, and after the webinar.

Before your webinars, you should have an email marketing strategy to remind webinar registrants of the webinar. You can also market webinars on social media, especially if the webinar has attracted a large user base.

During webinars, webinar hosts can make webinars interactive by giving webinar attendees tasks to complete during the webinar.

After webinars, webinar hosts should collect webinar attendees' contact information in exchange for webinar recordings or webinar subscriptions.

There are many lead generation strategies you can implement to create a full pipeline of prospects. We’ve listed 12 of your best options above. Which of these lead generation strategies have you implemented in your startup to generate SaaS MQLs? Have any been successful for you so far, and if not why do you think that is?

Startup MQL has experts on hand who can help you decide which demand generation strategy is right for your startup at any stage in the game. Email Vas Edelen, Founder of StartUP MQL (Vas@StartUPMQL.com) or Schedule your call now with our team to discuss how we can transform the way you generate SaaS leads and SaaS MQLs.