The LEAN way to accelerate qualified B2B SaaS lead acquisitions
“All Know The Way, But Few Actually Walk It”
- Buddha
No matter how great your product or service is, if you don't have leads, you don't have a business. In this blog post, we'll discuss some lead generation strategies that can help your SaaS startup grow. We'll cover topics such as creating a lead capture system, generating traffic to your website, and developing relationships with customers. So whether you're just starting out or you've been in business for a while, read on for helpful tips on generating leads.
The challenge that startups face is that they lack resources and experience when it comes to optimizing marketing strategies. Startups should learn from best practices to create effective B2B lead generation campaigns. The more effort an organization has invested into their strategy, the higher quality their leads will be.
Partnering with a demand generation agency that specializes in generating B2B SaaS leads by implementing demand generation and marketing automation will rapidly accelerate quality opportunities into the sales pipeline. StartUP MQL makes it easy to achieve your sales and marketing goals quickly, since we develop a demand generation framework directly into your marketing tech stack vs driving unknown opportunities into your sales pipeline. Essentially, your startup is generating their own opportunities, StartUP MQL merely executes and manages the demand/lead generation process.
The following are six B2B lead generation strategies that will help your startup succeed.
1. Use both organic and paid channels
Many startups think that in order to get the best results, they need to invest primarily in one channel. While using only paid marketing is helpful, it may not be sustainable for most B2B startups who are just getting started with their company.
Startups should find out which organic channels work best with their product or service offering. Then they can determine which ones deserve more attention than others when it comes to their budgeting strategy since each SEO campaign is different based on the product or service you’re promoting. When choosing between Google Adwords and PPC vs spending time building an organic search presence, consider what your first priority is.
Startups that have achieved great results on organic channels will include the SEO strategy on their list of services to offer for B2B Marketing Agency clients. However, even if you’re not already experiencing success with any organic channels, it's still important to implement an SEO strategy as quickly as possible because search traffic volume is growing exponentially each year. You can always look at paid marketing campaigns later on once your company experiences greater traction.
2. Invest in a predictable programmatic marketing automation platform
Most of today's SaaS startups are using Marketing Automation tools that help them collect data about their customers and prospects. This information helps them determine which marketing strategies will be most effective when it comes to generating leads. Marketing Automation services makes it possible for startups to track their campaigns against specific marketing metrics.
With Marketing Automation, you’ll be able to automate repetitive task, like external and internal email marketing, assign leads, automatically schedule task. You'll also be able to see how many visits your website receives each day and which channels are responsible for the most traffic volume. B2B marketers can also monitor what sources generate more conversions by using analytics tracking tools to observe visitor behavior.
While Marketing Automation is mainly used by organizations that already have a higher level of success in their overall company strategy, this shouldn't keep you from implementing one if this is your first time running an online campaign. The Marketing Automation software will help you differentiate between visitors who are just "window shopping" on your website, potential customers based on different criteria, and people who are actively looking to purchase.
3. Create a buyer's journey strategy
After you've determined which organic or paid channels will most effectively promote your product or service offering, it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to target the relevant prospects within each channel. By creating a buyer's journey strategy that promotes awareness, interest, desire, you'll be able to increase conversions in an effective way with minimal effort.
What is a B2B SaaS Marketing Buyer's Journey?
The buyer’s journey consists of the multiple stages that a customer goes through when making a purchase decision. Each stage is associated with different needs and thus they require different channels in order to effectively promote your product or service offering. In other words, the more you understand about each buyer’s journey stage, the better able you will be to reach out to them at just the right time with just what they need.
How do I create a B2B SaaS Marketing Buyer's Journey Strategy?
Start by thinking about all of the relevant buyers' journeys from your perspective as an entrepreneur, founder, C-level executive, marketer, etc. The strategy your organization needs will depend on the product/services you're selling, the industry you are in, and who your company is trying to reach. After all, not every buyer's journey is the same.
For example...
- For a SaaS marketing platform like Marketo, awareness would be creating content that helps people understand what B2B marketers face every day. This could include how they prioritize their time or why they should invest in customer success.
Pro Tip: You can even go one step further by offering free trials of your software. Not only does this allow potential customers to test out your product before committing any additional resources but it also allows them to build rapport with your brand and see how helpful it is before they sign up.
- For a B2B SaaS company like MailChimp, the awareness stage comes from being active in relevant communities--for example, founder Ben Chestnut has been known to hang out on Quora as a means of building awareness about the brand. In his own words, “I try to be as helpful as I can on Quora and not promote the fact that we're MailChimp.
4. Use contextual messaging
Contextual messages are important because they work to provide prospects with information that is most relevant to them at the time of engagement. This strategy provides B2B sales and marketing teams with a more accurate snapshot of what your company can offer.
Contextualizing content is an effective way to avoid unwelcome surprises and increase interest in your business. For example, if a prospect has just read an article on the importance of client onboarding and is looking for a software solution that can help them do that, they may find it frustrating if they land on your website and see that you only offer CRM tools.
This important piece of information needs to be communicated within the first few seconds of their visit by using contextual messaging through pop-ups or side bars to let them know what else your company offers. Sales teams should take note as well: don’t try to close the deal quickly with someone who isn’t a good fit for your product or service offering.
5. Create search engine-optimized content
Startups that invest in relevant, high quality content tend to experience better success rates than those that focus on paid marketing channels alone. Search engines love relevant, original content, so this is an effective strategy for growing visibility within Google SERPs (search engine results pages). People search for things like "b2b web design" or "credit card processing for startups" based on different keywords associated with their problem or need. If your content is on point and relevant to the problem they're trying to solve, you'll improve your rankings among Google search results as well as Bing and Yahoo!
6. Build a comprehensive social media strategy
Social media channels give B2B marketers the opportunity to become more engaging with prospects who are actively searching for information about particular products or services similar to those offered by their business. Startups that choose not to establish a cohesive social media presence for fear of spending too much time managing their accounts can always hire an agency like StartUP MQL where our team will manage your social networks so you don’t have to worry about doing it yourself.
