SaaS Marketing 101 (3 Key Principles to Add to Your SaaS Marketing Strategy)

Summary

In this episode, TK from Unstoppable shares three critical principles for SaaS marketing to scale revenues effectively. He emphasizes the importance of direct response marketing for lead generation, content marketing as a means of education to out-teach competitors, and referral marketing to leverage satisfied customers for trust-building and faster growth. These strategies are designed to help SaaS founders accelerate business growth without getting overwhelmed in the vast field of marketing practices.

Takeaways

• 🚀 **Investing in Marketing**: For scaling SaaS revenues, investing in marketing is crucial, but it's important to focus on the essentials due to limited resources in early stages.
• 🎯 **Essentials of SaaS Marketing**: In the early stages of a SaaS business, focus on the essentials of marketing such as direct response, content marketing, and referral marketing.
• 📈 **Direct Response Marketing**: Direct response is key for SaaS marketing, involving strategies that lead to immediate actions like signing up for a mailing list.
• 🔗 **Importance of Lead Nurturing**: Leads need to be nurtured through multiple touches to drive demand and build momentum in marketing.
• 📚 **Educational Content Marketing**: Use content marketing as a tool for educating potential customers about the problem your product solves and how it can be beneficial.
• 🤝 **Referral Marketing Power**: Leverage happy customers to share educational content with their peers, which can significantly increase trust and accelerate the sales process.
• 📊 **Seven Touchpoints Rule**: To effectively convert prospects into customers, they often need to be exposed to your brand at least seven times.
• 💡 **Strategic Marketing Focus**: Concentrate on a few key marketing strategies rather than spreading efforts too thin across many tactics.
• 🌟 **Out-Teach the Competition**: Stand out by educating your market more effectively than your competitors, which can be a differentiating factor in a crowded space.
• 🔄 **Content and Direct Response Synergy**: Use educational content to drive leads and then nurture those leads with direct response strategies to increase conversions.

Q & A

What are the three key principles of SaaS marketing mentioned in the script?

The three key principles of SaaS marketing mentioned are: 1) Direct response marketing, which involves generating leads and nurturing them. 2) Content marketing, also referred to as education marketing, which is about out-teaching the competition. 3) Referral marketing, which leverages happy customers to share educational content with their peers.

Why is direct response marketing considered the most valuable aspect of SaaS marketing?

Direct response marketing is considered the most valuable because it involves getting people to sign up and become leads, which is crucial for driving demand and building momentum in marketing. It allows for multiple touches with potential customers, which is essential as they need to see a brand multiple times before taking action.

What is the significance of the 'seven touches' mentioned in the script?

The 'seven touches' refers to the statistic that a potential customer needs to see a brand at least seven times before they are likely to take action or consider a purchase. This highlights the importance of consistent and repeated engagement with potential leads.

How does content marketing, or education marketing, help SaaS businesses stand out in a competitive market?

Content marketing helps SaaS businesses stand out by providing educational content that teaches potential customers about the problems the business solves, industry trends, and success stories. This approach allows the business to rise above competitors by out-educating them and building trust with the audience.

What is the role of referral marketing in the SaaS marketing strategy discussed in the script?

Referral marketing plays a role by leveraging satisfied customers to share educational content with their peers, which can significantly increase trust and accelerate the customer acquisition process. It's a powerful way to gain new leads and customers because referrals from trusted sources are more influential.

Why is it important for early-stage SaaS companies to focus on a few key marketing strategies rather than trying to do everything?

Focusing on a few key marketing strategies is important for early-stage SaaS companies because resources are limited, and a concentrated effort on proven strategies can yield better results. It prevents the company from getting overwhelmed and spreading efforts too thin, which could lead to ineffective marketing.

What is the purpose of the mailing list in the context of direct response marketing?

The mailing list in direct response marketing serves to nurture leads by providing them with ongoing value and staying in touch. It allows for multiple touches with potential customers, which is essential for building relationships and eventually converting them into customers.

How does the speaker suggest using content to generate leads in SaaS marketing?

The speaker suggests using content to generate leads by creating educational content that provides value to the audience and then prompting them to sign up for a mailing list to receive more information. This approach not only educates potential customers but also captures their contact information for further nurturing.

What is the speaker's advice for SaaS founders who are new to marketing and feeling overwhelmed?

The speaker advises SaaS founders who are new to marketing and feeling overwhelmed to focus on the three key principles of SaaS marketing: direct response, content marketing, and referral marketing. By concentrating on these areas, founders can effectively invest in marketing without spreading themselves too thin.

What is the 'five point SaaS growth strategy guide' mentioned by the speaker, and how can viewers access it?

The 'five point SaaS growth strategy guide' is a free resource created by the speaker to help SaaS founders drive growth in their businesses. Viewers can access it by visiting getunstoppable.com/strategy and providing their email address.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Scaling SaaS Revenues with Essential Marketing Principles

The speaker emphasizes the importance of strategic marketing for SaaS businesses, especially at early stages where resources are limited. They highlight that SaaS marketing encompasses a wide range of activities, from brand marketing to community marketing. The speaker, drawing from their experience in scaling SaaS companies, introduces three key principles crucial for effective marketing in SaaS. They also express gratitude to the community for reaching significant milestones, such as a million views and 28,000 subscribers, and invite viewers to subscribe for actionable strategies to grow their SaaS businesses.

05:00

📈 The Power of Direct Response and Content Marketing in SaaS

The speaker outlines the first two principles of SaaS marketing: direct response and content marketing. Direct response marketing is described as a method for lead generation through various channels, emphasizing the importance of nurturing leads through repeated engagement. The speaker stresses the need for potential customers to encounter a brand multiple times before taking action. Content marketing, or education marketing, is the second principle, where the speaker advocates for providing valuable educational content to rise above the noise and out-teach competitors. This approach not only builds brand authority but also serves as a tool for lead generation, complementing direct response strategies.

10:03

🔗 Leveraging Referral Marketing for Accelerated Growth

The third principle introduced is referral marketing, which involves leveraging satisfied customers to share educational content with their networks, thereby accelerating trust-building and lead generation. The speaker argues that referrals from trusted peers can significantly speed up the customer acquisition process compared to direct brand outreach. They summarize the three principles as essential for early-stage SaaS marketing: direct response for lead nurturing, content marketing for education and lead generation, and referral marketing for leveraging customer networks. The speaker also promotes a free SaaS growth strategy guide and encourages viewers to engage with the content by liking and sharing the video.

Keywords

💡SaaS

SaaS stands for Software as a Service, a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is a key concept in the video as the entire discussion revolves around strategies to grow and scale a SaaS business. The video discusses various marketing techniques specifically tailored for SaaS companies.

💡Direct Response Marketing

Direct response marketing is a type of advertising where the goal is to elicit an immediate response from consumers. In the context of the video, it is emphasized as a crucial pillar of SaaS marketing. The speaker suggests using direct response marketing to generate leads and nurture them through mailing lists, which is a strategy to drive demand and build momentum.

💡Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a marketing tool used to attract potential customers by offering them something of value in exchange for their contact information. The video mentions setting up the right lead magnet as a key strategy in direct response marketing to attract potential customers to your mailing list.

💡Content Marketing

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience. The video refers to content marketing as 'education marketing' and suggests using it to out-teach the competition by providing educational content to potential customers.

💡Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is a type of marketing where satisfied customers encourage others to use a company's product or service. In the video, it is presented as the third principle for SaaS marketing. The speaker encourages leveraging happy customers to share educational content with their peers, which can significantly speed up the customer acquisition process.

💡Mailing List

A mailing list in the context of the video refers to a collection of contact information for individuals who have opted in to receive emails from a company. It is used as a tool in direct response marketing to nurture leads and keep them engaged with the brand over time.

💡Educational Content

Educational content refers to the informative material created to educate the audience about a particular subject, often related to the product or service being offered. In the video, the speaker stresses the importance of creating educational content to educate potential customers about the problem the SaaS product solves, market trends, and success stories.

💡Brand Marketing

Brand marketing is the process of creating a unique, recognizable identity for a brand. While the video does not focus on brand marketing as a primary strategy, it mentions it as a part of the broader marketing landscape, contrasting it with the more direct and response-driven strategies that are the focus of the video.

💡Demand Generation

Demand generation is the process of stimulating consumer interest in a product or service and creating a demand for it. The video discusses direct response marketing as a method for demand generation, emphasizing the importance of getting potential customers to take action by signing up for mailing lists or engaging with lead magnets.

💡Customer Marketing

Customer marketing involves marketing to existing customers to encourage repeat business and customer loyalty. Although not the main focus of the video, it is mentioned as one of the many areas of marketing within a SaaS company. The video suggests that as a SaaS business grows, it can invest in various marketing areas, including customer marketing.

💡Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is the use of software to automate marketing actions, such as email marketing, social media, and other website actions. While not explicitly mentioned in the video, it is implied in the discussion of nurturing leads through mailing lists, suggesting the use of marketing automation tools to manage and scale these efforts.

Highlights

Investing in marketing is crucial for scaling SaaS revenues, but it's important to focus on the essentials due to limited resources in early stages.

SaaS marketing encompasses a broad range of practices including brand marketing, content marketing, demand generation, and more.

At larger scale companies, hundreds of people may be involved in various marketing roles, but early-stage companies must prioritize.

Three key principles for SaaS marketing are introduced to help SaaS businesses accelerate growth effectively.

Direct response marketing is emphasized as the most valuable aspect of SaaS marketing, even after 15 years.

The concept of a lead magnet is introduced as a means to capture leads and nurture them through mailing lists.

The importance of brand visibility and the need for potential customers to see your brand at least seven times before taking action.

Content marketing is redefined as education marketing, focusing on teaching and differentiating from competitors.

The strategy of using educational content to drive leads and then nurturing those leads is explained.

Referral marketing is introduced as a powerful yet underutilized principle in SaaS marketing.

Happy customers can be mobilized to share educational content, thereby accelerating trust and lead generation.

A summary of the three principles is provided: direct response for lead generation, educational content to out-teach competition, and referral marketing for leveraging customer networks.

A free five-point SaaS growth strategy guide is offered to help founders drive growth in their businesses.

The importance of focusing on key essential components in SaaS marketing to avoid being overwhelmed is reiterated.

The host, TK, shares his personal experience and the importance of picking the right marketing essentials as a founder.

The significance of a well-thought-out strategy in life and business for achieving unstoppable growth is emphasized.

Transcripts

- If you're wanting to generate more pipeline,

if you're looking to scale revenues for your SaaS business,

chances are you're now getting really serious

about investing in marketing.

Now here's the thing with SaaS marketing.

SaaS marketing and marketing in general

is a very, very broad body of knowledge

and broad body of practice.

There's brand marketing, content marketing,

demand generation, community marketing,

customer marketing, and more.

And when you are at a large scale company,

you can have hundreds of people

actually doing all this work.

But if you're in the early stages,

then you have to be very, very thoughtful

about what are the essentials

that you really invest in, because you cannot do it all.

You have to make certain bets.

Based on all of my experience in being in SaaS,

and actually scaling SaaS companies,

and being in the MarTech category,

in this episode I'm gonna walk you through

the three principles you absolutely need to know

to pick the absolute most important

aspects of SaaS marketing,

so that you can accelerate the growth of your SaaS business.

Intro.

(upbeat music)

What's up everybody?

Welcome to Unstoppable.

I'm TK, and on this channel I help SaaS founders

like you grow your SaaS businesses faster

with an unstoppable strategy.

Now, if you are new to this channel, welcome.

I drop an episode every single Sunday

with actionable strategies and tactics

on how to actually accelerate

the growth of your SaaS business.

If you haven't already, be sure to hit the subscribe button

and that bell icon, that way you'll get notified

every single time I drop an episode with the TK energy.

If you are already part of this community,

my people, welcome back.

I really wanna thank you,

we just hit a million views on this channel.

We just hit 28,000 subscribers.

Seriously, from the bottom of my heart

and from my entire team, thank you for being with us

and thank you for giving us the privilege

to support you and to serve you in this way.

It's been an incredible journey

and we have so much more planned for you.

Now, back to business.

I remember when I was SVP of strategy at Marketo,

they had just acquired my company ToutApp,

and Marketo is a marketing automation company,

and so obviously we took marketing very seriously.

I remember seeing the overall org chart

for the marketing team alone,

and it was nearly a hundred people,

and there were about 450 million ARR,

so rightfully so, but it was huge.

And I was like, oh my God,

there's so many people doing marketing.

And it was eye-opening for me because I was like, wow,

there's people that are going so deep

into product marketing, into pricing,

into SEO, into demand generation,

customer marketing, and the list went on.

I contrasted that to ToutApp

when we were building out our mini brand,

when we were driving to scale revenues,

we were a small crack team of bad asses running marketing.

And we were actually doing so much above our weight grade.

It made me realize just how important it is

for founders to pick the right essentials of marketing

instead of getting overwhelmed on trying to do everything

and being neither here nor there.

So in this episode, I'm gonna walk you

through the three key pillars of SaaS marketing,

the three principles you absolutely need to know,

so that when you're in the early stages

and you're starting to invest in marketing,

you don't get overwhelmed

and you prioritize the right aspects of marketing

to drive growth, so that you can scale,

so that you can raise that next round

or get to profitability,

and so that you earn the right to one day

have a hundred person marketing team

doing all of it perfectly.

So if you're excited to dig in,

go ahead and smash a like button for the YouTube algorithm.

It really likes it when you do that.

Let's go to principle number one.

So principle number one,

the most important aspect of marketing

that applies to SaaS today,

no matter what anyone else tells you,

this is the most valuable thing

that has worked for me for nearly 15 years,

continues to be the workhorse is direct response.

And a lot of people don't quite understand

what direct response is or think it's old school,

but direct response marketing is essentially

where you are signing people up and they're becoming leads.

They're going into a mailing list.

So whether it's through ads, or you're posting on LinkedIn

or on Twitter, you're providing value,

and then you're saying,

hey, by the way,

if you want more, sign up for our mailing list,

or sign up for this lead magnet.

This is by far the best way to actually drive demand

and actually build momentum in your marketing,

and actually focusing on this,

getting the right lead magnet in place,

building out that mailing list is super, super important.

And the reason for this is there's a stat

where someone has to look at your brand

at least seven times for them to actually take action

and think about buying.

If you are just posting and you're doing brand marketing

or maybe you're doing a little bit of advertising

and you're saying, come join the trial,

unless they see it seven times,

unless they hear from you at least seven times

from different angles, it's never gonna happen,

which is why getting direct response,

where people actually take a response

on whatever they're seeing in terms of your marketing

getting on your mailing list

so that you're actually nurturing them,

and you're getting back to them

at least seven times and providing value,

that is the best way to actually do marketing in SaaS today.

And so that's principle number one.

And the power in this

is whether you are product led or sales led,

it doesn't matter, when you are nurturing

the people that become leads, you can either direct them

into the product and provide value,

or you can direct them into sales and provide value.

Either way, it's super valuable

in actually getting that attention and nurturing them,

getting those seven touches

and getting people to pay attention

in a very, very crowded market.

And so direct response still continues to be the best way.

And I've seen a lot of people make mistake

where they just go into brand like, oh,

let me just post and give a lot of value.

Yes, it will give you a lot of value,

but you will not be able to get to those seven touches.

So direct response coupled with getting your brand out there

is super powerful, so you wanna make sure you stay grounded

in direct response marketing.

So that's pillar number one.

Pillar number two is what I call content marketing.

Well, everyone calls it content marketing,

but I really think of it as education marketing.

And I believe that, especially in the early stages,

there's gonna be competitors, it's a noisy world out there.

And so you are likely, no matter how much you've raised

or how much capital you have,

you are likely not going to be able

to outspend the competition,

whether it's a competing product or just mind share,

your buyers are being sold to by multiple companies

from multiple problems.

So you will not be able to outspend them,

that is a default truth in being in an early stage.

And so I believe that

if you want to compete and get their mind share,

you need to rise above with a differentiating message,

you need to out teach the competition.

And so I'm a big believer

in putting educational content out there,

whether it's teaching them about the problem you're solving,

the macro trends that are there,

the impending doom that's happening,

like how others are actually

using your product to get success,

and using that as a form of education marketing,

all of these can become pieces of content

where you educate your buyers.

And posting that on LinkedIn, posting that on Twitter,

posting that into communities, building your own community

where you can post that and share that,

starting a YouTube channel even,

all of that is a form of education marketing

and content marketing.

And the best piece of this is when you start doing

this in the right way,

instead of just saying, here's much educational content,

you can actually say,

oh, by the way,

if you want more, then sign up for our mailing list,

and then we'll send you more info.

And so this actually builds on top of each other

where you can actually use the content

and the education you are providing

to actually drive them to generate leads,

which you can then nurture them on,

and eventually get it into your product

or into your sales team,

whichever makes sense for your motion

in the market that you're serving.

So that's principle number two.

There's so many different ways to get growth,

so many different ways to do marketing,

and when you have the a hundred person team,

you will likely do all of them, 'cause all of them matter,

but if you're starting out and you starting to say, cool,

let's invest in marketing, let's pick the right pieces,

first one is direct response,

generate the leads and nurture them,

get to those seven touches.

Second one is put content out there

and use the content to generate leads,

and they can build off of each other and compound.

Now I do have a third one, but before I go to number three,

let me just pause here for a second.

Are you starting to see the power in this?

Are you starting to see the power in actually focusing

on these key essential components in your SaaS marketing

so that you don't get overwhelmed

and you don't end up being neither here nor there

by splitting your attention on 500 things

that may not yield results, but focusing on the tried

and true pieces to really punch above your weight grade?

If you start to see the power in this,

can I just get a yes in the comments below?

Also, smash our like button for the YouTube algorithm,

it really likes it when you do that, it's awesome.

Also, if you are in the stages of figuring out

how to drive growth for your SaaS business,

I have a completely free,

five point SaaS growth strategy guide.

You don't have to go anywhere right now,

I'll link to it below, and I'll tell you more about it

at the end of this episode.

But let's go to principle number three.

Principle number three, this is one of the things

where I wish more people used this more often.

So if you're doing content and you're putting it out there,

and then you're doing direct response

where you're generating those leads,

and then you're nurturing them and getting them into sales,

or your product, or more education

and value, right,

eventually they are going to buy.

That's what we're looking to do,

and so the content drives the leads,

the leads drives the revenues.

And this is a piece where people

don't take advantage of this,

but when you actually get intentional about it,

it's even in the early stages and in the late stages,

it is incredibly powerful.

And principle number three is referral marketing.

Referral marketing is basically taking

all your happy customers and programmatically going to them

and saying, hey,

if you like our product, if you like what we're doing,

can you please take this educational content

and share it with someone that's a peer of yours

or someone that would like our product as well?

Because the thing is, while you're going out there

and putting out your content under your brand

or under your own name,

while you're trying to generate leads,

there's a certain amount of trust that's missing.

So you're gonna have to get those seven touches,

you're gonna have to do a lot of iterations

to really get people to take notice.

But if a person already using your product

takes your educational content

and shares it with a peer in the industry,

someone that already trusts them and say, hey,

you gotta check this out, this is really powerful,

these guys are really thinking

about this problem differently.

Then all of a sudden this is going to move 10 times faster.

And so this referral marketing piece will drive more traffic

to your content, that will drive more leads,

and these buyers will buy more.

And that's the third piece

that I don't see enough companies using,

but when they do, it's so, so powerful.

So to summarize, if you're in the early stages,

you're investing in marketing, it's overwhelming,

you don't have a 100 person team,

nor should you at the early stages,

you just can't justify that spend,

even if you have the money.

Well, you should focus on,

principle number one is direct response,

generate those leads, nurture them.

Number two is put out educational content,

out teach the competition.

And number three, as you are starting to generate customers,

take their success stories, mobilize them,

give them the educational content,

and get them to share it on your behalf

so that they can educate the market,

build that trust faster for you,

and get you more leads and more customers.

And you follow these three things in the early stages,

what I did at ToutApp,

this is what so many companies that I advise and coach do,

it is incredible in mobilizing your growth.

And now, you know exactly the three pieces to focus on.

What you may not know is how all these pieces come together

or what are the other ways you can drive growth

for your SaaS business.

This is why I credit

my five point SaaS growth strategy guide

that's completely free.

Just go to getunstoppable.com/strategy.

Getunstoppable.com/strategy, you go there,

just fill out your email,

and boom you'll get access to it right away.

It is an incredibly powerful guide

and highlights the five key ways you can drive growth

for your SaaS business to accelerate your path

to next stage of growth.

Also, if you got value from this video,

please smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.

It really likes it when you do that.

If you have a fellow founder, a fellow team member,

a practitioner,

like if you're part of a SaaS founder community,

if they would get value, please share this video with them.

This is why we create these videos

and this is why we wanna serve the community,

so like I can just share in the journey of the things

that I learned, and the mistakes I made,

and the things I broke through,

so that you don't have the same issues, is why we do it.

And also, I drop an episode like this every single Sunday.

So be sure to hit the subscribe button and that bell icon,

that way you'll get notified every single time

I drop an episode.

And also don't forget, go to getunstoppable.com/strategy

for that five point guide.

Will go much more into detail on exactly

how to drive growth for your SaaS business.

And as a meta item, if you're still here,

right, you're probably thinking,

wow, this guy actually practices what he preaches.

You're right, I am all about out teaching

anyone else in the market,

I'm all about sharing everything that I've learned.

So I do the content, I run this channel,

and at the end of the videos, I say,

hey, if you want more completely free,

go get my five point guide, which where you become a lead

and we'll give you even more educational content,

we have over 200 episodes,

so we'll share some of those with you,

we'll link to the most important ones,

we'll keep giving you value.

And then down the line, if you wanna work together,

then you'll be able to do that.

And of course, all of our clients that we work with,

we ask them like, hey,

do you have other founders

that will get value from the program?

And they refer us all the time.

So I practice what I preach.

So maybe you're seeing the meta,

you stayed all the way to the end,

so I thought I'd include that in there.

Anyway, go and grab a copy of that guide.

Smash our light button, hit that subscribe button.

And lastly, remember,

everyone needs a strategy for their life and their business.

When you are with us, yours,

it's gonna be unstoppable.

I'm TK and I'll see you in the next episode.

(gentle instrumental music)