You’ve just built a great software-as-a-service (SaaS) product. Congratulations. This is only just the beginning, though. The real work? Standing out in the crowded SaaS market, where there are thousands of equally solid products struggling for the same attention.
This market, according to Statista, is expected to hit $887.05 billion in revenue by 2030. That kind of expansion means tough competition. So, simply having a great product may not be good enough. You need to make sure the right people see it, trust it, and choose it over others.
How do you do that?
In this article, we’ll discuss practical and actionable steps you can take to make a success of your SaaS product.
Read on.
How is Marketing SaaS Different from Marketing Software?
If you’ve already created and sold software products, you may think you’ve already gotten it figured out. Not exactly. Marketing a software product is different from marketing a SaaS product in subtle ways.
First of all, regular software is something people install on their devices. Traditionally, a user buys and pays for it once, then runs it on their local system. Examples include Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, and QuickBooks.
With software-as-a-service (SaaS), there’s no need to install anything. SaaS products run on the cloud and are accessed over the internet, which means no matter where a user is, they can get work done as long as there’s an internet-connected device handy. Examples include Canva, Salesforce, and Zoom.
Most importantly, SaaS enjoys a more flexible pricing system. Users typically subscribe per month, annually, or per number of seats. Plus, everything about the maintenance and security of the SaaS platform is handled by the company.
What all these mean in essence is that, unlike software development companies, SaaS companies are not after just the first purchase. The focus is more on retention, upgrades, user behavior, and lifetime value.
This means that your marketing has to follow a different tangent. You’re not just acquiring customers, you’re nurturing users, building trust, and reducing churn. And that changes everything: your messaging, pricing, onboarding, and retention strategies.
6 Steps to Marketing a SaaS Product Effectively
Now, let’s look at how to make sure that your SaaS product does well in today’s highly competitive software market.
1. Identify Your Ideal Customer
The number one mistake many SaaS startups make is trying to market to everyone. When you do so, you fail to catch the people who actually matter. Not just that, you’re compelled to dilute your message, something that should be a key part of your value proposition.
So, what should you do? Simple. Be painfully specific about who your product is for. Don’t just say “Small Business Owners”. What industry? What size? What problem will they be solving with your solution?
This is exactly what Slack did to turn a failed game called Glitch into the successful collaboration tool it is today. After successfully reinventing Glitch’s internal communications tool into a better and more efficient one called Slack, the idea was to market it to everyone.
But it was clear early on that this approach would not work. Instead, the team targeted developers as their ideal customer. This target audience is always open to new tools as long as they improve workflow and efficiency. That laser focus is what helped Slack reach a valuation of $27.7 billion when it was bought by Salesforce in 2021.
To determine who your ideal customer is, build a few user personas, interview actual users in your target field, and listen to what they say about the problems they’re facing.
2. Craft a Compelling Value Proposition
Once you know who your SaaS product is for, ask yourself: why will they care? The answer to that question is your value proposition, and it must be compelling and jargon-free.
If someone asks you why they should pay for your product and you start reeling out a list of features, you’ve failed. People don’t want to buy an itemized list of promises; they buy solutions to their problems.
This means that your value proposition should preferably be a single, clear statement explaining the concrete benefit a customer gets from using your product. It has to be something your target audience will understand immediately. In fact, you should be able to clearly explain what it does and why it matters to someone outside your industry, in less than 30 seconds.
3. Determine Your Sales and Pricing Model
This is where you decide how users will access and pay for your product. As we’ve already established, a SaaS product is not like traditional software, where users typically pay a one-time fee and that’s the end of it.
With SaaS, the goal is recurring payments and a long-term relationship. That means picking one, or a mix, of pricing models that fit your product and market:
- Freemium: A permanent free tier (e.g., Slack).
- Subscription: Pay monthly or annually and get complete access to the SaaS platform.
- Free Trial: Access to the full product for a limited time (e.g., 14 days).
- Per User/Seat: Billing based on the number of users or team size.
- Usage-Based: Billing based on API calls, storage, or processed data.
- Modular Pricing: Billing based on region or pre-specified business rules.
Once you’ve gotten a model that works for you, you’re on your way to building customership and start earning. Just make sure you’re using the right payment partner.
According to PayPro Global, the right partner for you will mean automated recurring billing, churn reduction tools, maximum subscription revenue, increased authorization rates, and lost payments recovery. So, fewer headaches and more growth.
It’s important that you get your pricing model right from the get-go. Changing things later can be incredibly difficult.
4. Build a Scalable SaaS Marketing Infrastructure
You need the right tools and systems to start driving traffic and getting your product in front of people who matter. This is your SaaS marketing infrastructure, and it’s what drives and turns qualified leads into paying customers.
A proper infrastructure will include:
- A conversion-optimized website with messaging that resonates with your audience
- A robust CRM for tracking leads and nurturing users
- A powerful analytics tool like Google Analytics to uncover what’s working (and what’s not).
It should also contain your content marketing toolkit from where you manage your blogs, videos, webinars, and case studies. Everything should be properly SEO-optimized for visibility.
And don’t fail to leverage AI as much as possible, especially for personalization. According to McKinsey, companies are increasingly turning to AI to offer improved personalized experiences to their customers and users, with impressive results. You should, too.
5. Attract and Convert Users
Now that the major groundwork is done, it’s time to drive demand. There are many effective ways to do this, but content marketing remains king for SaaS, and there’s data to prove it.
According to a 2024 report from Content Marketing Institute, 84% of B2B marketers say content marketing helped them drive awareness for their products.
With this kind of number, it’s clear that content marketing should be a key part of your marketing campaign. Just make sure it’s multi-channel.
This means that your message and value proposition should be loud across multiple touchpoints: website, email, social media, paid ads, and so on. Every single campaign must lead back to one thing: people signing up to try your SaaS product.
6. Measure, Analyze, and Optimize Continuously
Marketing is never “done and forget”. This is even more true for SaaS products, where churn, usage, and upgrade behavior are ever-changing.
This is why you should never take your eyes away from your metrics. Website visits are fine, but your focus should be more on core KPIs that tell the health of your SaaS startup.
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): This is how much you can expect to receive from your active subscribers every month.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This is the total amount you spent to convince a new customer to buy from you.
- Lifetime Value (LTV): This is the total revenue you’ll earn from a customer as long as they remain one.
- Churn Rate: This is the percentage of customers who cancel each month.
The truth is that most of your marketing efforts will not be as successful as you want. It’s these numbers that will tell you what’s working and what’s not.
Final Thoughts
Marketing a SaaS product successfully, while difficult, is very possible. It’s about knowing what works and executing with consistency. We’ve covered the key steps to help you do just that.
Get them right, and in no time at all, you’ll have a product out there selling successfully.
