If you read the Breadcrumbs blog regularly, you’ve probably noticed a common thread in our post topics—B2B SaaS marketing.
This isn’t a coincidence or the result of an alignment of stars—it’s very intentional.
And the reason behind this intentionality is simple: we believe our customers can unlock a wider reach if they strategically market their B2B SaaS business.
So, keeping true to that philosophy here’s a comprehensive guide where we discuss simple ways to market your B2B business to reach new prospects.
Let’s begin!
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #1: Hone in on your ideal customer profile
Sometimes less is more. And in this case, better is wider.
Why? When it comes to marketing your B2B SaaS business, reaching a wider audience is important, but it’s also crucial to reach the right one. Enter your ideal customer profile (ICP).
Ebook
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Worksheet
Learn how to create an Ideal Customer Profile and build a successful sales strategy with this Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Worksheet.
Targeting the wrong ICP can cost you millions of dollars per year. And while identifying your ideal customers is certainly important, it’s equally crucial to understand when they are ready to purchase.
In other words, instead of casting a wide net and hoping to catch a few good leads, you should target your marketing efforts to the people likely to turn into paying customers. The key is understanding who your best leads are, where they are, and what actions reveal their intent.
That sounds like a time-consuming, expensive process, right? Well, it’s easier than you might think.
In fact, free tools like Breadcrumbs Reveal analyze your leads and customers to help solidify an ICP while simultaneously identifying their behavior and intent patterns.
For example, you may find that many of your best leads are located in a specific geographic region or industry, allowing you time to adjust your marketing strategy to target more leads in that area or industry.
Plus, you can identify patterns in the actions that your best leads are taking, such as downloading whitepapers or attending webinars right before they make the final purchasing decision.
By combining your ICP with lead analysis tools like Breadcrumbs Reveal, you can reach a wider audience while still focusing your efforts on the right people.
The measure twice, cut once approach improves your chances of success and helps you make the most of your marketing budget by investing in the channels and strategies to target the highest quality leads.
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #2: Invest in content marketing
If there’s one strategy that works well for all types of businesses, it’s content marketing. And the reason is:
- It allows you to educate your audience.
- It helps convert prospects.
- It gets you noticed on the search engine results page (SERP).
- It drives growth for other marketing channels.
- You can gain trust and authority through the content you build.
Now, all that’s fine and dandy. But the question that remains is, how do you create high-quality content? Well, here are a few strategies we recommend:
- Hire a diverse pool of writers, editors, SEO strategists, and content marketers.
- Ensure you write about topics that your audience wants to read about (e.g., instead of talking about what your product does, talk about how your product can help your audience).
- On that note, don’t overpromote your brand.
- Use tools to improve your content marketing efforts—Grammarly, Writer, Clearscope, text-to-speech tools like Lovo, Ahrefs, etc.
- Create content that adds value to the lives of your users, prospects, and peers.
- Don’t treat any marketing channel as the be-all-end-all—feel free to explore what works and doesn’t on all channels.
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #3: Use social proof to your advantage
Social proof is an influential tool, mainly because instead of you advocating for yourself, it’s your customers and peers advocating for you—and that’s powerful stuff.
To put this “influence” into numbers, 99.9% of customers check user reviews before shopping with a business. And more than 49% of customers treat online reviews as personal recommendations from family members or friends.
You can use social proof to your advantage in several ways. For example, you can use testimonials in your proposals, website pages, and marketing channels to build trust.
Case in point: This ELD product page by Samsara is one good example of integrating reviews into your website to showcase your business strengths.
Alternatively, you can create case studies and reports to show what results your efforts led to. To get inspiration on creating terrific case studies, read our blog on 13 brilliant case study examples.
However, don’t limit yourself to only testimonials or case studies. You can also use ratings, reviews, celebrity endorsements, subject matter expert recommendations, and verification tags as social proof.
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #4: Think outside the box
Often, when marketing a business, many professionals target the direct consumer. But the direct consumer is not necessarily the one making the buying decisions.
In such situations, it’s best to think a little outside of the box to understand who makes the final purchase decisions and what might make them buy (positive reviews, discounts, excellent product quality, etc.).
While the example given may correlate to B2C, also B2B SaaS businesses can explore newer markets and unprecedented sales while also keeping the same thinking.
An example that might benefit B2B SaaS marketing teams is that many pet insurance companies only target pet owners.
While it may be true that pet owners buy pet insurance, another set of consumers you might benefit from targeting are HR professionals. In today’s landscape, it’s become increasingly common for HR professionals to provide employee benefits that include pet insurance.
Like the above, you can find out what would make HR professionals buy your services (affordable plans, complementary discounts on other products, quick resolution, better coverage, etc.)
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #5: Get personal
Personalization is a marketing tactic all businesses can use to build brand trust and customer loyalty.
Now, how to do it right? There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. But here are a few ideas you can explore:
- Keep customer data on hand during customer service and sales calls.
- Target customers based on their pain points (you can do this by creating customer personas).
- Send them curated lists.
- Address them by their names.
- Show them how your product can help them (for example, This College Life uses comparative tables to help customers build schedules that work for them).
- Share valuable content with them (you can use an AI voice generator for creating personalized content)
- Show them they matter.
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #6: Keep content native to the platform
Different platforms may have the same audiences, but their tonality still differs. For example, LinkedIn requires professional dialog, but on Twitter, users can share memes.
Similarly, Instagram can be used for humorous content, and website blogs can be used to educate audiences.
Customers go to different channels to get different kinds of content, and you should be able to deliver content native to the platform to engage with them.
So, here are a few solutions you can use to create engaging content:
- SparkToro (to discover audience intent).
- Picsart (to use tools like AI image generator, online background remover, photo effects, etc.).
- Giphy (has a collection of humorous GIFs).
- Img Flip’s meme generator (create memes instantly).
- SEMRush SEO content template (the title speaks for itself).
- Zoom Webinars (to record videos in real-time).
- Custom QR code generator (easily generate a free QR code and track performance)
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #7: Use tried and tested tactics
What’s the one thing that never fails to impress any prospect and is almost guaranteed to make them click again?
Discount coupons. In fact, according to a study, 89% of users would try out a newer brand if offered discount coupons.
But discounts aren’t the only tactic that works well with users.
Customers also love free shipping—they love it so much that when Amazon decided to increase its free shipping threshold in 2016, they got Amazon to reverse the decision.
They love it so much that free delivery matters more to them than other factors like positive customer reviews, website load time, discount codes, recommendations from friends, etc.
In fact, free shipping matters 3x more to customers than discount coupons.
So, it’d be our professional recommendation that you partner with a courier service to offer the option of free shipping to them.
Aside from discount coupons and free shipping, we recommend you dig into your data, see what marketing tactics have worked best for your brand, and begin implementing them.
You can also A/B test marketing strategies to see what works and what doesn’t.
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #8: Build trust
In today’s day and age, customers prefer places they shop from to have values and morals (this is something that Ben and Jerry’s does extremely well).
So, if you wish to build the trust and loyalty of your clients, let them know which morals you believe in—share your values on your social handles, speak about issues that matter to you, and be vocal about your practices.
Additionally, be authentic in your tone. While there may be many competitors, there’s only one you—and you can remain true to yourself by having an authentic tone.
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS #9: Partner with other businesses
While playing on your strengths is great, you might see better results if you partner with a company with complementary skills to present a better solution for your clients.
This could mean partnering with someone with the same audience as you (think Starbucks and Shoptify or Apple and Mastercard).
Or it can also mean you can partner with professionals to improve your marketing efforts. For example, if you have a local business in Atlanta, you can partner with SEO agencies in Atlanta to improve your Google SEO rankings or an influencer to promote your product.
Partnering with other businesses helps market your own B2B business because it allows you to leverage each other’s customer base and resources to reach new audiences.
Plus, having strategic partnerships can increase credibility and authority within your industry, leading to greater trust from potential customers. It’s a win-win opportunity.
Reach wider audiences B2B SaaS: Wrapping Up
If there’s one thought we’d like to leave you with is that B2B SaaS marketing doesn’t need to be boring. With the right strategies in place, you can make it engaging and fun. From creating content that resonates with your target audience to launching campaigns that get people talking, B2B SaaS marketing can be just as effective as any other type of marketing.
At the end of the day, you’re marketing to people behind a screen, and you need to connect with them, make them laugh, inspire them, or incite emotions in them to separate yourself from the rest and to make them convert.
You can refer to our social media or website pages to get inspiration or check out other B2B SaaS solutions like Triple Whale and AirHQ.
Leveraging the right strategies and tools is crucial for B2B SaaS businesses looking to reach wider audiences and achieve consistent growth. By using methods like investing in content marketing, tapping into the power of social channels, and personalization, you can successfully engage with a broader market while maintaining a deep connection with your ideal customer profile.
Breadcrumbs Reveal is the perfect solution to help you define your ICP effectively and enable your company to scale faster. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to boost your revenue and make your B2B SaaS brand truly stand out.
Sign up to Breadcrumbs for free and try Breadcrumbs Reveal today to experience firsthand how it can revolutionize your marketing strategy, attract a wider audience, and excel in the competitive SaaS landscape.