How Can A Marketing Agency For SaaS Help You?
While an in-house marketing team is an ideal option for many businesses, SaaS startups don’t have such a luxury at their disposal. You probably need expert SaaS marketing services that are affordable, scalable, and highly knowledgeable. For companies in their early stages, a marketing agency for SaaS can use specialized strategies and tactics to help you grow significantly while not working full-time for you. Plus, a B2B SaaS marketing agency with a long track record in the startup business world knows your struggles—they know how hard it is to generate new leads, nurture them in the long sales cycle, and improve retention. Outsourcing your marketing needs delivers quick results, too. Why? Imagine how much time you would spend hiring and onboarding employees and offering them comprehensive training.
Lastly, external collaborators can scale your marketing efforts as you’re growing. They don’t overcharge you for services you don’t need but upgrade your package only when you’re ready to climb the ladder. Let’s see how you can find a trustworthy partner that will take your growth to the next level.
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First, Know Your Growth Stage
Depending on the stage you are in, you have to choose a top marketing agency that suits your needs. If you are in the early stages, you’re likely focused on finding your market fit and setting demand generation campaigns to acquire new customers. A top marketing agency may start by creating a market intelligence report, where they’ll identify your target buyers, target market, and key competitors. Then, they will likely try out various channels to see which one works best.
However, if you are a business scaling your efforts to accelerate growth, you probably need an agency that can enforce growth hacking strategies. Chances are that you’ve found your market and product fit and are ready to level up your marketing efforts. Your ideal growth marketing agency is one that understands exactly what you need to do to evolve. They should also show you proof that they are experts in conversion improvement with a low customer acquisition cost (CAC). This last part is crucial if you want to gain new clients without spending a fortune.
Signs You Are Ready To Hire A Marketing Agency For SaaS
Let’s say you’ve already enforced a customer acquisition strategy and gained a certain number of clients. However, your revenue is stagnant; it’s not showing any signs of increase. This is your first sign that you should partner up with a marketing agency for SaaS. Not to mention, you probably have a small team of employees who have been working relentlessly for ages, but they are probably overwhelmed and don’t have the ability or knowledge to experiment with additional growth channels. A software marketing agency will help you craft a growth strategy for SaaS and excel at nurturing clients during the long sales cycle. They can also help you with retention and show you how to create trusting relationships.
On top of that, are you noticing that you are…eating your competitors’ dust? If they’re accelerating while you’re staying behind, external experts can guide you through the next stage. You will not only reach the same level as your competitors but possibly surpass it. Lastly, how is your CAC? If you are spending too much with very little in return, you must trust your marketing efforts to an experienced B2B content marketing agency. They will execute your plan quickly, as they have multiple professionals working in different areas.
5 Tips On How To Find Your Perfect Match
1. Check Their Industry Knowledge
Not all SaaS marketing agencies have expertise in every industry and niche. For example, eLearning Industry focuses on businesses selling HR software and eLearning courses. Other sales and marketing agencies focus on different industries. You may find potential suitors who claim to be experts in all fields, but don’t take their word for granted. Check their past clientele to see their niches. Also, some marketing agencies are not SaaS experts. Just because they can help an eCommerce website increase purchases doesn’t mean that they can help you acquire new customers. A simple -50% offer, although fit for a retail store, won’t work for complicated software.
To check their industry knowledge, ask them about their startup marketing tactics and how they implement them to drive success. For instance, what do their inbound marketing, product-led growth (PLG), and customer retention strategies look like? Also, how do they approach each stage of the funnel to move clients to the next one? They must show solid proof that they can reduce churn and grow your annual recurring revenue (ARR).
2. Take A Look At Their Portfolio
In our day and age, anyone can call themselves a B2B SaaS marketing agency without actual expertise in the industry. There is only one way of finding out whether they are being truthful or not. Ask them to show you their portfolio. It should include a list of past and present clients, their industries, and projects they performed for them. But don’t limit yourself to this information. A business logo and a task description aren’t proof that they know what they are doing. It’s best to request comprehensive case studies. If they are serious about their work, they’ll probably have loads of them to share with you. In a case study, you will read about a client’s initial troubles and how the SaaS growth agency helped them reach their goals. Additionally, they must include what B2B lead generation strategies they used, what tactics they implemented, and how they overcame hurdles.
At the end of the document, the clients should express their feelings about the agency and why they think it is a good option for SaaS businesses. Not finding the customer’s perspective at the end is not a great sign, as agencies usually ask clients for their input before creating a case study.
3. See What Services They Offer
Let’s ask a different question first. What kind of services do you need? Most SaaS marketing firms usually focus on a few different areas. It’s rather difficult to find an agency that can do everything marketing-related efficiently, no matter how much they try to convince you. Once you know what you need, start checking what potential suitors offer. For example, you may need link building and SEO to maximize brand awareness organically. eLearning Industry can help you stand out with our link building services for eLearning and HR companies. Or you may be at a point where you want to invest in PPC advertising on various platforms, including niche directories. Once again, you would have to identify SaaS PPC agencies that feature such directories and have the right audience.
It’s best to choose an agency that doesn’t only have the services you need but more. Why? You never know what your needs will be in a year. It’s good to have a partner that can support additional efforts, including email marketing placements, press releases, banner ads, eBooks, and much more. Content marketing should always be at the top of your priorities.
4. Where Are They Located?
Some companies prefer working with local, full-service digital agencies so they can meet up regularly in the same office and craft their SaaS lead generation techniques. Others don’t mind if their partner is in another city or country in the same or similar time zone. And there are those who don’t care if their agency is located on the other side of the world. It’s true that the more you expand your research, the bigger the talent pool for content marketing agencies gets. “Remote” is a word we are all very familiar with after COVID-19. So, don’t be afraid to shortlist agencies located far away. Even if there is a major time difference, meetings can still happen regularly, and tasks can be handled efficiently. Keep in mind that even if you are located in the same city, you may not meet face-to-face all the time.
5. How Much Do They Charge?
Depending on the services you want, a marketing agency for SaaS may charge you differently than other clients. For example, if you want a full-service marketing firm, you will probably have to pay more than if you only required social media and email marketing. So, once you set a budget or have a rough idea, start booking meetings with the agencies that have stood out to you. Keep in mind that the best digital marketing agencies usually have budget requirements and may only accept clients who have a significant yearly marketing budget. If you are not in this bracket, look for smaller, niche agencies. If interested, you can book a meeting with eLearning Industry’s expert and get started on your growth journey.
Tips That Will Make Collaboration With A Marketing Agency For SaaS Successful
1. Regular Communication
The first step to successful business partnerships is clear and regular communication. You should set your requirements from the beginning, letting your marketing service agency know how often you want to talk and receive updates. You may ask for regular updates via email or messages for less important matters. Also, you need to arrange weekly or biweekly meetings via Zoom or some other web conferencing tool and decide which project management tool you’ll be using. Asana is a platform a large number of marketing agencies for SaaS companies utilize to organize tasks and projects.
2. Clear Metrics And KPIs
When you enter the onboarding phase of your collaboration, there are a lot of things you should talk about. Apart from reviewing various content marketing strategy examples to create your own, you should also talk about metrics and KPIs. How will you track success and measure content marketing performance? Your main goals should be to reduce CAC, increase monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and ARR, and improve lifetime value (LTV). Unless you decide on these metrics from the beginning, you won’t be able to track your performance accurately and risk reaching inconclusive results.
3. Freedom And Trust
It’s understandable if you want to be involved every step of the way and receive regular updates regarding the new lead generation techniques and their results. However, you should leave space for the SaaS marketing organization to perform its duties without micromanaging its every move. Creativity needs space to breathe, and when you keep intervening, you not only stifle it but also slow down every process. If your software marketing agency has to run everything by you before executing, tasks will take longer to complete, and your marketing efforts will take longer to yield positive results. You may also reach disappointing results if you push your opinions over the marketing experts.
4. Reviewing Data
Once your marketing engine starts working, you should regularly set meetings to check performance data. Are your campaigns reaching their goals? What can you do to improve their performance? You are not there to solve these issues on your own but let your marketing agency for SaaS present you with new ideas and solutions. For example, if they are experts in search engine marketing intelligence, they may start implementing image-based instead of text-based product listing ads if the latter has been performing poorly. This also includes optimizing keywords and ad copy and trying out new channels. Lastly, as your business grows, your chosen agency must spot new expansion opportunities to accelerate business growth and beat the competition.
Top 6 Questions To Ask Before Making A Decision
1. How Do You Approach SaaS Marketing?
Many SaaS businesses enter the landscape every day, making SaaS B2B marketing more demanding. Everyone is competing for the same keywords, meaning ad space becomes pricey. So, ask your SaaS content marketing agency what their cure is. Can they craft engaging content that will keep generating leads and revenue for years to come? They must understand how your industry and the web work to find windows of opportunity in congested landscapes.
2. How Do You Measure Success?
Depending on your goals, your marketing agency for SaaS should provide you with a list of metrics and KPIs that will help them measure your performance. For example, if you want account-based marketing, they should present to you how they will nurture high-intent clients and convert them as quickly as possible. There is no one-size-fits-all, so they must understand what success means for your brand and craft a unique strategy according to your requirements.
3. Who Will Be Working For Us, And For How Many Hours?
When you partner up with digital marketing agencies in the USA, UK, or any part of the world, you must know which professionals will work on your case. Who will fill out a marketing plan template, and who will execute the strategy? Depending on what services you need, multiple people may work for your brand. The content marketing team will produce content, while the SEO specialists will do keyword research and optimization. You may even ask about the qualifications of these people so you are certain about their abilities.
4. What’s Your Content Strategy?
There are so many content marketing avenues you can take to increase brand awareness and generate leads. SaaS content marketing offers you the ability to use eBooks as lead magnets, publish blog posts, record podcasts, and organize webinars. Tech marketing agencies should be clear about which of these tactics they use. You must make sure you agree to them before signing the contract.
5. Which Marketing Channels Do You Use?
This question belongs to the general conversation about marketing services, but it makes things even more particular. Digital marketing sounds too broad. You must ask your agency which channels they utilize. For example, if you want to start appearing at events, conferences, and award shows, how will they get the word out? Are press releases something they do?
6. How Do You Check And Optimize Campaigns?
Whether you’re doing content marketing for B2B or paid ad campaigns on Google, optimization is a never-ending process. How does your marketing agency for SaaS check and optimize campaigns? Which metrics do they check, and what indicates that they need to make modifications? You should also ask them which platforms and tools they use. Google Analytics is usually one of the top options for most marketing agencies.
The Best Marketing Agencies For eLearning And HR SaaS
310 Creative
310 Creative is one of the biggest marketing agencies in the US, known for creating an excellent combination of outbound and inbound marketing. They especially focus on generating leads through LinkedIn. Nevertheless, they only work with mid-level and enterprise companies that are ready to invest a lot of money and scale significantly. They are talented at tackling the SaaS sales market strategically with a heavy focus on organic growth and conversion increase.
Skale
Skale is a SaaS growth agency focusing heavily on SEO and everything related to it. The team’s advanced SEO skills help startups with technical SEO, on-page SEO, content creation, conversion rate optimization (CRO), link acquisition, and ROI modeling. They create monthly reports with all the necessary data so you know how the company’s efforts are going. Their goal is to grow your revenue without spending your entire budget on marketing.
eLearning Industry
At eLearning Industry, we appeal to HR and eLearning companies that have created effective solutions for B2B businesses or individuals. Through SEO and link building, we elevate your digital footprint and generate leads organically. Our SaaS marketing approach also includes diverse content marketing tactics, including eBooks, webinars, articles, and podcasts. You can start with a simple SEO audit to check where you’re standing and let us optimize your position. Additionally, we offer PPC directory listing ads so your software appears higher than your competition. Email marketing is another powerful tool in our arsenal—you can choose either a featured placement or an exclusive email blast. In both cases, you are seen by our thousands of targeted customers in your niche.
Check out all of our solutions that can help your HR software and eLearning platform gain new clients.
NinjaPromo
This top marketing agency helps B2B, fintech, and crypto startups grow and find their audience. They offer various services, including social media marketing, SEO, influencer marketing, email marketing, video production, content creation, and brand positioning. They are ideal for mid-level companies and enterprises wanting to take things up a notch. With over 100 employees, you will have a lot of support from talented individuals working to grow your brand.
Key Takeaway
Are you at that point where you know it’s time to partner up with SaaS marketing experts and let them break your current ceiling? When you can see your employees feeling overwhelmed and your revenue being stagnant, you know your efforts are no longer enough to grow your startup. A marketing agency for SaaS can step in, create a comprehensive marketing strategy, and optimize your promotional campaigns until they start bringing in a steady income. But to find the best fit, you must make a list of qualified agencies that offer the services you need and have extensive knowledge of the SaaS landscape and your niche. Check their portfolio to understand how they work and what results they have achieved in the past. Also, make sure that they work with small businesses before moving forward with negotiations.
Before you sign the contract, ask them a few questions to get a better sense of what type of agency they are. Try to find SaaS agencies with knowledge in your niche, offering services you need. You might find the best agency with thousands of clients, but do they offer the services you require? Once you find your perfect partner, sign the contract, and are ready to start working on your SaaS sales strategy, set a few ground rules. Agree on how often you will be communicating and through which channels. Set relevant KPIs and ask them how they will be measuring and optimizing them. Lastly, simply trust them to perform their duties.
