SaaS Marketing Insights: 8 Tips for SaaS Companies to Increase Marketing Qualified Leads

To help SaaS companies generate more marketing qualified leads, we’ve gathered eight SaaS marketing Insights from industry professionals, including Demand Generation Managers and Heads of Marketing. From creating gated content for your target audience to utilizing webinars as educational content, these leaders share their top strategies for lead generation.

SaaS Marketing Insight #1: Create Gated Content for Target Audience

Know your target audience’s biggest pain point. Create a piece of gated content (guide, template, how-to, case study) that could help them with that pain point, but not so helpful that they don’t need your services. 

The key to making sure it’s only going to resonate with your ideal customer persona is messaging. Use qualifying keywords that the decision maker thinks about to solve their problem and be successful.

At Occupier, we created a lease-abstraction template that is a great tool for those who need to abstract their leases, but it doesn’t compare to our lease abstraction services that feed into our software. When these leads downloaded the template, we knew they a) had commercial leases, and b) had a need that we could provide a better solution for than the template they downloaded.

Kelsey Morrison, Demand Generation Manager, Occupier

SaaS Marketing Insight #2: Offer Positions Through the Problem-Solving Lens

Always position your SaaS offering through the lens of the problem being solved, as seen through the eyes of your ideal customer. This approach will broaden your understanding of the target market and increase your chances of connecting with MQLs outside the scope of your current audience. Define the real-world problem being solved and let your target audience identify itself.

Fraser Marlow, Head of Marketing, Dagster Labs

SaaS Marketing Insight #3: Implement a Lead-Scoring System

Create a lead-scoring system. A lead-scoring system is a way of assigning points to leads based on their behavior and characteristics. This allows you to identify the leads that are most likely to convert into customers and focus your marketing efforts on them.

There are many different ways to create a lead-scoring system. One common approach is to assign points for things like:

• Visiting your website,
• Downloading your content,
• Attending your events,
• Engaging with your social media posts,
• Contacting your sales team.

The points that you assign to each activity will depend on how important you think it is. For example, you might assign more points for a lead who downloads your whitepaper than for a lead who visits your website.

Once you have created a lead-scoring system, you can use it to segment your leads and target them with the most relevant content and offers. This will help you to convert more leads into customers.

Brenton Thomas, CEO, Twibi

SaaS Marketing Insight #4: Execute a Robust Editorial Calendar

Build out a robust editorial calendar that has a good mix of different types of content (thought leadership, solutions, case studies, to name a few), and then execute that calendar. The buyer’s journey today is much different than it used to be. The days of endless outbound calls and phone calls are all but dead. Build systems that you would like to experience as a consumer. For me, that starts with a solid content strategy.

Rocky Pedden, President, RevenueZen

SaaS Marketing Insight #5: Leverage Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing offers a “lite” approach to account-based marketing. Working with SaaS affiliate marketers, such as bloggers, YouTubers, and industry specialists, to promote products on their platforms for a commission can be highly effective. Over 10 percent of Amazon’s sales are generated by affiliate marketers. 

The effectiveness of this strategy lies in rapidly acquiring leads and paying only for actual sales. It is a risk-free strategy that is strongly endorsed. Many higher education institutions use affiliate programs for online courses to reduce marketing expenses by encouraging current students to refer to new ones. This demonstrates the versatility and effectiveness of the strategy.

Daniel Carter, Head of Content, SEO-Audits.io

SaaS Marketing Insight #6: Collaborate with Complementary SaaS Companies

My SaaS Marketing Insight is by collaborating with complementary SaaS companies, a SaaS company can tap into each other’s customer bases and generate mutually beneficial leads. Co-marketing initiatives can include joint webinars, guest blog posts, or even joint product offerings. 

This approach allows for resource sharing, reaching a wider audience, and offering a unique value proposition. For example, a project management SaaS company can collaborate with a time tracking SaaS company to offer a bundle deal, attracting customers from both target markets.

Ben Lau, Founder, Featured SEO Company

SaaS Marketing Insight #7: Understand What Makes a Lead Qualified

In order to get more marketing-qualified leads, it’s important to understand what makes a lead “qualified.” This will help you identify your target audience and create strategies to reach them. If you’re a B2B company, here are some questions to ask: Is the lead looking for information about a specific solution or product? Does the lead have budget authority or need approval from someone else? Is the lead searching for information about your company or its competitors?

A great SaaS marketing Insight if you’re a B2C company, consider these questions. What stage is the lead at in the buyer’s journey? Is the lead researching a product or looking to make a purchase? Does the lead need product information or support? Answering these questions will help you build a targeted marketing strategy to reach “marketing-qualified” leads.

Matthew Ramirez, Co-Founder, USMLE Test Prep

SaaS Marketing Insight #8: Utilize Webinars as Educational Content

One effective strategy for SaaS companies looking to generate marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) is to utilize educational content as webinars.

Webinars provide an opportunity for SaaS companies to showcase their expertise, highlight the value of their software, and directly address the pain points of potential customers. By offering free knowledge, you can attract a targeted and qualified audience.

To promote your webinar effectively, consider implementing email campaigns, utilizing social media advertising channels, and establishing partnerships with industry influencers or complementary businesses. At the conclusion of the webinar, include a CTA encouraging attendees to sign up for a trial or request a product demonstration. Additionally, remember to collect attendees’ information for follow-up purposes.

In essence, by positioning your brand as an authority through webinars, you not only raise awareness but also build trust. This ultimately facilitates a smoother conversion journey.

Jake Maslow, Owner, Streetwise Journal