10 examples of how SaaS companies adapted marketing to coronavirus disruption
4th May 2020
Take some inspiration away from how your fellow SaaS marketers are shaking up their marketing activity to maintain forward momentum…
In our previous blog, SaaS Marketing in the ‘new normal’, we talked about the activities that SaaS companies could undertake to modify their marketing to match the big hiccup caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here in this companion post, we give you some specific examples of the action real-world SaaS companies are taking to keep their marketing efforts ticking over by reviewing and refreshing their tactics, products and content.
1. Calendly
Calendaring app Calendly has capitalised on the trend for videoconferencing. Calendly is currently giving away its integrations with business video apps Zoom and GoToMeeting until June. Giving away premium features like this is a great example of Product Led Growth (PLG).
https://blog.calendly.com/meeting-integration-update/
2. Zoom
Q. What’s the opposite of numbers falling off of a cliff?
A. Numbers rocketing up a cliff… in a word, Zoom!
Zoom’s daily active users jumped from 10 million to over 200 million in 3 months up to the beginning of April. However, the company has faced concerns over privacy and ‘Zoombombing,’ where uninvited people gate-crash online meetings. To counter this, Zoom has carried out a comprehensive update of security and has gone on the offensive with it, by using security as a positive marketing tool.
https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/privacy-and-security.html
3. Yordex
Company credit card and financial services provider Yordex is using its pre-paid Mastercards to ensure frontline workers in the NHS, adult social care and charities have the spending power to help vulnerable people. This extends the existing Yordex scheme of offering free cards – that is without admin charges – to businesses on all it’s company card plans. This is a great example of how to introduce Yordex to a wider audience and generate positive PR.
https://www.yordex.com/getting-cash-to-frontline-workers-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
4. Andonix
Andonix provides software solutions that help businesses digitise and implement lean efficiency, training, quality management and health and environmental strategies. Andonix has produced some specific resource content for business continuity.
And, in a very rapid cycle, it has developed Safely Pass. Alongside some new capability, Safely has adapted some of what Andonix already does for the mission of getting labour intensive businesses back to work despite the threat of coronavirus.
It helps manage the risks of infection by monitoring health and supporting social distancing in the workplace. Ultimately, this helps companies to sustain operations without the massive disruption of shutdowns. This is an excellent example of creating a new product to address a brand new problem.
Resource content: https://www.andonix.com/business-continuity-resources/
New product for getting back to work: https://www.andonix.com/safely/
5. Gusto
Online payroll and HR services has reduced the price of its core entry-level paid subscription by 50% for a single employee and explains it like this:
“We’ve temporarily reduced the price of our Core plan to support businesses navigating COVID-19.”
This statement wraps the price drop with an empathetic message that is right on song for the difficult times that many smaller businesses are facing as they do not have access to grants or other subsidies and are only eligible for loans.
https://gusto.com/product/pricing
6. Libryo
No charge to sign up for Libryo’s COVID-19 regulatory streams! Libryo is a legal tech company that helps organisations stay on top of ever-changing laws and regulations.
Libryo is currently offering free access to its platform to ensure organisations have up to date coronavirus COVID-19 information. This is localised for leading compliance regions worldwide. Right on song for the times we are in, and just right for making itself sticky with the compliance community.
https://info.libryo.com/covid-19-regulatory-streams-sign-up
7. Intercom
Intercom is a prominent lead-gen, customer engagement and support platform. It is currently free of charge to any qualifying non-profit or institution fighting COVID-19 and its impact on society or working to help those affected.
https://www.intercom.com/partner/covid-19-information
8. Atlassian
Atlassian, a collaboration and productivity platform for teams, has capitalised on the trend for home working with its Atlassian Remote Work Week initiative. This lets businesses and organisations join Atlassian for free, for a week-long digital event that lets companies learn how to thrive in the new world of remote work.
https://www.atlassian.com/remote
9. Zoho
Zoho has introduced a number of relief initiatives designed to help businesses, non-profits, and government bodies through the COVID-19 crisis. These programmes are intended to assist participating organisations to be more resilient during the crisis.
The Small Business Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) helps existing Zoho customers severely impacted by the economic disruption of COVID-19 by offering a 3-month subscription fee waiver.
The Zoho Creator: COVID-19 App Program helps government institutions and non-profit organisations to build custom apps to manage COVID-related public activities.
Zoho Remotely is a suite of productivity and collaboration apps that help organisations transition to remote working, and it is free until July 1, 2020.
https://www.zoho.com/r/covid19/
10. Chargbee
Chargebee is a subscription management system for SaaS products. Handling all aspects of the subscription life cycle, including recurring billing, invoicing and trial management of customers, it is pivotal to online platforms that use it.
To help its customers, it has developed some specific data based content resources. This is a good example of how to generate traffic and keep the conversation going when conversion may be a little tougher at the moment.
https://www.chargebee.com/blog/saas-sales-in-a-covid-world/
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