How to choose the right marketing channels for your SaaS company to increase ROI

Many SaaS businesses try to save money on marketing spend, but investing in these activities is essential for the growth of your company.

To ensure that you’re getting the most out of your marketing budget, you need to determine which channels are the right ones for your SaaS business.

The key to getting a high return is investing in the right channels.

Importance of tracking and measuring

First and foremost, you should be tracking and measuring the effectiveness of all your channels. This means using your analytics to find out which of your marketing is generating the most leads, and setting key metrics to analyse success.

Create tracking code for each link you use in your marketing campaigns that records the source, medium and content. This will enable you to collect data that is accurate enough to show you which particular platforms are working well for you.

Try to measure a mixture of channels, rather than say, all social media channels. Look at email marketing, organic search and Twitter, for example.

Work out how much it costs to acquire leads for each acquisition channel. Divide the amount invested in the channel by the number of leads you gained, within a specific time period.

Inbound vs outbound channels

Make a distinction between inbound marketing channels, such as blogging, search engines and social media, and outbound channels. Inbound channels often take a lot longer to show ROI, but content tends to remain visible for a lot longer, increasing its value over time.

In contrast, outbound channels show more immediate results, but typically require more financial investment overall. They include things like advertising and cold calling.

Earned vs owned vs paid channels

Traffic that is generated through earned marketing channels is more effective than content you post yourself.

If a known influencer spontaneously publishes a post recommending your services or product, this creates a lot of social proof about the value of your company.

Even though it is not always possible to gain the notice of top influencers, you can still make the most of brand advocates who are actively posting on social media about using your products.

Paid channels such as Facebook ads can be very effective in gaining short term traction, but expensive overall. They are also not as effective at producing brand engagement as earned channels because consumers know they are ads.

Variation by industry

Whichever industry you operate in, it pays to stay ahead of the most popular channels in your market.

This is because if you’re competing in a crowded area, such as CRM (customer relationship management) software, many people will be searching for your type of product. Competition in Google Adwords or organic search will be fierce.

If you create a product that doesn’t exist yet, you’ll also need to think about conducting marketing activities that build awareness, and introduce your product to people (customers won’t search for a product they don’t know about).

Conclusion

Most SaaS companies should be incorporating a mixture of inbound and outbound channels so that you can benefit from immediate turn-of-profit from your marketing investment, and ensure marketing growth in the long term.

Use PPC advertising as long as it is generating ROI, focus on making the most of your loyal brand advocates, and conduct well-planned outreach to influencers who may be interested in promoting your products.

Build a strong presence on competitive channels for your industry, and break new ground by trialing newer marketing methods, to gain an edge over your competitors.

Choosing the right channels with Xander Marketing

Xander Marketing works with many SaaS businesses to help them create engaging content that converts on a variety of channels. We execute marketing campaigns to attract new and ongoing business prospects. If you’d like to find out more about becoming one of our clients, request your free consultation.