Marketing SaaS products in 2023 are more difficult than ever. Efforts that worked seamlessly for businesses five years ago do not leave any mark and become a part of the noise.
But Why?
The world is changing not only the SaaS businesses have grown more than 10x in number, which increases the competition tremendously. But also, the way people consume ads and buy things in general has changed drastically.
According to Digital Marketing Institute, “Over 83% of consumers trust opinions they find on social media, including those from friends, families and influencers, to help them make the right decision about buying a product or service”.
The data shows that leveraging influencer marketing for customer acquisition is not optional for SaaS businesses, just like any other venture in today’s day and age.
The changing landscape of SaaS customer acquisition
The two most difficult problems in marketing SaaS products are “Reach” and “Awareness”. Identifying the right TG for your product and making them aware of your brand is not easy.
Though performance marketing technically can reach your T.G. it does not cater to the affinity of the customer to buy a product, which is a very important part of SaaS product sales.
Also, the scroll-through rate of SaaS product ads is very high, especially if there is no awareness of your brand among your audience.
But influencer marketing (read word of mouth marketing) adds a human element to your marketing efforts and increases the affinity of your audience to buy your product.
The benefits of influencer marketing for SaaS businesses
- Influencer marketing helps SaaS businesses hyper-target their customers.
- Influencer marketing reduces CAC by a large margin.
- Influencer marketing helps build better relationships with your customers.
- Influencer marketing favours the sales pipeline.
The unique challenges of influencer marketing for SaaS businesses
Influencer marketing is an effective way for SaaS businesses to reach potential customers, but there are some challenges that come along the way:
Finding the right influencers
The most difficult part of influencer marketing is finding the right influencer who can represent your brand. Both B2C and B2B SaaS companies suffer from the same problem when looking for an influencer. But there are some ways that can help SaaS companies find the right influencer.
- Always look for influencers who make content in your niche
80% of their content should be related to your brand’s niche. For example, finance software companies are collaborating with Finance with Sharan, whose content mostly revolves around finance and investment.
- Take a look at their following
The influencer’s following is also very important because you are going to leverage their following to market your product. That is why the majority of the influencers following should be your target audience in terms of both demographic and interest.
- Engagement rate
The engagement rate of the influencer should be high even though engagement depends a lot on the size of the influencer’s following, but their audience should engage with their content in general.
- Influencer past brand collaboration
Influencer past brand collaboration is a very important deciding factor. The influencers you are going to choose for your brands should not have collaborated with your competitor or a brand similar to yours.
- Use an influencer marketing platform
An influencer marketing platform like Qoruz simplifies the process of finding relevant influencers for SaaS companies. It also helps in outreaching the influencers and tracking the results, which are crucial for the campaign.
Goal setting
Setting realistic and achievable goals is very important for influencer marketing. You can view influencer marketing as a part of the sales funnel and strategize your campaigns accordingly.
For example, if you are new to influencer marketing as a SaaS company, it is better to focus on the first stage of the marketing funnel– awareness rather than the last stage– action.
You can also use influencer marketing to optimize your marketing funnel, in which you can lead your aware audience to the next stage through different marketing collateral.
Influencer marketing, when done right, results in an array of awareness that is directly related to customer acquisition.
Nurturing influencer relationship
Influencer act as brand ambassadors which is why the relationship between brands and influencers has to be nurtured for the long-term success of influencer marketing. Taking influencer relationships beyond paychecks helped many brands reach new heights of success.
- Implement a long-term strategy influencer marketing strategy.
- Include influencers in the strategizing part of the campaign; influencers have unique inputs which can benefit your campaign.
- Treat influencers like partners and equals; it helps build trust and respect, which is ultimately great for the campaign.
Strategies for implementing influencer marketing for SaaS businesses
Strategies that help implement influencer marketing for SaaS businesses are:
- Identify your ICPs on different channels and use the data to run campaigns on the most crowded channels.
- Always repurpose influencers’ content on your social media and other platforms.
- Always track results to learn from your mistakes and take to necessary actions when required
- Match your KPIs with the results you are expecting from the campaign.
SaaS businesses that successfully used influencer marketing for customer acquisition
NordVPN
NordVPN used influencer marketing to raise brand awareness and reach its target audience through Youtubers. They identified that frequent internet users between the age of 15-30 are their target audience, and they successfully reached them by sponsoring Youtube videos from many different categories. As a result, they got a whopping 4.4 billion views on their sponsored content and affiliate links.
Jupiter
The Indian fintech company Jupiter used influencer marketing to raise brand awareness on Instagram; they collaborated with finance and comedy influencers to target a wide range of young professionals who struggle to keep up with their finances. As a result, Jupiter saw massive downloads of their apps.
Notion
Notion is a productivity and project management tool that has gained popularity in recent years. The company has used influencer marketing to increase brand awareness and drive user acquisition. They Partnered with productivity influencers on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to promote their product. These influencers create content showcasing how they use Notion to manage their work and personal lives, which helps to showcase the tool’s versatility. As a result, Notion has built a community of influencers turned brand ambassadors.
The Future of influencer marketing for SaaS Businesses
The future of influencer marketing for SaaS businesses is very bright. The prediction is SaaS companies will double their budget for influencer marketing in the coming years.
- More and more influencers will take over the social media handle of the brands, as seen with many brands.
- There will also be high demand for nano and micro-influencers as they drive the highest engagement rate.
