On this episode of the podcast I interview Lolita Carrico about marketing growth strategies for SaaS companies. Lolita is a marketing strategy and business development consultant to leading SaaS, Fintech, Biotech and Digital Media brands.
Show Notes
How Lolita started working with tech and startup companies
She started marketing with the company that owns the House of Blues chain of concerts, concert venues and night clubs in the late 90s. They were the first company to stream a concert live over the web.
They took the software that allowed them to stream over the internet and started licensing it to other entertainment companies.
The two sides to effective marketing for SaaS businesses
There is the lead generation aspect of your business which is focused on bringing in leads.
Then there are also retention strategies.
A Gartner study released some years ago said that for specifically SaaS companies 80% of future revenue will come from only 20% of existing customers.
She focuses most of her strategy on retention because most of your revenue is going to come from folks who are loyal to your service.
Pre-sale marketing and growth strategies to attract SaaS customers
You can make use of traditional tactics such as free trials, lead gen through Google Adwords, engaging content strategies, sales funnels and email drip campaigns.
She works closely with business development teams to identify potential integration partners and once they have secured the deal, she works closely with that company on marketing integration, this strategy is also useful for post-sale retention.
Before going back into consulting some few years ago, she worked as a Senior Vice President of Marketing for a payments platform that specialized in a variety of industries specifically property management.
She ensured that they were integrated with all the top property management systems so that the payment component could be added in addition to everything you need for managing the property. That in itself was a good lead source and they also setup webinars with property management systems client base to show them how to they integrate their solutions.
Creativity is also essential, a few years ago someone came up with a keyword strategy literally targeting people who are searching for alternatives to a company product because they are mad or upset, so they came up with a creative website and landing page strategy that was like, Oh, you want to leave us and it became a retention strategy.
Post-sale strategies and dealing with problems that disrupt your SaaS user experience
You need to make sure that customers problems are addressed on time, bugs are fixed on the tech side and you need to identify the pain points your users are experiencing with your product.
If there is a part of your service that about 10% of your client base have an issue with, you can have your marketing team create a video campaign that educates the customers, address common questions or concerns. You can share it on social media and through email drip campaigns, your email drip campaign doesn’t stop with the sale.
You can also do weekly Q&A calls with your existing clients, this allows you to have a better idea of the problems they have, create a personal connection with your users and solve their problems.
It also provides you with content to use on social media, allows you to easily create case studies, implement client feedback and also highlight it to them during your weekly calls.
If there is a huge development in your industry that people are talking about you can partner with an expert to create an educational webinar. You need to continuously find ways to add value.
Resources
The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
