What I learned managing digital marketing at a SaaS company with no experience
When I started my job at a recently funded SaaS startup, I had no marketing experience (except for my personal YouTube channel and blog), I had never taken a marketing class, and I didn’t know anything about developing a SaaS business.
As the weeks went on, I started to realize a few things. Through the next first months, they became more and more clear. There are a few lessons that I think anyone could benefit from knowing when marketing a SaaS business. Here they are:
- Know your customer
- Content is king
- Authenticity wins. Every time.
They may seem simple and obvious, but they work. The most important lessons are often the most fundamental truths.
Know Your Customer
If you don’t understand the customer, you won’t be able to speak to them in a way that they want to listen. You have to know your segments. Who they are, what they want, what they need, what their problems are, what they aspire to, and where they look for information are all very important pieces of information.
There are endless ways of collecting information about your customers. Email surveys, phone calls, in-person interviews, social media posts, in-app notifications, and more. There is no right or wrong answer. It really depends on who they are (How busy are they? How involved with your company?), what your product is (High or low involvement? High or low price? High or low frequency of purchase?), and the channels that you have established with them.
Once you know the customer, you can start to build your marketing strategy.
Content is King
People don’t care about your ads. If you can’t make something interesting or relevant to your potential customers — not everything should result in a sale or a conversion — then they won’t buy your product. Your content & marketing material is proof that you understand them and their situation (see point 1). Content brings people to your site. Most people who speak to a salesperson have already done their information search and made up their mind about whether or not they will buy.
Content gets you in the door and buys trust with your potential customers. Establish yourself as an authority on the subject, then they will want to buy from you over the next company. Oh, and don’t just tell someone “what they want to hear”.
Authenticity Wins
Tell the truth. The truth wins. Every time.
People won’t buy from you unless they trust you. They won’t trust you if you don’t tell the truth. If you can’t tell the truth, you’re probably not the best at what you do. If you’re not the best at what you do, they probably shouldn’t buy from you anyway.
If you have a great company, then customers want to know. This is what content can do for you. Tell the true, and amazing, story of your business.
Truth builds trust. Trust builds loyalty. Loyalty builds businesses.
