25 Best B2B SaaS Marketing Channels You Need To Know
Summary
15 Unique SaaS Marketing Campaigns Till Date
Building a B2B SaaS product is not a piece of cake, but what is even harder than that is to keep it running! There are over 3 million SaaS companies in the world, so how do you ensure that you stay ahead of them and reach your target audience effectively?
Well, the best way to stay ahead in this competition is by utilizing the top B2B SaaS marketing channels. The best marketing channels for SaaS are the ones that are tailored according to your niche and your target audience.
You can choose them based on your customer preferences. Determine whether they like spending time more on their PC or mobile phones. What age group does your target audience fall in? Are they social media freaks or old-school email lovers?
Asking such questions to yourself will help you better explore the marketing channels that can do wonders for your business.
In this article, we will cover the 25 best B2B SaaS marketing channels that can help you engage more customers and boost conversions.
Most Useful B2B SaaS Marketing Channels
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing involves creating valuable, informative, and engaging content to attract and convert customers. It includes your blogs, emails, videos, social media posts, eBooks, white papers, and every other medium through which you can talk more about your SaaS business. You can take inspiration from SaaS businesses like Sparktoro which uses 5-minute whiteboard videos to talk about what they do, offer useful information about their niche, and mention how people can reach them.
This makes content marketing a perfect B2B SaaS marketing channel as building a strong content marketing strategy can give you a place to make your potential customers more informed about your services and try to convert them into sales.
How much will it cost you?
Implementing a content marketing strategy may cost you nothing directly, however, if you hire a freelance content writer or marketer, then they may charge you their respective charges based on their experience.
2. SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial B2B SaaS Marketing channel. Without SEO, you can not move an inch online. SEO is the widest and most important way to stay ahead of your competitors on Google SERP.
Powerful SEO with the right keyword targeting and optimization is a must to beat your competitors and improve your visibility. The higher you rank on Google, the higher the chances of people discovering your website. However, make sure that you follow the right SEO practices and do not fall for any black hat practices.
You can take the help of several free tools like:
However, if you wish to dive deep into it and utilize its advanced features, then you may try its paid versions.
3. Email Marketing
Emails are and always have been the most sophisticated and professional way of communication, especially when you are dealing in B2B.
Leveraging this marketing channel for SaaS is a very healthy and important way to connect with your customers.
You can kick-start your email marketing campaigns by sharing a welcome email.
According to Vero, 76% of customers after sharing an email address with you expect a welcome email immediately. This instantly reflects a gesture of acknowledgment and a sense of responsibility by you towards your customers.
The best example to learn about the importance of email marketing is from Shopify. If you look at their welcome email, you’ll understand the touch of personalization and gratitude, and notice how effortlessly their email delivers company information.
They did a great job by maintaining a clear format with simple and brief information while also adding a CTA naturally to give the user something to act on.
Once you nail your welcome emails, you can start sharing the latest updates, newsletters, polls, and much more to know more about your customers as well as keep them interested in your company.
Try to keep your emails personalized for each of your customers by adding their names and offering some discounts or offers based on the details you have about them like birth date (which you can take at the time of form filling).
However, do make sure not to overdo your email marketing strategy as it may irritate your customers and force them to unsubscribe.
How much will it cost you?
The overall investment for email marketing involves email marketing software subscription costs and additional costs for design, automation tools, and list acquisitions.
4. Social Media Marketing
People stay really active on social media and not utilizing it would be a bad move! You can find almost every type of audience on social media that you wish to target.
A research conducted by LinkedIn shows that almost 75% of B2B buyers turn to social media to finalize buying decisions.
The perfect example of utilizing social media for SaaS is Gong. With 212K+ followers on LinkedIn, Gong shares around 12-15 posts every week, which is still a lot compared to any other B2B business.
Some of the best B2B SaaS marketing channels in social media are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Posting regularly on these platforms and following the B2B audience that you are interested in can help you know a lot about them while also improving your brand visibility.
I believe these are the best platforms to spread the word about your company and catch the eyes of huge clients. You can also run some offers that require your visitors to subscribe to your page to redeem.
How much will it cost you?
If you choose to stay organic with your social media approach, it’s free. However, if you wish to run ads on social media, then running ads on Facebook starts from $1, LinkedIn ads start from $2, and Twitter charges $0.26.
5. Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing involves engaging with your target audience through mobile and smartphones. SaaS Businesses must create strategies like mobile-friendly websites and applications.
Your SaaS service is incomplete without a mobile app. In this fast era, it is important to offer a complete, seamless, and multichannel experience to your customers. You can not expect your clients to be available on their PCs all the time to engage with you.
Mobile apps make it easier for your clients to stay connected with you. Though building a mobile app might cost you a bit, it can result in a great investment.
However, if you’re a small business and still budding, you may want to stick to just your website. But, if you’re a medium to a large company, then having a mobile app can be a great advantage over your competitors.
How much will it cost you?
The minimum price for building a mobile app can start from $12K and you may include potential additional expenses related to mobile advertising, ongoing maintenance, and utilizing other mobile analytics tools for tracking your mobile campaigns.
6. Video Marketing
Tell me yourself, what would you remember, a long post of words or a simple engaging video? Well, the answer is obvious. We humans tend to remember better with visuals and that’s what makes videos among the best B2B SaaS marketing channels.
In an era of instant gratification and short attention spans, leveraging videos has become crucial. It’s shown that more than 70% of people have made a buying decision after seeing a brand in a video.
Since we’re talking about SaaS videos, one such video that really inspired us was Wellness The Whole Time by Dropbox. Dropbox used a funny approach to engage its audience while effortlessly delivering the necessary information they were aiming for.
So, when customers see such videos, they understand the concept of the product better while enjoying the whole time. You can too begin by creating a channel on Youtube or Facebook.
How much will it cost you?
Creating a channel on YouTube and Facebook costs you nothing, so you may want to give it a shot. Once your channels start gaining some traction, you may decide to allocate a budget to run some ads. This may help your visitors to see all types of content related to your business, and running ads on these channels doesn’t cost much. The average cost for running ads on YouTube starts from $0.10 per view.
Other than this, there are other investments that you might want to make such as video editing software and a dedicated video anchor.
7. PPC
The next among the best marketing channels for SaaS is Google Ads. Though this method may seem traditional, it’s not necessary to run paid campaigns only on Google.
You can run paid ads on LinkedIn or Facebook to give your clients a more personalized experience.
How much will it cost you?
On average, running ads on Google may cost around $0.11 per click whereas running ads on LinkedIn may cost around $2 per click, and Facebook charges around $0.94 per click.
8. Influencer Marketing
An influencer is a person who talks about a niche, product, or service in their videos to give a complete insight into what they’re talking about. These influencers have a large pool of people following them and trusting them with whatever they say and do.
Influencer marketing involves collaborating with an influencer on social media to reach your target audience, which on their end, are his/her followers.
People do not want to buy something that is just available in the market, they want to choose from what’s the best. So, when a person, whom they already trust influences them to try a service, it becomes easier for them to rely on that service.
Influencer marketing makes your work a lot easier since now, you do not need to reach every client individually, you just need to collaborate with 1 influencer in your niche and that single person would help you reach thousands or even millions of people directly.
Canva’s collaboration with Guy Kawasaki is a great example of SaaS businesses using influencer marketing to target a wide range of audiences.
Kawasaki promoted Canva and encouraged his followers to use Canva as a graphic design tool. He advocated for the brand while appearing on several podcasts and videos which led to a huge popularity for Canva.
You can rely on such B2B SaaS marketing channels easily since the people who follow them are already interested in your niche and are likely to trust the influencer if he/she talks about you.
How much will it cost you?
But yes, collaborating with an influencer might be expensive since these folks charge you per video/post. Their charges depend on how many followers they have, for how long they will talk about you in the video, and how old their account is. Usually, the average cost starts from $30-$50 per video.
9. Referral Marketing
Referral marketing is a form of word-of-mouth marketing where people refer your SaaS service to their friends, professional contacts, or B2B partners.
This B2B SaaS marketing channel works very well since your new potential clients hearing about you from your existing clients can build instant trust and reliability. You can run a referral program through emails or on your website.
You can also encourage your clients through some cross-referral benefits to ensure that they refer you to someone who would like to opt for your services.
For example, you can either give a discount to your existing customers on their current purchase of your service if they refer you to someone or you can offer them a coupon in exchange for the referral.
This may demand you to reduce your profit margin in the selling of service but can also increase your chances of getting new clients.
10. SMS Marketing
More than 80% of all smartphone users roll over their bed and check their phones for notifications first thing in the morning. How can you use this habit of your customers? By leveraging SMS marketing.
This is one of the best B2B SaaS marketing channels when it comes to customer retention and engagement. This might seem like an old-school trick but it’s effective to this day.
If your target audience falls in the age group of 35-65, then this channel is for you. When it comes to B2B, SMS is minimal, fast, and professional.
Make sure to keep your SMS short and to the point. And just like sending emails, do not overdo it.
How much will it cost you?
The cost of SMS marketing depends on the length of your messages. The shortest message of around 160 characters may cost you around $0.015 per message.
11. Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) involves targeting a specific set of high-quality audiences that have the maximum potential of converting into paid customers.
It emphasizes tailoring and customizing the content for each individual to address their specific requirements and pain points. ABM is used by many SaaS businesses to build stronger and closer relationships with clients, ultimately driving higher sales, better retention rates, and increased revenue growth.
One such great example is LiveRamp. This data connectivity platform personalized email promotions, multi-touch SDR strategies, display ads, and even direct mail resulting in a 33% conversion rate through cold emails.
12. Retargeting Ads
Retargeting Ads aim at winning the lost customers. This SaaS marketing channel targets customers who have previously visited your website. These ads appear on the platforms where these users visit and remind them about your service and products they were previously looking into.
It’s all about re-engaging potential customers, increasing brand recall, and driving conversions by keeping the brand at the top of their heads throughout their buying journey.
How much will it cost you?
The average cost of retargeting on Google is $0.66 to $1.23 per click, so you may want to set aside a dedicated budget if you plan on implementing this strategy.
13. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliations are the collaboration that you do with other websites. Choose websites that are not exactly your competition but are closer to your niche. Encourage such websites to join hands with you and bring customers to your business.
In affiliation, the websites that affiliate with you get a commission whenever they bring in a new customer. This can be highly effective if you collaborate with the right websites. This B2B SaaS marketing channel may take a while to perform so it’s key to remain patient.
You may just create an affiliation page on your website and promote it organically or utilize paid assets to get it in front of the right audience. The investment may include the commissions you pay to your affiliates and the cost of running paid ads.
14. Network Marketing or MLM
Network marketing or multi-level marketing involves utilizing a network of individual distributors to promote and sell SaaS products/services. The distributors get the commission from sales as well as from the sales of their recruited down-the-line distributors.
This model can be highly beneficial for SaaS companies as it enables rapid expansion of their customer base through the efforts of a motivated sales force.
If you look at Salesforce, they have successfully utilized the network of partners and resellers who earn commissions by selling the products and services of Salesforce. This works wonderfully for the brand since these resellers not only work as their salesmen but also as their reliable advocates.
However, it’s important to maintain transparency, provide enough training and support to distributors, and ensure compliance with regulations governing MLM practices.
Utilizing this B2B SaaS marketing channel requires careful planning, ongoing communication, and a focus on delivering value to both distributors and end customers.
How much will it cost you?
While calculating the cost for network marketing, it’s important to include the costs like research and surveys, network marketing membership fees, and commissions to be paid to your networking partners.
15. Podcasts
Podcasts are in trend and they are not going anywhere anytime soon. For B2B SaaS companies, this marketing channel has proven to be highly engaging and converting. You can connect with your clients even at times when you can’t connect with them in person, on PC, or on their mobile phones.
People listen to podcasts while traveling, having lunch, driving a car, or even taking a shower. You can be with them even at such times and keep telling them about your business, why they should choose you, what new you’re doing and so much more.
How much will it cost you?
Starting a podcast as a business may involve the initial cost of the basic setup like a camera and microphone, and the subscription fees of platforms like Libsyn to begin streaming.
16. Reviews and Customer Advocacy
Reviews and customer advocacy are among the best B2B SaaS marketing channels as they play a crucial role in trust building and influencing buying decisions. Positive customer reviews serve as social proof, ultimately enhancing reliability and boosting conversions.
In SaaS business, encouraging existing customers to advocate for your services through testimonials, referrals, and case studies, can enhance your brand goodwill organically. This marketing channel for SaaS ensures sustained growth in the competitive market.
If you look at Hubspot, you’ll be amazed by how effortlessly they have leveraged brand advocates through its HubFans program, user forums, and various events. They encourage user-generated content, such as case studies and testimonials, and actively promote positive customer experiences through social media and other channels.
17. PR Marketing
Public Relations (PR) is used to build healthy relationships with the press and magazines to help you tell compelling stories about your SaaS company that they can share with the public.
You must’ve heard about Forbes Under 30 or news releases surrounding Apple or Tesla. Public Relations are the way for big brands to showcase themselves in front of their audiences through trusted channels and share their inspiring stories.
Pitch’s brand awareness PR campaign is the best example of how doing a PR campaign in the right way can help you gain the attention and traction you’ve been looking for.
This video campaign was conducted by the CEO and founder of Pitch, Christian Reber, to give it a human touch and help better connect with the target audience.
This funding news coupled with extensive PR campaigning sent Pitch hundreds of referring domains and PR backlinks to their website. Not only this, it also helped their customers to get to know their lesser-known products. This means that their PR campaign also helped their SEO efforts!
18. Employee Advocacy
Your employees are the best and one of the most trusted mediums to talk about your company, so considering them as a marketing channel can be of great help.
You can encourage your employees to share your social posts and blogs on their personal and professional social profiles. When people see information coming from a trusted source, they tend to get attracted more easily.
You can also make your employees part of your referral program and give them some rewards in return.
19. Online Marketplaces and Directories
Online marketplaces and directories work as centralized hubs where B2B businesses can discover, compare, and buy services personalized to their needs. This SaaS marketing channel also provides visibility and lead generation opportunities for businesses by showing their services to a wide range of relevant audiences.
Listing on well-known and reputed directories helps in better brand recognition, credibility, and accessibility which in turn helps with revenue growth. Being on such SaaS marketing channels also helps you keep up with current SaaS trends and gives you insights into your competitors.
How much will it cost you?
Listing on well-established directories may cost you some amount. However, you may also start with free online directories and marketplaces to list your SaaS products.
20. Chatbots and Live Chat Support
Chatbots and Live chat support are useful in entertaining customers in real-time and providing them with prompt solutions. The personalized and immediate solutions provided to your potential customers can result in enhancing the overall experience of your customers with your SaaS product.
Enabling real-time engagement, solving queries, offering product information, and guiding customers in their buying journey can contribute to higher conversion rates and better customer satisfaction.
If you’ve ever visited SaaS websites like Drift, you’ll see a chatbot ready to assist you. The Driftbot helps visitors with inquiries, schedules meetings, and qualifies leads in real time.
How much will it cost you?
You can best start with free chatbot software like Talkto that enables you to communicate with clients and offer customer support. Or, if your budget allows, then you may build an in-house chatbot software which may cost around $5000 to $20000 per month.
21. Webinars and Industry Conferences
Webinars and industry conferences can give SaaS businesses a great platform to showcase their products/services, and expertise, connect with their target audience, and generate leads.
Using such marketing channels can help businesses make the audience aware of their product while building trust, credibility, and an upper hand in the SaaS landscape. These webinars and conferences help you establish thought leadership and stay ahead of industry trends. If leveraged strategically, you can foster stronger relationships and portray your SaaS business as a leader in the industry.
22. Push Notifications
Push notifications are among the evergreen choices for B2B SaaS marketing channels. Almost any app that you download or any website that you visit will send push notifications.
For SaaS businesses, push notifications can work wonderfully by staying in the eyes of their potential clients and consistently reminding them of your products and services. Push notifications also aid in improving goodwill as the more your visitors see you live, the more they will start trusting you.
How much will it cost you?
Push Notifications aren’t as expensive either. Implementing the push notification strategy through platforms like PushEngage will only cost you around $200 to $900 per year.
23. Free Tools and Resources
Free tools and resources are a powerful SaaS marketing strategy to attract customers while also allowing them to try your services and build trust.
A perfect example of this is Ubersuggest by Neil Patel.
Offering valuable tools and resources works as lead magnets for your SaaS business, driving traffic to your website, and resulting in the growth of your customer base.
Since you’ll be offering the existing tools and resources of your business, the only budget you need to set aside is for how many subscriptions you’ll giveaway for free.
24. Customer Retention Campaigns
Customer retention campaigns are one of the best B2B SaaS marketing channels as they focus on nurturing existing customers, maximizing their lifetime value, and reducing churn.
The retained customers are more likely to upgrade their plans, renew subscriptions, or refer you to other customers resulting in a consistent flow of sales for your services. By implementing a powerful customer retention strategy, you can enhance loyalty, delight your customers, and use them as your brand advocates.
This marketing channel for SaaS not only helps you retain and gain customers but also gives you helpful insights on what your customers want resulting in better product development and offering of services.
How much will it cost you?
The cost of running a customer retention campaign depends on how many existing customers you have or how many you wish to target. To get a fair estimate you can include the cost of running loyalty programs, data analysis tools, and content creation.
25. Co-Marketing and Partner-Marketing
By collaborating with complementary businesses or partners, SaaS companies can expand their reach, connect with more audiences, and utilize each other’s strengths to achieve the combined marketing goals.
These B2B SaaS marketing channels involve content collaborations, shoutouts on social media, and joint webinars. Businesses can take advantage of each other’s channels and platforms to promote each other.
In the end, co-marketing and partner marketing can result in better brand visibility, higher lead generation, and conversion, and offer strategic growth to both and all parties involved.
Co-marketing and partner marketing can be implemented either by using tools and resources or you can plan a paid collaboration.
Over To You
Exploring and implementing these powerful B2B SaaS Marketing channels can effectively help you build a stronger brand value and visibility for your website. These paid and organic strategies are most effective when done timely and consistently.
You can also create a calendar and a budget to ensure that the execution of these marketing channels for SaaS is done efficiently.
Finding the right SaaS marketing channels for your business requires a lot of trial and error and A/B testing. Observe closely which channels are bringing the most effective results and who knows, you may end up with the most powerful marketing strategies in the industry!
