Strategies For SaaS Lead Generation
SaaS companies know that their lead generation techniques can’t just follow the template exactly. That’s because SaaS lead generation doesn’t fit the same mold as other B2B lead generation strategies and cycles. The customer journey for B2B SaaS companies tends to be much longer than in other B2B industries, and therefore the marketing funnel has to be much fuller if enough leads are going to be generated in order to keep the business afloat. SEO and organic search are particularly useful channels for B2B lead generation because of the way that B2B SaaS prospects search for solutions to their problems. B2B SaaS buyers tend to have four different methods of searching for solutions. Those methods are:
Of those four methods, organic search is the only owned channel available to the organization. Companies cannot control exactly what other people say about them, how they are referred to, or what the review sites say. They can, however, control all of what appears on their website. SEO, unlike the other channels, can be tailored to appeal to specific customers and the issues they face. Demandwell, for example, specializes in B2B SaaS lead generation over other industries, and they prioritize those prospects in their own SEO writing. SEO can also be scaled to grow as the business does and hit increased targets. When a B2B SaaS organization invests in lead generation tools such as SEO software, they are building the ability to control the buyers’ journey into their SaaS marketing campaigns.
While SEO is only one of many lead generation strategies, it is one of the most effective channels that a B2B SaaS company can pursue, both in terms of ROI and employee time. When an organization invests in a lead generation software, many of the mundane and repeatable tasks are automated, leaving marketing teams to do the important work of content creation.
Of all of the lead generation strategies B2B can use, SEO is unique in the sense that it compounds on itself and it is not a form of paid advertising. B2B lead generation tools like Demandwell help organizations create SEO campaigns that are trackable over time, scalable, and simple to make and monitor.
A few of the features of Demandwell that make it one of the best lead generation softwares are the Keyword Coach and the Brief Builder. The Keyword Coach automatically does complex keyword research on your behalf, identifying the best keywords for your organization. The Keyword Coach prioritizes keywords based on the demand that they can generate for your business rather than somewhat arbitrary metrics like search volume and frequency. It’s better to focus on achievable results and hit targets rather than fight for rank in highly competitive keywords. The Keyword Coach also notes the life phase of any given keyword, which lets marketers know where that keyword is in terms of popularity and when it is time to switch out the keywords in use.
The Brief Builder then takes the keyword research that the Keyword Coach has done and automatically generates an SEO content outline, streamlining your SEO content production process. The Brief Builder is complete with pre-built sections, headers, keyword suggestions, and word counts. You can even build directions straight into the outline so that writers are ready to get started as soon as they receive the outline. After the SEO content has been created, the Content Analysis feature will let you know right away if the content is ready to rank.
In many cases, SaaS marketing can’t follow the B2B lead generation strategy examples of other industries. B2B SaaS companies usually create a specialized product that is meant to solve highly complex problems for other businesses. It is unlikely that a prospect is utilizing direct search for a B2B SaaS product because they may not have ever heard of it. Due to that, B2B SaaS companies have to consider what else their prospects might be searching for that will lead them to their product. This is where keyword research and SEO come in.
B2B SaaS companies can use SEO to target other keywords that their prospects are searching for and introduce them to their solution that way. Different keywords can be associated with different stages of the buyers’ journey. It’s important to have SEO campaigns running for every stage of the buyers’ journey to keep the sales funnel well-stocked with leads at all times. Prospects who are initially attracted by keywords that are meant to lead to top-of-funnel information pages can be ushered through the entire buyers’ journey with SEO. On the other side, keywords that are strongly associated with high buyer intent may lead to quick conversions because they snagged prospects who had already identified their problem and were actively seeking a solution.