SaaS companies need to be prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow with innovative yet practical solutions. According to Gartner, SaaS (Software as a Service) revenue is expected to reach $151.1 billion by 2022, making it the largest segment of public cloud services. But SaaS marketing has unique challenges.
From startups to enterprises, businesses of all sizes are using 30% more SaaS products year over year, according to the annual SaaS report by Blissfully. To meet these high demands, SaaS marketers need to keep up with the trends and craft a plan to deliver measurable results. Explore the SaaS marketing trends and implement them as a part of your strategy in the year ahead.
1. Growth of native advertising
Traditional display ads are losing relevance and may not be effective for SaaS products. Native ads open great opportunities for SaaS companies to reach out to prospects when they decide and are key to converting such audiences. The new analysis provided by native advertising firm AdYouLike states that the global market worth of the native advertising sector will be worth $400 billion by 2025.
Native ads are effective when valuable content is shared with the readers, so most SaaS businesses are creating content that answers queries and problems of their audience. We can also post native ads on a business website or any other third-party website and can effectively bypass ad blockers. When done correctly, native ads can create advertisements that convey more than simply promoting a product or service.
One such example of native advertising is that of PayPal on Entrepreneur.
PayPal’s Native Advertising on Entrepreneur
The sponsored content post does not look like an ad nor does it ask users to sign up to PayPal. On the contrary, it offers content that educates readers on how to grow an online business.
2. Video usage will be a mainstream trend in SaaS Marketing
SaaS marketers today cannot ignore video to market. A recent study by Boosted revealed that 59% of senior executives said that they would rather watch a video than read an article. And a study by Wyzowl found that 82% of buyers are encouraged to take action after watching a video.
Videos help customers understand what they can do with your product. Thereby, increasing the conversion rate and reducing the churn rate. SaaS companies can also leverage the time customers spend on their websites and reduce bounce rates.
One splendid example of SaaS video marketing that we love is the payment processing solution, Square.
Video by Square: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T-N1AVDcFw The SaaS company offers a simple customer testimonial that is focused on the result that the payment processing solution offers. It is a quick 30-second video that hits the right point of benefit.
3. The rising popularity of feature marketing in SaaS
SaaS solutions are constantly evolving, and businesses are adding additional features, tools, and plug-ins to their applications and products. With feature marketing, SaaS companies can create parallel products that offer added value to the same audience and are independent of their primary product.
The addition of extra features offers an opportunity to create additional content for your website. Fresh content improves the SEO of a website and generates more traffic, helping to acquire an increased number of consumers.
One splendid example of feature marketing is that of Slack.
Slack’s Homepage
Slack highlights its shared channel feature right on its homepage. It aims at enticing potential subscribers as well as existing customers by showing one of the most popular features.
4. AI and ML-powered hyper-personalized experiences
Statistics by MarketWatch suggest that the Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) market will reach $6 to $7 billion by the end of 2023. It comes as no surprise that SaaS companies are making the most of AI to enhance user experiences.
AI and ML in SaaS marketing can help in data-driven marketing campaigns and hyper-personalized campaigns that are highly user-centric. AI and ML use behavioral and real-time data to make highly contextual messages that are closely relevant to users. When they combine AI with ML, SaaS companies can optimize their marketing campaigns to ensure the best ROI.
Twilio is one such SaaS company that recently launched Twilio Autopilot.
Twilio Autopilot
They use AI to bridge the gap between bots and humans through a conversational interface.
5. Adoption of flexible pricing strategies
It is no surprise that the price of your SaaS product directly influences the buying decision of your customers. Deciding on the right SaaS pricing model takes time. You need to ensure that the products and services are profitable and set recurring billing to make it easier to predict the revenue scale with your customers as they grow.
SaaS companies will thus adopt flexible and data-driven pricing strategies in 2022. This will ensure that users pay the price only for that service that resolves a particular problem rather than purchasing the entire package or all the services.
HubSpot uses a feature-based pricing model.
HubSpot’s pricing model
They offer tiers that have a distinct list of features and business advantages.
With the above list of the top SaaS marketing trends of 2022, you can plan the ideal strategy for your marketing campaigns. Embrace technology, focus on customer retention, and provide real value to your customers. The ability to adjust and identify opportunities to make the current and future SaaS marketing trends work for you will help you succeed in the coming year.
Ensure that you implement them the right way, and keep a lookout for any other rising trends in the SaaS market soon!