Marketing strategies are constantly evolving, and now, digital marketing is the most preferred strategy. But word-of-mouth marketing, which is the oldest marketing strategy, isn’t dead yet. You can integrate it into the digital space to effectively drive growth in your SaaS companies.
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In a world that is full of digital ads on the telephone, computer, and TV screens, hearing about a product or brand from colleagues at work or friends has a lot of weight. Potential customers are more likely to trust a referral or endorsement for a SaaS software, whether it is done physically or through a digital platform, more than a digital ad that pops up on a website.
If you have a SaaS company that offers software and apps as digital solutions that are accessed on a subscription basis, you need to market it aggressively through word-of-mouth to drive growth.
Does this sound like a strategy you would like to deploy to drive growth in your SaaS company? If yes, then there is a lot to learn, and this blog post will take you through the insights.
Promote Referrals
People in the business sector meet often and discuss many things including SaaS solutions that are performing well (or not well) in their businesses or those of others. You can take advantage of this by making it easy for people to recommend your SaaS products and brand. This is called referrals.
Before your products can enjoy referrals, it is essential to have a good reputation. Here are some important considerations to make before embracing the use of referrals:
- Performing beyond customer expectations – The SaaS products on offer should be effective in offering viable solutions. When customers are happy with the services you offer, you are likely to get more referrals from them.
- Create a community around your brand – Do you want to enjoy many referrals for your products? A thriving community will definitely use word-of-mouth to market your brand in their circles. As you build communities, ensure that they are aligned towards one goal of recommending your brand.
- Know when to ask for referrals – As mentioned, you need to ask for referrals from different people. It is essential to use the right timing to make it effective. You can ask for a referral when a client has used your SaaS products after six months, during corporate events, during industrial shows and exhibitions, or at any other time.
Hire Popular Brand Influencers
Any SaaS company can use popular brand influencers to sell their products through word-of-mouth. It is a popular strategy in the modern marketing world that is very effective when used well. As an entrepreneur in a digital solution world, there are many approaches that you can give to this.
Use YouTubers
Have you seen how influential YouTubers have become these days? You can target those who focus on tech software reviews and other technologies to mention your brand and endorse it. They use their channels and social media platforms to keep their fans engaged at all times.
Word-of-mouth by YouTubers is incredibly powerful and can bring positive results to your brand within a short time. All you need to do is ensure that the YouTuber is conversant with your brand. Ensure that they engage the potential customer in the comment section or do it yourself if the content is posted on your channel.
Use social media influencers
These are social media gurus with hundreds of thousands of followers if not millions. They can spread word-of-mouth about the benefits of your brand, the products that you offer, and how to use your products. The best thing is that they can engage their followers as well to answer questions about your product.
You should check the popular Instagram influencers and how they have been endorsing various products. Fortunately, you can find one within your budget and rest assured that they will take your SaaS business to another level.
Use celebrities
Celebrities have access to a lot of potential customers who need SaaS software. Some attend corporate dinners and other events and working with them to mention your brand is essential.
For example, your SaaS company could sponsor a celebrity event and they will be sure to mention this as they address their fans. Hence, the strategy is very effective and worth considering.
Engage Customers on Social Media
Apart from using social media influencers, your SaaS company can leverage social media pages and engage potential customers through word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, not many people are aware of the power of these platform. You can do a social media audit to identify where you are and lay out a strategy.
Building a social media presence is a complicated strategy, but for now, you should focus on spreading the word about your brand as an actionable strategy. You have to engage your customers as well.
Create social media accounts
If a SaaS company does not have social media presence today, then it is missing one of the best platforms to spread by word of mouth. It is easy to create these pages, even without the help of a professional.
However, creating professionally designed social media pages will yield more results.
Rocket SaaS is one of the best professionals to help with social media marketing, either through word-of-mouth or using digital ads. These experts should prepare the messages to send to potential customers and engage them as well.
Setting goals
Before posting anything on social media platforms, it should be within your goals of marketing your SaaS business. Goals also help you target the right audience through educational posts that will capture them, trigger conversation, and give you an opportunity to create a conversation. That is what word-of-mouth through social media intends to achieve.
Respond to and engage customers
Social media is incredible because followers and fans will always contact you. Some will come back with critics while others will make positive comments and yet others will want to inquire about your products.
It is essential to respond to all of them and keep them engaged with important information about your SaaS products. Dwell on the strong points of why your products are better than the competitors.
According to research, responding to a customer with a customer increases chances of converting them into actual buyers. For SaaS companies, this is an easy option to grow their client list and make more sales.
Use the right timing
Engaging a social media audience is all about using the right timing. You need to say the right thing at the right time. For instance, you should focus on SaaS products and solutions at the beginning of the year when many businesses are supposed to renew their SaaS subscriptions.
You could also spread word-of-mouth about your brand at any other time that looks lucrative to engage potential customers.
Use Peer-to-Peer Influence
Another effective word-of-mouth strategy that will take your SaaS business to the next level and drive growth is using peer-to-peer influence. This is best anchored when targeting SMBs for young people.
Just like in other strategies, there are many approaches that you can give this to yield positive results.
Sponsor peer businesses
You have probably been to conferences where young startup owners meet to discuss solutions to different challenges in their businesses. Since these young entrepreneurs are peers, they trust brands that they recommend to each other.
As a SaaS company, you can anchor your marketing calls on such P2P setups. For instance, you could sponsor some of the SMBs and sign an agreement that they will refer you to their peers. Trust me, this word-of-mouth strategy will work to your advantage.
Pay peers to market you
SaaS companies that want to use peers to market their brand among other peers can pay them, just like in the case of using influencers. However, you need to have a clear goal and monitor the progress of this strategy.
If the strategy is yielding results, you can even pay more peers to promote your brand and endorse it at peer events and help you target more potential customers. Luckily, most of the companies that use SaaS products are companies and organizations owned by young people.
Leverage Internal Employees
Do you know that employees can sell your SaaS business through word-of-mouth? It sounds impossible, but they are the first brand ambassadors, especially if they are proud of the product they sell and feel like a part of it.
Big SaaS companies with remote workers are in a better position to use their employees to market the brand, although any other can achieve the same results.
Train employees
Your staff can only promote what they understand and feel comfortable explaining. Therefore, you should train them on how your SaaS products work to a level they can demonstrate or train others.
They will find it easy to mention the brand both at work when they interact with customers or outside when they socialize with people. During the training, ensure that they know the benefits of helping the company to promote growth.
Promote social interaction
If you would your employees use a word-of-mouth marketing strategy, let them attend business social events. It could be the manager attending a corporate dinner or cocktail party where they will mingle with potential SaaS product buyers or any other event.
It is essential to target events that employees can attend so that their efforts are productive. Furthermore, you should have a way to measure results.
Reward efforts
Employees should be paid when they bring a referral. In a SaaS business environment, you can give them a percentage of the subscription package for the first year or have any other rewarding scheme.
This will ensure that they use word-of-mouth to market the business whenever possible. But you should allow them to use any other marketing strategies as well to bring referrals. The harder they work, the more your business will grow.
Benefits of Using Word-of-Mouth in a SaaS Business
There are many approaches to using word-of-mouth to drive growth in a SaaS business. When it comes to benefits, growth is an understatement. There are many of them and it is good to check.
It grows sales
This article discusses insights on how to grow a SaaS business. Marketing aggressively promotes growth by bringing in more customers. The word-of-mouth strategy may not be efficient in conversions, but you can rest assured that it will bring many customers onboard.
Many customers will definitely use more SaaS subscriptions, which will take your business to the next level. This is how many of these digital solution providers have been growing and yours should not be left behind.
It increases brand recognition
Why do SaaS companies use the word-of-mouth marketing strategy? It is a great way to sensitize as many potential customers about their brand as possible. Whether you use influencers, spread the word by yourself, or use employees, you can rest assured that everyone who hears about your brand for the first time can remember it later.
When looking for growth, it is good for SaaS companies to focus on brand recognition. Therefore, any strategy that works towards this goal is worth it.
It is affordable
Spreading word-of-mouth on a brand is not as expensive as digital advertisements and other marketing strategies. Sometimes it is free, and you are only required to pay when using influencers or rewarding for referrals.
This is a cost-effective strategy suitable for SaaS startups and seasoned digital solution providers on a tight budget. No matter what your budget is, you will find a great strategy among the ones we’ve just discussed.
It helps you understand the market segment
Another benefit of interacting with potential customers is understanding their needs. SaaS companies should use these interactions to improve their products, differentiate them, and have better customer relations.
What is better in business than understanding your customers? Absolutely nothing. This enables you to serve them better. This being a service product, proving that you can interact with customers earns your trust and the entire market segment will prefer your product.
It helps to predict challenges
Marketing, whether through word-of-mouth or any other strategy, is a form of data collection to understand potential challenges and predict solutions. In this case, SaaS companies know the most popular challenges faced by potential clients and prepare for them.
With a good marketing team or consultant, you will come up with strategies to deal with possible challenges, whether it is directly related to SaaS marketing or not.
It complements other marketing strategies
Using word-of-mouth to market a SaaS business is just one strategy, but there are many others. The best thing is that it integrates with other strategies perfectly and works well with them. For instance, word of mouth is integrated with digital marketing as mentioned.
You can promote brands and products on social media platforms, media streaming platforms, and others. The best thing is that the strategy compliments other strategies to yield higher growth.
Final Words on Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Have you ever thought of using word-of-mouth to promote growth in your SaaS business? Perhaps you had not thought about it as a good idea, but you are not alone as it is often underrated. However, it is an effective strategy that anyone should give a try.
Fortunately, that article has the insights you need to understand how this strategy works and the benefits it brings onboard. Take time to think about these strategies and how to implement them in your current SaaS business and you will enjoy the results.