Five Essential Tools for International SEO - Natalia Witczyk - SearchNorwich 15
Why Your Saas Marketing Sucks (and how to fix it)
1. Why your SaaS Marketing Sucks
Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO
(and some smart things you can do about it)
2. Many SaaS Companies Plateau or Die
Because…
They Cannot Affordably Acquire New
Customers Above Their Churn Rate
3. ViaChaoticFlow
“You must not only acquire
new customers, but you must
acquire them at an increasing
rate that outpaces your
increasing churn.”
- Joel York
4. Why Does Marketing Hold Back So
Many SaaS Companies’Growth?
(and what can we do to overcome that?)
8. Social proof and smart
CTAs may help convert
visitors, but won’t help you
earn visitors.
9. 7
Sharing is inherent to the product’s value proposition
Your site/product provides a high-value customer community
Content on your site consistently fires emotional triggers that encourage
amplification
Users financially benefit from sharing (but not in sleezy/inauthentic ways)
Your company regularly engages in press-worthy activities
The product makes your customers look good to their own audience
Your product or content targets a highly-likely-to-share group
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
Ways SaaS Products Earn Amplification
from Customers & Users
13. Yay! You made it to the top of PH & received
15,000 visits + 500 email signups
But, only ~0.01% of people are looking for
email verification APIs that day
14. Every day, a few dozen people search
for this (and don’t find you)
15. Loads of searches for your
service, but none of these
people can find you
22. How to Win at Digital Advertising
Step 1: Earn brand exposure w/ your target audience
Step 2: Get >1 organic visit (or social engagement)
Step 3:Advertise to those who already know + like you
23. If you only play here
(first exposure)
Or here
(decision time)
You’re gonna have a bad time
24. SaaS Marketing Reality
Step 1: Get known + trusted by your audience
Step 2: Grow a presence across the channels they use
to find solutions your product solves
Step 3: Be visible throughout their discovery,
consideration, and decision processes
34. KW Research +
Industry Intuition
Publish
Content
Promote via Social
Channels
Push to email +
RSS subscribers
Earn Links +
Amplification
Grow social, email, RSS,
& WoM channels
Grow Domain
Authority
Earn Search &
Referral Traffic
Rank for More
Competitive KWs
If lack of social
promotion is causing
friction in your flywheel,
HACK away!
35. Hacks aren’t necessarily evil,
spammy, or without value.
They can be useful when applied to
a sound marketing strategy.
36. Find a Balance Between Long-Term
Investments & Short-Term Hacks
High upfront costs Pay (in time/$$) as you go
Long-Term Investments
Slow to show ROI
Earn customers while you
sleep
Low Risk (PR/legal/etc)
Can Show Fast ROI
Effort In = Links Out
Often High Risk
Short-Term Hacks
37. The Formula for Marketing that Will Work
for Years to Come:
Strategic
Roadmap
Scalable
Flywheel
Long-Term
Investments
Hacks to
Remove
Friction
+ + +
39. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
41. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
1) Lack any strategy to increase the
size of these groups
42. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
2) Not targeting
these people first
43. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
3) Aiming 100% of your tactics at
only these groups
50. easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
Pro Tip: Having a lot of target customers in your
personal network makes EVERY PART of
marketing + sales easier.
52. Incremental testing of headlines,
colors, layout, pricing, etc.
Local Maxima
Uncovering why most
qualified customers
who visit don’t buy &
addressing their core
issues
Global Maxima
60. Didn’t try the product Tried, but didn’t love
it
Tried & loved the
product
What do you think the
product does?
What made you try it? What made you try it?
What would make you
more likely to try it?
What are your biggest
objections to signup?
What objections did you
have and how did you
overcome them?
What caused you to stop
using the product?
What would have made you
stay a customer?
What objections did you
have and how did you
overcome them?
What’s been most
valuable to you?
If you’ve loved it, can we
share your story?
62. Brand is…
Apromise.
i.e. when you see “Brand X” it means “YAttributes”
Amemory trigger.
i.e. when you experience problem Z, you think of “Brand
X” as the potential solution
63. Brand Marketing is…
Acoded message.
Reminding you of the brand’s existence
Reinforcing the brand’s colors, shapes, sounds,
experiences, & feelings
Nudging you to use the brand at the right time
70. Before you can brand, you need a
Brand Promise
We
provide…
We evoke
feelings…
We remind
you of…
We share the
values of…
product/
service that
solves a
problem you
have
that make our
customers most
anxious about
whether our
solution is right for
them
Memories that our
target
demographics &
psychographics will
have ++
associations with
People who are
statistically most
likely to be our best
customers
71. Everything Should (Subtly) Reinforce the Message
SEO Snippets
PPC Ads
Big
Content
CommentsTweets
Photos
Landing
Pages
UI & UX
Brand Name
Facebook
Posts
Emails
Product
Names
Videos
Visual
Branding
Outreach
Onboarding
Press & PR
The Brand
Promise
72. Cost of paid acquisition drop b/c people prefer to click on your ads
Retention increases, as does customer lifetime value
You earn more free coverage, amplifying your reach, your SEO rankings, and
reinforcing your brand
It feels difficult, even impossible to reverse engineer your success
Switching costs feel higher (even if your competitors make it easy)
People want to take your calls, open your emails, and respond to you with a
“yes,” making all your bizdev activities easier
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
The Awesome Powers of Brand
73. Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO
Thank You!
Curious about what we’re building?