- If you're wanting to generate more pipeline,
if you're looking to scale revenues for your SaaS business,
chances are you're now getting really serious
about investing in marketing.
Now here's the thing with SaaS marketing.
SaaS marketing and marketing in general
is a very, very broad body of knowledge
and broad body of practice.
There's brand marketing, content marketing,
demand generation, community marketing,
customer marketing, and more.
And when you are at a large scale company,
you can have hundreds of people
actually doing all this work.
But if you're in the early stages,
then you have to be very, very thoughtful
about what are the essentials
that you really invest in, because you cannot do it all.
You have to make certain bets.
Based on all of my experience in being in SaaS,
and actually scaling SaaS companies,
and being in the MarTech category,
in this episode I'm gonna walk you through
the three principles you absolutely need to know
to pick the absolute most important
aspects of SaaS marketing,
so that you can accelerate the growth of your SaaS business.
Intro.
(upbeat music)
What's up everybody?
Welcome to Unstoppable.
I'm TK, and on this channel I help SaaS founders
like you grow your SaaS businesses faster
with an unstoppable strategy.
Now, if you are new to this channel, welcome.
I drop an episode every single Sunday
with actionable strategies and tactics
on how to actually accelerate
the growth of your SaaS business.
If you haven't already, be sure to hit the subscribe button
and that bell icon, that way you'll get notified
every single time I drop an episode with the TK energy.
If you are already part of this community,
my people, welcome back.
I really wanna thank you,
we just hit a million views on this channel.
We just hit 28,000 subscribers.
Seriously, from the bottom of my heart
and from my entire team, thank you for being with us
and thank you for giving us the privilege
to support you and to serve you in this way.
It's been an incredible journey
and we have so much more planned for you.
Now, back to business.
I remember when I was SVP of strategy at Marketo,
they had just acquired my company ToutApp,
and Marketo is a marketing automation company,
and so obviously we took marketing very seriously.
I remember seeing the overall org chart
for the marketing team alone,
and it was nearly a hundred people,
and there were about 450 million ARR,
so rightfully so, but it was huge.
And I was like, oh my God,
there's so many people doing marketing.
And it was eye-opening for me because I was like, wow,
there's people that are going so deep
into product marketing, into pricing,
into SEO, into demand generation,
customer marketing, and the list went on.
I contrasted that to ToutApp
when we were building out our mini brand,
when we were driving to scale revenues,
we were a small crack team of bad asses running marketing.
And we were actually doing so much above our weight grade.
It made me realize just how important it is
for founders to pick the right essentials of marketing
instead of getting overwhelmed on trying to do everything
and being neither here nor there.
So in this episode, I'm gonna walk you
through the three key pillars of SaaS marketing,
the three principles you absolutely need to know,
so that when you're in the early stages
and you're starting to invest in marketing,
you don't get overwhelmed
and you prioritize the right aspects of marketing
to drive growth, so that you can scale,
so that you can raise that next round
or get to profitability,
and so that you earn the right to one day
have a hundred person marketing team
doing all of it perfectly.
So if you're excited to dig in,
go ahead and smash a like button for the YouTube algorithm.
It really likes it when you do that.
Let's go to principle number one.
So principle number one,
the most important aspect of marketing
that applies to SaaS today,
no matter what anyone else tells you,
this is the most valuable thing
that has worked for me for nearly 15 years,
continues to be the workhorse is direct response.
And a lot of people don't quite understand
what direct response is or think it's old school,
but direct response marketing is essentially
where you are signing people up and they're becoming leads.
They're going into a mailing list.
So whether it's through ads, or you're posting on LinkedIn
or on Twitter, you're providing value,
and then you're saying,
hey, by the way,
if you want more, sign up for our mailing list,
or sign up for this lead magnet.
This is by far the best way to actually drive demand
and actually build momentum in your marketing,
and actually focusing on this,
getting the right lead magnet in place,
building out that mailing list is super, super important.
And the reason for this is there's a stat
where someone has to look at your brand
at least seven times for them to actually take action
and think about buying.
If you are just posting and you're doing brand marketing
or maybe you're doing a little bit of advertising
and you're saying, come join the trial,
unless they see it seven times,
unless they hear from you at least seven times
from different angles, it's never gonna happen,
which is why getting direct response,
where people actually take a response
on whatever they're seeing in terms of your marketing
getting on your mailing list
so that you're actually nurturing them,
and you're getting back to them
at least seven times and providing value,
that is the best way to actually do marketing in SaaS today.
And so that's principle number one.
And the power in this
is whether you are product led or sales led,
it doesn't matter, when you are nurturing
the people that become leads, you can either direct them
into the product and provide value,
or you can direct them into sales and provide value.
Either way, it's super valuable
in actually getting that attention and nurturing them,
getting those seven touches
and getting people to pay attention
in a very, very crowded market.
And so direct response still continues to be the best way.
And I've seen a lot of people make mistake
where they just go into brand like, oh,
let me just post and give a lot of value.
Yes, it will give you a lot of value,
but you will not be able to get to those seven touches.
So direct response coupled with getting your brand out there
is super powerful, so you wanna make sure you stay grounded
in direct response marketing.
So that's pillar number one.
Pillar number two is what I call content marketing.
Well, everyone calls it content marketing,
but I really think of it as education marketing.
And I believe that, especially in the early stages,
there's gonna be competitors, it's a noisy world out there.
And so you are likely, no matter how much you've raised
or how much capital you have,
you are likely not going to be able
to outspend the competition,
whether it's a competing product or just mind share,
your buyers are being sold to by multiple companies
from multiple problems.
So you will not be able to outspend them,
that is a default truth in being in an early stage.
And so I believe that
if you want to compete and get their mind share,
you need to rise above with a differentiating message,
you need to out teach the competition.
And so I'm a big believer
in putting educational content out there,
whether it's teaching them about the problem you're solving,
the macro trends that are there,
the impending doom that's happening,
like how others are actually
using your product to get success,
and using that as a form of education marketing,
all of these can become pieces of content
where you educate your buyers.
And posting that on LinkedIn, posting that on Twitter,
posting that into communities, building your own community
where you can post that and share that,
starting a YouTube channel even,
all of that is a form of education marketing
and content marketing.
And the best piece of this is when you start doing
this in the right way,
instead of just saying, here's much educational content,
you can actually say,
oh, by the way,
if you want more, then sign up for our mailing list,
and then we'll send you more info.
And so this actually builds on top of each other
where you can actually use the content
and the education you are providing
to actually drive them to generate leads,
which you can then nurture them on,
and eventually get it into your product
or into your sales team,
whichever makes sense for your motion
in the market that you're serving.
So that's principle number two.
There's so many different ways to get growth,
so many different ways to do marketing,
and when you have the a hundred person team,
you will likely do all of them, 'cause all of them matter,
but if you're starting out and you starting to say, cool,
let's invest in marketing, let's pick the right pieces,
first one is direct response,
generate the leads and nurture them,
get to those seven touches.
Second one is put content out there
and use the content to generate leads,
and they can build off of each other and compound.
Now I do have a third one, but before I go to number three,
let me just pause here for a second.
Are you starting to see the power in this?
Are you starting to see the power in actually focusing
on these key essential components in your SaaS marketing
so that you don't get overwhelmed
and you don't end up being neither here nor there
by splitting your attention on 500 things
that may not yield results, but focusing on the tried
and true pieces to really punch above your weight grade?
If you start to see the power in this,
can I just get a yes in the comments below?
Also, smash our like button for the YouTube algorithm,
it really likes it when you do that, it's awesome.
Also, if you are in the stages of figuring out
how to drive growth for your SaaS business,
I have a completely free,
five point SaaS growth strategy guide.
You don't have to go anywhere right now,
I'll link to it below, and I'll tell you more about it
at the end of this episode.
But let's go to principle number three.
Principle number three, this is one of the things
where I wish more people used this more often.
So if you're doing content and you're putting it out there,
and then you're doing direct response
where you're generating those leads,
and then you're nurturing them and getting them into sales,
or your product, or more education
and value, right,
eventually they are going to buy.
That's what we're looking to do,
and so the content drives the leads,
the leads drives the revenues.
And this is a piece where people
don't take advantage of this,
but when you actually get intentional about it,
it's even in the early stages and in the late stages,
it is incredibly powerful.
And principle number three is referral marketing.
Referral marketing is basically taking
all your happy customers and programmatically going to them
and saying, hey,
if you like our product, if you like what we're doing,
can you please take this educational content
and share it with someone that's a peer of yours
or someone that would like our product as well?
Because the thing is, while you're going out there
and putting out your content under your brand
or under your own name,
while you're trying to generate leads,
there's a certain amount of trust that's missing.
So you're gonna have to get those seven touches,
you're gonna have to do a lot of iterations
to really get people to take notice.
But if a person already using your product
takes your educational content
and shares it with a peer in the industry,
someone that already trusts them and say, hey,
you gotta check this out, this is really powerful,
these guys are really thinking
about this problem differently.
Then all of a sudden this is going to move 10 times faster.
And so this referral marketing piece will drive more traffic
to your content, that will drive more leads,
and these buyers will buy more.
And that's the third piece
that I don't see enough companies using,
but when they do, it's so, so powerful.
So to summarize, if you're in the early stages,
you're investing in marketing, it's overwhelming,
you don't have a 100 person team,
nor should you at the early stages,
you just can't justify that spend,
even if you have the money.
Well, you should focus on,
principle number one is direct response,
generate those leads, nurture them.
Number two is put out educational content,
out teach the competition.
And number three, as you are starting to generate customers,
take their success stories, mobilize them,
give them the educational content,
and get them to share it on your behalf
so that they can educate the market,
build that trust faster for you,
and get you more leads and more customers.
And you follow these three things in the early stages,
what I did at ToutApp,
this is what so many companies that I advise and coach do,
it is incredible in mobilizing your growth.
And now, you know exactly the three pieces to focus on.
What you may not know is how all these pieces come together
or what are the other ways you can drive growth
for your SaaS business.
This is why I credit
my five point SaaS growth strategy guide
that's completely free.
Just go to getunstoppable.com/strategy.
Getunstoppable.com/strategy, you go there,
just fill out your email,
and boom you'll get access to it right away.
It is an incredibly powerful guide
and highlights the five key ways you can drive growth
for your SaaS business to accelerate your path
to next stage of growth.
Also, if you got value from this video,
please smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
It really likes it when you do that.
If you have a fellow founder, a fellow team member,
a practitioner,
like if you're part of a SaaS founder community,
if they would get value, please share this video with them.
This is why we create these videos
and this is why we wanna serve the community,
so like I can just share in the journey of the things
that I learned, and the mistakes I made,
and the things I broke through,
so that you don't have the same issues, is why we do it.
And also, I drop an episode like this every single Sunday.
So be sure to hit the subscribe button and that bell icon,
that way you'll get notified every single time
I drop an episode.
And also don't forget, go to getunstoppable.com/strategy
for that five point guide.
Will go much more into detail on exactly
how to drive growth for your SaaS business.
And as a meta item, if you're still here,
right, you're probably thinking,
wow, this guy actually practices what he preaches.
You're right, I am all about out teaching
anyone else in the market,
I'm all about sharing everything that I've learned.
So I do the content, I run this channel,
and at the end of the videos, I say,
hey, if you want more completely free,
go get my five point guide, which where you become a lead
and we'll give you even more educational content,
we have over 200 episodes,
so we'll share some of those with you,
we'll link to the most important ones,
we'll keep giving you value.
And then down the line, if you wanna work together,
then you'll be able to do that.
And of course, all of our clients that we work with,
we ask them like, hey,
do you have other founders
that will get value from the program?
And they refer us all the time.
So I practice what I preach.
So maybe you're seeing the meta,
you stayed all the way to the end,
so I thought I'd include that in there.
Anyway, go and grab a copy of that guide.
Smash our light button, hit that subscribe button.
And lastly, remember,
everyone needs a strategy for their life and their business.
When you are with us, yours,
it's gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK and I'll see you in the next episode.
(gentle instrumental music)