This week’s roundup includes company blog strategy, optimal contract length, how SaaS sales is changing, and growth strategies.
How To Build Your SaaS Company Brand With A B2B Blog Strategy
away with words
If you want to grow a loyal following of potential customers and don’t have a company blog, it might be time to get one. In an industry that thrives on knowledge sharing, a company blog should be an important piece in your overall content marketing strategy. So what makes blogs in this industry so great?
“The best bit about B2B content marketing with a blog is that there is no trickery involved, and bombarding your customers is not advised. It takes time and intellectual investment, but the content you provide means that your audience will be exactly the sort of people looking to buy your products.”
This article helps gives you steps in defining your brand as well the 7 key pieces to include in your blog strategy.[Read more here.]
Hubspot
It is without a question that growth is critical to success for most SaaS companies. Looking for some inspiration for your own strategy? Then check out their ideas so you can start generating more leads.
Ideas for lead generation in this article include:
- Content Marketing
- Product Trials
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Referral Marketing
- Google Adwords
- Co-marketing
- Retargeting
What Is the Optimal Contract Length For Your SaaS Startup?
Tomasz Tunguz
Finding the optimal contract length for your SaaS startup is something that will occur over time. Most startups start with monthly payment plans, which minimizes the friction involved with new users signing up. This can be considered as a testing phase to gather data on customers and get feedback. If the feedback is good and churn rate is low, a lot of startups start aiming towards annual and multi -year contracts to make their revenue more predictable and possibly decrease the amount of financing they will have to raise in the future.
“In addition, annual contracts enable customer success teams to develop longer-term relationships with customers, create account plans and help their customers achieve long-term goals, rather than react to immediate fires in order to “save” revenue.”
How SaaS Is Changing the Way Software Is Sold—And Bought
Coupa
The cloud has changed the software game. With the vendor hosting the solution for hundreds of companies, they have a better ability to help the client understand how they are using the software, as well as a broader vision of the entire market. They can help the client see into the process, see the results, and how they are being achieved. That, along with the subscription model that gives the vendor a stake in the customer’s continued success, represents a major paradigm shift
“We’re no longer selling software as a product, or even as a service. We’re selling the business value that customers can achieve using the software, because we have data on it. We know. Now we’re selling VaaS—value as a service. VaaS changes how sales people sell, and how customers buy. Ultimately, it changes the nature of the relationship between buyer and seller.”
VaaS changed the relationship between the buyer and seller in 5 different ways, including:
- Tighter alignment with marketing, and with it’s customers
- More granular and customized goals
- Leading by example with value metrics that comparable companies are using for the software
- Focus on relevant core features
- A more intelligent and transparent conversation
Video of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Kim Garst.- @kimgarst #quote pic.twitter.com/zlIEaZ6ecS
— Ian Moyse – FInstSMM (@imoyse) November 3, 2016