The global SaaS (Software as a Service) market size was valued at US$237.48 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from US$273.55 billion in 2023 to US$908.21 billion by 2030. It's a fast-growing, highly competitive space, making marketing a key differentiator for businesses that want to get ahead. This article examines how a Fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) service drives business success in SaaS marketing.
Why is gigCMO an Easy Decision for B2B SaaS companies?
gigCMO is a CMO service with experts that deliver the return on the marketing investment to grow your business.
That means we know how to look at a business like a customer would, but we also know how to help you develop and implement strategic processes around that to drive measurable sales in line with targets ultimately.
It's easy to waste money on marketing if you don't know what you're doing, but no business, especially a SaaS business, is in a position to do that. Our approach is about making sure your SaaS marketing strategy works for you.
Why Partner with gigCMO for Your SaaS Start-up?
Businesses and business leaders with an appetite for growth know their industry and product. They don't need another expert in what they do. Their challenge is to understand how to grow their business. Those are the businesses we set out to work with. If you know your product, our marketing consultants offer the outside perspective that will attract customers to your business quickly, easily and cost-efficiently. Here are some of the top signs you should partner with gigCMO for your SaaS start-up:
1. You need instant access to a CMO with relevant experience
In essence, a CMO is the person who will define your company's strategic direction and, in particular, will lay out an effective go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Our fractional CMO service will give you instant access to relevant expertise, compounded by adjacent industry experience, at a lower cost than a full-time member of the C-suite. It will provide you with strategy-focused insights and direction and the benefit of an outside perspective that can see where your blind spots are.
2. You need a B2B SaaS marketing experts
B2B SaaS marketing experts have a particular skill set - this is an area of marketing quite different from B2C commerce. It's critical for success, especially when established brands dominate the market and you are looking to disrupt the space. It would help if you had a marketing consultant who could zero in on your target market with clear customer insights and analysis and approach your marketing strategy with precision and knowledge of what to do and why you're doing it.
3. You want to get the most ROI
At gigCMO, we have a tried and tested formula for business success. The important thing about this 'Playbook', is that it's not a cookie-cutter model. It's been developed using the best business school strategies with input from thought leaders and the on-the-job experience of our team. It's tested daily in real-life scenarios and used as the basis for creating an approach that's entirely customised to individual clients.
The great benefit of this is that you dispense with any trial-and-error processes and move straight into a highly informed, personalised strategy that's designed to deliver maximum ROI from the outset. By having a fractional CMO service, you optimise your spending and earning capabilities because there's no guesswork involved, and every minute we spend with you is focused on getting results.
4. You are in a hurry to see the results
Your success is our success. Our job is to deliver business success - that's our area of expertise. We work with you from the outset to define the goals and then work towards delivering them. In the words of Peter Drucker: "Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two - and only two - basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business."
5. Your needs change every year
Your business is an evolving entity, as is the world around it. Your needs, the needs of your team and your customers will change over time. One of the crucial things that set us apart is that while we're an external organisation. We're not a consulting firm; every team member has been a leader in business, a CEO, a CMO or a key senior leadership team member (SLT).That means we have the skills within our Chief Marketing Officer service to adapt our input according to your needs. Unlike a full-time CMO, who brings their individual and specific skills, which might be relevant when you start but are less relevant three years down the line, we can draw on a variety of expertise and experience to meet your needs. You can also scale the use of our service up or down according to your requirements, and we will be upfront about where we can add value or where we should introduce you to someone else.
6. You need a solid foundation
Everything about your marketing approach hinges on having the proper foundation - the correct data, knowledge and understanding of your customer, your target market and your competition- to create an informed SaaS marketing strategy. At gigCMO, we seek to understand clients' challenges and opportunities.
We have done extensive research into some of the most important factors to consider before entering the market or choosing a new market. That will complement your own industry knowledge and insights alongside our guidance to help you prioritise success. Without that foundation, you might grow in the short term, but you won't have the knowledge to back it up, meaning you don't know why you're growing and how to sustain it.
7. You want to achieve T2D3 growth
T2D3 stands for triple, triple, double, double, double - a term introduced by SaaS investor Neeraj Agrawal. It describes a trajectory of two years of tripling your annualised revenue growth, your ARR, and then three more years doubling that. That doesn't happen by chance; all companies that have achieved that curve have broadly followed a similar approach. That's what our playbook for an SaaS marketing strategy is based on.
How to implement a SaaS marketing strategy?
So with all of that in mind, how to implement a SaaS marketing strategy? The premise is simple - the execution is not. It hinges on knowing what you're doing, why you're doing it and what your metrics for success are.
1. Identify your target audience
The first thing is to define your target market. This includes understanding the product/service and who it's for, building a customer persona, and detailed research to establish the actual size of the target market or total addressable market (TAM).
2. Choose your marketing channels
Choosing your marketing channels is essential because there are so many. It's easy to think you have to do everything, but that can lead to spreading yourself too thin. Knowing your target audience will directly inform the marketing channels you use as part of your GTM strategy, and your CMO will be able to leverage those platforms to the best advantage as part of your marketing strategy plan. As time passes, this should always be open to evolution, informed by data and staying on top of new channels and best practices.
3. Develop your content
Content is still the driver of customer experience and SEO, so an effective content management strategy is intrinsic to your SaaS marketing strategy. The focus should be on helping your customers to understand who you are and how you help them, enabling them to engage with your product or service with a clear focus on driving sales and increasing revenue.
4. Determine your metrics
Metrics can be an overwhelming thing because there's so much data available. Filtering the critical information from the vanity data is central to success, and that's where the outside perspective of your CMO is vital. They will help you avoid the metrics that aren't crucial drivers for growth and focus on the ones that will drive company growth.
5. Generate brand awareness
As well as driving sales and growth on a daily and cumulative level, your CMO will use your marketing strategy plan to drive brand awareness and, consequently, your overall brand value. This is not about the individual sales you make but the value of your organisation. Brand awareness is also essential for growing your audience beyond those who already know who you are and may be searching for you and introducing you to new potential customers.
6. Provide value
Through your marketing strategy, you need to show that you're providing value to your customers - what is it? What makes you different from your competitors? At gigCMO, we know that the success of a business is rooted in the customer experience. So, it's not enough to purely compete on price - it has to be about showing prospective customers that they can get higher value with you and what that is.
7. Capture leads
Track where your leads are successfully converted using appropriate software. This will help inform your decisions going forward and ensure that your marketing strategy continues to evolve based on informed data, prioritising the most valuable processes and customers.
8. Build customer relationships
For cumulative business growth, you need to nurture your customer relationships. This will drive down the cost of future sales as customers upgrade/buy again and so forth, and they will also become your best brand advocates - recommending you to others. Furthermore, they're your most potent source of learning regarding product and service upgrades, learning through their behaviours and feedback so you can continue building your customer base successfully.
Scale Your Saas Business with gigCMO. Contact us today.
