According to statistics, there are around 17,000 B2B SaaS companies in the world. And the United States hosts the most number of these companies. Standing out tall by attracting maximum sales among these organizations can be a challenging task, especially if you are a startup.
In such a situation, a marketing plan comes in – it acts like a roadmap that guides the B2B SaaS marketers or businesses toward achieving maximum sales growth. The more effective the plan will be, the more chances of success.
In this blog post, we will be discussing the procedure of creating a successful B2B SaaS marketing plan that mainly focuses on maximizing sales.
A Guide for Developing a Successful B2B Marketing Plan for Maximum Sales Growth
Below are the steps that marketers or businesses need to follow when it comes to creating an effective B2B marketing plan.
1. Analyze The Current Scenario
Think about this…how can you make a plan, when you are not aware of your current situation? As a marketer, the first step you need to perform is to carefully understand your company’s current situation. This will involve thinking of multiple things.
The first one is; ongoing work. You should check if there are any new products or services that the company has recently launched.
Moreover, perform competitor analysis by comparing your position, reputation, or credibility in the eyes of customers as compared to the existing competitors. All these aforementioned elements greatly influence the buyer’s decision-making process while making a purchase.
It is necessary to carefully analyze current market trends and decide how they are affecting (positive or negative) your sales.
When a B2B SaaS marketer has a good idea about the current situation, they can then craft a sales strategy accordingly.
2. Spend Time In Understanding Targeted Businesses
The next step is to spend time and effort in understanding the businesses you will be targeting for sales growth. This is also a crucial step, because how can a brand convince another business to make purchases without knowing its needs or requirements?
So, understanding the businesses involves determining their needs, preferences, and pain points. Besides this, it also refers to knowing their company size, niche/industry, budget requirements, etc. Numerous ways can be taken to get the answer to all these.
For instance, buyer personas can be created to determine targeted business requirements. Some other useful ways include; performing in-depth market research; interviews, polls, surveys (either physical or online), etc.
Understanding the targeted audience will give marketers the opportunity to adjust their B2B SaaS marketing plan for maximum success.
3. Do Not Forget To Set Smart Goals
Achieving maximum sales growth greatly relies on setting smart goals. By setting smart goals, businesses can make sure the entire team is on the same page, and work tirelessly to achieve a common goal – which is to give a boost to overall sales.
However, it is important to note that each letter in the “Smart” refers to a separate thing that is listed below.
The “S” refers to “Specific.” It requires marketers to be clear about the goal that needs to be achieved. For example, “Increase sales up to 25% in the upcoming quarter.” Additionally, “M” indicates “Measurable,” so that the progress of the decided goals can be easily tracked or recorded, and then decisions can be taken accordingly to ensure success.
Moving on, the letter “A” means “Achievable”. The decided goals should be easily achievable for your business or team based on their skill set, time, budget, and other resources. “R” indicates “Relevant” requires aligning the decided goal with overall business objectives.
At last, the letter “T” refers to “Timebound.” It demands that the goals should have a realistic timeframe. The time restriction will create a sense of urgency, forcing the team to work on their full potential.
By setting smart goals within the B2B marketing plans for SaaS, businesses can make it easier for their teams to understand the required objectives and create campaigns accordingly. This will ultimately lead to experiencing results (sales growth).
4. Think About An Appropriate Marketing Channel
The heading is already providing a clear idea of what will be discussed ahead. So, B2B marketers should decide the marketing channel through which they will reach the targeted businesses. There are numerous marketing channels available; some of the major ones are:
Content Marketing: This will require a SaaS company to consistently create relevant and valuable content that perfectly resonates with the targeted businesses. The content can be blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, etc. According to reports, around 73% of B2B marketers utilize content marketing.
Social media marketing: Here, the brand will have to create social media pages on different platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Through these, brands can reach out and engage with professional customers to win their trust and experience sales.
Email Marketing: When it comes to SaaS business, email marketing is the most preferred channel. This is because professionals generally use emails for communication, collaboration, or partnership. Email marketing will require you to craft personalized emails that will encourage the recipients to make purchases.
Search Engine Optimization: This marketing channel involves optimizing the brand’s website or online store according to search engine guidelines for maximum SERP visibility. This way, your B2B SaaS company will attract maximum organic traffic, increasing the chances of sales growth.
Podcast Marketing: It is an act of marketing yourself (products or services) by creating and distributing unique audio or video content. It greatly contributes to building awareness, especially in B2B SaaS marketing. This is because professionals often prefer listening to podcasts in free time instead of exploring social media.
Now the question arises: which marketing channel should a SaaS marketer or business prefer? The answer is that; your personal preference does not matter here, instead, you have to go with targeted business preferences.
For instance, if most of the targeted businesses prefer reading blogs, how-to guides, etc. then you must tailor the B2B marketing plan according to content marketing requirements. Like, creating and distributing blogs, short videos, infographics, etc. to attract potential buyers.
5. Budget & Resource Allocation
After identifying the most suitable marketing channel, it is now time for budget and resource allocation. Both these will greatly contribute to crafting a highly successful B2B SaaS marketing plan.
When it comes to allocating the budget, it is recommended to take your past sales campaigns in mind and then make decisions accordingly. In case of zero past experience, then another approach is to carefully analyze successful competitors to determine how they are spending budget to achieve the required sales target.
Remember, it is recommended to allocate a maximum budget for the selected sales marketing channel i.e., content marketing, emails, social media, etc. Do not forget to leave a flexible room for budget alterations.
For resource allocation, you should assign different tasks of the marketing plan to the members who are capable of handling them. Ensure clear communication and unity within the team for maximum success.
6. Focus On Creating Quality Content
This will be the most important part of the B2B marketing plan. No matter which marketing channel you have chosen, it is crucial to create the highest quality content pieces to attract professional customers.
Apart from this, there are several other benefits of delivering quality content such as improved brand awareness, trust, thought of leadership, etc. All these will ultimately lead to maximized sales.
Now you may be wondering what exactly quality content is. There are multiple characteristics of such content such as; providing valuable information that solves audience problems, being brief & concise in terms of length, containing infographics, etc.
To craft valuable content, the rule of thumb for SaaS marketers or brands is to perform in-depth research on the required topic to gather necessary information, stats, examples, etc. Then write them down using your own words and writing style. Marketers can either do this process on their own, hire a special writing team if the budget allows them, or leverage advanced content writing tools like Copy.ai.
Moreover, quality B2B marketing content is also concise and to the point. Thankfully, there is no rocket science needed to fulfill this characteristic. Just, avoid the use of unnecessary words, phrases, or even information. If it still has length issues, then instead of manually fixing them, it would be better to run the content through an AI text summarizer to quickly make it short and brief while preserving original meaning and quality.
Finally, another characteristic of good marketing content is that it is loaded with relevant images, videos, infographics, etc. Creating all these has become easier and quicker than ever, all thanks to advanced tools like Canva.
7. Implement & Monitor Performance
It’s now time to experience the results of all the effort you have put into following the steps mentioned above. You should start running targeted campaigns or publishing the created content on decided marketing channels i.e., social media, online website, etc.
One tip from our side is that, do not launch all the campaigns at once. This may increase the overall chances of mismanagement.
Moreover, it is essential to continuously monitor the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each marketing channel. These usually include; website traffic to determine how many potential customers have visited the site after implementing the plan.
Besides this, it involves monitoring the number of generated leads through each marketing channel. Keep a close eye on engagement metrics such as social media post likes, comments, shares, email open rates, etc.
In the end, track how many website visitors have converted into paying customers.
#TCCRecommends: These are the marketing KPIs that must be in your list.
8. Optimize & Improve
This will be the final step in creating a successful B2B SaaS marketing plan. As a marketer or brand owner, you should encourage the team members to process data gathered through KPI indicators. This will help determine where the campaigns are providing good results (increased sales) and where an improvement is needed.
So, you can then take the necessary steps to refine the marketing plan or sales strategy for maximum output results.
These are some essential steps that will lead marketers or businesses toward creating a successful marketing plan for sales growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Exactly is a Marketing Plan?
It is a document that efficiently describes a company’s strategy for a specific period of time. It acts like a roadmap for them to achieve the required goals or objectives.
What are the Key Elements of a B2B Marketing Plan?
The key elements of a good marketing plan such as; a strong understanding of targeted buyers, deciding the right marketing channel, valuable content, etc.
What are the Most Effective Sales Channels for B2B SaaS Marketing?
Some of the most effective sales channels for B2B SaaS marketing involve content marketing (blogs, videos, case studies, etc.), social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), Email marketing (newsletters, special offers, etc.), and many more.
How do you Accurately Measure the Success of a B2B Marketing Plan for Sales Growth?
To quickly and accurately measure the success rate of your B2B marketing plan, there are multiple things that need to be taken into consideration. You need to determine the total no. of traffic, lead generation and nurturing, and sales conversion.
What Sort of Mistake Should be Avoided in B2B Marketing Plans?
Marketers or businesses should avoid the delivery of generic messages that do not perfectly resonate with the targeted professional customers. Additionally, they should also avoid relying on outdated tactics and not ignore the importance of measuring campaign results.
Wrapping Up
For sales growth, having a strong B2B marketing plan is crucial. It will guide the businesses towards the required goal. However, it is important to note that, if the plan contains some flaws, then there is a chance that it can’t provide results.
Due to this, it is recommended to devote time and effort to creating a successful marketing plan. In this detailed blog post, we have explained the steps that should be followed in this regard.
We are quite hopeful that you will find this post valuable. Happy Sales!