A SaaS Marketing Agency: Your Greatest Ally for Continued Growth

The Software as a Service (SaaS) industry is one of the most dynamic and competitive in existence. In order to thrive in this space, you must leverage your unwavering entrepreneurial spirit and develop world-class products. However, even the best SaaS solutions will not fuel sustained growth if you do not market them appropriately.

Connecting your target audience with your products is integral to driving sales, generating more revenue, and expanding your reach in the ever-evolving SaaS sector. The most effective way to accomplish this is to partner with a SaaS marketing agency. 

A SaaS marketing agency is your greatest ally in the fight for market share and growth within your industry. Working with a team of dedicated digital marketing experts can be exactly the catalyst you need to become noticed in the digital ecosystem. 

What Is a SaaS Marketing Agency?

Whether you are new to the realm of marketing or have been overseeing digital outreach efforts in-house, you may not be sure what a SaaS marketing agency is. 

This confusion is understandable, as the digital marketing industry can be just as complex as the software development sector. Before we explore the benefits of working with a SaaS marketing agency, let’s briefly recap what these firms are and what they do. 

Put simply; a SaaS marketing agency is a specific type of digital marketing firm. Digital marketing firms work with a broad range of industries, from local service businesses to massive enterprises. 

While the basic tenets of digital marketing may remain the same regardless of industry, there are certain nuances that a firm must be familiar with in order to effectively serve its clients.

As the name suggests, a SaaS marketing agency has the knowledge and expertise necessary to work with companies in the Software as a Service industry. These teams know how to navigate the challenges associated with selling digital products, generating demand, and connecting with target audiences in this increasingly competitive space. 

Seemingly every day, new SaaS marketing agencies tend to spring up in the digital ecosystem. This growth comes as no surprise in light of the fact that the SaaS market is projected to exceed $716B by 2028. Many of these companies already offer digital marketing services and are expanding their services to SaaS businesses. 

However, not all of these digital marketing firms have the scope of knowledge needed to operate within the SaaS space. Therefore, you must do your due diligence when selecting a SaaS marketing agency. We provide some effective strategies for vetting your prospective partner in one of the following sections. 

What Does a SaaS Marketing Agency Do?

The exact scope of services that a SaaS marketing agency provides will vary from firm to firm. 

Some agencies offer a comprehensive lineup of digital services, including consulting, strategy creation, performance marketing, account-based marketing, branding, design, and more. Others may specialize in one or two niche areas, such as social media marketing. 

When looking for a SaaS marketing agency to partner with, you should consider choosing a service provider that offers dynamic support. While you may only need assistance in a single aspect of digital marketing at this time, your company’s needs will evolve as you grow. 

Selecting a versatile SaaS marketing agency will prevent you from having to outsource additional services in the future. You can develop a long-standing relationship with a trusted partner that understands your company, needs, and goals. 

Don’t hesitate to ask a provider how they plan to meet your needs. If a specific service is not listed on their website, inquire as to why. Also, examine what they consider their core competencies and ensure that these services align with your most pressing needs. 

Will I Retain Control over My Digital Marketing Strategy?

When contemplating outsourcing any responsibilities, one of the biggest concerns for business leaders is that they will have to relinquish some control to an outside entity. While this is also true when partnering with a SaaS marketing agency, you will still have the final say on the direction of your digital marketing strategy.

A SaaS marketing agency will breathe life into your ideas and concepts. They will take the time to understand your company, values, beliefs, mission, and goals. Your marketing partners will then leverage your input to create a tailored strategy that aligns with your brand voice. 

Competent SaaS marketing agencies will not “hijack” your digital strategy. Instead, they will nurture and transform it in order to maximize your reach within the SaaS industry. 

Benefits of Using a SaaS Marketing Agency

Partnering with a SaaS marketing agency offers a multitude of benefits when compared to managing your digital strategy in-house. By working with a SaaS marketing agency, you can:  

Gain an Objective Perspective 

Have your in-house marketing team’s ideas become a bit stale? Are you concerned that the self-managed approach may inadvertently be hindering your long-term growth goals? Would you like a team of experienced professionals to systematically review your digital strategy in order to identify weaknesses and refine existing strengths?

By far, one of the most notable benefits of working with a SaaS marketing agency is that you can access an objective, expert perspective. 

A great SaaS marketing agency will connect you with a diverse group of digital professionals who can supplement your brand-building efforts. They can provide a fresh look at existing problems and help you navigate potential growth hurdles that might be undermining your current marketing efforts. 

Even when serving as a consulting team, a SaaS marketing agency can provide a much-needed spark to your existing marketing staff. They can work hand-in-hand with your employees in order to craft a winning strategy that will elevate your company’s online presence. 

Expand Your Capabilities

As you likely know all too well, recruiting and hiring talented staff has become more challenging than ever. At times, it can be difficult to even obtain enough applications in order to engage in a traditional candidate screening process. 

Like many other industries, the digital marketing sector is facing an ongoing talent shortage. This shortfall can put your company in a tight spot, especially if you need to expand the capabilities of your existing marketing staff. 

Even if you can find and hire quality talent, adding only a few employees to your staff can cost tens of thousands of dollars. This cost can be detrimental to your long-term goals, especially if you only need to temporarily scale your marketing capabilities. 

Conversely, a SaaS marketing agency can allocate precisely the appropriate number of resources to your company based on current needs. 

As these needs change, you can modify the level of services that you receive in order to align with budgetary constraints. This setup makes outsourcing digital advertising needs a far more cost-effective solution for expanding your marketing capabilities. 

Stay Ahead of the Latest Trends

By nature, businesses operating within the SaaS industry tend to be more digitally aware than companies in other sectors. Still, SaaS companies must remain vigilant in identifying the latest digital trends that are shaping the online marketing landscape. 

Consumers’ expectations are constantly evolving, especially regarding how they interact with businesses. A SaaS marketing agency can help you avoid fading into obscurity in the digital ecosystem by modifying your digital strategy in accordance with emerging trends. 

The best digital marketing firms will stay in tune with your target audience, whether you deliver products directly to consumers or operate within the business-to-business (B2B) space. 

They will meet your audience where they are most active, including on social media platforms, in order to maximize the return on investment of your marketing efforts. 

Leverage Detailed Insights

In the previous age of advertising, marketers had few ways of measuring the efficacy of their efforts. As a result, performance tracking initiatives typically focused on broad metrics like overall sales, leads generated, etc. 

However, the digital revolution has made it possible to track countless key performance indicators (KPIs) and analyze data in order to guide the direction of marketing efforts. 

With that being said, it can be all too easy to become overwhelmed by data. Information overload can cause confusion and lead you to inadvertently broaden your digital strategy to a degree that diminishes its effectiveness.

Fortunately, a SaaS marketing agency will work with you to identify relevant metrics that align with your organization’s needs and goals. They will carefully analyze this data and present their findings to you in order to demonstrate the value that they provide to your company.

Analyzing the right metrics will also allow your SaaS marketing agency to modify your digital strategy so that they can address any potential shortcomings. This constant process of reviewing and refining your digital marketing tactics will yield an optimized ROI. 

Optimize Your Strategy 

Speaking of ROI optimization, one of a SaaS marketing agency’s primary purposes is to develop a winning digital strategy for your business. This development may involve improving your current plan of attack or crafting a new strategy from the ground up. The right digital strategy can propel your business to previously unimaginable heights.

Generally speaking, a digital strategy is your company’s roadmap for getting noticed online. Your digital strategy should address key concerns like brand building, where to market, how to advertise, and much more. 

Additionally, your digital strategy must identify your target audience and break down various segments of this group into client personas. A persona is a digital marketing template that highlights some key personality traits and selling points for each subgroup within your target audience. 

For instance, common client personas for SaaS businesses may include the IT manager and the C-suite executive. When designing marketing materials, you will need to target each of these types of clients slightly differently. 

Both parties will analyze a different set of factors when deciding whether to purchase your solution. The C-suite executive will consider factors like ROI and overall cost, whereas the IT manager may be more concerned with your product features and ease of deployment. 

Shift Your Focus Back to Core Business Processes

As a leader within your organization, you may feel like you have to handle everything yourself. While this may be possible when your business is in its infancy, it is not a sustainable solution during times of growth. The more responsibilities that you attempt to juggle, the less focused you will be on core business processes. 

Outsourcing your digital strategy to a SaaS marketing agency can alleviate this major growth-related pain point. You can allocate as many or as few digital marketing responsibilities to them as necessary. 

For instance, you can partner with a SaaS marketing agency for select advertising services, such as PPC campaign management. Conversely, you can outsource all digital marketing responsibilities to your SaaS marketing agency. 

Improve Your Return on Investment

Virtually every business owner understands the importance of digital marketing. However, the majority of organizational leaders would like to see a better ROI on their marketing spend. 

Despite their best efforts, far too many in-house marketing teams are unable to pinpoint the specific downfalls that are negatively impacting the efficacy of their advertising efforts. 

This confusion often causes them to resort to drawing assumptions or modifying digital strategies blindly in hopes of boosting ROI. Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of ways to get digital marketing wrong and only a few pathways to becoming noticed.

A premier SaaS marketing agency has boiled the art of digital marketing down to an exact science. These teams constantly monitor key performance metrics, examine emerging trends, and leverage big data in order to guide decision-making. 

They may also employ some tactics that you might have neglected, like email marketing. Email does not get nearly enough love from digital marketers, despite the fact that it produces an average ROI of 4,200%.

Cumulatively, these tactics can increase the ROI of digital marketing efforts and help you get the most bang for your buck. Sounds like a pretty appealing proposition, doesn’t it? Yeah, we think so too.

Become The One To Notice

The ultimate goal of engaging in digital marketing is to stand out within your respective industry. You want it to be easy for prospective clients to develop an awareness of your brand and learn about your SaaS products. 

SaaS marketing agencies can assist your growth efforts by making your brand stand out in the digital marketplace. They can leverage a variety of tactics, including search engine optimization, paid search campaigns, social media marketing, content creation, and more, in order to increase your online visibility. 

This approach will help you deliver your digital products to clients who need them while also improving your overall competitiveness. The best SaaS marketing agencies will not only drive short-term results, but they will also work with you to create an enduring strategy that will guide future outreach efforts.

How to Choose the Right SaaS Marketing Agency

A quick query of the phrase “SaaS marketing agency” on your favorite search engine will yield countless results. As soon as you hit the “Enter” key, you will be bombarded by flashy paid search advertisements and organic results. While it is great to have options, you must take the time to find a partner that aligns with your business and its needs.

Specifically, we suggest that you employ the following tips when vetting a SaaS marketing agency: 

Review Their Portfolio

Before you fill out a contact card or reach out to a marketing firm for a consultation, check out their portfolio. Firms that are confident in the quality of their work will undoubtedly have a page dedicated to case studies and other content that highlights their past successes. 

The content on this page should inspire confidence that the SaaS marketing agency can drive real results with its work.

When reviewing the portfolio page, pay special attention to any case studies that pertain to industries similar to your own. The case study should outline the problem the client was facing and clearly demonstrate how the marketing team solved that pain point. 

While we recommend that you be wary of any companies without a portfolio on their website, you can always request this information from an agency directly. However, if they exhibit any hesitancy to provide you with this information, it is time to continue your search elsewhere.

Discuss Their Skillset

Any SaaS marketing agency worth their salt is going to clearly advertise every service they offer on their website. Some services that you will likely encounter include:

• Paid search
• SEO
• Web Design
• Branding
• Consulting
• Digital Strategy
• Account-Based Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing

A great digital marketing partner can effectively offer all of these services and more. However, you should briefly discuss the services that are at the top of your priority list during the consultation. This discussion will serve two purposes.

First, zeroing in on your specific areas of need early can set the stage for a fruitful partnership. Your prospective digital marketing partner will know exactly what sort of value you hope to derive from the relationship and will have a clear opportunity to deliver. 

Additionally, your point of contact will be able to elaborate on the scope of services that they provide. They can address any concerns that you may have and outline the value potential of their tactics.

Ask Questions

Before booking your consultation, sit down with your team and identify why you are considering a partnership with a SaaS marketing agency. Do you need a better ROI on your digital marketing spend? Has your current SEO strategy stalled out? Do you need a comprehensive digital strategy?

Once you have addressed why you need SaaS marketing services, create a list of questions and concerns to present during your consultation. Ask your prospective partner the tough questions, like how they plan to solve your biggest pain points.

While a SaaS marketing agency will not be able to provide the particulars until they conduct relevant research, they can offer a general overview of their methods. The purpose of this exercise is to assess the expertise of an agency before you hire them. 

Set Clear Expectations

For any partnership to flourish, both parties must be clear about their expectations, needs, and goals. During your consultation, discuss what sort of services you need and hammer out a rough delivery timetable. 

A great SaaS marketing partner will be able to provide insights into their process and explain how long a typical project takes to launch. Keep in mind that launching a PPC campaign will not take nearly as long as developing a comprehensive digital strategy that is tailored for your business. 

Once you formally enter into a partnership, your SaaS marketing agency can provide firmer delivery timetables based on your earlier discussions. 

In addition to discussing completion deadlines, make sure to outline your communication expectations. Find out how frequently they will provide status reports on your campaign and ensure that this is consistent with stakeholder preferences. 

Look for Positive Feedback from Past Clients 

In addition to reviewing the results of past projects, you should also search for feedback from previous clients when researching a prospective SaaS marketing agency partner. If a digital marketing firm has a positive reputation within the industry, then there is a good chance that they will be able to effectively meet your needs. 

When browsing through feedback from past clients, do not let a single negative review discourage you from booking a consultation. However, make a note of what the reviewer’s complaints were and be aware of these potential issues during your consultation. 

For example, if a previous client or group of clients complained about communication problems and you notice similar issues during your consultation, then that agency may not be the partner for you. 

Ensure Alignment of Core Values

Nearly three out of four consumers (71%) prefer to purchase goods and services from companies that align with their beliefs and values. Conversely, many consumers will actively avoid doing business with companies that support a cause they disagree with. 

By sharing your company’s values with your target audience, you can galvanize prospective customers and nurture feelings of loyalty among your client base. 

When engaging in these activities, you must not only be cognizant of what values you highlight, but you should also be careful who you choose the partner with. 

You must seek out partners that align with the core values of your company. Not only will this practice help you develop a mutually beneficial partnership, but it will also allow you to minimize the risk of alienating your clients. 

Browse Their Website

Have you ever navigated to a new website, only to leave a few moments later due to its non-responsiveness? 

If so, then trust us; you are not alone. Over 73% of web designers cite website non-responsiveness as the primary factor contributing to bounce rate. The bounce rate is the percentage of users that leave a website after viewing just one page. 

In addition to responsiveness, users want to be captivated with dynamic content and an intriguing design from the moment that a webpage loads onto their browser. The best websites will draw users in and encourage them to explore additional pages. 

So what does all this have to do with SaaS marketing agencies, you ask? Simple, an agency that claims to be an expert at capturing an audience’s attention should have a pretty awesome website. How do you expect a SaaS marketing agency to improve the effectiveness of your digital efforts if its own website is bland and uninspired? 

The Cost of Using a SaaS Marketing Agency

Now that we have recapped the benefits of working with a SaaS marketing agency and discussed how you can identify the ideal partner for your business, let’s turn our attention to the cost of these services. The total cost of working with a SaaS marketing agency will be influenced by four primary factors:

Scope of Services

The scope of services is by far the most influential factor when discussing the cost of working with a SaaS marketing agency. For example, hiring a digital marketing firm to manage your social media marketing campaign for the next six months is not as costly as outsourcing all digital brand-building efforts. 

However, opting in for more services can offer a better return on your investment because digital marketing efforts are interconnected. Even if you think you have a handle on your paid search campaigns, a SaaS marketing agency will be able to create a cohesive strategy to ensure consistency across all advertising mediums. 

All that being said, the top SaaS marketing agencies will scale their suite of services to align with your current needs and budgetary constraints. 

They will work with your team to identify your most pressing needs and focus on addressing those weak points first. This focus will allow you to leverage a professional marketing firm without overtaxing your budget. 

Marketing Budget

When working with a SaaS marketing agency, they will want to know how much you are willing to invest in paid search and social media marketing efforts. Although paid search and social media marketing are only two components of your digital strategy, these channels have the potential to offer a strong return on investment. 

Paid search is particularly beneficial for businesses that are gearing up for a major growth initiative. Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can produce near-immediate results in order to drive more traffic and fuel conversions. 

Frequently, paid advertising efforts can bridge the gap while the SaaS marketing agency builds your organic presence with SEO content and other strategies. 

Your Timetable 

As you might expect, a SaaS marketing agency may charge a higher fee if you need them to expedite project turnaround. Therefore, it is best to plan ahead and seek out a SaaS marketing agency before crunch time. Otherwise, you will either need to pay a premium price for services or reevaluate your project completion timetable. 

The Experience of the Agency

No SaaS marketing agency can guarantee results. However, if a digital marketing firm has a strong track record of success, then it will likely be able to produce similar results for your company. 

As with many other things in life, you get what you pay for when it comes to partnering with a SaaS marketing agency. Going with the cheapest option out there may save you a few bucks on the front end. 

But you are doing little more than throwing your money down the drain, especially if you contract with an agency that is not familiar with the needs of SaaS businesses. 

While partnering with a dynamic and experienced SaaS marketing agency may cost more upfront, it will also yield a better ROI. These agencies have the knowledge, expertise, and skill set needed to provide you with a high-performing digital marketing strategy that can produce stellar results. 

Maximizing the Efficacy of Your New Partnership

When you’re considering outsourcing responsibilities to a SaaS marketing agency, never lose sight of the fact that it is a partnership. As such, both your team and the firm will need to do their parts in order to ensure that the undertaking is successful. 

After you have selected the best possible SaaS marketing agency for your business, there are several things that you can do to maximize the impact that your new partnership has on your company. Specifically, we recommend that you:

Communicate Regularly

One of the best things you can do to help your SaaS marketing agency is also one of the simplest. Make sure that you adhere to your agreed-upon communication schedule and remain available to your point of contact. 

Your consultant or other point of contact will need to connect with you at regular intervals throughout the partnership. If they cannot easily get in contact with you, then they may not be able to meet agreed-upon delivery timetables.

If you are going to be indisposed, make sure to designate someone to communicate with the SaaS marketing agency. A lack of communication can not only spoil an otherwise healthy partnership, but it may also diminish the ROI that you receive on digital marketing services. 

Trust Your SaaS Marketing Agency

In the early stages of a new partnership with a SaaS marketing agency, it may be challenging to let them take point and manage your digital branding efforts. However, doing so is essential if you hope to optimize the return on your investment. 

Whenever you are tempted to insert yourself too far into marketing, campaign management, or content creation, remember why you hired them. Hopefully, you selected your SaaS marketing agency using the strategies outlined above and determined that they were the best team for the job. 

Trusting your SaaS marketing agency does not mean that you have to be left out of the loop. On the contrary, they should keep you apprised of new developments, the progress of your latest campaign, and other relevant information. 

If you are working with a leading marketing firm, the results will be evident on the back end as well. You should be experiencing an increase in site traffic, leads, and, ideally, revenue. 

Review Performance Reports

When relaying your expectations to your SaaS marketing agency, you should have addressed the topic of performance reports. 

Most SaaS marketing agencies will either send their clients’ performance reports at regular intervals or provide them access to a reporting dashboard. This approach improves the transparency between all involved and allows your stakeholders to see how the partnership is delivering genuine value to your business.

While it is the responsibility of the SaaS marketing agency to provide you with this data, you must take the time to review all of this information. 

By doing so, you can identify what is working and what isn’t. You can also compare this information to your most recent sales data in order to measure the impact that the partnership is having on profitability. 

Voice Your Needs

Any good SaaS marketing team will understand that your company, and its needs, will evolve over time. However, they cannot appropriately manage your digital strategy unless they are made aware of these changes. 

Whether your development team is working on a new SaaS deliverable or your stakeholders want to take the company in a different direction, it is vital that you relay this information to your marketing firm. 

In addition to keeping them in the loop about major organizational changes, you should also be clear about any concerns that you may have. For example, if you believe that your brand is not visible enough on social media, voice this to them. 

A great digital marketing partner will gladly double down on social media-based brand-building efforts in order to help address your concerns. They will also let you know what you should do to assist them, such as investing in more paid social advertising.

When both you and your SaaS marketing agency have open lines of communication and can confidently voice any concerns, the partnership will be far more productive. 

Insights ABM: The Premier SaaS Marketing Agency in Dallas

Located in the heart of Dallas, Texas, Insights ABM has developed a reputation for helping brands become noticed in the digital space. While we are headquartered in the Lone Star State, Insights ABM proudly serves growing businesses, massive enterprises, and companies of all sizes throughout the nation. 

Our diverse team of branding specialists, marketing gurus, campaign management pros, and expert strategists know what it takes to accelerate your growth trajectory.

If you would like to learn more about Insights ABM or the results we deliver, we invite you to explore our portfolio or review the numerous case studies that outline the efficacy of our tactics. You can also schedule a free consultation and discuss your company’s needs with one of our SaaS marketing pros.