SaaS Marketing Channels

Marketing channels are the pathways companies use to tell potential customers about their products. They can be physical, like newspapers, but digital channels are now considered essential for successful promotions. In fact, some companies rely on digital outlets almost exclusively. This is especially true of SaaS companies and other software developers.

SaaS marketing channels can be divided into three main segments: owned media, paid media, and earned media. Paid media includes traditional online advertising forms, such as ads on search engines, paid placements of articles and other information, banner ads, and more. The common denominator is that with paid media, your message only appears after you pay a publisher for the opportunity.

Owned media includes your website, your company’s social media channels, and other outlets that you control completely or almost completely. Earned media involves things like media outlets writing articles or producing video content about your company or its products. Typically, this type of media is earned when your company does something newsworthy or releases a notable new product.

If your company is in the software industry, you have another owned option to keep in mind. You can use your SaaS distribution channels to send advertising along with delivered products. This is a popular strategy for upselling.

What Are the Different Digital Marketing Channels?

Targeted display ads, retargeting, targeted social ads, email, and your website (including a chatbot) are considered the top digital marketing channels for 2021.

Those asking this question will also find that there hasn’t been much change between digital marketing channels 2019 and digital marketing channels 2020 or SaaS marketing 2020, at least at the wide-view level. While some sites have come, gone, or changed, the big ones are still cranking away. Google, Facebook advertising, LinkedIn ads, Twitter ads, and various tech-related outlets are still strong. Along with these, you can add owned media channels like your own site, your email list, and non-paid content you post to the social media sites.

What are Digital Channels?

If you find yourself asking “what are digital channels?” you’ll find that the basic answer is quite simple. Digital marketing channels provide ways to reach your targeted audience based on where they spend most of their time online.

What Are Marketing Channels With Examples?

Examples include email, your website, social media sites, and advertising on other people’s sites. Ads can also be added to mobile apps, or you can create an app that keeps your company in the customer’s mind by providing some sort of needed functionality.

You can find specific marketing channels examples at the Terminus Resource Hub, various consulting firms, and similar outlets. Study them to see just how they are used, who they are likely to reach, and to see if you think you should incorporate them into your channel strategy.

Be sure to look for earned media examples, owned media examples, examples of paid media channels, and organic advertising examples when you go to the Resource Hub. There will typically be both PDF and PPT versions of these, so you can get the format you prefer. Be sure to look for examples of more than one type of each. For instance, organic search is just one example of organic marketing. By getting other examples, you can see and make use of more possibilities.

Digital Channel Strategy

Your digital channel strategy should, in part, depend on what you’re trying to promote. Therefore, a SaaS marketing strategy example will be different from one for promoting something like shoes online.

What Is SaaS Product Marketing?

It is the type of marketing that is done to promote products that are available as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings.

You should always develop a strategy and SaaS marketing plan before you start taking specific steps to market a product. This helps you avoid missteps, keeps your actions tightly focused, and is far more efficient than just “shotgunning” out marketing plays.

If you’re new to developing a SaaS marketing strategy, be sure to seek out a marketing plan template PDF, a B2B go to market strategy template, a B2B SaaS marketing plan template, a SaaS go to market template, a SaaS marketing strategy template, a SaaS marketing budget template, a B2B SaaS go to market strategy template, a marketing plan template for software company, or several different SaaS marketing templates. Looking at multiple templates lets you choose the one that best fits your company, its offerings, and your team’s working methods.

You should also be sure to pick up templates that deal with some of the other aspects of your company. For example, a SaaS growth plan template will be good for the period after your team’s initial go-to-market strategy has been implemented. Knowing how to keep the sales coming is as important as knowing how to get them started.

Budget is another key factor in marketing, so pick up a SaaS marketing budget template to go with your SaaS marketing strategy template.

Many of these templates are available in PDF format. Examples include a software company marketing plan PDF, a B2B SaaS go to market strategy PDF, a marketing plan for software company PDF, and a SaaS marketing plan PDF. Once you examine these, you should have no trouble developing your own marketing plan for B2B SaaS rollouts.

Digital Sales Channels

Digital sales channels can overlap with digital marketing channels, but the distinction is that the sales team will use them to communicate with customers and prospects, rather than just for one-way advertising. Still, marketing should work with the sales team to help them achieve the unified end-goal.

There are several common SaaS acquisition channels. The digital ones include virtual meetings, email communication, virtual events, and even website chat. A SaaS customer acquisition strategy will often focus on the digital aspect, but for enterprise-level B2B offerings, may include offline options as well. Notably, B2B customer acquisition channels often allow for far more personal contact than B2C ones. For this reason, eCommerce acquisition channels are sometimes completely automated from a consumer’s perspective, while B2B SaaS customer acquisition can be high-touch.

Because of these differences, a go to market strategy for B2B SaaS companies will be much different than one for B2C-oriented firms. When you look for more information, be sure to choose the SaaS business model PPT that matches the type of strategy you need. With the right strategy and execution, you can gain great SaaS acquisition multiples.

Owned Marketing Channels

Not all owned marketing channels are ones that you literally own in the legal sense. Your search engine rankings also fall into this category. Organic content marketing is another term you may occasionally hear to describe this.

What is organic marketing? It can take many forms, but the most popular of the organic marketing channels is search. Success is gained by obtaining high rankings in the unpaid, or “organic,” results on search engine results pages (SERPs). The benefits of owned media like this include the fact that you can get many customers from one investment in gaining these ranks.

Fortunately, plenty of people realize that there is high demand for good SERP rankings, which means that there are also plenty of companies standing ready to meet that demand. However, it is unusual for them to advertise themselves as an organic marketing company or organic marketing agency if their focus is SEO (search engine optimization, or the art of getting good search rankings)! Instead, look for an “SEO firm” or “SEO expert.” We recommend Demandwell, a company that not only does SEO, but also provides coaching and consulting to B2B SaaS marketers. Alternatively, you may decide to navigate the world of organic marketing tools on your own.

That said, organic search is not the only example of organic marketing there is. Other organic marketing ideas involve getting people talking about your product or your company in a favorable way – and preferably, one that involves people getting your product. Organic content marketing is often a cornerstone of such a strategy.

Paid Digital Marketing Channels

Even though a successful SEO campaign gives the highest ROI, it has its downsides. One of these is that it is relatively slow when compared to more traditional forms of advertising. Another is that your search engine rankings are up to the engines themselves, so you might lose rank without warning at any time. Paid digital marketing channels help you avoid the casino-like uncertainty that accompanies SEO, and is faster, as well. However, its downside is right in its name: You have to pay.

There are many paid digital marketing channels available. Types of paid media include pay-per-click ads, such as Google AdWords, which put your ads above organic search results. These ensure that your listing will be seen even if your organic SEO is insufficient. You can also pay for your ads to appear when people download other software. This is an important part of the SaaS distribution model for some companies.

Other online marketing channels include banner ad networks, paid content publishing on large sites, video ads, and more. Download a digital marketing channels PPT from the Terminus Resource Hub to see more examples, along with suggestions on how to use them.

Best SaaS Marketing Campaigns

One way to get ideas for your own marketing is to examine some of the best SaaS marketing campaigns, which are discussed at the Terminus Resource Hub. At the Hub, you can find many resources to help you be successful, including a SaaS marketing plan PPT, a SaaS presentation PPT, presentations like 5 Ways to Market a SaaS Startup, examples of marketing campaigns for software companies, and highlights of the best B2B SaaS marketing campaigns. It also has examples of the best SaaS social media efforts.

You can also work with a B2B SaaS marketing agency like Demandwell, and let them handle your campaigns for you. If you don’t need to have your hands directly on the wheel, this is the easiest option.

Why Is SaaS Marketing Different?

SaaS products require ongoing payments instead of just one. Even though SaaS has been around for a while now, you’ll still have to convince some potential companies that it’s worth using a product that operates under this model. Another reason is that with most SaaS software, there is no physical copy for the customer to have after purchase. Instead, it is either entirely in the cloud, or includes a downloadable component plus a cloud aspect. This, too, requires educating potential customers about the benefits.

There are other differences between SaaS and other products, too, and they also affect how the software or platform is marketed. To learn more, be sure to visit the Terminus Resource Hub. It has everything you need to create a successful campaign, including a basic SaaS marketing PDF, in-depth discussion of specific marketing aspects like earned framework, and templates for every part of your marketing strategy and detailed plan.