7 Ways to Ace Your SEO in 2019
Nov 28, 2018
10 min read
Table of contents
The way search engines like Google rank websites changes everyday. Yes, you heard that right! Apart from the big algorithm changes that Google announces once in a while, certain little tweaks and optimizations are made to their algorithms everyday to provide better results to searchers which you don’t even know about. And 2019 is going to be no different!
With a few new algorithms introduced this year, Google will give more importance to those websites that adhere to those algorithms for sure in some time to come.
Also, Google is focusing more on providing the best search experience to their searchers and if your website doesn’t, you will lose a few rankings on the SERPs for sure in the year to come.
So, what should you do exactly to stay in the good books of Google and ace your Search Engine Optimization in 2019? This post is all about that and a lot more. So, let’s dive right in -
Rankbrain is going to be more prominent than ever
Rankbrain is one of the most prominent algorithms Google has released in recent years. But what exactly is it?
It is a Google indexing algorithm backed up with AI which promotes/demotes websites on SERPs based on a certain set of factors. It is designed in a way to make sure that the best results come first for searchers searching for a specific query.
Since it’s a machine learning algorithm, it automatically adjusts websites on the SERPs and doesn’t require human intervention at all and can make changes to SERP almost instantly.
But what’s it based on? The algorithm was implemented to make sure users get the best search engine experience and the websites that they click on do that as well. So, websites that focused more on providing the best UX to visitors were rewarded by gaining Google’s top real estate, which gets the most clicks. Doing all of that is handled by Rankbrain now.
So, you’ll have to keep Rankbrain in mind and optimize the UX of your entire website to provide a better experience to the people who stumble on your website after searching on Google. Doing this is going to be extremely important in 2019!
But to ace Rankbrain, you need to know the exact factors on the basis of which it grades websites on the SERPs, which are -
1. Dwell Time
Dwell time is the time a visitor spends on your website. Obviously, a visitor won’t stay on your web page or blog if the content is irrelevant to them or is of bad quality. So, providing quality content that aligns with searchers intent is of utmost importance to excel in the Rankbrain era.
2. Click-Through-Rate
Rankbrain is designed to look closely at the CTR of each and every web page on the internet to give an appropriate ranking to them. For example, if a search engine result on the 6th position is getting a higher number of clicks than a result on the 3rd position for the same query, Rankbrain would notice and bump up the rankings of the result on the 6th position. But since dwell time is a factor as well, just getting a higher number of clicks on your web pages will not be enough, you will have to provide the kind of content that makes users stay as well to improve your search engine rankings.
Take care of these two factors for all your webpages & blogs and Rankbrain would do the rest.
Go Mobile or go obsolete
Google cares about their searchers. And apparently, a majority of them search for queries from their mobile devices. Mobile searchers have long surpassed desktop searchers and Google wants to provide them with the best user experience.
For the same, Google rolled out the Mobile-first indexing algorithm in March this year which changed how the algorithm accessed websites forever. Under this new algorithm, Google crawlers would prefer a mobile website first for indexation and ranking to primarily provide better results to their mobile searchers.
So, having a mobile website that properly supports your desktop website is not something you can procrastinate anymore, it has become an absolute necessity under this new algorithm.
Google prefers having a mobile responsive website over other methods of going mobile because of its ease.
But having a mobile website is not enough, you’ll have to provide a great user experience on your mobile website as well (remember, Rankbrain) to make an impact in 2019.
Focus on working on the speed of your website
According to a study performed by Google themselves, a website’s speed is the greatest factor that determines if a website’s UX is satisfactory or not. And since, Google has been lately focusing so much on providing a great user experience to all their users, they rolled out an update that ranked websites based on this sole factor. They called it the ‘Speed Update’.
While the factor is not the heaviest, focusing on optimizing the speed of your website will certainly give you a advantage and it would greatly improve the UX of your website, which is always a nice thing to do under the watch of Rankbrain.
To make your site load faster, you can get rid of heavy elements on your website or minify or combine scripts. Or else, you can use Google’s own tool to check and optimize the speed on your desktop and mobile website - PageSpeed Insights. This tool will tell you everything there is you can do to make your website load faster and perform better in SERPs.
The increasing relevance of unlinked Brand mentions
Google has long been solely dependant on backlinks for determining the authority of websites over the web. The general idea is, the more backlinks a website has, higher will be it’s authority in the eyes of Google, and higher it will be placed in SERPs. And it has been like this since the inception of Google.
But all of this is going to change. The way your brand is mentioned over the web on social media conversations, blog posts, forums and any other medium is closely looked over by Google. It takes into account the tone, intent and context of each brand mention over the web to ascertain if it’s positive or negative and the way people talk about you over the web will certainly affect your ranking in 2019.
‘Unlinked brand mentions’ over the web are gaining relevance each day and it calls for social listening. You’ll have to jump on each and every conversation happening about your brand over the web and make sure it’s in positive light to maintain your brand reputation in the eyes of Google.
Google’s Gary Illyes mentioned it himself. So, if you’re not actively monitoring your brand mentions over the web and making sure they add to the overall reputation of your brand, you will struggle to increase your search engine rankings is some time to come.
To monitor your brand mentions over the web, you can make use of tools like ‘Awario’ and ‘Brand Mentions’ that would help you do just that with ease!
Searchers are consuming more video content than ever
People preferring to consume video content over any other type of content is nothing new and has long been a trend that’s still going strong.
If you are looking to gain a lot of engagement from your audience on your website, social media or blogs, then video is certainly your best bet because people simply prefer video over anything else.
Obviously, quickly watching a video about something is always easier than reading a ton of content and that’s why video is still so popular. In this world, where every brand is throwing up a lot of content on the web and is seeking attention from their audience, people have found a better way to consume content on a daily basis that quickly gives them the facts and is engaging to consume.
So, if you’re not making use of Video, you're definitely missing out on a lot of engagement and additional SEO benefits. I would suggest you quickly start creating some video content for your brand and publish it on Youtube. Since, Youtube is owned by Google, you can also enjoy some obvious search engine benefits in the time to come.
Target people searching for answers on Google Assistant
Optimizing your content for voice searchers is currently a hot topic. And it has all the reasons to be. Voice searches globally are on a tremendous rise and you’ll be missing out if you don’t write content that targets those users head-on.
But how do you target them? Here are 3 ways that would help Google Assistant pick your content over others when it comes to answering voice search queries put up by searchers -
- You need to be on the top 3 results for Google Assistant to even consider picking up your content.
- If your content appears in the featured snippet, your chances to get picked up by the Google Assistant increases by folds. Here’s how you can get featured in the featured snippet.
- Answer your own questions in your content. Usually, most of the voice queries start with a question and to answer that question, Google Assistant usually picks up the content that revolves around that exact question. So, try answering the most basic questions people might have around your focused keyword.
To know more about what else you can do to target those voice searchers, Forbes compiled a list of best advices from 15 members of the Forbes Communications Council… do have a look at it.
Quality content and backlinks are still important
While the above suggested ways are vital to ace your SEO in 2019, don’t forget that content and backlinks are still the top ranking factors that matter the most to Google.
With Google placing more importance on the user experience that each search engine result provides to users (Rankbrain), I think creating quality content should be your top priority for acing SEO In 2019. If your content provides real value to your target audience, they will be inclined more to read it all. And when they dwell more on your content, Google will notice via Rankbrain that you have a knack of providing quality content to all your users. Which I think is the point of SEO in general.
Link building and providing quality content goes hand-in-hand as only when people love your content, they’ll want to share that content on their own blogs and within their own social circles, expanding the reach of your content and building some valuable backlinks along the way. If you continue to provide awesome content to your audience, the biggies in your industry will notice and would want to link to you too. That’s the essence of natural link building right there, and it’s not going to lose value in 2019 and beyond!
If you are looking to approach your SEO in 2019 with a bang, the above mentioned ways are the perfect way to do it. But before you start implementing them, keep this in mind, Rankbrain ranks website keeping in mind the response of your audience to your content. If they bounce even before your site loads completely, Rankbrain would not even let you reach the first page of Google, let alone acing it. It’s a machine learning algorithm that does it all for Google and looks at the UX signals of your website really closely to award rankings. And it’s not easy to game Rankbrain because of it’s self-learning mechanism. You’ll have to provide quality content to your audience to get your SEO ball rolling in 2019 and there’s no escaping it now!
Having said that, I hope the above mentioned ways will help you greatly in improving your website’s overall SEO potential! Being a SEO agency ourselves, we’ll rely greatly on these tactics as well to provide the best services to all our clients.
If you think there are other ways (I know there are) that have helped you greatly in achieving SEO success lately and you're confident that they’ll be of equal importance in 2019 when it comes to increasing a website’s search engine rankings, do let us know about them in the comments.
Top 7 Link Building Mistakes In-house SEOs Make & How To Avoid Them
Higher the number of backlinks a website has, higher will be its authority and rankings on SERPs. It has been proven time and time again. While many SEOs are aware of this fact, not many care about the fact that it has to be done in the most natural way possible with strict quality control. If you care about building a backlink profile for your company that Google will love, this post is just for you! Being a link building company ourselves, we care about the link building services we provide to all our clients and actively use the best link building techniques to do so. It was about time we let you in on some of them as well… But there are many ways to build backlinks for your business. You could approach other websites, industry influencers and biggies with your content and ask them personally to feature your content on their website for a backlink or you could create remarkable content that people and publishers would love to link to without asking. Either way, here are some mistakes most SEOs commit that does more harm to their backlink profile and SEO in general than good. Let’s have a look at some of them - 1. Getting most of their backlinks from irrelevant websites In their pursuit of getting as many backlinks to their website as possible, most SEOs tend to derail from their website niche and start acquiring backlinks from wherever they can, without looking twice at the website they are getting a link from. Getting a backlink from a high quality but irrelevant website is equal to acquiring a low-quality link. For example, If you sell premium hair care products, getting a high-quality backlink from a publisher in the IT industry will do you no good. But if you get a backlink from an authoritative blogger that has a decent reader base and actively blogs about the best hair care services and products in town, it could prove to be pure gold for the authority of your website. Try staying as close to your industry niche as possible when it comes to acquiring backlinks from other authoritative websites and watch your Google position rise up. 2. Going for automatic link building schemes Automatic link building in any way is bad for your website. But still many SEOs every year make use of ‘automatic natural link building’ tools found on the web. While many of these tools may give you an initial push in your rankings by publishing your website link on link farms and low authority web 2.0 sites, Google, sooner or later, catches up to them and may even penalize it for indulging in such practices. The essence of link building is in providing relevant content to websites related to your industry and automatic submission kind of kills it completely because you never get to know on which website your links are being posted on. A big no-no when it comes to natural link building. 3. Building backlinks for just the homepage Think about it for a minute. Obviously, no publisher who is looking to provide the best information to their readers would want to link to a services page, unless it’s a paid promotion of course. But if you are still putting links of your website’s homepage in all your guest posts with no informative blog of yours to accompany it, it will turn off readers, and eventually Google. You could try internal linking for building the authority of your homepage but when it comes to guest posting, try only linking your blogs in it, that too if they are super relevant to the topic you are writing for. 4. Imitating competitor’s link profiles In the fast-paced world of SEO, it is normal for SEOs to spy on the backlink profiles of their competitors and completely copy them to their last link. While doing this is a great SEO strategy to surpass them in SERPs, do it without your personal touch and you’ll never be able to outrank them. It’s totally fine to copy your competitors backlink profiles, but do your own market research as well with it and try digging out opportunities that your competitors don’t have the slightest idea about. You’ll obviously have to do a little extra to gain that edge in website rankings over your competition. 5. No personal touch in outreach Working on the way you outreach your content to authoritative publishers can sometimes make all the difference but sadly not many SEOs stress over it too much. Using the same outreach template for each and every outreach request can get your awesome content rejected without them having a look at it and most of the authoritative publishers can smell a template from a mile away. Try adding your own personal touch to all your outreach requests. Be as personal as you can and write clearly how your content piece can help their readership and why are you approaching them in the first place. Doing this makes them interested in your mail and your chances of getting published increases by folds. 6. Building links too fast Google keeps a close check on the number of backlinks a website acquires over time. Do it too fast and they might even penalize you for good. Usually, if a website acquires too many links in a day or two, it’s because the webmasters are using a tool that is automatically doing it for them or they are posting their links on link-farms, which are both red flags for Google. When done naturally, you would be able to gain 10-20 backlinks for your website at max and that includes commenting on various blogs in your niche, posting on social media, posting on social bookmarking websites, syndicating your blog to a high-authority publisher and all the other things SEOs do to acquire links. See it from the eyes of Google. If a website is getting 1000 backlinks a day, doesn’t it reek of something fishy? Sounds spammy even when I say it, let alone doing it and getting away from the clutches of Google. 7. Not keeping a check on the current backlinks Most of the SEOs build links and completely forget about it. But the task of building an authoritative backlink profile for your business doesn’t end when you acquire a link, it also includes making sure that the link stays active as long as possible. It’s common for websites to delete certain blogs after a certain point of time, making sure that a proper redirection link is placed on all your backlinks if something like that happens to your publisher’s website is as important as acquiring that link. Also, the domain authority of websites keeps fluctuating from time to time, so going through your backlink profile and making sure that your link stays authoritative and contributes positively to it is what SEO’s need to focus more on when it comes to staying on top of their game and gaining some valuable places on the SERPs. While there are a ton of bad link-building tactics being put to use by SEOs every day out there, these 7 are the most prevalent in the SEO world of today. Stay away from the above-mentioned pitfalls and you’ll do just fine. If there are any other link-building tactics you think hurts your SEO more than it does good, do share it with us in the comments. ...
read more
What Are The Benefits of CRM? How Is CRM Different From Marketing Automation?
CRM or Customer Relation Management is the automated process that efficiently manages the business relationship between you and your customers- present and prospective leads. With a clear-cut objective of enhancing how the business meets its customers, the concept of CRM enables you to understand your consumer base to streamline the product purchase process and promote customer loyalty and brand credibility aspects. The primary role of administering CRM policies into your business operations is to achieve better customer satisfaction statistics because customer loyalty plays an imperative role in upscaling or reducing the revenue numbers of your firm. Source: Pexels A survey from 2018 said that 16% of the organizations in the USA had considered delivery of real-time consumer interactions across touchpoints as effective. It shows that organizations were keen to use CRM technology. With the accelerating growth in the business industry, the need to anticipate customer behavior and interact with them is of utmost significance now. CRM technology majorly includes policies, practice rules, and guidelines that frame governing standards on communicating with identities- customers, employees, departmental suppliers, and everyone linked with the business. Luckily, CRM technology is not department-specific, which means every division of your business can establish and avail the benefits of CRM to boost the firm's overall revenues. Many global companies say that technologies like CRM help them to ensure a good customer experience. They consider it to be a key driver behind their digital transformation. An interesting fact about CRM is that its global market has had an estimated USD 43.7 billion in the last year. Researchers say the value shall increase exceedingly in the coming years. While CRM provides an easy way to store the data regarding your current customers and potential leads, lead-transformation opportunities, campaign details, and sales figures, the best thing to know about it is its easy to access by your company. With direct access to more information about customer conversions and sales stats, your management can make better growth decisions and lead with productivity amongst the rivals. Advantages Of CRM In today's time, your business should aim to make the most of customer relationship management technology to improve what you have with your existing customers and acquire new prospects with the proper means. The following are some of the prime advantages of implementing CRM technology in your business 1. Eases The Discovery Of New And Right Customer The primary advantage of a CRM application is that it allows your business to target and acquire new customers. One can accomplish it by following a customer persona or tapping the existing customer's profile description to anticipate your target customer. CRM technology uses lead-identification tools to realize the appropriate target and further nurture them till they're ready for sales, thus increasing the conversion rate, The identification of new customers, CRM also aids the nurturing of the existing customers that are a vital part of business growth. Your business needs to maintain the same relationship with the current customers, ensuring trust-building and flourishing with time. In addition, when your business gets the correct information about customer background via CRM, it becomes easy for your sales department to focus on conversions and client building. Source: Pexels 2. Making Sales and Marketing Services Simple Another significant benefit of using customer relationship management technology in your business is how simpler it makes the sales and marketing functions, resulting in effective customer communication. Moreover, the tech system facilitates efficiency on the different communication channels to ensure that customers do not wait for your response. For instance, marketing automation that uses autoresponders to communicate with the users can benefit the CRM system. 3. Personalized Approach With Technology CRM allows you to take charge and store the consumer data, sales figures, and mostly every information about each business component so the management can make personalized outreach possible. As you get routine insights about your customer's interests, it becomes efficient for your business to tap on one-on-one communication and design campaigns with marketing automation tools. For instance, if your prospective customer searches for your product/service, it is a great time to facilitate drip marketing campaigns that include user-specific informative emails rather than generic ones. By triggering these actions, your business earns a spot at being relevant and providing what the customers want. Critical Differences Between CRM and Marketing Automation Tools While many people consider CRM and Marketing Automation as one concept, it is highly recommended to blend both in your managerial decisions. Nevertheless, CRM and marketing automation do serve different purposes in a business. Let's have a closer look at it: Who Uses It? While customer relationship management technology is used by your business' sales department to feasibly operate and generate consumer leads, the other technology, i.e., marketing automation, is majorly handled by the marketing department. They streamline repetitive communication tasks with existing customers and new prospects. It is essential to identify the areas where your business can deploy both the concepts, such as CRM and Marketing Automation, both help acquire customer-related information and insights. Source: Pexels Why It Is Used? The prime difference between CRM and Marketing Automation is what functions they perform. The former technology helps provide insightful information to your sales team to connect with the right customer with the right content. On the other hand, Marketing Automation allows your business to eliminate human-made errors by deploying software to perform marketing tasks. It is put into use by your marketing team to run effective campaigns for generating quality leads and publicity. Business Goal Here, Marketing Automation and CRM somehow depend upon each other and work in harmony. The former's objective is to bring in quality leads and provide them to the latter, the sales team. Obtaining quality leads might be the first step that your business does with the help of Marketing Automation; however, the next step is to transform and nurture those sales-ready leads into business customers via CRM. Having that said, if your business wants to integrate sales and marketing functions with the help of the latest tech tools like CRM and Marketing Automation, then you've reached the right page. Saffron Tech provides exceptional services that incorporate components of CRM and MA to support your business functions. Our firm grip on our clients' expectations helps us analyze, predict, and design scalable campaigns. Are you interested? Visit our website and schedule an appointment with just a click! ...
read more
9 SaaS Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Startup Faster In 2024
Strategic marketing is the linchpin for achieving business growth in the fiercely competitive Software as a Service (SaaS) industry. With the global SaaS market projected to reach US$ 374.50 billion by 2028, it has become imperative to carve out a distinct presence in the market and communicate the value of your offerings effectively. Without strong marketing in a SaaS startup with a dedicated saas startup budget, your business may remain undiscovered or, worse, overlooked by your ideal customers. Startup SaaS marketing strategy is your blueprint, planning a well-defined path for reaching your target audience and achieving your marketing objectives. It encompasses the tactics and techniques required to attract and engage customers for your cloud-based software. It's not just about attracting leads; it's about fostering trust, refining your value proposition, and standing out amidst competition. The typical yearly churn rate within the SaaS industry falls in the range of 5% to 7%. An effective marketing strategy is a growth catalyst and a means to reduce customer churn rates. Now, equipped with better knowledge of SaaS growth strategies, it's time to take proactive steps. Making a plan that translates into real, measurable results is the next logical step on your journey toward thriving in the SaaS market in 2024 and beyond. How to plan your SaaS Startup Marketing Budget? Developing an effective SaaS marketing budget necessitates a specific plan for the dynamic Software as a Service (SaaS) business. B2B SaaS businesses typically dedicate around 9% of yearly recurring income to marketing budget, highlighting the symbiotic link between sales and marketing expenditures, which frequently comprise 31% of total revenue. Startups in pre-Series B may invest 15-20% of their gross sales to obtain market exposure. Following Series B, this proportion rises to 6-12%, finding a balance between growth and optimization. Strategically aligning with industry benchmarks, the formulation of a comprehensive budget involves considerations such as annual recurring revenue (ARR), recurring revenue, monthly revenue, and monthly recurring revenue (MRR). To achieve growth objectives, a nuanced approach integrates social media expenditure into the budgeting process. Employing a reverse-engineering methodology, which takes into account customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer lifetime value (LTV), ensures a balanced and informed financial strategy. This methodology not only allows for the optimization of resource allocation but also facilitates sustainable revenue growth. By incorporating key metrics like ARR, recurring revenue, monthly revenue, and MRR, businesses can adapt dynamically to market trends, fostering financial resilience and strategic agility in pursuit of long-term success. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) in the SAAS Marketing Budget for Startups Monthly Recurring Revenue is an important measure in the SAAS business, especially for companies planning marketing expenditures. Understanding and predicting MRR helps entrepreneurs assess the reliability of their income streams, allowing for more informed budget allocation. Tracking MRR enables adaptation, ensuring that marketing activities are consistent with subscription-based revenue models. For startups, prioritising scalable growth and client retention is critical, and MRR acts as a guidepost for these efforts. Marketing efforts in the SAAS marketing budget for startups: In the changing SAAS industry, efficient marketing activities are critical to startup success. Allocating resources for smart marketing, content production, and client acquisition is essential. Startups must use digital platforms, social media, and customised content to raise brand awareness and attract new customers. Creating a flexible budget that allows for experimentation and adaptability is essential. Successful SAAS marketing initiatives focus on client engagement and retention, which contributes to long-term revenue development. Marketing for criminal defense attorney How To Develop a SaaS Marketing Plan? Prior to embracing a strategy tailored to your needs, gaining insight into various business facets proves crucial. Delve into the intricacies of Saas budget planning by understanding key components such as the annual marketing budget, marketing costs, and expenses. This proactive approach allows a comprehensive overview of resources allocated to marketing activities, facilitating the selection of optimal marketing tactics. With a strategic understanding of Saas budget planning, businesses can align their financial resources with targeted marketing goals, ensuring an efficient allocation that maximizes the impact of marketing effort. In this dynamic landscape, the ability to comprehend and navigate the nuances of budget planning sets the stage for informed decision-making and the successful execution of impactful marketing strategies. In this section, we will let you know some aspects you need to research to develop a SaaS marketing plan as per the saas marketing mix and choose the best strategy for your business. Know Your Target Customer A deep understanding of a saas marketing customer journey is the foundation of any successful startup SaaS marketing plan. This involves knowing specific needs and pain points to help shape your SaaS value proposition. You need to grasp what motivates their buying decisions and pinpoint the features and benefits that matter most to them. Equally important is knowing where they spend their time online and what kind of content resonates with them. One invaluable tool to accomplish this is creating buyer personas. These personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers, crafted based on real-time data and market research. This step typically begins with identifying key demographics such as age, gender, income level, location, and job title. This information lays the groundwork for tailoring your marketing efforts to address your audience's specific preferences and requirements. Do Thorough Market Research Market research is vital for strategic business planning, extending beyond customer insights to encompass a comprehensive understanding of the market, industry trends, and customer behaviors. This research is crucial for informed decision-making regarding marketing strategy, budget allocation, and optimizing marketing spend. Effectively managing the marketing budget involves careful consideration of financial resources dedicated to marketing activities, ensuring maximum impact. Evaluating the effectiveness of marketing activities is essential for aligning them with organizational goals. The collaborative efforts of a well-coordinated marketing team are instrumental in executing strategies and adapting to evolving market dynamics. In essence, market research is the cornerstone for businesses aiming to make informed decisions about marketing strategy, budgeting, spend, and the coordination of marketing activities through an efficient team. Leveraging these insights enables organizations to navigate the dynamic landscape, capitalize on emerging trends, and achieve sustained success. Market research allows you to identify opportunities, threats, and areas for growth in your industry. It helps you to know where the current market is heading and what predictions can be made for your business. Additionally, thorough market research can provide invaluable insights into your competitors, helping you refine your strategy further. The SWOT analysis can help you understand your position in the market and allow you to position your product or service as the superior choice for potential customers. Track Your Competition Analyzing marketing materials in the fiercely competitive world of SaaS will help you identify areas where they excel and where they might be falling short. By understanding your competitors, you can strategically position your product as a better option for potential customers. You can review your competitors' websites and gather information about their products or services online. By doing this, you can be well aware of their loopholes and better work on them to improve your products, ultimately giving you an upper hand in the market. Additionally, staying updated on industry startup SaaS marketing trends and competitor activities will help you stay agile and responsive to changes in the market. Finally, it's essential to learn from the successes and failures of other SaaS companies by reading case studies and white papers that provide insights into how they achieved success or overcame challenges in reaching their target customers. Develop a Unique Selling Proposition A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) forms the core of your SaaS marketing plan. The distinct feature sets your product or service apart from the competition and resonates with your target audience. Your USP should be clear, concise, and easily understandable to potential customers. Examples of USPs in the SaaS industry include focusing on customer success, showcasing your support at every step, or leveraging cutting-edge technology to provide innovative solutions that competitors cannot match. Providing superior customer support is another approach to differentiate your company from the competition. Thus, developing a USP will help your customers choose your SaaS product or solution over your competitors. 9 Strategies for Your SaaS Startup After knowing about the basics of SaaS and its market, now we will focus on some SaaS growth strategies that can help you gain a better share in the competitive market. Here are 9 strategies that you can opt for your SaaS startup: 1. SaaS SEO Strategy Optimizing your SaaS website for SEO is vital to your digital marketing strategy. While blog post optimization for relevant keywords is crucial, SEO extends to your entire website, with the potential to organically funnel leads into your sales strategies without relying on ads. However, SEO doesn't end at generating leads; it's about developing them into becoming loyal customers. Your SEO efforts aim to secure top rankings in Google search results, ideally within the top three spots. This prime real estate minimizes the need for paid ads, as your SaaS company becomes the go-to solution for specific search phrases. You must also conduct comprehensive keyword research to rank your blog or website better. By understanding your audience's language and search behavior, you gain valuable insights to tailor your content and strategies effectively. To improve your website's ranking, optimization should encompass not just content but also meta-data. One more thing you need to consider is that your meta titles, descriptions, headers, and image alt text are keyword-rich and relevant. High-quality content is the key to successful SEO. You need to create engaging blog posts, informative whitepapers, case studies, and videos to enhance your ranking. Backlinks are like endorsements for your content. Building high-quality backlinks from reputable sources significantly influences your search engine ranking. It fosters your relationships with websites willing to link to your content and, in turn, link back to theirs. A strong domain authority also helps create high-quality referrals and links that establish your website as a reputable source. It's not about assumptions but data-driven decisions. Implement A/B testing experiments to gain insights and visibility that guide your B2B SEO strategy. Image Source: Hubspot 2. SaaS PPC Campaigns Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns are an effective way to drive more traffic to your SaaS offering quickly. Here's a closer look at this strategy: Keyword Selection: You must select the right keywords for your PPC campaign. These are the terms and phrases your potential customers are likely to use when searching for a solution like yours. Ad Creation: Design compelling ads that resonate with your audience. These ads should include a clear value proposition and a strong call to action (CTA). Landing Pages: You should ensure that your PPC ads direct users to the landing pages highly relevant to the ad content. These pages should provide a smooth transition from the ad to the desired action, whether signing up for a free trial or purchasing. Budget Management: Set a clear saas marketing budgets for your PPC campaign and monitor it closely. PPC platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads allow you to control your spending to fit your budget. Performance Tracking: Continuously track the performance of your PPC campaign. Analyze key metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost per acquisition (CPA). Adjust your campaign based on the data to optimize its effectiveness. PPC campaigns generate quick results and promote specific products, offers, or events. They complement your organic growth efforts and can help reach a specific audience segment. 3. Offer More Free Trials Expanding your free trial offerings is an excellent way to attract potential customers. It is a low-risk way for them to experience your software's value. You can offer extended or multiple trials to allow users more time to explore and know your product. The longer potential customers interact with your software, the more likely they will see its benefits and convert it into paying customers. Assess the optimal trial length that aligns with your SaaS solution's complexity. Ensure it provides enough time for users to get a true sense of its value. During the trial period, provide excellent onboarding and support. This can include live chat, email support, or guided tutorials to help users make the most of the trial. 4. Make Sign-ups Easy A simple and hassle-free sign-up process is what makes or breaks a deal for SaaS businesses. If the onboarding process is complex or time-consuming, potential users are more likely to abandon it. Creating an account and getting started with your software is as frictionless as possible. This can significantly impact user engagement and the number of users who take the first step in your sales funnel. Streamline registration forms, asking only for essential information. Lengthy forms can deter users from completing the sign-up process. You can offer social sign-up options using Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn platforms. This simplifies the registration process and saves users time. If the sign-up process involves multiple steps, provide progress indicators to show users how far they are in the process. This reduces uncertainty and encourages users to complete the sign-up. 5. Smart CTAs Smart CTAs (Call to Action) represent a dynamic and personalized approach to engaging website visitors. These elements adapt based on individual users' specific needs, behaviors, and preferences, offering content and offers that are most relevant to them. By using Smart CTAs, you can provide a highly tailored user experience. For example, a first-time visitor might see a CTA encouraging them to download a beginner's guide, while a returning user who has already engaged with your content might be invited to schedule a demo. The power of Smart CTAs lies in their ability to increase the likelihood of conversion. When visitors see content and offers that directly align with their interests and intentions, they are more likely to take action, whether signing up for a free trial, requesting more information, or purchasing. This personalization can significantly boost lead generation and drive more sales. 6. Social Media Strategies Social media has become integral to saas marketing in the digital age. Social platforms provide a space to interact with your audience, share valuable content, and build brand awareness. To create effective social media strategies, start by identifying the platforms your target audience uses most frequently. This may vary depending on your specific SaaS offering and your ideal customers. Regularly sharing informative and engaging content on your social media channels is essential. It helps in keeping your audience engaged and informed. Content can range from blog posts and videos to infographics and webinars, depending on your audience's preferences. Moreover, consider using targeted advertising on social media. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter offer advanced targeting options, allowing you to reach a specific audience segment. This can be especially beneficial in SaaS marketing, as you can direct your content to business decision-makers that align with your target market. Social media is not just about broadcasting your message; it's also a platform for engagement. Replying to comments, interacting with your followers, and encouraging discussions about your industry or solutions. This two-way communication fosters trust and engagement, which can lead to a stronger online presence and a broader customer base. 7. Content Marketing Content marketing is an important part of any saas marketing strategy. By consistently creating valuable and relevant content, you demonstrate your expertise and provide solutions to the problems your target audience faces. Your content can take various forms, including blog posts, videos, infographics, eBooks, webinars, and more. The key to effective content marketing is maintaining a consistent and informative presence. Your content should be aligned with the needs and interests of your target audience, addressing their pain points and offering solutions. Content should be educational, engaging, and shareable. High-quality content attracts leads and establishes your brand as a thought leader in your industry. By consistently delivering content that adds value to your audience's journey, you make your SaaS solution more appealing and gain the trust and credibility needed to drive conversions. Image Source: Bestwriting 8. Account-based SaaS Marketing Account-based marketing (ABM) is a highly targeted strategy that focuses on engaging high-value accounts or companies, rather than individual leads. In this approach, your marketing efforts are tailored to these target accounts' specific characteristics, needs, and preferences. Personalization is key in ABM. It involves creating personalized campaigns, content, and messaging to cater to the unique requirements of each target company. You may create custom landing pages, send tailored email sequences, and develop content that directly addresses the challenges and goals of these accounts. ABM can be highly effective for SaaS startups looking to target larger enterprise clients. It lets you focus your resources on a select group of high-potential accounts, increasing the likelihood of securing more substantial deals. To execute ABM effectively, it's essential to have a deep understanding of your target accounts, the decision-making processes within those organizations, and the key pain points and objectives that your SaaS solution can address. 9. Referral Marketing Referral marketing is a strategy that harnesses the power of your satisfied customers to bring in new business. It encourages your existing users to refer others to your SaaS solution. These referrals are highly effective because they come from a trusted source – someone with firsthand experience with your product and its benefits. To implement a successful referral marketing strategy, consider: Referral Programs: Create structured referral programs that incentivize customers to refer others. For instance, you can offer discounts, free months of service, or other rewards for successful referrals. Social Sharing Buttons: Make it easy for your customers to share their positive experiences with your SaaS solution on social media. Adding social sharing buttons to your platform or website can encourage users to spread the word. Customer Advocacy: Identify and cultivate enthusiastic customer advocates about your product. Encourage them to share their experiences through testimonials, case studies, or speaking engagements. Referral marketing is a cost-effective way to grow your user base and build credibility and trust in your brand. This kind of marketing helps satisfied customers become ambassadors for your SaaS solution, and you will find that word-of-mouth referrals can be a powerful driver of new business. Conclusion In the SaaS industry, effective marketing strategies are the deal breakers for business growth. For all the SaaS-based challenges you face, to hire a saas marketing expert who can help you cover the path to success is important. Thus, Saffron Edge is here to help you out. Saffron Edge, a saas marketing agency, stands ready as your trusted partner on this journey. From SEO strategies to PPC campaigns, we offer a comprehensive solution to drive your SaaS startup to new heights. Our expertise includes all the strategies that are comprehensive and fine-tuned. We are intimately familiar with the SaaS industry and are dedicated to keeping you ahead of the curve. Don't let SaaS competition deter you. Partner with Saffron Edge and explore innovative marketing strategies to reach new heights. Your SaaS success story begins here. Ready to make your team a winning saas marketing team? Contact us today, and let's unleash your full potential. ...
read more
Subscribe to our newsletter
Get fresh stories, case studies, and
advice
from successful creators and industry experts.