
SaaS marketing tactics and case studies - noelceta
https://apollodigital.io/blog/saas-marketing
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gk1
If you're a founder scanning this list and feeling overwhelmed: Don't worry,
this is not a list of strategies. It's a list of tactics that your marketing
team may or may not deploy as part of an actual strategy.

(If you tell a Sand Hill Road audience that your go-to-market strategy is,
say, "Strategy #31 -- Launch Your SaaS on ProductHunt," or give a list that's
43 items long, you'll get laughed out of the room before you can pop open the
lightly flavored seltzer they gave you.)

You can safely ignore this list until you figure out a real strategy, and once
you do just hand this list over to your marketing manager in case they run out
of ideas.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
Agreed - I've had a lot of conversations around marketing for SAAS companies
and tried to put them into more of a visualization:

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l-0VLKWIzqu2dwyxmmNJ...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l-0VLKWIzqu2dwyxmmNJB3PaeygHagTGzg1QBsoHyWU/edit?usp=sharing)

Should be noted that this is really from the perspective of B2B SAAS.

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andrewveitch
I'd suggest adding time to this. For example, Content Marketing is great but
won't do anything significant for at least a year but PPC is instant.

Sometime you need it fast :-)

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kristianc
These are all tactics / campaigns, not strategies. A LinkedIn ad is not a
strategy.

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codegeek
I am genuinely curious about this. If Linkedin Ad is tactic, what would be the
corresponding strategy ? I am asking because currently, my B2B SAAS business
is totally lost on digital Marketing and we are trying to figure out how to
solve the problems.

~~~
kristianc
The corresponding strategy would be to have an overarching campaign narrative
which was aimed at achieving a specific goal (registering interest, requesting
a demo, signing up for a trial account, visiting a campaign page and going
further down the funnel), or establishing a specific position for your brand
in the market. This would be mapped to specific KPIs or metrics that you
wanted to achieve.

A LinkedIn ad (or a Facebook ad, microsite, TikTok, Snapchat), targeted at a
specific audience or audience subset, might be one tactic amongst many that
you used to drive people toward achieving this goal. You would have different
tactics for different parts of the funnel (i.e. an ebook for someone at the
top, and a demo or webinar for someone at the bottom). You would then measure
the success of these tactics to determine where to direct spend to achieve
your goal.

~~~
codegeek
Thanks. That clears it a bit more. Do you do consulting on the side ? Would
love to talk more about this.

~~~
cjblomqvist
Not parent, but I could help you out. carl@ my username .com

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tagawa
> “Install an email-tracking tool.”

No, please don’t do that.

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coder1001
Great list, would love to see a budget range for each of the tactics, the
definition of small/medium-high budget can vary greatly depending on who you
ask!

~~~
noelceta
We actually wanted to do a budget range, but it gets real complicated real
fast. A micro-site, for example, can cost you anything from (technically) zero
because you have an internal team, to 6-figs because you're using an
overpriced dev agency. The same applies to most things. You can build links
for nearly free with an outsourced link-building team, or you can hire
freelancers that charge 1k / outreach

~~~
mercwear
Nothing costs you zero. Everyone on your team (I assume) is paid but even if
they are not compensated with cash or stock, their time is not free

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noelceta
My point exactly, that makes it even more complicated.

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noelceta
You're really getting into semantics here. Yes, an internal team does NOT mean
zero costs. I was just trying to make a point.

Want to discuss content? Make a comment about content, not the way something
is worded

~~~
mercwear
I asked you about content strategy vs tactics in another comment and you
responded with “tomato tomat-o”. Not the most engaging of replies. It’s
apparent this was click bait to begin with.

~~~
skmurphy
I don't think it's click bait. There is a lot of practical advice in the
article and real examples of implementation. His "tomato" answer is a refusal
to engage and be helpful, but the article itself is a very good roundup of
marketing tactics. I am not affiliated with Apollo, but I do help startups
with lead generation and can recognize quality content in an area I have
expertise in.

~~~
mercwear
I agree there is some useful content in the article however there is nothing
original. The article is a compilation of marketing tactics that can be found
when you search for "marketing tactics". It just feels like a lazy and thrown
together attempt to push site traffic for them. Maybe I am being overly
critical, if the HN community as a whole likes the post and content then
great!

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elitan
Thanks for a great resource!

