The primary business objectives of any software as a service (SaaS) product company targeting businesses, is to acquire new customers and prevent customer churn.

And to attain these two objectives; SaaS marketers typically adopt Omnichannel and/or classical multichannel marketing strategies such as paid advertising, organic search, email, social media (SM), phone call, direct mail and others.

This article specifically focusses on social media as a marketing tool for SaaS product companies operating in B2B space and covers following key aspects:

1. Advantages
2. Cons and Solutions
3. Targeting Options
4. Importance of regulatory compliance

(1) Pros – Reach > Communicate > Acquisition > Upsell/Reinstate/Retention > Referrals = Brand Building

SM is the amongst the very few measurable communication channel through which SaaS (or any) companies can achieve ALL of the following from a single tool:

1. Reach segmented company’s individual or reach audience at a massive scale
2. Communicate
3. Persuade prospects to subscribe to the product
4. Upsell or Cross-sell – The customer can then be approached to upsell/cross-sell i.e. lifetime value of the customer will increase and they will remain a paying customer for the years to come.
5. Retention – Most importantly persuade customers to not churn. That is customer churn rate can be reduced.
6. Referrals – Finally a happy customer can make use of SM to recommend the product which eventually is a proof of a trusted brand and strong indicator of a good net promoter score.

Besides, the data collected for prospect/customer can be immensely valuable to improve the product or service or take decisive action on evaluating the effectiveness of the channel and many others.

(2) Cons – Social Rant > Churn/Downsell

An enraged customer can reach out on social platform, outburst, post a negative review and eventually churn or down-sell. This may directly impact the company’s revenue and reputation. And even a small dent on the reputation in the fiercely competitive SaaS market can negatively affect the business.

However SM is the fastest and most critical channel to validate, respond the ire tactfully and resolve the issue either online or offline (provided the contact details are available).

(3) Targeting Options – SM tool for every business and objective

Selection of SM channel primarily depends on the product, target audience, segment and the marketing budget. While there are many SM channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and each tool offering various targeting options; there is no better alternative then LinkedIn for SaaS B2B product companies.

And one primary reason of using LinkedIn is reaching a niche segment; which no other advertising channel/social tool offers.

E.g. Marketers can target an individual who is –

• Cyber Security Expert working in
• XYZ industry/company having
• 500+ employees and
• Based out of California/London

Meanwhile third party database providers can also offer this data but they are not always reliable and up-to-date. Most importantly, marketers may end up sabotaging the brand, if personal data is used without an individual’s consent; violating the compliance norms (e.g. GDPR in European Union or CCPA in California).

(4) Never Ignore – Regulatory Compliances

One of the most critical aspect every organizations (including SaaS companies) should adopt when communicating on social channels are the regulatory compliance such as GDPR, CCPA etc.

Meaning, companies should not use personal contact details stated by the respective law for purposes (e.g. call/email) where the specific individual has not given consent for.

Contact details could be name, job title, phone number, email address, etc. Check out official guide from DMA-UK on social media and GDPR.

Conclusion –

SaaS product based companies should include social media in their marketing stack with an long term objective of establishing a trusted brand by initially focusing on achieving short term goals.

(Image source – gettyimages.in)

Author Bio:

Hi, I am Nikesh Mehta owner and writer of this site.

I’m an analytics professional and also love writing on finance and related industry. I’ve done online course in Financial Markets and Investment Strategy from Indian School of Business.

I can be reached at nikeshmehta@allonmoney.com. You may also visit my LinkedIn profile.