With an estimated 81% of consumers preferring to engage with businesses and brands that have a strong social media presence, social media platforms are a valuable marketing option for businesses to consider—yes, that includes SaaS businesses.
Since the social media strategies that you use have the power to determine the trajectory of your SaaS business, it’s important to invest your resources in strategies that are unique to you.
Here are 6 strategies that will give you the inspiration you need to come up with a unique social media marketing plan for your SaaS business.
1. Affiliate programs to reach niche audiences
Affiliate programs involve partnering with a social media personality with a considerable audience base and getting them to promote your product to them.
Niche audiences can be an excellent source of untapped opportunities for SaaS companies.
Many influencers on social media have a very specific audience that your company may not have considered marketing your product to before. These people have a lot of faith in influencers, so getting an internet personality to promote your product can help you capture this audience.
For instance, Monday.com, which offers a project management application, saw an opportunity for their product among people who started working from home during the recent pandemic.
They recruited social media influencers, like the YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips, via an affiliate program to promote their platform, which helped them gain over 300,000 organic impressions within the first week of the campaign.
2. Micro-videos on your social channels
According to Nieman Journalism Lab, nearly 40% of Gen Z-ers use TikTok and Instagram for web searches instead of Google.
These platforms feature support for micro-videos—also called short-form videos— which are short videos that are at most a minute in length. These videos can be used for:
- Giving your target audience tips on how to resolve a common issue
- Teaching your audience how to use a particular feature of your product
- Making products or service-related announcements
- Introducing your team to your target audience
Micro-videos need to be highly value-driven and dynamic. Featuring a contemporary song that’s creating a lot of buzz can make these videos stand out from the noise and become even more engaging.
Shopify has successfully used short-form videos to expand its reach and connect with its target audience. Today, the eCommerce giant has over 120,000 followers and 1.2 million likes on TikTok.
3. Remarketing ad strategies for social media
Not everyone will convert or buy your product on their very first visit. In fact, only 2% are likely to do so. This is where remarketing ads play a big role.
The purpose of a remarketing ad campaign is to advertise your product to people who have already visited your website. Configuring your ads to target past visitors with a firm intention of purchasing your product or service can be effective at converting them to loyal consumers.
Constantly showing up on your target audience’s screens can greatly improve your chances of earning a conversion. In fact, a single remarketing campaign can potentially increase conversion rates by a staggering 161%.
SaaS companies can make educational videos or offer free trials to former visitors who didn’t convert. These can prove to be powerful ways to get people to re-engage with your website.
Grammarly and Tableau are great examples of what remarketing ads can do for your SaaS brand. Both companies target their past website visitors with several different types of ads through multiple platforms. For instance, Grammarly leverages display ads and YouTube ads to engage its audience.
4. Creating niche groups on social media platforms
If you feel that there isn’t an established community that your Saas company fits into, then you have the opportunity to create one. Building a community that is in line with your target audience is a very powerful way to create a long-term funnel of opportunities.
Platforms like Reddit and LinkedIn are treasure troves of niche groups, where like-minded people gather to share insights.
Establishing a group like this can be an effective way to market your Saas product and also gain valuable insights into your audience’s pain points and needs.
The social media marketing firm, Connect 365.io, created its own LinkedIn group called Social Media Marketing Group by Connect 365.io. This group has over 1.95 million members who share information on social media and digital marketing strategies.
5. Introduce your audience to your company’s culture
Even if your company is a B2B SaaS, you’re still marketing your products to other human beings.
People don’t like engaging with organisations that feel robotic and emotionless. While your company’s goal is to help people solve their problems, you need to show authenticity as well and connect with your audience at an emotional level.
As mentioned earlier, uploading short-form videos on social media is a great way to get your target audience to engage with your company. It also presents an opportunity for you to show your company’s personality.
In this case, creating micro-videos that show off your organisation’s culture in a fun and lighthearted way will allow your audience to get to know your brand better, engage with you more frequently, and help build trust.
6. Using high-quality visuals on social channels
According to a survey conducted by HubSpot, 60% of social media users want brands to use more images on their social channels.
Visuals are especially great for SaaS companies as they are an easy way to break down complex pieces of information about their technologies into a format that’s easy for their audience to understand.
It’s also a great way to provide value-based information about how to improve their workflows and lives through infographics. These don’t always need to be about your SaaS solution. You can give snippets of information about a common problem that a large segment of your target audience is facing and give them some tips and tricks to overcome them.
Here are a few helpful best practices you can use to create impactful visuals for SaaS:
- Use Canva to create high-quality visuals
- Create infographics to list down the USPs of your Saas
Social media is here to stay!
There are many reasons why you should consider a social media strategy for your SaaS business, however, don’t think of it as a one-time quick fix.
Social media is an ongoing process that needs to be continuously improved based on customer data. Yes, it can be a lot of work—and there are even companies that can take over your entire social media strategy for you—but the rewards speak for themselves.
With high ROIs and endless success stories from global corporations to SMEs, the right strategy can help you rank your social media campaign among the best of them.