As competition grows across the SaaS industry, knowing how to promote a SaaS product becomes more important than ever to stand out. Data from recent years shows that marketing can have a powerful impact on the growth of SaaS companies — those who funded marketing efforts last year grew at a significantly faster rate than those who didn’t.
In our recent report of SaaS founder opinions in 2023, we found more than 40% of those surveyed labeled marketing as a top focus for their growth. From tradeshows to inbound marketing to paid advertising across search engines and social media, the specific marketing efforts these founders turned to were diverse, but each sought to provide them the competitive edge necessary to reach customers more effectively.
Determining how to promote a SaaS product requires two key components: choosing a marketing strategy and choosing the right way to fund it. Read on to explore popular marketing strategies and how you can choose the most strategic funding for your needs.
How to Promote a SaaS Product: 3 Marketing Strategies
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing has been soaring in popularity over the past few years as brands of all industries leverage the internet and social media to reach their customers organically. This method has a lower cost per lead and some reports show it generates 3x as many leads as outbound marketing. From keyword-optimized blogs to social media posts and more, inbound marketing enables SaaS companies to target customers using useful, informative content.
This marketing strategy also enables you to position your company strategically in the search engine and fight to rise to the top of results, showcasing your product to a wider audience. It can take some time to see the impacts of inbound marketing efforts, so acting quickly is required to build momentum now — and swift funding is required to support this.
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising is available on a wide range of platforms, from Google Ads to LinkedIn and Facebook, and more. While the results from organic content can take longer to reach customers as it becomes indexed by search engines, paid ads allow you to reach thousands of people very quickly. Paid advertising returns $2 for every $1 spent — a 200% ROI.
While paid ads are a popular choice for many SaaS companies, they can be costly. This is especially true if you opt to pursue paid advertisements through multiple platforms, or if you seek to enact a competitive strategy to target others in the space who also have larger ad campaigns. Being competitive through paid ads requires strategic funding designed to make the funds more accessible and designed with your goals in mind so you can use it in the ways that most benefit your growth.
Trade Shows and Conferences
Trade shows and conferences are prime opportunities to market SaaS products, enabling you to connect with the right people and generate leads by showcasing your product in a vibrant, visual way. These events can boost your brand awareness and promote your company to a highly relevant audience. They can also help you network with the business decision-makers you want to keep your product top of mind for.
Tradeshows require a variety of marketing materials to be effective, from physical booth materials to the development of further marketing materials you will usher your leads to when they connect with you through a QR code or landing page. The travel expenses and marketing material costs can add up, but the right funding mechanism will work with you to ensure you can swiftly and flexibly fund this growth initiative if it feels right for you.
Venture Debt: Strategic Funding for Your Marketing Growth
Whether you choose one of the options above or combine multiple marketing strategies to enhance their benefits, carrying out your chosen marketing plan requires the right funding on your side. Venture debt financing offers a wide range of benefits to SaaS companies, and it’s uniquely positioned to support marketing efforts due to its strategic speed to impact and flexible approach.
Fast
Unlike equity financing, which can leave companies waiting to be ready and competitive in raise rounds — and then waiting longer through a complex financing process — venture debt financing is quickly accessible. With venture debt, you can get the funds into your control faster, enabling you to support critical marketing efforts now. This sets you up more quickly and effectively in your search engine efforts if you pursue inbound marketing, and ensures you have the funds you need now to pursue paid ads or build out tradeshow materials.
Flexible
Venture debt is designed with your needs in mind, empowering you to pursue the growth initiatives that would most benefit your unique business and goals. It’s also flexible in its repayment terms — with River SaaS Capital, you can tailor your repayment strategy to what best suits your needs.
If you want to maximize the profits you hold onto so you can reinvest them into the business and further accelerate your growth, take advantage of interest-only structures that delay principal repayment until down the line. If you want your payments to start smaller and grow as you grow, consider a step-up structure. You can also choose a traditional installment loan and make payments of principal and interest in tandem, and re-borrow any principal you’ve repaid as needed.
Supportive at Every Stage
Venture debt is more start-up friendly than equity and traditional bank loan options, which often have asset and growth requirements that early-stage companies may not yet meet. Venture debt is also non-dilutive when you choose the right partner, enabling early-stage companies to maintain ownership control in the critical early stages, a key priority for many.
For companies further along in their growth, venture debt offers a strategic partner to existing and future equity funds. The combination enables you to manage your equity dilution and monitor your churn rate, as well as maximize your runway. Venture debt can also help you enact the key growth initiatives, like marketing strategies, that will spark growth now before the next raise round, making you more competitive.
Wondering How to Best Promote a SaaS Product? Turn to River SaaS Capital
At River SaaS Capital, we’re committed to helping SaaS companies grow with swift, strategic funding designed to support you at every stage. We understand that the growth journeys of each SaaS company are unique, and we’ve designed our funding to reflect that, empowering you to pursue the growth initiatives that most benefit you and to adapt as your needs change. Our funding is quickly accessible and allows you to put it into action now so you can maximize your growth and stay competitive.
When you’ve discovered how to promote a SaaS product in the most effective way for your brand, we’re here to help you fund it. We also offer growth insight from industry experts to support you on your journey, and GtM strategies for early-stage companies wanting to set themselves up for success.
Reach out to our team today to discuss how we can help you fund your marketing strategy in the year ahead.
