How Can SaaS Companies Effectively Market Each Stage of the Sales Funnel?

Every SaaS business needs B2B (and B2C) SEO to make it big. That’s a fact, not sales talk to get you to hire a B2B SEO agency. Whether you realize it or not, vital parts of your business rely on SEO, including customer service and digital marketing.

Marketing, in particular, is crucial because concepts such as the sales funnel lead to better ROI.

This guide goes over what B2B SaaS SEO does, including:

• The relationship between B2B SaaS SEO and the sales funnel
• Three tips for customer retention

There’s a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

Want to learn more about the Digital Authority Partners approach to SEO? Watch this video!

B2B SaaS SEO and AIDA: Breaking Down the Sales Funnel

B2B SaaS SEO is the application of search engine optimization (SEO) in the context of marketing software as a service (SaaS) to other businesses. Many organizations, such as government agencies, institutions, and large companies rely on B2B products to function properly.

The sales funnel refers to the process through which people go from lead to customer. A funnel might seem like an odd choice of shape, but it actually makes a lot of sense. The truth is, out of tens of thousands of leads, only a handful convert to paying customers.

The sales funnel comes in many forms, but the end goal is the same – customer conversion.  Here is the commonly-used AIDA model and its four distinct parts, shown in proper flow order:

Each part of the funnel tackles a different problem, which requires a unique approach to address:

• Awareness deals with brand visibility and how to make your products discoverable.
• Interest is when a person starts looking for solutions to their problems and finds you.
• Decision refers to the stage where leads begin comparing options before buying.
• Action is the bottom of the funnel, which is either making a sale or losing the lead.

Together, B2B SaaS SEO and AIDA guide you through understanding and responding to the concerns of potential customers. Without them, making a sale is infinitely more challenging. Below, we cover each part of the funnel in more detail, along with B2B SaaS SEO’s role in each.

     1. Raise Awareness of Your Business and Products

As the first step into the sales funnel, awareness requires a lot of creative thinking, And example would be deploying eye-catching pay-per-click (PPC) ads on social media platforms like LinkedIn. Awareness does not stop there, though. You must also know how to qualify worthwhile leads.

How B2B SaaS SEO Helps: B2B SaaS SEO teaches you to prioritize marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs) for your marketing efforts. To do that, start with customer relationship management (CRM) software to monitor leads as they go through the sales funnel.

     2. Use Interest To Get Your Foot Through the Door

At this stage, people know your business exists, what products you have, and where to find you. Now what? The next step is for you to capitalize on their curiosity. Begin with subtly giving them more information, through helpful website articles for instance, on how and why your business is their ideal solution.

How B2B SaaS SEO Helps: This is where your business needs to kick its content strategy into high gear. Leveraging interest depends on how well you present your products as viable solutions. In this case, highlight parts of your business that match your audience’s search intent.

     3. Help Customers Make the Right Decision—You

Here, leads are beginning to compile information on similar services, or they might have arrived at this point before coming across your business. Either way, this stage is all about choice. Whether you make it to the final round depends on how compelling your case is to prospects.

How B2B SaaS SEO Helps: A strategy to build a decently-sized backlink profile helps here because reputable sources lend credibility to your business as a top choice. Customer reviews are also a step in the right direction. Anything that provides a favorable comparison is helpful.

     4. Encourage Customers To Take Positive Action

If you’ve correctly done the work, you can expect B2B SaaS SEO to boost your chances of success. Once you close the sale, the next undertaking is onboarding the client and ensuring that everything runs smoothly. After that, your focus moves to customer support and retention.

How B2B SaaS SEO Helps: Turning a prospect into a customer is a major win for your SaaS business. If you followed B2B SaaS SEO best practices, your relationship with the client should be positive. Nurturing this relationship is the next goal of your B2B SaaS SEO strategy.

3 Ways To Retain Customers With B2B SaaS SEO

Progress through the sales funnel does not stop when you successfully made a sale. For starters, clients have every right to change their minds and take their business elsewhere. Secondly, customer retention is not concocted out of thin air, but is an active and deliberate act on your part.

As a whole, SEO for this type of business is demanding from start to finish. Hiring a B2B SEO agency cuts down on the effort involved, while giving you all the same benefits. With one, you can rest assured that strategies like the three below are ongoing to keep customers satisfied:

• Open Communication. Clients rely on your service for smooth day-to-day operations, which is a primary reason why SaaS is such a huge industry. Therefore, customers expect to have an open line of communication in cases of trouble. Take this chance to show your commitment to and provide excellent service.
• Publish New Content. For less urgent concerns, users are most likely to visit your website for guidance. Keep a steady flow of fresh content available, especially on version updates and new features, to make adaptation easier. Remember, for your  less tech-savvy customers, make content and information as user-friendly as possible.
• Send Exclusive Offers. Finally, rewards and exclusive offers are a great way to show customer appreciation and simultaneously keep them happy. It depends on what you can justifiably offer, but discounts and free trials are typical. Offers also double as a way to keep in contact with clients.

Summing Up

Understanding where leads enter, and stand, within the sales funnel is a prerequisite to moving them further down the road toward becoming customers. B2B SaaS SEO gives you the necessary customer retention tools and tactics to keep them from exiting the funnel.

Need help planning for each part of the sales funnel in your B2B SaaS SEO strategy? Contact us to learn how we can help.