Technology firms that market location-based solutions are great at product development. We thought we would provide a few tools and tips to help these same companies do just as well marketing their SaaS platforms.
My partner and I feel qualified to provide this answer. We have a dual role, being experienced marketers of technology company products and services (check us out here). We have also developed a GIS SaaS platform (PrezoPro) for one of our digital marketing clients. This product enticed us to examine the map industry from a marketing point of view.
Here's what we have learned:
1. Buyer Personas.
If you haven't already, you’ll want to create buyer personas to find out how your potential customers think so you can better understand their needs, wants and pain points. A prospective client who is interested in your desktop map SaaS application is going to have far different concerns than someone who is developing mobile apps. More on creating Buyer Personas here.
2. Content Creation Roadmap.
Figure out what part of your marketing is working and what’s not. We suggest performing an audit to identify needs and gaps, which will help you build a helpful, relevant journey for prospective customers. We recommend evaluating your data by using a useful analytics tool, like this one from HubSpot. Then map out your content creation roadmap.
3. Use topic clusters and pillar pages instead of relying on keywords.
It doesn’t seem fair that as soon as you figure out one search system, another system replaces it. Now the same is happening again with keywords. As machine learning, artificial intelligence, and conversational search continue evolving, and the same keyword-centric formulas are increasingly less effective due to changes in Google’s algorithm. Find out why using topic clusters and pillar pages, instead of relying on keywords, is how search is evolving.
4. Calculate a Conversion rate
As a busy professional, it’s nice to know that your lead generation planning and strategizing can be automated and silently working the background. Every interaction customers have with you on social media becomes a data point. You’ll also want to measure the activity of form fills, and call-to-action offers and calculate a conversion rate.
5. Lead nurturing best practices
Lead nurturing, as part of inbound marketing, involves reaching out to your prospective clients, whether they subscribe to a SaaS platform or operate on-premises. You want to learn as much as possible about their business. With knowledge in hand, you can offer them relevant content at every stage of the buying journey and win the business when they’re ready to buy. Learn more about how to do that here.
John P. Espinoza, CEO Green Street Digital, has worked with GIS Maps and significant 3PL logistics providers and Tech for more than 15 years and is HubSpot Inbound Marketing certified.