Software as a Service (SaaS) is arguably the most competitive B2B industry, with new companies, tools, and platforms launching every week, in every niche. In such a crowded field, marketing isn’t just crucial; It’s existential.
More than 70% of companies already use SaaS products – and that percentage is expected to grow to 85% by 2025. If you’re still doing the same stuff you were three years ago, it’s not a question of if you will fall behind, but when. For SaaS companies, staying up to date on the latest marketing trends is the only way to out-market your competitors.
With that in mind, here are…
The Top 16 SaaS Marketing Trends for 2023
#1. Video Marketing
Of the top five social media sites, TikTok and YouTube feature video exclusively. Instagram, also in the top four, encourages and prioritizes video. Because of that, online videos accounts for more than 82% of all internet traffic. On top of that, 95% of B2B buyers say video helps them decide whether to move forward with a purchase.
Here’s the thing: Video doesn’t have to involve a whole production crew.
All you really need is an idea and a smartphone (or user friendly video maker, like Biteable).
(Check out these 4 B2B video content ideas that require minimal investment – featuring a step-by-step process for each!)
Consider using video to:
- Provide a demo of your product
- Show customers how to do something more easily or more effectively with the help of your app
- Tell the story of your app’s creation and/or how it has helped other businesses
- Feature happy customers who are willing to appear on video to vouch for your product
#2. UX Differentiation
User experience should always be a SaaS marketing trend, in our opinion!
Creating a great user experience can reduce churn rates, increase user satisfaction, lessen user frustration, and create a more engaging experience.
Ultimately, you want the user to have an easy and enjoyable experience, ensuring that they’ll be back for more.
#3. Micro SaaS
These software products solve a problem for a small, niche group of users. Often these products use minimal resources – and are sometimes built using pre-existing no-code tools rather than a team of coders. Profits tend to be smaller, but so is the initial investment.
#4. Seamless Integration
Like UX differentiation, this SaaS marketing trend is about what customers want: apps that share information with each other.
Think of how Whoop works with your Apple phone, feeding sleep data to the free Apple Health app.
Another example: The ticket management system Zendesk can relay information to the Salesforce marketing cloud, preventing the need for humans to have to enter the info themselves.
Trust us, this is a must.
A strong integration system removes the need for a third party, which improves UX as well. This also grows client trust and ensures a unique offering for each partner enterprise.
#5. White-Label Solutions
If you don’t have the resources to build an app from scratch, white labeling is the way to go. It involves purchasing software from another company and then branding it as your own.
Many streaming fitness apps, for example, use white-labeled content management systems. The creators know how to find and include great fitness video content, but they are less adept at building a platform to host it. So they generally buy or lease a whitelabel experience.
E-learning platforms are another example. Rather than build an entire platform from the ground up, a company can purchase one from another vendor – and then add unique content from there.
Benefits of using white labels include:
- Expanded product offering
- Faster time to market
- Reduced development cost
#6. Collaboration Software
More and more people are working remotely. On top of that, fewer companies are using their own servers to host and store content. As a result, employees need a way to collaborate, communicate, share data, report sales, and manage workflow.
While brands like Basecamp and Trello are already solving this problem, there’s still room to grow, especially for products that target the unique needs of certain business types.
#7. Native Advertising
This is a type of paid media that blends in with editorial content.
In the print world, you’re probably familiar with the look and feel of advertorials, which are magazine print ads that look and sound like magazine stories.
Native advertising is similar, except it happens on the web and often blends in even more seamlessly. Often appearing as sponsored content, the ads use headlines that sound like the editorial headlines around them.
Editorial-like ads don’t annoy users as much as pop ups and banner ads. In fact, over 68% of users prefer native ads over the alternative.
#8. Retention Marketing
While some churn is expected, you’ll want to keep your retention rate above 35%. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to remain profitable.
Often, when attempting to boost retention, SaaS developers look at the product itself. They might add new features or improve the product’s functionality.
There’s nothing wrong with that approach. Happy customers tend to remain loyal customers afterall.
That said, we’d like to suggest an often overlooked strategy that’s both faster and less expensive than a wholesale product update.
It has to do with using your marketing funnel to nurture existing customers.
In addition to the emails you send to prospects, you’ll also want to email buyers to…
The opportunities are endless. The point: Keep the conversation going.
Related: Is B2B Lead Nurturing Just Hype?
#9. Organic SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which does pretty much what it sounds like it does.
When someone types words or phrases (called keywords) into a search engine, they’re awarded with a page of results. This is known as SERP, which stands for Search Engine Results Page.
When you optimize your SaaS website and blog posts for search engines, you boost your page ranking for specific keywords. End result: Your site comes up earlier in someone’s search results, making them more likely to check it out.
Some SaaS companies are content with paid media and performance marketing to drive growth… but they’re missing out on organic growth opportunities. We’re not saying you should drop paid ads altogether, but definitely don’t turn a blind eye to using blog posts to drive traffic and, hopefully, leads.
Read more: 5 B2B SEO Trends for 2023
#10. Usage-Based Pricing
Usage-based pricing (UBP) is an increasing SaaS marketing trend.
It works a lot like your utility or water bill. The more you use it, the bigger your bill. The less you use it, the lower your bill.
This is how Amazon Web Services works.
If you hardly store any data in the cloud, you hardly pay anything at all. Load up your cloud with tons of data-heavy video and graphics, however, and your bill goes up.
Another example: Zoom. The base price includes just one user as well as a certain number of meeting participants. For bigger meetings and more users, the price goes up.
These models create happy customers who are less likely to delete their accounts.
#11. Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS)
With blockchain, blocks of connected data are coded cryptographically, enhancing privacy and security. With Blockchain-as-a Service (BaaS), third-parties create and manage cloud-based networks for blockchain apps. Think of them as web hosts that run on a block-chain based app or platform.
What’s the upside for SaaS companies? Increased security. Let’s say your app handles sensitive information, such as patient information that gets communicated from physicians to pharmacies. Sending that information back and forth over a BaaS service keeps it secure.
#12. Advanced Security
Consumers and businesses take their privacy very seriously – as they should. No one likes spending days trying to remove ransomware in order to get their entire system running again.
Hackers, bots, malware, ransomware, and IT issues are continuous threats. Not only do they interfere with business and cost thousands to fix, they can seriously harm a company’s relationship with their consumers. As a result, businesses don’t merely need SaaS apps with the latest security, encryption, and privacy measures, they’re going to request it.
If your app comes with extra security measures built in, use that as a marketing point.
#13. Personalization
People use your software to solve their own problems – and not other people’s problems. In fact, the solutions for other people get in their way. It slows them down.
Whenever possible, use software solutions that onboard and survey customers, finding out what they already know and what they need. Then create a user experience that shows them the tools they most want – and hides the ones that don’t interest them.
#14. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI’s abilities now go well beyond those chatbots that keep customers engaged while they wait for human help.
These days, it can be used for a lot of relatively basic, informational things – like craft certain types of content (“craft” is used loosely here). If you’ve been putting off blogs and emails because you just don’t have the time, AI might be the solution you need. It’s basically just a great place to start and defeat “blank page syndrome.”
#15. Mobile-First
Mobile devices have taken over, becoming something people depend on as part of their everyday lives. If you haven’t already implemented a mobile version of your SaaS product, you need to get that ball rolling ASAP. The creation of a mobile version allows your user to access their software on multiple platforms, allowing for flexibility.
#16. Unbundling
Unbundling is the ability for users to drop features and tools they don’t need or want. For users, this may decrease the overall cost of the software and provide a better experience.
As we mentioned earlier, your customers are only interested in their own needs, not the generalized software offered to everyone. Giving them the ability to choose what they need will create loyal customers.
Conclusion: Use the latest SaaS marketing trends to get ahead
SaaS is constantly evolving and changing as needs grow and technology availability increases. These trends are the result of this ever-changing industry.
Want to get ahead of the change? Try to implement some of these plans in your marketing strategy for 2023 and track the data to see which ones work for your company. You won’t regret it.
