Top SaaS Email Marketing Strategies to Generate More Sales
More than most other industries, SaaS relies on bringing in customers who stick with their products. For an Saas company to succeed, they need to not only land fresh leads but keep them engaged and using their service for years.
Longevity is key to a fruitful SaaS relationship, with contracts and upselling deepening a symbiotic bond. What SaaS players can’t afford is a high turnover in users (what is known in SaaS circles as churn) or long and drawn-out sales cycles. Relationships need to be forged quickly, and built to last through positive relations.
So, with that in mind, it’s time to ask if your SaaS business is taking advantage of email marketing strategies. And if not, why not?
Here’s why email marketing is a game changer for SaaS companies in search of more sales, and how ScoreApp plays a part in making it work.
Why email marketing campaigns are a gamechanger for SaaS companies
SaaS companies face a number of challenges on a daily basis. There are long, drawn-out sales cycles, the threat of churn – of long-term relationships falling apart – and a need to attract and keep high-quality leads.
It’s a lot. But what if we told you that email marketing could solve it all? With the right SaaS email marketing strategies, companies can find those leads, nurture the relationship after conversion, and even sell further products and services.
Sound too good to be true? Well, take a look here at all the ways email marketing can increase sales.
1. Nurture long sales cycles with drip campaigns
Because of the long-term nature of SaaS relationships, it’s unlikely you’re going to get a quick, spur-of-the-moment sale. SaaS sales take longer to bring to fruition. The relationship has to be cultivated, often while leads are evaluating their options and comparing your offering against competitors’ and budgets.
It’s a long game, for sure, but one that automated email campaigns are well suited to. Email allows SaaS businesses to consistently communicate with prospective clients. Drip-feeding these warm leads with valuable content and product information will grow their trust in your brand.
How to implement drip campaigns
At its core, a drip campaign is an automated sequence that kicks in after certain criteria are met. That could be completing a quiz, or signing up to a webinar or waitlist.
Once ScoreApp integration has loaded the CRM with the lead’s details, you can use targeted email sequences to craft a drip campaign that targets the unconverted.
There are a few topics that are evergreen:
- Pain points and how you can solve them – Anyone who is looking around for an SaaS partner has a specific issue. An issue that’s a barrier to their success – a consistent frustration – and they need someone to take that weight off their shoulders.
An email drip campaign that demonstrates your knowledge of that issue, but also how you would approach and solve it, is a powerful tool indeed.
- Key features – An SaaS contract is a commitment that stretches over months, if not years. For any prospective client to take the plunge and sign up with your business, they’re going to need to know what you do and how you do it. Not only that, but they should also be able to tell what sets you apart from your competitors. Emails that do that are invaluable to the decision-making process, and can easily sway prospects your way.
- Third-party endorsement – It’s not always enough to just tell people how good your service is. Nobody would expect anything less, no matter how well written and value packed your email content is. The reality is that people listen to other people. It’s why every industry, business, and product is reviewed by the public, and why word of mouth is still so powerful.
In PR circles, this is known as third-party endorsement. And if you have case studies or testimonials to share, then you can build a drip campaign around it. Case studies can cover the whole process from beginning to end to demonstrate your expertise in tackling certain pain points. Testimonials can also be cherry-picked by industry so that prospects can see themselves reflected in the stories of your success.
We should note that these drip campaign topics work best when carried out over time. That means avoiding the hard sell in favour of a more patient, value-driven approach.
SaaS leads have to be led gently down the sales funnel before they make such a big commitment. Pushing too hard will most likely turn them off. Continuously proving yourself, and effortlessly demonstrating your knowledge and capability, is a much stronger tactic for bringing in sales.
2. Support user onboarding with a strong email sequence
One thing SaaS businesses cannot afford to be is opaque. For a relationship to grow past the initial conversion and carry on indefinitely, the user needs to get up and running with ease. A bad impression made during the initial set-up will be difficult to shake off. That’s why it’s so important to support user onboarding with an email sequence designed to guide them through to active use.
Any user who has signed up with your SaaS business has to be able to see the benefits immediately, and know how to use it effectively. Automating a strong onboarding sequence is your chance to smooth the process and get them hitting the ground running.
How to create an onboarding sequence
The importance of onboarding sequences to the customer experience means they should always be part of your SaaS email marketing strategies.
Any email that takes new users through your SaaS platform will be extremely valuable, as will a quick-start guide. These can be automated through ScoreApp’s integration with your email marketing platform, but that’s not the only way ScoreApp can lend a hand.
By using a ScoreApp survey, you can canvas your existing clients and get their opinions on what anybody new to the platform should know. This feedback will form a valuable basis for your onboarding email sequence.
These sequences are part of the push for SaaS product adoption and integration, so including clear calls to action (CTAs) is a must. If you don’t explicitly tell the reader what the desired action is, and how it benefits them, then you can’t complain when they don’t do it.
CTAs should be used across the whole marketing strategy, but they’re especially important for crafting impactful emails with high click-through rates. And if your CTA isn’t strong enough, ScoreApp’s A/B testing will let you implement a better option that gets the right results immediately.
3. Improve customer retention
For SaaS companies, it’s not enough to make a sale and move on to the next prospective customer. It’s a service, not a product, after all, and being a service provider means relying on long-term relationships. It means building recurring revenue through customer retention.
Now, obviously, part of the key to customer retention is offering an exceptional service. To address customer pain points in a way that’s better or different from your competitors. That’s a given. The other half of the equation, though, is communication.
SaaS email marketing strategies let businesses regularly keep up with their users. The power of providing helpful and value-led content, as well as company and service updates, straight to inboxes should not be underestimated. It’s this kind of relevant and repeat contact that engages service users, maintains customer satisfaction, and reduces cancellations.
More than that, a good SaaS email marketing strategy can even bring back lapsed subscribers. Let’s talk about re-engagement campaigns.
How to use re-engagement campaigns
Re-engagement campaigns are a way of targeting those subscribers who have paused their subscription, cancelled, or otherwise gone dark.
Offering discounts and special incentives is one way in which re-engagement emails can draw customers back into the fold. The same goes for highlighting any new features that could be a strong enough incentive to return on their own.
Lastly, never shy away from asking for feedback. At the very least it will give you an idea of what could draw back a wayward customer later down the line, but it could also jog a customer’s memory about why they used you in the first place and bring them back quicker. And by using a ScoreApp survey, you’ll gather data to inform future insights.
4. Promote upselling and cross-selling
Not all SaaS clients are equal. Of course you value and appreciate them all, but the majority of SaaS concerns have tiered pricing structures that give access to different service levels or tool sets (ScoreApp certainly does). Once a lead is signed up, emails can be used to promote upselling and cross-selling.
Let’s take a look at the difference between the two tactics:
Upselling
Upselling is the art of encouraging an existing customer to upgrade to a better, more expensive service. Whether they’ve already signed up, or are considering a basic version of your offering, some customers can be convinced to buy into a more high-end package. It might sound cynical, but it’s your chance to promote premium features to users who don’t realise the impact of the additional benefits.
Cross-selling
Cross-selling is recommending products or services that work well with what a client already pays for. For SaaS companies, that could be software integrations or tools.
How to upsell or cross-sell
Not everyone is going to appreciate your upselling or cross-selling efforts. And if you push too hard, it might backfire and sour the relationship. The decision to upsell or cross-sell needs to be made based on added value to the customer, not to your own accounts. Demonstrate the value of premium-tier features to tantalise entry-level users and show the benefit of complementary tools.
Done properly, at the right time, and to the right customer, you’ll strengthen the bond with an informed further purchase. ScoreApp quizzes can help here. By asking the right questions in quizzes and surveys, you’ll have a strong idea of which services will benefit which customers and segments. With that, upselling and cross-selling become more likely to succeed.
5. Drive user engagement
Even if a customer has signed up to use your SaaS product, you can still email them to promote further action.
Think of it as giving them a little nudge. Let them know about features they aren’t using, or guide them through set-up and integration. You can send out emails highlighting abandoned carts or registrations, or even reminding users to complete a profile.
How to improve user engagement
By integrating ScoreApp with your CRM and email marketing platform, it’s easy to track customer activity. When you can see how, when and why they use certain aspects of your service, you’ll be in a position to act.
Establishing personalised and automated email sequences helps reduce churn. By putting the spotlight on new or underused features, you can guide them towards a better understanding of your product. With that understanding comes the chance to upsell or cross-sell additional features.
6. Provide a better customer experience with personalised marketing
If you really want your SaaS email marketing strategy to entice prospects, you have to speak to them directly. A series of bland, impersonal emails just won’t do the job. In fact, a lack of personalisation is more likely to turn potential customers away. Why would they hang around if your communications don’t show an awareness of the problems that brought them your way in the first place?
The benefits of personalising your emails are not to be sniffed at. In fact, it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t when it can lead to benefits such as:
Higher conversion rates – When you include recommendations and incentives (such as special offers and discounts), the chance of a conversion increases by 20%. Thanks to the lead-specific data a good lead magnet such as a ScoreApp quiz puts in your hands, it’s easy to find the right content to seal the deal.
Better engagement – By talking to leads and customers directly, no matter how they have been segmented or which categories they fall into, you’ll boost engagement. It’s a no-brainer, really. Content that appeals to specific pain points and questions is always going to be more appealing than something generic. That’s why a whopping 72% of customers will only engage with personalised emails.
Stronger customer loyalty – Personalising your emails gives customers a more relevant experience, with messages tailored to their pain points and priorities. What you get in return is a customer who feels seen. Who knows that you’re looking out for them. That you understand them. That sentiment translates to stronger loyalty to you and your brand going forward.
Further actionable insights – The more you nurture a lead with personalised emails, the more likely they are to engage in other ways. If they can be coaxed into completing further quizzes or surveys, you’ll have access to extra data for future personalisation.
How to personalise email campaigns
When it comes to creating personalised email campaigns, including the name of each contact, rather than a generic greeting, is the best way to start. After that, it’s as simple as using the data ScoreApp has fed into your CRM to find product or service recommendations that match your lead’s needs. Pain points, budget information, desired features – this can all be found in quiz and survey responses and used to inform personalised emails.
Pair these bespoke recommendations with engaging copy and you’ll have a personalised email campaign that really speaks to existing and potential customers.
7. Continually test your SaaS email marketing strategies for the best results
No SaaS email marketing strategy should ever be set in stone. To get the most out of any activity, businesses need to monitor their performance against key metrics.
As far as SaaS businesses are concerned, their email metrics should include:
- Open rates – What percentage of recipients is opening your emails? What’s turning off the ones who aren’t? Is it a timing issue? The content? The subject line? The average open rate is a little over 35%, which will give you an idea of performance.
- Click-through and conversion rates – Are readers following the links in your emails and making a purchase? If they’re not, then it’s possible you need to rework your calls to action (CTAs). CTAs need to be strong, clear, and value-led if they’re to be alluring.
- Churn rate – Churn reduction is key to SaaS survival. If churn is too high, then new email marketing strategies will need to be devised and put into play.
Every email marketing strategy should be put under scrutiny. When you integrate ScoreApp with your email marketing tool, you can take advantage of immediate A/B testing. Change your variables – such as your subject lines, content, and copy – and your send times, and compare the data that comes back.
Once you have that, you can quickly make changes to your emails to get the best outcome. Current campaigns will be optimised, and future campaigns will start from a better position.
Send targeted SaaS email marketing campaigns with ScoreApp
By now, we really should have you sold on the benefit of using SaaS email marketing strategies and campaigns to generate more sales.
A strong and varied set of email sequences is crucial to building strong relationships with new leads and existing customers. It can help you demonstrate your expertise and the value of your product and upsell or cross-sell services that are even more valuable to leads as a result. Email sequences allow you to bring attention to new and underused features, or reconnect with disengaged clients. However you look at it, well-used email campaigns have a real impact on the bottom line.
That impact will not be as strong without ScoreApp. When SaaS businesses integrate ScoreApp into their email marketing, they give themselves invaluable tools such as immediate A/B testing, lead segmentation, and, most importantly, a wealth of high-quality data.
The data that comes from ScoreApp quizzes and surveys forms the backbone of personalised email marketing strategies. From customer budgets, priorities, and pain points to feedback on your product, the data will provide insights that can be funnelled back into making better campaigns. Better campaigns. More engaged customers. More conversions. That’s all there is to it.
Like most SaaS companies, ScoreApp has subscription tiers. You can try it for free, though, to see how much difference we can make to your email marketing strategy before you choose. There’s no hard sell, we promise.
Try ScoreApp today and generate more sales with your SaaS email marketing strategy.
