Let me ask you a few quick questions.

• What do you use for creating quick, non-fussy graphics for your social media posts or banners? Is it Canva?
  
  
• What do you use to collaborate and communicate with your team and clients across the world? Is it Slack?
  
  
• Which tool do you use to send large files? Dropbox?

Canva, Slack, Dropbox are all SaaS products that have changed the way we do things. Whether it is managing projects and teams or automating marketing activities, there is almost no aspect of our life remaining untouched by SaaS. There are hundreds of such products that have become an integral part of our life. No wonder Transparency Market Research predicts the SaaS market to reach $164.29 billion by 2022.

In a competitive industry like SaaS where every day a new product is launched, it’s important to create your presence to avoid losing out on potential customers.

While you can check our blogs to know how to top your SaaS marketing game, let’s take some real inspiration from these SaaS companies, so that you can plan your SaaS marketing strategies more effectively.

1. Guide your users like HubSpot

Think inbound marketing, and you will most likely remember HubSpot. Gone are those days of cold calling and cold sales pitches.

Today, users would prefer to read at least two to three pieces of content on your website before deciding whether to engage with you or not. They like to be guided and not sold to. And HubSpot has done it consistently. Got some queries about marketing or sales, you just have to go to their website, and you will get answers to almost all of them. Be it eBooks, blogs, or free certification courses, HubSpot has taken it upon itself to empower the marketers of every small, medium business, and large enterprise through in-depth and unbiased content pieces.

Major takeaway: To market your product, invest your time and resources on writing useful pieces of content that address the user’s pain point. Don’t be like an intrusive salesperson, be a brand that is focused on genuinely helping the user.

2. Give incentives like Dropbox

You don’t necessarily need a degree in psychology to know that incentives are a great way to motivate people to take the desired action. Dropbox capitalized on this aspect of human psychology through referral programs. Dropbox gave people who were referred and the person who was referred incentives such as 500 MB of free space during sign-ups. Incentives like these led to a 60% increase in sign-ups as word-of-mouth references from friends and colleagues have more impact than traditional marketing strategies.

Major takeaway: Incentives are a great way to engage customers and drive business. Determine an incentive that you can give to your customers. It can be anything, a free preview of new products, special discounts, referral programs, etc.

3. Use a multi-pronged marketing approach like Slack

Do you know, Slack is the fastest-growing SaaS company in the world? Silicon Valley's new favorite went from $0 to $4 billion in just four years! In fact, it is believed that Slack did not hire salespeople or a CMO before reaching the $1.1 billion mark. So, what did they do to grow at such a rapid pace? Slack used a multi-pronged marketing approach to reach where they are today. Some of the strategies included:

Focusing more on brand keywords and integration partner's keywords
Focusing more on paid advertising. They chose selected brand keywords for paid advertising and even experimented with traditional advertising on TV and in newspapers.
Creating a consistent and unique voice for the brand across all channels, including social media, blogs, etc.
Leveraging Medium to inform customers about the latest updates, generate more views, and build the reputation of the brand.

Major takeaway: There is no single way of reaching your buyers. Today's customers are more connected than ever before. Find the channels that are regularly used by your users and reach out to them through them. Adopt a voice or create a core message that represents your company and ensure that all your communication imbibes it.

4. Create memories like Canva

Our team member shared her experience on how she wrote a tweet appreciating Canva and the next day, they got in touch with her to thank her. They even sent her surprise goodies to her address along with a special discount code. Our team member was understandably ecstatic and became an even more loyal user of Canva.

In an age of influencer marketing, genuine brand advocacy is quite rare. Canva has been able to generate brand advocacy through its wonderful product, active social listening, and useful guides, videos, and blogs that they create to help individuals and companies design attractive visuals with just a drag-and-drop option.

Major takeaway: Pay attention to what your users have to say about your brand or the industry in general. This will give you insights on what customers want and help you develop a solution to address their concerns. Respond to them actively on social media and find out ways to delight users who are your genuine fans.

5. Try viral marketing like MailChimp

Whoever said viral marketing is not for SaaS companies must take a look at MailChimp’s viral ideas. From building curiosity with a widely popular campaign that mispronounced the name of their brand to running affiliate programs by adding a hyperlinked logo of the company at the footer of every email the free users send; MailChimp has successfully managed to grab eyeballs with its unique campaigns all the time.

Major takeaway: The best way to grab the attention of a user is to develop eye-catching content - be it through pictures, videos, or attractive pieces of content. Do not restrict your creativity and imagination to a certain type of campaign. Brainstorm with your team and come up with unique content that can resonate well with your organization.

So, here we go, you have five brands to inspire you to formulate your own marketing strategy. Remember, SaaS marketing need not be boring. Find innovative ways to grab the attention of your users and always experiment and test new strategies to win the SaaS marketing game.