From peak to troughs. HR tech startups saw over $10.5 billion in venture funding across 800 deals in 2021. However, the rate of VC funding in the sector dropped to the lowest levels in three years in Q2. The AI wave might be diverting funding away from HR tech, though AI's impact on HR may be on the horizon.
Success leaves clues. And for marketers, those clues are scattered across the actions & decisions of the world's largest companies. Here are key takeaways to learn from.
1. Meet Your Customers' Information Needs.
Just as Apple does, be obsessed with understanding what type of information your customers require to help increase their satisfaction and loyalty.
Providing the right information in the right format will not only keep your customers engaged but will also cater to their unique needs.
2. Make Complex Topics Accessible.
To help foster trust and credibility, simplify complex technical topics to make it easier for a broad audience to understand – as Saudi Aramco has shown.
By doing so, you can position your SaaS company as a thought leader in your industry that empowers customers with helpful information.
3. Highlight Impact, Not Just Features.
Instead of focusing solely on features or specifications, illustrate the tangible impact your product can have for customers – Microsoft is a great example.
By showing how your product solves problems or improves processes, you can better resonate with your audience and strengthen your value proposition.
Not another checklist...Don't worry, Ahrefs offers a simple 11-step guide on performing an SEO audit to improve your website's search engine ranking. The steps covered in this article aim to help your team address SEO issues that could be negatively impacting your website's visibility. One of my favorite steps on the list is figuring out what keywords your competitors rank for that you don't.
Building a strong email list for your SaaS company can help generate pipeline and strengthen customer relationships. Techniques such as offering lead magnets and setting up onboarding series can not only boost your subscriber count but also increase customer loyalty and engagement. This article walks you through eight tactics to build a hyper-engaged list.
A personalized sales funnel helps SaaS companies identify growth areas and boost sales by providing insights into the customer buying journey. By creating stage-specific, well-crafted content, you can convert your audience into loyal customers more effectively. This article walks you through the three types of sales funnels and six steps to creating a personalized funnel for your company.
Sales Enablement content like case studies, sales scripts, and video demos can help accelerate your customer's buying journey. To do so, align your sales and marketing teams around a unified content strategy that streamlines operations and avoids miscommunication. Focus on impacting your core KPIs by continuously gauging and adjusting your strategy.
Keeping an eye on key metrics like Average Revenue per User (ARPU) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) can help your SaaS business scale effectively. For instance, understand how your ARPU can help shape your pricing strategy while your CAC can guide your marketing budget. This article walks through 18 metrics to track and what they mean for your SaaS company.
For SaaS businesses, implementing an effective pricing strategy is essential for growth. Insights from customer feedback and user behavior can guide pricing adjustments and drive conversions. As the product portfolio expands, consider tailored packaging tiers and communicate price increases tactfully to minimize customer churn.
Diving into the brilliant wisdom of global marketing leader, Kim Caldbeck, her application of the 'Six Ps' from Dan Olsen's Lean Product Playbook emerges as a powerful roadmap to grow your SaaS company.
Here are three growth tips.
1. Persona is the starting point of your Six Ps strategy.
Knowing your user inside out will help you keep up with their changing needs and trends, helping your SaaS company stay relevant and competitive.
2. Continual refinement of the Six Ps is crucial for growth.
Revisit this framework frequently, especially when launching new features, addressing customer pain points, or testing new market strategies.
3. Feedback and validation are key to ensuring product-market fit.
Gather direct customer feedback, document your hypotheses, and test them with a representative customer group.
AI can automate repetitive tasks in sales, allowing AEs to focus more on strategic thinking and relationship-building. Some of those tasks include summarizing emails/documents, researching ICPs, suggesting relevant content, and responding to emails. More and more sales teams are turning to AI to increase leads, reduced costs, and improved efficiency.
It usually takes seven touches to convert a lead into an opportunity (a combination of emails and calls). But there is an art to the follow-up. Depending on whether a lead is warm or cold, Sales Reps should follow up with prospects over a span of one-to-two months. The intervals between each follow-up should increase as the lead prospect gets hit with more emails.
The B2B SaaS content marketing flywheel is a powerful framework for boosting customer engagement and retention. The flywheel comprises four stages - Adopt, Adore, Advocate, and Activate - each employing various types of content and strategies to attract, engage, retain, and mobilize customers. This article discusses the types of content in each stage and what KPIs to track.
Forecasting what deals will close over the next quarter (known as quarterly pipeline coverage) provides little value for SaaS companies with shorter sales cycles (30 days or less). The constant influx of new opportunities makes forecasting difficult. Instead, these types of SaaS companies should view pipeline coverage on a monthly basis.
Seed-stage funding remained consistent amidst the volatility of VC investments in 2023. Q2 data by Carta shows a marginal decrease in median seed deal size of around $3 million. The consistent size of Seed rounds is in stark contrast with later stages (Series A and beyond) that experienced significant fluctuations.
Great news for SaaS founders! The OnlyCFO is now sharing free accounting and finance templates, models, and memos. The content will benefit founders who might otherwise need to create these from scratch or hire expensive consultants. Plus, new resources will be added weekly.