Mobile Marketing as a Lead Generation Channel for SaaS Platforms

Mobile marketing has been on the rise for quite some time now. As people gradually shift away from computers to mobile devices, mobile marketing’s role in lead generation grows ever-important.

An important component of every successful business is lead generation. It helps the business grow by increasing revenues and forming partnerships along the way. Mobile marketing allows to tap into a segment of new, unique customers that are otherwise unavailable by other means.

mobile marketing

Think of it this way. People are constantly on the go. It is not practical of them to carry their personal computers with them. But what is something people always have on them? Mobile phones. In fact, over five billion people worldwide own a mobile device. That makes them accessible at any given time. 

Mobile marketing can target people in multitudes of ways—SMS, Internet websites, social networks, cold calling, email and so on. So you are not limited in the number of ways you can communicate with potential clients.

So how does this all relate back to SaaS startups? Before we can go on answering that questions, let’s talk a little bit about SaaS startups—specifically what they are and what kind of service they provide.

SaaS stands for “Software as a Service” and is a software licensing and delivery model. Basically, software licenses are not sold with an upfront cost. Rather software is licensed on a subscription basis. 

Many businesses are now using SaaS as a delivery model for their applications. For example, Microsoft with its Office Suite or Adobe with its Creative Suite. But the delivery model extends to a wide variety of industries with their respective computer applications.

software as a service marketing

Many industries have been quick to integrate mobile marketing into their general business strategy. It helps improve every aspect of business, starting with increased brand awareness and ending with lead generation. 

The world is going mobile, thus it is logical for businesses to follow suit. SaaS companies, in this regard, should also try to adapt with the modern times by incorporating mobile marketing. People spend most of their time on mobile and that is where SaaS companies should want to be.

Contrary to popular belief, SaaS marketing is not all dull and boring corporate B2B (business-to-business) marketing. Quite the opposite. With the way things are evolving in the SaaS sector, the marketing strategy is starting to look more like B2C (business-to-customer) marketing. 

Read Next:   Here's How to Turn Startup Website into a Lead Generating Machine

That is to say it has become more engaging, data-driven and customer-focused.

Mobile marketing is the ideal channel for SaaS companies as it approaches marketing with a fresh new take. Not to mention, the sheer volume of mobile users makes it the most efficient channel for lead generation.

Now let’s discuss with mobile marketing can help SaaS startups with lead generation. First let’s go over the benefits you can find in using mobile marketing.

  • Market Size. There are over five billion mobile device owners in the world as of 2019, over half of which are smartphone users. In 2018, there were 3.7 billion unique mobile internet users. Delving deeper, more than half of all global internet traffic (52.2%) was generated through mobile devices—a staggering 51.5% increase from 2009. These statistics further prove how important it is to engage in mobile marketing, as the mobile platform has an enormous market size that keeps on growing year to year.
  • Accessibility. Mobile device owners are accessible at any time. Whether you do it over the Internet (using social networks, email or other apps) or SMS, you are sure to reach anyone anywhere in the world. As far as marketing is concerned, this is vastly significant. No other channel makes mass communication as easy and convenient as mobile marketing.
  • Better Response Rates. While there are different channels within mobile marketing, the one thing they all share in common is high response rates. To put this into perspective, mobile marketing’s response rate is almost five times higher than that of print ads.
  • Tracking Response. The key benefit of mobile marketing is in its analytics. That is to say you can track and measure how your marketing campaign is doing through advanced statistics and tracking customer actions. Since everything is digital, keeping track of all metrics is no longer as hard as it is with traditional forms of marketing.

These benefits alone are convincing enough to prove how beneficial mobile marketing can be. Now let’s talk about how it can help with lead generation. The intention of any marketing campaign is to generate new leads, which come in the form of potential clients. 

Read Next:   10 Startup Animals - Which One Are You?

Now if you have a marketing strategy in place, all you need to do is to optimize it for mobile platforms. That generally entails tweaking your overall content to fit better with mobile phones. Your strategy simply means adjusting whatever you have for a mobile audience.

However, if you are starting from scratch, you may need to design your whole marketing campaign around mobile phone users. These are the users that you want to target, therefore your campaign should try to cater to their needs and wants while simultaneously providing them with a smooth experience. This means optimizing your website to be mobile-friendly and running more targeted ads towards mobile users.

One mobile marketing channel that SaaS startups can use to generate leads as well as for further communication with them is SMS marketing. SMS has long been the king of all communication channels with its incredibly high open rate and conversion rate. It is efficient unlike anything else. SMS messages have a 98% open rate

Combine that with the fact that on average text messages are opened within the first 3 minutes of being received and you have got a pretty powerful tool in your hands. This means that you can send promotional messages to potential clients being assured that they will see them. And thus, you can start generating more leads this way.

Since SaaS platforms’ business model revolves around subscriptions, SMS can additionally be used for both promotional and transactional purposes. Keep your clients notified of any promos, offers and news as well as transactional information. As much as acquiring new customers is important, maintaining existing ones is much more crucial for the stability of any business.

Lead Generation Strategies for SaaS Startups Using Mobile Marketing

Engaging in mobile marketing is a good start for SaaS startups to improve their lead generating efforts. But it can get them only so far. That is why there is a need for a good, meticulous strategy to be in place. When you devise a strategy, you know exactly what to do and what steps to follow. Moreover, when something does not work out, you have an alternative plan to fall back on.

Saas Lead Generation

However, before we can move forward with mobile marketing lead generation strategies for SaaS startups, we need to define what constitutes a lead in business terms. So what exactly is a lead? Any potential customer that is even slightly interested in your services or products is essentially a business lead. 

Read Next:   How Nonprofits Can Use the Internet to Their Advantage and Encourage People to Donate Online

But what makes leads different from actual customers is that while there are interested in what you have to offer, they are not dead set on making any purchases just yet. This is where you need to educate them about your products/services and convince them to pull the trigger.

With that said, here are some mobile marketing strategies you can utilize to generate more leads as a SaaS platform.

  • Mobile Optimization. If you have a website, making it mobile-friendly is the first place to start. Multiple studies have proven that bounce rate is heavily correlated with loading times. If your mobile customers have to wait for more than three seconds for your website to load, they will abandon it in no time. Needless to say, your website’s search engine rankings—particularly on Google—will take a huge hit unless you have a mobile-friendly website. The online experience of your SaaS platform should be on par with current standards to attract new leads as well as present your company in the best light.
  • Mobile Paid Search Campaigns. Most people search for answers to the questions they have on Google (and other search engines, though less so). Thus, it would not be too far-fetched to presume that customers would be looking for businesses or services from their mobile devices on the go. Running a paid search campaigns targeted at mobile users ensures that your SaaS platform shows up on those search results and therefore generates new leads. 
  • Mobile Video Marketing. Do not underestimate the power of audiovisual content in marketing. No other type of content can get you the type of customer engagement that visual content can. In 2019, video has so far made up for around 78% of all mobile traffic. Video content has become arguably the best way of promoting your product or service, and attracting new leads. This can be especially true for SaaS startups, which have a lot of potential in this department. Nothing can promote your service better than a series of videos demonstrating your software and how it works.

Author bio

Azat Eloyan is a digital marketer and mobile marketing enthusiast. With over 5 years’ experience in content marketing and SEO, he believes that valuable and informative content is the key. He currently working as a marketing specialist in text marketing industry.

Leave a Comment