Launching your SaaS feature? It's a journey of challenges and opportunities. Here’s our guide to help you perfect your pre-launch marketing strategy that will set the stage for a successful SaaS launch. From competitor research to defining a unique selling point, we make it easy. Choose the right marketing channels, allocate your budget wisely, and track success with our checklist. Perfect your SaaS feature launch with confidence!
Launching a SaaS feature demands careful planning, with its own set of challenges and opportunities.
Here’s a guide to help you perfect your pre-launch marketing strategy that will set the stage for a successful SaaS launch.
Get your potential customers excited about your new feature even before you officially launch it.
Wondering how to pull that off? Well, check this out:
Hold on a second. Before we go any further, I want to make sure we're on the same page about 'competitor research.' Let me tell you it's not exactly what you're probably imagining:
Copying what they're doing? Not our thing.
Stalking their every move? Seriously, don’t waste your time doing that.
The thing is, all you need to do is to look out for gaps where you can cash in.
So, here’s the plan:
Moving on, use platforms like BuzzSumo to find out what topics and keywords are trending in your niche and how your competitors are performing on social media.
Just choose the content analyzer tool, enter a topic and fill in the relevant filters to view a list of content.
Click on any page and it will give you detailed information, with an option to export all the data.
Look into their users. What do they have to say about the similar feature? Are they satisfied? Are they unsatisfied? What are their pain points?
To find this out, you can use tools such as G2 to read user reviews and ratings.
Or, you can beta test and then conduct surveys using SurveyMonkey or QuestionPro from your existing or potential customers to get their feedback on your SaaS feature.
The reason why you will need to research these is to understand how your competitors position themselves in the market. This will help you adjust your messaging and positioning to differentiate your new feature effectively.
Once you’re done with your research, think of a unique selling proposition for your feature. If it's something your competitors are also offering, what is different that you’re adding? If they are not, then this could easily become a USP in itself for you.
Let’s look at an example: Back in 2013, the video conferencing and online meeting market faced a notable gap. One of the features that Zoom introduced when it launched in 2013 was the ability to support up to 100 participants in a single meeting, which was much higher than the limit of 25 participants that Skype, the dominant player at the time, offered. So this specific feature became Zoom's unique selling proposition (USP), giving it a competitive advantage, especially in large-scale and enterprise use cases.
Once you know what you're USP is, promote it extensively. Create a feature page, write articles, get press releases published, the whole shebang! But while you're at it, you may want to divide your audience into existing customers and new customers.
Your existing customers are those who are already using your other features. You'll need knowledge-based content, such as in-depth tutorials, or step-by-step guides, to upsell them the new feature, emphasizing how it will make their workflow easier.
As for the new customers, create content that emphasizes the added-value of your feature and how it is different from similar features others offer. For example, you can use explainer videos, informative blog posts, or interactive demos etc. that highlight how the new feature addresses their pain points. Consider an early bird discount to boost sign-ups and generate initial hype - it's almost always a foolproof method.
When selecting marketing channels, there are 3 factors that you need to consider: goal, budget and niche. To help you decide, here are some common and effective marketing channels:
Examples: Google Ads, LinkedIn ads
Pros: Offers immediate visibility and control, lets you target your ads based on keywords, demographics, etc., and also lets you measure the results of your campaign.
Cons: It's expensive, competitive and dependent on your budget.
To use paid advertising effectively, you need to have a clear goal (such as reaching new audience or generating leads), a well-defined audience, a compelling offer, and a landing page that converts.
Example: SEO, content marketing, email marketing and webinars
Pros: Establishes a solid foundation for brand awareness and credibility, engages and nurtures potential users with valuable content, including interactive webinars.
Cons: Time-consuming and somewhat unpredictable, as it often requires months or even years to witness results. Also, understanding evolving algorithms can pose challenges.
To use organic methods effectively, you need to have a well-thought out strategy, a high-quality content library, and a way to capture and convert your audience.
Example: Guest posts, quotes in articles, podcasts
Pros: Enhances brand credibility and extends its reach.
Cons: It can be difficult, uncertain, and risky. It can be hard to get the attention of journalists or influencers who receive hundreds of pitches every day. You also have no guarantee that they will cover your story or mention your brand positively.
To use digital PR effectively, you need to have a newsworthy story or angle, a personalized pitch or outreach email, or press release that provides relevant information about your SaaS or your brand.
Pros: Capitalizes on the trust of the influencer's audience, boosts organic reach and traffic
Cons: It can be costly, and highly competitive and saturated in some SaaS niches or industries.
To make your influencer collaborations a success, you need to find relevant influencers in your niche, create educational content with them or partner with them to offer exclusive free trials.
By choosing the right marketing channels in a way that matches your unique strengths, you can create a strong pre-launch plan that excites your audience and builds anticipation.
Making a list of key performance indicators and metrics for your marketing plan can help you make informed decisions and improve your marketing plan.
Here’s a list of a few metrics that can help you measure the success of your pre-launch marketing activities:
Why Use It: CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on a link. A higher CTR indicates a compelling message, driving users to take the desired action.
Why Use It: This metric gauges how much time visitors spend on your landing pages. A longer time suggests that the content is engaging, relevant, and holds the user's interest, contributing to a positive user experience.
Why Use It: Bounce rate reflects the percentage of visitors who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. A lower bounce rate indicates that your landing page content is relevant and aligns with user expectations, encouraging them to explore further.
Why Use It: Page views represent the total number of pages viewed by visitors. Monitoring page views helps assess overall user engagement with your content and indicates which areas of your site or campaign are resonating most with your audience.
Allocating a budget for your pre-launch marketing campaign requires a scientific approach. You need to follow a method that helps you with the optimal budget distribution for your chosen marketing channels and goals.
One possible method is the objective and task method. This method involves three steps:
What are the specific and measurable outcomes you want to achieve with your pre-launch marketing campaign? For example, you may want to generate a certain number of leads, sign-ups, or pre-orders for your product or service.
What are the strategies and tactics you will use to reach your target audience and persuade them to take action? For example, you may use paid advertising, content creation, influencer collaborations, or email marketing as your main channels.
How much money will you need to spend on each channel to execute your plan effectively? You can use historical data, industry benchmarks, or online tools to calculate the cost of each task. For example, you can use Google Ads Keyword Planner to estimate the cost of running a search ad campaign.
By adding up the cost of each task, you will get the total budget needed for your pre-launch marketing campaign. You can then allocate your budget proportionally to each channel based on its expected contribution to your objectives. However, it is important to make sure that there’s enough room for flexibility to accommodate unforeseen opportunities or adjustments.
Remember, a well-structured budget is the cornerstone of a successful pre-launch marketing strategy.
Here’s a checklist you can use:
Or if you have a larger team, you can use an excel template like this to keep a track of all your pre-launch marketing activities:
It mentions the main action items, the tasks associated with it and the status options for each. Team members can add a comment to provide updates or indicate if there are any issues which can help the rest of the team to stay informed about the progress.
You learned about pre-launch marketing, which is what you do before launching your SaaS feature to create interest and demand. But what about after you launch? How do you get and keep customers? That’s post-launch marketing, and we’ve covered it all in our next article.
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