SaaS Marketing Strategy Template

SaaS MarketingStrategy TemplateThe SaaS Marketing Agency

INTRODUCTIONWhy do you need a Marketing Strategy?Do you want more customers, leads or website traffic?Do you want to understand what marketing you can do and the results you could get from that?If you can answer yes to either of these questions writing a Marketing Strategy for your businessis vital to your success.This template provides everything you need to write a Marketing Strategy for your SaaS business.A Marketing Strategy will: Ensure a strategic approach is undertaken to marketing guaranteeing all future marketing tacticsare undertaken with a long term purpose in mind and deliver an ROIHave tangible, financial goals to aim for so the value of ongoing marketing can be measuredIdentify potential new markets and ensure that sales and marketing teams have a focus ratherthan adopting a scattergun approachEnsure your brand is working as hard as it can to portray your businessDevelop reusable marketing messages that can be used through all marketingEnsure all marketing is consistentSaaS Marketing Strategy Template2

THE XANDER MARKETING 10STEP MARKETING STRATEGY PROCESS:1. BUSINESSWhat is it?2. OBJECTIVESBusiness objectives3. MARKETPLACEWhat is the size of your marketplace?4. TARGET MARKETWho are your customers?5. COMPETITIONWho is your competition?6. USPWhat makes your business unique?7. YOUR BRANDWhat does your brand stand for?8. MARKETING MESSAGESWhat messages should run through your marketing?9. MARKETING MIXWhat marketing tactics should you utlilise to execute your strategy?10. MARKETING PLANAn action plan for your 12 month and monthly Marketing StrategySaaS Marketing Strategy Template3

1. BUSINESSHow did the business start? What’s the history of the business?Where is the business located?Include all locationsWhat software does the business sell?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template4

What is the vision of the business?What does the business aspire to?What is the mission of the business?How will the vision be achieved?What is the future for the business?Where would you like the business to go?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template5

What is the pricing of your SaaS product?Are your prices high, competitive or low?Why are they priced this way?SWOT AnaylsisUndertake a SWOT Analysis of your business.STRENGTHSWhat internal strengths does your business have?WEAKNESSESWhat internal weaknesses does your business have?OPPORTUNITIESWhat external opportunities couldyour business pursue?THREATSWhat external threats are there to your business?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template6

2. OBJECTIVESWhat are your business objectives and how can your marketing objectiveshelp you achieve these? Make them SMART (Specific, Measurable,Attainable, Relevant and Timebound).How many customers does your business currently have?How many customers would you like in 12 months time?What is your current ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)and MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template7

What is your 12 month target ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)and MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)?What is your current lead to customer conversion rate?Therefore how many leads do you require to achieve your new customer goal?What is your website conversion rate?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template8

If your website conversion rate remains static how much traffic to youneed to get your target leads and customers?Given the answers to the above What are your business objectives or goals?What are your marketing goals?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template9

3. MARKETPLACEA marketplace is the competitive landscape you operate in. Whether that’show many FDs in 100 – 300 person companies there are in the US or understanding how many SMEs there are in the UK.What is your marketplace?What is the size of your marketplace/s?What marketplace do youoperate in?What is the size of market interms of money, number ofcustomers, geography?As a percentage how much ofthis marketplace would youlike to acquire, now and in thefuture?Is it a growing or declining market?Explore this? Where will the market be in 5 years and 10 years time?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template10

What are the current trends in your marketplace/s?What is being said in the news about your marketplace?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template11

4. TARGET MARKETThis section looks at your customers and the types of customersyou would like.Who are your current customers?Who’s your biggest? Who’s your smallest? What’s an average customer like?What are their demographics? Consumers: age, gender, career level etc Businesses: industry, location, job title etcWho is your ideal customer?Describe them in detail. Why are they your ideal customer?What’s on your customer’s mind?What’s hot on their agenda now? What other brands do they buy? What problems do they have?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template12

What is the size of your marketplace/s?List all your target marketsSaaS Marketing Strategy TemplateWhy would they use yourproduct or service?Who is the decision maker (mayonly be applicable when sellingto businesses)13

5. COMPETITIONWho are your competitors and why are you better than them? Think aboutwho else offers your products and services directly and indirectly. Forexample whilst many software companies have competitors, they may alsobe competing with a manual process done on a spreadsheet or clipboard.Competitor analysisCompetitorName of competitorPositioningAssessmentHow is their businesspositioned?What is your assessmentof the threat of thisbusiness to you?SaaS Marketing Strategy TemplateYour businessadvantageWhy would customerscome to your businessrather than yourcompetitors?14

How are you positioned against these businesses?What are your strengths? Why would a customer come to you rather than these businesses?You may want to use the grid below to plot your competitive positioning. Take two measures and plot themon the X and Y axis. Measures could be small businesses at one end, large businesses at the other end.Or premium and expensive brands at one end and low quality and cheap brands at the other end.Plot where your competitors are on this grid and plot where you are.Where are you positioned now? Where would you like to be positioned in the future?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template15

6. USPYour unique selling proposition is the one thing, or combination of thingswhich makes your business unique.What is your company status in the marketplace?How do customers view you?What are your perceived strengths?Are you a premium brand, standard brand or bottom of the range brand?What is your unfair competitive advantage?What is the one thing about you which puts your competitors at a disadvantage?What edge do you have on your competitors?Describe a real life example where you’ve delivered on this USPSaaS Marketing Strategy Template16

7. BRANDA brand is a complex area and requires more detail than this document cango into. However it needs to be considered as part of a Marketing Strategy.Firstly, what is a brand? We define it as a ‘promise’. A brand portrays yourbusiness vision, mission, values and key messages. It needs to position anddifferentiate your company in the marketplace and it needs to appeal toyour target market.What are your business values?ValueDescriptionName your valueDescribe how you live this valueSaaS Marketing Strategy Template17

What are your brand values?ValueDescriptionName your value?What does your brand stand for?Describe how you live this valueSaaS Marketing Strategy Template18

If your brand was a car what car would it be?By understanding this you can see how that car positions and markets itself and use ideas from here.You may also want to consider what supermarket, celebrity or biscuit your brand would be.Describe your brand in a sentenceWhat one word epitomises your brand?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template19

8. MARKETING MESSAGESNow that you have identified your USP, you know your target market andyour brand values, what marketing messages should you use throughoutyour business?What are the benefits of your business and product/service?List themSaaS Marketing Strategy Template20

What are your marketing messages?ConceptMessageName a concept/benefit of your business or product/serviceWhat marketing messages convey this?What imagery can convey this?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template21

9. MARKETING MIXDespite being number 9 on this list, this part is key. Consider all themarketing tactics your business could utilise. Some marketing tacticsare below. Describe what your business could do with each of these.Marketing MixChannelOutcomesWebsiteLeads, sales through yourwebsiteSearch engine optimisationRanking highly in search enginesPay Per ClickDriving traffic to your websiteFacebookInteracting on Facebook, drivingtargeted traffic to your websiteTwitterInteracting with customersand potential customersLinkedInProduct videos or informativevideos educating your customersBlogsArticles educating customers.Would help with SEODiscussion forumsSharing knowledgeEmail marketing – leadgenerationGenerating leads throughemailing targeted listsLead generation landing pagesLeads. Visitors exchange emailaddress for free informationSaaS Marketing Strategy TemplateWhat could your business do?22

Marketing MixChannelOutcomesEmail marketing – lead nurturingWarming leads up that provideemail addressEmail marketing – newsletterKeep your customers up to dateAffiliate programmeAdvertising on other websitesDirect mailDirect mailPRBuilding awareness in the mediaAdvertisingBrand building and driving traffic,enquiries and new customersonlineOnboardingImproving your free trial topaying customer conversion rateCollateral productionSupporting sales and marketingbrochures and case studiesContent marketingEducating prospects andcustomers through white papers,blogs, emails etcTelemarketingAppointments or salesSaaS Marketing Strategy TemplateWhat could your business do?23

10. MARKETING PLANNow it’s time to pull everything together into an executable plan.Use the table below to plan what you would do with each channelover the next 12 months:Marketing Mix for the next 12 monthsChannelName ofcompetitor12 monthobjectivesHow is theirbusinesspositioned?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template12 monthoutline planWhat is yourassessment of thethreat of thisbusiness to you?Initial activityWhy wouldcustomers cometo your businessrather than yourcompetitors?Ongoing activityOn an annual,monthly andweekly basiswhat activitydo you need toundertake withthis channel?24

Marketing Mix for the next 12 monthsChannelName thechannel(from above)12 monthobjectivesWhat are yourobjectives forthis channelover the next12 months?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template12 monthoutline planHow are yougoing to achievethese objectives,at a high level?Initial activityWhat do youneed to in thenext month?Ongoing activityOn an annual,monthly andweekly basiswhat activitydo you need toundertake withthis channel?25

Monthly planActivityEach month, list all the activityyou are going to do e.g. Write awhite paper or create monthlynewsletterCompleted dateWhen should each activity becompleted byOwnerWho is the owner of this activityin your business?Month 1Month 2Month 3SaaS Marketing Strategy Template26

Monthly planActivityCompleted dateOwnerMonth 4Month 5Month 6SaaS Marketing Strategy Template27

Monthly planActivityCompleted dateOwnerMonth 7Month 8Month 9SaaS Marketing Strategy Template28

Monthly planActivityCompleted dateOwnerMonth 10Month 11Month 12SaaS Marketing Strategy Template29

If you achieve your objectives as defined in Step 2 how much new businesswill your business have?What is your ROI from marketing?How much of a marketing budget would you be prepared to invest to get that return?SaaS Marketing Strategy Template30