[Guest Post] How a SaaS Marketer Can Reduce Customer Acquisition Costs

The following is contributed by Omri Erel, the Head of Performance Marketing at WalkMe.

One of the most important questions that SaaS marketers are challenged to answer is, “How can I reduce Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)?”

While marketers cannot do much about the technological framework, they can double or even triple sales within the budget limits. Unfortunately, the stringent nature of budgets demands SaaS marketers and their sales teams to pay special attention to CAC. The team must adopt cost-effective marketing.

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) Generation

To be successful, it is better to concentrate your efforts (as a SaaS company) and target likely subscribers. Voluminous inbound leads that are nothing more than marginally qualified are a huge time waster. Both demand generation and targeted inbound marketing strategies should be designed to aid in increasing MQLs. Get an MQL who already knows about your brand to move through the sales funnel. But how do you do that? Read on.

Gartner Analysts take it a step further: “MQL to Closed Deal Conversion Rates” – Marketers often look at the conversion rates for each stage of the sales funnel, but it’s ultimately this metric that matters; If more MQLs lead to lower conversion rates, it’s critical for marketing to also focus its efforts lower down in the funnel to enable the field to close more deals.

Turn to SEO and Content Marketing

Your focus here is to sharpen your skills in blog/site messaging; and any other forms of communications to satisfy buyers’ needs. Start by developing buyer personas that are accurate. You can use interviews. It is only after knowing what customers want that you can be able to create engaging and appealing content that will capture the targeted buyers’ interest. This should succeed in getting them to convert to email subscription, and even content offers.

SEO optimization in this context would mean using the latest and best practices relevant for most likely buyer search phrases. This takes them through the sales funnel and leads them to personalized problem-solving content. The whole company should be involved in content promotion via their professional LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ networks. Next, boost blogging efforts through thought leaders in co-authored blogs, speaking engagements, interviews and webinars.

SaaS CAC covers all the resources it took to acquire a customer and bring them on board.

Using PPC to Generate Demand

Fast-growing SaaS companies who want to speed up revenue generation often use this strategy.

In a PPC campaign, it is much easier to track cost per lead than it is for content marketing – which often involve more in-house labor/freelance cost in designing content, and even promoting it. However, the following can help costs from getting out of control.

You can start with a shoestring budget at the beginning. Narrowly focused, relevant ad campaigns will attract likely buyers. Then you can shift budgets and concentrate on best performing channels. Do not just focus on shrinking your budget/controlling ad spending. Instead concentrate on getting more qualified leads for every dollar spent (efficiency is the word).

Gartner Analysts continue: “With a finite number of potential buyers, beating the most common competitors more than they beat you is critical to long-term success; Understanding competitive win rates (and setting higher goals) will help ensure that the campaigns (and enablement efforts) are designed to highlight differentiation between you and those competitors.”

How to Convert more MQLs to SQLs

Now that you have qualified buyers coming in through demand generation campaigns and inbound leads and going through the sales funnel, you can reduce CAC by using interviews to find out what would lure potential buyers to sign up for free trials. Additionally, sign-up barriers, and expected outcomes are valuable information to find out.

Getting the CAC digit to a lower figure, (in fact as low as possible), is the key secret to profitability, and great SaaS COOs and CFOs know this. In the end, it is all about efficiency.

Omri is the Head of Advertising & Performance Marketing at WalkMe.com and recovering Saas Addict dedicated to find new and innovative ways to enrich and empower software provides and emerging Startups on their way to online stardom.