proThe turmoil induced by the pandemic in 2020 brought industries and enterprises to a halt, but it provided many opportunities for SaaS. Digital operations and transactions have become the norm as the majority of the workforce is now working from home.
The beginning of 2021 has seen an increase in the role of SaaS in nearly all organizations. This is where the idea of product marketing comes into play. There are many tools and services available, and if advertisers use the proper approach, they can effectively place their product in the market.
Best Product Marketing Trends
The Feature Marketing Trend
SaaS technologies are continually changing, with businesses introducing new features, frameworks, and plug-ins to their applications and products on a regular basis. Feature marketing is the process by which SaaS businesses create parallel products that provide added value to the same customers. These products, though, are separate and distinct from the company’s primary product.
SaaS companies are constantly gathering input from their current clients in order to develop their existing products. In addition, the addition of new elements would provide resources for the development of additional useful content for the website. We are both aware that new content improves a website’s SEO and attracts more traffic, which aids in the acquisition of more consumers.
Video and VR demos
Despite the fact that the whole development and acquisition process is becoming much smoother, customers also want to gain a significant amount of information about a product before making a purchase. There is a new norm of product detail that prospective customers expect, particularly for service products. Demos and video demos are very common and almost always required for digital products.
What is most critical is that potential customers can quickly try out products and understand their functionality and decide whether they are a good match for their needs. For so many alternatives and competitors, it’s important that future buyers appreciate the appeal right away. In the landing pages, product pages, and descriptions, don’t mince words: get right to the importance and functionality.
Product-based Strategies
As per any conventional product marketing strategy, marketers are responsible to find leads in order to promote the product. This is no longer the case for SaaS Product Marketing. With a product-led approach, it focuses on adding value to the marketing campaigns.
The core emphasis is on the product, its development, and the issues it tackles. Hence, the product is able to speak for itself resulting in good sales in the market. The product teams are responsible for gathering customer input. This input would assist them in determining the most recent feature set and advantages that they can provide in the next update of the product.
Personalized Niche SaaS
While more companies move their operations online, the available resources will not be sufficient for newcomers with special needs and specifications. Niche SaaS is the thing of the future as it serves the demands for a particular segment, unlike general SaaS products in the market.
This opens new avenues into the market that are usually overlooked or generalized in a wide category. As a result, there will be significant value development for end consumers as well as market prospects for new SaaS or existing SaaS introducing new niche products.
Adopting Flexible Pricing Strategies
The price of SaaS products plays a vital role in customers’ purchasing decisions. According to reports, as of 2018, 98 percent of SaaS firms have obtained good outcomes by adjusting their pricing practices. As a result, the majority of SaaS firms will adopt flexible and data-driven pricing strategies in 2021.
Although unbundling would have an effect on product pricing, unique and flexible pricing should be used. This ensures that people pay a small fee for a program that can fix a specific issue, rather than buying the whole kit or all of the services.
Pricing techniques that are expected to become more common in 2021 include:
The freemium model will continue to play an important role in SaaS pricing strategies.
The per-user pricing model is a user-based pricing model in which the price is determined by the number of product users.
Another common payment model is, pay as you go. This pricing model, which is common among cloud service providers, allows users to pay based on their use over a specific time span.
Market saturation pricing is where a company allows customers to access any of the functionality of a product at a relatively low cost.
Different price options for different company types are available in the business size-based pricing model. Small, medium, major, and enterprise-level enterprises are included.
Mutual Partnerships
Many businesses are collaborating to provide their potential customers with a fusion of two of their desired experiences. Companies are finding opportunities for collaboration as more products and services are naturally linked and used in combination digitally.
The most common examples are apps and software, but there are also eCommerce devices. Not only does the natural usage aid in retail promotion, but co-branding also incorporates the influence and audience of two closely related brands.
Many of the brands’ target audiences overlap, and collaboration will significantly increase revenue for both. You should also collaborate with your clients. Affiliate schemes can be extremely beneficial in attracting potential leads and clients similar to your existing base by using their power and scope to the shared benefit of all of you.
User-based Branding Strategies
In 2021, the aim of SaaS companies is to establish a brand that focuses on developing relationships with prospects. When you create user-centric content, you can seamlessly connect with the prospects. This ensures that advertisers can provide material that their customers want to hear. Marketers have realized that branding in SaaS is critical, particularly in 2021.
Several SaaS businesses place a high value on branding. An exquisite brand name helps them to stick out of the crowd. SaaS organizations are stressing the importance of providing consistent information at all customer touchpoints.
Multi-channel Marketing
Your typical client is a participant of many websites that they use on a daily basis. They all contribute to their online profile and personality. Many businesses are using different platforms to get to know and engage their potential customers. It is important that your brand has many active accounts and that you communicate with your prospects through them.
Many companies are using social media accounts to present various offerings and sell directly from the sites that customers are gravitating towards. Now is the time to shore up certain profiles and place them as the first point of contact for customers.
Interactive Infographics Trend
Infographics are the most used and intriguing type of content in the SaaS business today. A study suggests, 40.2 percent of advertisers believe infographics are the best visual medium for consumer interaction. SaaS companies use these interactive infographics as a medium to communicate with their prospects, and this year will be no exception.
Ad Blocker Blocking Strategy
The digital marketing patterns of 2021 aren’t all about optimism and progress; they’re also about solving roadblocks like ad blockers. 27 percent of internet users predicted to use ad blockers by 2021. Many advertisers are seeing their main source of traffic, including PPC campaigns, cut off at the source.
First, you should determine how serious the issue is for you—your ad data and metrics should tell you what you need to learn. The impact can be minimal depending on your target demographic or where you post ads.
Avoid persuading consumers to change their behavior when your ads are encountered by the ad blockers. Adjust the promotional budget to accommodate other, more lucrative promotions, such as influencer marketing or sponsored content. Younger viewers don’t respond well to display advertising in general, but they do respond well to influencer marketing, so switching is a good idea in any case.
What Next?
With the above list of the top ten trends in SaaS product marketing in 2021, you can devise the best plan for your product marketing campaigns.
Make sure you apply them correctly and keep an eye out for any other emerging market developments in the near future! The industry is competitive and constantly changing. So try to be flexible and open to all possibilities!