4 Low Cost SaaS Lead Generation Tips That Work

With things as they are globally, many companies have had to revisit their lead generation tactics to ensure that they are only spending on the best activities for them. This list will look specifically at the lead generation tactics that are part of your digital marketing strategy. Whilst not an exhaustive list, these activities are methods that have been proven to either provide you with a low cost tactic or optimise current activities and reduce the cost per SaaS lead.

Get a grip on your data and understand the reality

What to rate as one of the most important topics to discuss with your sales and marketing teams when it comes to lead generation? There are after all plenty of metrics to consider when reviewing your lead generation activities, but which ones should you be focusing on? 

Here are a few off the top of my head:

• Leads generated
• Conversion rates 
• Lead quality
• Cost per lead
• Lead lifecycle
• Content offers

All of these metrics are measurable and incredibly useful when you're planning your SaaS marketing campaigns or optimising your current lead channels. A little insight goes a long way to ensuring you're putting your energy into the most impactful areas of your funnel. This is how our One Page SaaS Sales Planner helps SaaS companies. By looking at key metrics and then using the findings to focus on activities at the right time you’re able to identify when to drive traffic to the website, optimise lead nurture paths and build sales enablement programs. 

I want to bring this up before I go into the other tactics and tips that will help you generate quality leads because it is important to look at the numbers. Just because a particular campaign is generating tonnes of leads doesn't mean you have leads that will close or be a good fit for your business. A common mistake I encounter is the promotion of lead magnets that generate high lead numbers but have a little to nothing to show for it. Typically these are old successful offers that just need refreshing to keep up with the shifting motivations of your buyer personas. If you need a hand reviewing your personas you will find more information here.

Taking the time to review your lead data and buyer personas pays off in the short and long term. Once you have this visibility of what is working for you and what is working for your prospects, making the necessary changes to optimise your lead conversion rates is much easier to do. It also doesn't cost you more than the man hours you put into it, you hold the data already and with the tools I referenced above you will be able to build out everything you need. 

One Heart - One Goal - One Vision

Lead generation is not a sales function, neither is it the function of marketing. Rather it is the function of “Smarketing”. If you're not familiar with this core pillar in the inbound marketing methodology it was described by Sam Kusinitz in under 100 words.

“The term "smarketing" refers to alignment between your sales and marketing teams created through frequent and direct communication between the two.

The goal is to have measurable goals that each team agrees to hit so there's mutual accountability. For instance, Marketing might have a mutually agreed upon leads SLA (service level agreement) to hit, and Sales must agree to follow up with a certain amount of those leads.

Smarketing goals should be made together, and re-evaluated every month to identify opportunities for improvement on both teams.”

Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/definition-smarketing-under-100-words

You can see here why smarketing is vital to your SaaS lead generation, both parties have very clear and defined stakes when it comes to the generation and eventual conversion of leads into sales. Ensuring that you have a combined SLA provides the link between the two departments. This bridge then allows you to work closer together, react quicker, lower the cost of sales and optimise the stages of your buyer’s journey.  We spoke about data in the previous tip and how important it is to review that data. Having smarketing meetings and goals will enable you to use those data insights and gather up to date information as you go. 

Two tips in and I haven’t suggested spending any money yet, I told you these were low cost! 

Social un-distancing

Right now because of events in the world we are under social distancing measures. For some companies this has taken away the traditional means of lead generation that they would rely on. For others that have been socially savvy for some time, it has in part, been business as normal. 

Social media platforms for your brand and for your sales reps are wonderful tools for attracting and engaging with clients and prospects. In a recent survey by HubSpot they discovered that 74% of companies are actively investing in social media. 

For brands, there's a wealth of exposure to explore and engagements to encourage. It is important to ensure that you are engaging on the right platforms, the ones where your audience are and not where you think they might be. 

However for those of you wondering which platforms other companies focussing their social media on take a look at the graph below: 

Posting useful content on these platforms mixed in with your lead magnets and killer copy doesn't cost you a thing. You can find out more about how to use your social media in a rather handy blog: Should You Use Social Media For SaaS Lead Generation? 

Spoiler alert - Yes it is. 

Paid Advertising Pays!

I know I said this was going to be low cost, so you may feel a bit confused that I would suggest a lead generation activity that has spending at it’s very centre. Paid ads are an interesting topic, managed incorrectly they can become an expensive road to nowhere. Delivered correctly, you can find yourself with a low cost per lead and super targeted audiences that will be ready to engage. That is why 68% of marketers rate paid ads as very important or extremely important, because it provides the volume and the quality of leads they require to achieve their half of the smarketing SLA. 

Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all provide a paid ads service on their platforms. Similar to your social media strategy, finding the right one for you does depend on your audience. However, there is one of those four that is performing very well currently and is capable of delivering your ads to a targeted audience made up of your target buyer personas. That platform is Facebook. 

The Facebook algorithms are even keener than Google’s when it comes to targeting and remarketing to your prospects. This is just part of the reason why in the previous graph Facebook was clearly the platform of choice for marketers. You can learn more about Facebook ads for SaaS here. 

Lead generation continues to adapt and improve as part of the digital marketing DNA. With precise and accurate attribution reporting enabling marketers to demonstrate directly where they are generating revenue from; there are plenty more lead generation tactics that you can use: content marketing, chatbots and email marketing are three not covered today, but are covered in detail in our other blogs.

Discuss any challenges you’re facing with SaaS marketing.

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