by Erynn Baird
I just dipped my toes in the world of SaaS brand marketing – and I’m never going back.
As the marketing leader for a SaaS company, I almost exclusively lived in the realm of performance marketing. My time was spent chasing and reporting lead numbers and opportunities created. I fixated on lowering my cost per acquisition, while maximizing the reach of my ads.
To bolster these paid and organic tactics my team created some great content about the features of our product and how those features solved problems. While we talked a lot about what Opal built and what it did for marketers, there was one thing we neglected. Talking about how our software made marketers feel.
That was the impetus for us to try a completely different style of paid marketing campaign. A campaign focused on different goals, highlighting different elements and with an entirely different ethos: brand.
I know that brand marketing for SaaS isn’t the most common strategy. However, maybe that’s a missed opportunity. We did it and I think more and more SaaS companies need to try it.
Let’s explore the campaign that we ran…
Opal’s #Marketers React Campaign
The inspiration for this campaign was something really happening in our organization. Every time a sales call gets completed, a summary of the call gets added to a slack channel that many of us at Opal enjoy reading.
We started seeing some truly AMAZING quotes from prospects seeing the product for the first time.
Quotes like “Shut up and take my money!” or “What’s the catch? My first born child?”
These quotes didn’t highlight a unique feature or speak to a use case. They expressed a feeling. That’s what made them entertaining enough for us to clamor to read them. So we decided to make these wild quotes the centerpiece of our first ever SaaS brand Marketing campaign.
The Name – The first step of this campaign was coming up with a name and a visual identity that would make these explosive quotes stand out even more. For the name, we went with “Marketers React” – paying homage to the react-style youtube that is built on mining entertaining reactions to something.
Visual Look – For the visual identity, we chose splashy colors and bold fonts. The first goal was to make these ads stand out in the SaaS world of blue and white color schemes. We knew the right visual look would help these quotes truly pop in crowded news feeds.
Delivery – We elected to expand from our traditional LinkedIn and Google paid media ecosystem and embrace Instagram and Facebook as well. In addition, we created an organic social push amongst employees and customer champions.
Goals – Impressions. While we have always been focused on conversions that could be tied to revenue, for Marketers React we focused on achieving the highest number of unique brand impressions as possible.
Macro Picture: The Pendulum is Swinging Back
While SaaS may be a little late to the brand party, many companies have been pivoting back towards brand after more than a decade in a performance marketing dominated landscape. From my perspective, these are the key reasons that marketing pendulum is swinging from performance to brand:
Diminishing returns – As digital channels have become saturated, cost-per-acquisition has risen significantly. While performance marketing once provided predictable ROI, it has instead become increasingly expensive and less efficient.
Different Business Focus – Organizations have recognized that performance marketing often drives short-term sales but doesn’t build lasting customer relationships or premium pricing power. The goal is moving more towards creating loyal customers – rather than fighting for every short-term dollar.
Similarity of Product/Offers – In crowded online marketplaces, distinguishing products based on features, benefits and pricing is more challenging. However, brand values, personality, and purpose provide meaningful differentiation.
Validation for Brand Marketing – In addition to all of the other theoretical factors, brand marketing has been validated by performance. AirBnB very publicly announced they stepped away from performance marketing in favor of brand marketing. As a result, they had massive success. In addition, the “Godfathers of marketing effectives” Les Binet and Peter Field have published compelling research which proves brand creates greater long-term value than performance marketing alone.
Why SaaS needs to Embrace Brand Marketing
Here’s why I will keep pushing to do more brand campaigns and encourage other SaaS marketing leaders to do the same.
SaaS marketing tends to be too similar – Sometimes it feels like we’re all running the same thing. Shots of product on neutral colored backgrounds and case studies are great. When we all do it, it loses effectiveness. When EVERY company has a story of how they drove game-changing impact at a Fortune 100 company, it gets less believable. There’s so much room to stand out.
Paid lead acquisition for our industry is expensive – Trying to buy direct leads or middle of the funnel clicks for our industry is incredibly expensive. Augmenting your primary paid strategy with brand can make a huge difference.
Buyers make emotional decisions – I know we tend to think of SaaS buyers in B2B as being rational. After all, they are making a business decision. They are people first though. You still have the same opportunity to sell them on how they will feel using your product – rather than just what it can do.
Check out Our SaaS Brand Marketing Campaign Yourself
If you’re reading this blog about SaaS brand marketing, you’re probably a marketer yourself. So, I’d love to invite you to check out the landing page for our brand marketing campaign Marketers React.
I’d love to hear what you think and I’m always happy to meet other marketers. Please connect with me on Linkedin and let’s talk!