What is your company’s customer acquisition marketing philosophy? Do you have one that is clearly defined, or do you have to stop for a moment and muse on your outlook on this subject? If the latter, it’s probably time to rethink how you view marketing as a science and its role in your SaaS business.
Marketing is a two sided coin, one side being metrics and logistics for determining demographics and target usability, and another for outreach, or customer acquisition, vis a vis advertising, incentives and public relations. Without a clearly defined customer acquisition marketing philosophy, your outreach to customers may be poorly targeted and a bit aimless. If your company is not doing well, this could very well be a reason why.
So, with this in mind, what do you need to consider in formulating and defining your philosophy in the future? Well, it involves asking yourself three key questions. Let’s take a look at these questions, and why they have such a strong bearing on this philosophy, shall we? This is very important, so give each of these some serious thought before moving on to the next.
#1 – What is your key demographic, and how do you advertise to it?
Your key demographic will determine much of how you reach out to customers, primarily in the advertising aspect, which is one of the three attributes of marketing. Different demographics are appealed to very differently in advertising, so understanding your demographic on a somewhat intimate level is key.
How you believe your service should be marketed, and over what medium, is critically influenced by the way your demographic thinks, and so this is one of the more important aspects of the philosophy to consider. In SaaS, this is a bit less heavy-handed than many industries that have a vast range of demographics to worry about, but it is still crucial nonetheless that you have a strong view on how to advertise your service to those you think should use it.
#2 – What incentives do you believe will entice your demographic to try your software?
Incentives are important in getting customers to come into your service and try it out to begin with. If you cannot properly incentivize them to give it the time of day, then they will likely pass you by. Incentivizing potential customers can vary, but your philosophy on this aspect of marketing is important.
What are you willing to sacrifice to be given a chance? Will you offer a free trial, or a lower-end freemium account that never expires? Will you reward your customers for reaching out to other customers and bringing them into the fold?
#3 – How much abuse are you willing to take from freeloaders?
Free trials and free lifetime memberships to lower tier accounts both present the problem of freeloaders. These people will either be satisfied with the free account and never up grade, or worse yet, continually subscribe to new free trials when their old ones expire.
The second is the one where this philosophy is determined most, as some companies institute credit card requirements to sign up for trials, which while it does reduce the abuse you withstand, will not bring in the level of potential customers that would otherwise be interested.
So, your willingness to withstand or not withstand this freeloader abuse is a key aspect of your philosophy as well.
All in all, these three things, if thought about deeply, and answered honestly, should give you a hint on what your customer acquisition marketing philosophy is, so that you can apply it knowingly in the future, with direction.