Category Archives: Web

Budget planning for SaaS start-ups: What you need to know

You know all those uber-successful SaaS start-ups who make a million in their first five years? You can bet they spent a heap of time on SaaS budget planning to get everything just right – rather than counting on pure dumb luck to get them to a profitable year.

Budget planning is crucial for SaaS start-ups, as it will help you extract the maximum return on investment for every expense you make, figure out what to cut and keep each month, and make more accurate profit projections.

So, how can you effectively budget plan for your SaaS start-up to set you up for long-term, profitable growth? We’re so glad you asked! Keep reading to learn what to include in your SaaS budget plan.

Why you should budget more upfront

You’re in the SaaS business – so you’ve already invested massively in your product. Now, all that’s left to do is market it! And for this, you’ll need a sizeable upfront budget.

According to Hubspot, SaaS start-ups spend 40-100% more on their marketing budgets. And it’s not difficult to understand why.

Growing a customer base from ground zero is tricky and can take a long time to start affecting your SaaS sales. On top of that, you’re creating all your material from scratch. Designing banners, websites, brochures, videos, and more takes time (and money.)

Need help getting the word out about your SaaS start-up? Read our previous blog, “5 proven SaaS marketing tactics to make your business stand out”.

The elements you should include in your SaaS budget plan

Your SaaS budget planning process will help you understand where your investment is going every month, helping you evaluate results, make improvements, and plan your budget more effectively for the next month. But what elements should you include in your SaaS budget plans?

Predicted revenue

Get the calculator out and estimate how much profit you think your SaaS company will make monthly/quarterly/annual. Then after each month/quarter/year, you can compare your actual revenue with the estimated revenue to help you predict future profits.

Fixed expenses

Your fixed expenses are anything your SaaS company spends every month or year that you’re “locked into.” Fixed costs include things like the money you pay employees, your office rent and electricity bills, and your website hosting platform. Calculate your fixed monthly and yearly costs and add them to your budget.

Variable expenses

Variable expenses include anything that can change monthly or annually, depending on how much of your SaaS product you sell. Let’s say you use a third-party vendor who charge a higher fee when you sell a higher volume of your SaaS product, this will bring profits down – so you must take note of what variables are at play.

Once-off expenses

List any expenses you only pay for once and include them in your budget. Once-off fees can consist of anything from employee WFH equipment to desks for your office. Make a note of these expenses during every budget plan, so you can keep track of your spending and account for them when you’re assessing your earnings.

Cash flow

Keeping an eye on your cash flow is essential, as this will determine your SaaS budget planning month on month. In your budget plans, measure what money trickles in and out of your business and estimate whether you’re getting enough money in to make a profit. If not, you have some rethinking to do.

Predicted profits

To get your predicted profits, subtract your overall expenses from your predicted revenue. Calculating your estimated profits is essential to ensure you’re on the right track and spending your budget in all the right places. If you see profit figures rising every few months or every year, you must be doing something right! If not, it’s time to take a long hard look at your spending and reconfigure to get a better return.

Let our SaaS experts drive ROI for your start-up

SaaS budget planning is the best way to ensure your start-up is growing year-on-year, you have enough money flowing in to cover your expenses, and you’re only spending budget in areas (like ads or email marketing) that maximise ROI.

At Rocket SaaS, we help SaaS start-ups budget their marketing spends effectively, targeting the right channels with the right messaging to get your SaaS brand out there and generate healthy ROI.

With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with proven content strategies, comprehensive digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

SaaS web design 101: How to wireframe your website (and why you should)

Thinking about designing a new SaaS website for your company? It all starts with a well-designed website wireframe. What is a wireframe? We’re glad you asked.

A website wireframe is an essential step in the SaaS web design process that allows you to test your website’s layout, functionality, and flow – all before it goes live for real.

The same way an architect will develop their design using 2D and 3D software first, a SaaS web designer will create a similar “interactive blueprint” of your website – to get a lay of the land before your SaaS website design phase.

In this blog, we’re teaching you all about the benefits of wireframing your SaaS website first and how you can DIY your website wireframe, so you’re fully prepped for your next SaaS website design or redesign. Let’s go!

The benefits of wireframing your SaaS website

Your SaaS website wireframe won’t be your final, live website design.

Instead, it’s almost like a “sketch” of your website that uses basic shapes to help you see where content/ images/buttons will go on each page and what pages to include. So, why is wireframing your website so important?

Make sense of your ideas

When you’re designing your SaaS website, it can be challenging to narrow down how you want the finished pages to look. Wireframing allows you to play around with different layout possibilities before the design phase, so you can get super clear on what you want.

Create a responsive website

Using website wireframes, you’ll be able to adjust your website pages for every mobile, iPad, and desktop device, creating a responsive web design that looks good, no matter what device your customers are using.

Save time, minimise mistakes

Imagine an architect built a home without carefully planning it using design software first? They’d likely spent months – if not years – correcting construction mistakes. The same goes for your website. Using a wireframe prevents web development delays and errors during “go live.”

How to wireframe your SaaS website: A step-by-step guide

Now that we’re all clear on the importance of laying out your SaaS website on a wireframe, let’s discuss what the wireframing process actually looks like.

Step #1 Choose your wireframe tool

While you can undoubtedly sketch out your desired SaaS website design on paper, we wouldn’t recommend it (at least not for the final draft). It’s best to use an official website wireframing tool, Adobe XD, Figma, or Mockflow. See what tool suits you best and learn how to use it.

Step #2 Know what you want to achieve

What actions do you want your target audience to take, and what journey should they take to get there? Understanding these two things will help drive every decision you make in the wireframe design phase.

Step #3 Sketch your preliminary design

What pages do you want to add to your website? For SaaS websites, the most common pages are:

  • Home
  • About
  • Features
  • Testimonials
  • Case studies
  • FAQs
  • Contact
  • Book a demo
  • Free trial

Once you’ve decided what pages to add, get to work designing the layout of every page. Keep the designs simple – focusing on the structure and location of each element ( don’t worry about fine details, colours, etc., for now.)

Step #4 Create your ideal “User flow”

Map out every path your target customer will take before reaching your goal (getting in touch, downloading a case study, booking a demo, etc.) Now think about ways you can streamline that path for your target customer on your website with precise placement of hyperlinks, buttons, videos, and more. You want to make it easy for them to reach your goal!

Step #5 Assess and improve

Once your first SaaS website wireframe is complete, it’s time to refine and finesse the design until you’re happy with the layout. Make sure you’re evaluating your wireframe and removing anything that feels unnecessary for your user journey, and don’t forget to ask others for feedback to help you improve your wireframe design.

Want to leave the website wireframing to the professionals?

Designing a responsive SaaS website that simplifies your target audience’s user journey is only possible with a well-planned wireframe. Don’t have time to wireframe your SaaS website yourself? Let our SaaS web design experts do the hard work for you!

With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with proven content strategies, comprehensive digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

How to develop compelling content for your SaaS website

Google recently rolled out their “helpful content” algorithm update, which (in a nutshell) deploys several ranking factors to boost SaaS content that’s written for real humans first rather than SEO-first.

The bottom line is that you shouldn’t create content that only you care about, but content that’s written and structured to best serve your website visitors and give them exactly what they’re looking for – without all the “we, we we” fluff.

Following the algorithm update, we thought it would be a fantastic time to dive into content strategy for SaaS websites and explain what “helpful content” actually means for SaaS companies and what key factors you should consider when developing SaaS website content.

Here we go!

Our top 7 tips for a high-converting SaaS content strategy

When it comes to content strategy, SaaS websites operate a little differently than your regular “brochure” or “eCommerce” websites. You’re selling something that customers can’t physically touch, so your content strategy needs a unique approach. Check out our tips for developing the best SaaS content below.

#1 Ensure your design is user-friendly

You can’t have great content without having a great design to present it.

Your customer’s experience with your SaaS website will help them imagine what using your SaaS solution might be like. So if your website design is complicated or hard to navigate, your potential customers will think your SaaS solution will be similar and go elsewhere.

Make sure you structure your menu and page layouts, so visitors know exactly where to find what they’re looking for. Your SaaS website isn’t the place for long paragraphs, so split your content into digestible “bites.” From beginning to end, you need to make the customer journey as easy, seamless, and fast as possible.

#2 Don’t use tech-heavy language

According to Boomerang, content written at a Year 4 reading level gets 36% more engagement.

Try to keep the language as jargon-free as possible, as many SaaS users aren’t tech-savvy. You don’t need to use fancy, corporate language to show your audience you’re an expert.

Instead, talk directly to them in the second person (you, you’re, etc.) with simple, engaging, and concise sentences. Also: Don’t be afraid to inject your brand’s personality in there – it’ll make you stand out!

#3 Make it SEO-friendly, but not SEO-first

The other element to consider when developing your SaaS content strategy is that SaaS websites typically have simple designs with minimal copy. Therefore, getting your SEO strategy right is crucial if you want to climb the ranks on Google’s search results.

Make sure you’re:

  • Including target keywords in H1s, H2s, H3s, etc.
  • Including target keywords in your body copy
  • Writing compelling meta titles and descriptions
  • Creating specific landing pages for target keywords
  • And following technical SEO best practices (mobile-friendly, fast-loading, etc.)

But remember, you’re writing for humans first. Don’t add keywords unless it sounds natural in the sentence.

#4 Show off why you’re the best option

It’s quick and easy for your customers to compare you with other SaaS solutions on the market, and they’ll often have a few tabs open to compare features, pricing, support options, specs, etc.

Research shows most internet users only skim a website for relevant info – so make it easy for customers to find the comprehensive information they’re looking for about your SaaS product – transparency is key.

In as few words as possible, get across what your key differentiating factors are, the benefits of choosing your SaaS solution over others, and how your Saas solution solves your audience’s pain points and challenges.

#5 Add SaaS “credibility” content

Did you know that testimonials make consumers 58% more likely to convert? The more trust you can build, the better your chances are of acquiring new customers.

Again, your target audiences are comparing you with others and will make their minds up quickly. One factor that’ll help them come to a decision is how “credible” your brand appears to be.

You can build this credibility and trust by creating SaaS case studies, blog content showing off your expertise, outlining achievements on your About page, and adding testimonials to your website.

#6 Use visual content to support website copy

On average, users only read 28% of the text on a website page, making visual content essential for giving your target audience plenty of information about your SaaS solution, without cluttering each page with tons of text.

Images and videos can help you explain how to use your SaaS solution, highlight it’s main features, and give users an idea of what it feels like to use. You can also add images of clients you’ve worked with and your team, to make your SaaS website seem more trustworthy.

#7 Proofread your SaaS content, then proofread again

Does finding grammar and spelling mistakes on a SaaS website (or any website for that matter) give you second-hand embarrassment? It sure does for us.

But spelling errors aren’t just a faux pas. One little spelling mistake can be super damaging to your reputation. Customers will probably be thinking, “if they can’t quality-check their own website, what does that say about their SaaS solution?”

74% of users pay attention to the quality of spelling and grammar, so, we can’t overstate this enough; Proofread your website content before going live! Or, if website copywriting isn’t your forté, hire a professional copywriter to do it for you to make sure your website is written well and error-free.

Let our SaaS content strategists create a custom plan for your business

To build an effective SaaS website, you need to provide quality content that addresses your audience’s key pain points, delivers the information they’re looking for, and is easy to read. If not, your potential customers will likely find a competitor that ticks those boxes instead.

At Rocket SaaS, we develop targeted, polished, and results-driven SaaS content strategies to help you say all the right things, in the right way, to the right people.

With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with proven content strategies, comprehensive digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.
 
 

Why branded ads are vital for SaaS marketing, branding, and conversions

Branded Google Ads are one of the most crucial campaign types to include in your SaaS marketing strategy. And what exactly are branded Google ads, you ask?

Put simply; instead of targeting keywords related to your SaaS brand in your Google Ads, like “Chatbot platform” or “Automated marketing software,” you’re targeting keywords that include your SaaS company’s name, like “Rocket SaaS” or “Rocket SaaS reviews.”

The idea behind branded ads is to ensure your website shows up front and centre in Google’s search results when a user types in your SaaS brand name, among other strategic reasons, which you’ll learn below.

5 reasons why you should invest in branded Google Ads

You might think it’s silly to spend marketing budget on ads for your company’s name when users can find you in the organic search results below the ads anyway, but trust us, branded ads are a SaaS marketing strategy must-have and here’s why.

  1. Ward off the competition

The SaaS market is exceptionally competitive, so you can bet your competitors are running “competitor ads” on Google that appear to users who type in keywords related to your SaaS brand name.

Imagine how it would look if your current or potential customers had to scroll down past a list of competitor ads to find your website in the organic search results (the website they wanted in the first place!)

Running branded campaigns will ensure that your SaaS company will always appear at the top of the results page, no matter how many of your competitors are trying to steal your customers.

  1. Reinforce SaaS branding

Branded campaigns help increase brand awareness, online visibility, and consumer trust.

Suppose customers are typing in your SaaS branded keywords and see you occupying not only the top of Google’s search results in the ad space but below in the organic search results too.

In that case, they’ll form a stronger impression of your company and find it easier to trust you.

  1. Reach customers at every touch point

You can create branded campaigns to capture audiences at every marketing funnel stage and lead them to a tailored landing page that pushes them further down the funnel.

  • Awareness stage: Users type in your company’s name, e.g. “Rocket SaaS.”
  • Consideration stage: Users type in comparison keywords, e.g. “Rocket SaaS vs Spaceship SaaS” or “Rocket SaaS ratings.”
  • Conversion stage: Users type in conversion-related keywords, e.g. “Rocket SaaS free trial” or “Rocket SaaS login.”
  1. Maximise SaaS marketing spend

Let’s face it; apart from competitor campaigns, there won’t be many other SaaS businesses bidding on your branded keywords as part of their SaaS marketing strategy.

Fortunately, the low levels of competition make branded campaigns one of the most cost-effective ad types you can run on Google.

The other positive for your SaaS marketing wallet is that branded campaigns tend to have higher conversion rates since your user is already interested in your SaaS solution.

The combination of low costs and high conversion rates gives your Google ad account quality a boost, too. The better your quality score, the more effective your entire batch of ad campaigns will be, making branded campaigns an absolute no-brainer for your SaaS
marketing strategy.

  1. Take charge of ad copy

While you can certainly edit your meta title and description to reflect your SaaS messaging in the organic search results; you don’t have much control over what pages Google serves up to users when they type in branded keywords.

By running branded ads, you can carefully craft your ad messaging to get the right points across for each specific branded keyword. You can also add a CTA button and extensions to increase click-through rates and engage your target audience.

Additionally, you can track what ad copy works best by testing different options (unlike organic search) to consistently improve results, ROI, and your overall Google SaaS marketing strategy.

What are you waiting for? Set up your branded SaaS campaigns today!

At the end of the day, the best SaaS marketing strategies are those that design, maintain, and promote their first-class customer service and quality SaaS product.

Branded SaaS campaigns on Google are your fast-track ticket to more online visibility, less competition, better conversion rates, more control over ad copy, and stronger SaaS branding. Why not give them a go today! Don’t have time? Let our SaaS marketing experts take over.

With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with proven content strategies, comprehensive digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

Avoid these SaaS homepage mistakes and skyrocket your conversions

Think of your SaaS homepage as the digital version of a company’s shop window. It’s where users will do a quick scan to see if your offering is what they’re looking for.

They’ll get an overview of your SaaS product, how it can benefit them, the SaaS services you provide, and what makes you the best company for the task.

That’s why a poorly-designed SaaS homepage can seriously impact conversion rates. If users find it difficult to navigate, painful to look at, or hard to read, they’ll very quickly move on.

In this blog, we’ve outlined the most common website design mistakes on SaaS websites so that you can avoid them and make your SaaS homepage a well-oiled conversion machine. Let’s go!

The top 6 most common SaaS homepage mistakes

Sometimes it’s easier to know what not to do when it comes to boosting conversions. So without further ado, here is your big shiny list of SaaS homepage “don’ts”.

Mistake #1: Including too many CTAs

Adding too many CTAs to your SaaS homepage will only confuse your potential customers. You want to make the path to conversion as quick and easy as possible.

Try to limit CTAs to just one, maybe two at a push (if you want to invite users to Book a demo or Get a free trial, for example.)

Mistake #2: Not adding social proof

Disregarding the importance of having things like testimonials, case studies, user reviews, star ratings, and client logos on your SaaS homepage is a big mistake (huge!).

Social proof helps build trust with your potential customers and simplify their buying decisions. In fact, 9 out of 10 consumers read online reviews before making a purchase decision.

Mistake #3: Leaving out product details

When customers are comparing your SaaS product with your competitor’s, their decision often boils down to your respective product specifications, benefits, and features.

So if you fail to include every bit of information (that they’ll care about) with demo videos, spec lists, and infographics, you might lose a customer based on a single missing detail.

Mistake #4: No CTA above the fold

Having a CTA above the fold on your SaaS homepage is super important. That’s because many users will land on your homepage and make their minds up about a purchase decision before they even scroll down.

You only have 8 seconds to make an impact with your user, and most of that impact happens above the fold. That’s why it’s crucial to get your homepage banner, headline, description, and CTA just right.

Mistake #5: Using sliders excessively

Website sliders are a great way to pack in more information about your SaaS product on a short homepage, but only in small doses. A common website design mistake we see SaaS companies overusing sliders.

Using too many sliders makes it hard for users to find the information they’re looking for, and they might find it annoying having to flick between different cards. Additionally, if your sliders are too fast, they may struggle to read the information in the first place.

Mistake #6: Using too many or too few keywords

When you’re writing your SaaS homepage’s content, it’s crucial that you first carry out thorough keyword research to see what keywords are most relevant to your business and include these within your text.

Including keywords in your H1s, H2s, H3s, etc., and throughout your body text is critical if you want any chance of showing up on the first page of Google’s search results. If users can’t find you, how can you expect to increase conversions?

It’s time to design your perfect conversion-boosting SaaS homepage

All marketing channels lead back to your SaaS website’s homepage, often making it the most visited page on your website.

It acts as a vital “jumping-off point” for your customer journey, directing users to the information they’re looking for around the site, eventually leading to a conversion.

That’s why it’s essential to design your homepage to maximise conversions and keep A/B testing it to figure out what’s working and what’s not to continue improving results.

Read our previous blog on A/B testing to learn tactics for increasing conversion rates on your SaaS website.

Do you need help designing a conversion-driven website?

Talk to our SaaS web designers! With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with proven content strategies, comprehensive digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.
 
 

Lead Generation For SaaS: Metrics That Lead to Conversions

Trying to increase lead generation for your SaaS company without having a firm grasp on the metrics that lead to conversions will only end up in a string of expensive assumptions and guesswork.

If you’re serious about getting more leads interested in your SaaS solution, you need to know what the most important conversion metrics are and how to measure them.

But with so many conversion metrics you could keep a watchful eye over, how do you know what ones to prioritise for your SaaS company? Keep reading to find out!

No more vanity SaaS metrics: What to track and why

The sheer volume of data analytics at your disposal can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve outlined the SaaS metrics to track for lead generation and why.

  1. Traffic source

Knowing where your traffic comes from will help you understand what’s working and what isn’t regarding SaaS lead generation.
Looking at Google Analytics, you’ll see:

  • Direct visitors (those who type your website URL into the browser)
  • Search visitors (those who use search engines to find you)
  • Referral visitors (those coming from links on other websites or social media platforms)

By seeing what sources bring the most leads, you can increase marketing efforts to get more visitors from this specific source, whether that’s upping your Facebook ads for more referral traffic or amping up your SEO strategy for more search visitors.

  1. Churn rate

Churn rate is one of the most crucial SaaS marketing metrics to track for lead generation, as it lets you know how many customers leave your SaaS company within a specific period.

If you’re losing customers at an alarming rate, you’ll know that your marketing campaigns aren’t hitting the mark. Maybe you’re giving SaaS leads one impression of your product, but when they use it, they experience something else, for example.

  1. Lead acquisition cost

Suppose you don’t know how much it costs your SaaS company to acquire a new lead. In that case, you’ll have difficulty understanding how much money to pump into your marketing campaigns and the return on investment you can expect.

Your lead acquisition cost is the total price of your marketing campaigns over a specific period, divided by the number of new leads they brought in. You can even drill down into each campaign or marketing channel to understand what marketing investments are paying off.

  1. Conversion rate

To fully assess your marketing efforts and know what SaaS lead generation campaigns are producing the best results, you need to pay special attention to your conversion rates across every audience segment, marketing campaign, and channel.

Conversions can be anything from signing up for a free trial to activating your SaaS solution and renewing subscriptions. It’s up to you to assess what conversions matter most to your SaaS company.

  1. Free-to-paid conversions

Leads signing up for free trials or booking demos doesn’t automatically lead to paid SaaS subscriptions down the line. So it’s important to see how long it takes, on average, for a customer to go from signing up to paying for your product over a year.

Understanding this key metric will help you forecast how many paid plans you can expect from people signing up for free trials and identify what motivates people to go from a lead or freemium user (if you offer this) to paying customer.

  1. Lead velocity rate

Your lead velocity rate is the amount of marketing qualified leads you’ve achieved from one month divided by the amount of MQL achieved in the next month, multiplied by 100 to give you a percentage.

Knowing your lead velocity rate will help you determine if your SaaS marketing and sales efforts are more or less effective from month to month and give you an idea of whether you can expect to hit your end-of-quarter or end-of-year goals.

Ready to start measuring these essential conversion metrics?

Without these metrics, your SaaS company won’t be able to fully grasp what marketing campaigns and channels are creating more leads and eventually converting them into paid customers.

You have to know precisely what works and what doesn’t if you want to keep improving your marketing efforts and growing your monthly and annual recurring revenue.

Struggling to find time to focus on SaaS metrics and lead generation?

Let us do it for you! With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with proven lead generation strategies, comprehensive digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

How to create a successful content strategy for your SaaS website

If you’ve never blogged on your SaaS website before, it can be difficult to know where to even begin. You might come across other SaaS companies’ content online and feel a little intimidated.

You want to come across as an authority in your industry, but what topics should you write about? How can you ensure you’re not wasting your time with blogs nobody wants to read?

These are totally normal thoughts to have when you’re just starting out, but don’t let it deter you!

It’s all about having a solid content strategy in place – long before you even start writing your first blog. A content strategy is important, because it helps you write consistent, quality content that appeals to your target audience and ranks highly online.

Let’s dive deeper into the benefits of blogging for SaaS websites and how you can get started on your very own content strategy today!

What are the benefits of starting a blog on your SaaS website?

Did you know that adding a blog to your SaaS website can increase traffic by as much as 434%? So if you’re wondering “do blogs even work for SaaS brands?” Without question, yes they do. And here’s why:

Establishes authority

If your target customers come across a well-written blog you wrote online, it establishes your credibility and positions you as a more trustworthy brand. Why? Because you’re showing off your expertise AND they’ll see you showing up on Google’s search results – adding even more credibility.

Increases visibility

Blogging is one of the best ways to improve your overall SEO efforts, increase your online visibility, and get more target customers onto your SaaS website. By writing about topics people are searching for, more people will find you online. Plus, other SaaS websites might share your blog, promoting even more brand awareness!

Improves customer retention

Blogging is even effective in helping you retain your SaaS customers long after they’ve converted. By creating a knowledge base of SaaS how-to’s, guides, and useful information, you can increase user adoption, help customers get the most out of your SaaS solution, keep them happy, and get them to stay longer/ buy your upsells.

Your step-by-step guide to a successful SaaS content strategy

With 77% of internet users reading blogs today, content truly is a foundational component of any B2B marketing strategy. So, how can you create an effective content strategy that will boost your blogging efforts and make sure they weren’t all in vain?

Follow our step-by-step process below to understand the basics.

  1. Know your audience

If you don’t have a clear understanding of who your target audience is and what content appeals to them, you may as well be typing loudly into the void. Figure out the kind of content that will interest your audience, not just what you want to write about.

  1. Create content pillars

Content pillars are a set of “topics” that each contain “sub topics” you can write your SaaS blogs about. By knowing what your main content pillars are, you can expand on each topic to answer a ton of user queries. Here is an example:
Content pillar: Cloud-based accounting software

  • The benefits of cloud-based accounting software
  • How to choose the right accounting software
  • Do you need accounting software? Find out
  • 10 ways account software can increase productivity
  1. Perform keyword research

Perform keyword research to see what kind of questions people are asking online that relate to your SaaS product. Then, choose a set of “target” keywords for each content pillar and include them in all your H1s, H2s, H3s, etc., meta descriptions, and throughout your blog’s body copy to help your blog rank on the search results.

  1. Plan your content calendar

Now that you have an idea of what your target SaaS audience are searching for online, have established your content pillars, and target keywords, it’s time to create a content calendar, which includes:

  • The topic
  • Target keyword
  • Content brief
  • Posting schedule
  • Target word count

Outline each blog using the above elements and aim to post at least 2 blogs a month at a minimum of 1,000 words. (Each blog should take around 2-4 hours.)

  1. Measure results and improve

Stick to your content calendar and check in regularly with your Google Analytics to see what blogs performed the best and got the most traffic. Also take a look at where each blog ranks online in Google Search results pages to get insights and improve based on the results.

Ready to invest in your SaaS content strategy?

If you want to build a stronger presence online, nurture target audiences into long-term customers, and achieve a higher conversion rate – blogging is an absolute must for your SaaS website.

While ads can garner quick results, establishing a long-term content strategy will help you appear higher in Google’s search results, bringing an influx of high-quality leads to your SaaS website.

The beauty of SaaS content strategies is that they keep improving over time, take minimal time and money to implement, and add a level of credibility to your brand that other marketing tactics can’t.

Do you need help developing an effective content strategy but don’t have the time?

Let us do it for you! With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with proven content strategies, comprehensive digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

PPC vs SEO: Which is Better for your SaaS Marketing strategy?

PPC or SEO? Ah, the big debate. Marketers have long been arguing over which method produces better marketing results. But what does each marketing tactic mean?

PPC stands for pay-per-click and is a paid form of advertising that usually takes the form of Google Ads. The ads include a CTA button, that when clicked (you guessed it), you can pay anywhere from £0.5 to £20+ to get a user onto your SaaS website.

SEO, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast. It’s the process of “optimising” your website to satisfy a set of best practices and adding target keywords into your website copy so your website becomes easier to find online.

So, which is better for marketing, PPC or SEO? Let’s find out by analysing the pros and cons of each!

The benefits of PPC for SaaS companies

Let’s explore why a massive 79% of marketers say that PPC is hugely beneficial for their business.

Instant results

Okay, maybe not instant, but PPC definitely delivers conversions far quicker than SEO. Within a matter of days – or even minutes – of setting up an ad, you can get people clicking and onto your website for a possible call, purchase, or demo!

Clear insights

PPC ads make it very clear what’s working and what isn’t through an analytics tool like Google Analytics. By seeing what campaigns are converting customers, you can easily turn on/off the ads that are giving you a good ROI and spend more budget on what’s already working to accelerate results.

The drawbacks of PPC for SaaS companies

Now you understand the benefits of PPC ads for your SaaS business, let’s take a look at the disadvantages:

Steep learning curve

Crafting successful PPC campaigns isn’t something you can master in a day. There’s a steep learning curve involved in understanding an ad platform. Even when you get the basics right, PPC ads require a constant watchful eye to optimise campaigns and ensure you’re spending your marketing budget accordingly.

High costs

PPC isn’t the most budget-friendly solution out there, especially if you’re not seeing results. You can end up wasting thousands on marketing campaigns that aren’t picking up enough conversions. Even though you might only pay £0.10 per click, this can quickly add up and make a big dent in your pocket if no clicks lead to conversions.

The benefits of SEO for SaaS companies

68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, so you can see why it’s a fundamental part of so many SaaS strategies.

Before you start racing to set up a Google Ads account for PPC ads, it’s time to take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of our good old friend, SEO.

It’s free!

Well, the clicks are (you’ll still have to invest in the talent to implement your SEO strategy!) One of the biggest advantages of implementing an SEO strategy is that when you appear in the “organic” search results (pages that appear underneath the ads on Google), you don’t pay a penny for people clicking on and visiting your website.

P.S. Customers also tend to trust organic search results more – because they know you’re not paying to be there!

Higher-quality leads

SEO is a long-term lead generation strategy that tends to produce higher-quality traffic to your website. Some people may click on your ads by accident, with organic search results, they’re looking for high-quality content to help them solve a particular problem.

Blogging nurtures leads from awareness to consideration to conversion by delivering content that appeals to users at every stage of their buyer journey.

The drawbacks of SEO for SaaS companies

And finally, here are some of the main disadvantages of SEO for SaaS marketing.

It’s slower

While PPC can get you results almost immediately, SEO can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months before you start seeing tangible results. However, after you begin climbing the ranks on Google, you’ll find results continuously improve and almost “snowball” the longer you build upon your SEO strategy.

Google dictates success

Another key disadvantage of SEO is the fact that you’re at the behest of Google. Since they regularly change their algorithms and “ranking factors” (a set of guidelines that inform what makes websites rank highly online), you have to constantly stay in the loop and might notice sudden drops in ranking due to Google changing their systems. SEO can be unpredictable.

So, what’s better for SaaS marketing strategies: SEO or PPC?

Well, it really depends. Do you have the budget to pump money into PPC ads to achieve quick results or do you want to take a higher-quality, longer-term approach with SEO?

At the end of the day, both SEO and PPC are vital elements of any marketing strategy, and the one you give the most budget and attention to will most likely come out the winner.

Need help developing an effective marketing strategy but don’t have the time?

Let us do it for you! With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with proven content strategies, comprehensive digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.
 
 

Why SEO is important and how to optimise your SaaS website for more conversions

Whether you’re in the process of designing your first SaaS website, redesigning the one you have, or are working with a marketing partner, you’ve likely come across the term Search Engine Optimisation or SEO as it’s commonly known.

So, what exactly is SEO, and why is it important for your SaaS business? In short, SEO is the process of “optimising” your SaaS website so that your target audience can easily find you on search engines like Google.

If you’d like to learn more about why optimising your SaaS website for SEO is so important and ways you can do so, just keep reading!

The benefits of optimising your SaaS website for SEO

Let’s explore the most important reasons why you or your marketing partner needs to develop and implement a solid SEO strategy for your business.

Builds awareness

According to BrightEdge, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine.

So if you’re not appearing for relevant SaaS searches your target audience is making online, you’re losing a massive amount of visibility.

SEO helps get your brand in front of more people, building awareness and increasing your chances of landing SaaS customers.

Creates credibility

More than 90% of people never click past the first page of Google’s search results, so the lower down your website pages appear, the less traffic you’ll get.

Seeing your SaaS brand appear on page 1 makes you appear more trustworthy and authoritative. This sense of credibility means that prospective customers will take less convincing to choose your SaaS solution over a website that appears on page 10.

Increases conversions

In general, the more organic (free) traffic you get onto your website, the higher your conversions will be.

The beauty of SEO is that, unlike Google Ads, you don’t pay for every click on the organic results, which lowers your cost-per-conversion and increases profits.

How to optimise your website for SEO: Our top tips

Optimising your website works by following a set of SEO best practices that help pages on your SaaS website rank highly for the specific keywords your target audience is typing in. Let’s explore these best practices below:

Understand key metrics

All good SEO strategies for SaaS websites start with installing analytics software, like Google Analytics, to establish a baseline for your website traffic.

You’ll be able to measure what keywords you already rank for, what pages get the most traffic, how long people spend on each page, your bounce rate (people that leave without clicking to another page) and much more.

Using these insights, you can gain clarity on areas you need to improve and track these improvements throughout your ongoing SEO strategy implementation.

Carry out keyword research

Using a free keyword planning tool, like Wordstream, start typing in keywords you want your website to rank for (like “SaaS accounting” or “cloud-based LMS”) and see what similar searches people make.

Your keyword research tool will then show you how often people search for a specific keyword per month, how competitive it is, and more.

Once you know what list of keywords you want to rank for on every page of your website, you can start optimising your website for those specific search terms.

Create high-quality content

One of the most crucial ways to optimise your website for SEO and achieve higher rankings is by creating high-quality, long-form content.

By answering questions that people type in the most with well-written, genuinely helpful blogs, you’ll show off your expertise, boost visibility, and get more people enquiring about your SaaS solution.

Optimise website copy with keywords

To help your website climb the search results, make sure you include target keywords in:

  • Headlines on your website
  • In subheadings on your website
  • Throughout your body copy
  • In meta titles and descriptions
  • Image alt. text

Don’t overdo it, though. You want to aim for between 0.5% – 2.5% keyword density within your body copy – otherwise, Google will penalise you for keyword stuffing!

Make your website user-friendly

Another key aspect of SEO is enhancing the usability of your SaaS website by following technical SEO best practices. Here are some of the key ones to follow:

  • Make sure your website works on mobile
  • Increase your website speed
  • Make your website easy to navigate
  • Add an SSL certificate to your website
  • Redirect any 404 error pages
  • Create an XML sitemap
  • Fix any broken links on your website
  • Use canonical URLs for duplicate content
  • Add internal links to other website pages

Get backlinks to your website

Last but not least, try and secure as many links back to your SaaS website as you can. The more “backlinks” you have, the more Google will see you as an authority in the industry and “trust” your website.

You can get more backlinks by:

  • Sharing high-quality content on Social Media
  • Writing guest articles for other websites
  • Adding your website to online directories
  • Publish press releases on news websites

Ready to invest in your SEO strategy?

Now that you understand the importance of SEO, the benefits of implementing an SEO strategy for your SaaS business, and what the best practices are, it’s time to get going on optimising your website!

Begin by evaluating your website’s current performance, working on your keyword research, and go from there.

Do you need help crafting a winning SEO strategy but don’t have the time?

Let us do it for you! With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with smart automation, strategic digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.
 
 

Why marketing SaaS is different from traditional marketing strategies

When you’re marketing once-off purchases, like a laptop or fridge, it’s pretty straightforward: Promote the product, and people who want it; buy it. SaaS marketing is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Unlike traditional forms of marketing, with SaaS marketing, you’re promoting a product that consumers can’t physically touch – along with a service they likely haven’t used before. And not only that, they’re committing to a long-term payment plan when they invest in your SaaS solution.

Both software and service need to take centre stage in your marketing strategy, pitching the benefits of your technology as well as the human support behind it. Let’s explore some other ways SaaS marketing is different from traditional forms of marketing to help you develop your own SaaS marketing strategy.

Key factors that influence SaaS marketing strategies

SaaS marketing doesn’t always follow the same marketing principles as other industries, from a hyper-focus on content marketing and SEO to amping up customer review strategies. Understand some of these key distinctions below.

Speedy SaaS buyer journeys

Apart from enterprise SaaS solutions, where the customer is paying significantly more for your SaaS product, the buyer’s journey is typically much shorter than your average software purchase.

Rather than spending months going back and forth with sales calls, if someone is looking for a SaaS solution, once they’ve compared you to competitors, read reviews, and completed a free trial, they’re likely ready to bite after just a few weeks or even days.

In response to this speedy buyer journey, your website, marketing assets, and ad campaigns must be as informative, impactful, and persuasive as possible.

Understanding your target audience’s pain points and demonstrating how your SaaS solution solves them in sharp, concise, and compelling marketing materials is vital for securing quick customer buy-in.

Credibility through SaaS content

Your SaaS marketing strategy needs to keep content at its core if you want to break through the online noise. According to ProfitWell, SaaS businesses that prioritise content marketing see much higher growth rates.

That’s because building consumer trust for a product people can’t see or touch means developing rich resources, webinars, podcasts, whitepapers, blogs, guides, and case studies.

Your target audience needs to see how your SaaS works in the real world and the results in the flesh. Otherwise, they may find it too risky to commit to a monthly subscription.

Content marketing is also essential for educating your customers, making complex SaaS processes more digestible, and positioning yourself as a trusted authority in the industry.

SaaS success relies on SEO

According to Mike Sonders, SEO drives up to 77% of organic traffic for SaaS businesses.

SaaS companies need to place greater emphasis on their SEO strategies to be successful. As you learned above, content marketing strongly influences your target customer’s decision-making process.

So if they don’t see your content while researching SaaS online, you won’t stand out as a major player and miss the chance to convert them through content. That’s why developing a strong keyword strategy for your website and all online content is crucial.

By understanding what your target audience is searching for online and optimising your content to show up for these relevant keywords, you stride far closer to building that essential trust and credibility.

SaaS reviews matter more

According to a study by Spiegel Research Centre, a product with at least five reviews can increase conversions by 270% compared to a product with no reviews.

And for SaaS companies, this number is likely even higher. Since you can’t actually hold SaaS software or know what the service will be like before you commit, customers heavily rely on reviews to make a purchase decision.

Generating SaaS reviews as part of your marketing strategy is essential because it proves to target customers that you’re a legitimate company and can back up your claims.

Getting more positive reviews comes down first and foremost to the quality of your customer service and product. Still, SaaS marketers can encourage more by adding themselves to comparison sites, asking past customers to give feedback, and inviting industry experts to review their SaaS.

It’s time to level up your SaaS marketing strategy

At the end of the day, the best SaaS marketing strategies are those that design, maintain, and promote their first-class customer service and quality SaaS product.

To achieve this, designers, developers, customer service teams, and SaaS marketers need to collaborate closely and keep a close eye on customer feedback and consumer trends.

Do you need help crafting a winning SaaS marketing strategy but don’t have the time?

Let us do it for you! With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with smart automation, strategic digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

SaaS website design tips: How to create the perfect homepage

Considering your homepage is the most visited page on your SaaS website, and it takes just 50 ms to make a good first impression with visitors, to say the website design of your homepage is important would be an understatement.

Think of your SaaS homepage design as a shop window. Get it right, and you draw people inside and direct them around the store until they reach the till. Get it wrong, and people will just walk right past you. So, how do you get your homepage website design right to attract more conversions? Just keep reading, and you’ll find out!

Key conversion-boosting tips for SaaS homepages

Create an impactful homepage banner

With the right blend of banner design and messaging, you can create a fantastic first impression with your audience. Use this prime real estate to highlight a key pain point you can solve for your target audience and the main unique selling point of your SaaS solution. Make it snappy, memorable, and compelling to increase your conversion chances.

Include a clear and direct call to action

Since your homepage serves as a “jumping-off point” for your visitors to journey through the rest of your website, make the next steps you wish your target audience to take crystal clear with CTAs located 2-3 times throughout the homepage. “Book a demo,” “Chat to sales,” and “Get a free trial” are all popular ones for SaaS website designs – just make sure it’s relevant.

Prove credibility and create user trust

88% of consumers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations. And with so much heated competition between SaaS websites, having testimonials, app store ratings, client logos, and case studies included in your homepage website design will go a long way in helping users trust your SaaS company and take action.

Show your SaaS solution in action

SaaS product explainer videos, demos, and imagery/videos showing your product’s functionality are essential to any high-converting SaaS website design – but the homepage especially. Giving your target audience an insight into your SaaS solution will help them understand complex SaaS subjects in digestible terms.

Write compelling conversion copy

The copy on your SaaS website isn’t just crucial for showing up on search engines like Google (more on that next); it’s vital for highlighting how your SaaS solution can solve your target audience’s main problems. Explaining what you do and how it helps people will bring your first-time website visitors much closer to becoming long-term customers.

Optimising your SaaS homepage for search engine traffic

Now that you know what to implement for more conversions, help your SaaS homepage get seen by more people online with these SEO tips:

Write solid meta titles and descriptions

Your meta titles and descriptions only appear on search engine results pages and can significantly improve your click-through rates. Make them heavily conversion-focused, highlighting benefits while including your main target keywords. As a good rule of thumb, keep meta titles to about 70 characters and descriptions to about 160 characters.

Ensure your site is security-protected

Make sure you regularly update your SSL certificate, or if you don’t already have one – get one ASAP. Without an SSL certificate, users will see a warning message before visiting your SaaS website, telling them it may not be safe. This is a huge red flag for customers – so make sure you sort it out sooner rather than later!

Optimise all your headlines

For ranking highly on search engines, adding keywords to your H1s, H2s, H3s, etc., makes a big difference. Use these headlines to not only add in keywords where possible (without sounding robot-y) but to encourage more conversions by highlighting pain points, unique selling points, and how much better people’s lives will be thanks to your SaaS product.

The same principles go for your subheadings and body copy. Focus on your audience’s needs, desires, issues, and goals and how your SaaS product and the team can help them with each while adding your target keywords where appropriate.

Create an easy-to-navigate menu

Create pages your target audience will search for the most on Google and make it easy for them to navigate between pages with a clear and concise menu. Don’t overwhelm your audience with long menus that make it hard to find what they’re looking for. Keep it simple! Here are some standard pages to add to your SaaS website.

  • Demo
  • Reviews
  • Free trial
  • About
  • Integrations
  • Features
  • Pricing
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Resources

Answer frequently asked questions

One of the best ways to show up on Google for your target audience’s key search terms is to answer their most commonly asked questions (according to keyword research and your own experience) on your homepage. Keep FAQs to the bottom and see it as a final pitch to convince your audience that your SaaS solution is their best option.

Ready to create the perfect homepage for your SaaS website?

Remember, these are general guidelines, not exact formulas. The best website design tip we can give you is developing a deep understanding of how your users interact with your website by deploying a long-term A/B testing strategy and making constant improvements based on the results.

Too busy to figure out how to improve conversion rates for your SaaS website?

Let us do it for you! With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with smart automation, strategic digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

How to build a winning B2B SaaS sales funnel in 9 simple steps

Heard of a “sales funnel” but not sure about building one for your own B2B SaaS company? A sales funnel is the specific stages you take customers through, from lead acquisition to conversion and retention.

The idea behind a sales funnel is that you can track and optimise the journey your potential customers go through for first and repeat sales. Once you know what works and doesn’t, you can repeat the sales funnel to maximise leads and sales for your SaaS business.

Not entirely sure how to build an effective B2B SaaS sales funnel? Great, this guide is for you! We’ll show you how in 9 simple steps, beginning with creating a marketing funnel.

Step 1: Create a marketing funnel

There are three stages to any marketing funnel: Awareness, consideration, and conversion.
Depending on where your target audience is in the funnel, you’ll need different content to help them move to the next stage.

Awareness: The user has a problem and is searching online for B2B SaaS products and services like yours to provide the solution.

Create content that positions you as an authority and gives users introductory information with guides, blogs, explainer videos, and lead magnets.

Consideration: The user is diving deeper into your content and considering how you can fulfil their needs.

Develop content showing your expertise and real-world results with case studies, free demos, and SaaS sales presentations.

Conversion: The user is making their final decision by doing further research and comparing your SaaS company with competitors.

Develop content that helps customers compare your B2B SaaS offering with others with comparison sites, testimonials, pricing tables, and free trials.

Step 2: Outline your buyer journey

Now that you’ve developed content for every marketing funnel stage, it’s time to begin building your SaaS sales funnel by creating a roadmap of the specific steps your customers take before and after buying your B2B SaaS products or services.

Create standardised processes for every step of the buyer journey, which usually looks like this: Acquire lead, convert, onboard, support, and retain.

Your SaaS sales teams will use these processes to offer the best information to your customers at the right time.

Step 3: Attract leads with marketing

An essential part of any SaaS sales funnel for B2B companies is developing a solid marketing strategy to attract leads and convert them into long-term customers. Here are the key elements you should include:

  • Audience & competitors: Research who your target audiences are and what they’re searching online to find you, and look at competitors to see what you can offer that they can’t.
  • SaaS product spotlights: Define the most desirable products and services to your target audiences and highlight them.
  • SaaS cost comparisons: See how much competitors charge for similar SaaS products and services and create a competitive pricing strategy.
  • Marketing tactics: Outline the specific marketing tactics, campaigns, and landing pages you’ll use to attract, nurture, and convert your target customers.

Step 4: Turn leads into customers

When your marketing tactics begin attracting leads, it’s time for the sales team to nurture them into customers. Develop a solid sales strategy with:

  • Lead scoring – to understand how “close” a lead is to converting
  • CRM tools – to track leads and manage sales communications
  • Sales decks – to support sales teams during their client pitches
  • Sales scripts – to help close sales and prepare for objections
  • Marketing – to nurture leads who don’t convert straight away

Step 5: Optimise customer onboarding

Acquiring a new customer can cost 5x more than retaining an existing customer, which is why you must have an onboarding protocol to give your new customers an excellent first impression.
This protocol might include things like:

  • Automating a welcome email
  • Offering guides to use your SaaS products
  • Sending check-in emails
  • Giving each customer their own contact

Step 6: Support user adoption

Secure user adoption and engagement by teaching customers how to use intermediate features, showing them how to integrate your SaaS product into their current processes, and highlighting success stories.

Step 7: Enhance your support process

One of the biggest complaints we see customers make regarding B2B SaaS products and services is the lack of quality customer support. Developing a solid support programme increases retention, so make sure you have processes in place for:

  • Resolving complex customer issues
  • Creating informative knowledge hubs
  • Providing how-to tutorials
  • Minimising customer support wait time
  • Acquiring customer satisfaction data

Step 8: Make renewals easy

The likelihood of your customers leaving tends to increase around the subscription renewal period, when they consider the value you offer to their B2B business and whether they should continue with you.

Make it as easy as possible for them to renew their subscription with automated reminders, and don’t forget to offer upgrades in case they’re interested!

Step 9: Analyse and improve

Keep track of what’s working with your sales funnel and where you can improve it to continue optimising it for effectiveness. Set KPIs for every stage of the buyer journey, looking at important metrics, like:

  • Website visitors
  • Conversion rates
  • User engagement
  • Product activation
  • Customer satisfaction scores
  • Customer retention rates

That’s it! Time to build your B2B SaaS sales funnel

Congratulations, you’re now ready to create an effective SaaS sales funnel for your B2B business! Selling SaaS products or services can be tough – especially with so much competition.

But with a well-optimised sales funnel, you’ll have the processes and data you need to streamline the buyer journey and deliver exactly what your customers want at the right time to convince them to buy and stay.

Want us to do all the hard work for you? Rocket SaaS is a leading web design and digital marketing agency specialising in SaaS sales funnels.

With cancel anytime plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we become your dedicated SaaS marketing partner, helping you achieve your goals through outstanding website design and effective marketing.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

Rated by Rocket SaaS: Our Top 10 SaaS website designs and what you can learn from them

A recent WebFX study says that 75% of website credibility comes from design and 88% of online consumers are less likely to return after a bad website experience. So when it comes to your SaaS website design, the stakes are high. Very high. You see, everything leads back to your website – calls with prospects, users searching on Google, online ads, and even social media.

If they land on your website and it doesn’t meet their needs or give them a great first impression: they won’t stick around. Investing in the right SaaS website design builds credibility and encourages users to convert. So, what does a good SaaS website design look like? Check out our top 10 SaaS websites to find out and see what you can learn from them!

10 SaaS website designs that just work

Without further ado, we’ve rounded up our favourite SaaS websites, picking out their main strengths so that you can take note for your own website!

  1. Mailchimp

What we love about Mailchimp is they make the complex – simple. Even experienced SaaS marketers find email automation tricky. But with Mailchimp’s easy design, quirky graphics, user-friendly navigation, and clear CTAs, this SaaS website makes even marketing newbies feel empowered to kick ass at email marketing automation.
mailchimp CTA
mailchimp-CTA-2

  1. Slack

Research has shown that adding videos to SaaS websites increases conversions. And Slack really nails this concept by sprinkling short explainer videos throughout their site and injecting some fun with animations. The interactive nature of Slack’s design really embodies their conversation-centric brand and entices conversions with an easy 1-2-3 step process.

Slack CTA
Slack CTA 2

  1. Evernote

84.6% of web designers believe crowded web design is the most common mistake made by small businesses (GoodFirms). And with SaaS websites, simple is always better – because what you’re selling is often complicated. Evernote shows impressive simplicity and minimalism with excellent use of white space in their design while still getting their key points across.

Evernote CTA
Evernote CTA 2

  1. Typeform

What we love about Typeform is the constraint they show with their copywriting. They’ve really honed in their messaging to talk about what their audience cares about the most while still getting their features and benefits across. Their strong branding, coupled with a sleek, modern design makes this an irresistible SaaS website for any website visitor.

Typeform CTA
Typeform CTA 2

  1. Dropbox

Dropbox makes clever use of their menu navigation, with dropdown menus split between the benefits of choosing them, proof points, products, sectors they work with, and pricing. Keeping it nicely organised with so much information to offer about their SaaS product makes their website easy to navigate and rich.

Why Dropbox
Dropbox Solutions

  1. Hubspot

Many SaaS companies struggle with designing their websites to target numerous audiences (all with different issues) at once! Hubspot does a fantastic job of segmenting the benefits and features of Hubspot for every audience from the get-go on their homepage. Doing so helps them capture and convert a wider portion of the market and not deter anyone.

HubSpot Sales Leaders
HubSpot Operations Managers

  1. Lucky Orange

The above-the-fold headline is one of the first things your SaaS audience will notice about your website, so you better make it powerful. Lucky Orange makes their compelling headline, description, and CTA take centre stage here – instantly locking in user attention. We also love how they’ve split their features into neat boxes with unique icons that draw the eye in.

Lucky Orange CTA
Lucky Orange CTA 2

  1. DocuSign

DocuSign takes social proof to the next level by stating they’ve helped 1M customers and 1B users worldwide. If we had those numbers, we’d probably shout about it too! Adding social proof in a prime location is one of the most effective ways to instantly build credibility and position yourself as an authority in your niche. Nicely done DocuSign!

DocuSign CTA
DocuSign CTA 2

  1. Petal

Finally! A banking website that isn’t just full of smiling couples applying for their first mortgage. Petal’s SaaS website design is like a breath of fresh air with its smooth navigation, minimalist look, easy scroll, and muted colours. Petal’s simplistic approach to copy makes you want to learn more and keep clicking around the site!

Petal CTA
Petal CTA 2

  1. Drift

Drift took a unique approach to SaaS website design which we quite like! The pop-art colours, use of screen width, slick animations, and video additions make it a memorable site that makes you want to stay on it for longer. They also have a genius “stat bar” that shows you the results people have had using Drift – pretty convincing!

Drift CTA
Drift CTA 2

Which website elements should your company be optimising?

You must regularly review your website to make sure it still looks fresh, says and does the right things, and keeps those conversions trickling in. To help you assess your website, here are some common elements all the best SaaS websites shared:

  • Strong, clear CTAs
  • Less is more
  • Sharp, concise copy
  • Interactive animations
  • Videos
  • Easy navigation
  • Benefits > Features

Why not take these effective design elements on board for your next website refresh? Or perhaps you’d like a trained eye to see if you can take your SaaS website to the next level by revitalising the design? If so, talk to our SaaS web design and marketing experts here at RocketSaaS.

RocketSaaS is a leading web design and digital marketing agency specialising in conversion rate optimisation. With cancel anytime plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we become your dedicated SaaS marketing partner, helping you achieve your goals through outstanding website design and effective marketing.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

Rated by Rocket SaaS: Our top tools to generate leads and sales for your B2B SaaS company

As you’re well aware, the B2B SaaS market competition is pretty hot right now – burning hot, in fact. Every day it feels like a new unicorn pops up out of nowhere to take a big piece of the SaaS pie. How can you keep up? What tools can help your B2B SaaS company generate more leads and sales – without the hassle?

In this Rated by Rocket SaaS article, we’re giving you the lowdown on our ultimate list of lead generation tools to get you more B2B sales and help you smash the SaaS competition. These tools will help you streamline, amplify, and speed up your lead generation strategy – and are super easy to use too!

Our top sales & lead generation tools for B2B SaaS

It can be easy to get distracted by the latest tools and technologies and end up with a tech stack that’s just wasting time and money. Keep reading to narrow down your choices!

  1. Website analytics tools

How can you attract more of your ideal customers if you don’t know who they are, how they behave online, or how they find your website? The best way to generate SaaS leads and sales is by first diving into tools like Google Analytics or Semrush to assess your website performance and keep an eye on page rankings, website traffic, and conversion rates. Knowledge is sales power.

  1. Content marketing tools

With the huge rise of social media, more and more content marketing tools, like BuzzSumo and Hootsuite, have hopped onto the market. These tools help us pre-schedule content, engage in “social listening” to see what content is working, and promptly reply to customer comments and messages – all things that add up to more leads and sales for B2B SaaS companies!

  1. Email marketing tools

Mailchimp and Klaviyo have been around for a long time and for good reason! Email automation tools like these are vital in securing more leads and sales for your business – especially when you’re a B2B SaaS company, where nurturing prospects is paramount. In many cases, B2B customers have a longer sales journey; keeping top of mind with simple email automation tools is how you nudge them along that journey faster.

  1. Customer relationship management tools

CRMs like Hubspot and Monday are every SaaS B2B sales team’s best friend. They make it easy to collate customer data from several social, website, and email channels into one database. This data allows you to create audience segments and more targeted online marketing campaigns. And as we all know – the more targeted the campaign, the higher the chance of a conversion.

  1. Website user tracking tools

Using user tracker tools like Hotjar can help you visualise user behaviour to identify areas they tend to linger, get stuck in, or click on the most. Understanding these “user heat maps” is essential for improving your website’s design to increase performance and, ultimately, get more people interested, engaged, and converting with your SaaS company.

  1. Performance management tools

Too busy to check in with your sales teams and assess each employee’s individual performance? Why not invest in a sales performance tool like Hoopla to increase staff productivity and sales results? You’ll be able to see staff performance at a glance, check their progress, and set KPIs – just the motivation they need to grab more leads and sales.

  1. Customer support tools

It’s no secret that if you have subpar customer service, you’ll earn yourself a bad reputation and seriously impact the level of incoming leads and sales you receive. One bad customer support experience and you can lose a vital B2B customer for life. But tools like HelpCrunch or Zendesk can help your customer support team better serve customer queries.

Ready to start experimenting with new SaaS tools?

There are truly so many ways you can improve your SaaS B2B lead generation and sales through tools alone, and if this blog has helped motivate you to try even one new SaaS tool, then our job is done.

Don’t have time to faff around with sales and marketing tools? Let us do it for you! With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we join or become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success with smart automation, strategic digital marketing, and high-converting websites.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

How To Reduce Your Landing Page Bounce Rate

If you’ve been in the digital marketing game for any amount of time, you’ll have come across the term “bounce rate”. But what is a bounce rate, and why is everyone so obsessed with it? Well, they have good reason to be. Your bounce rate is the percentage of people visiting one of your SaaS website’s landing pages and leaving without taking further action.

A high bounce rate is not a good sign. It means your landing page isn’t engaging enough to convert a large portion of your audience, has errors, or isn’t user-friendly. That’s why it’s so important to reduce your bounce rate because a low bounce rate means people stay on your website for longer and are more likely to convert. But what’s considered a good bounce rate?

Semrush reckons a good bounce rate is anywhere between 26%-40%, but the average bounce rate actually falls between 41%-55%, so don’t worry if this is where you’re at! If your bounce rate is on the high side, or you’d like to get out of the average category and into a better, higher-converting place, then this is the guide for you.

How to reduce your bounce rate and win over more customers

While there are many techniques you can try to lower your bounce rate, asking yourself the following questions about your landing page is a great starting point for any bounce rate improving exercise:

  • How relevant is it?
  • Does it look good?
  • Does it work on all devices?
  • Is it easy to understand?
  • Is it user-friendly?
  • Does it load up fast?

If you answered in the negative to any of the above questions, then you know what you need to work on the most! Now without further ado, here are some of the most effective ways to lower your landing page’s bounce rate.

  1. Set bounce rate goals

If you’re not constantly checking in to see your baseline bounce rates across each landing page and your entire website, you’ll never know what’s working and what’s not to lower your bounce rates. Once you know your starting point, perform regular A/B testing to reduce bounce rates and measure your success.

  1. Enhance readability

One of the most common reasons users bounce off landing pages is poorly written or designed content. Landing pages aren’t the place to drone on about technical information nobody really cares about. People like shorter content they can quickly “skim”. So use bullet points, break up long pieces of text with images, and don’t go overboard with the details!

  1. Write hyper-focused content

The more targeted, compelling, and relevant your landing page is to your audience, the higher the chance they’ll be interested and want to learn more. So, after performing thorough keyword research to understand what your target audience is searching for, work on delivering the best information you can to answer their query.

  1. Optimise for all devices

Have you ever visited a website on your mobile phone where some buttons don’t work, images look out of proportion, and the text is so large you can barely read it? That’s because some companies still don’t understand the importance of optimising for mobile! 50% of all website traffic comes from mobile users, so always design with this statistic in mind.

  1. Create compelling CTAs

You’d be surprised by the sheer volume of landing pages we’ve seen over the years with no calls to action or so many that it just confuses the user. Keep your CTAs simple and targeted. Try to stick to one call to action per landing page and play around with placement, button colour, and CTA copy in your A/B tests until you see a nice improvement in your bounce rates.

  1. Add better visual elements

We don’t know anyone who enjoys reading a super long block of text on a boring landing page with barely any visuals. Try adding more videos and images to your landing page if it’s looking a bit “meh” to increase engagement and make your key messages more impactful. Now, don’t add a ton of visuals for the sake of it – only include more if it looks good and has a purpose.

  1. Add a popup before they leave

Popups can work wonders for bounce rates, but only when you use them sparingly and strategically. Always give your user enough time to skim your page (60 seconds to 2 minutes). Then, test hitting them with a popup that invites them to take action, whether it’s subscribing to your newsletter, downloading a free guide, or booking a free audit.

Ready to see those bounce rates fall?

Time to get started on your strategy to lower those bounce rates and get target audiences engaging, clicking, and converting. Lowering bounce rates will not only lead to higher ROI from marketing campaigns, more overall sales, and more engagement; it’s also a Google ranking factor, so reducing bounces will help with your online visibility too!

Don’t have time to mess around with A/B testing and web design? We’ve got you. With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we become your dedicated SaaS marketing and web design partner, taking your online presence to sky-high success.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

How to identify your target audience in the SaaS market

If you’re not already using buyer personas in your SaaS marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a seriously effective trick to attract more high-value customers to your business and boost ROI. Here’s why. Targeting too broad an audience results in lower conversion rates and wasted marketing budget – because it’s a strategy based on guesswork, not facts.

The most effective SaaS marketing strategies target the right people with the right message at the right time. And buyer personas are how you achieve that. The more you understand your audience, the more targeted your SaaS marketing strategy will be to entice, engage, and convert them. So, how do you create buyer personas? Keep reading to find out!

How to create buyer personas in 5 easy steps

Buyer personas are essentially a “profile” of your ideal SaaS customers. You will create them based on real data about your current customers and market research to define who you target, why, and how. Remember; the more specific you are, the better. Follow these steps to identify your target audiences and craft those all-important buyer personas.

Step 1: Understand your current audience

By first knowing who your real customers and leads are, you can stop relying on gut feelings to form the foundation of your buyer personas. Dive into your data and pull out as many strategic insights as possible to create a profile of every audience segment.

Look at data from leads who have engaged with your website or social media profiles and current/past customers for this information and analyse the following criteria:

  • Basic demographics: What’s their occupation, gender, age, and income?
  • Engagement levels: What actions did they take with your SaaS website?
  • Purchase behaviour: What do they buy, how often, and when?

Once you’ve gathered as much information as possible, see what insights you can pull from the data to identify your most high-value customers. Maybe your younger audience buys from you the most, for example, or you notice that when customers download your SaaS pricing list, they convert within three months. Use these insights to form your ideal buyer personas.

Step 2: Identify your target audience’s problems

Now that you’ve learned as much about your current, past, and potential customers as you can, get to grips with the problems they have that your SaaS product can help with. These problems could be wasting time on overly complex technology, losing money on time-consuming tasks, or dealing with unhappy customers.

By gaining clarity on what issues your target audiences are dealing with, you can craft messaging that resonates with them and present your SaaS product or service as the solution. So, how do you find out these pain points?

Don’t just assume; do the research. Surveys of current customers, market research, competitor analysis, focus groups, and more can help you figure out your customers’ most significant problems.

Step 3: Outline how you solve those problems

Okay, so you’ve done your digging and have a clear idea of the problems your buyer personas are struggling with. Now for the juicy stuff: figure out how your product can solve each buyer persona’s problems. Let’s say one buyer persona’s biggest problem is adoption of new technology taking too long and causing disruption.

In that case, your SaaS product might solve their problem because it’s super user-friendly and only takes a few minutes to integrate. Do you get the idea? Now do that for every buyer persona, listing out the benefits of your SaaS solution and how they positively impact the lives of your target customers. Is it saving money? Time? Stress? Do your research and write everything down.

Step 4: Explore your target audience’s conversion path

A core part of any SaaS marketing strategy is understanding your audience’s journey towards conversion. When you know what touchpoints they hit before they convert, you can tailor your marketing campaigns and landing pages to appeal to them at every stage of the buyer journey. For example, you wouldn’t show the same ads to first-time website visitors as you would to returning visitors, would you? Probably not.

It’s essential to understand what channels your audiences use to do their research and eventually land on your website. So head into your analytics and explore where traffic is coming from. What sources bring people to your website? What search queries are they typing in to find you? What Social Media sites are they coming from? This traffic data will tell you where and when to target each audience segment online.

Step 5: See who your target audience engages with

Now it’s time to see where your audience goes to do their research for SaaS purchase decisions and gain an understanding of the thought leaders they trust for advice. So take a look at your top competitors, popular blogs, SaaS review websites, social media channels, featured speakers at webinars, and influencers in your industry.

Seeing where your audience “hang out” online will be incremental in your SaaS marketing strategy. You’ll be able to connect with these trusted sources through guest articles that will link back to your website, by featuring your product on popular review websites, and inviting your target audience’s favourite thought leaders on your own social media channels or blog.

Ready to create your own SaaS buyer personas?

We hope you can now see the power of buyer personas for SaaS companies and have the skills you need to start identifying your target audiences for more effective marketing campaigns. Not sure where to start? Here’s a top tip: Take a look at the key benefits of your SaaS product or service and work backwards to see what people these benefits help the most. Go from there and you’ll be just fine!

Want the SaaS marketing professionals to do the brunt work for you? Talk to RocketSaaS – the UK’s leading SaaS web design and digital marketing agency. With rolling monthly price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we become your dedicated SaaS marketing partner, helping you skyrocket sales with killer marketing strategies.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

6 landing page tweaks to rocket your SaaS website conversions

It can be challenging for SaaS startups to cut through the online noise and convince new customers to convert with you instead of more established SaaS businesses. You might get plenty of clicks but not much conversion action, even with a sizable marketing budget. The number one culprit? A poorly thought out landing page.

Optimising your landing pages for conversions is one of the most ROI-boosting ways to get buy-in from your target audience. Why? Because landing pages are distraction-free, focused on a single goal, and tied to a specific audience, making them a goldmine of conversions – but only if you test, tweak, and test again to improve your conversion rates.

Ready to improve SaaS conversion rates? Try these tweaks!

You’d be hard-pressed to find any SaaS website that gets its landing pages right on the first try. But if you’re methodical, strategic, and patient with your conversion rate approach, you’ll be well on your way to conversion city. Here are some of the most effective tweaks you can try out today for your SaaS website’s landing pages.

  1. Give one, clear call to action

Ever visited a landing page littered with conflicting calls to action? Maybe you clicked on the page to get a free trial for a new tool, but before you even get to the free trial button, the page blasts you with “buy now”, “sign up”, and “get in touch” CTAs and random popups. It’s too confusing and can lead your visitor astray. Our advice for SaaS websites? Keep. It. Simple. Stick to one CTA and remove any distractions (links, navigation bars, other buttons, etc.

  1. Reveal your pricing plans

Are you one of the many SaaS websites that insist on your audience booking a demo or chatting to your sales team to get an insight into your pricing? While that’s totally up to you, why not experiment with actually showing your pricing plans for your SaaS products or services? HeyDigital saw a 7.5% conversion rate increase when they did this; maybe you can too!

  1. Look legit with social proof

According to eConsultancy, 61% of customers read reviews before purchasing. So if your landing page doesn’t already have customer reviews, case studies, actual statistics, star ratings, and even video testimonials, you could be missing out on some valuable conversions. When your visitor arrives, they want to learn about your SaaS offering, but you have to convince them you’re a trusted, popular choice for them to bite the bullet.

  1. Up the ante with engaging visuals

Eyeview Digital research concluded that videos on landing pages increase conversions by a whopping 86%! But it’s not just videos that can make a massive difference to your conversion rates; it’s all the visuals on your landing page. Experiment with different graphics, animations, videos, and imagery to improve conversions BUT don’t go overboard. Clean, simple, and slick landing pages work best. Too many visuals, and you can give your audience a migraine.

  1. Experiment with copy length

With attention spans at an all-time low, keeping your landing page copy short, sweet, and direct is the way to go. Medium research showed that landing pages with less copy had a 4% higher conversion rate on average. So, how do you satisfy the “skimmers”? Say what you have to say in as few words as possible and format your copy, so it’s easier to read with bullet points, headers, and small blocks of text.

  1. Reduce loading speed

A site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 5x higher than a site that loads in 10 seconds, according to Portent. Plus, over 40% of your SaaS website visitors will leave your website if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds! (Hobo) So, work on your landing page load speed, aiming for between 0-4 seconds to see a noticeable difference in your conversion rates.

What is a good landing page conversion rate?

That’s a great question! And one that comes with a not-so-great answer. Every SaaS startup is different and has varying measures of success, so really, it depends. However, if you want a benchmark figure to compare with, you can look at Wordstream’s research which claims a good landing page conversion rate is around 2.35%

So, how can you reach this base conversion rate and then multiply it? We’re glad you asked. RocketSaaS is a leading web design and digital marketing agency specialising in conversion rate optimisation. With rolling monthly, cancel anytime, price plans starting from just £3,000 per month, we become your dedicated SaaS marketing partner, increasing awareness, leads, and ultimately conversions.

Get in touch with us today to get started.

How To Showcase Your Software On Your Website The Right Way

Do you struggle to show off your software correctly? You’re not alone! Showcasing software on their websites is a massive issue for a lot of tech companies.

Even the most elegantly designed dashboards struggle on most websites because they’re shrunk down, making them almost impossible to read and take in.

You only have a few seconds to grab the user’s attention, and with a small, confusing image of your dashboard, you won’t be able to get their attention at all.

Showcasing your software, so visitors quickly grasp what your tech does and how it benefits them, will have a powerful impact on your lead generation.

So, to help you show off your software the right way, we’re going to go through four ways you can showcase your software correctly on your website and make sure those potential customers convert.

  1. Redraw your software as flat graphics

Redrawing your software as a flat graphic is the ideal way to showcase what your software has to offer.

By using flat graphics instead of a screenshot or image of your software in use, you’ll be able to make your software more accessible and clearer to view.

Instead of your customers being overwhelmed by the amount of detail you have in your software, you’ll be able to grab their attention immediately.

Large, colourful graphics positioned clearly on your website are more likely to capture the attention of your audience than any screenshot of your dashboard.

A great example of a website that shows off their software with flat graphics is Slack! They clearly show what Slack is by displaying small animation graphics and other flat graphics to demonstrate how Slack works.

What are the benefits of drawing your software as flat graphics?

Some of the main benefits of drawing your software as flat graphics are that:

  • Your audience will get a clear idea of what your software can actually do for them
  • You’ll be able to highlight the essential parts of your software clearly
  • You can distinguish between different sections
  • You’ll be able to minimise viewer confusion
  • You’ll be able to showcase your software in all its glory

If you’re feeling adventurous, you could also create a video animation of your software similar to what Monday.com does on their website.

2. Show off the key features of your software

Showing off your key features and benefits are vital for showcasing your software. Your audience doesn’t want to go rooting through your website looking for what your software does. They want to know as soon as possible.

So, don’t take up too much space on your home page talking about the things that don’t matter to your audience. Highlight the features and benefits that make you the exceptional solution to their problem.

By showcasing your uniqueness and showing your audience exactly what your software can do for them, they’ll be far more likely to convert. Don’t forget to show them how it can help them and improve their day-to-day activities. There’s no point in selling to your audience if you can’t prove that your software has the features to improve their lives.

Graphics and imagery are essential, but there’s only so much they can say without some words to go with it. So, make sure you get the balance right and convince them why they need your software!

3. Offer a free trial for potential customers to try out before they buy

A free trial or demo is one of the best ways to showcase your software to your potential clients. We actually just wrote another blog post about why a free trial can help get your clients interested in what you have to offer – go check it out here.

You can offer a free demo or trial to your audience in exchange for their email. This not only lets your audience get a taste of the fantastic software you’ve created, but it also gets you a copy of their contact information: now you can add their email to your email nurturing list. Once they’ve finished their free trial, you’ll be able to send them out an email series reminding them to check out the full version of your software.

4. Include testimonials from satisfied customers

92% of customers read online reviews before buying anything and 83% of consumers trust recommendations from their peers over any kind of advertising. Sometimes your word isn’t enough to persuade people to sign up, which is why proof points are a necessity when it comes to showcasing your software.

Proof points can be anything like:

  • Testimonials
  • Reviews
  • Case studies
  • Trial feedback
  • Statistics

Adding testimonials from happy clients who’ve used your software will help convince more people to invest in your product. By adding stats to your website showing how much your software has helped improve businesses, you’ll also be able to prove to your audience that your software really can help them out.

If you have any case studies, they should be highlighted on your homepage. Your audience will be able to go check out a complete, in-depth look into how your software works and how it improves businesses.

Remember, your audience will always want to see the benefit of buying your software and what better way to do this than to show them how it benefited other people (just like them!)

If you’ve just launched new software then you’re going to have to display it on your website correctly.

We hope that by using our tips you’ll be able to show your audience how your software can help improve their day-to-day lives.

If you want some help figuring out how you should showcase your SaaS software then get in contact with our team today, we’d love to help you out.

 

 

 

 

Measuring and understanding your website conversion rate and estimated CPA

Understanding your cost per acquisition (CPA) is critical for any tech company. This is the make or break point for the viability of your business. Coupled with strategic marketing strategy and website analytics, fully understanding your CPA can result in a predictable sales revenue.

Lead success pages

E-commerce websites should have a checkout page as standard. Websites which operate off leads will require a lead success page to be set up. Many WordPress form plugins such as Contact Form 7 or Ninja Forms will default to showing the visitor a “thank you” message underneath the submission form. This is no good for lead tracking. You want your visitors to be taken to a new web page with a unique URL once they submit the form, for example, this might be a “Thank you for contacting us” page on ‘yourdomain.com/thankyou’.

Set up your tracking software

Before you start spending money on any digital marketing, you must first set up your tracking software for each of your campaigns, along with an overall lead tracking analysis tool. Here are the tracking requirements for the main digital marketing options:

Google Analytics goal tracking: For the finer details, conversion tracking should be individually set up on all of your marketing platforms. Google Analytics offers a “quick glance” overview of your conversions. Via the Admin section, you need to set up Goals. Typically this will be a visitor landing on a web page such as the checkout or thank you page.

Google Adwords conversion tracking: Once you have created your campaign, you need to set up your conversion tracking. This involves adding two pieces of code to your website: One which goes on every page of your site (generally added in the <head> section of your theme/template), called the Global Site Tag, the other going only on the sale/lead success page, called the Event Snippet.

Facebook (and Instagram) Pixel: Facebook and Instagram both run off the same platform, Facebook Ads Manager. From here, create your Pixel and, as with Google Adwords, you will need to add some code to the header of every page on your website. Then set the event which you want to track, this is usually a purchase or lead. You won’t need to add code to your lead success page, you’ll just need to enter the URL.

Twitter conversion tracking: Via ads.twitter.com, you’ll need to generate your conversion tracking code. Add the Universal Web Tag to all pages of your site. You’ll then need to create a Conversion Event. If you’re tracking visitors to a checkout or “thank you” page, you’ll need to simply enter the URL.

LinkedIn insight tracking: As with the other social platforms, you’ll need to add some code to all website pages. The LinkedIn code is called the Insight Tag. Once added, you can set the URL for the lead trigger.

Mailchimp: Unlike the leading social platforms, Mailchimp doesn’t offer direct conversion tracking. Thankfully, this can be done via Google Analytics goal tracking. You’ll need to connect the two accounts via the Mailchimp Integrations page.

CRM: It’s also recommended to use a CRM to capture the data from your website leads. Hubspot and Pipedrive are two of the leading solutions. They offer a centralised space for your leads to be captured, analysed and organised. Leading website CMS’ such as WordPress, Shopify etc offer simple integrations.

Time to turn on the taps

Now that your conversion tracking has been set up, it’s time to turn on the marketing taps! We recommend that you set a total monthly digital marketing budget, then allocate a percentage of that budget for each of your chosen campaigns. For example, 50% Google Adwords, 25% Facebook, 15% Instagram and 10% LinkedIn.

Analyse the data

E-commerce sales and profits are more straightforward to measure than businesses which rely on website leads. We recommend that lead reliant businesses use the LAPS method:

  • Leads
  • Appointments
  • Proposals
  • Sales

Using your CRM, such as Hubspot or Pipedrive, you will be able to track each and every lead that comes in via the website. These will start as a Lead, as this prospect progresses, you can migrate it into an Appointment, then Proposal, and finally a Sale when the deal closes. After a few months of analysing your data, you will be able to calculate how many leads are required to make a sale. In our experience, a typical tech company would generate 30 leads, which would turn into 6 appointments, turning into 4 proposals and converting into 1 sale.

You’ll also need to calculate your website conversion rate. How many visitors become leads? A tech company website with a conversion rate of 10% is considered to be very good. Based on the example above, if 30 leads equate to 1 sale, then your website will make 1 sale for every 300 visitors (10% of 300 = 30).

Website conversion rates will likely vary across different platforms. For example, Facebook might bring you lots of traffic, but a low conversion rate compared to Google Adwords. The quality of the leads may also vary, although we don’t often find this to be the case when analysing large data sets.

As you’ve now calculated how many website visitors it takes to make a sale, you now need to calculate how much digital marketing spend is required on each of your campaigns to bring in that volume. If, for example, it costs £500 to bring in 300 visitors via Facebook ads, then you’re looking at £500 as your estimated CPA for this campaign.

Crank the handle

Each one of your digital marketing campaigns will have its own CPA. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Ditch the underperformers quickly. Ramp up the ones returning positive results by increasing the spend. As you crank the handle, you should see predictable trends i.e. double the spend, double the leads, double the sales. If your CPA equates to decent profit, crank that handle!

If you would like further information on this topic or would like to discuss my opinion on what makes a positive CPA is for your business, please book a strategy call here.