đ Gongâs most effective marketing channel; Why referral = better retention; A holistic B2B SaaS marketing guide
Weâre still not over Stripeâs 95b valuation, partially because they havenât shared much on the metrics which got them there. TechCrunchâs Alex Wilhelm looked at previous Stripe data to suss out why they could be worth the 95b label, coming to the conclusion that if Stripe processed $400b in 2020 (they were quoted as processing âhundreds of billions last yearâ), you can apply their ~3% fee to come to get to a $12b run rate, or 7.9x multiple on revenue. Even if we assume half that amount of payments, it would equate to a $6b run rate and 15.8x multiple, far lower than the public market multiples they will likely receive at IPO. This is all to say, 95b might not be too crazy after all.
đïž Referral marketing programs are most commonly associated with B2C products in retail and finance, but we wholeheartedly believe they are B2B SaaS workable as well. Even if you are skeptical, the potential benefits greatly outweigh the cost of testing. You wonât just be lowering your CAC by having existing customers bring in cost effective leads, you should also end up increasing your retention numbers as customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher retention rate. With B2B SaaS products, cash credits are an awkward incentive as you are selling to a business, not an individual, so a free month of subscription or discount on the buyerâs next bill is usually the way to go.
đ± Another area of marketing we see growing in B2B SaaS is SMS. Text might feel invasive for business use cases, but the simple truth is that 98% of text messages are read while only 18% of marketing emails are opened, so if a potential customer is open to giving you their cell, you should utilize it! The linked article above includes helpful templates which demonstrate how SMS can be used for demo requests, support, and feature launches, but we would start slow and only text for sales needs so you donât overwhelm customers. In terms of what to use, Podium is the leader in B2B text messaging software, and for the more technically inclined, you can use a combination of Segment and Twilio to set up SMS on your own.
đż Every once in a while itâs helpful to take a step back from your âin the weedsâ marketing tactics and evaluate your holistic approach to make sure you are addressing all of the core channels you need to be. Alex Kracov, the VP of Marketing over at Lattice, published a 2021 B2B SaaS marketing guide which can serve as a refresher on all of those areas you should be considering. It includes loads of resources to help with everything from early marketing activities like positioning, all the way down to more complex B2B demand generation frameworks and paid growth strategy. Highly recommended.
đ€Ź We listened to Gong.ioâs Mike McEuen (Senior Marketing Manager) chat about the companyâs most successful marketing tactics on the SaaS Marketing Superstars pod. Theyâve seemingly been everywhere since early 2019, and it started with carving out a voice on LinkedIn via organic posts, which remains one of their top traffic sources today. Unlike Facebook, which pretty much requires businesses to buy ads for exposure, LinkedIn offers great visibility that can lead to ultra efficient customer acquisition. Visibility of course relies on well crafted content, which McEuen thinks Gong did by taking a hard, counterintuitive stance on sales. For example, they posted data showing that cursing on calls actually led to more deals closed.