Questions

I started working at a niche SaaS market 2 weeks ago (software is being sold to big corporations already for more than 20 years with high customer retention). All competitors including my company are doing the same digital marketing strategies (bet on same keywords, produce same webinars, whitepapers, testimonials, and the websites all look the same). The audience is older and don't respond to social media. Also, both the company and audience are conservative with a long sales cycle (1 year) and it's done through sales. I'm responsible for generating leads and improving website conversions. We are using a good marketing automation software. Competitive keywords don't generate qualified leads and competitors have 3x the money to invest. I'm thinking on trying long-tail keywords and building nice looking landing pages to match them, thoughts ? I'm not sure what will produce the fastest results. It seems that this type of software is sold through RFP process. Any other suggestions? I also though about using industry specific "mini apps" such as calculators or free online courses, but I need to produce results faster.

It's tough to give specific advice without knowing what industry you're in, but considering that you're targeting an older audience and you're up against some major competition, here are a few things I'd recommend to improve your lead gen:

- Build partnerships. Find other popular products/services in your industry that aren't direct competitors to your company, and start having conversations with them. See if you can agree on a mutually beneficial way of collaborating. Some examples: co-host a webinar or co-author a whitepaper that you both promote, and you both get the leads you generate from it; offer a revenue share for the partner company to promote your product; host an event together and invite both your audiences to attend. These are all great ways to get in front of a wider audience of folks who you know are good targets for your company.

- Mini apps or tools are a great idea, and I'd definitely recommend those as a way to provide additional value to potential leads & customers. You might consider hiring an external developer to build something for you in a shorter time frame if you have the budget. If not, try creating something on your own, like an educational email series or a bunch of video classes.

- Do user testing. Especially when you're going after a non-traditional audience, it's important to get a really strong understanding of who your users are, what their needs and challenges are, and how you can best build your website and product for them. Recruit 4-5 people (ideally folks who would be a match for your target customer) and spend half a day running a 30 min user testing session with each. Have them look at your landing pages and offer feedback. You'll get some really good perspective and suggestions on how to optimize them for higher conversion.

Happy to chat about other ideas if you'd like to hop on a call. Best of luck!


Answered 9 years ago

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