Trouble-Shooting B2B Lead-Generation Challenges for SaaS Startups
“Looking to get help to improve sales funnel with Google Ads for our Saas” — a young SaaS founder helping with inventory optimisation (www.easyreplenish.com) shared this note on our group. He had setup a small budget for daily lead-generation but was not satisfied with the efficacy and/or outcome of the same.
“What is the volume of the keywords you are targeting”, I responded knowing that long-tail keywords don’t work well without strong brand recognition via AdWords. It was low volume keyword.
I offered to spend some time with him and understand his offering, the positioning, the targeted users, the value delivered by the offering and the metrics around the traffic generated; plus, other B2B lead-gen techniques that he may have used.
Here are some take-aways from our session. Many of the ideas are relevant to any SaaS / B2B lead-generation team. And so, made sense to share here publicly (the startup has given consent to publish. Thanks).
· AdWords spend generated some new traffic, but the quality of the incoming traffic was poo. This could be seen in very high bounce rates (landing page was home page), very small avg session duration and nearly zero call to action. HeatMap analysis and video recordings were showing that large majority of visitors were not even scrolling the page down. Google Analytics macro picture of session duration wasn’t helping.
This suggested that the core value proposition on the home page was perhaps not aligned to the core target persona. The “search intent” was not translating to “credible” information provided on the landing page (home page in this case) which was leading to small session time and high bounce rate.
Action Item: Change the home page messaging aligning with search intent, business pain and benefit offered by the SaaS startup. Understand B2B “Buyer Journey” concept (Gartner has a good diagram) and align home page to “discovery” phase content for first time users. Use cookie based tech to “personalise” visitor experience and content presented based on repeat visits.
· Why did they choose AdWords as the lead-generation platform? For a B2B case with sharply defined buyer person were they doing email campaigns / LinkedIn campaigns? I asked the founder this very question.
Turns out they had indeed tried email campaigns but observed falling open rates after a few rounds of campaign and switched to AdWords to generate more “intent” leads.
This is a common observation in early-Stage SaaS GTM. Most startups give up after a few rounds of email campaign assuming email fatigue on the part of their target audience. B2B research data tells us that for new startups, the prospect may need 8 to 13 impressions, perhaps across channels to register the value proposition being offered and raise a hand to “know more”. This means that email campaigns / targeted LI campaigns must be patient, relevant, inform across the value-propositions / benefits / RoI and setup drip email campaigns, align campaigns to metrics and x-fertilise email campaigns with tele-calling, LI and other social media campaigns to be effective.
Action Item: Identify the buyer persona and buyer stage and create a content sharing plan that adds value to the target buyer across a campaign with 8–10 emails spread over period. Mix the content to email, white-paper, case study, video, webinar etc to keep the interest growing. Experiment with LI and other social media channels to raise awareness. Use PR as possible.
For example, the chief buyer persona in EasyReplenish’s case is the CEO/CRO because they understand why availability and capital savings through inventory reduction are important. So, the email campaign and the landing page should reflect this person’s needs.
Was this summary useful and relevant? If you are an early-stage SaaS startup looking to improve your lead-generation, positioning, targeting, content marketing, product-led-growth tactics, metering etc, feel free to DM and setup a session. First session (upto 30 min) is free. Calendar link for scheduling — https://calendly.com/jalajboy/freeadvisory.
p.s. — The startup and the founder have given permission to name them as they felt they would benefit from any constructive feedback received. Big thanks to them and respect for their ability to take feedback.
This SaaS startup works on “reducing stock-outs for multi-brand eCommerce and retail enterprises to help improve topline upto 15% and increase capital efficiency by upto 30%”. Check out EasyReplenish.com (https://easyreplenish.com/). You can contact the founder Dhruv Srivastava via LinkedIn or at dhruv@easyreplenish.com .
