Customer Lifecycle Marketing: How SaaS Brands can Optimize for Each Funnel Phase

When making a purchasing decision, each customer goes through several stages of a sales funnel – awareness, consideration, purchase, support, and retention.

Precisely because of that, delivering one-size-fits-all content and product recommendations does not cut it. To attract the right customers and convert them, you need to adapt your brand messaging to customers’ specific needs.

That is the idea of customer lifecycle marketing.

Boosting Brand Awareness

The awareness stage begins before a customer even gets to know your SaaS brand. Customers are not familiar with your brand, products, or values yet. Your goal is to put your software right in front of them and raise their awareness of it.

When creating content for the people in the awareness stage, remember that they have never heard of you. They do not want to purchase your SaaS product or download your 70-page eBook. When interacting with new brands, customers expect to see engaging and easy-to-follow content about the topics relevant to them.

To appeal to customers in the awareness phase, discuss the topics they would be interested in. Talk to influencers they follow. Your goal is to grab users’ attention, provide value, and start building trust with them.

There are several content types you should focus on:

• Blog posts (simple, informative articles around relevant industry topics)
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Social media content
• Infographics
• Social media ads

Building Trust in the Consideration Phase

The main purpose of boosting brand awareness is to get customers to remember your name when they have a problem. In the consideration phase, customers are aware that they have a problem. They will use various digital channels to identify the problem and learn more about it.

Content for the customers in the consideration stage should be to-the-point, thorough, and specific. Those could be:

• Blog articles – detailed how-to guides, long-form article, how-to infographics
• Lead magnets – any type of content or promotions that will engage a user and convert them into a qualified lead, such as free templates, free trials, whitepapers, or eBooks.

Encouraging Customers to Make Purchases

In the purchase stage, a customer knows exactly what their problem is and knows how to solve it. However, they have not made a purchasing decision yet. In the purchase phase, they will compare different SaaS brands and products to find the one that meets their needs. And, that is where they will need help from a pro.

When creating content for customers, convince them that your brand is the best option for them. That is why you should create:

• Brand comparisons
• Price comparisons
• Customer testimonials

This guide on VoIP pricing by Top10VoIPList is a perfect example of how brand comparisons work. It first explains what VoIP services are, lists its benefits for business, and highlights the crucial VoIP feature. Next, it explains why VoIP pricing varies and emphasizes the factors that impact it. Finally, it provides a detailed price breakdown of the most popular VoIP solutions. Readers can compare SaaS brand prices and features and determine what the best solution for their business is.

Providing Exceptional Customer Support

Once a customer purchases from you, they may have a plethora of questions. You do not want to frustrate them by ignoring their customer service inquiries. Poor customer service may discourage customers from purchasing from you.

For starters, provide a detailed knowledge base. Your help center should consist of insightful articles that will help customers find answers to their questions on their own. Keep your articles short and to-the-point. They should be concise, easy-to-understand, and free of any technical jargon. Include video guides and images to make your tips easier to understand. Make your knowledge base easily navigable by classifying articles based on their topics and inserting a search box.

Providing omnichannel customer support is critical for enhancing user experiences:

• Invest in a customer support and engagement tool that offers video, voice, and chat communication options.
• Use live chat support.
• Leverage AI technologies, such as chatbots
• Automate your email support

Retaining Loyal Customers

Just attracting new SaaS customers is not enough. You need to start building relationships with them and inspire their loyalty. According to Yotpo, 36.5% of customers say they would spend more on products if they are loyal to a brand. Therefore, your goal is to encourage them to continue with their product subscription. To inspire customer loyalty, you should:

• Publish helpful tutorials for customers to teach them how to make the most out of your product.
• Create referral programs and incentivize customers for each friend referral.
• Build special offers and loyalty programs.
• Nurture relationships with targeted email marketing – send birthday offers, send surveys to collect customer feedback, send thank you emails.

Over to You

Customer lifecycle marketing will help you cater to customers in every stage of the SaaS sales funnel. That way, you will build trust with them, grow meaningful relationships, and convert them into paying customers.

How do you market to customers in the hypercompetitive SaaS market?