But, you can tackle this by taking one step at a time.
The first step is to learn how to generate leads for a SaaS industry. That's what we will be covering in this article.
#1 What is B2B SaaS lead generation?
Lead generation is all about acquiring new leads for B2B SaaS (software as a service ) businesses.
A SaaS company provides services users can use to complete a certain task.
For example, an email design editor, automation tool, and interactive funnel builder tool are all examples of SaaS, and lead generation is at the core of running a SaaS business successfully.
#2 Importance of lead generation strategy for SaaS companies
Unlike B2C, lead generation for B2B SaaS looks a lot different as it involves reaching out to businesses to pitch their tool/platform.
The decision-makers are more in the B2B industry, and thus, a linear approach will not help you generate leads.
So, developing an effective B2B lead generation strategy will help you
- Generate high-quality leads that have higher intent to buy.
- Helps you generate more revenue.
- Keep your lead database filled with high-quality leads helping you fight with churned users.
#3 Best 15+ B2B lead generation strategies
Here are 15+ tested and result-driven B2B SaaS lead generation strategies you can steal:
1. Optimize your website’s speed
In this fast-paced environment, if your site takes longer than 4-5 seconds to load, your conversion rate will take a hit. Portent’s study reveals that a site that loads within 1 second saw a 3x conversion than a site that took 5 seconds to load.
Within a second, your conversion can go from 3X to less. So, you need to assess the speed of your website, both on desktop and mobile.
Here are a few ways to optimize your site’s speed:
- Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.
Reducing CSS, JS, and HTML on your website can also uplift the loading time of your website. To do this, remove unnecessary spaces, characters, comments, and other unneeded elements to reduce the file size.
- Compress images
Use Google’s Page Speed Insights or Lighthouse tool to run a speed analysis of your website. The tool shows proper sizing, lazy loading, encoding images, and recommended image format.
- Minimize the number of redirects
Higher redirects increase the page load time as it prolongs HTTP requests and response time. It means the server needs to go the extra mile to load the requested page, resulting in increased loading time.
To reduce the number of redirects, run site audits using tools like Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, or Semrush and see the number of redirects and eliminate the unnecessary ones.
2. Make compelling landing pages
Landing pages are the last touchpoint in lead generation, and thus, these should be compelling so that visitors sign-up right away. The title of your landing page should at once hook the visitor by briefing them on what this page is all about.
The visuals, social proof, and sub-text are the supporting actor in making the lead generation even easier.
Here’s a great technique covered by Harry from Marketing Examples to write a value-packed hook that addresses the objection of the visitor. When you answer the objection right away, the trust builds up and can generate more leads.
3. Create BOFU content to attract leads
Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content is targeted toward audiences familiar with your product/services and are closer to taking the decision to buy. The search volume for these topics might be lower, but they are highly specific, like the best workflow automation tool, Canva vs. Figma, the Cost of an all-in-one CRM tool, etc.
The BOFU audience typically searches for keyword such as:
Now, you can target these keywords using the product or featured pages, or you can also write in-depth blog posts. Writing blog posts on BOFU topics gives you more room and flexibility to address their pain point and put your product/.service as the best solution.
4. Attract leads using the right lead magnet
Lead magnets are the most widely used tactics to scale SaaS lead generation as they help build a high-quality lead database. To capture leads via lead magnets, you must create content that’s valuable to the reader so that they get convinced to sign up for it.
Some of the best lead magnets you can offer are:
- Checklists
- Cheatsheets
- Email-based courses
- Certificate courses
- E-books
- Whitepapers
- Reports
- Webinar recording
- A free tool like MarbleFlow’s interactive funnel builder
Once you’ve created the lead magnet, don’t forget to distribute them. Use these tactics to get more eyeballs and leads via lead magnet distribution:
5. Use free tools to show value of your products
In SaaS business, free tools are the secret to generating high-quality leads. A free tool shows the value your product/service offers without asking anything from the users (except their email addresses).
Some brands like Hypefury and Buffer offer free tools without any trial period that the audience can use indefinitely but with limited features.
MarbleFlows also offers a free tool that you can use to build interactive funnels to onboard and engage your audience.
6. Use email signature to promote relevant content
Email signatures are also another way to capture leads. You can put a link to
- Upcoming webinar or conference
- Newly launched e-book
- Sign-up form
- Product-demo
While adding an email signature, make sure to make it responsive and accessible for every reader. To make it accessible, use a color contrast of at least 4.5:1 and add alt text to let the screen reader access the image.
Here’s an example of how you can put a CTA in your email signature to get leads from your emails:
7. Use email marketing to reach out to potential leads
Email marketing still is one of the best channels to reach out to your leads and engage with them. You can do cold outreach or reach out to potential leads in your email list by sending them relevant emails.
The best thing about using emails to capture leads is this channel is a direct communication channel and has more than 4.26 billion email users. You can get the email address of anyone easily using tools like Apollo.io, Hunter.io, etc.
Once you have the email address, you must research prospects you are reaching out to and personalize the email content to increase your chances of getting more opens and clicks.
8. Use live chat option to capture website’s visitors
Live chat boats are becoming omnipresent on website pages, and that too for good reasons. Visitors prefer to engage and do business with sites offering live chat options, as 79% of them said they get their questions answered immediately, and 46% voted it the most efficient communication method.
Chatbots also help the customer support team to jump in if a query is highly specific and the prospect shows signs of becoming a lead.
9. Partner with other SaaS companies in the same niche
Reach out to related and reputed SaaS companies in your niche and pitch to partner with them. The partnership will help you get the words out in front of their audience and leverage it to generate quality leads.
When you enter into a partnership, both rands will talk about it on social media and also mention you in their emails. It gets your brand more visibility increasing the number of leads.
Here’s an example of Demand Curve's partnership with Insense. See, how Demand Curve’s readers get exclusive excess to a free strategy call with it’s partner.
10. Don’t sleep on distribution of your content
In marketing, no one will come until you invite them.
How do you do that?
Yes, through distributing your content on different channels where your audience is most likely to see and engage.
A major factor to consider while distributing it is to prioritize channels that your audience uses so that you increase the probability of getting more clicks and traffic to your website.
Having said that, here are some of the best ways to distribute different content formats:
- Promote your product launches on the product hunt.
- Share your newly published content in your newsletter.
- Repurpose blog posts into the LinkedIn post and Twitter threads.
- Spread the word in Slack communities related to your niche.
- Use your email signature to promote your lead magnets.
- Use content syndication platforms like TheJuice, Taboola.
- Put links to your content pages in your e-books and webinars.
- Send personalized emails to your email list promoting your upcoming webinar.
- Republish as a LinkedIn article.
This is by no means an exhaustive distribution list, but you can use these to begin distributing and capturing more leads.
11. Use social proof strategically
Social proof not only helps you generate leads but also helps them convert. People listen to others and make decisions based on what others say about a particular product or brand.
Think about how many times you have bought an item because your friends recommended it and how many times you refused to buy a mobile device because the reviewer wasn't convincing.
That's the power of social proof, and displaying testimonials, reviews, star ratings, badges, rewards, etc., on your site and social media can build trust and credibility among potential leads.
12. Collaborate with creators/influencers
Creator/influencer marketing has been on the rise as these people have a huge fan following, and people listen to them. So, collaborating with the right influencer who talks about your B2B SaaS can be a great way to gain more visibility and influence the audiences of these creators.
There are many ways you can collaborate with them; some of the most recommended are:
- Sponsor their newsletter if they have any
- Ask them to try your product and write a review
- Send them your brand merchandise and ask them to showcase it in their video content
- Ask them to write a post or make a Tik Tok about you on their social channel.
13. Install pop-ups
Popups, if used correctly, can help you generate high-quality hot leads that show more potential to convert. Instead of bombarding your visitor with popups as soon as they land on your site, put them at the right interval.
For example, Hubspot shows content-related popups in the bottom right corner of their blog posts that are relevant to the content the user is reading. It’s a great way to give value for free and encourage them to click on that popups.
Other types of popups to capture leads include:
- Scroll-based popups: These will show after users have scrolled to a certain depth. It’s useful as if the user has reached that section, they are already engaged, and you can capture them.
- Time-based popups show up after a visitor has been on a certain page for a certain time. This also shows that they are exploring your site.
- Exit-intent popups: These are among the best popups to capture leads. As the user is leaving, you can use this chance to show a popup promoting a certain vent, lead magnet, etc., to propel them to sign-up.
14. Use LinkedIn to capture your ICPs
For B2B SaaS businesses, LinkedIn is one of the best channels to reach out and capture leads, and many businesses, startups, and agency owners are active there. If your Ideal customer persona (ICP) is also there, you need to be there too.
Being a business platform, LinkedIn offers you several features to capture leads, such as lead gen ads that let users fill out the form without leaving the platform. The ads on LinkedIn are highly targeted based on criteria set by you.
Besides paid ads, you can create and distribute content on LinkedIn relevant to your audience and offer value for free.
15. Run paid ads on relevant channel
You can also opt to run paid ads if you have the budget to get more leads in less time. Organic tactics are great, but they take time, while paid ad widens the audience that views your content and, thus, converts more leads.
While running paid ads, bid on the keywords, your audience is most likely to search for. You should also assess your competitors' ads and which landing pages they lead to. It will give you insights into which keywords to prioritize and landing pages you need to create.
16. Retarget potential leads
Retargeting helps you target visitors that interacted with certain pages but didn’t convert or took the action you wanted them to take. In that case, you can run retargeting campaigns on different social media platforms and on your website.
For example, if they check out your ebook lead magnet page but didn't complete the signup form, you can show them ads on the most visited channels. To make it more compelling, you need to write a copy that resonates with them and use visuals to evoke a response from them. You can also add social proof to enforce credibility and show how this ebook helped them achieve their goals.
When visitors view content they’ve already interacted with; they are likely to engage more with it. It happens due to familiarity bias.
17. Leverage referral marketing
Running a referral program can also increase your brand visibility and give you more leads. To carry out referral marketing, think about the ways you can promote your referral campaign.
You can ask your subscribers to share your newsletter or course and earn points for every referee that joins. Referral marketing creates a promotional loop that keeps on going from one person to the next and the next giving you more chances to generate leads for free.
#4 B2B SaaS lead generation examples
Here we have discussed two B2B SaaS brand that generates astonishing leads using social media and gated content.
Later got 100k+ leads through their lead magnets
Later, an Instagram marketing platform made content their core pillar for lead acquisition. They made different landing pages for their lead magnets and added a CTA on their blog posts and social channels. This helped them learn more about their readers - like which channel they were coming from or their business information, etc. which they used to put them on the right nurturing track.
This leads to the generation of more than 10,000 leads using gated content.
Here’s an example of in-line lead magnet form in one of its popular blog posts:
Topaz Labs used social media contents to generate leads
Topaz Labs is a photographer’s toolkit that allows AI-powered image editing. By running social media content generated 44,583 email leads, gained 14,206 Instagram followers, and their campaign was shared 13,105 times on FB and Twitter.
The marketing tactics they used are:
- Social media sharing.
- Sharing and tagging features on Facebook & Instagram.
- Use amazing imagery to show the quality of the product (before & after).
- Run a social media contest while still generating emails for remarketing afterward.
- Boosting Facebook ad engagement. Using their social media contest.
Conclusion
For SaaS business, lead generation is a vital business process and no business can survive without generating high quality leads. All the tactics we shared in this article will yield results if you have a thorough understanding of whom you want to target.
Without knowing your audience, it will be like throwing a arrow blindfolded assuming it will hit the target somehow. But, in marketing guesswork doesn’t work and it can cause more repercussions that you’ve imagined.
So, you need to focus on targeting the right audience and constantly feed you lead database that your sales team can nurture, demo, and convert.
