The Saas industry is constantly pushing boundaries and evolving, and so are its marketing strategies. We are all just a bunch of marketers, doing things that we know work, running smart experiments for the things we don’t know yet and constantly trying to find an edge, or… a trend.
The funny thing is we keep reading about these trends with a vague (at best) idea as to what to do with them. Well, the proof is in the pudding. You’re here, reading this; aren’t you?
Trends emerge and die as if by trial and error. I have put together a list of B2B marketing trends reported on the internet for this year, along with some popular (or unpopular) opinions from industry leaders and experts. I will digress, but hopefully, at the end of this article, you should have a fairly good understanding of the trends you should be looking out for.
One of the few “cool” sounding job roles that was trending over the last few years is that of a Growth Hacker. About a year or two ago every brand and business sought after one and every marketer wanted to be one- or simply just claimed they were one.
My problem is with the word hacker.
Growth can’t really be hacked. Not consistently. You may see an early spike in the numbers, but it won’t last because most hacks are usually not scalable processes. Thankfully, the industry realized that, and the growth hacking dreams seem less sought these days.
I warned you, I would digress.
But think about it- Growth hacking was a trend (both of us know) that is now dying. Compare that to something like “Inbound marketing”, a trend that lived on to become a process and a well-adopted industry standard function.
That’s the thing with trends - Some might live through while others will fade away. And that’s what makes it tricky
The beauty and irony of all the efforts we make as marketers day after day is that things change. So should you be watching trends or chasing them? Following the pack or blazing a trail? Play it safe or roll the dice?
Frankly, I am asking the same questions and there seems to be no good recommendation I can make, but here are some thoughts and opinions from fellow marketers about some of the trends to watch in 2022.
Content is (still) king - and more interactive
“For a Saas to succeed, it needs to be able to send clear messaging to clients– both existing and potential. Content will most definitely still be king in 2022, and will only gain importance over time”
-Prachi Singh, COO Textmercato
Advertising is being challenged by privacy
With Apple’s new privacy policies, It has become harder for businesses to reach the right audience.. Ofcourse privacy is important, but if data is not being shared then the ads get less and less relevant (and spammy) for consumers and makes it very difficult for businesses to target the right audiences. It’s a bit of a catch-22. Hopefully Facebook (Meta) and Apple are able to reach middle ground to sort it in the near future.
Everything is AI/ ML
Spotify is my favorite brand that uses AI/ML to offer the best experience for customers. The fact that they are able to list down my favourite songs and suggest new songs according to my taste itself has made me a fan of their application and I’d be a loyal one at that. This is what brands need to do - use AI and ML to create personal and customized experiences for customers so that they are delighted by the technology and will stick with you! Use technology to show that you care and that is what SaaS businesses are currently pursuing. - Sangeeta Priyadarshini, Lead Product Marketer- Zoho Desk
Social media - A worthy B2B lead generation channel
“Social media’s paid channels can really help broaden your audience. Today the organic growth for any brand is less than 1% if they aren't using paid marketing tools, and when it comes to B2B lead generation it is a great way to reach potential clients and businesses that require your product or solutions.
My personal recommendation is to make sure to close the loop, and keep the TAT short on enquiries. It’s also a good practice to have the communication common across the board, whether it is online, offline, organic or non organic, as long as the user is seeing the same message across, and it’s clear and not complicated, they are more likely to enquire.”
- Natasha Mehra, Digital Marketing Manager at Social Beat
Meme marketing
“Memes work on social media because they are fun, relatable and therefore sharable, and most importantly: require minimum effort with insane returns. Everyone is hopping on the meme train from SaaS businesses to e-commerce brands to government institutions, and for a good reason too. They are great for engaging with your audience. The only con is that, like all trends, memes are time-sensitive, so you need to be active on social media to leverage them.”
- Muskan Mehta, Growth Marketer- Recurr
Influencer marketing
One of the best examples of influencer marketing in Saas is the campaign Canva ran with Guy kawasaki
“Influencers have a strong brand and distribution, and I think there is no good reason to not engage them for co-marketing if your industry has influencers. Being able to distribute to a powerful, relevant audience from a trusted entity is golden”. - Pratik Mishra, Founder Recurr.co
Experiential Marketing
Customer Experience (CX) has become the cornerstone of businesses today. For instance, all successful SaaS companies in the world are the ones that offer seamless experience. Eg: Uber, Netflix, Zomato). It is important that marketers shape their strategies to achieve their business goals through seamless experience for the customers right from the beginning of the funnel to the end of it.Marketers have to closely work in conjunction with digital marketing, customer success and CX teams to improve the experience at every stage of customer’s journey - seamless navigation for customers will translate into great customer relationships. - Sangeeta Priyadarshini, Lead Product Marketer- Zoho Desk
Conclusion
Okay, so here is something you should know- Customers respond to novelty. But over time, all marketing strategies result in shitty clickthrough rates. So, if you’re planning to go with a trend, don’t be late to the party.
Something I learnt from sports that has stuck with me is that it's important to get the basics right and continue to work at result driven processes, track progress, learn from mistakes and not get lost in what my coach liked to call “tweaks of the weak”.
I think it applies a fair bit to business as well. So no matter which trend you choose to integrate or not, remember not to lose the baseline processes and routines. Here’s to being better in 2022. Let’s run smarter experiments and chase worthy trends.
And if something works for you (and I hope it does) please tell me about it. Or better yet, write about it on saastitute.com
