Best Practices for SaaS 'Evaluation Stage' Email Marketing

What is SaaS email marketing?

Email marketing for SaaS is a sequence of emails that nudges a potential customer towards taking a desired action and converting them into a paying customer. A typical SaaS email campaign outlines the different stages a prospect passes through - from being introduced to your brand to making a final purchase.

A typical SaaS email marketing funnel includes the following stages:

• Top of the funnel (ToFu) - Discovery and brand awareness
• Middle of the funnel (MoFu) - Considering and evaluating solutions
• Bottom of the funnel (BoFu) - Making an informed purchase decision

How to define a SaaS email marketing campaign for MoFu?

Prospects are considering and evaluating different options at this stage. You need to offer relevant content to your prospects and nudge them further down the funnel using an automated email sequence.

Engage with your prospects by sharing content that acknowledges their pain points and showcases your products as a solution to them. You can also share content that proves your product’s advantages over your competitors. It can be in the form of case studies, customer testimonials, reviews, and product comparisons.

You can segment your customers based on the current stage they are in their journey and send them personalized emails. The type of segments you’ll use depends on your prospect’s stage on their path to purchase. You can also segment your prospects based on their behavioral data, interest, demographics, etc.

A typical SaaS nurture email sequence includes the following:

• A welcome or onboarding email to introduce your product to the prospect.
• A custom email based on the segment they belong to.
• Emails with resources like case studies and reviews to help them make an informed purchase decision.

What are the types of MoFu email marketing content?

Middle-of-the-funnel content should provide in-depth information about your product and how it aligns with the needs and challenges of your prospects. The different types of middle-of-the-funnel content you should include in your SaaS email campaigns are:

Case studies:

Case studies are real-life examples of how your product has helped customers and a way to prove your claims to the prospect. Over 45% of B2B buyers think case studies are most valuable in the middle stages to help them make a purchase decision.

Create visually appealing email campaigns and break down the text into sections like - the challenge, solution, and results, to help readers easily understand the content.

Whitepapers:

Whitepapers are the preferred content format amongst most B2B SaaS buyers to learn more about the product. Send out emails with a link to download a detailed whitepaper that talks about your product’s features and provide an in-depth explanation of how your product can solve relevant problems.

You can also create whitepapers with an analysis of industry trends. The main goal is to position yourself as a thought leader, build your email list, demonstrate the value of your product, and generate new leads for your business.

Webinars:

Set up email campaigns to inform your prospects about webinars that are about topics relevant to their challenges. Webinars are a way to interact with your prospects and address any further doubts they might have about your product. Offer extra value to the participants in the form of downloadable templates or checklists, videos, training resources, or ebooks that are exclusive to them.

Product comparisons:

You share emails with your middle-of-the-funnel prospects and lead them to a product comparison landing page. A detailed comparison between your product and your competitors’ product makes it easier for prospects to make a purchasing decision.

It allows them to get a complete comparison overview with pricing information, a comparison of features and functionalities, and any additional bonuses that you are offering.

Building a landing page for product comparisons also helps you rank for branded queries. Check what kind of keywords people are using to compare your product with competitors and optimize the landing page for it. The keywords can be as simple as your brand name or product name and “vs” your competitors.

Landing page for booking demo:

Create an email campaign that leads to a booking demo landing page for prospects that are already aware of their challenges, and are now evaluating options to make a purchase.

Use detailed lead capture forms to collect information that your sales team can use to convert the prospect easily. Include customer testimonials, B2B customer logos, and product videos to increase engagement and conversions.

The average conversion rate for a SaaS landing page is 4.6%. Ensure that your CTA button is at the end of every section and is visible at all times.

Detailed Product demo videos

Make sure that this demo video is different and more in-depth than your product video from the awareness stage. It is a way to offer your prospects an immersive experience of how your product works and what to expect once they purchase it.

FAQs:

Along with creating an FAQs landing page, use them to create email campaigns that best answer your prospect’s queries depending on the stage and segment they belong to in the funnel. Your FAQs can be based on the search queries/ phrases your target audience is using and the kind of queries your sales and support team receives.

Offers, Discounts & Trial period landing page:

Create drip campaigns to inform your prospects about any discounts and free trial period offers. Include an exciting CTA in the email that leads them to a landing page. Add customer success stories to the landing page to nudge them further to sign up and convert to paying customers.

What CTAs can you use for MoFu email campaigns?

‍

Prospects that are in the middle-of-the-funnel or consideration stage are already aware of your brand. Now it’s your job to lead them to the relevant content and convince them that your product is best suited for their needs. Here are a few CTAs that you can use in your email campaign to get a click:

• Learn more
• Tell me more
• Yes, I’m interested
• Contact us
• Download eBook
• Download whitepaper
• Sign up

To check how engaging your emails are, how many clicks you are getting and overall performance, track and analyze your email marketing analytics.

Conclusion:

‍

SaaS marketers can combine their content and email marketing to create a middle-of-the-funnel strategy that helps their prospects evaluate options and move to the final stage of the SaaS funnel.

Create information-rich content and solution-focused content supported by facts and social facts. Use email drip campaigns to share that content and easily convince your prospects to convert.

‍