SaaS Marketing Guide

How SaaS Chief Marketing Officers Can Develop a Strong CMO Strategy

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The job of the CMO is arguably the most difficult in the C-suite. The average CMO lasts just 20 months, so they have to move fast to make an impact. The marketing industry, too, has become increasingly complex over the past two decades, and the CMO’s role has grown exponentially. 

 At its basic level, the role of the CMO is to define its company’s strategic direction. Digital marketing leads the charge in what is deemed desirable content for a go-to-market (GTM) strategy, and content marketing solutions have become a sine qua non of internet-age marketing. 

 A GTM strategy can make or break marketing plans. The strongest ones create simple frameworks that promote change, encourage repeat purchases, and focus goals. 

CMO Tenure 2016 - 2020

Read on to learn more about:

What does a SaaS chief marketing officer do on a regular basis?

Your primary responsibilities as a SaaS chief marketing officer

Important metrics you need to hit as a SaaS chief marketing officer

Steps to strengthen SaaS GTM strategy and deliver growth to the organization

GTM strategy best practices

What makes a good SaaS chief marketing officer in the long run?

Is your GTM strategy ready?

01. What does a SaaS chief marketing officer do on a regular basis?

Three areas of expertise

Strategy

If you’re a strategy-focused CMO, you’re at the forefront of your company’s innovation efforts and go-to-market plan. Here, a CMO is likely to take a goal-driven approach to planning.

 This CMO is most likely found in multi-brand firms and those that offer B2B services. The role is likely to involve designing growth strategy, customer insight and analysis, and product design.   

Commercialization

Those with a focus on commercialization work primarily on using marketing and communications methods to sell the products/services of their company. 

 To achieve operational excellence, they will develop and monitor a company-wide marketing system and be responsible for advertising in all its mediums. 

Enterprise-level

Enterprise-level duties combine both strategy and commercialization into one role with company-wide responsibilities. With such a broad range of expertise, a CMO’s typical workday could range from creating a SaaS marketing strategy to product design, distribution, and pricing.

CMOs primary role of marketing

02. Your primary responsibilities as a SaaS chief marketing officer

Bridge marketing efforts and corporate business strategy

In the digital age, marketing efforts go far beyond the “4 Ps”. One major responsibility of today’s CMOs is to help guide corporate strategy from a marketing perspective. For example, they could suggest the best markets to compete in, consumers to target, or partners to align with. 

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Hit target goals and deliver high-performing project outcomes

The CMO’s role is all about achieving objectives. This means being able to define success with measurable targets, metrics, and milestones. 

 SaaS CMOs must invest in strategies that will yield long-term returns. It takes ongoing focus to deliver consistent results, and the aim should be for continuous optimization and improvement. 

 For expert advice on scaling your SaaS business and achieving consistent results, check out-accelerate agency’s eBook.

Make sure projects stick close to the budget

Building a marketing budget is another responsibility of the CMO. You should prioritize essential resources and plan for unexpected eventualities. You should also consider your growth goals and factor those into your budget. 

Marketing technology budget

Produce results from marketing programs

CMOs are responsible for the results produced by their marketing programs. It would help if you stayed on top of the latest tools to help achieve marketing success. 

Reassess your programs regularly to make sure you are taking advantage of modern marketing solutions. For example, you might consider a SaaS SEO strategy to improve your digital traffic.

Connect the corporation to the consumer 

To achieve any measurable success, a company must connect with its customers. CMOs should regularly re-evaluate strategy based on consumer feedback. They should make sure the customers’ voice is heard and that their preferences align with corporate decisions.  

Ensure that the organization remains customer-centric

Sustainable competitive advantage is tied to customer loyalty. The CMO should be a customer champion, influencing the boardroom towards customer-centric decisions. Marketing should interact with other company functions, sharing customer insights to help shape other business processes towards a customer focus.

03. Important metrics you need to hit as a SaaS chief marketing officer

Customer acquisition

SaaS marketing teams need to deliver on both financial and non-financial metrics. In terms of customer acquisition and lead generation, CMOs should build trust with consumers, use PR initiatives to promote their product, and engage existing clients with offers and new features. 

Customer retention

Once a customer has signed up for your service, CMOs should focus on their customer satisfaction metrics to increase retention. The more a client succeeds using your software, the more likely they are to remain an active user. 

Conversion

Generally, a good SaaS conversion rate ranges from about 3-5%. A strong content marketing strategy for SaaS will supercharge this. CMOs should focus on driving relevant traffic to their websites and using A/B testing to measure performance. 

04. Steps to strengthen SaaS GTM strategy and deliver growth to the organization

Build a good relationship with your team

Assess the strengths and weaknesses of your team and use their skills to your advantage. It’s important to acknowledge when your in-house team doesn’t have the skillset for a job and hire external agents where appropriate. 

Establish expertise and authority in your domain

Aim to be a domain authority, able to communicate your company’s vision externally and understand exactly what’s needed from your content marketing.

 Without a background in SEO marketing, building authority online can be a tall order. You’ll need expert guidance to achieve the best results. 

accelerate agency are SEO experts with proven experience delivering customized solutions. Contact us to begin your SEO journey with expert consultation.

Maintain strong and constant communication

The importance of building solid communications for business growth can’t be overstated. Making sure your brand message is consistent across geographies and platforms prevents confusion and disengagement. 

Set a marketing budget

Clarifying your budget will help you set goals and understand where to focus your efforts. Ensure your marketing initiatives align with corporate spending expectations and that ROI estimates are as accurate as possible.

Develop your marketing strategy

Set goals for growth

Set realistic goals for growth and conduct frequent reviews to ensure you’re making progress.

Set your target market

Clearly defined target markets promote long-term business success. A CMO should understand the product their SaaS company offers and who benefits most from its use.

Build a customer persona

Building a detailed customer persona helps to clarify who target consumers are and how to access them. 

Develop customer profiles

Similarly, a profile can help you make essential design decisions for your service, informed by customer information. 

Set marketing KPIs

SaaS businesses create a large amount of data. CMOs should manage their datasheets track KPIs accurately. Essential KPIs for SaaS CMOs include revenue, conversion, organic traffic, and behavior metrics.

Set a company positioning strategy

It would be best to carve out your company position relative to the competition, customer expectations, and future growth potential. Marketing is all about improving the perception of your brand in the minds of customers. 

CMO's primary strategy to drive growth

Create a marketing attribution system

Compare leads and numbers from previous strategies

Compare your current metrics to past performance and plan new opportunities when existing strategies fail to produce growth.

Track where the leads are successfully converted

Use lead tracking software to stay on top of leads. This will show you which of your touchpoints are the most valuable and allow you to prioritize these.  

Check website traffic

An effective content management strategy will help you increase web traffic. Targeted and high-ranking content enables you to capture the right audience to engage with your products and services. 

 Consider coming up with an SEO strategy our agency only does SaaS SEO.

Master SaaS digital marketing with an SEO strategy. By boosting your search engine results and increasing web traffic, SEO can drive sales and ultimately increase revenue.

05. GTM strategy best practices

Keep up with new channels and features of your platforms

CMOs should be able to leverage their platforms to best effect and take advantage of new features. Social media provides an opportunity to build connections with customers. A good SaaS GTM strategy will plan for the creation of regular content to maintain engagement. 

Experiment from time to time

Conducting experiments to see the effect of your marketing strategies will help you understand the efficacy of various campaigns. Marketers should test brand messaging and advertising and receive measurable feedback on these.

Filter the metrics you set and stray away from vanity metrics

Avoid metrics that aren’t key drivers for growth. Instead, focus on smaller metrics that are key to each business function.                   

Give proper attention to data 

Remember to filter your data and remove anomalous figures. For example, if you’re monitoring web traffic, you might remove visitors that have spent less than five seconds on your website.

Invest in the right social media strategy and talent

Social media managers should be agile and able to pivot at a moment’s notice. Hire teams that can adapt their strategies to landscape changes and harness connections with your customers. 

Invest in social media strategy

Utilize KOLs and content creators

Hiring the right “influencers” can attract customers in your targeted growth segments. They also help build trust with consumers and can facilitate unfiltered consumer feedback.

Reduce the friction between your platforms

Make sure you’re delivering consistency across your platforms. The customer journey should be as seamless as possible. 

Make sure your content is always relevant and timely

Be aware of changing expectations among consumers. An outdated advert can negatively affect your brand reputation. 

Select the right agency and third-party services to onboard

Picking the right marketing partner is essential for achieving top-line growth. Choose an agency based on their experience, expertise, and favorable client reviews. 

Leverage UTM tags 

Use UTM tags to generate data from your campaigns and ensure you’re achieving the most qualified leads. 

06. What makes a good SaaS chief marketing officer in the long run?

The role of a CMO is undoubtedly a demanding one. In the long run, it requires dedication, being conscious of new developments, and producing a top-level but flexible marketing strategy.

07. Is your GTM strategy ready?

Now that you know what it takes to build an effective GTM strategy, it’s time to implement one and reap the benefits. To maximize the impact of your plan, consider investing in high-quality SEO and content management to complement your marketing efforts.

About Nick Brown

Nick Brown is the founder & CEO of accelerate agency, a SaaS SEO agency. Nick has launched several successful online businesses, writes for Forbes, published a book and has grown accelerate from a UK agency to a company that now operates across US, APAC and EMEA and employs 160 people. He was also once charged at by a mountain gorilla