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How to Use Email Marketing to Lead SaaS Prospects Down the Sales Funnel

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies are in a unique position. You probably sell your products in a subscription model, where customers pay each month to use your service.

SaaS companies with low monthly prices, like the ones listed below, need lots of customers in order to be successful. Instead of having 10 high-paying customers, you need thousands of customers paying low monthly rates.  

These monthly price points are relatively low compared to large software companies that operate on licensing models. For example:

If you want to grow as a SaaS company, you need strategies for acquiring new customers as well as keeping the ones you’ve got.

Today, we’re sharing how you can use email marketing to lead SaaS prospects down the sales funnel.

Why email marketing is great for leads, sales, and loyalty

Email can help you nurture leads into customers that love you, and it works much better than other channels. According to research from Campaign Monitor, prospects are 6x more likely to click links in an email campaign than from a tweet.

Email is a direct channel to a prospective customer’s inbox. As long as you’re creating targeted messages that get at a prospect’s pain points, they’ll be willing to open your emails and see what you have to say. In this way, email becomes an automated sales-person, helping your prospective customer explore what you offer.

But how can you actually make this process work for your unique SaaS brand?

Here’s how to use email to lead SaaS prospects down the funnel:

Create assets & offers that subscribers need

Before you can even begin to send targeted sales emails, you need to get prospective customers to give you their email address. Buying a list won’t do you any good here. Instead, you need to create assets and offers that bring value to prospective customers.

Here are a few ways you can encourage visitors to subscribe to an email list:

  • Create an educational eBook to download
  • Encourage blog readers to sign up for your email newsletter
  • Offer demos in exchange for an email address
  • Offer a free trial or a “freemium” plan
  • Host a webinar with essential info

For example, Sumo Logic offers a 30 day free trial to prospective customers. Not only does this give prospects a chance to try out Sumo Logic’s software, but it also allows the company’s marketing team to send targeted emails to those who’ve signed up for the trial.

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Automate an email series with the aim of conversion

Today’s SaaS companies depend on marketing automation to convert leads into customers. Once you’ve figured out how to get prospects on your list, it’s time to consider how you can nurture your audience. Rather than sending manual emails, you should create an automated series to lead prospects down the funnel.

There are a number of different frameworks that marketing copywriters use to lead prospects– one of our favorites is the Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) framework.

In this model, you start by defining the problem your subscribers have by showing them that you understand where they are. Then, you send emails agitating this problem, reminding subscribers about the pain their problem causes. Finally, you offer your SaaS product as a solution.

Personalize based on subscriber information

Whenever possible, you should personalize your emails. After all, personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%, according to Aberdeen.

So, what does it mean to personalize? It means that you take whatever information you have about your subscribers, and send unique messages to that group. You can personalize based on:

  • Job title (for example, a CMO might receive different messages than a CEO)
  • Size of company (for example, someone working at a startup might receive startup-oriented messages)
  • Geographic location (Someone living in San Francisco might receive location-specific messages)
  • Past behavior (for example, if a visitor has downloaded multiple assets, they receive particular messages)
  • Reason they subscribed (for example, if a subscriber downloads a certain eBook, they receive a particular flow of messages)

In order to personalize, you need information about your subscribers. Be sure to ask for this information when you encourage visitors to share their email addresses.

Test and measure to find out what works

Email marketing is an amazing channel for SaaS companies that want to convert leads into customers. However, what works for another brand might not work for you.

That’s why it’s important to test out different strategies to see what works. You might find that the PAS framework works wonders, or that another strategy is a better bet. The only way you know is by testing. If you’re looking for ideas, check out how Buffer, HubSpot, and GrowthHackers grow using testing and analytics.

Thankfully, most email marketing software offers a variety of ways to test automated emails. Take advantage of what these tools have to offer, and work to find a flow that increases conversions.

Wrapping up

It’s easy to get caught up in the little details in marketing. Email marketing, however, gives you the opportunity to make substantial gains in conversions and sales. Email can help SaaS companies’ prospects gain familiarity with the business, consider their options, and ultimately become customers.

Wondering how you can use email to convert prospects to sales? Our team can answer any questions – just reach out.

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How to Infuse UX with Delightful Microinteractions

When designers think about user experience, we often think of the end product. We ask ourselves: What is a customer’s overall experience with our platforms, websites, and mobile apps? How seamless are their interactions? The best UX happens when the big picture view and the little details work together. Little details should be considered with every single project. It matters where the user clicks. It matters what happens when they do.

So, how can you ensure you’re taking care of all the details? Many designers are zoning in on microinteractions, the small moments that happen inside and around the overall experience.

Today, we’re going to unpack the concept of microinteractions and talk about how UX can be improved by using them.

Microinteractions, UX’s new frontier

We’re constantly interacting with technology. But what defines our experience? How do we get feedback from the platforms and apps that we spend our time with?

The concept of microinteractions was introduced in Microinteractions, a book by Dan Saffer. Saffer believes it’s the little things that turn a good digital product into a great one, and that microinteractions can help revolutionize a product and a brand.

Here’s how Saffer defines microinteractions:

“Microinteractions are contained product moments that revolve around a single use case—they have one main task. Every time you change a setting, sync your data or devices, set an alarm, pick a password, log in, set a status message, or favorite or “like” something, you are engaging with a microinteraction.”

These microinteractions have a purpose– to provide an update on the status of an action. They’re a tiny bit of communication to let the user know that their action had a result.

For example, if you like a photo on Instagram by tapping twice, a large heart will appear in the center of the photo, and the heart underneath the photo will turn red.

Here are a few other examples of microinteractions:

  • Showpad – When users click the “Filter by Industry” button, it  reverses the direction of the arrow to show the action being taken.
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Source: www.showpad.com/case-studies/

 

  • Chartboost – When clicking  on the “Get Started” CTA in the hero area, an animated spinning gear is displayed while the form loads.
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Source: www.chartboost.com

 

How to use microinteractions

You probably use a lot of microinteractions already, but are they delighting your audience? The best microinteractions provide a feeling of satisfaction, and make people feel connected.

Here’s how to improve overall UX with microinteractions:

Catalog each and every touch-point

Whether you’re designing a mobile app, website, or software platform, you can start assessing your microinteractions by cataloging each and every touch-point.  What are the actions a user can perform, and what feedback do they get when they perform these actions?

Microinteractions are used when:

  • Things are turned on and off
  • Comments are made
  • Making changes
  • Viewing messages
  • Receiving notifications
  • Liking, sharing, or posting on social media
  • Connecting to other platforms and devices (for example, software integrations and Bluetooth)
  • Sharing progress along the way

By understanding where are the touch-points are, you can figure out where microinteractions fit in. Are you already using them? Are they accomplishing your goals? How can they be improved?

Both quantitative and qualitative metrics should be considered, so be sure to understand how success will be measured. While fun microinteractions are important, they should be also well-thought out and integrated with the overall strategy to accomplish certain goals.

Decide on a brand voice + tone

Most UX designers use microinteractions to provide user feedback. However, the best experiences come when the microinteractions are designed deliberately to delight, fitting into a greater branded voice and tone.

For example: MyFitnessPal’s brand mission is to be as helpful as possible when someone is trying to track what they’re eating. To be as encouraging as possible (and to make sure they’re not annoying), MyFitnessPal automatically turns off notifications if a user doesn’t respond, and provides updates along the way.

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Design to delight

Microinteractions are magical when they delight the user, and many companies are finding ways to upgrade their feedback loops. For example, what happens when a user has to wait while your app has to connect to a server?

Rather than letting the user get bored while they wait, provide them with an update. Uber does this by showing you where your car is located while you wait for it to arrive. Many others do this simply by adding an animated progress update.

Source: Chris Plosaj
Source: Chris Plosaj

Wrapping up

When we start a new UX project, we consider both the big picture and the micro details. After all, what happens once someone starts interacting with our designs? They need feedback to know their actions have an effect, and that feedback should delight them.

If you want to make your audience feel good about the overall experience, you should devote attention to microinteractions. These microinteractions can redefine the user experience and take it from good to great.