Getting the attention of customers in the Internet age requires a different set of skills than it did a handful of years ago. And yet, incredibly, you have to keep in mind that not all your customers will find you online, even though they might happily end up using your solution there.

Effective demand generation today involves integrating traditional media and marketing—print, PR, trade shows, direct sales—with your online presence.

Successful SaaS marketers recognize that their customers will fall into two primary categories based on their use of the Internet: web-centric customers, and web-agnostic customers. Web-centric customers view the Internet as a place where they Search for solutions, find them (& self-qualify), try them, and make the buy decision.

Web-agnostic customers will not make use of the Internet to find business solutions, and must be proactively sold using more traditional means. To be most effective, SaaS demand generation strategies must address both the web-centric and the web-agnostic constituencies.

CSC’s Sales Acceleration Services

Developing an integrated offline and online demand generation model is a requirement for SaaS development, particularly in mid-markets. CSC and Mural Consulting’s proven demand generation framework and our experienced consultants can help you implement a demand generation strategy that targets both the web-centric and web-agnostic market.

The following framework is customizable depending on your existing market data.

Assessment

Effective demand generation depends on sending the right messages to the right place for your target segment. Before spending time and money on print, Pay-Per-Click advertising (like Google Adwords), trade shows, PR, or other methods, we help you make sure the message to be portrayed is valued by your customers and are consistent across all mediums.

Identify Target Segment(s) & Needs
The first step involves identifying a target segment to start with, preferably a segment you already understand very well. For each segment, we’ll work with you to define need and problem statements. We also want to quantify the benefit of solving the problem, if possible. It is a good idea to validate the need and value with your existing customer base, and ideally with a couple of firms that are not your customers. The remaining steps are based heavily on understanding these needs well, so it is important that the need is pervasive, and well defined.

Map Product Capabilities to Needs
For each need identified, we’ll help you list specific product capabilities that address target segments’ various needs and evaluate your products ability to address these needs.

Define Buyer and Influencer Personas
Writing quality copy is challenging enough, but it is almost impossible to write good copy if you don’t humanize your audience. Creating personas for buyers and influencers within each segment creates marketing messages that have a personal touch and are much more effective than copy written for a generic audience.

Evaluate Web Site
The web site is going to be the focal point for demand generation. We’ll evaluate your web site’s ability to address your customers’ needs in a style that your customers will understand. Any gaps found will need to be addressed before driving visitors to the site.

Demand Generation

We’ll take all of the information gathered during the assessment and define how we are going to reach the buyers and influencers within your target segments and the messages we are going to deliver.

Define Marketing Channels

For each buyer and influencer persona, we’ll define the different methods of reaching them. The following are samples of the marketing channels we’ll evaluate for each persona:

• Periodicals
• Press Releases
• Newsletters/e-mails
• Social media: blogs/forums
• Trade shows/events
• Analysts/Investor relations (i.e. Gartner, IDC, S&P)
• Search (SEO/PPC)

Develop the Demand Generation Campaign

For these marketing channels, we’ll develop traditional and online demand generation campaigns that speak to our target personas.  An SaaS ISV’s web site typically requires modifications to support proper messaging.

Execute Demand Generation

Continuous improvement is the secret sauce inside successful demand generation campaigns.  Great demand generation programs must be continually managed and refined; the cycle used is: Launch, Measure, Analyze, Modify, and Repeat.

Contact us to make an appointment for a consultation.