If you’re running a SaaS company, one of the first things you need to focus on is SaaS lead generation.
After all, no SaaS business can be successful without high-quality, high-potential leads, as they’re key to growing revenue year after year.
In this guide, we’ll dive into all the SaaS lead generation essentials, including all the important definitions, tips, and the 7 tested and tried SaaS lead generation strategies that are sure to help your business thrive.
TL;DR
- SaaS lead generation is the process of attracting and identifying potential customers for SaaS products or services.
- The main difference from traditional lead generation lies primarily in the fact that SaaS lead generation is conducted entirely via digital channels, from lead identification and scoring to engagement and conversion, which creates several other differences.
- B2B and B2C lead generation strategies have similarities but are also widely different in terms of marketing focus, sales cycle length, and target audience size.
- Best SaaS lead generation strategies include content marketing, SEO, PPC, social media marketing, free trials, automated outreach, and website optimization.
- To run an efficient SaaS lead generation process, you should:
- Define your ICP.
- Choose the main SaaS lead generation channels.
- Implement lead capture systems.
- Engage with leads across channels.
- Monitor and analyze campaigns.
How is SaaS lead generation different than traditional lead generation?
In simple terms, SaaS lead generation is the process of attracting, identifying, nurturing, and converting potential customers specifically for SaaS products or services.
Since SaaS products and services are digital, it’s no wonder SaaS lead generation is also tied to the digital sphere. As a result, you must rely on the web and other software solutions for every step of the process.
Additionally, the entire sales cycle is much longer regarding SaaS products. Building strong, long-term relationships with SaaS leads takes time, which is necessary as SaaS products generally rely on a subscription payment model.
So, when it comes to the key differences between SaaS and traditional lead generation, several stand out the most, including:
Digital and online focus
SaaS lead generation exclusively relies on digital marketing channels such as content marketing, SEO, PPC advertising, social media marketing, and email campaigns.
On the other hand, traditional lead generation can use digital and physical tactics, such as cold calling, traditional advertising, face-to-face customer interactions, etc.
Subscription model
SaaS products typically operate on a subscription basis, where customers pay a recurring fee for access to the software.
This affects the lead generation strategy, as the focus is on acquiring leads more likely to become long-term subscribers than one-time buyers.
As a result, the entire lead generation and nurturing process is longer and requires different strategies than with traditional lead generation efforts.
Free trials and freemiums
Another key difference between SaaS lead generation and traditional lead generation is their specific approaches to attracting potential customers.
SaaS companies often offer free trials or freemium versions of their products to spark leads’ interest and incentivize them to convert to paying customers.
This means that leads can test a software product firsthand for a limited period or with limited access to its features instead of relying on demos or sales calls, which encourages continuous user engagement and product adoption.
Although this approach takes more time and won’t get you an ROI as quickly as simply selling a product from the get-go, it can certainly pay in the long run, as providing users with an immersive product experience can help convert them into recurring customers.
Lead nurturing
Given the longer sales cycle and subscription-based revenue model of SaaS, lead nurturing becomes crucial, as you’re looking to generate long-term paying customers.
Building that kind of trust and loyalty is no easy task, as you have to continuously educate leads about your solution and how it addresses their pain points, personalize their experiences every step of the way, be sure to listen to their feedback, etc.
Traditional lead generation, on the other hand, can be focused both on building long-term relationships or one-off sales, allowing for more flexibility in how you approach leads.
B2B SaaS lead generation vs B2C lead generation
The key difference between B2B and B2C SaaS lead generation is the target audience.
B2B SaaS lead generation efforts are focused on other businesses.
However, since you can’t engage and convert an actual company, your leads will actually be the people representing these businesses, i.e., decision-makers or key stakeholders within organizations.
In contrast, B2C SaaS lead generation targets individual consumers looking for software products for personal use or small-scale applications.
This difference in target audiences and decision-makers accounts for several other important differences, such as:
Size of your target audience
In B2C lead generation, you focus on individuals of various profiles, meaning your lead pool is much wider than in B2B lead generation.
For instance, if you build a mobile app for editing photos, your product can be used by amateurs and professional photographers, social media influencers, and average Joes who just want to play a bit with photo editing.
On the other hand, B2B lead generation is limited by the nature of the offering and the number of businesses that might be interested in it.
Namely, many B2B products are industry-specific, meaning they’re a match only for businesses within that vertical. Moreover, B2B products require bigger investments, further reducing the number of potential customers.
Finally, there are fewer businesses than individual customers, which also affects the size of your target audience.
Length of the sales cycle
B2B sales processes are typically longer because multiple decision-makers are involved.
This means you’ll have to be ready to invest more time and effort into attracting and nurturing leads while taking a more professional approach to attracting and communicating with them.
Conversely, B2C sales processes are usually much quicker as you depend only on one decision-maker - the potential customer - and individual decisions are always faster and easier to make.
As a result, the entire process of attracting and converting these leads is more straightforward and allows for taking a more casual approach, as we’ll see below.
Marketing focus and strategies
Since B2B SaaS lead generation focuses on other businesses, it employs specific strategies designed to attract and convert companies.
These include:
- ABM marketing that targets specific companies and stakeholders within them with personalized messaging.
- LinkedIn outreach and advertising for networking with key stakeholders.
- Creating industry-specific content that positions you as a thought leader.
- Participating in or organizing industry conferences and similar events to increase brand visibility and connect with decision-makers.
Moreover, when dealing with businesses, your entire brand messaging and content have to be professional and appeal to the practical side of things (i.e., emphasize ROI potential, improvement in business efficiency, etc.).
B2C SaaS lead generation typically relies on other strategies to generate high-quality leads, such as:
- Social media that entails using popular platforms to reach individual users with targeted ads, promotions, and relevant posts.
- Content marketing, which includes creating engaging content like blogs, videos, tutorials, etc.
- Influencer marketing that leverages the popularity of an influencer, blogger, gamer, etc., to promote a SaaS product to their audience
All these strategies have some common traits, as they all emphasize personal satisfaction and individual value.
As a result, brand messaging and content appeal to emotions much more than in B2B lead generation and are more personal.
Note: B2B lead generation can include some B2C strategies and vice versa. However, some methods are more common in B2B or B2C, which is why we categorized them like this.
What are the different types of SaaS leads?
Before we dive into the 8 best SaaS lead generation strategies, let’s quickly clarify what types of SaaS leads exist.
They can be separated into 4 key categories:
- Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) - Leads who have engaged with your marketing efforts to an extent that suggests they are likely to be interested in your product. They have shown interest through activities like downloading content, attending webinars, or signing up for a newsletter. They’re probably not ready to purchase, meaning that further nurturing is necessary.
- Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) - Sales qualified leads are leads who have demonstrated a higher level of interest and have the potential to convert into paying customers. They have a specific problem or need that your product can cater to and may have had initial product demos or sales chats. They’re ready for direct engagement with sales and are close to converting.
- Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) - Leads that have used the product (often through a free trial or freemium) and shown behavior that indicates they are likely to convert to a paying customer, such as actively using the product, continuing to engage with it, etc.
- Customer Success Qualified Leads (CSQLs) - Existing customers who express interest in additional products or upgrades. They are already familiar with your brand and have had a positive experience. Ideal for upselling or cross-selling.
SaaS lead generation strategies
When doing SaaS lead generation, there are several strategies you shouldn’t miss out on, regardless of your industry, size, and target audience
1. Content marketing
Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience.
For SaaS companies, content marketing aims to educate potential customers, address their pain points, and build trust in order to guide them through the sales funnel and convert them into subscribers.
There are various content types you can use to generate leads, depending on your product or service, niche, target audience, etc., including:
- Blog posts.
- Case studies.
- How-to videos.
- eBooks.
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Pro tip: Use gated content to capture leads. Choose the most valuable resources most likely to incentivize leads to provide their information in exchange for access, such as templates, industry reports, detailed guides, etc.
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Pros & Cons
✅ Cost-effective, as you don’t need a big budget to pull it off.
✅ Generates organic traffic, as optimized content can improve your SERP rankings and drive quality traffic to your website.
✅ Builds trust and authority, positioning your brand as a source of truth.
❌ Takes time to generate results. Think of it as a marathon more than a sprint.
❌ Highly competitive landscape, as everyone is generating some kind of content.
2. SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy focused on improving a website's visibility in search engine results pages.
The goal is to attract organic traffic by optimizing website content and structure to rank higher for relevant search queries.
For SaaS companies, SEO is a crucial strategy for increasing brand awareness and driving traffic consisting of high-quality leads.
It includes various tactics, such as:
- Ensuring that your content and website include relevant keywords and have a structure that makes them readable and appealing (e.g., using appropriate headers, meta descriptions, title tags, etc.).
- Internal linking.
- Optimizing your website’s loading speed on computers and mobile devices.
- Backlink building, etc.
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Pros & Cons
✅ Enhanced user experience across devices.
✅ Increased organic traffic, better domain rating, and visibility.
✅ Improves your credibility by helping you position your website and content at the top of SERPs.
❌ No immediate or guaranteed results. Sometimes you do everything right and don’t reap the expected benefits because SEO is not an exact science.
❌ Requires expertise, such as specialized knowledge and skills in areas such as keyword research, content optimization, and technical SEO.
3. Social media marketing
Another staple SaaS lead generation strategy is social media marketing, which can be used for B2B and B2C lead generation alike.
It involves using social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc., to promote your brand, engage with your audience, and drive traffic to your website.
You can use all kinds of tactics here, including social media advertising, posting relevant and compelling content, engaging leads, and more.
Pro tip: The platform or platforms you choose should be appropriate for your target audience, so make sure to know where your leads live on the web before designing a social media marketing strategy.
Pros & Cons
✅ Direct audience engagement.
✅ Real-time feedback on your content and campaigns, allowing for quick adjustments and improvements.
✅ Improves brand awareness.
❌ Requires continuous engagement and maintaining an active presence year-round.
❌ Algorithm changes, as social media platforms frequently update their policies, which can impact the visibility and performance of your content.
4. PPC
PPC or Pay-Per-Click advertising is a digital marketing strategy where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked.
In the SaaS space, PPC campaigns are designed to drive targeted traffic to companies’ websites.
This is done by bidding on relevant keywords, crafting compelling ad copy, and placing ads on search engines and social media platforms where potential customers are most likely to see and interact with them.
For best results, however, you have to constantly monitor your campaigns and optimize them on the go, refining your ad copy, targeting, and bidding strategies.
Pros & Cons
✅ Immediate results.
✅ Allow for precise targeting of specific audience segments.
✅ Good control over budget, with options for setting daily budgets, bids, and maximum cost per click.
❌ Could get expensive, especially for highly competitive keywords.
❌ Requires ongoing monitoring and management.
5. Freemium and free trials
Freemium and free trials are popular strategies used by SaaS companies to attract potential customers by offering access to their product at no initial cost.
Both approaches aim to showcase the product's value, build trust, and encourage users to convert to paid plans, but they differ in some ways.
The freemium model enables you to offer a basic version of your product for free, with access to its essential features. Users can use this version for free with no time limits (so-called “Free-forever plans”).
As such, it’s best suited for products where users benefit from a basic version and can be motivated to upgrade for advanced features to get even more value.
The free trial model, on the other hand, lets you provide potential customers full access to your SaaS product’s features for a limited time (usually 7 to 30 days).
This makes it effective for products where experiencing the full feature set is crucial for demonstrating its real value.
Pros & Cons
✅ Lets you show users your product’s value before they commit.
✅ Generates sales opportunities.
❌ Conversion challenges, especially regarding freemium users.
❌ Churn and revenue loss risks.
6. Leverage your website
Your website has an enormous lead generation and conversion potential, provided you know how to make the most of it.
To increase and harness your website’s lead generation capacity, make sure to take the following steps:
- Optimize its speed and structure.
- Ensure your landing page and other web page copy is relevant and actionable.
- Include CTAs.
- Leverage lead-capturing forms.
- Invest in a website traffic tracking solution that can identify website visitors and help you detect those most likely to convert.
- Use chatbots and live engagement options to engage visitors while they’re still hot.
Pros & Cons
✅ Provides a centralized point of control for identifying and engaging quality leads.
✅ Targeted lead capture, as you can set up filters to create audience segments.
✅ 24/7 availability, as this strategy doesn’t depend as much on sales reps, meaning that your leads will be provided with a personalized experience regardless of whether an actual human is available.
❌ Initial investment, as you’ll need software solutions for tracking and engaging website visitors.
❌ Potential compliance concerns, especially when dealing with European audiences due to GDPR rules.
7. Automated outreach sequences
Automated outreach involves using software tools and technologies to streamline and automate reaching out to potential leads.
It can include anything from email marketing campaigns to social media messaging and automated follow-ups.
Pros & Cons
✅ Increased efficiency across levels.
✅ Allows for a “set it and forget it” approach.
✅ Good scalability.
❌ Initial setup and costs.
❌ Potential for getting flagged as spam.
How to do SaaS lead generation: Step-by-step guide
Define your ICP and target audience
Before you implement any SaaS strategy, you must conduct detailed market research to define your target audience and Ideal Customer Profile to know who to focus your lead generation efforts on.
This will help you decide on preferred lead generation channels, approach, specific lead generation strategy, etc.
Decide on and optimize your lead generation channels
Once you’ve pinpointed your market and defined your ICP, it’s time to choose the lead generation channels you’ll use the most.
It can include anything and everything we mentioned above, from content marketing to social media and PPC campaigns.
Regardless of which channel you choose, don’t forget to leverage your website as well.
Think of it as your shop window - it’s one of the first things your leads will come in contact with, so make sure it’s optimized for conversion by implementing the steps and tips we mentioned above.
Implement lead capture systems
To be able to nurture and engage with your leads, you first have to get their contact details and gather as much information as you can on them to craft a personalized approach.
Investing in a lead enrichment tool, such as Warmly, is one of the most efficient ways of ensuring that you’ll get all the relevant info on each valuable lead.
Warmly is designed for capturing leads - both companies and individuals - that land on your website, enriching each identified visitor with:
- Detailed B2B data (contact info, employee count, industry, technographic, job role, etc.).
- First-party intent data (insights into how leads engage with your website, such as pages visited, time spent on each page, chatbot interactions, etc.).
- Third-party intent data (buying signals left throughout the web, such as researched topics, visits to competitors’ websites, etc.).
This way, you’ll get the necessary contact and basic B2B info and gain valuable insights into a specific visitor’s intent to buy, enabling you to qualify and score them more easily.
Engage with leads
Once you’ve captured and qualified leads, you should engage them in a way that will resonate with them.
With Warmly, there are a number of options for engaging leads, including:
- Chatbots - Warmly’s AI Chat will automatically engage all website visitors (or just those that match certain criteria) and offer them valuable resources, answer queries, book meetings, or ask questions that can help qualify them.
- Orchestrator - Orchestrator adds leads who match predefined criteria to automated email or LinkedIn sequences, sending personalized emails, DMs, or connection requests.
- Live video and text chat - This enables reps to engage leads in live conversations via chat or video straight from your website.
You can combine these options while leveraging insights Warmly uncovered on each lead for optimal results.
Monitor and analyze
Finally, it’s important to track relevant KPIs to understand how your SaaS lead generation strategy is performing.
You should monitor metrics such as conversion rates, cost per lead, and overall ROI of your lead generation campaigns to get a clear idea of what’s working and what requires improvement.
Start generating more quality SaaS leads today
Although effective SaaS lead generation takes time and effort, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a pain that will cost you an arm and a leg.
Use some of our techniques, leverage your existing resources, make a few tweaks here and there, and you’ll be ready for takeoff.
If you’re keen on filling your pipeline with high-value SaaS leads as soon as possible, Warmly can help you.
It’s optimized for identifying website visitors and allowing you to drill down on leads most likely to convert right now, enabling you to engage them while their interest is at its peak.
Subscribe to Warmly’s free plan and take your SaaS lead generation to the next level.
Or book a live demo with our team to see it in action first.