Gone are the days when the influencer marketing landscape could be compared to the wild wild west. Today brands in all industries successfully leverage influencer marketing for their business goals. More than that - the influencer marketing industry has finally established broadly accepted processes, aligned brand vs. creators' expectations, and developed proven tactics for achieving business goals. SaaS businesses are no exception.
There are many types of influencer marketing strategies, but those dedicated to SaaS businesses often fall into the B2B frame. They take time and effort, and the impact cannot always be measured.
Not very optimistic, huh?
However, At Tidio, we use a different approach: we apply B2C influencer marketing tactics to increase B2B product sales. In this article, I will share tips and proven methods to boost SaaS company sales by executing a YouTube influencer marketing strategy.
Keep reading for more!
Allocate the Budget for a SaaS Product Influencer Marketing Campaign
I will not sugar-coat it -
To run a successful influencer Marketing campaign, you must invest time, effort, and… money.
Of course, if you start with a micro-influencer strategy and grow the program step by step, you may eventually succeed. But the reality is that if you aim at instant results on a big scale, you will have to invest a lot from the beginning.
Why is this investment needed?
First of all, it will unlock the possibility of working with actually influential industry leaders.
A big budget also means more freedom to test different tactics. And this is crucial! Even though you may find some advice about "one-size-fits-all" influencer marketing tactics, the reality is that each brand has its specifics, and the true success formula can only be reached by testing: different/various influencer verticals, social media channels, messaging, landing pages, and so on.
Select Influencers to Promote Your SaaS Product
When selecting influencers, use the 3 r's: relevance, reach, and resonance.
What does it mean?
Firstly, make sure you target influencers that are relevant to your niche. Once you have the list, there are a few points to evaluate to qualify the list:
- reach,
- topics that the channel covers,
- audience (age, gender, geography),
- channel's engagement rate,
- % of the fake audience.
The best way to validate these things is to ask influencers for a report or use influencer marketing software, e.g., Modash, providing detailed information on every social media channel.
Convince Influencers to promote your product
Once you validate the final list of influencers, it's time to reach out to them. Here are a few steps that help you get influencers on board:
- Test a few different outreach campaign texts. For example:
Hi [First name],
My name is X, and I handle partnerships at [name of your company].
I came across your YouTube Channel X, and I really liked the content and topics you've covered lately. Thank you for that!
I'm reaching out because we are looking for long-term brand partners who would like to promote brand X to their YouTube audience and help us reach new customers. We believe you would be a perfect fit!
Here's how you could benefit from this partnership:
- You will be paid.
- You will be entitled to use the product for free.
- You will [name other benefits].
Email me back if you are interested, and I will let you know more details about the offer!
- Use email automatization tools.
If you are aiming to onboard more than 20-30 influencers, use email automatization tools such as YesWare or Klenty since, with some brands, it takes up to 10-20 contacted influencers to get one influencer for the campaign. It is also essential to send follow-up emails because influencers do not always reply straight away. Make 3-4 follow-ups but always make sure to have an "unsubscribe" button on your email text to save your email address from being flagged as spam.
- Personalize your emails.
Include the influencer's name and mention something you saw and liked on their videos. The cold outreach emails will not do the job here.
Create an Influencer Content Strategy That Sells
We all know it is necessary to give room for influencers' creative freedom. However, at the same time, you have to ensure that the essential elements crucial for the SaaS sales campaign are also included in the promotion. That is the main product selling points, coupon code/unique tracking link, discount, and others.
YouTube videos solely dedicated to your product are usually converting better for sales. However, if working on a tight budget, paying a fee for a dedicated video could take half of your budget. The good walk-around here is including product promotion into a video topic related to the product or the problems your product helps to solve.
Another thing is optimizing YouTube videos for search. It is necessary to do keyword research first to make sure that the keywords you want to use are actually searched for.
Once you validate the list, share it with the influencer and try to devise a creative way of including it in the video you are sponsoring. This way, you will sponsor ever-green YouTube content, and sales will flow not only within the first 24 hours but throughout the years ahead.
Measure Influencer Marketing Campaign
Influencer marketing for SaaS products can be extremely powerful in boosting a product's online presence. But if you want to see the actual impact on sales, influencer marketing activities must be tracked. Otherwise, it will be much harder to tell whether or not the campaign is working or how it could be improved.
If running a sales oriented influencer Marketing campaign, there are a bunch of metrics to measure; here are the main ones:
- Clicks - shows general audience interest in the promoted product
- CTR - shows the % of the influencer audience that got interested in your product or service
- Number of sales
- CR - shows how many people who visited the landing page converted to sales. If CR is low, we can assume that LP, message, or product selling points have to be adjusted.
- ROAS - a return of the ad spend
When evaluating the results, it's important to remember that not all sales can directly be attributed to the influencer channel. That often happens because, especially with SaaS products, users take time before making the final purchase decision. And when they do, they tend to search for the brand name instead of using the unique tracking link of an influencer.
Many researchers say that, in reality, more than 75% of the conversions are not attributed to the influencer channel. With more data, you could find out what is that % for your brand. Still, generally, it's advisable to keep this in mind when evaluating the overall effect of your influencer marketing strategy.
The Campaign Was Launched - What's Next?
The critical thing in SaaS influencer marketing strategy is constant analysis and optimization. The first step in doing this is content analysis.
I suggest creating an Excel sheet with all the points listed to evaluate. Start from small things like the number of views and comments on the video to more complicated ones, such as the emotions of the influencer while talking about your product.
Once you have this excel sheet completed, analyze it, and you will start to see the points that could have caused one video to perform better than the other, and based on that, you could begin to optimize.
You may find which influencer vertical performed better, which video titles have a better CTR, or even what an influencer should wear while promoting your product. Be open-minded, and you will get valuable insights!
Conclusion
Influencer strategy can not only boost a brand's visibility but, indeed, skyrocket SaaS product sales! To make the revenue flow, it is essential to carefully plan the strategy, allocate a fair budget, select the right influencers, sponsor only sales-optimized content, and measure the campaign correctly. Besides that, remember that influencer marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, so be patient, and success will come!
Good luck!
If you have any questions feel free to contact me directly → LinkedIn
