Technology & Software Archives | Sprout Social Sprout Social offers a suite of <a href="/features/" class="fw-bold">social media solutions</a> that supports organizations and agencies in extending their reach, amplifying their brands and creating real connections with their audiences. Wed, 21 Dec 2022 21:48:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://media.sproutsocial.com/uploads/2020/06/cropped-Sprout-Leaf-32x32.png Technology & Software Archives | Sprout Social 32 32 Top 14 project management software and tools to level-up collaboration https://sproutsocial.com/insights/project-management-software/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/project-management-software/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2022 16:00:56 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=104852/ When you hear the phrase “work smarter, not harder,” what comes to mind? Is it ways you could automate processes? Breaking down silos at Read more...

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]]> When you hear the phrase “work smarter, not harder,” what comes to mind?

Is it ways you could automate processes? Breaking down silos at your company? Promoting seamless cross-functional collaboration?

If you answered yes, your current project management strategies and corporate communications tools might need an upgrade. It’s time to invest in  project management software to help you plan, coordinate and execute your team’s work at a higher level.

In this article, we share why you should use project management software, what to look for as you consider your options and the 14 best project management tools for different teams.

The benefits of project management software

A data visualization that defines project management software. The definition reads: "Software that helps you plan, coordinate and execute every aspect of your team's work."

Project management software helps keep teams organized and on track. It streamlines processes and ensures they’re followed, empowering employees to work smoothly and efficiently.

From daily, ongoing tasks to larger projects, a project management tool takes the guesswork and frustration out of collaboration so teams can focus on doing their best work. With project management tools, multiple teams and departments are enabled to join forces, allocate work, illuminate timelines and simplify approvals.

What to look for in a project management tool

Ultimately, your ideal project management software should fit your company’s specific needs. Consider your budget, team size, file storage requirements, security demands and existing integrations in your tech stack when assessing options. For example, a tool that works for a growing team of five might not be appropriate for a team of 1,000.

The most common features of a project management tool include:

  • Time tracking
  • Reporting
  • Scheduling and planning
  • Budget tracking
  • Document storing and sharing

Here’s our list of the leading project management software broken down by use case:

Best project management software for cross-functional collaboration

monday.com

monday.com is a standard tool that offers scalable workflows, processes and tasks. The software can accommodate a growing team, and their templates make setting up your projects time-efficient.

monday.com has the functionality to cater to projects and workflows in marketing, IT, software development, sales and CRM, HR and operations. Its specialized functionalities allow you to bring different departments together into one workspace and streamline the project management process.

Key features:

  • 40+ integrations including HubSpot, Google Drive, Slack and Zoom
  • Budget planning and management capabilities
  • Cost: $10/month per seat (Standard package)
  • Free project management tools available for individuals
A screenshot of a project overview in monday.com that demonstrates deadlines for this month/next month, project owners, status and timeline.

Trello

Trello is a user-friendly project management software with customizable playbooks for marketing, product development, management, startups and remote teams. If you need all members of your department or company to work within one tool, Trello’s software makes it possible.

Their customizable workflow templates and calendars are suitable for both everyday to-dos and long-term projects.

Key features:

  • 192+ integrations including Jira Cloud, Salesforce, Slack and Microsoft Teams
  • Budgeting and time-tracking capabilities
  • Cost: $10/month per seat (Standard package)
  • Free project management tools available
A screenshot of Trello's Marketing Content Catalog which demonstrates a board view of different content types, including blog posts, gated assets, webinars and case studies.

Smartsheet

With Smartsheet you can build sophisticated sheets, forms, dashboards and reports. The customizable solutions make the project management software a fit for cross-collaboration between departments like marketing, IT and operations.

Smartsheet can be scaled for enterprise companies with advanced needs due to its elevated capabilities and security features.

Key features:

  • 80+ integrations including Google Drive, Microsoft Suite, Adobe and Salesforce
  • Easy-to-create WorkApps based on your business need
  • Scalable options for enterprise companies
  • Secure request management
  • Cost: $25/month per seat (Business package)
A screenshot of a Smartsheet sheet that demonstrates risk, ticket, request, requestor, due date, status and priority.

Zoho

Zoho offers all the essential project management software features: task management, team collaboration, calendars, project templates and time tracking. Their tool also includes live chat and sophisticated automation tools.

With an affordable price tag and basic capabilities, Zoho would work well for growing teams experimenting with project management tools for the first time.

Key features:

  • 20+ integrations including Google Drive, Microsoft Suite, ZenDesk and Github
  • Budgeting and time-tracking capabilities
  • Live private and group chat
  • Sophisticated automations with third-party integrations
  • Cost: $3/month per seat (Standard package)
A screenshot of Zoho's Gantt chart view of a project that demonstrates how different tasks in a project overlap on a calendar.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a strong choice for teams who require close collaboration in a distributed work environment. With live chat, whiteboards and editing features, ClickUp is a project management tool that replicates the experience of working in-person—a draw for hybrid and remote teams.

ClickUp’s time management tools are helpful for leaders who need to appropriately allocate and distribute work. The tools illuminate the productivity of individuals and entire teams.

Key features:

  • 1,000+ integrations including Google Drive, Microsoft Suite, DropBox and Github
  • Live chat, whiteboards and document editing
  • Time management tools (tracking, estimates and reporting)
  • Cost: $12/month per seat (Business package)
  • Free project management tools available
A screenshot of ClickUp's Agile Project Management template that demonstrates projects grouped by status: QA testing, in progress and pending.

Sprout Social

At Sprout Social, our expertise is in social media management, an essential part of your digital marketing toolbox. Sprout is an all-in-one social media management tool that allows businesses of any size to manage all aspects of their social media strategy and work together efficiently.

Our platform offers project management tools that streamline approval workflows and customer care, simplifying cross-collaboration between marketing and customer support teams.

Key features:

  • Integrations with all major social media platforms, helpdesk, CRM and social commerce tools
  • Social analytics, engagement, publishing, monitoring and listening
  • Smart Inbox approval and response workflows
  • Live activity and collaboration
  • Cost: $399/month, $299 for each additional user (Professional plan)
A screenshot of Sprout's Approval Workflows in our Compose feature. By using Approval Workflows, social media posts are assigned to reviewers automatically.

Start your free Sprout trial

Best project management software for agencies

Teamwork

Teamwork is project management software built for agencies, creative teams and professional service providers to maximize their resources.

With free client users and billing software/integrations, Teamwork makes it possible to manage multiple complex customer relationships.

Key features:

  • 80+ integrations including HubSpot, Slack, Outlook and Stripe
  • Time-tracking and billing software
  • Unlimited free client users
  • Cost: $17.99/month per seat (Grow package)
  • Free project management tools available for up to five users
A screenshot of tasks in Teamwork that are grouped by proposal, awaiting approval, approved and in progress.

ProofHub

ProofHub has workflows suitable for different agency departments, including marketing, HR and operations. The project management software addresses many business needs, from task management to streamlined client communication. ProofHub project templates and request forms make managing new projects easier.

Key features:

  • 8 integrations including Slack, Box, Google Drive and Quick Books
  • Time-tracking capabilities
  • Live private and group chat
  • Request forms
  • Cost: $45/month per seat (Essential package)
A screenshot of ProofHub's project management software that demonstrates today's and tomorrow's to-do list. The view illustrates the name of the tasks, start date, stage, assignee and progress.

Basecamp

Basecamp’s easy set-up and implementation make it an ideal fit for growing teams and boutique agencies. The project management tool is free for clients, contractors and outside guests, incentivizing communication and collaboration.

Key features:

  • 400+ integrations including Adobe, Dropbox, Google Drive and GitHub
  • Time tracking and reporting
  • Live chats with team members and clients
  • 500 GB storage capacity
  • Cost: $11/month per seat
A screenshot of Bascamp's homepage that includes recently visited projects, a personalized schedule and assignments.

Wrike

Wrike’s project management software provides companies with project visibility, resource management and client collaboration tools. Wrike offers cross-functional features like cross-tagging, internal/guest approvals, plus live editing and proofing tools.

The simplified intake process and time tracking/budgeting capabilities make Wrike especially conducive for agency work.

Key features:

  • 400+ integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot, WordPress and Google Drive
  • Time-tracking and budgeting tools
  • Security features like locked spaces, encryptions, two-factor authentication and single sign-on
  • Cross-functional, live tools
  • Cost: $24.80/month per seat (Premium package)
  • Free project management tools available
A screenshot of a website redesign project in Wrike that demonstrates active tasks, overdue tasks, completed tasks, days until project is due and tasks by assignee/status.

Best project management software for enterprise companies

Asana

Asana provides company-wide project management tools for a variety of use cases—including approvals/feedback, pipeline projects and planning large-scale goals. With Asana, users can upload and create an unlimited number of projects, tasks and documents.

Asana Enterprise grants users access to their full suite of features and advanced security functionalities.

Key features:

  • 200+ integrations including Adobe, Asana for Salesforce, Jira Cloud and DataGrail
  • Unlimited projects, tasks and storage
  • Scalable for enterprise companies
  • Cost: $10.99/month per seat (Premium package)
  • Free project management tools available for basic plan
A screenshot of an Asana project for Account Tracking that demonstrates task name, section name, assignee, due date, MRR and stage.

Jira

Jira is a project management tool specifically designed for software, marketing, HR, legal, operations, IT, finance and incident response teams. The tool helps teams build new products, craft campaigns from start to finish and respond to issues quickly.

Jira’s advanced capabilities work well for enterprise companies with complex projects, timelines and security needs.

Key features:

  • 3,000+ integrations including Figma, Adobe, Zendesk, GitHub and Trello
  • Time tracking and reporting
  • World-class security and compliance
  • Suitable for large, complex projects
  • Cost: $7.75/month per seat (Standard package)
  • Free project management tools available for up to 10 users
A screenshot of a Jira project with tasks categorized by to do, in progress, in review and done.

Confluence

Confluence is a collaborative team workspace for creating and organizing your work/processes. It’s ideal for mission-critical, high-stakes projects that require formalized communication and operations. Confluence must be hosted on the cloud, in a data center or on a server.

Like Jira, Confluence is an Atlassian product. The products work well together.

Key features:

  • Integrations including Google Drive, Draw.io, Lucidchart and Miro
  • Unlimited storage, spaces and pages
  • Complex project management functionality
  • Security features like data residency, IP ranges and spaces permissions
  • Test product sandbox and release tracks
  • Accommodates 35,000 users
  • Cost: $11/month per seat (Premium package)
  • Free project management tools available for up to 10 users
A screenshot of a Confluence workspace that demonstrates status, impact, driver, approver, contributors, informed, due date and income.

Scoro

Scoro project management software is appropriate for company-wide collaboration across industries. The tool delivers business intelligence data including detailed financial reports and real-time KPI updates. Scoro has role-based access control and enterprise-grade security.

Time management tools and activity logs within the platform help leaders capacity plan and illustrate the impact of their team’s work across the company.

Key features:

  • 1,000+ integrations including Slack, Asana, Jira, Basecamp and Trello
  • Time management tools and activity logs for capacity planning
  • Detailed, real-time financial reports and other KPI data
  • Purchase orders and expense processing
  • Role-based access and enterprise-grade security
  • Cost: $37/month per seat (Standard package)
A screenshot of a Scoro planner that demonstrates how an individual's work is broken up each day.

Create a culture of collaboration

Make silos, redundant tasks, messy email threads and frustrating collaboration a thing of the past. With this list in hand, you have all the information you need to find the right project management software for your team.

Project management tools are the key to unlocking efficient collaboration, streamlined processes and visibility.

Want to start encouraging collaboration between your sales and social teams today? Learn how you can work together to produce customer-centric content that impacts the bottom line.

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]]> https://sproutsocial.com/insights/project-management-software/feed/ 13 How Grammarly delivers engaging customer care with Sprout Social https://sproutsocial.com/insights/case-studies/grammarly/ Wed, 27 Oct 2021 14:40:31 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?post_type=casestudies&p=155688/ Each day, over 30 million people and 30,000 teams turn to Grammarly for writing help that goes beyond a quick spell check. Whether you Read more...

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]]> Each day, over 30 million people and 30,000 teams turn to Grammarly for writing help that goes beyond a quick spell check. Whether you need to edit for correctness, delivery or engagement, Grammarly provides quick tips that support effective communication.

When it comes to stand-out customer communication on social, Grammarly uses Sprout. With Sprout Social, the Grammarly social support team can manage user questions, product concerns and audience conversations across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This streamlined approach helps them create a dialogue with current and potential users while finding opportunities to surprise and delight as they go.

“We want to help people be even more confident that they can achieve effective communication, whether they’re writing for school, professionally, or even through text message. We use Sprout to help make those connections possible,” said Emma Hanevelt, Social Media Insights Analyst.

Clear, consistent customer care

Hanevelt works with a team of 10 led by Manager Beth Hibbert. Together, the team is responsible for engaging with the Grammarly audience, answering user questions and analyzing social data for business insights. With Sprout, they’re able to respond to messages across networks quickly and efficiently.

“We’re in the Smart Inbox daily, managing posts and DMs from Twitter and Facebook, as well as Instagram comments,” said Hanevelt. “We’ve also launched Brand Keywords tracking, so we can respond to users who mention Grammarly without tagging our account.”

Grammarly’s social support team spans two time zones, with support agents based in both Canada and Ukraine. In less than two years (during which they brought Sprout on), their average time to first response (TTFR) decreased more than 80%.

“We love the team Conversations feature,” said Hanevelt. “If someone working out of Kyiv isn’t able to solve an issue by the time they log off, they can leave a note. Then, the Vancouver team can pick it up and continue the conversation with all the necessary context.”

Streamlining their social support process to a single platform has also helped surface data that Hibbert can use internally to manage and grow her team. Insights from Sprout inform coaching conversations across the social support team, which ultimately lead to stronger customer service.

“With the Inbox Team Report, we can see our overall message volume across channels and better measure agent productivity,” said Hibbert. “If I’m having a one-to-one with someone, I can use their specific report to highlight their performance or dig into growth areas. It’s been a game-changer for us. ”

Delivering product insights with tags

The Grammarly team leveled up their Smart Inbox use by developing a comprehensive tagging strategy that allows them to organize incoming messages based on their content. Tags empower Grammarly support agents to do the foundational work needed to uncover advanced customer insights.

“It’s one of the most important features for us,” said Hanevelt. “Because every message that comes into our inbox gets tagged, we can quickly pull specific feedback when needed. If any of our product managers come to us asking for messages on a certain product, we have it. We also build quarterly reports on themes we find in our social messages.”

So far, their approach to tagging has helped surface valuable user stories for the Grammarly product and user experience teams, as well as company leadership.

“Once a month, we combine tagging insights from Sprout with Zendesk reports to create a deck that gets shared across the organization,” said Hanevelt. “It’s how we keep others up to date on trends and opportunities we’re seeing in customer support.”

Setting the tone with listening

In 2021, Grammarly began using Sprout’s Social Listening tools to monitor brand health and competitive share of voice. Since then, they’ve been able to extract even more product insights from priority platforms like Twitter and Reddit.

These insights have driven further collaboration between the social support team and the rest of the business. Hanevelt’s long-term goal is to make Listening a key lever for the broader marketing, product and user research teams.

“Right now, I’m focused on making social listening a more known resource,” said Hanevelt. “If I see someone share a slide deck in Slack, I’ll go to them and ask ‘How can I support you with social insights?’ We’ve set up monthly syncs with our consumer insights team, as well as our user experience team, so I can complement their work with listening data from Sprout.”

Hanevelt sees major opportunities for social listening at Grammarly, and has been creating slide decks to share insights from Sprout with the wider organization.

“Hopefully, we’ll start hosting more hands-on workshops so we can bring social stories to the forefront of the conversation,” said Hanevelt. “We want to share our social data so we can help shape product decisions across Grammarly.”

Grammarly is rewriting the rules of customer care by sharing industry and competitive insights that inform proactive decision-making. If you’re interested in seeing how your social data can do the same, request a personalized demo or start your free 30-day trial today.

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]]> Creating a Culture of Content: How Sales & Social Media Partnership Helps Brands Win More Business https://sproutsocial.com/insights/guides/creating-a-culture-of-content/ Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:07:11 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?post_type=guides&p=149979/ In the near future, 90% of executives anticipate that social will be the primary communications channel for connecting with customers. Going forward, the content Read more...

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]]> In the near future, 90% of executives anticipate that social will be the primary communications channel for connecting with customers. Going forward, the content brands create and share on social will carry more weight than ever before.

Sales and social teams have an opportunity to leverage each other’s expertise to develop sharper, customer-centric content that impacts the bottom line. Collaboration is foundational for building a culture of content, in which everyone—from a social media manager to a business development representative—is empowered to create assets that generate awareness and influence revenue.

To help your business build a culture of content, we consulted experts at Team Sprout and Vidyard to share best practices for:

  • Clearing a path for social teams to share insights with your sales organization
  • Leveraging social as part of the sales process
  • Creating low-lift video content
  • Applying insights from sales to brand social strategies
  • Mining your teams for creatives

Download this guide to nurture a culture of content among your team.

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]]> 10 B2B social media post ideas for brand success https://sproutsocial.com/insights/b2b-social-media-post-ideas/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/b2b-social-media-post-ideas/#respond Mon, 22 Feb 2021 15:00:45 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=148264/ Creating captivating B2B social media post ideas can be…challenging. Let’s be honest. If you’re in B2B social, you know it has a bit of Read more...

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]]> Creating captivating B2B social media post ideas can be…challenging.

Let’s be honest. If you’re in B2B social, you know it has a bit of a reputation of being kind of dull. One survey even found 48% of B2B customers say the ads they receive are boring and lack the creativity found in B2C marketing.

Don’t let this misconception turn you off of B2B social. In fact, social is an integral component to successful B2B marketing. Seventy-nine percent of B2B marketers say social supports their goals of building thought leadership and strengthening customer relationships. And half of B2B decision makers use networks like LinkedIn to research information and consume information.

As social spaces become increasingly crowded, B2B brands will need to prioritize strong and engaging social content to stay ahead of the competition. For inspiration on how to level up your social strategy and ensure your content stands out from the crowd, we’ve rounded up a list of B2B social media post ideas for you to try.

1. When in doubt, be helpful

One of the biggest pitfalls of B2B social is the bad habit of pushing hard-selling messaging. But that kind of messaging overlooks one important thing: how does your product or service address your buyer’s pain points?

Write with your prospects top of mind and focus on their needs first. Social copy should demonstrate how the product or service can help make the prospect’s life easier. According to one report, 88% of the top B2B content marketers prioritize their audience’s needs over sales or promotional messages.

Being helpful also helps reinforce purchasing confidence, too. B2B marketers can boost buyer confidence by providing useful content and consistent messaging on all channels, including company websites.

2. Curate third-party thought leadership

It’s bad manners to talk about yourself all the time. B2B social media best practices include sharing owned content as well as third-party, industry-focused articles to establish trust and credibility.

Consider how 65% of B2B buyers consciously focus more on credible content from industry influencers. Sharing content from third-party sites like Gartner and Forbes can further build trust with your audience because you’re promoting a trusted source prospects likely already know and respect. And finally, curating third-party content reduces the burden on your creative teams to always create new content.

3. Embrace the hashtag

Regardless of how you feel about hashtags, they do make an impact on your social content. If you’re not using a few hashtags per post, you’re missing opportunities to amplify the post beyond your existing followers.

For B2B, it’s important to lean into niche hashtags that your audience is likely already using. Choosing something more niche allows you to tap into specific conversations with industry thought leaders, executives and employees. For example, if you work in the cybersecurity space, you may want to use targeted hashtags like #Cybersecurity, #CloudSecurity, #DataPrivacy or #DataSecurity over the more ambiguous #Cloud, #Data or #Security.

While branded hashtags are great, remember, you’re only talking to your current followers and they don’t support efforts to generate awareness among new customers. If you have to choose between a branded hashtag and a public hashtag for your awareness campaign, go public. Always.

4. Don’t skimp on your creative assets

Seventy-one percent of B2B marketers currently use video as part of their strategy and, thanks to tools like Canva and Adobe Spark, it no longer takes hours on end to produce a polished video. Even a video with simple animated text is more exciting and informative than a single static image or a long block of text in the caption.

What works for one campaign may not work for another, so it’s important to test how your audience reacts to specific content and adjust as needed. Consider A/B testing to determine which assets resonate with your audience the most, like testing photos against video content.

5. Be cohesive with your voice and tone

No matter what you post, your brand’s social feeds all need to have a cohesive look and feel. This makes it easier for your followers to recognize your content in-feed and a well-styled post attracts attention. Here are a few simple tricks we use at Idea Grove when crafting social content for our B2B clients:

  • Use color overlays with reduced opacity to give all images a uniform element
  • Create a family of consistent shapes and designs to use in your images and videos
  • Edit all your photos with one filter treatment
  • Develop an aesthetic to inform your visual content assets

GE, for example, uses the same visual treatment to indicate when certain videos belong to a specific series on LinkedIn.

6. Take people behind the scenes

Break up your social feed and differentiate yourself from the competition by showcasing the people who work behind the scenes of your brand. Regardless if you’re selling a product or a service, at the end of the day you’re selling to other people. And when customers feel like they can relate to your brand, they’re more likely to want to do business with you.

Humanizing your brand is also a great way to give potential employees an unfiltered look into your company. Does your team value diversity? Are you a suit-and-tie type of business or does your company culture embrace a hoodie-and-sweatpants kind of vibe? Salesforce, for example, posts regular videos showcasing their company’s employee resource groups all over the world.

7. Amplify your media wins—both big and small

Still searching for more B2B social media post ideas? If you work with a public relations team, sharing any media placements featuring your brand is a great way to build trust with your audience. Sharing media placements both lends credibility to your brand and gives you an opportunity to piggyback off of the name recognition that comes with a news outlet. Additionally, tools like social monitoring and listening can help you pick up on brand mentions that may have slipped your notice the first time around.

8. Highlight your success stories

People trust a customer testimonial more than any salesperson, so why not take that testimonial and share it on your social channels? Record short interviews with your clients or turn a brief quote into a shareable asset on Twitter or Instagram.

Testimonials showcase how your client used your product of service to solve real problems and gives prospects a better understanding of the value your brand brings to the table. While product demos are great, nothing beats a case study that shows how customers use your product or service to address a need. In addition to their product content, Slack creates content that demonstrates how customers like Stripe use Slack’s software to improve their customer support efforts.

9. Invite others into the conversation

Do you tag other B2B brands in your social copy? What about your customers or the authors of third-party content you’ve shared on social? If you’re not tagging, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on additional social impressions and reach. Tagging companies and individual people brings them into the conversation, boosts visibility of the shared content and invites others to engage with your community. For example: to promote their new partnership, SAP made sure to tag Siemens in their post accompanying their press release.

10. Boost visibility with paid social

Lastly, one of the best ways to stand out in B2B social is to take advantage of paid social ads. Research shows that among B2B marketers who used paid distribution channels in the last 12 months, 72% say they used paid social.

A paid social strategy enables you to cut through the social clutter by using carefully defined target audiences and messages to connect with your customer. Retargeting ads help you reach out to people already familiar with your brand (warm leads) and can be used. to drive conversion-focused content like webinars or white papers. And for untapped audiences (cold leads), paid ads are a great way to create brand awareness with informative, helpful and ungated content.

Conclusion

Implementing even a few of these tips will help you improve your B2B marketing efforts and break away from the sea of sameness on social. While B2B may not be the same animal as B2C, there are still opportunities to exercise your creativity and create an effective social strategy that isn’t boring.

Ready to take your B2B social strategy even further? Learn how market research can empower your social team to better understand your target buyer and develop content that will resonate at every stage of the customer journey.

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]]> https://sproutsocial.com/insights/b2b-social-media-post-ideas/feed/ 0 4 overlooked B2B market research methods for understanding your customers https://sproutsocial.com/insights/b2b-market-research/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/b2b-market-research/#respond Wed, 20 Jan 2021 16:42:16 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=147821/ Knowing your audience is a lesson from effective marketing 101. Businesses can better market and sell their product or service when they have a Read more...

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]]> Knowing your audience is a lesson from effective marketing 101. Businesses can better market and sell their product or service when they have a clear understanding of customers’ pain points, business needs, goals, constraints and concerns.

Achieving that understanding can be challenging, especially when you’re selling to other businesses and their buyers.

B2B buyers have a lot to consider on their path to purchase, and that path is not linear or simple. In fact, 77% of B2B buyers say their latest purchase was very complex or difficult.

B2B buying is less about progressing through a stage-by-stage sales funnel and more about completing a set of non-sequential tasks: problem identification, solution exploration, requirements building supplier selection, validation and consensus creation. While buyers take on these tasks, it’s B2B marketer’s job to know how, why and when their brand can assist and enable buyers to check each task off their to-do list.

This is why B2B market research is critical. Market research helps companies to:

  • Understand and build B2B buyer personas
  • Evaluate the changing needs of customers
  • Differentiate themselves from competitors
  • Refine their offerings
  • Develop relevant, valuable content to assist buyers with their research

You don’t need to spend a lot of money on research firms. In fact, there’s a lot you can discover on your own with a few simple tools and methods.

Keyword research tools, social media listening data and review sites are goldmines for market research that are oftentimes overlooked.

Discover new depths of audience insights, empower B2B buyers and make better business decisions with these four fundamental market research methods.

1. Get to know B2B buyers through keyword research

In the early stages of the buyer journey, people are trying to learn what brands are out there and what solutions are available. Like most people, B2B buyers often start that research on Google or another search engine.

Where there are searches, there’s valuable data.

Keyword research, while most often associated with SEO, can also help you understand your audience and how they search for products and services like yours.

With Google Trends, Answer the Public, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Google Keyword Planner and other SEO tools can help you answer the questions:

  • What questions are buyers asking about your industry, product or service?
  • What pain points are buyers searching that your product can solve?
  • Which brands in your industry also rank for specific keywords?
  • Are people searching for your brand keywords?

With the answer to these questions, you can build out content, SEO and B2B social media strategies that improve the visibility of your brand and deliver hyper-relevant information to your target audience.

Buyers already have a lot of information to digest, so quality is more important than quantity. The more relevant information you can give your buyers, the better. According to Gartner, providing customers with information specifically designed to help them advance their purchase has the single biggest impact on driving deal quality that the research firm has ever documented.

Want to learn more about how to conduct keyword research? Get tips, tools and more keyword research benefits here.

2. Analyze industry and brand-relevant conversations on social media

Consulting peers—either in person, or online via product review websites or social networks—is consistently among the most trusted ways for buyers to source information. Getting recommendations from people in similar companies, roles and industries naturally sparks buyers’ confidence and interest in a product or service. With social listening, marketers can be a fly on the wall where those kinds of conversations occur.

There’s a lot of noise on social, but social listening tools like Sprout Social’s make it possible to cut through to specific topics and themes that you do and do not want to listen for. In Sprout Social, users have the power to build Listening Topics around specific accounts, hashtags, industry keywords and more.

If you’ve done keyword research already, your findings can help you refine your Topic queries and add filters to dig deeper into conversations. Once Topics are set up, your tool will collect candid conversations from the world’s largest focus group.

As you dive into performance data, metrics like message volume, number of unique authors, impressions, engagements and other quantitative data points can validate what conversations are occurring and quantify topic trends. Feedback, opinions, sentiment and other qualitative data signal why and where these conversations are happening.

While using listening for your market research, develop specific questions that you want to investigate. You might ask:

  • How do people perceive our brand?
  • What keywords are most often associated with our brand?
  • Where do most conversations about our brand take place in the country or world?
  • What challenges and pain points come up in conversations about our industry and the kinds of products or services we offer?

Sprout users can also use listening to gather market research from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Youtube and Reddit. The latter two are unique and valuable—but underused—channels for B2B market research.

As they do their own research, B2B buyers can easily find video reviews and product roundups on Youtube relevant to their needs. Even a quick search for something like “the best CRM software for small business” yields tons of results. Instead of watching every single video, scouring descriptions to see what themes come up, or checking to see if your brand was mentioned, you can have listening tools do the work for you. While you’re at it, you might even find some user-generated content that’s worth sharing on social.

Youtube CRM Software Search Results

Reddit has a reputation for being a place for real people to share unfiltered opinions, and where anyone who’s clearly trying to self-promote or sell something is shooed away by moderators.

If a B2B buyer is exploring the “Software” subreddit to learn about project management software, they can find authentic community contributions that draw on real experiences and trust that those contributions aren’t just a ploy to get new leads or draw attention to a specific business.

Trust is always an important factor in a business relationship, but marketers and sales teams have to work to overcome buyer skepticism. When you tap into online conversations and have research on your customer needs, you can learn how you can contribute positively to the buyer journey. Instead of using research strictly to sell or market your product, focus your attention on how you can use that research to inform and assist buyers and build new business relationships with trust at the foundation

3. Analyze what people are saying about competitors on social media

To come out on top in a competitive deal cycle, you need to understand your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses and use those to your advantage. Social listening can help with that.

In Sprout Social’s Competitive Analysis Listening tool, you get a side-by-side competitor comparison of key performance metrics across social, including share of voice, average positive sentiment and other metrics that can help contextualize quantitative competitor research findings outside of social.

Sentiment analysis in particular will show you how your shared audience feels about your competitor. Apply a positive sentiment filter to find what your audience likes about your competitor, what product features are most popular for them and more.

Conversely, you might also explore conversations using a negative sentiment filter to find online conversations where competitors, their products or services are getting negative feedback.

Let’s say you uncover that people are unsatisfied with the interface of your competitors’ software—but your customers consistently rave about your software’s interface. How can those findings influence your marketing campaigns or product development? What are the identifiable differences and advantages in your product? How can your business use that weakness to your advantage?

Bring together a group of stakeholders from various disciplines to digest your research findings and answer these questions. Colleagues from departments outside of marketing will have unique and additional perspectives about how to put your research to work. A group brainstorm might spark ideas for website copy, sales collateral, campaign strategies and more.

Turning listening insights alone into actionable business recommendations and deliverables comes with a learning curve. But when you combine listening with your intuition, additional market research and insightful colleagues, you can continue to find ways to differentiate your brand and gain a competitive edge.

4. Dig into ratings and reviews

In a recent survey of B2B buyers and/or buying influencers, 82% of respondents reported using online review sites to support buying decisions. Review sites have information that can serve a buyer at all stages of the buying process, so that’s not altogether shocking. But B2B marketers should also be monitoring and leveraging reviews for qualitative research.

G2, Capterra and TrustRadius house verified reviews for business software and services so buyers and businesses alike can glean insights from unbiased ratings on user satisfaction, features, price and more. Reviews typically include a clear breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of your products and services. These sites also have discussion boards where users can ask questions about the software they’re seeking.

Marketers can collect, package and present that crystal clear feedback to leadership, product, sales teams and other disciplines. Combined with your other market research findings, customer feedback can inform:

  • Product roadmap planning
  • Pricing choices
  • Customer service approaches
  • Customer and buyer enablement resources

At Sprout, we rely on reviews to continually improve our software and the way we do business. When we understand what our users like and dislike, the recommendations they’d give to others considering Sprout, the problems they solve with our products and overall benefits, we can build upon what we know about our audience, better serve them and create content that fills knowledge gaps.

Sprout G2 Reviews Profile

We also collect suggestions and feedback directly from reviews and discussions. Then, we’re able to bring that feedback to the necessary teams. We might not always be able to act on suggestions, but creating a feedback loop and letting reviewers know they’ve been heard is a win-win for Sprout and our customers.

Stay focused, stay relevant, stay informed with B2B market research

The path to purchase for B2B buyers is a long and winding road. But if you know who your target audience is and what they care about, you can empower them in their search. Use your market research to pave a smoother road for buyers and create better experiences for your current customers.

With market research on your side, you can:

  • Create relevant, helpful marketing collateral like case studies and customer surveys.
  • Empower your sales teams with research reports and customer fact sheets.
  • Double down on customer success and training resources to ease pain points.

By doing strategic B2B market research, you can get into the mindset of your target market, better cater to their needs and cultivate relationships built on trust.

Take B2B social data further with our guide to turning your data into a revenue-driver. You’ll learn how to hone four key practices fueled by social listening and data that will help your B2B business level up. Download the guide now.

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]]> https://sproutsocial.com/insights/b2b-market-research/feed/ 0 Create a B2B Content Plan for Social Media [Free Worksheet] https://sproutsocial.com/insights/templates/b2b-content-plan-worksheet/ Wed, 13 Jan 2021 15:16:50 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?post_type=templates&p=147695/ A sophisticated content marketing strategy can build brand awareness, deliver value and reveal opportunities to build relationships with prospects that convert into business. One Read more...

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]]> A sophisticated content marketing strategy can build brand awareness, deliver value and reveal opportunities to build relationships with prospects that convert into business. One of the hardest parts of building that strategy, especially for B2B brands, is content creation.

There’s a common misconception that B2B content marketing should be buttoned up, reserved and straightforward. But just like with consumer audiences, B2B buyers want engaging, visually interesting and valuable content that is tailored to their needs and preferred social channels.

When it comes to B2B content marketing, a symbiotic relationship should exist between social media marketers and their colleagues in other marketing disciplines. As the marketing team develops white pages, webinars, case studies and other B2B content, the social team can spin that content into additional assets and promote them across platforms to support shared marketing goals.

This worksheet serves as a B2B content planner and will help you:

  • Maximize the impact of an existing piece of content
  • Use past performance trends to create better social content
  • Build a two-week promotional plan for that content
  • Develop B2B social media content ideas and build a content promotion plan
  • Commit to a timeline for sharing your results and refining your content

Download the worksheet today to build a B2B content promotion plan that engages your prospects on social and drives them through the marketing funnel.

The post Create a B2B Content Plan for Social Media [Free Worksheet] appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> How to write a white paper that inspires a year-long content strategy https://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-write-a-white-paper/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-write-a-white-paper/#respond Wed, 11 Nov 2020 17:06:48 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=144907/ When it comes to establishing one’s brand as an authority, few resources get the job done like a data-driven white paper. Longer than your Read more...

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]]> When it comes to establishing one’s brand as an authority, few resources get the job done like a data-driven white paper.

Longer than your typical blog post and more in-depth than an ebook, a white paper is a well-researched piece of content designed to educate readers on a specific topic. It allows you to position your brand as an expert in your field and demonstrate you have a solution to your audience’s problems. And because marketers often gate white papers behind an email form, these reports can help support goals like lead generation and sales.

But with a little foresight, a white paper can do more than capture leads. It can also fuel an entire year’s worth of content and support teams across sales, customer success and even design. From developing social media content to webinars to workshops, there are a number of ways you can extend the life of your white paper.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to write a white paper as well as how to turn those data and insights into new content for the entire year.

What makes a white paper valuable?

Traditionally, a white paper is defined as an informational document to promote a product or service and is used by marketing and sales to persuade buyers to purchase from one brand over another. In marketing, a white paper can be used to provide in-depth research on a particular subject (like the state of social marketing) and gives brands an opportunity to build credibility with their audience.

Consider this data-driven white paper example: the Sprout Social Index™. The Index™ is our annual 30+ page white paper filled with unique data based on consumer and marketer surveys. We look specifically at the state of social marketing, and offer insights on topics like consumer behaviors, marketers’ social goals and what differentiates one brand’s social presence from a competitor.

It takes roughly three months and collaboration across marketing, design and sales for the Index™ to come to life. On the other hand, this blog post you’re reading took me about one week to complete. To illustrate how to plan and develop a white paper with legs beyond its initial launch, we’ll share how we create the Index™ and the various assets that come from our annual report.

Phase 1. Planning for success

Before diving into topic ideation, establish the goals and objectives you want to achieve with your white paper. Goals can include everything from raising brand awareness in your target audience to fueling new business acquisition by generating leads. And determine which key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll use to track your progress toward your goals, like net new users and content downloads. From there, develop a project plan with clear expectations around responsibilities and due dates, like when to expect a first draft or design assets for social promotion.

Once your goals and project plan are in place, then you can focus on narrowing your white paper to one specific topic. When in doubt, start by identifying your audience and brainstorming the different problems you can help them solve.

For the Sprout Social Index™, we look at a couple of factors to inform our direction:

  • Our audience’s needs. Think about who is going to read your white paper and what problems they’re hoping to solve with the information provided. For the Index™, we know we’re speaking to social media marketers of all industries and experience levels, from solo practitioners to directors managing a team. So the data we offer needs to help our audience advance their careers, strengthen their strategies and sharpen their skill sets. We’ll consider things like top goals and challenges for social marketers, how social is viewed within an organization and what skills marketers hope to develop.
  • The state of the industry. In addition to specific audience needs, we also look at what’s happening within the industry at large. Are there emerging trends our audience wants to understand? How are other brands responding to industry changes and what can readers learn from these examples? To ensure the Index™ is relevant for social marketers of all industries, we’ll look at big trends in the overall social marketing landscape like which platforms are most popular among consumers and what types of content generate the most engagement.

If you plan to use your white paper to inspire a year’s worth of content, take a moment to evaluate if the topic will be relevant a year from now. Timely data, while it can be extremely valuable as part of your content strategy, gives you less runway to develop content six, seven or eight months post launch. Additionally, you’ll need to have enough data to work with in the future. Keeping the topic broad enough will enable you to drill down into specific angles for future content.

Phase 2. Writing a white paper from start to finish

With a plan in place, it’s time to conduct your research, develop your white paper structure and deploy any surveys for data collection.

With the Index™, we use a platform like SurveyMonkey to conduct two different surveys: one for 1,000 consumers and one for 1,000 social marketers. We ask consumers questions like which social platforms they use the most and what actions can turn them off to a brand’s social presence. In the marketer survey, we ask them how they use social data, what their greatest challenges are and what factors influence their approach to social.

If you’re unsure how to analyze the data, try creating a separate Google Doc or spreadsheet to house your key findings, organized by question number. When reviewing the Index™ data, we look at things like:

  • Responses to all questions without any filtering or comparisons
  • Results when we narrow our focus to one particular subgroup (e.g. marketers at companies with only 1-50 employees)
  • Responses that contradict our original hypothesis
  • Contrasts between the two audiences (e.g. marketers versus consumers)
What makes a brand best in class on social: what marketers think vs what consumers think

Remember: you won’t use every single data point in your actual report. Instead of tossing unused data to the side, consider using that information as inspiration for a future piece of content.

With your data in hand, it’s time to put pen to paper. Writing a white paper can take several days, or even weeks, and it’s helpful to start with a comprehensive outline to plan out the report flow. In the outline for the Index™, we include examples of the quantitative data to highlight and brand examples discovered during the research stage. Allocate about one week for outlining and drafting, which should include chart mockups of the data you plan to use.

For reviews, ask for feedback from your key stakeholders, including those who don’t work in content directly. Index™ feedback from our social team ensures we’re giving our target audience what they need while our PR team can recommend future storylines inspired by the report.

Phase 3. Bringing the data to life with creative

Another facet that distinguishes a white paper from a blog post is that white papers are often packaged as a designed PDF.

In addition to creating the PDF version of the Index™, our design team creates graphic assets and charts for use in content, on social and beyond. One of the reasons we ask our social team to review the final draft of the Index™ is to get feedback on which stats and insights will make for compelling graphics on social.

For example, one of the charts included in the Index™ talks about actions consumers take when they follow a brand on social..

Actions consumers take when they follow brands on social

Using the feedback from social, we identified one standout data point from this graph, and the design team turned it into a separate social graphic.

Developing a unique design system and color palette for each white paper creates a consistent visual identity so every asset looks like it belongs to the Index™ campaign. This also gives designers the flexibility to create new assets like GIFs throughout the entire year because they have a wide range of colors and motifs to pull from.

With your report ready to launch, remember you still need to track your progress toward your goals. Tracking not only shows you if you’ve achieved your goals but also if you need to adjust your distribution strategy to make up for lost ground.

Phase 4. Giving your white paper longevity

So you’ve officially published the final white paper PDF and all of your design assets—congratulations! But just because you hit that publish button doesn’t mean the work behind the scenes suddenly stops.

To kick off the Index™, we publish different teaser posts for two different audiences: one for the social media manager and one for an executive. Both articles preview some of the salient data points and highlight how the report will address marketers’ challenges, ultimately encouraging readers to download the Index™.

To keep that momentum going, our social and creative teams collaborated to create the #DataDance, a series of short dance moves inspired by findings from the Index™. We encouraged our followers to both learn and share their own #DataDance with us on social.

We also created new content like webinars and articles with industry-specific benchmarks months after the publish date. We also repackaged the Index™ as part of a larger toolkit for marketers as they begin planning for 2021. Finally, we included data from the report in our Data in Action workshop for social marketers, five months after the Index™ launched.

When you can repurpose the data and insights from your white paper, you stand to reach new audiences, reinforce your original argument and demonstrate your expertise in a particular topic.

Breathe new life into your white paper

White papers are not only a great resource for brands to establish their expertise and build authority with their audience, they also can inspire entirely new pieces of content post launch. By repurposing your report and turning it into new content, you can extend the longevity of your data and ensure your white paper continues to drive traffic for the entire year.

Looking for more inspiration for your content strategy? Check out what marketers and consumers say makes a brand’s social best in class and other content insights in the Sprout Social Index™ today.

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]]> https://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-write-a-white-paper/feed/ 0 Building a Successful Go-To-Market Strategy with Social Media https://sproutsocial.com/insights/guides/social-go-to-market-strategy/ Thu, 05 Mar 2020 21:16:24 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?post_type=guides&p=135166/ B2B SaaS and technology companies build their businesses around their products, their services and the customers who use them. When it comes time to Read more...

The post Building a Successful Go-To-Market Strategy with Social Media appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> B2B SaaS and technology companies build their businesses around their products, their services and the customers who use them. When it comes time to take a new product to market or to update an existing one, a thoroughly mapped out go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a must.

A GTM strategy outlines how your company will reach prospects and turn them into customers. Social media is today’s most prominent stepping stone on the path to purchase in all industries, so it must work in tandem with the rest of your GTM strategy.

Download this guide to learn where and how social media fits into your GTM strategy throughout three phases: research, roll-out and results. Come away with actionable insights that will help your launch really take off.

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]]> How to put together a top-tier SaaS marketing strategy https://sproutsocial.com/insights/saas-marketing/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/saas-marketing/#comments Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:08:18 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=109604/ The SaaS (software-as-a-service) space is anything but static. Sounds like an understatement, right? In fact, recent data from Blissfully notes that the average business Read more...

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]]> The SaaS (software-as-a-service) space is anything but static.

Sounds like an understatement, right?

In fact, recent data from Blissfully notes that the average business should expect almost half of their software stacks to change within the next two years.

Translation? Customers are cycling through SaaS products like crazy.

Even so, the cloud market is scheduled to grow a staggering 17% in 2020. This signals a massive window of opportunity for SaaS companies looking to stake their claim.

Doing so means nailing down your SaaS marketing strategy, though.

In this guide, we’ve broken down everything you need to know about SaaS marketing. This includes defining what SaaS marketing is and providing actionable tips and tactics your company can roll out to drive demos and subscriptions ASAP.

What is SaaS Marketing?

To kick things off, let’s talk about what sets SaaS marketing is and what sets it apart from other industries. Because comparing SaaS marketing to ecommerce (or pretty much any other market) is apples and oranges.

SaaS marketing (Software as a service) is a specific type of marketing that focuses on building awareness, generating leads and acquiring and retaining customers for a SaaS product.

Below’s a quick rundown of what defines SaaS marketing versus other industries.

SaaS marketing is all about long-term customers

In short, SaaS companies are looking to acquire and retain customers for the long haul – years at a time.

Once someone becomes a customer, SaaS companies are responsible for consistently communicating and marketing to them to prevent churn.  When someone churns, they’ve basically dropped out of your funnel. According to data from Recurly, the average voluntary SaaS churn rate sits around 5% annually.

Much of SaaS marketing is about reducing churn

Whereas a traditional company may treat a transaction as a “one and done,” SaaS companies are laser-focused on long-term retention after a demo or download.

That’s exactly why so many SaaS companies operate on a “freemium” model or give away a free version of their product to reel in users.

The SaaS customer journey is complex

Food for thought: it can take anywhere between six to eighteen months to close an enterprise deal in SaaS.

That’s because the customer journey through a SaaS marketing funnel is anything but straightforward.

For starters, SaaS marketing requires a company to create and promote content at varying levels of awareness.

Let’s say you’re marketing an SEO tool. Some of your target audience may not even know what SEO is yet. Meanwhile, you might have customers at later stages of the funnel comparing your product to competing SEO tools and others who are ready for a trial.

In other words, what a customer “looks like” is anything but one-size-fits-all. This translates into creating a wide range of content and marketing materials based on what your prospects know (or need to know).

Notable for companies in the SaaS B2B marketing space, Gartner recently observed that the average buyer is more overwhelmed with information than ever before. SaaS marketers today must find a balance between educating their audience and drowning them with information.

The SaaS space is crowded with competition

Another major understatement.

Take a peek at the SaaS 1000 or the MarTech 5000 and you’ll see just how crowded the SaaS space is.

Heck, simply looking up “CRM” on the software review platform Capterra returns 770 results as of writing this.

CRM search

It doesn’t matter what subset of SaaS you’re working in: competition is fierce.

SaaS marketing is a competitive space, especially CRM software

But again, this level of competition speaks to the need for new solutions and software. Keep in mind that the average business relies on dozens to hundreds of SaaS apps. There’s always room to provide new solutions to the challenges companies are facing.

What are the staples of a SaaS marketing strategy?

Hey, good question!

Putting together an effective SaaS marketing plan means understanding the best ways to attract and reach customers.

And again, there is no single way to make it happen. Instead, there’s a combination of channels and tactics that successful SaaS brands have proven work time and time again. Let’s break ’em down.

Email marketing

Email marketing might seem old-school but it’s integral to SaaS.

Remember what we said earlier about the customer lifecycle lasting a long time? Email remains one of the best channels for making frequent, one-on-one touchpoints with customers.

Here are some typical SaaS marketing emails that most companies send on the regular:

  • Onboarding emails (for a product demo)
  • Feature announcements
  • New content (webinars, blog posts)
  • Company newsletters
  • Surveys
  • Check-ins

Note that approximately half of SaaS customers log in or use a product less often than once a month. Yikes.

Email is the perfect way to give customers a nudge and likewise make sure that someone is satisfied with your product.

For example, this email from Sprout that announced Instagram scheduling gave recipients a new reason to check out their content calendar and spend some time in Sprout’s platform.

sprout social email

Meanwhile, this message from Squarespace serves as a general check-in and webinar invitation to make sure customers aren’t sleeping on their platform’s best features.

email and SaaS marketing are key for customer retention

See how that works?

Get ahead of what your industry is talking about on social with Sprout

Find out what your audiences and competitors are buzzing about with Sprout’s social listening features.

In addition to finding all your brand mentions, you can track discussion and sentiment around the latest topics emerging in your area.

Find out how Sprout can boost your competitive analytics and research with a free trial today.

SEO

The importance of SEO and organic reach really can’t be stressed enough.

As illustrated in his research regarding the best traffic sources for SaaS, consultant Mike Sonders notes that organic traffic accounts for the bulk of leads and traffic for top-tier SaaS companies (up to 68% total).

The previous Gartner study highlights the fact that folks are doing more and more independent research when looking up SaaS products. In many cases, this means turning to a quick Google search. This is why so many companies are looking to get featured on “best of” lists in addition to creating their own blog content for SEO.

Organic search is huge for SaaS marketing, especially top of funnel leads

Beyond educating customers, blogging is a prime way for SaaS companies to target keywords and attract leads via search engines. That’s exactly what we do here at Sprout.
Sprout Social Insights

Webinars

Webinars are all the rage right now for a reason.

Data gathered by GoToWebinar notes that a quarter of all webinars are created by SaaS companies. Meanwhile, the same data notes that nearly three-fourths of B2B and sales leaders cite webinars as the best method for generating high-quality leads.

Webinars and digital events are great for driving demos, showing off your product and likewise promoting thought leadership.

Webinars can either be presented live or downloadable “on-demand,” perfect for prospects and current customers alike. Plus, replays and broadcasts can be uploaded to the likes of YouTube to help build out your channel and score search traffic at the same time.

PPC and social ads

Pay-per-click advertising is alive and well for SaaS.

Many companies use Google ads to increase visibility for specific keywords and likewise outrank competitors. PPC campaigns can be run immediately and don’t require the waiting game involved with SEO.

PPC can be used for SaaS companies to target specific keywords

Social ads are similarly becoming more prevalent for SaaS, enabling companies to bypass social algorithms and advertise directly to relevant customers.

Checklists, webinars and case studies are prime content for social ads, for example. Facebook actually has its own slew of SaaS marketing success stories such as BigCommerce who saw a 3x lift in trial conversions from their ad campaign.

Facebook ads are effective for SaaS marketing, specifically remarketing to customers

The beauty of a platform like Facebook is the ability to zero in on specific customers based on demographic and interest data. Additionally, Facebook’s remarketing ads allow SaaS companies a “second chance” at winning over people who might have bounced from a landing page or previously downloaded a demo.

Organic social media

Social media has become integral to SaaS marketing at large.

Although software companies may not seem like the ideal candidates to thrive on social media, many SaaS brands are taking full advantage of platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

For example, social media represents a place to do all of the following:

  • Go back-and-forth directly with customers
  • Curate product feedback and ideas
  • Announce new features and products
  • Promote top-of-funnel content (blog posts, videos)
  • Highlight industry accolades and earned media
  • Show off your employees and company culture

What should be the top priorities of my SaaS marketing plan?

Let’s talk tactics.

Now that we’ve broken down the channels, let’s showcase specific SaaS marketing strategies and must-dos to score those ever-so-valuable customers.

Streamline communication with your customers and leads

The sooner you can respond to a SaaS customer, the better.

This rings true whether we’re talking about product issues, pricing questions or even praise.

When you’re juggling multiple marketing channels, it’s crucial to allocate your resources and keep a close eye on messages and notifications. Doing so could be the difference between a long-term customer and a lost lead.

Recent data from Salesforce notes that the experience a company provides is just as important as their product or service. The takeaway here is that you can’t afford to let questions or feedback linger.

Case in point, social customer care is becoming more of a priority for SaaS companies. Channels like Twitter allow a quick and simple place for customers to ask questions.

Companies can likewise listen in on conversations where their product is being mentioned or recommended.

Oh, and don’t forget quick troubleshooting for current customers.

If you’re part of a SaaS marketing team, you can’t have your wires crossed when it comes to communication.

That’s where something like Sprout’s collaboration tools can be a game-changer, allowing multiple team members to work within the same social inboxes without stepping on anyone’s toes. The end-result is swifter communication and more questions answered on behalf of your customers.

Sprout Social collaboration

Additionally, features such as social listening allow you to make sure that mentions about your brand are positive and that you’re consistently engaging with customers via social.

Sprout listening topic summary

Curate reviews and customer success stories

Social proof and positive reviews are key to SaaS marketing, generating a sort of digital word-of-mouth.

According to data from Groove, testimonials and social proof go hand in hand with higher conversions.

This speaks to the importance of being featured and regularly reviewed on sites which aggregate customer feedback for SaaS products.

Piggybacking on the above, keeping open channels of communicating makes it much easier curate reviews on such sites. It makes it easier to ask for testimonials and case studies which are among the best ways to prove that your product is up to snuff.

For example, Optinmonster promotes a variety of testimonials on-site. These testimonials address a variety of industries, allowing them to show off their social proof and win over different segments of their audience.

Curating testimonials is a brilliant way for SaaS marketers to prove that their product is up to snuff

Meanwhile, their testimonials and case studies break down specific metrics and performance data. The ability to show off actual numbers is much more compelling than just praise for a job well done.

Case studies and customer success stories are a staple of SaaS marketing

That said, even the seemingly simplest forms of positive feedback can serve as good news for your business. Notice that many SaaS brands take the time to respond and re-publish shout-outs from customers.

This again points to the importance of social media monitoring and listening to ensure that you’re already gathering and responding to social proof.

Create and promote content for the top of your funnel

Research shows that people typically engage with at least eleven pieces of content before they’re ready to make a purchase.

This, coupled with a lengthy SaaS customer journey, speaks to the need to have a diverse content calendar. Specifically, plenty of top-the-funnel content such as blog posts, case studies and videos that raise awareness for your product and the problems it solves.

This sort of content is perfect for social media and serves as a way to both educate and entertain your audience.

For example, here’s a pretty straightforward blog post promo from HubSpot.

Platforms like LinkedIn are also ideal for sharing content such as checklists and other downloadables.

Publishing top of funnel content makes sense in SaaS marketing for the sake of raising awarenessWe’re also seeing SaaS brands step up their investment in video content, going hand in hand with 2022’s top social media trends.

 

Specifically, bite-sized video that showcases specific product features is great for YouTube, Linked and Twitter alike.

Such content is easy mobile-friendly and easy for followers to digest at a glance. Short-form video serves as a way to quickly educate customers without requiring them to sit through a full-blown webinar or read a blog post.

Make it painless for people to sign up for a demo

Simply put, don’t require people to jump through a bunch of hoops to get your product in their hands.

For example, the specifics of your demo should be straightforward. You should also make it clear where to access your demo via landing pages with clear calls-to-action.

Here’s an example. Zoom’s homepage contains multiple spots to sign up for their product. Meanwhile, instant log-in via Google means that the product only takes a few seconds to access.

zoom demo

Sendlane’s trial is also a great example of clear messaging. Their sign-up page spells out the trial’s limitations (14 days, 100 subscribers, 500 emails) and the fact that no credit card is required.

Free trials are integral for SaaS marketing when it comes to driving sign-ups

When in doubt, keep your demos and trials as simple as possible.

Figure out a crystal clear pricing structure

It’s no secret that SaaS pricing can be a controversial subject.

For example, a 2019 case study by Reply.io notes that a “freemium” model can be hit-or-miss in terms of driving long-term subscriptions. There’s also plenty of debate over whether to adopt higher or lower price points to differentiate between “discount” and “premium” services.

Regardless of what your pricing structure is, there shouldn’t be any secrets about it. In short, don’t skimp on details on your pricing pages. Clarifying what your customers “get” with each pricing plan will ultimately result in fewer questions and set the right expectations upon onboarding.

For example, Slack’s pricing page breaks down each of their plans clearly.

Slack pricing

Here’s another example from Wave.video, using a checklist to showcase and outline specific plan features. Note that they also include the annual billing price in addition to the monthly cost.

Wave.video pricing page

Dig into your customer data and analytics

SaaS marketing is rooted in data, perhaps more so than any other type of business.

For example, there are seemingly endless data points that can influence your product and marketing decisions. This includes product usage data gathered from your customers. Some key data points to consider include:

  • Average churn rate
  • Customer lifetime value (CTLV)
  • Landing page conversion rate(s)
  • Organic traffic and conversions
  • Top-performing ads and marketing messages

And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what SaaS brands can track. Either way, regularly looking at your numbers allows you to make more informed decisions that are backed up by data. This includes social media analytics to highlight your top-performing content and ROI.

In short, analytics guide your SaaS marketing decisions

Empower people to use your products

In addition to creating and promoting content, a solid knowledge base and repository of resources is a smart move for SaaS companies.

Doing so empowers customers to take full advantage of what your products have to offer. It also reduces the time spent on customer service and questions.

For example, check out the depth of Zendesk’s resources for customers including webinars, an asset library and in-depth guides for each piece of their product suite.

Zendesk resoures and knowledge base

How else can SaaS companies stand out from the crowd?

To wrap things up, let’s dive into some final SaaS marketing tips for companies in crowded spaces that are struggling to stand out from the competition.

Define your value proposition

Sometimes the best way to make an impact on SaaS customers is by being straightforward with ’em.

Instead of overwhelming customers with data or what’s under the hood of your product, think about your value proposition.

In other words, your company needs to answer the following for customers at a glance:

“Okay, what can you do for me?”

What pain point are you taking care of? Are you saving people time? Energy? Money?

Your value proposition might seem obvious to you, but it’s crucial to spell it out for customers (hint: put it front-and-center on your homepage).

Value proposition example

Make your brand unmistakable

SaaS companies need a defined branding strategy for the sake of grabbing customers’ attention and making a lasting impression.

It’s easy to overlook elements such as logo design and brand voice when you’re trying to push a powerhouse product with tons of features. That said, these simple pieces of branding are what’s going to help you define you versus your competitors.

Think of companies like Slack with their recognizable color scheme and messaging emphasizing on improving one’s life at work.

 

Slack branding

Mailchimp is another great example of masterful SaaS branding, with a distinct logo and creatives that are distinctly theirs.

MailChimp branding

Take time to showcase your company culture and values

Finally, remember that we live in an era of brands getting real.

SaaS brands are no exception.

Culture, values and philanthropy are all factors that set companies apart and likewise matter so much to your customer base.

Especially through social media, you can highlight your values and likewise humanize your brand. Doing so is also a brilliant way to bring your team together.

Asana culture

Ready to fine-tune your SaaS marketing strategy?

Listen: there are a lot of moving pieces involved in SaaS marketing.

Heck, it might feel like there are too many.

That said, it’s more than possible to come up with a succinct strategy that results in demos and downloads.

The channels and tactics highlighted above can serve as the foundation for your SaaS marketing plan no matter what industry you’re in. Through analytics and experimentation, you can figure out what works best for your customer base and make tweaks over time.

What do you consider to be the most important pieces of SaaS software marketing? If you’re looking to learn more about how to build your B2B marketing strategy, check out fresh stats on social media use in the software industry.

The post How to put together a top-tier SaaS marketing strategy appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]> https://sproutsocial.com/insights/saas-marketing/feed/ 4 5 stats for social media marketers in the software industry https://sproutsocial.com/insights/software-industry-stats/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/software-industry-stats/#respond Mon, 27 Jan 2020 21:29:45 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=133419/ In our internet-driven world, using social media to promote your brand is not just a good idea, it’s essential. For internet and software companies Read more...

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]]> In our internet-driven world, using social media to promote your brand is not just a good idea, it’s essential. For internet and software companies with products and services they’re proud of, social media provides a platform to reach new customers, show off those products and establish your share of voice in the industry. 

Beyond the saturation of beauty bloggers, retailers, foodies and entertainers, there’s plenty of space for marketers to achieve impactful marketing goals for their software businesses. Not convinced? Here’s five stats to get you fired up about social media marketing for your software company. 

1. 86% of consumers buying IT products use social media to help them decide on a purchase

Social media has become a stepping stone on the path to purchase for industries across the board. The software and tech industry is no exception, as 86% of consumers buying IT products use social media to help them make purchasing decisions. A strong brand identity and relevant, exciting and educational social content can turn leads into conversions. 

Beyond your shared content, savvy B2B software buyers dig through discussions surrounding your brand on social, blogs and review sites, where trusted peers share their insights. Take control of the narrative by sharing customer feedback as marketing content. Testimonials and case studies that highlight customer success build trust and favorability among new leads.

Land O' Lakes Reviews Example

2. One in every three customers turns to social media to seek advice or communicate with a business

Not only is social media a place for your content to shine, it’s an important customer service tool. Gone are the days of being placed on hold for hours as you wait to voice your concerns and feedback. Customers want prompt, personalized communication with businesses and one in every three customers turn to social to get it.

Software companies with intricate and complex products will face complaints about bugs and potential product flaws; that’s just the nature of the beast. How you react and respond is what matters most. In the Sprout Social Index, Edition XII: Call-out Culture, we found that about 50% of consumers stated they would boycott a brand due to a poor response on social. 

Index: Consumer Reactions Brand Responses

Responsive, timely customer care does wonders to keep users happy, and even turn temporarily dissatisfied clients into brand advocates. Through social monitoring, companies can uncover potential problems before they occur, or take steps to prevent small issues from turning into major headaches. The product insights you gather from monitoring could translate into content that addresses some of the most common complaints and questions from your customers.

3. 72% of business buyers expect vendor companies to personalize communications to their needs

While there are a lot of stakeholders involved in purchasing software for a business, most buyers still look for personalized communications and experiences when choosing a software vendor. Human-to-human connection matters and your marketing efforts should reflect that. Continue to monitor social conversations to hone in on your target audience’s specific needs, deliver relevant content and give thoughtful recommendations. Business buyers are more likely than regular consumers to value product recommendations, so reaching them at the right moments with genuine guidance could turn into a big win for your business. That outreach doesn’t always have to come directly from your brand—encourage individuals from your team to get involved and start responding to customers, asking for feedback and making product recommendations on social.

4. 56% of customers (including 66% of business buyers) actively seek to buy from the most innovative companies

Innovation is more than a marketing buzz word in the software industry, it’s a necessity—and 66% of business buyers actively seek to buy from the most innovative companies. In a space where innovation and disruption is the norm, tracking and staying ahead of industry trends may seem daunting. However, through social listening, internet and software companies can track shifts in consumer behavior and proactively cater to trends. With the right platform, organizations can both improve their social strategies and uncover valuable information that can be applied to development of products and services. 

It’s not enough to just tell customers your company is innovative, show them! Work with your product marketing team to create content that highlights key features, separates you from your competition and demonstrates the power of your software.

5. By 2022, videos will account for 82% of all online traffic

For the last few years, video marketing has been on the rise. The visually engaging medium captivates audiences more than any other kind of social content. By 2022, video content is projected to account for 82% of all online traffic, so if you’re not already producing video content to promote your software, it’s time to start. 

For software companies whose product explanations often veer into jargon and complex technicalities (emphasis on the tech), video is a great way to spice things up. Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it on video, compared to 10% when reading it in a text. So whether you’re launching new product features, highlighting how-to tips like the example above or simply introducing your brand to the world, you can make a lasting impression with video. 

Armed with these stats and findings, refine your social strategy, go out there and let your software shine. We want to hear from you, though. How does your software business use social media? What aspect of social results in the highest ROI for your company? Sound off in the comments below!

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