Guest Post by John Mc Tigue - EVP of Kuno Creative

Entrepreneurs and CEOs alike are faced with big challenges when it comes to starting up and growing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company. At the beginning of the venture you must bring your product to market and generate revenues fast enough to avoid going broke. If you are lucky enough to reach the break-even point before your finances run dry, then you must grow fast enough to capture your market and deny would-be competitors. In all phases you must keep an eye on the cost of acquiring customers and the lifetime value each customer returns. Inbound marketing can assist you in all of these scenarios.

Startup Phase

Immediately after launch you are primarily concerned with brand awareness and lead generation. You must rapidly fill your sales funnel with qualified sales leads using targeted campaigns across all of the relevant channels, including SEO, SEM, content marketing, social media marketing, print and broadcast media advertising, trade shows and special events. The mix of channels and investment in each one will depend on your product and target markets, typical sales cycle and the amount of funding you have raised for sales and marketing costs. You mission is to optimize this mix to find the best conversion rates that deliver new customers without excessive near-term churn.

Building to Break-Even

After launch you have anywhere from a few months to a year to increase monthly recurring revenue (less churn) to the break-even point, overcoming what David Skok calls the "cash gap". Your strategy here is a delicate balance between signing up new customers and keeping customer acquisition costs as low as possible. You must reduce the "gap" by building inbound leads and converting them to customers in a scalable way without breaking the budget. The more investment you need for both sales and non-sales costs, the harder it will be to reach break even before the cash runs out. Key strategies in this phase are generating brand loyalty and referrals and delivering superior product performance as well as customer service. This is the place where great ideas most commonly meet their demise.

Rapidly Capturing the Market

If you survive to break-even without losing your shirt, then you face a new dilemma. Now the marketplace knows about you, and so do your competitors. They also know that you are vulnerable until you can dominate the market and suppress the wannabes. Your only hope is to grow rapidly enough to become the 800 pound gorilla in your niche within a relatively a short period of time. The only way you can accomplish this is through careful planning at the outset and an agile approach to growth. If you have measured and analyzed all of your key metrics through startup and break-even, you know how to invest your marketing resources wisely to fill your sales funnel and optimize conversion rates. You can forecast sales and churn rates, which allows you to ramp up sales teams, production staff and support to meet anticipated demand. You can scale your operation to rapidly capture the market.

Marketing is an important piece of the equation, and the extent to which you are able to align sales, marketing, production and support is crucial in all phases of your SaaS startup and growth plan. Inbound marketing can contribute in each phase through lead generation, customer satisfaction and reduced churn and advanced marketing analytics. If you would like to learn more about these contributions, please join us for an exciting new webinar on December 7, 2011 at 1PM:

Driving Saas Revenue With Inbound Marketing

How can you attain revenue goals while keeping customer acquisition costs down?

Your hosts, John McTigue, EVP of Kuno Creative, and Paula Pollock, CEO of Pollock Marketing Group, will join forces to discuss the marketing challenges of Software as a Service (SaaS) companies, present inbound marketing solutions and show industry examples.

June 15, 2011 - Walnut Creek, CA: Chiropractors and nutritionists are highly competitive fields today. With competitive markets come self-proclaimed, marketing gurus.  No one knows that better than Dr. Gary Yaeger of Yaeger Chiropractic. "Not a day goes by without some chiropractic or medical marketing company soliciting me on how they will get me more patients," says Yaeger. However, when you dig deeper they provide very little in the way of generating targeted leads for their clients. "It's a one-size-fits-all approach," according to Paula Pollock, CEO of the Pollock Marketing Group. "Like real estate agent sites, automating some time consuming functions is focused upon but the time to customize and optimize the site is glossed over. That’s time and knowledge a busy doctor doesn't have. The standardized content they tend to provide all their users harms everyone in the system in the eyes of the search engines." Dr. Yaeger is blogging, using social media and SEO with the help of PMG. In between patients he can answer a quick email or question. Doctors that stay connected with their patients outside the office are the most referred and have higher levels of retention than their peers.

Given the option, Dr. Yaeger chose the custom, outsourced marketing department approach offered by the Pollock Marketing Group. "An inbound lead generation strategy has a lot of moving parts that require consulting and planning, not choosing from columns like a family style menu. We are working with Dr. Yaeger to grow both the NRT - nutrition response therapy and chiropractic sides of his business. We are focusing on his target's needs, educating them before the appointment and access when they need him." Additionally, Dr. Yaeger offers many local talks on patient hot topics such as infertility, digestive issues, stress, sleep and pain management. He has embraced social media and engages locally in networking groups. These traditional approaches teamed with a solid online education foundation will engage new patients and continue to educate his current patients.

About Pollock Marketing Group

The Pollock Marketing Group is laser focused on lead generation. We specialize in inbound marketing and organic online lead generation using a host of skills and strategies we have developed and refined with the ever changing social media marketplace.

Our clients are usually those in a "revenue rut" where their team cannot keep attempting to do a good job at everything while growing their business. The best place to start is by bringing in marketing professionals who pay attention to the constant changes in today's marketplace, and have the tracking, reporting and project management skills to keep projects moving forward all the time.

At the helm is Paula Pollock - CEO with over 25 years of business development, marketing and indirect channel experience with AT&T, Beringer Wines, NTT/Verio, Qwest and Savvis. She oversees the strategic planning role with her core project managers and implementation staff supporting her growth plans for their many established clients.

For more information please contact:
Paula Pollock
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.pollockmarketinggroups.com
800-787-1639

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