7 Pipeline Generation Ideas for Your SaaS

Most marketing and sales teams in SaaS spend hours and hours creating the perfect pipeline for their organization. According to Hubspot, six out of ten marketers stated lead generation is their number one priority.

However, with so many marketers focusing on the same goal, it can be difficult to stand out. Push overbearing sales pitches are out of date, and they often discourage customers from interacting with your brand.

When trying to generate leads, marketers often focus on quantity, not quality. What should be a priority is keeping the pipeline full with the right type of customers.

What used to work a few years ago, doesn’t anymore.

Now, the more innovative and creative you are, the more likely you can attract consumers. After all, fresh new concepts generate interest and awareness among the crowd.

Here are some pipeline generation ideas that can open your door to new possibilities.

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Pipeline Generation Ideas to Get More High-Quality Leads

Statista reports that digital lead generation spending is expected to reach 3.2 billion by the end of 2023.  Which means there’s more financial scope for generating high-quality leads.

But how should you go about constructing a pipeline to ensure that?

Personalize Your Message

It’s no secret that personalization is key to customer experience. But with the target audience covering such a wide base, making it a personalized experience can be difficult.

In that case, applying customer cohort analysis allows you to make more informed decisions. You can predict what tweaks you’ll have to make to cater to a specific target group.

HockeyStack helps track the engagement of users regarding your product / content. You can even track what channel/ content affected the churn rate, which can help you improve them. This way, you can target the most relevant content to the right user.

Addressing consumers’ pain points can enable you to increase the conversion rate. Tailoring the experience for each group brings them further down the funnel. This will spur unprecedented growth among your existing and even potential users.

Rethink Your Content Marketing Strategy

Most pipeline generation strategies depend on content marketing – be it inbound or outbound marketing. Brands are now focusing on engaging their consumers using various forms of content.

Blogs still do remain a top contender for most marketers. 53% of them say blogging is their top content marketing priority. Apart from that, newer formats like webinars, whitepapers, and podcasts are also making a splash.  Quizzes can be a good way to increase engagement among users too.

It’s important to also delve into the human aspect of the content. Authenticity resonates with users, as they’d associate positive emotions with your brand, further promoting loyalty among them.

You must research what works best for your product and the market you’re operating in. Look at the metrics you consider important and make changes according to which contributes most to your revenue.

Suppose you’re seeing more traffic for a  particular blog for a good few weeks straight. With this data, you can deduce that your readers are interested in content like this. Branch out by using that content as an anchor point to engage more readers. You can optimize your content using SEO best practices so that it ranks better and can bring in more consumers.

Slowly you’ll see better results in terms of user engagement and ROI. So, if you’re looking to restructure your content marketing strategy, here’s our definitive guide.

Give Out Free Information

Who doesn’t like free stuff? Especially if it’s helpful.

Playbooks, free tutorials, and even demos provide consumers with a guide on how your product works. You can even answer common questions in their mind.

Customers usually want a test run of your product or service to see if it works for them. You can explain the problems your product can solve and display the user experience. This will help create trust among users about your product. If their journey is smooth, you’ll likely gain a new customer.

Other than that, you can create interest among users by signing them up for freebies here and there. Those don’t necessarily be about the product, rather talk about topics that are relevant to your niche. Even if they don’t continue with your product, you can still communicate with them via email to give them insights and information that they might be interested in. If done correctly, this could even nurture your lead and make them come back to your company when they’re ready to make a purchase.

Here’s an example of a free guide provided by HockeyStack. All you have to do is sign up.

Don’t Underestimate Templates and Checklists!

Not everyone gives up their contact information easily. You can’t convince users to subscribe to anything, as they may fear getting spammed.

To combat that, create templates and checklists with information that may interest your readers. These are fairly easy to formulate and don’t take up much time. Break down your new playbook into a set of points, or even list down what you’ve shared in your new ebook.

Obviously, the content will vary from one business to another.

There’s no set rule on how to go about developing them. You have to keep in mind that it provides value to your customers. This means more email opt-ins which can turn into high-quality leads.

Finding it difficult to visualize what an ideal template should look like? HockeyStack offers multiple examples for you to choose from.

Using templates to create dashboards can help you understand which metrics to leverage to get a proper overview. This will ensure that your pipeline strategy is on track.

Create Helpful Videos for Your Audience

Semrush’s Marketing Trends report states 41% of marketers focused on creating more video and visual content in 2021.

And why shouldn’t they be?

Visual content is gaining popularity among every demographic. You can either experiment with long-form videos or create teasers for those.

These videos can be on testimonials, FAQs, ads, or even tutorials for your product. There’s no end to how you can leverage this format.

Short videos are also quite popular on social media platforms. You can even add CTAs to videos to drive more user engagement to your websites.

Take this Amazon Prime Ad, for example. The visuals are engaging and promote their service. In the end, two simple actions are stated: subscribe and watch more. There’s also a URL that leads to its homepage.

Simple, isn’t it?

Embrace the Power of Social Media

About 60%of businesses are planning to increase their Instagram budget, and almost half are planning to do the same for Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

The reach of social platforms knows no bounds. Your content and video marketing strategies can only go so far without them.

When promoting content on socials, add links to your website and create a funnel leading to it. You’ll have to update your feed and website constantly, though. It can also be useful to invest in digital advertising efforts such as SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, affiliate marketing, and much more.

However, you must find the right platform to complement your business and your target audience.

With HockeyStack, you can view the most revenue generated channel-wise. This can help you decide which medium to use to generate better leads.

Join Hands with Other Companies

Collaborating with other businesses is a resourceful way to tap into a wider audience base. Guest posting or co-marketing campaigns are a great way to get started.

You’re forming a partnership to showcase your own product offerings. You can even collaborate with influencers and other industry leaders to boost brand awareness.

In 2014, Uber and Spotify came up with the idea that Uber customers would receive a special prompt to select a pre-made Spotify playlist for their trip. Although it didn’t benefit Uber with a greater customer base, it boosted total rides and encouraged Spotify engagement. Users became more likely to use Uber to be the DJ for their own trips.

Another partnership was created between Apple & Nike. Using technology, they created Nike+ to build trackers in athletic clothing so that they could easily measure their workout data. Both companies could tap into new markets while keeping ahead of the competition.

With so many opportunities to increase pipeline generation, there’s no room for failure. As the world evolves and becomes more digitized, the options are only growing.

HockeyStack can be a great tool to verify what’s driving those high-quality leads and how you can kick-start growth initiatives. From the first touch to retention, the platform collects and analyzes all data points to paint you a clearer picture of your ROI.

So, take HockeyStack on a test drive, and track all the metrics needed for better pipeline generation.

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FAQs

What are some activities that can help you generate pipeline?

There are quite a few activities that can help you generate pipeline. Leveraging social media platforms and embracing the power of visual content are among them. You can invest in your content marketing strategy and even partake in a co-marketing campaign.

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