Quick Summary

This guide breaks down proven B2B SaaS marketing strategies across every stage of growth, from early traction to enterprise scale. Learn how to choose your go-to-market model, drive pipeline with SEO, retain customers, and build a repeatable system that turns marketing into revenue.

Want to attract, convert, and retain better B2B SaaS customers?

B2B SaaS marketing isn’t hard because it’s boring. It’s hard because it’s easy to get wrong.

You’re selling complex tools to rational buyers with long decision cycles… and often, multiple gatekeepers. If your strategy doesn’t adapt to that reality, no amount of ads or content will save it.

In this Embarque guide article, we’ll walk through battle-tested strategies that move the needle, whether you’re an early-stage startup or scaling past Series B.

But before we dive in

Why listen to us?

We don’t just talk about B2B SaaS marketing. We execute it every day. Our team has helped fast-growing B2B SaaS companies like Instatus, BlueTally, and UXCam scale to thousands of organic signups, outrank established competitors on high-intent keywords, and build content engines that drive measurable revenue.

This guide brings together the same systems, insights, and lessons after our interactions with multiple B2B SaaS clients.

What is B2B SaaS marketing?

B2B SaaS marketing is the process of promoting and selling software products to other businesses through digital and offline channels.

You’ve probably seen this in action a lot.

For example, UXCam, a B2B analytics platform, shares regular posts and runs ads to show other businesses what they’re missing out on by not using their product.

So, what makes B2B SaaS marketing uniquely challenging?

Here’s a quick rundown:

The sales cycle is longer and layered. Buyers rarely act alone. Marketing must support a multi-threaded decision process, creating content that informs, aligns, and persuades across functions.
The product is intangible. You can’t demo a feeling. You have to translate features into value. Strong positioning and clear messaging are non-negotiable.
Revenue is recurring. Churn kills growth. That means marketing isn’t done at the point of sale. It must reinforce value continuously, even after onboarding.
The market is oversaturated. There’s a tool for everything, and often ten more like it. Without clarity in positioning and consistency in execution, even good products get ignored.

8 B2B SaaS marketing strategies to build a scalable pipeline

1. Choose the right go-to-market model (product-led, sales-led, or hybrid)

One of the first strategic decisions in B2B SaaS marketing is your go-to-market (GTM) model. How you reach and acquire customers—product-led versus sales-led, or a hybrid—will shape all your marketing efforts.

Less experienced founders might try to do a bit of everything, but any experienced SaaS market will tell you GTM must align with your:

Product
Price point
And audience

For example, if you have a low-friction product that users can self-serve (say a developer tool or SMB app), a Product-Led Growth (PLG) model can drive efficient growth.

By contrast, if you’re selling a complex enterprise solution with large deal sizes, a Sales-Led Growth (SLG) model is typically more appropriate. High-ACV B2B products often require a consultative sales process with demos, ROI discussions, and relationship-building.

In fact, companies with average contract values above ~$25k tend to grow fastest with a sales-led approach (some in the $25k+ ACV range see ~40% year-over-year growth using sales-led tactics.

Marketing’s role in a sales-led model is about targeting the right accounts and equipping the sales team. This means

Investing in account-based marketing (ABM)
Creating collateral that speaks to different stakeholders (technical buyer vs. CFO, etc.),
And generating fewer but higher-quality leads (MQLs) that closely match your ideal customer profile.

Many SaaS companies ultimately adopt a hybrid GTM. For instance, a product-led funnel to capture small users and a sales team to upsell larger deals.

The two models aren’t mutually exclusive. A common scenario for mid-stage SaaS: you start product-led to achieve wide adoption, then layer a sales-assisted motion on top once you have enough usage data to identify big opportunities.

Marketing should then segment efforts: one track focused on PLG tactics (SEO content, in-app virality, free tool offerings) to drive self-service signups, and another track on sales enablement and ABM for landing enterprise clients.

Also remember to always evaluate your GTM fit as you evolve (early on you might be 100% PLG, but later need enterprise sales to keep growing). By being deliberate here, you set the stage for all other strategies to succeed.

2. Drive inbound traffic with SEO

SEO is a long-term growth engine. For a startup with a limited budget, it’s a self-sustaining way to start attracting your first organic leads without huge ad spend.

At the growth stage, a well-executed SEO strategy becomes a major pipeline driver – often bringing in prospects who have a clear need (since they’re actively searching) and converting them at a relatively high rate.

How are we so sure? It’s because we’ve seen this firsthand.

Before working with us, Bluetally was barely pulling in 50 organic visitors a month. Within a few months, that number jumped to 7,633.

Instatus saw similar results. After a few months of focused SEO, we helped increase their MRR by 833 percent.

But remember that SEO performance builds over months and years. The earlier you invest in it, the sooner you’ll reap the rewards. But the question now is “how”

Here’s a quick rundown of some basic SEO strategies. (if you want more in-depth coverage, be sure to check out our SaaS SEO guide after this)

Keyword research with intent

Start by identifying keywords that your ideal buyers might search at different stages of their journey. Include obvious high-intent terms (e.g. “CRM software for healthcare”) as well as broader problem queries (“how to improve sales pipeline”).

Focus on a core set of topics closely related to your product’s domain – this becomes your SEO theme.

High-quality assets creation

Develop in-depth, genuinely helpful content around those keywords.

This often takes the form of blog posts, guides, landing pages, etc. Aim to educate and solve problems for the reader. Incorporate your product naturally when relevant (avoid heavy-handed sales pitches in informational content).

For example, Instatus offers a status page creation SaaS. So it makes sense to have a blog on features to look for in a status page solution.

On-page optimization

Make sure each piece of content is optimized for search engines.

Use the keyword (and related terms) in the title, headings, and naturally throughout the text. Optimize meta tags (title and description) to improve click-through rates from search results. Ensure your site loads fast and is mobile-friendly – technical SEO fundamentals matter for your content to rank well.

Topic clusters and internal linking

Organize your content into logical topic clusters.

For instance, you might have a cluster around “SaaS Marketing” with subtopics like SEO, email marketing, and ABM. Interlink related articles so that readers (and search engine crawlers) easily navigate between them.

This signals to Google that you have breadth and depth of expertise in your niche, boosting your authority.

Link building and off-page SEO

Actively promote your best content to earn backlinks from other websites. This could mean reaching out to industry blogs for guest posting, partnering on content with complementary companies, or creating shareable infographics/tools that people naturally cite. Quality backlinks elevate your domain authority, which in turn lifts your rankings. For B2B SaaS, getting mentions on reputable industry sites or software directories can be particularly valuable.

If you need help implementing a successful SEO strategy, be sure to check out our SaaS SEO agency.

3. Leverage “dark social” and word-of-mouth channels

Not all marketing impact comes from trackable clicks and form fills. In fact, a huge portion of B2B buying happens through “dark social” – the informal, difficult-to-track channels.

For example, someone might forward your blog post in a private Slack channel saying “this tool looks interesting, has anyone used it?” – and five people might chime in with thoughts.

By the time one of them comes to your website to sign up, they’re pretty much sold because of that discussion, but your analytics will just show “direct traffic” or an undefined source.

Traditional attribution models will completely miss these touchpoints. Yet they are often the most influential touches in a B2B buyer’s journey.

To execute this strategy, begin by identifying where your target audience hangs out in an unguarded way.

This could be…

Niche Slack communities (e.g. a "#martech" Slack for marketing ops professionals, or a Discord for cybersecurity enthusiasts),
SpecificLinkedIn or Facebook groups,
Popular podcast communities,
Industry Telegram chats,
Even group texts/WhatsApp threads among industry friends.

Here’s an example of a LinkedIn group that fits if you target product managers (there’s a lot more for different purposes)

You might need to do some research: ask your customers which communities or forums they pay attention to, or use social listening tools.

Once you’ve mapped the key dark social venues, the next step is simple but not easy: show up and add value.

Join these communities not as a faceless company handle, but as a genuine participant. That might mean you, as the marketer, actively participate under your own name/title, or recruiting internal SMEs (like your CTO in a developer forum) to participate.

Do not go in pitching your product – that will backfire. Instead, contribute to discussions with insight and helpfulness.

For example, if someone in a Slack channel asks for a tool recommendation and your product fits, you might chime in with

“We’ve seen some teams solve that with [your type of solution], here are a couple of approaches…”

…while transparently mentioning your company only if appropriate (and perhaps sharing a genuinely useful resource).

Over time, by being a regular, helpful voice, you build trust. People start associating you/your brand with expertise rather than spam.

Because dark social impact is hard to measure, supplement with qualitative attribution methods.

Add a “How did you hear about us?” field on your trial signup or demo request forms (and actually look at the responses!). Often you’ll see entries like “Saw people talking about you in Marketers Slack group” or “Friend referral” which gives you insight into which communities or word-of-mouth channels are driving interest.

These are gold nuggets – double down where you see momentum. You can also use techniques like unique invite links or vanity URLs for specific community engagements to get some signal (e.g. a special landing page you only share in a particular forum).

But ultimately, accept that you won’t get a neat ROI number for dark social. You’ll need to justify it by the intuition and evidence that when you don’t engage in those channels, you’re absent from the places your buyers trust most.

4. Shape your positioning and narrative to create your category

B2B buyers are busy and can’t remember a list of 10 features. But they will remember a compelling story or a new idea.

If you can introduce a memorable concept or category, you instantly stand out.

For example, Drift (a conversational marketing platform) deliberately coined the term “Conversational Marketing” to define the space they were in. By doing so, they weren’t just another live chat software – they became the leader of a movement.

As Drift’s own marketing VP put it, “if you don’t name something, then it doesn’t become real.”

Start by analyzing your market and identifying an angle that sets you apart. Ask yourself: What change is happening in the world that makes our solution necessary now?

Maybe it’s the rise of remote work, or new regulations, or AI becoming mainstream – find a “trend” or “shift” you can hitch your wagon to.

Then define the before and after: position the old way as untenable, and the new way (your way) as the future. This often involves defining an enemy (not a competitor per se, but an old philosophy or status quo).

For example, Gong (revenue intelligence software) positioned traditional sales call coaching as outdated, claiming that relying on gut instinct was the old way and data-driven conversation analytics is the new way.

Once you have that narrative, encapsulate it in a simple, evocative term if possible. It could be “[Something] Marketing”, “Continuous [Something]”, “AI-for-X” – the goal is a hook that people in your industry will start repeating. Keep it crisp and easy to reference.

Next, infuse this narrative into all layers of your marketing.

Your website homepage should broadcast the story (e.g. Drift’s homepage for a long time educated visitors on what Conversational Marketing meant). Your content marketing should reinforce elements of the narrative – e.g. write thought leadership pieces about the big problem or opportunity you’ve identified, not just about your product.

It’s often worth creating a flagship piece of content – like an eBook, manifesto, or playbook – that really lays out your vision for the category. This becomes the piece you want every potential customer to read and nod along with.

For instance, HubSpot did this masterfully in its early days by popularizing “Inbound Marketing” through free courses and the book Inbound Marketing, which indirectly sold their software by selling the philosophy.

Category creation is the extreme end of strategic positioning – it’s difficult and not always the right move if the market isn’t ready.

But even without creating a net-new category, you should aim to differentiate your positioning clearly.

Find a niche or specific segment where you can credibly claim leadership. Maybe you focus your narrative on serving a particular vertical (“The #1 Marketing Platform for Healthcare”), or you emphasize an unconventional approach (“The only CRM built on an open-source model” – just hypothetical examples).

The nuance that experienced marketers add is credibility – backing the narrative with evidence. That could be data (original research that supports your stance), customer stories (showing companies who exemplify the “new way”), or influential partners (e.g. aligning with an industry analyst to validate the category).

5. Align marketing with customer success to boost retention and expansion

In subscription businesses, marketing can’t stop at customer acquisition. It must also drive retention and expansion. You need to put as much focus on nurturing existing customers as you do on attracting new ones. Why? Because the majority of revenue often comes after the initial sale (through renewals, upsells, and expansions).

Marketing and CS alignment ensures a smooth continuum in the customer journey – from the promises marketing makes in campaigns to the value the customer actually realizes in product.

If there’s a gap, churn will expose it. On the flip side, when customers succeed and get value, they not only stay – they become advocates and referral sources (feeding your growth with “second-order” revenue).

How can you execute this successfully?

First, establish shared goals and metrics between marketing and customer success.

For example, make net retention rate or expansion revenue a marketing KPI, not just new leads or bookings. This encourages marketing to produce content and programs for existing customers – such as advanced usage guides, onboarding email sequences, and webinar trainings – not solely top-of-funnel blog posts.

You can also create a “customer marketing” function for this purpose.

Marketing can help scale what Customer Success managers do one-on-one. For instance, you might set up an automated onboarding drip campaign that welcomes new users, highlights key features, and shares best practices (reinforcing what a CS rep would teach in a kickoff call).

Marketing can also work with CS to identify at-risk customers (low product usage or poor survey feedback) and then trigger targeted campaigns to re-engage them. This could be a special check-in offering additional training or a piece of content addressing a known pain point.

Lastly, make sure to share data and feedback loops.

Customer Success teams hold a a lot of insights (common user roadblocks, most requested features, reasons for downgrades, etc.). Regularly sync with them to feed this info into your marketing strategy.

If CS reports that many customers aren’t using X feature because they don’t understand its value, marketing can create a campaign (blog, video, in-app tooltip) to highlight that feature’s ROI.

If certain industries are thriving while others struggle, marketing can adjust targeting and messaging accordingly.

6. Use pricing and packaging as a growth lever

Pricing strategy is one of the most powerful – yet often underutilized – tools in SaaS marketing.

In the past, many startups would set a price once and forget it, or copy competitors. Today, smart SaaS companies treat pricing and packaging as an ongoing experiment and competitive differentiator.

In fact, over 94% of B2B SaaS pricing leaders now update pricing at least annually (and ~40% do it quarterly), continually fine-tuning their monetization to maximize growth.

The strategic mindset here is that pricing isn’t just about revenue; it influences

who buys your product,
how they use it,
and your position in the market (e.g. premium vs. low-cost disruptor).

Particularly in a tougher economic climate, optimizing pricing can boost ARR without acquiring a single new customer – for example, better packaging can encourage existing users to upgrade.

What are the effective pricing strategies you should be looking at?

Adopt Value-based and usage-based models

There’s a clear trend toward usage-based pricing in SaaS – where customers pay according to how much they actually use (API calls, number of transactions, data volume, etc.). It aligns price with value delivered and lowers barriers to entry for new customers (they can start small).

Here’s an example from Cleanvoice.

According to recent data, over 55% of SaaS companies have adopted some form of usage-based pricing in 2023, up from 35% in 2020. And those with usage-based models are growing revenue 1.5x faster than peers on pure subscription.

The key is identifying a value metric (the unit of usage that correlates with customer success). If usage-based isn’t appropriate, at least ensure your tiered packages scale logically with customer value (so customers happily pay more as they get more value).

Regularly revisit and test pricing

Treat pricing experiments like you treat product A/B tests.

For instance, you might test a new pricing page design, or different packaging of features, in limited geographies or for a subset of users, and measure conversion and revenue impact.

Don’t be afraid to incrementally raise prices if your value has increased or you’re underpriced. Many SaaS companies do annual small price bumps especially if they’ve released significant new features.

Tailor pricing to segments (and locales)

As you scale, you might find one size doesn’t fit all. Consider offering different pricing editions for different segments (e.g. a Startup plan vs. Enterprise licensing) – with appropriate feature gating and support levels.

Enterprise clients might prefer annual billing with procurement-friendly terms, while SMBs like self-serve monthly plans.

You can also introduce regional prices or currencies once global revenue becomes significant, to reduce friction.

7. Expand customer accounts with upsells and cross-sells

Hand-in-hand with retention is account expansion – i.e. getting your existing customers to buy more over time.

B2B SaaS often uses a “land and expand” strategy: land a customer with an initial use case or smaller deployment, then expand the account as they see value.

Expansion can take forms like

upselling (upgrade to higher tier or more usage)
and cross-selling (buy additional product modules).

This is a critical growth lever: selling to an existing customer is far cheaper and faster than selling to a new one. In fact, the best-performing SaaS firms generate a large portion of new revenue from their current customer base. That means you need to treat expansion as a core part of your marketing strategy, not just a sales task.

To do this, you first need to find expansion opportunities

Use both product data and human touchpoints to spot where a customer could benefit from more.

For usage-based or seat-based products, a classic signal is hitting the limits of their current plan (e.g. 90% of user seats filled, or nearing an API call quota).

Also watch for organic adoption in new departments – say you see new user sign-ups from a different team at the same company. These are moments to engage.

Have your CSM or sales rep reach out: “I noticed you’re almost at your license limit – shall we discuss adding more seats so your team can continue to grow on our platform?” Often, customers just need a slight nudge or a clear path to expand.

Next is land-and-expand gameplan

When bringing in a new client, plan for expansion from the start.

If you landed a small division, map out other divisions or use cases in that organization that could also use your product.

After you’ve achieved success in the first area (demonstrated ROI, happy users), arm that internal champion with case studies or data to help them advocate internally.

Last but not least, adopt tiered packaging that scales

Design your pricing and packaging to naturally encourage upsells.

For instance, your product tiers might be aligned to company size or feature needs such that as a customer grows, they need the next tier (or will gladly pay for it to get extra value). Another approach: have add-on modules or extra features that can be sold into the base.

HubSpot does this well – a customer might start with just the Marketing Hub, but over time HubSpot will pitch Sales Hub, Service Hub, etc., turning a single-product customer into a multi-hub customer.

8. Accelerate growth with paid advertising (Search & Social)

Paid advertising lets you tap into growth on-demand.

For companies at the growth stage with some budget, it’s a way to quickly scale lead generation once you’ve validated that you have product-market fit and know your conversion metrics.

Startups can also leverage paid ads in a scrappy way – for instance, a small Google Ads campaign on a few high-intent keywords can jumpstart initial customer acquisition or testing of messaging. In mature SaaS companies, paid campaigns are often run continuously as a key pipeline source (though usually alongside strong organic efforts).

Executives and investors will appreciate that paid programs are measurable and scalable: you can project that “spending X dollars yields Y demos or signups,” which helps in planning and justifying marketing investments.

The caution is to watch the economics; if not managed carefully, ad spend can burn cash quickly. But with tight monitoring and iteration, paid ads can become a predictable engine for growth.

For B2B SaaS, the two main pillars are search engine marketing and social media advertising:

Search Ads (SEM)

Platforms like Google Ads allow you to bid on keywords so that your SaaS appears at the top of search results. For example:

This is invaluable for capturing high-intent leads – e.g., someone searching “ERP software for retail business” is likely evaluating solutions to buy.

To succeed with search ads, start by targeting terms that indicate a searcher is looking for a product like yours (industry + software type, “best [category] tools,” etc.).

Avoid very broad or generic terms initially; they can be expensive and attract poor-fit clicks.

Also take note of the following:

Compelling ad copy: Write ads that speak to the searcher’s pain point and offer a clear benefit. For example, “Struggling with manual inventory tracking? Try our Retail ERP – improve accuracy & save time.” Include a strong call-to-action (CTA) like “Get a Free Demo.”
Optimized landing pages: Ensure the page your ad clicks through to is highly relevant and persuasive. It should address the keyword query, provide more detail or a demo offer, and have an easy next step (like a signup form or “Request Demo” button). Align the landing page message with the ad text so that visitors immediately find what they were promised – this boosts conversion rates and also improves your Quality Score (lowering ad costs).
Measure and refine: Track conversions (trials, demo requests, etc.) from your ads religiously. Calculate metrics like Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) to see if the campaigns are profitable. If certain keywords or ads aren’t yielding ROI, pause them and reallocate budget to better performers. SEM is very data-driven – small tweaks in bidding, keywords, or copy can make a big difference in results.

Social Media Ads

On platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (Twitter), or even Instagram, you can run targeted campaigns to reach business audiences. For example:

Social ads are fantastic for precise targeting: you can filter by job title, industry, company size, interests, etc., to ensure your message reaches the decision-makers or influencers that fit your ICP.

When should you use social ads? Use them to build awareness among audiences who may not be actively searching for a solution yet, but match your target profile.

For example, a startup HR software might run LinkedIn ads aimed at HR directors in tech companies, highlighting a compelling pain point and solution (“Top talent slipping away? See how our software boosts retention.”).

When doing this, be sure to tailor your content. Unlike search, where the user is actively looking, social ads are interruptive – you’re catching someone browsing their feed.

This means your ads need to grab attention with a strong visual or headline and quickly convey value. Short videos, eye-catching graphics, or concise carousel slides can work well.

The content can be promotional (advertising a free trial or demo), or it can offer a lead magnet – something valuable like an ebook or webinar registration – to start a relationship with the audience.

9. KPI and performance metrics tracking for growth stages

Finally, no strategy is complete without measurement. The metrics you track will evolve as your company scales, but from day one you should monitor a set of core SaaS KPIs.

Your North Star metrics are Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). All other metrics should ultimately map back to growing these top-line numbers.

Below those, focus on leading indicators and efficiency ratios.

Acquisition metrics

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) versus Lifetime Value (LTV) is foundational. Track CAC payback period and LTV:CAC ratio.

A healthy rule-of-thumb is LTV:CAC of 3:1 or better. As CAC rises, acquisition channels become unsustainable. Monitor conversion rates (website visitor → sign-up → paid) to spot leaks.

For example, if 10,000 visitors produce 500 sign-ups but only 5 paid plans, your trial-to-paid conversion of 1% is too low. Skale’s list of SaaS marketing metrics even puts out “CAC” as #1 priority.

Engagement metrics

Daily/Monthly Active Users (DAU/MAU), feature adoption rates, and customer engagement scores inform how “sticky” your product is. For PLG, these are especially critical.

A decline in MAU or sudden drop in usage often precedes churn – so such patterns should trigger retention campaigns.

Activation and conversion

Time-to-First-Value (TTFV) is a key sub-metric. How long from signup until core value is realized? The shorter, the better.

Track what percentage of users complete your defined activation event (e.g., for a DB tool, that could be “create first database”).

These early metrics correlate with long-term retention, so optimizing them yields big ROI.

Retention metrics

Churn rate (logo churn and MRR churn) must be monitored monthly. Also Net Dollar Retention (NRR) and Gross Dollar Retention (GRR). Median SaaS sees ~91% GRR and 102% NDR. Strive above those. Frequent cohort analyses can reveal if certain customer segments churn more. A sudden uptick in churn after a release might indicate a bug or misaligned feature.

Importantly, revisit and refine your metrics as you move through growth stages. Early-stage startups might live by conversion rates and user feedback.

As you scale, investors will demand efficiency metrics (CAC:LTV, burn multiple, etc.). In all cases, tie metrics to strategy: if retention is a focus, improve CS callbacks, then watch churn drop. If expansion is the goal, implement upsell bundles, then measure net expansion MRR.

Building your B2B SaaS growth engine

The principles of good B2B SaaS marketing remain consistent (know your customer, deliver value, build relationships), but the execution will look very different for a 5-person startup versus a 500-person software enterprise.

In practice, you won’t (and shouldn’t) do all of these at once. Prioritize by your biggest gaps and opportunities. For instance, if traffic growth is your issue, double down on the advanced SEO tactics. If you’re seeing strong signup numbers but high churn, focus on onboarding and customer success strategies.

And if SEO is a clear growth lever for you, we’re here to help. We’ve scaled search traffic and revenue for dozens of fast-growing B2B SaaS teams—and we can do the same for you. Book a free consultation today.