SaaS Enterprise Promotion and Customer Acquisition Guide: Finding the Best Channel

Buffett said: If you have 40 wives and concubines, you will not understand any of them. When time and resources are limited, focusing your investments on industries and companies within your circle of competence actually reduces risk.

The idea of ​​“less is more” also applies to the channel operations of SaaS companies. Channel operations follow the "power law" - one or two optimal channels are enough to support a company.

01 Channel Classification

Usually we divide channels in SaaS into three categories: self-built channels, paid channels, and non-paid channels.

Three types of channels in SaaS (the above are only some examples of channels)

Different resources are invested in different channels, and the time and effect required for each channel to take effect are also different:

Input, output and impact of three types of channels

Now that we know the types of channels and the input-output situations of different channels, how should we find the optimal channel that suits our company among these three types of channels?

02 How to find the best channel

Usually we can find the best channel among many channels through the following methods, and solve three common channel problems in SaaS companies in a targeted manner.

The process of finding the best channel

(1) Discovery Channel

Through market research and combining your own resources, use a table to summarize the channels you can discover or use, and mark your controllability over the channels. Pay special attention to channels that are highly controllable, and gain in-depth understanding of these channels to determine whether they are consistent with your expectations. (The channel can be written in more detail. If it is SEM, you can write whether it is Baidu or Sogou, etc.)

The controllability of the channel has a lot to do with the company’s own resources. The fact that we have access to some resources does not mean that the controllability of the channel is strong. It takes long-term efforts in the SaaS field to obtain more controllable resources.

(2) Screening channels

By discovering the channel and organizing the controllability of the channel, we can get a channel table list. How can we further filter the channels? At this time, you only need to combine the controllability of the channel with the input, output and impact of the channel to get a new screening table. Through further screening, we will be able to select channels with greater potential.

Through the above table, we can know more clearly which channels are relatively suitable and can be tried. And exclude channels that are completely incompatible. For example, for a SaaS company that does CRM, even if it has very good game traffic channels and catering traffic channels, these are not suitable.

(3) Channel Experiment

Through the above screening table, we can accurately screen out a group of channels that meet the experimental conditions (those channels that have not been screened out can be used as candidate channels). Then the next step is to experiment with the channel. During the experiment, you need to pay attention to channel data in real time, so that you can better grasp the channel through the data. It also provides data reference for subsequent optimization experiments.

(4) Optimization experiment

After conducting experiments on channels, we obtained the ROI (return on investment) of each channel and sorted out the main conversion links of the experiment. Calculate the conversion status of each link, find out the points that can be improved, and the team will propose an optimization plan and conduct optimization experiments again. The purpose of the optimization experiment is to continuously dig deeper into the channels and ultimately find the optimal channel.

(5) Try new channels

As the company develops and its user base continues to grow, the company will have more and more controllable resources, new channels will continue to emerge, and previous candidate channels may also be worth trying. At this time, it becomes particularly important to constantly try new channels. Only by constantly trying new channels can we ensure that new vitality is injected into the channels. Find new optimal channels before the optimal channels decline.

03 Common channel issues

Three common channel-related issues in SaaS companies:

1. The company is just starting out and doesn’t know where the channels are?
2. There are many channels, but none of them is satisfactory. How can we optimize them?
3. The old channels are getting worse and worse, and there is no effect from continuous optimization. Should we enter new channels?

As a channel manager, you may be facing these problems. Then following the method of finding the optimal channel may help you discover the stage you are in, and find the corresponding way to solve the current channel dilemma.

The company is just starting out and doesn’t know where the channels are?

What you need to do at this time is to discover channels, combine your own resource situation, and spend enough time to compile a list of channels that can be used. Then, follow the subsequent steps in the optimal channel model to experiment and optimize the channel to find the optimal channel.

There are many channels: None of them is satisfactory, what should I do?

From the model diagram of finding the optimal channel, we can see that when a company has many channels, it cannot find the optimal channel. What needs to be done is to implement preliminary screening of channels through channel screening, and then conduct channel experiments and optimization, so as to discard unnecessary channels and concentrate on finding the optimal channel.

The old channels are getting worse and worse, and there is no effect from continuous optimization. Should we enter new channels?

When the company's main channels became worse and worse, it realized the need to find and try new channels, but it was actually too late at this time. The company may not be able to wait any longer to find a new channel and turn it into the optimal channel.

When the company still has the best channels and has fully explored them, it should try new channels. For example, new channels emerge due to changes in the overall environment. Just like the current short videos, they are new channels that have emerged due to changes in the overall environment. The focus of this stage is to continue to explore the best channels and try new channels.

That’s the breakdown of finding the optimal channel model.

In the process of finding the optimal channel, you need to always adhere to one core point: don't be greedy, the key is to find one or two channels that are suitable for your products. At the same time, we never give up trying new channels. Keeping digging deep into the best channels and trying new channels is the focus of the entire channel operation.

Here I would like to emphasize again the importance of channels: channels, to a certain extent, can be regarded as the lifeblood of SaaS companies. Without channels, enterprises will lose their source of power. Therefore, it is particularly important to find the best channel among many channels. As companies grow and society and technology develop, new channels will continue to emerge. We should also constantly try new channels to find the best channel solution at the moment and maintain channel vitality.

Author: Yuan Lin

Source public account: saasope