Practical tips for any small business or SaaS Company to improve their marketing. Inbound Marketing is a topic often covered however what about businesses that need short term results while they execute on their long term inbound strategy. Entrepreneurs are faced with too many choices: inbound vs outbound, social, referral or account-based marketing. This slideshare takes an in-depth look at outbound marketing & referral marketing which can be two highly effective vehicles to help you acquire customers today. Enjoy and please share your thoughts, successes and even your failures. We can all grow together.

1. SaaS Marketing 101
How to execute today for maximum growth.
Ali Mahmoud
@alimahmoud_

2. Intermediate
Mastery
Beginner
A deeper dive into a topic
and often includes the
underlying math/metrics.
Straight-forward concepts that anyone
can understand.
Assumes a deep level of knowledge on
the specific topic.
Who is this content for?

3. MARKETING
The single biggest lever your can pull to scale your business
(also one of the most confusing).

4. Attention
Goal: Reach people cost-effectively
(and not just via inbound marketing*)
Message
Goal: Provide value to gain
trust/permission to continue
education on your product/services.
Marketing at its core is 2 things: Attention and Message
* I am a huge advocate of Inbound marketing. I believe it is the most cost-
effective long-term strategy for acquiring customers, but most businesses need
short term and long-term strategies. Win the battle so you can fund the war.

5. https://www.shopify.com/2016
100,592,786
Shoppers
377,500
Customers
27,000,000
Blog Views
3,000,000
Facebook Interactions
1,542,000
Podcast Listens
1,300,000
Emails

6. https://www.shopify.com/2016
100,592,786
Shoppers
377,500
Customers
27,000,000
Blog Views
3,000,000
Facebook Interactions
1,542,000
Podcast Listens
1,300,000
Emails

7. CUSTOMER VALUE
The reason for our business existing is to help our customers
yet few businesses know the true value of a customer.

8. How much are you
willing to spend to
acquire a customer?
Value Cost

9. Low High
Average Monthly Value $100 $500
The true value of a customer

10. Low High
Average Monthly Value $100 $500
Average Annual Value $1,200 $6,000
The true value of a customer

11. Low High
Average Monthly Value $100 $500
Average Annual Value $1,200 $6,000
Average Lifetime Value (LTV) $3,600 $18,000
The true value of a customer

12. Low High
Average Monthly Contract Value $100 $5,000
Average Annual Contract Value $1,200 $6,000
Average Lifetime Value (LTV) $3,600 $18,000
Yet your customer is likely worth more than you are spending
to acquire them. So where’s the middle ground?

13. How much are you willing to spend to acquire a customer?
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
Average Company Optimal
Valid Cost of
Acquisition
Customer
Lifetime
Value
Customer
Lifetime
Value

14. How much are you willing to spend to acquire a customer?
Valid Cost of
Acquisition
What are you paying to
acquire customers?
Customer
Lifetime
Value
Customer
Lifetime
Value
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
Average Company Optimal
Valid Cost of
Acquisition
Customer
Lifetime
Value
Customer
Lifetime
Value

15. 0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
Average Company Optimal
How much are you willing to spend to acquire a customer?
Venture Capital firms like to see a 3:1 ratio of
Customer Lifetime Value to Customer
Acquisition Cost.
Assuming a customer pays you $100 for a 3 year
lifetime value of $3,600. VC firms would be ok
with a $1,200 acquisition cost.
What are you willing to spend?
Valid Cost of
Acquisition
What are you paying to
acquire customers?
Customer
Lifetime
Value
Customer
Lifetime
Value

16. Low High
Average Monthly Contract Value $100 $5,000
Average Annual Contract Value $1,200 $6,000
Average Lifetime Value (LTV) $3,600 $18,000
People’s time is their most precious asset.
Are you creating a fair trade? (i.e. valuable information for their time)

17. LET’S GET PRACTICAL
How to leverage current customers to attract new customers.

18. Your prospects in general don’t trust you.
Your prospects would rather talk to their
colleagues & friends than you.
(Hint: Your customers are more interesting than you are.)
Have their colleagues (your customer)
introduce you.

19. Ideally you can simply ask for a referral
If you deliver a valuable product or service people
will be grateful and be happy to share with others.

20. Alternatively, create a system to incentivize people.
Make it a valuable trade for their time.

21. Making Referrals Interesting
Referrer (e.g. Customer) Prospect (e.g. Customer’s Friend)
“Ask a friend to hear our pitch”
$20 + $20 = $40

22. Referrer (e.g. Customer) Prospect (e.g. Customer’s Friend)
“Ask a friend to hear our pitch”
$20 + $20 = $40
“If your friend buys…”
$180 + $180 = $360
Making Referrals Interesting

23. Would you pay $520 for a customer?
Cost Per Meeting -$40Referrer Prospect
“Ask a friend to hear our pitch”
$20 + $20 = $40
“If your friend buys…”
$180 + $180 = $360

24. Would you pay $520 for a customer?
Cost Per Meeting -$40
Meeting to Customer Close Rate 25%
Cost of 4 Referrals -$160
Customer Signup Reward -$360
Referrer Prospect
“Ask a friend to hear our pitch”
$20 + $20 = $40
“If your friend buys…”
$180 + $180 = $360

25. Would you pay $520 for a customer?
Cost Per Meeting -$40
Meeting to Customer Close Rate 25%
Cost of 4 Referrals -$160
Customer Signup Reward -$360
Marketing Cost of Acquiring a Customer -$520
Lifetime Value of a Customer $3,600-18,000
Referrer Prospect
“Ask a friend to hear our pitch”
$20 + $20 = $40
“If your friend buys…”
$180 + $180 = $360

26. SOCIAL MEDIA

27. I don’t believe the average small business is willing
to invest the time to grow a social following and
followers = attention.
No followers* = no attention.
No attention = no one to hear your message.
No one to hear your message = no results.
* Again, I believe building a following through Inbound marketing is the most cost-effective long-term strategy however most businesses need
revenue to keep the lights on today. I will cover long-term strategy in a future presentation.

28. SOCIAL MEDIA
Forget everything you know about social media.

29. This is about pure attention grabbing.
Facebook has 1.86 Billion monthly active users
(And you can target them down to Location, Age, Gender, Job, Title, Company)

30. Stage $500 Facebook Budget
Clicks 2,381
Click an ad to visit your website
($0.21 / click)
Attention: Would you pay $500 per customer through social advertising?

31. Stage $500 Facebook Budget
Clicks 2,381
Click an ad to visit your website
($0.21 / click)
Leads 95
Signup to download valuable content
(4% landing page conversion)
Meetings 4
Agree to in person meetings
(4% conversion)
Attention: Would you pay $500 per customer through social advertising?

32. Stage $500 Facebook Budget
Clicks 2,381
Click an ad to visit your website
($0.21 / click)
Leads 95
Signup to download valuable content
(4% landing page conversion)
Meetings 4
Agree to in person meetings
(4% conversion)
Customers 1
Customer closed
(25% close rate)
$3,600-18,000
Lifetime Value of a Customer
Attention: Would you pay $500 per customer through social advertising?

33. Baseline
$0.21/click
4% conversion
$0.42/click
4% conversion
$0.63/click
4% conversion
$0.21/click
2% Conversion
$0.21/click
1% conversion
Clicks
$500 for
2,381 clicks
$1,000
2,381
$1,500
2,381
$1,000
4,762 clicks
$2,000
9,524 clicks
Leads 95 95 95 95 95
Meetings 4 4 4 4 4
Customers 1 1 1 1 1
Spend $500 $1,000 $1,500 $1,000 $2,000
More expensive clicks = more
$$ to get the same clicks.
Lower website conversion =
more clicks for the same leads.
Always strive to reverse engineer the cost of a customer
Like banking, cents and percentages are very important.

34. Asset Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total Cost
eBook, Infographic 2 1 1 1 5 * $500 $2,500
Video 2 1 1 1 5 * $400 $2,000
$4,500 / year
$375 / month
MESSAGE: What pieces of marketing content do you need?

35. LET’S GET PRACTICAL
How to build a simple facebook advertisement.

36. Practical Tip 2 – Facebook Ads

38. The most cost-effective way to show your message to thousands of people.
However most people ignore banner ads so experiment with caution.

39. We want to convince people to click on our content by
providing them with something valuable.
Generate traffic to specific web pages and convince
people to give you their email in exchange for content.

40. For any questions/concerns use
the amazing help system
provided by Facebook.

41. Target a specific group of people: Email
List, Customer List, Website Visitors
(embed code in your website so
Facebook can know if someone visited
your site), App Activity (embed code in
your app so you can target Facebook
users who have used your app).

42. Target your customers by:
Location (Country, Region, City),
Age, Gender and Language.

43. Targeting users by other
demographics ranges from interests
all the way down to specific life
events (e.g. Marriage).

44. Target Facebook users by: The
company they work for, the
industry they work in and their
specific Job Title.

45. Targeting by industry allows you to
reach Facebook users that are
potential customers of yours.

46. Facebook gives you a real-time view of
how many daily users you can
potentially reach.
Note: You may want to disable
Instagram advertisements to focus all
of your dollars on Facebook.

47. FEAR IS THE ENEMY OF SUCCESS
If you can remove the mystery around marketing
you eliminate fear so you can execute.

48. 1 Year Potential Results
# Customers Marketing Revenue
Referral 12 12 * $520 = $6,240
$14,400-
72,000
$80,000
$100,000
$120,000
$140,000
$160,000
$180,000
$200,000
$220,000
$240,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Monthly Recurring Revenue
Base Revenue Referral

49. 1 Year Potential Results
# Customers Marketing Revenue
Referral 12 12 * $520 = $6,240
$14,400-
72,000
Lead-Gen 12
$12,000 Advertising
$4,500 Assets
$14,400-
72,000
$80,000
$100,000
$120,000
$140,000
$160,000
$180,000
$200,000
$220,000
$240,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Monthly Recurring Revenue
Base Revenue Referral Lead-Gen

50. 1 Year Potential Results
$80,000
$100,000
$120,000
$140,000
$160,000
$180,000
$200,000
$220,000
$240,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Monthly Recurring Revenue
Base Revenue Referral Lead-Gen
# Customers Marketing Revenue
Referral 12 12 * $520 = $6,240
$14,400-
72,000
Lead-Gen 12
$12,000 Advertising
$4,500 Assets
$14,400-
72,000
Total 24 $22,740
$28,800-
144,000

51. Potential Cost Per Customer
Marketing Revenue
Year 1 $947.50 $1,200-6,000
Lifetime $947.50 $3,600-18,000
Individual Customer Acquisition
$80,000
$100,000
$120,000
$140,000
$160,000
$180,000
$200,000
$220,000
$240,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Monthly Recurring Revenue
Base Revenue Referral Lead-Gen

52. $80,000
$100,000
$120,000
$140,000
$160,000
$180,000
$200,000
$220,000
$240,000
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
$473.75 per month = 2 New
Customers Every 4 Months
Base Revenue Referral Lead-Gen
You don’t have to go all-in however your growth will be slower
$80,000
$100,000
$120,000
$140,000
$160,000
$180,000
$200,000
$220,000
$240,000
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
$1,895 per month = 2 New
Customers Every Month
Base Revenue Referral Lead-Gen
$80,000
$100,000
$120,000
$140,000
$160,000
$180,000
$200,000
$220,000
$240,000
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
$947.50 per month = 2 New
Customers Every 2 Months
Base Revenue Referral Lead-Gen

53. JUST START!
You are already good at marketing because you understand and care about your customer.
Now learn the mechanics of capturing attention and start putting out messages.

54. Let’s Connect:
Ali Mahmoud
@alimahmoud_
www.linkedin.com/in/alimahmoud1/

55. Thank you.