B2B SaaS Marketing Team Structure
B2B SaaS Marketing Team Structure is built around a SaaS product (Software as a Service). For example, Welcome is a SaaS company that provides a webinar platform designed to drive revenue and help marketing teams create content.
These days, every business needs an online presence, so SaaS companies providing products and services to facilitate that presence in front of potential customers are critical for business survival. Given the ubiquitous nature of SaaS, it is no surprise that most marketing strategies today have a foundation in digital marketing tactics.
A B2B Saas Marketing Team may comprise traditional marketing roles, but their marketing efforts will be more heavily focused around product marketing and digital strategy, with the goals of lead generation/conversion and customer retention. Data analysts will scrutinize their marketing metrics to optimize product placement online, and work with the content marketing team to support product brand awareness for aligned messaging across social media, blogs, and websites.
As with any marketing team, SaaS Marketing needs a head strategist with a high-level overview across the company. This marketing leader is generally the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Under the CMO, marketing team leads are needed to manage four main departments:
- Growth Marketing
- Product Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Brand Marketing.
Each marketing team in a B2B SaaS company focuses heavily on data-driven campaigns to avoid churn and increase conversion rates.
Growth Marketing for a B2B Saas Marketing team involves driving revenue through new customer acquisition, lead conversion, and customer retention using SEO, paid media, social media, ABM and data integration tactics.
B2B SaaS Product Marketing teams will create the go-to-market strategy to drive new-product demand. They will also develop increased product usage methods by maximizing the user journey (from the UI and product landing page, all the way through to activating satisfied customers into brand advocates for new PQLs). For example, Welcome’s CTA feature was developed by the product team; then announced by the Product Marketing Team in the company blog.
Content Marketing for a B2B SaaS company drives the brand awareness established by the Brand Marketing Team, by strategizing the right content to the right buyer persona at the right time in the buyer journey. B2B SaaS content marketers will work closely with the Product Marketing team to provide compelling assets which align with the company message and help target audiences understand the product value.
The B2B SaaS Brand Marketing team works on brand recognition and loyalty. They work closely with product designers and graphics designers to develop a consistent, instantly recognizable company brand. They build a strong trust relationship with their target audience through familiarity.
Organizational structure for B2B SaaS Marketing teams can depend on the marketing budget. A smaller company or SaaS startup might have just one person leading each function. A larger company would have marketing managers for each of these departments, with teams reporting to each manager. Their head strategist might also be referred to as the Director of Marketing or VP of Marketing.
As a SaaS business grows, it may become less agile. A startup’s product marketing manager might work intensely on product features and growth with the development team, whereas an enterprise SaaS company might spend more on campaigns through departmentalized channels. Larger SaaS companies will often hire a marketing operations manager to maximize efficiency and reduce costs. PPC (pay-per-click) return is one particular metric that a marketing operations manager would analyze for a SaaS company.
Regardless of size, the more marketing budget a company has, the more specialized the roles may become. Companies with higher budgets might hire an SEO specialist solely dedicated to making sure all marketing campaigns are driving a wider online presence. A social media manager is another niche role, with the purpose of managing a SaaS company’s voice and content across social channels. Multiple graphic designers could be assigned for each marketing team, and to handle different types of asset needs. Larger companies might also be more likely to hire in-house marketing teams than freelancers.
The key to building a successful B2B SaaS Marketing team lies in developing a well-thought out plan for the company product, before making any hires. First, test for Product-Market fit; set KPIs; and know who you need to do what at each stage of your SaaS B2B marketing strategy. Then you will have laid a base foundation for a marketing team that can build and grow your SaaS company with you.
