Going viral is over-rated

I won’t lie to you.  If one of my videos went viral, I’d be excited.  It would definitely be cool to see the “views” tick up into the millions… or even the thousands. 

But here’s the thing.  I wouldn’t expect that avalanche of views to translate into an avalanche of customers.

And if you’re marketing a B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, neither should you. 

Marketing B2B SaaS solutions is a journey

Here’s the hard truth:  marketing a B2B SaaS solution isn’t easy or quick.  There’s a tortuous journey from a “view” to a “buy.”

After you’ve piqued their interest with a clever video, then you’ve got to walk the prospective customer through several more steps.  Perhaps you invite them to a webinar, offer a white paper, show them a live demo, or entice them into a free trial.

At some point, if all goes well, you’ll get an opportunity to prepare a proposal and eventually win a paying customer.

The point is this journey takes time.  Remember that the folks you’re marketing to usually aren’t spending every waking hour evaluating your solution.  They have other priorities that get in the way.  (See  “Sometimes Prospects Just Aren’t Ready to Buy.”) 

B2B SaaS solutions aren’t an impulse buy 

Of course, there are things you can do to convert more leads into qualified opportunities and paying customers and keep them from getting get stuck somewhere in the process.  And you can try to accelerate the process.  (Get in touch with me if you need help.) 

But there’s really no way to skip the whole journey, hopping directly from “view” to paying customer.  A B2B SaaS solution usually isn’t an impulse buy. 

Don’t expect a viral video to work to short-cut the process.   

There’s no magic marketing tactic 

And by the way, the same goes for any other marketing tactic.  No single email, webinar, trade show, or blog post will do the job either.  Not by itself.   

If you’re looking for the magic [fill in your favorite marketing tactic here], stop looking.  There’s no such thing.