Your Revenue Problem
is a Marketing Problem
We see it time and time again. A company is struggling with pipeline so they pull out all the stops to boost the sales team’s performance – they hire more sales reps, switch out their VP of Sales, bring in sales training experts, overhaul their CRM.
All the while, Marketing remains on the bench – underleveraged and under-resourced.
C-level marketing expertise to drive top-line
revenue growth & enterprise value
Marketing is often an untapped growth lever within SaaS companies. We help you leverage the full potential of marketing and shift it from a cost center into a revenue-accountable function that drives predictable pipeline.
Some of our clients
Trusted by leading SaaS companies and Private Equity investors.
The right approach
to build Marketing into a sophisticated revenue-growth engine.
To scale marketing
you need to first build maturity and sophistication.
Delaying this work costs your company
Figures based on companies in our network. Range depends on factors including ACV and sales cycle length.
“How To SaaS is one of the best partners I've worked with. Our team is much better positioned to further grow marketing contribution to pipeline and generate more winnable SQLs.”
Mike Devine
CMO, Fortra
Annual Revenue: $800M+
- 200% increase in Closed Won Bookings from Marketing
- Scaled marketing budget by $1M
- 45% decrease in cost per opportunity
- 17% increase in organic traffic
Who we work with
We work with SaaS businesses across a variety of industries, sizes, and funding styles including PE-backed, VC-funded, and bootstrapped. Typically we’re brought in by one of the below stakeholders.
PE Investors
Increase the return on your portfolio company by tapping into marketing as a major growth lever.Â
CEOs
Get visibility into your marketing function to uncover opportunities to scale ARR and reduce CAC.
CMOs
Align your resources around the right GTM strategy, to turn your department into a major pipeline generator.Â
Common scenarios we help with
Though every business has its unique challenges, our clients typically bring us in to help navigate one of these common business scenarios.
Recent Acquisition
Build the right marketing action plan in the first 100 days post acquisition.
Gap in Leadership
Accelerate demand with the right marketing strategy and roadmap for execution.
Add-on Acquisitions
Quickly integrate marketing operations of new acquisitions into your platform company.
Strategic Planning
Determine the marketing budget required to hit targets and identify areas to cut spend.
Due Diligence
Get concise insights into a company’s growth performance and future potential.
Prep for Sale
Optimize your resources to maximize pipeline growth while minimizing costs.
Reposition & Rebrand
Get a ready-to-execute roadmap to guide your team through periods of marketing transition and maintain revenue pipeline.
New Product Launch
Maximize impact with the right product marketing, website updates, and demand generation campagins.
Here's when to bring us in
- When you need C-level experts who can connect marketing strategy back to overall business objectives and communicate performance at the board levelÂ
- When you need a holistic approach that looks at every aspect of your marketing function from team and budget to reporting and channel performance – not just one piece of the puzzle
- When you need SaaS experts who understand the nuances of different SaaS go-to-market motions, from product-led to enterprise
- When you don’t have time to waste and want a comprehensive marketing audit, strategy, and actionable roadmap in your hands in less than 4 months – opposed to waiting for your internal team to have the bandwidth
- When you need an objective perspective to get to the truth about what is and isn’t working in your marketing function
-  When you need clarity and help prioritizing the biggest impact drivers and opportunities, amidst competing internal priorities and politics
“I would highly recommend How to SaaS for their knowledge, professionalism and competitive approach to ARR pipeline development.”
David Nokes,
CEO, Emergency Reporting
What you get
Each of our clients receives a custom marketing audit and strategy, unique to their specific needs, challenges, and go-to-market. Here’s a sample of the outputs your engagement could include.
Data and reporting
Marketing spend ROI analysis
An analysis of historic marketing spend and pipeline generation from marketing channels and campaigns.
Target cost per MQL, SQL and CAC
Established baseline conversion rates and the ideal cost per lead, opportunity, and customer.
Budget and forecasting
Forecasting model
A forecast data model of MQLs needed to support sales projections.
Recommended budget and allocation
A recommended marketing budget required to hit MQL targets, along with the channels, programs, and resources the budget should be allocated to.
Content
Content audit
An audit of your existing content inventory aimed at identifying gaps where content could be better supporting the buyer’s journey.
Content roadmap
A roadmap of priority content needed to support all aspects of the go-to-market strategy including demand generation, SEO, and sales enablement.
Website
Website scorecard
An analysis and grading of your website that includes messaging and positioning, experience and navigation, SEO, and conversion optimization.
SEO
SEO audit
A full audit of current ranking keywords, top traffic pages, competitor SEO performance, and areas for optimization.
Keyword research and recommendations
A targeted list of high-intent keywords mapped to each stage of the funnel, along with an action plan for how to rank for each.
Demand generation
Demand generation audit
An analysis of current demand gen activities including campaign and channel performance, historic ROI, and gaps in campaigns across the funnel.
Demand generation roadmap
A demand generation strategy that includes quick wins, recommended budget, areas to scale and improve existing ads, and opportunities to test new ads and platforms.
Product Marketing
Key messaging
A concise overview of key brand and product messaging including benefits, differentiators, positioning, and key use cases.
ICP summary
A summary of key information related to your ideal customer profile including company size, persona motives and challenges, and relevant use cases.
ABM
Account segmentation
A recommended approach for segmenting your customer base for the purposes of account based marketing.
ABM strategy
A complete strategy for targeting your list of selected accounts including recommended content, outbound plays, paid media, direct mail, and gifting.
Team and Resources
Team scorecard
An audit of the current marketing team’s strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in talent.
New marketing org chart
A new marketing structure aligned to the recommended go-to-market strategy, including the addition of new roles and 3rd party resources and/or the elimination of existing roles.
Building your marketing strategy
We take you through a three-stage process designed to get to the root of your marketing challenges and the best ways to solve them.
Audit
Attain a better understanding of what works and what doesn't.
We conduct a full marketing audit for your SaaS business – analyzing everything from channels and programs to reporting and budget allocation. We leave no stone unturned in order to get a full picture of your marketing performance.
Identify
Pinpoint the marketing items that will have the biggest impact.
We help identify areas to improve current marketing efforts, new opportunities to test, and where you can cut spend entirely. You won’t get a laundry list of everything you ‘could’ do; we laser in on the items that will have the biggest impact on pipeline.
Scale
Turn strategy into reality with an actionable GTM roadmap.
We translate marketing ideas and opportunities into an actionable marketing plan built for long-term transformation and predictable growth. We outline the clear order of operations to execute the go-to-market strategy we recommend for your unique business.
Learn how we can help your business scale with marketing optimization
FAQs
We only need execution, do you offer that?
We offer execution as an add-on to our core engagement, but we don’t offer it as a stand-alone solution.Â
This is because we’ve seen that jumping into execution without foundational work is a huge risk. Without a strategy based on data, most companies make false starts and end up spending time and money on ineffective projects.
I’m not sure we have the team in place to execute on a project like this. Should I wait?
We can support any team where there’s at least one marketer we can work with.
If you want to staff-up before you start on strategy work, you’ll be delaying results by at least 6 months while you hire and onboard, with no guarantee your new hires are the right fit.Â
Instead, we can help you hire the team you need at the same time as working on strategy, so you can hit the ground running in as little as 4 months.Â
What if we have a low-performing marketing leader who may need replacing?
We can discreetly assess your marketing leader/team as part of the engagement. You’ll get confirmation of whether they are the right person for the role or if they need support in certain areas to succeed.Â
Previous partners have found that their marketing team members have leveled up during the engagement, increasing team capabilities and staff retention.
What kind of ROI can we expect?
While we don’t guarantee a dollar amount you’ll get in return, most companies we have worked with have seen huge improvements in their revenue as a result of our work. 4 key ways you’ll see ROI:
- Ramping up marketing-generated revenue
- Using marketing budget more efficiently
- Speeding up your marketing maturity and ability to scale faster
- Developing new channels and uncovering new pipeline-generating opportunities
What’s the right time to begin work with How to SaaS?
While there is never a “perfect moment” for an engagement, we find that this type of work is particularly urgent in the following situations:
- Recent acquisition of a new company
- No marketing leaderÂ
- Sales-led organization with little/no contribution to pipeline
- Platform company scaling M&AÂ
- Company preparing to raise capital or exit
Scale enterprise value with marketing
Learn how we can turn your marketing function into a sustainable revenue engine.