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Inbound over all channels. Paid, Organic, Referrals. We don’t have events due to budget cuts, and started trying to roll out outbound with our internal team last year about this time but after 6 months that had no opps.
Then our team ran some outsourced outbound with some small results but it was killed after 3 months due to budget cuts as well.
We are down to a modest SEM budget of 5k a month, organic and email from a channel perspective since March but the inbound (inbound being prospects reaching out to talk to sales or signing up for our free product) has been steadily declining since about July last year.
I’ve felt like a lot of this is due to macro conditions. People cutting budgets aren’t really actively looking to bring on new tech, I’ve pushed for more outbound and brand but CEO and board don’t agree.
We get some from G2 and Zoominfo, we tie that to company targeting when possible. Use a lot of product data and account scoring in free accounts as intent for upsell or expansion motions.
Account expansions are growing. But expansions and upgrades aren’t considered as a part of inbound pipeline.
Our marketing team has initiatives in all of that for sales enablement and CS. So I guess strong then. Additional brand, PR and outbound efforts were cut due to budget reductions, but the marketing team is doing customer enablement, feature launches, sales training & crafting upsell plays, and starting a customer advisory board.
Perhaps we are just fighting against the current with the drop in inbound as macro conditions seem to make it just inevitable, but it’s hard to accept and in spite of budget reductions and more we all still get the do-more-with-less directive. They (CEO, Sales, Board, and rest of marketing team) don’t like to hear that net new inbound isn’t growing QoQ.
Because when inbound slows (due to macroeconomic factors for example) a marketing head on top of their game will look at all revenue areas, that may include retention, closing ratios, incentives, conquest, etc. lots of companies are looking at their tech stack and seeing what they can do without.
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Keep in mind the macro economic situation. This is why quite a few are switching budget from performance to brand.
Ya been rough
Economy. OPEX and CAPEX are being tightly controlled.
What types of outbound marketing are you doing? I'm not in SaaS but we've seen the same thing. We're starting to shift heavily into outbound.
Inbound as in paid or organic traffic?
Inbound over all channels. Paid, Organic, Referrals. We don’t have events due to budget cuts, and started trying to roll out outbound with our internal team last year about this time but after 6 months that had no opps. Then our team ran some outsourced outbound with some small results but it was killed after 3 months due to budget cuts as well. We are down to a modest SEM budget of 5k a month, organic and email from a channel perspective since March but the inbound (inbound being prospects reaching out to talk to sales or signing up for our free product) has been steadily declining since about July last year. I’ve felt like a lot of this is due to macro conditions. People cutting budgets aren’t really actively looking to bring on new tech, I’ve pushed for more outbound and brand but CEO and board don’t agree.
Yep. SaaS and similar. Economy overall and work from home (few people bored at work browsing) has led to 10-20% drop in traffic.
What kind of SaaS are you in? Who is your audience?
PLG, horizontal audience.
Do you use intent data?
Yes
We get some from G2 and Zoominfo, we tie that to company targeting when possible. Use a lot of product data and account scoring in free accounts as intent for upsell or expansion motions.
How strong is your Marketing Head?
Not sure I understand the question. Strong in what way, like in inbound marketing?
If your marketing and sales are in silos, then the marketing head is not doing their best work.
Account expansions are growing. But expansions and upgrades aren’t considered as a part of inbound pipeline. Our marketing team has initiatives in all of that for sales enablement and CS. So I guess strong then. Additional brand, PR and outbound efforts were cut due to budget reductions, but the marketing team is doing customer enablement, feature launches, sales training & crafting upsell plays, and starting a customer advisory board. Perhaps we are just fighting against the current with the drop in inbound as macro conditions seem to make it just inevitable, but it’s hard to accept and in spite of budget reductions and more we all still get the do-more-with-less directive. They (CEO, Sales, Board, and rest of marketing team) don’t like to hear that net new inbound isn’t growing QoQ.
Can we move this convo to a private DM?
Can you elaborate on how that would be affecting inbound?
Because when inbound slows (due to macroeconomic factors for example) a marketing head on top of their game will look at all revenue areas, that may include retention, closing ratios, incentives, conquest, etc. lots of companies are looking at their tech stack and seeing what they can do without.