As SASE continues to expand into the wider consciousness of businesses worldwide, SASE vendors are emerging and promising unique solutions everywhere.
Gartner predicts that by 2024, “30% of enterprises will adopt cloud-delivered SWG, CASB, ZTNA, and branch office firewall as a service (FWaaS) capabilities from the same vendor.”
To keep up in the coming melee, SASE vendors need a robust marketing strategy that includes clever ways to generate leads from multiple sources.
In addition to SASE lead generation, it will be necessary for any SASE business plan to include long-term partnerships as their chief marketing strategy.
How can SASE vendors generate leads that are focused on relationship building? Through content marketing, ABM, and smartly targeting the right customers. Read on to learn Hushly’s select tips on these essential marketing strategies and generate more SASE leads starting today.
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the process of generating consumer interest in your product or solution.
In other words, it’s the steps you take to reach out to potential customers and let them know what you’re selling, why they might want to buy it, and how to reach you.
SASE lead generation can be done in many ways only limited by your creative ability.
Typically, you’ll generate leads via inbound and outbound marketing campaigns that include:
- Content marketing
- Social media marketing
- Account-based marketing
- Email marketing
- & Paid advertising
Why SASE Vendors Need Lead Generation
Two things are true in 2023:
- Almost every company in the world needs some form of IT support to keep itself functional, including robust networking and security. However…
- Most companies don’t understand networking or security well enough to judge a SASE product on their own.
Since many SMBs don’t have the in-house expertise needed to properly judge IT products (especially regarding security and networking), SASE vendors can’t rely on these potential customers to find them on their own.
Even if you spend money on paid advertising, B2B buyers might not understand your product and look right past it.
It goes without saying that if you have no customers, you soon won’t have a business either.
So, to correctly generate leads as a SASE vendor, you’ll need to reconcile the two statements above.
How to Get Clients for a SASE Company
Here are a few ways SASE vendors can generate leads effectively.
Content Marketing Can Educate and Generate Leads
To overcome the knowledge gap, you’ll need to get serious about your top-of-funnel strategies, beginning with education.
You’ll need to educate customers on what your product does and why it’s valuable. Then, you’ll need to perform traditional marketing techniques to get them to buy your product instead of someone else’s.
Content marketing is a great way to solve both problems simultaneously. It has the added benefit of generating authority and building trust with potential consumers.
Examples of content marketing are:
- Whitepapers that explain your unique solution in terms that customers can understand.
- Blogs on how to use your product.
- Podcasts, videos, and written content that explain the state of your industry, technology, and where the future might lead you.
- Social media posts that break down complicated information and allow you to reach a broad audience.
Each type of content comes with unique advantages that make them appropriate for different occasions. In general, Hushly recommends focusing on all types of content marketing for maximum reach.
Account-Based Marketing Can Help You Build Relationships
Your products will evolve over time, and they aren’t likely to become less technically complicated.
To keep your customers up-to-date, nourished, and happy, you should employ a few ABM techniques.
ABM is the process of marketing to a specific buyer or company over the long term. It contrasts traditional marketing, which might end once the first sale is completed. Instead, we recommend building relationships with clients that focus on mutual growth.
By forming partnerships, you’ll increase trust and continue to generate sales over a long lifetime. This will make it easier to market new products and features to buyers that already trust you.
Identify the Right Targets
Marketing in 2023 isn’t just about casting a wide net.
Sure, your message must reach a big audience. This will ensure that you generate leads from as many sources as possible. However, being too general with your marketing will cause a few problems:
- Your solution won’t seem pertinent to everyone who sees it, even if you could be their best fit.
- Lack of specificity also means running into knowledge gaps more often.
- You’ll have a harder time finding businesses that are interested in long-term partnerships.
- We recommend identifying targets in advance and pitching them as a prospective partner to solve this. You can identify targets by crafting unique buyer personas representing your ideal buyer. Then, craft marketing content that is specifically meant to reach those buyers.
When it comes to identifying these targets, look for companies that:
- Occupy a niche you have expertise in.
- Are of similar size, age, or experience level.
- Are looking for a solution-oriented partner.
- You have existing contact with.
- Are unhappy with their current SASE vendor.
When crafting your marketing content, focus on the big picture. Focus on how your SASE company is the right one to carry them into the future. Your solutions are excellent and should be the highlight, but don’t forget that your goal is mutual growth and a long-term partnership.
How to Offer SASE Solutions
The marketing funnel consists of three main sections: the top, the middle, and the bottom.
Your top-of-funnel (TOFU) marketing is the most important for a SASE vendor. This is because of the knowledge gap we discussed above.
To get customers interested, they first need to understand what you’re doing.
To focus on your TOFU as a SASE vendor, do the following:
Make Education Your Bread and Butter
Education serves two functions:
- Helps customers understand why they need your product.
- Garners trust by providing value up-front.
If you make your website a hub for SASE education and information, you’ll be attracting potential customers and those who are just curious. Either way, you’re driving website traffic and building authority.
Pick a Niche
One day, SASE might serve businesses in all industries around the world. Your best bet will be to find an industry and specialize in it early on.
By establishing a niche, you’ll be better able to speak the language of your potential customers, who will have proof of your expertise.
Learn Your Customer’s Existing Technologies
Another advantage of picking a niche will be learning how best to integrate with existing technologies inside that industry. This is another opportunity to flex your content marketing to educate B2B buyers on how your SASE solution is uniquely positioned to integrate seamlessly with a wider network and security technology.
Let Hushly Help Craft Your Marketing Experience
When it comes to reaching a wide audience with the added value of customization, there is no platform better suited to SASE vendors than Hushly.
We pride ourselves on marketing based on two fundamental principles:
- Forming long-term partnerships with our clients that are focused on mutual growth.
- Customizing the marketing experience for our clients to gain their trust and build authority.
From content marketing to ABM to sales, Hushly’s platform is simple and ready to help you expand your SASE operations.
Let us craft a demo for you today and see how we can get started on the path of mutual growth.
