PR for SaaS Businesses: How to Get High-Quality Leads (Includes Scripts)

Media coverage can have a huge impact on your business. Content Marketing Institute reports that B2B companies are 21-23% likelier to achieve success with their content marketing if they use PR.

While getting PR isn’t easy (it does take consistent work!), it can be a simple process. Today, you’ll learn how to successfully pitch media outlets and how to create an automated lead funnel with the traffic you get.

The benefits of PR for SaaS businesses

What is PR for SaaS? PR helps your business get mentioned in the media. This can be traditional news outlets, offline and online publications, influencer feeds, and blogs. For example, a journalist might interview you or write about your product updates or funding rounds. Alternatively, you might write a guest post for a publication or speak on a podcast.

The benefits of PR 

PR (done in the right way) will:

• Earn you media mentions, brand awareness, and high-quality leads. (Maybe even lower your Customer Acquisition Cost!) 
• Help you build high-quality links to your website. This improves your search engine optimization efforts. In the long run, your own posts rank better and you drive more leads to your website from Google.
• Enable you to use media mentions on your website and in your marketing and sales material. This builds your credibility and increases social proof (which, again, can lead to more sales). 

Case in point: I’ve helped my clients and myself get mentions in publications like Fast Company, HuffPost, Entrepreneur, and tons of niche sites in different industries.

This gives me credibility. It makes it easier to pitch new guest posts and get clients for my content marketing services because I’ve built up this trust. Not to mention all the great links that help my clients rank better. 

Or take the social media SaaS business Buffer. Early on, Buffer didn’t have any brand recognition. But by guest posting on small blogs, it was able to move to bigger publications like Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Fast Company. 

This is how the company got most of its early traction. Buffer built a great reputation, which is invaluable when you’re competing in a crowded marketplace.

How to make sure your PR pitches are successful

Did you know that journalists receive hundreds of pitches in any given week? It’s true: 57% of top-tier publishers get between 50-500 pitches every week. So, how do you stand out and get your story featured? You need to:

• Know your audience.
• Pitch consistently.
• Tailor your pitches. 

Know your audience

First, there’s no sense in getting PR for the sake of it. Getting mentioned in Forbes might grow your brand awareness. But are your users and customers reading Forbes? 

Instead, ask yourself what publications your clients read, what podcasts they listen to, and what sites they love. Because the thing is: Niche publications can often be far more effective at driving leads than big sites. 

Niche publications can often be far more effective at driving leads than big sites.

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For example, a SaaS business in the construction industry might get some traction on a site like Business Insider. But what if that SaaS got featured in an industry publication that specifically targets construction executives?

The traffic would likely be less impressive. But the number of qualified leads could easily outperform bigger and less targeted publications. 

Pitch consistently 

One of the top mistakes businesses make with their PR strategy is that they’re inconsistent in their pitching. Unfortunately, sending out the occasional pitch won’t get you far.

Instead, keep a consistent schedule. Sending even one pitch a day will get you much further than randomly pitching whenever you feel like it. 

And the numbers will add up. When your SaaS business’s name starts popping up everywhere, people will take notice. As they say, it takes 6-8 touches to generate a sales lead.

For example, one of my clients is now using a PR pitch strategy every month. With just a few hours of work, they get about two high-quality features on a monthly basis.

Tailor your pitches

Finally, your pitches need to be tailored. Pitching a standard template doesn’t cut it these days.

Instead, research the person and publication you’re pitching. The more relevant you can make your pitch for them and their audience, the better. 

For example, when I pitched this guest post, I looked at what ChartMogul might be interested in. 

I noticed that the blog focusses on helping SaaS businesses grow. 

As my area of expertise is content marketing and SEO, that’s what I focused on. I noticed that there was a gap that could be filled: A “how-to” guide on PR and getting media mentions. The result? You’re reading the product of my pitching right now. 

3 specific SaaS PR strategies you can use today

Now you have a list of things to think about when you pitch. But how do you pitch effectively? Here below are three ways in which you can use PR for your SaaS business.

Media mentions

You could wait until you have something newsworthy to share to pitch journalists. But how often do you really get to share cool product updates and funding rounds? 

Get more media mentions by pitching regularly. The best way to do this? 

A simple way to get started is to use HARO (Help a Reporter Out). 

HARO is a newsletter for journalists to find story sources (you!). This means you don’t have to find journalists and figure out what they want to write about. Instead, you get a newsletter three times a day with pitch requests.

You then pitch those stories that look interesting to you.

The trick to standing out among everyone else? Think about the most common information that’s shared about that topic. How can you add a twist to your answer? Or how can you add more value to the article?

For example, I helped one of my SaaS clients Kreezalid craft a pitch for a story. 

The question asked for examples of using social proof in marketing. We added in Kreezalid’s own numbers to make it more specific and valuable. 

Here’s a script you can use to create your own HARO pitches:

“Hi Name,

[Include a bit of information about your SaaS and make it specific to this pitch. For example: ABC SaaS is a leading email marketing platform for educational institutions.]

Wanted to share my/our insights:

[Include your tip]

Let me know if this feels like a fit.

Best,
Your name”

Guest post

Guest posting is a great way to build your thought leadership and get traffic and leads. You can guest post for niche publications or publications like Fast Company, Forbes, Business Insider, and more. 

This is the exact approach I took to publish a guest post on Fast Company:

Also, your guest post doesn’t necessarily need to be a traditional text-heavy guest post. You could instead pitch infographics and data visualizations if your SaaS has access to proprietary data. 

What it comes down to is finding publications that publish guest posts and figuring out what guest posts they would be interested in. 

To find publications, use these search strings in Google to see what publications have already published guest posts (and are likely to do it again): 

• “Guest post” + “relevant keyword”
• “Guest writer” + “relevant keyword”
• “Guest submission” + “relevant keyword” 

When you find a site that looks promising, take a look at their blog. Based on their blog posts, what topic would their audience be interested in? What topics haven’t they covered extensively? 

For example, when I pitched this guest post, I looked at what types of posts ChartMogul usually publishes (growth advice for SaaS), a topic they haven’t talked too much about, and that I can write about (PR). 

Once you’ve found sites to pitch, look for who you should send your pitch to. If it’s a smaller site, it might be the owner. If it’s a bigger site, you should go for the editor. 

Here’s a script to use to pitch your guest posts:

“Hi (Name),

My name is (your name) and (include something relevant about your SaaS business). 

I’d love to submit a guest post to (name of publication). Here are three topic suggestions I think your audience will love: 

• Topic suggestion 1
• Topic suggestion 2
• Topic suggestion 3

I’ve/we’ve previously written guest posts for (include a few sites if you’ve previously written guest posts): 

• Link to example 1
• Link to example 2
• Link to example 3

Let me know if one of these feels like a fit? 

Best,
Your name”

Podcasts 

The last strategy? Podcasts. Podcasting is a powerful strategy to get in front of highly engaged leads. 

Think about it: They spend an hour listening to you. You bet that they will be interested to learn more after your episode. 

To find podcasts, use these search strings:

• “Podcast” + “keyword”
• “Top podcasts (year)” + “keyword”

Again, as with guest posts, think about how you can contribute to that podcast. What is something their audience will like, the podcast hosts haven’t talked about extensively, and you are qualified to talk about? 

Your pitch should be directed to the podcast hosts. 

This is the script to pitch: 

“Hi Name,

My name is (your name) and (include something relevant about your SaaS business).  

I’d love to set up an interview for (name of the podcast). Here are a few topics that I think your audience would love:

• Topic suggestion 1
• Topic suggestion 2
• Topic suggestion 3

Let me know if one of these feels like a fit for (name of the podcast) listeners? 

Best,
Your name”

Quick note: You can modify both your guest post and podcast outreach to instead pitch YouTube channels or LinkedIn or Facebook groups to partner up with the admins and that way get in front of new audiences. 

How to turn your PR efforts into an automated lead funnel  

By now, you know how to use PR. But how do you turn the brand awareness and traffic you get into leads? 

Good question. There are two specific strategies you can use here:

#1: A dedicated landing page 

Link to a dedicated landing page, especially if you’re featured in a publication that could bring in more traffic. 

So, if your SaaS business has been featured in Forbes, your page would say: “Liked our story in Forbes? Here’s how to schedule a demo call with us.” Alternatively, ask them to sign up for your newsletter. 

#2: Get leads on your newsletter

A great way to capture people who aren’t ready to sign up for a trial, book a demo, or get on a call with your sales reps is to get them on your newsletter. This is even more important if your SaaS is a higher investment and the sales cycle is long. 

Offer a free lead magnet to incentivize people to sign up. Your lead magnet could be a free PDF report that educates your prospects on why your solution is the best one out there.

For example, ChartMogul offers a weekly SaaS roundup to subscribers:

The next steps are to engage those subscribers and build a funnel so that eventually, you get them on a demo call or to sign up for a free or paid trial of your SaaS. 

Get started pitching today!

To summarize what you’ve learned in this article:

• PR is a great way for SaaS businesses to grow their businesses. 
• Randomly pitching standard templates won’t do much for you these days. You need to tailor your pitches and keep up a consistent PR strategy. 
• Once you have a bit of traffic built up, you can start turning it into leads, users, and paying customers.

The best way to get started is this:

Pitch one site today. Then, add another tomorrow, another the day after, and start building up a great strategy that will bring you tons of media mentions. 

In the end, PR for SaaS businesses can be a straightforward process. The reward? A growth strategy that might just make all the difference for your business.