What Top 100 Saas Companies Doing

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Page 2
How the heck did they do it?
As marketers, that’s the question

we often ask ourselves after seeing
companies like Slack (or Stripe, or
Dropbox, or DocuSign) go from
zero to millions of users in just a
few years…or months.
(source: Inc. Magazine)
2 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies
Page 3
While interviews and company blog posts offer hints

as to how these companies were able to achieve
such extraordinary growth, we wanted to dig deeper.
Instead of simply listening to the marketing tips and

tricks that high-growth companies were sharing, we
wanted to analyze what tools and tactics their
marketing teams were actually using day-to-day.
Page 4
That’s when it hit us:
Every year, Forbes puts together

their Cloud 100 list -- a list of “the
hottest private tech companies in
cloud computing.” So we decided
to analyze the marketing tools
and tactics used by every single
company on that list.
Page 5
Our goal was to see if we could uncover any patterns

that help explain why some companies achieve
hypergrowth, while others fizzle out.
Keep reading to see what we found…
Page 6
Table of Contents
01. Demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
02. Tech Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
03. Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
04. Buying Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
05. The Two Megatrends: Messaging & Video . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
06. Key Takeaways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
07. Report Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Page 7
DEMOGRAPHICS
01 7 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies
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Before we dig into the marketing tools and tactics

Cloud 100 companies are using, let’s first explore
what those companies — and their marketing teams
— actually look like.
Page 9
The companies in the Cloud 100 range
in size from 105 employees to 5,322
Company Size vs.
employees. Marketing Team Size
The median company size is 500, while # of
Total # of
the average company size is 643. Marketing %
Employees
Employees
When we drill down into marketing

Smallest 105 6 5.7%
specifically, we find that marketing
teams for Cloud 100 companies range
Median 500 21 4.2%
in size from 6 marketers to 245
marketers.
Average 643 29 4.5%
The median marketing team size across
the Cloud 100 is 21 marketers, while the
Largest 5,322 245 4.6%
average team size is 29 marketers
Page 10
Company Size Marketing Team Size
smallest 105 employees 6 marketers
median 500 employees 21 marketers
average 643 employees 29 marketers
largest 5,322
245 marketers
employees

Page 11
Here’s what the relationship between marketing team size (y-axis)

and company size (x-axis) looks like. There’s a tight range (with
the exception of a few outliers), with 5% being the typical value.
rketers
Ma
Total Employees
Page 12
On average, 4.8% of a Cloud 100

company’s workforce are
marketers.
Overall, there are approximately

3,000 marketers working in the
Cloud 100.
Page 13
TECH STACK
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Ever wish you could magically peer behind a

company’s website and get a snapshot of what
tools are running in the background?
That’s (basically) what we did with all the companies

in the Cloud 100 -- with some help from Clearbit.
Page 15
What did we find? Well, it might not come as a huge

surprise that Google Analytics was by far the most
widely used tool among the Cloud 100, with 64% of
companies using it.
The second most popular tool was also from Google,

Tag Manager, which had 54% of companies using it.
54%
64%
Page 16
Here’s a list of the top 25 tools used by Cloud 100 companies,

plus the percentages of companies using those tools:
#1 Google Analytics 64%
#2 Google Tag Manager 54%
#3 Marketo 48%
#4 Google Apps 46%
#5 Facebook Ads 36%

(continued on next page)
Page 17
The Top 25 Tools Used by Cloud 100 companies % using the tool
#6 WordPress 31%
#7 Optimizely 30%
#8 AdRoll 27%
#9 AWS Route 53 27%
#10 Office 365 27%
Page 18
#11 Amazon EC2 25%
#12 Mailgun 24%
#13 Zendesk 22%
#14 Bing Ads 20%

#15 YouTube 19%
Page 19
#16 Exchange Online 19%
#17 DYN DNS 18%
#18 Crazy Egg 17%
#19 Vimeo 17%
#20 Double Click 16%
Page 20
#21 Facebook Connect 16%
#22 Salesforce 14%
#23 Twitter Button 14%

#24 Wistia 14%
#25 SendGrid 13%
Page 21
The top 25 tools and technologies used by the Cloud 100 come
from a few different categories:
Analytics/Optimization Ad Tech Video/Content
Marketing Automation/Email Infrastructure Collaboration
Social Customer Relationships
Page 22
Cloud 100 Everyone else
After compiling this list, we

decided to take the analysis
one step further by comparing
adoption rates of tools among
the Cloud 100 to adoption rates
of those same tools among
non-Cloud 100 companies.
On the right, you can see a
heat map that highlights the
differences in adoption rates
between the two groups.
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Cloud 100 vs. Non-Cloud 100 Tool Adoption

Biggest Relative Differences
We discovered that Cloud

100 companies are much
more likely to use automation
tools (like Marketo, Mailgun,
and SendGrid), ad tech (like
Bing Ads and Facebook Ads),
and tracking/optimization
tools (like Tag Manager and
Optimizely) compared to
companies outside of the
Cloud 100.
Page 24
Based on our analysis of Cloud 100 tech stacks, it’s

clear that marketing teams at these companies care
about (and are investing in) the following:
1. Driving traffic
2. Re-engaging visitors via email
3. Conversion rate optimization
However, as you’ll learn more about in the upcoming

sections, there’s one area that Cloud 100 companies
are not investing in as heavily: Talking to their best
leads while they’re live on their websites.
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CONTENT
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Creating branded content for attracting website
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visitors has become ubiquitous among the Cloud 100.
Case in point: 99% of Cloud 100 marketing teams

maintain a blog where they share ideas and best
practices.
(Note: the one company that didn’t have a blog did have a “newsroom”
that they updated regularly, but they used it for sharing press coverage,
not educational content.)
Page 27
Offer Downloadable Content (e.g. Ebooks)
However, less than half (45%)

of Cloud 100 marketing teams 45%
offer downloadable content,

like ebooks or whitepapers.
Gated vs. Ungated Content

Of those 45 companies that
do offer downloadable form fill
required
content, 14 let you download no forms (gated)
(ungated) 14
it form-free, while 31 make
you fill out a lead capture
31
form first.
Page 28
Of the 31 companies using gated # of Form Fields

content to generate leads, the
number of form fields those fewest
companies require you to fill out

range from one (just an email
average/
address) all the way up to 10. median
Across all 31 of those Cloud 100

marketing teams that gate
content, 6 is the average (and most
median) number of required form

fields.
Page 29
While 6 required fields might sound like a

lot, it’s actually lower than the 11 form fields
that non-Cloud 100 marketing teams make
leads fill out (on average).
Overall, with less than a third of Cloud 100

marketing teams using gated content to
generate leads, it’s clear that today’s
marketers are looking beyond the content
marketing and inbound marketing
strategies of old, which were powered by
lead capture forms.
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BUYING EXPERIENCE
04
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“Even the best slogans, ads,

landing pages, PR
campaigns, etc., will fall
down if they are not
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One of the key reasons why Slack was

able to achieve such extraordinary
growth: They didn’t just focus on
making their marketing as engaging
and as memorable as possible -- they
supported by the experience
focused on making the entire buying
people have when they hit
experience that way.
our site, when they sign up
for an account, when they
first begin using the product And one the ways they did that was
and when they start using it through offering a free version of their
day in, day out. product. It allowed potential customers
to see first-hand what the product was
like, without the restrictions that come
Stewart Butterfield with a guided demo or limited trial.
Co-Founder & CEO, Slack
Page 32
From a marketing perspective, we call those people who start using
a free version of a product a product-qualified lead, or PQL. It’s an
alternative to the marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) that teams
typically generate using lead capture forms and “nurturing”
sequences.
In the Cloud 100, 36% of companies (which includes Slack, of course)

offer a free or freemium* version of their product and generate PQLs.
36% freemium
business model
*Freemium = there are additional features/functionality you have to pay for

(e.g. extra storage space or extra seats to accommodate more users)
Page 33
In addition to MQLs and PQLs, companies in the

Cloud 100 are also going after SQLs, or sales-
qualified leads. SQLs are essentially MQLs that have
been given the thumbs up by Sales -- it’s an added
layer of qualification that ensures sales reps are only
talking to people who are interested in and serious
about buying.
prompt people
One of the most popular tactics companies in the to talk to Sales
Cloud 100 are using to generate SQLs is…wait for it...
asking website visitors if they want to talk to sales.
Sounds simple, but considering that 69% of Cloud
100 companies have a call-to-action on their
website that prompts people to get in touch with
69%
sales, it’s definitely worth investigating.

Page 34
Of those 69 companies that prompt website visitors to get in

touch with sales (e.g. to schedule a demo, or to learn more about
the product and/or pricing), the 5 most popular CTAs are:
# of companies using it
#1 “Contact Us” 14
#2 “Request Demo” / “Request a Demo” 13
#3 “Contact Sales” 11
#4 “Schedule a Demo” 4
#5 “Get a Demo” 3
Page 35
Nearly all of those companies with sales-

focused CTAs — 67 out of 69, actually —
have those CTAs link either to a lead
capture form or to a landing page that
instructs you to call in or email.
Only two companies in the Cloud 100 give

you the opportunity to chat with someone
live after clicking their “Contact Us” or
“Contact Sales” CTA.
Page 36
At Drift, we see this as a huge missed opportunity for generating a

new type of lead:
The conversation-qualified lead, or CQL.
A CQL is someone who has expressed intent to buy during a one-to-

one conversation with either A) an employee at your company, or B)
an intelligent sales assistant (bot).
Unlike MQLs, SQLs, and PQLs, CQLs match how people actually
prefer to buy today (in real-time), and they make it it easier for you,
as a marketing and sales organization, to sell faster.
Page 37
THE 2 MEGATRENDS
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Consider These Statistics:

05
The world’s top four messaging apps (WhatsApp,
Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and Viber) now have
05 05
a combined total of nearly 4 billion monthly active

05 05 05
05
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users -- more than the combined total for the top four
social networks.
It’s predicted that by the end of this year, more than

three-quarters (76.3%) of the world’s smartphone
users will be regularly using messaging apps.
Page 39
Consider These Statistics:

Meanwhile, 10 billion videos are now being watched
on Snapchat every single day. And 100 million hours
of video are being watched on Facebook per day.
It’s predicted that by 2021, video traffic will account

for 82% of all internet traffic.
non-video
internet traffic
video
internet traffic
82%
Page 40
These are just some of the reasons why, at Drift, we

consider messaging and video to be megatrends.
They’re not just popular marketing channels, they’re
gateways for reaching billions of people around the
world.
When we looked at the Cloud 100, however, we found

that messaging and video haven’t really reached
critical mass among marketing teams. Given the
numbers involved, there’s still a lot of untapped
potential.

Page 41
Megatrend #1: Messaging % Using Messaging/Live Chat
15%
15% of Cloud 100 companies
are using messaging on their
websites.
Where They Display It
Of the 15 companies with support page every page

homepage
messaging on their sites, nine 1
1
product
display it on every page of their 2
pages
site, while the other six target
pricing 9
2
specific pages/types of pages. page
Page 42
Megatrend #1: Messaging
Of those 15 companies using

messaging, 10 use welcome
messages to greet visitors.
Of those 10 companies using

welcome messages, two are
using a virtual assistant
(chatbot) to engage with leads.
Page 43
Ultimately, the approach these companies

take with messaging depends on how
much traffic they’re getting, and how they
want to balance the quantity and quality
of the conversations they’re having with
visitors.
For example, it makes sense that

Dropbox, which has the 86th most-visited
website in the world, would only display
messaging on their business site. That
way they can filter out some of the “noise”
of website visitors who have no intention
of paying for a business plan.
Page 44
Two companies in the Cloud 100 have

taken the next step of using a virtual
assistant (chatbot) to engage with
leads in real-time.
A virtual assistant can ask all of the

same qualifying questions a sales rep
or business development rep (BDR)
would ask. But unlike an actual BDR,
it can qualify leads and book sales
meetings 24/7, 365, since it never
has to take a day off or go to sleep.
Page 45
Megatrend #2: Video % Producing Video Content
34%
34% of Cloud 100 companies
are producing video content
on a regular basis.
Where They Upload Video

Of those 34 companies
producing videos regularly, all YouTube 34
of them upload their videos to
Facebook 20
YouTube, 20 upload their
videos to Facebook, and five Vimeo 5
upload their videos to Vimeo.
10 20 30 40
Page 46
Megatrend #2: Video
Overall, adoption of video is more This aligns with something Facebook

widespread among the Cloud 100 COO Sheryl Sandberg said earlier this
compared to messaging adoption, with year: “Consumer video is exploding on
just over one-third of companies our platform.”
producing video content on a regular
basis.
“
While Youtube is clearly the most
popular channel for uploading video Consumer video is
content, it’s noteworthy that one-fifth exploding on our platform.
of Cloud 100 companies are regularly
uploading video directly to Facebook
Sheryl Sandberg
(and not just sharing links to video COO, Facebook
content uploaded to YouTube).
Page 47
Megatrend #2: Video
One quick note about Vimeo:
While just five Cloud 100 companies

have uploaded video content there in
the past month, 17 companies use the
service overall.
The difference is that instead of using

Vimeo as a social network for sharing
new videos regularly, most use it as a
way to host their “evergreen” videos
(like product walkthrough videos) on
their websites.
Page 48
KEY TAKEWAYS
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1) Cloud 100 companies tend to be more sophisticated in the

technologies they use, relying more heavily on optimization
tools and ad tech/automation platforms.
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2) Less than a third of Cloud 100 companies are using gated

content to generate leads. The lead form and follow-up
approach to marketing is giving way to new models.
3) Messaging and virtual assistants are finally giving marketers

a real-time line to their best leads. Now they can engage at
the right time — while leads are live on their websites.
Page 50
Methodology
Companies were chosen for analysis based on the 2017 Forbes Cloud 100 list.
Company/marketing team demographic data was sourced from LinkedIn.
Tech stack data was gathered using Clearbit.
Content, Buying Experience, Messaging, and Video data was collected via website
analysis and analysis of companies’ public social and video networks.
Page 51
Drift is a conversation-driven
marketing and sales platform.
Click here to learn how Drift can help you

turn your website traffic into qualified
sales meetings.
Page 52

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This is the html version of the file https://blog.drift.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cloud-100-report-by-Drift.pdf.

Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.

How the heck did they do it?

As marketers, that’s the question

(source: Inc. Magazine)

2 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

While interviews and company blog posts offer hints

Instead of simply listening to the marketing tips and

3 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

That’s when it hit us:

Every year, Forbes puts together

4 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

Our goal was to see if we could uncover any patterns

Keep reading to see what we found…

5 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

02. Tech Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

04. Buying Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

05. The Two Megatrends: Messaging & Video . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

06. Key Takeaways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

07. Report Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

6 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

01 7 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

Before we dig into the marketing tools and tactics

8 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

When we drill down into marketing

9 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

Company Size Marketing Team Size

smallest 105 employees 6 marketers

median 500 employees 21 marketers

average 643 employees 29 marketers

10 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

Here’s what the relationship between marketing team size (y-axis)

11 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

On average, 4.8% of a Cloud 100

Overall, there are approximately

0213 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

Ever wish you could magically peer behind a

That’s (basically) what we did with all the companies

What did we find? Well, it might not come as a huge

The second most popular tool was also from Google,

15 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

Here’s a list of the top 25 tools used by Cloud 100 companies,

#1 Google Analytics 64%

#2 Google Tag Manager 54%

#4 Google Apps 46%

#5 Facebook Ads 36%

16 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

#9 AWS Route 53 27%

#10 Office 365 27%

(continued on next page)

17 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

#11 Amazon EC2 25%

#12 Mailgun 24%

#13 Zendesk 22%

#14 Bing Ads 20%

(continued on next page)

18 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies

#16 Exchange Online 19%

#17 DYN DNS 18%

#18 Crazy Egg 17%

#19 Vimeo 17%

#20 Double Click 16%

(continued on next page)

19 • Marketing Lessons From the Top 100 SaaS Companies