How to sell to Heads of Marketing at SaaS companies in Canada
Heads of Marketing at SaaS companies in Canada are primarily measured on customer acquisition growth. They respond positively to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their current marketing challenges, such as optimizing conversion rates from trials to paid subscriptions. Highlighting specific strategies or tools that can enhance their marketing effectiveness will capture their attention.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 559 saas company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high trial churn rates
- ineffective lead nurturing
- limited marketing budget
- slow conversion from trials
The playbook
- 01
Identify churn indicators in trial users
Research recent data from your CRM to pinpoint SaaS companies with increasing trial churn rates. Focus on companies that have had a spike in churn over the last quarter, as they may be more open to solutions that improve retention and conversion.
- 02
Analyze recent funding rounds
Use platforms like Crunchbase to find SaaS companies in Canada that have recently secured funding. These companies often have budget increases for marketing initiatives, making them prime targets for outreach that can enhance their growth strategies.
- 03
Explore marketing team expansions
Look for SaaS companies that have recently expanded their marketing teams, either through hiring or restructuring. This information can often be found on LinkedIn or company press releases, indicating they may be looking for new tools or strategies to support their growing teams.
- 04
Craft messaging around trial optimization
When reaching out, focus on trial optimization strategies that specifically address the challenges of converting trial users to paying customers. Use insights from recent industry reports to demonstrate your understanding of their unique pain points.
- 05
Follow up with case studies on conversion rates
After your initial outreach, send a follow-up email that includes relevant case studies showcasing how similar SaaS companies improved their conversion rates. This can help build credibility and demonstrate the potential impact of your solution.
Can saas companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 559 saas companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 16.7% of 1–10-person companies against 80.9% of the largest — 64 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Improving your trial conversion
- Strategies for reducing churn
- Boosting your marketing ROI
Questions
- Why do Heads of Marketing at SaaS companies ignore outreach about analytics tools?
- Heads of Marketing often receive numerous pitches about analytics tools, making it difficult for them to distinguish between valuable offerings and generic solutions. If the outreach does not connect directly to their specific pain points, such as improving conversion rates, they are likely to overlook it.
- What marketing challenges do Heads of Marketing at SaaS companies face?
- They frequently struggle with optimizing the customer journey, particularly in converting trial users to paying customers. Additionally, balancing limited marketing budgets while trying to implement innovative strategies can be a significant hurdle.
- How can I ensure my outreach resonates with SaaS marketing leaders?
- Focus on their specific challenges and provide insights or solutions that align with their current goals, such as increasing customer acquisition or improving retention rates. Tailoring your message to their unique context is crucial for engagement.
- Why are Heads of Marketing hesitant to engage with cold outreach?
- Many Heads of Marketing are inundated with cold outreach and often prioritize relationships and referrals over cold pitches. If your message doesn't clearly demonstrate value or relevance to their specific situation, they may dismiss it.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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