Growth in SaaS startups is a game of numbers, plain and simple.
If five customers bid farewell to your startup, but ten have been acquired for the day, you win. If it’s the opposite, competitors devouring you is a matter of time.
It might sound hard, but growth is the holy grail for a new venture.
Yet unfortunately, traditional marketing tactics simply won’t help sell your products anymore.
With that said, here are seven SaaS startup strategies that are industry relevant and proven to work, regardless of the current phase of your startup.
Let’s check them out one by one.
1. Leverage Content Marketing And SEO
Content marketing is the cornerstone of every SaaS startup’s marketing SEO strategy. One doesn’t work without the other. Both have to work unanimously well to rank higher in the SERPs.
In fact, the average SaaS business in the first 3 years spends 80% of its revenue on content marketing.
While SEO acts like a fuel that boosts your content all the way up to your target audience, the quality and relevance factors are what attracts and retain your customers.
Here are a few ways to implement SEO for Content Marketing –
On-Page SEO
On-Page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing website content and webpages along with other aspects of your website that are under your control.
A few of the most popular On-Page SEO tactics include optimizing Title tags, Meta Description, and images along with structuring headings and subheadings and Keywords.
Off-Page SEO
While on-page SEO focuses on optimizing the content for better visibility in Search Engines, off-page SEO commits its focus to increase the site’s authority and popularity.
Few of the most popular Off-Page SEO tactics include repurposing through Guest content, local listings or creating backlinks.
2. Listen To Your Paying Customers.
Your paying customers are essentially the bread and butter of your business.
They’re shelling out their hard-earned money to use your product, meaning they have a pretty good idea about what works and doesn’t.
This is why it’s always a good idea to listen to your paying customers and take their feedback seriously. After all, they’re the ones who are using your product daily and know it inside out.
Leveraging this feedback to improve your product will make your customers happy, increase retention, and reduce churn rates.
3. Offer Free Trials
When it comes to SaaS businesses, people are always a little wary about trying out new products.
And why wouldn’t they be?
This is where free trials come into play.
Free trials are such an excellent way for your potential customers a taste of what your product offers without asking for any commitment from their end.
A study conducted in 2017 found that b2b businesses that offer free trials generate 66% more revenue than those that don’t.
Upon availing of a trial run for the product, customers can decide whether your product is worth their time and money. Moreover, free trials also help you weed out the tire-kickers from your customer base, which is always a good thing.
4. Easy-To-Scale Pricing Model
With an increasing userbase, it’s evident that you’ll need to scale up your operations to accommodate the increasing demand for services.
Because no matter how great the idea, if it lacks a proper business model to bring in the bucks, the startup’s sustainability becomes questionable.
This is where a scalable pricing model comes into play.
The best part about a scalable pricing model is that it allows you to generate more revenue as your business grows without altering the existing pricing structure.
This helps you stay competitive and ensures that your customers get the best possible value for their money.
5. Referral Programs
Referral programs are an excellent way to organically grow your customer base while increasing brand awareness and loyalty among your existing customers.
Take the case of Cloud-services giant Dropbox. Currently valued at over $12 Billion, Dropbox gained its initial traction through a stellar referral strategy by offering 500 MB Bonus space for each user that signed up with their referral link.
This tactic took their user base from 100,000 to 4 Million in a matter of 15 months.
Unbelievable, right?
Well, People love free stuff.
Referral programs are always a win-win situation for you and your customers.
Your customers enjoy rewards for referring your product to others, and you get more customers without spending extra money on marketing or advertising.
6. Focus On Customer Storytelling
What unites customers?
Fancy ads? Random features? Cool UI?
Stories.
Stories can evoke an emotional response in people, which is often more effective than a logical or rational one.
Customer storytelling can be leveraged in multiple ways to help you achieve your business goals.
For instance, a creative story-driven marketing campaign can be used to show how your product or service has helped customers achieve their desired results.
You could also feature customer feedback experiences and post them on your marketing channels.
This helps build trust and credibility but also serves as a great way to showcase the features and benefits of your product or service.
7. Sell The Problem, Not The Product
This is a rather counter-intuitive approach, but it works like a charm.
Often, customers aren’t aware that they have a problem until they come across something that emphasizes the same.
This is, in fact, the essence of every successful marketing campaign ever.
Instead of selling the features and benefits of your product, focus on the problem your potential customers might be facing.
If you’re selling a calorie-tracking tool, don’t just talk about how your product can help people lose weight. Instead, please focus on the emotional and physical pain that people go through when they’re overweight.
This helps you connect with your customers deeper and makes them more likely to invest in your product or service.
Conclusion
There you go. Seven stellar strategies to uplift your SaaS startup from that nascent phase of uncertainty.
One crucial aspect to be remembered here is that even the slightest improvement in your growth can profoundly impact your startup.
The opposite makes sense with the churn rates too.
But do you really need to monitor the entirety of your marketing funnel?
Sounds more like a hassle, doesn’t it?
Why not let the experts take over the marketing aspect of your business while you could focus on the daily bustle with your SaaS startup?
From starting up your marketing foundation to scaling it to the top, we offer a variety of specialized SaaS growth marketing services for software companies that reap results faster and in good numbers.
At KloudPortal, we are focused on helping our customers with result-oriented marketing strategies. We also write curated articles to help our clients and industry experts acquire knowledge on latest Marketing trends across all the industry segments.
Now that you are here, why not check out our other articles [ SEO Is vital for Digital Marketing. Here are the Top 5 reasons] & [7 Tips to Choose the Best Domain Name for Your Business] as well. If you would like to work with us for your marketing needs, please reach us here.
Vyshnavprakash
About The Author…
Passionate freelance writer with 3+ years of experience in writing for a variety of platforms and media sources. Adept in developing original content based on the needs of a client, and committed to writing with integrity and a dedication to the craft. Bringing forth valuable experience serving as a content creator for high-traffic blogs and websites. Capable of writing about a variety of topics and skilled in performing research and achieving ultimate preparedness for any job.