Sawaram Suthar / 7 Mins Read
Updated: March 30, 2023
Ten growth hacks that you can employ when launching your own SaaS project. Trust us; these hacks would give your venture a great head start!
SaaS businesses worldwide work rigorously to make their mark on the map. As a result, the whole Software Service market is booming with new and old players, as everyone is keen to get a large slice of the big pie called the enterprise application market.
As per an estimate, by 2018, nearly 28% of the world's enterprise software will run on or via SaaS. This would mean the whole market would earn about 51 Billion U.S dollars in revenues. - Source: IDC
Thus, you can also say that this is the right time to enter the SaaS market. In fact, with so much growth predicted in the market, launching a company related to this field is not a bad idea. However, with so many players coming to the game and contemplating doing the same, you must launch your Business successfully with all the growing support and hacks available.
So today, I will discuss ten growth hacks that you can employ when launching your own SaaS project. Trust us; these hacks would give your venture a great head start!
Making a website can be tedious, and if you get it wrong at the end of the day, it will hurt your growth chances. And, when you want to launch your SaaS business, a competent website is a must. However, remember, your website should contain and cover relevant things.
Firstly, be straightforward and highlight what you offer through your website to the world. People do not visit your page to loiter around, they want an instant solution to their problems, and it is your job to convey what you offer.
For example: take a look at the Amazon SES service website. It is clear that with one single glance, you can understand what they are offering and how they are offering it. Apart from this, your SaaS business website should be professionally made and offer all sorts of features to the clients. It must contain relevant pictures, videos, contact us and about us information, and of course, a call to action button.
In short, your website should provide all the details and the things that a customer would look for when they end up at your website.
Still want more examples, check this excellent guideline by Kissmetrics: The elements associated with a Software Service website
Customers want attention, and that too very quickly. They want companies to reach out and promptly solve their issues.
Since 2013, the number of customers needing a quick reply from a company has gone up two folds.
It is a well-known fact that customers like it when companies provide quick service. In addition, and not surprisingly, if you want your new Software Service project to grow and prosper right from the word go, you must even provide quick attention. For this, you need a cross and multi-functional team. Your new venture must have a dedicated team to provide customer satisfaction across all departments and sections. This way, your experience would save money and, more importantly, quickly provide customers with the support they need and deserve.
The Cross-functional team must work hard to achieve one common goal, and in this case, the goal must be to reach out to people before your venture is launched via social media traits. This way, you will ensure rapid growth for your new experience.
"Humans yearn to be connected and to gain energy, knowledge, and comfort from others." - Robbie Kellman Baxter.
Any new venture has to understand that it has to approach and touch the right people. And, when you are on the verge of starting your new SaaS start-up, you must retain the people you feel. Here, retention is much more valuable than acquisition.
You can start by inviting niche bloggers, marketers and influencers to your community. This way, you and your community would be in touch with one another, and problem-solving would be easy.
People and users can write blogs, give advice, and support one another via your venture, thus making your community quite relevant.
Many past companies have created communities using tools like Slack, a real-time chatting platform. The tool allows members to interact with each other easily, thus making interaction more straightforward.
If you are on the cusp of launching your Software Service Business, then make sure you have an active blog amongst your folds. If you already have one, make it functional and up-to-date. There are several benefits of keeping an active blog. And one of them is, of course, capturing new viewers & users and maintaining the older ones happy. Company blogs are standard today, and you should consider using them rigorously.
Just check out this popular blog from none other than Moz's blog
An updated and catchy blog is necessary to attract viewers and fans. Just make sure the content on your blog is in-depth and relevant. You can also try and provide guidelines, tutorials, and resources.
If you provide niche content, targeted people will start coming to your blog and website. It will help them learn something new and be a novelty.
Promoting blogs is also essential, so use these great tactics to promote them.
Niche blogging is a very particular type that concentrates on reaching out to one specific market. Niche blogging can easily promote your product or service in its domain. When promoting your new SaaS venture, use the industry niche blogs and magazines to promote your content and Business there.
Niche blogging is a viable tool to promote your Business in a very organic sense— that is, in a more natural way rather than being sales-oriented. Generally, the targeted audiences also read niche blogs; hence, reaching out to your preferred mass is a straightforward way.
Some of the blogs that you can check out:
Hubspot
KissMetrics
Tomasz Tunguz
Mattermark
If you can convince some of the best bloggers or blogs to post your content or material, you will take a giant step toward achieving growth for your new venture.
As we have already established, bloggers can change how you present your Business to the world. So, wouldn't it be in your best interests to have a rapport with these bloggers or blogs? Try to build your relationship and authority with these publications, as they can promote your content. In addition, they can easily take your content and promote it organically at places that would benefit you. That, too, for free!
You can build personal rapport slowly to make sure later on, you have a friendly relationship with a blogger or influencer.
If your Software Service Business's launch date is coming closer, it is time that you must start making announcements. You can select several ways and channels for this but try to choose the optimum strategy. For instance, for a business-to-business product, a report on LinkedIn would be more beneficial than on any other platform. However, using E-mail and PR is still the most effective method to mark your arrival in the big leagues.
With E-Mail, you can easily reach out to many people in one go. Make sure your e-mail is written quite professionally and correctly conveys your intentions. Ensure the content is crisp and enjoyable to read in the PR announcement section. Here are some examples that you can look at.
Apart from this, even the timing matters a lot. If your software is ready, make sure to announce it; if not, wait for the correct time to create the hype. Remember, you need to maintain the buzz, so your audience remembers you.
When you make or innovate a new product or software, you always dream that it gets listed on the right websites where your targeted audience can see your creation. This process can become a hack that can help your company and product to grow profoundly even before its launch. You can use these listing websites as they house beta users, potential buyers, early adopters, and overwhelming traffic & users.
Product Hunt is a viral website that curates tech products and software for people to view and see. Many entrepreneurs use website to post their creations so that it reaches the right people. Apart from Product Hunt, even GetApp is a fantastic website to get featured on. The website compares reviews and evaluates service apps.
There are other websites too, and you can list your new product or software here for maximum impact:
When you are ready with your marketing ploys—like your content and blog—you must find ways to share them. And share it. You may work handsomely with social media!
Exploring social media websites might be the best idea if you want more people and users to see, view, comment, and share your content. You can easily influence, grow up, and gain exposure.
LinkedIn is the first stop that you should make. The website will not only allow you to reach out to your network, but it will also help you to touch other users. It will mainly work well with SaaS ventures.
Make sure your content is of the best quality, and use optimized headlines for maximum impact.
Apart from LinkedIn, you can also target Twitter. With more than 313 million active users, Twitter can quickly help your cause. So, again, promote and post relevant things from your official Twitter handle.
If you want to play ball and rub shoulders with the best, then you have to leave your product in the realm of the experts. Yes, we are talking about getting approval from the people who matter the most. You have to—and we must insist— request industry influencers to review and judge your product.
This will give your software more credibility and recognition, and the widespread influence may promote or share your link. This is a fantastic way to generate more traffic and name for your Business.
Now that you know how to prepare your SaaS business venture for its ultimate test, you must not be lenient once you go through the whole process and attain momentum & growth. Promotion and marketing are ongoing processes at any product life-cycle stage, and even you must keep at it at all times for maximum growth. For inspiration, you can also read these 128 growth hacks to accelerate your acquisition, activation or retention efforts.
Make sure you monitor and repeat if everything is going as planned. Remember, your ultimate goal is to ensure that your Business grows and launches itself successfully at the starting line. Thus, the continuity of the initial hard work should be a never-ending process.
Also, keep in mind; if you lay the groundwork in advance for the growth of your project, then it will help you during the launch, as your initial hard work will pay a dividend.
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Sawaram Suthar (Sam) is a Founding Director at Middleware. He has extensive experience in marketing, team building and operations. He is often seen working on various GTM practices and implementing the best ones to generate more demand. He has also founded a digital marketing blog - TheNextScoop.
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