The SaaS industry is constantly growing and it’s showing no sign of slowing down any time soon. But with so much within one industry, how can new companies stay competitive and ensure growth?
Growth is everything to any new business, but when it comes to SaaS, the traditional growth strategies and marketing tactics won’t work.
In this article, we’re offering 5 simple but effective growth strategies that will take your business to the next level.
1) Use Instagram
For most SaaS companies, Instagram is not the most obvious marketing channel because they believe their target audience doesn’t usually use this platform. However, as we mentioned at the beginning of this article, the SaaS industry is growing fast and the competition is becoming fiercer by the minute. This means that SaaS businesses need to look for new ways and channels to promote their software if they want to cut through the noise.
The truth is Instagram has great potential for SaaS companies. Just think about it – with more than one billion active users, your prospects are definitely on the platform. According to Hootsuite, more than 70% of users find new products or services on Instagram, and 75% of them take action (visit a website or make a purchase) after seeing a brand post.
If you decide to use Instagram to grow your company, the first step is to get real Instagram followers, but here are some other ideas to consider:
- Create a cohesive feed to grab people’s attention and increase organic engagement;
- Take your Instagram followers behind the scenes to show them your company culture, staff, and management. This will help you build brand loyalty and humanize your brand;
- Run Instagram ad campaigns to cut through the noise more easily;
- Use business-specific features such as clickable Instagram Story links and CTA buttons to sell in-app.
2) Create Great Content
If you’re working on your content and blog strategy and you’re wondering what content works best for SaaS companies, consider creating content that will work as support.
Your existing customers, new customers, and prospects will likely ask the same questions, so your first task is to figure out what they worry about. Once you have these questions, be sure to answer them once and for all in blog posts.
Focusing on your buyers, their goals, and their problems is a great way to help them and establish yourself as an authority in your niche. Creating this type of content comes with an added benefit: it will appear in search engines when people type ‘how to’ queries.
3) Take Advantage of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing doesn’t need to be expensive if you take some time to devise a solid strategy. Start by using sites like Brand24 or BuzzSumo to find influencers in your industry.
Once you have a list of influencers, reach out to them using an email finder like Voila Norbert. Focus on building relationships with influencers by sharing their content and engaging with them on social networks. Once an influencer is more familiar with your brand, you can send an email to them offering a free license or a demo.
Maintain the relationship with your influencers by checking in to see if they’re using your product, see if they have any issues, and how you can help them solve these issues. Over time, influencers will continue to refer you to others.
4) Set Up Referral Program
According to research, less than 1 in 4 B2B companies have a formal referral program in place. However, the organizations that do have such programs report lower acquisition costs and increased sales.
For instance, you’ve probably heard about Dropbox’s simple referral program that boosted its number of users from 100k to 4 million in just over a year. The company offered 500 MB of bonus space for their users and friends they referred. Other examples of popular SaaS referral programs include Airbnb, Evernote, and PayPal.
5) Offer Free Trials
The days when people had to speak to a salesperson in order to decide whether they liked a certain product are long gone. Today, almost anything you want to know can be found online, and free trials are just an extension of that.
The “try before you buy” model isn’t new but it is more appealing than ever, especially to the millennial generation who is used to self-serving options. Offering free trials is also an excellent way to maintain a steady email marketing campaign where you can educate prospective customers on your software’s value.
Final Thoughts
There you have it – 5 simple growth strategies that will help you expand your reach into existing customers, win new ones, and speed up product adoption.
Now it’s your turn to put these strategies into use. Of course, implementing everything at once can be overwhelming, so it’s best to start by choosing one strategy that makes the most sense for your SaaS company.
Once you get that strategy into place and measure its effectiveness., you can experiment with others until you have the perfect combination of strategies that support the growth of your business.
