saas growth hacking

In this post, we will give you effective SaaS growth hacking strategies that will help your SaaS platform attract the right kind of customers, which will lead to more conversions, skyrocketing an agile startup. 55% of SAAS companies rate Customer Retention Cost as the key metric to measure. (Totango) Customer growth is great in the short terms, but it is only a portion of the SaaS growth equation. To that point, lead generation and customer acquisition are a waste of time and also money if you have a customer churn problem due to poor customer experience. Ideally, you want to keep your net revenue churn below 2%. With that said, let's dive in and explore some highly effective and actionable SaaS marketing strategies that your SaaS platform can implement right away and start measuring the impact of these SaaS growth strategies. 1. Embrace SaaS Influencers While it is always a good idea to invest in traditional marketing, such as press releases, or to attend conferences within your field, those things cost. And when your business is still small, every investment is a big one, especially if you are not sure how things will go. That's why it is a good idea to reach out to influencers. Offering famous bloggers and influencers to use your service for free is one of the best ways to attract more attention. It will cost you nothing to give them a free account and ask them to review your product in return. While there are many who would do anything for money, try to search around, and find genuine characters, who have a faithful audience. Ask them to try your product, and to review it if they like how it works. Their audience will know if the review was honest, and a positive one will definitely attract attention to your brand. Just make sure your SaaS is a good one, to guarantee a positive review! 2. Bundles And Discounts While some gurus like Neil Patel are against discounts, claiming how they start you off on the wrong foot, there's no denying that this strategy works and that it attracts attention and sales. Yes, people will be likely to ask for discounts again, even when your deal expires, but it is still going to be worth it if you do it right. Black Friday, Summer Sale, and other special occasions are good times to offer a limited time offer, with a countdown timer. It will create urgency, and your customers will definitely reach out for their credit cards thinking how it is one in a lifetime deal. If you are unwilling to lower the price, offer three months of subscription for free, or just unlock all of the features even for the basic package. The same goes for bundles. Offer team accounts, 3+1 free, or similar schemes that will make it more likely for your customers to buy more than one account. It is a good idea to include a free code for a 3rd party service that has something to do with your business. For example, if you sell something regarding website security, offer your customers a one-year antivirus subscription for free, if they purchase a team account. 3. Create A FAQ Section While this doesn't seem like a growth hack, trust us, this can be a game-changer for you. Not only that FAQ section will attract traffic from Google, gaining attention, it will also save you a tremendous amount of time. Just tell your team to write down customer questions, and extract those that are asked the most. People are asking those questions over and over again for a reason, and answering them on your site will be of great help. Also, it will tell you more about the site's interface and design—maybe it's causing confusion, and they have to contact support to get things clear. Putting those question in the FAQ section on your site will relieve some of the pressure from the support team, and free up time, which you can use for something less repetitive—like pushing your business forward. 4. Embrace Pre-Launches Whenever you plan to introduce new features, redesign or try anything major, it is a good idea to test the waters first. The least you can do is to poll your audience on social media, asking them what they would like to see next. That will give you free insight into the customers' minds. Chanty has a great SaaS pre-launch checklist that is worth the read. Once the idea is ready, do a pre-launch, and see if there is real interest, or if it was all just empty votes. Of course, offer a discounted price for those brave souls who are willing to sign in before seeing the real thing. If it goes well, great, your new product will be a success. But, if the pre-launch fails to get attention, no biggie, just refund the money to those who already invested in it, thank them, and be introspective to look for lessons to take away from the situation and look forward to providing a better experience next time. 5. Be Open Minded The good thing about running a startup is that it is by default much closer to the end-user than a huge corporation. So even if your service and products aren't 100% polished, as long as they tell your story, people will like them. Be willing to share your personal beliefs, but also vision and opinions. Have an active blog that won't be robot-like, but will offer real insights into your world, telling (potential) customers more not only about the brand, but real humans behind it. If you stay authentic, transparent and available to your audience, they will love you forever, and not only become lifelong customers but faithful fans willing to recommend your services to their close ones. Not to mention that it feels good when you are open for people, and not just there when it's time to take their money. Conclusion Our five SaaS growth hacking strategies will help you move your business in the right direction, without sacrificing too much time or money. You can apply some of the strategies like creating a FAQ section in less than a day. Reaching out to influencers and getting reviews will take more time, but it is still very effective, and it doesn't have to cost you anything. Bundles, discounts and pre-launches, on the other hand, do lose you some profit, but they still close the sales, which is all that matters. And it doesn't cost you anything to be transparent and tell your customers more about your startup. Try these SaaS growth strategies yourself, and see how they work for your SaaS platform. Let us know in the comments if they attracted more attention and boosted conversions—we have no doubt they will. If you are overwhelmed, you might also want to consider speaking with one of the more reputable SaaS marketing agencies who solely focus on helping SaaS platforms build and scale their Lead Generation, customer acquisition and client engagement.

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5 Actionable SaaS Growth Hacking Strategies