How to achieve explosive growth SaaS-startup

In the first part of this topic, we looked at new sales trends for SaaS companies. Now, it's time to take a look at some growth hacking methods. Some of the examples below are based on successfully implemented projects that have grown from zero to over a million users in a year. It is obvious that in one article it is impossible to describe all the techniques and examples of their implementation. Much of this is a rethinking of old marketing techniques such as retargeting, email marketing, adding social buttons to content, customizing and personalizing content, and more. Consider some of them closer.

1. Tiny apps on large marketplaces

Previously, many or almost all startups dreamed of a partnership with big names. They hired managers as vice-presidents, whose main work was the conclusion of meaningless agreements with well-known companies under the heading “Marketing Partnership Program”. Often these comrades used to work in well-known companies. The result of such manipulations was the possibility of including the logo of the big name in the slides for presentation to investors or buyers. This practice was quite expensive and not very productive.
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Today, huge costs can be avoided by placing the simplest application on one of the available marketplace applications, not to mention the App Store and Google Play. The Google Chrome app store, for example, is fully accessible to developers for any application running in the Chrome browser. Google Apps even more. Mobile version is even better. You will be pleasantly surprised when you see the power of such a move. Be creative and develop a simple, quick and easy application with a good design, but limited opportunities to capture your market niche, finish it later. Developed MVP (minimally viable product) and immediately into battle.

2. Freemium model

The popular and effective Freemium model, about which so much is written, that sometimes you might think that all successful applications are built only on the basis of this model, can also be used for corporate SaaS. It is always possible and important to find the right scope of functions so that the customer gets a product that works with limitations. In this case, by controlling the free use of the platform by users and fine-tuning the scope of functionality, one can achieve the necessary growth of paying users. Here the main thing is not to overdo it and not be greedy, otherwise either you will receive the wrong income, which you could count on, or the user will leave. When it comes to attracting new customers, Freemium is definitely the best model. With careful and meticulous tuning functionality, many users can choose a premium version.

3. Using marketing automation in the early stages

After generating traffic with free accounts, you have to go to the next step, which is to scale them up to paying accounts. No need to wait for $ 1 million ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue - Annual Recurring Revenue) for marketing automation . You can use some simple but important materials, from answering machines and bots, to free training materials and case studies for new users. In general, the scope for fantasy is quite wide.

4. Get a personal assistant (concierge manager)

Automation is useful, but it has limitations and will never replace human communication. In this regard, there is no alternative to the personal assistant, the surprise of the newly registered client from such a personalized approach will reward your expenses with “word-of-mouth radio advertising” and crowds of new customers. For high-end products that meet the highest requirements, with a number of free registrations, this service can be offered to free users, which in itself can arrange them for migration to a premium. But even if you have thousands of daily registrations of free accounts and a limited number of paying customers, the content of high-class customer support will reduce customer outflow and increase the number of upgrades to older versions of the product. This role can be performed both by a dedicated person and a team, as a sales person with technical education, and a client trained in sales, as part of a partnership agreement, there are a lot of options.

"Do you remember how it all started?"

Do the above methods apply to startups in the early stages of development, while they are still engaged in product design and development? In most startups, salespeople are usually absent as a class, and it seems that these techniques for startups at a later stage and large companies, right?

And no! If you think that you should think about sales after the first million ARR, then you miss the cool opportunities. Remember, nothing will happen until there is no sales. Of course, at the beginning you should not recruit two dozen people to the sales department, at least until the methodology’s profitability is confirmed. However, the sooner the technician integrates, the sooner you get realistic and convincing results.

In conclusion, consider the stages of the process of selling SaaS product. The sale starts from the very first day the product appears and goes through the following stages:

• MVP demo (for a lean startup model), some also call this stage MSP demo (Minimum Sellable Product, minimum selling product).
• Feedback from customers.
• Improved MVP and first money.
• The first three points with other customers.
• Automate the initialization of sales and learning process using marketing automation tools.
• Development of a free application for the use of incoming traffic from the marketplace.
• Domestic sales to close small deals to easily attract new customers.
• Increasing product versions or up-sell, at the same time, account managers scale the sales department in accordance with the situation.