Growing a SaaS startup is all about the numbers – acquire more customers than you lose, and you thrive; fail, and your competitors win. While growth is crucial for new businesses, you can’t depend solely on outdated growth strategies and marketing techniques.

“Marketing for a startup is full of unknowns, just like the business itself,” notes Matt Osborn, director of marketing at Apruve. “When you’re new, with a new audience, you can’t assume that what worked for established companies will work for you. Startups need to experiment with various marketing channels, assess their effectiveness, and identify the most successful ones.” With that in mind, we present 15 SaaS startup growth strategies to test this year. These are low-risk, high-reward tactics you can implement today to see quick results.

1. Create a talk trigger

Talk trigger is a term popularized by renowned author Jay Baer. It’s about incorporating a core element into your business that sparks positive word-of-mouth marketing and drives organic growth. Effective talk triggers share these characteristics:

1. Remarkable: They’re surprising and delightful enough to make people tell their friends.
2. Reasonable: They have a significant impact but are scalable.
3. Relevant: They align with your product or service, making them logical and meaningful.
4. Repeatable: They provide an exceptional experience for many or all customers, not just a select few. A classic example is the warm chocolate chip cookies DoubleTree hotels offer upon check-in. They distribute approximately 75,000 chocolate chip cookies daily. Baer’s survey of 1,000 DoubleTree customers for his book revealed that 34% of them mentioned the cookies even 60 days later. Need more proof of their popularity? Look no further than the countless countless copycat recipes online.

Image Source For SaaS companies, talk triggers can be as simple as Dropbox’s innovative referral program (more on that later) or You Need A Budget’s (YNAB) weekly webinars.

2. Offer freemium plans or free trials

The “try before you buy” concept is well-established, but it’s even more crucial today. An Accenture report highlights roughly 75 million millennials with an estimated annual purchasing power of $600 billion. By 2020, their annual spending is projected to reach $1.4 trillion. The freemium pricing model model resonates with millennials because they (and subsequent generations) are accustomed to self-service options. Long gone are the days of needing a salesperson to evaluate a product; today, almost all information is readily available online. Free trials simply extend this trend.

Free trials also fuel consistent email marketing campaigns, allowing you to educate potential customers about your software’s benefits. Another effective freemium strategy involves win-back offers for users whose trials have expired. This allows periodic outreach with exclusive deals or extended trials.

3. Implement a rewarding referral program

A joint report by Heinz Marketing and Influitive found that less than 25% of B2B companies have formalized referral programs. However, those that do experience notably higher sales, reduced acquisition costs, and stronger alignment between their sales and marketing teams. Implementing Setting up a referral marketing program across almost any industry is achievable and can significantly boost growth when executed well. Dropbox, now valued at $12 billion, exemplifies this. Their straightforward referral program helped them skyrocket from 100,000 to 4 million users in just 15 months. They offered 500 MB of extra storage to users and each friend they referred. Digital note-taking app Evernote’s referral program also experienced explosive growth. Evernote acquired their first million users in just 446 days partly through this program. They provide a basic freemium product and a feature-rich premium version with more storage.

Their referral program promoted the premium plan by awarding points for referrals, which could be redeemed for free months of Evernote premium. This approach cleverly highlighted the premium account’s advantages.

4. Manage your sales team like a service provider

Rapidly growing SaaS companies like Sumo.com attribute some of their success to their sales approach. Sumo, now specializing in ecommerce and particularly Shopify stores, utilizes cold emails offering free consultations to potential leads. This gives the company an agency-like feel rather than a typical SaaS company. This focus on customer care, combined with persistent follow-ups, makes converting leads into paying customers much easier than less hands-on methods like in-app onboarding.

Close takes a similar approach. “We train our sales team to personally follow up with every new trial user of our CRM and offer a free, brief consultation on how to maximize our product,” explains Ryan Robinson, content marketer at Close. “While this hands-on approach differs from many SaaS companies, we find that this level of personalized support creates not only satisfied customers, but also brand advocates who enthusiastically promote our product within their organizations and to other similar companies.”

5. Execute a high-impact influencer marketing strategy on a tight budget

DIY Marketers publisher Ivana Tyler argues that effective influencer marketing doesn’t have to be expensive; it just requires a smart, strategic approach. Utilize tools like BuzzSumo.com or Brand24.com to identify influencers in your niche or individuals who could be ideal users of your platform in other industries. Once you’ve compiled a list, leverage Voila Norbert’s email finder to find their contact information. Begin cultivating relationships by following them on social media, sharing their content, and engaging with them on their preferred platforms.

“After familiarizing the influencer with your brand, have your founder or CEO send a personalized email offering a demo and a free year-long license (either for them or as a giveaway to their audience),” suggests Tyler. “Avoid automated outreach or emails from PR firms – they’ll likely be disregarded.” Nurture relationships with key influencers by sharing their content and maintaining communication. “Check in to see if they’re using your platform and, if not, why,” Tyler adds. “Identify any obstacles and assist them in becoming power users. Over time, you’ll notice these influencers consistently referencing, recommending, and giving shout-outs to your brand.”

6. Blend help articles with blog content

It’s 2019, meaning you’re investing in content marketing and SEO for organic traffic growth – which often translates to frantic marketers struggling to determine what content works and what to create next, says Clwyd Probert, founder of digital agency Whitehat. The solution? Integrate support into your content strategy. “New and existing customers likely share similar questions, and prospective customers/leads probably have them too,” explains Probert. “Identify your customers’ concerns and uncertainties and address them definitively in a blog post. This also improves your Google ranking for relevant ‘How to …’ searches.”

This strategy is inspired by the playbook of Tim Soulo of Ahrefs. “If you pose a question through Ahrefs’ Intercom (support chat), they’ll likely direct you to a blog post covering both product features and strategic/marketing insights,” Probert observes. During the early stages of the buyer’s journey, focus on the buyer, their challenges, and their aspirations. Probert confirms: “Adhere to an industry-standard marketing blueprint, structure your website around assisting potential clients, and establish yourself as an industry authority.”

7. Repurpose existing content

Assets like white papers and ebooks hold immense lead generation potential but are expensive and time-consuming to create. To maximize your content’s value, consider repurposing. “A single ebook can transform into a YouTube video, a blog series, a series of marketing emails, or an infographic,” suggests David Campbell of Right Inbox. “Repurposing helps you connect with various audiences through their preferred mediums.”

8. Launch your inaugural partner program

If you’re ready to elevate your business in 2019, contemplate launching a partner program. A well-structured program attracts highly motivated partners, which can significantly lead to a 48% growth your overall revenue, according to research by partner relationship and channel management solution provider Allbound.. The team at Allbound offers guidance for launching your first partner program:

1. Define your ideal partner profile Consider their target audience and potential overlap with yours. Analyze their sales approach and whether their product complements yours.
2. Establish partner objectives Partnerships involve give-and-take. Determine a fair exchange for their services and define your desired outcomes from the program.
3. Avoid assumptions For a successful program, outline the steps needed to achieve your goals. Treat partners as an extension of your sales team, communicating your expectations clearly on monthly, quarterly, and annual bases.
4. Establish communication channels A poorly managed partner program can be overwhelming. Implement clear communication channels from the outset. Numerous tools can empower your partners with the content and resources they need for confident selling.
5. Develop a content library Put yourself in your partners’ shoes. Imagine it’s your first day; what do you need to succeed? Content! Provide high-quality materials to help them address questions and proactively address prospect needs.
6. Launch Don’t expect perfection from day one, or even after the first month or year. Even industry giants are constantly refining their approach to elevate their partner program. The key is continuous experimentation, improvement, and progress.

9. Experiment with PPC for non-promotional content

Pierre de Braux of Spiralytics highlights the effectiveness of PPC advertising for non-promotional content like ebooks and whitepapers.

“We’ve seen success using platforms like Facebook to ‘boost’ gated content, driving significant conversions at a competitive CPC,” he explains. “While landing page conversion rates for PPC might not match organic traffic, the volume of new leads generated is hard to ignore. This strategy is particularly effective for startups and young companies aiming to enhance brand awareness and accelerate growth. “Ultimately, it creates a robust and cost-effective list of leads who appreciate your content, providing an excellent foundation for nurturing.”

10. Utilize themed content clusters

Dominique Jackson of Copper CRM attributes his company’s significant growth last year to publishing content in themed clusters. “Instead of publishing disjointed articles, we identified broad themes and created 10-20 related articles for each,” he elaborates. “For instance, one theme was sales emails, for which we crafted around 20 in-depth articles covering topics like post-trade show email strategies or tips for open house follow-up emails.”

Image Source This approach not only allowed them to connect with highly targeted audiences seeking specific information but also significantly benefited their SEO. “This strategy boosted our organic blog traffic by over 200% in less than four months,” Jackson reveals.

11. Reverse engineer your CTAs

Nissar Ahamed at Atomic Reach suggests reverse engineering calls-to-action as a growth tactic. “Like many SaaS marketing teams, we relied on traditional CTAs like ‘Book a Demo’ or ‘Talk to Sales’,” he explains. “However, our conversion rates were unsatisfactory. Our traffic steadily increased, but conversions lagged.” He describes how Atomic decided to deviate from best practices and improvise. They consulted their customer success team to gain insights into customer onboarding conversations. Their findings revolutionized their approach and fueled substantial growth. “We discovered that customers frequently used our platform for content audits,” says Ahamed. “We then reverse engineered our CTAs and analyzed frequently visited landing pages through keyword research. We found that the keyword ‘Content Audit’ had approximately 700 monthly searches. By integrating this keyword into our CTAs and landing pages, our conversion rates tripled and continue to generate a steady stream of leads.”

12. Explore innovative uses for infographics

Infographics software company Venngage achieved remarkable success by using infographics to build backlinks to their landing pages and blog posts. “We focused on creating shareable, evergreen infographics that visualized data or summarized our research and pitched them to numerous publications,” explains Naser Alubaidi, Growth Marketer at Venngage. “We found that pitching a viral, evergreen infographic was more effective than simply seeking backlinks to our existing content.” Infographics are far from obsolete, and for good reason. MIT research indicates that 90% of the information of the information transmitted to our brain is visual.

13. Integrate review platforms

Operating within the SaaS industry, Matej Kukucka of LiveAgent emphasizes the importance of review platforms and their integration into daily tasks. “User feedback collected after trial upgrades revealed that many customers decided to purchase after consulting review portals,” he explains. “This led us to embrace them rather than resent them for potentially impacting revenue. We offer Amazon gift cards for honest reviews, recognizing that people rarely leave reviews spontaneously and wanting to compensate them for their time.”

14. Prioritize customer storytelling

It’s a fact: our brains are hardwired for stories. This explains why customer storytelling is among the most potent SaaS growth marketing strategies. Demand Gen’s 2017 content preferences report revealed that 78% of B2B decision makers relied on customer stories and case studies for purchase research. Furthermore, a DocSend report analyzing 34 million data points found that customer case studies have a 83% reading completion rate compared to other sales content types. Well-crafted case studies allow prospects to envision themselves in your customers’ positions and trust your brand to address their challenges. They also maximize your content strategy’s ROI by proving valuable at every stage of the sales funnel.

A recent customer spotlight from nexus-security. The team at Follow Up Boss attests to this firsthand: “We’ve successfully repurposed stories from our biggest advocates and power users into live webinars, blog posts, emails, and social media content to demonstrate our product’s transformative impact and boost lead conversion. The key is clearly identifying your target audience for each case study and strategically incorporating them into your sales and marketing efforts.”

15. Leverage business networking events and workshops

Networking events and workshops are cost-effective ways to promote your SaaS and forge new connections. “Connect with organizers of local and national business events, breakfast meetings, marketing events, and trade shows,” suggests Paul Granger of Website Promoter. “Don’t hesitate to speak about your business, product, or services. Collect business cards and email addresses, and encourage newsletter subscriptions. Always follow up with new contacts to cultivate relationships and explore mutually beneficial collaborations.”

There you have it – 15 SaaS startup growth strategies to experiment with this year. Remember, even minor improvements in growth and churn rates can significantly impact your startup’s trajectory. Every funnel enhancement translates to more users, advocates, and higher customer lifetime value, ultimately leading to increased revenue and opportunities to reinvest in your company – fueling further growth strategies, product development, enhanced customer service, and continued expansion. What strategies or tactics have yielded the most significant growth for your startup? Share your insights in the comments below!