With its growing popularity, SaaS is one of the most common business models that tech startups dive into these days. But while they are lucrative, they can also be challenging to establish. And one area that your startup business might have a hard time with is marketing your service.
To help you out, we have collected some of the best strategies that you can employ. Discover what each idea has to offer and how you can get more out of them with the help of Virtua Solutions.
SaaS Marketing Strategy no. 1: Offer Free Trial
Like offering a free taste in food stalls, free trials are great for people to get a feel for your SaaS startup business. According to statistics, the strategy can generate as many as 10% of your customers.
Image from Impact Plus.
What makes SaaS free trials even better is that you don’t incur additional costs. There is no shipping or return shipping cost for unsatisfied testers. And the operational expenses for these trials are rolled into the overall operation costs. Furthermore, you can use these trials as an easy way to gauge user preferences.
How Your Startup Business Can Get An Edge
One of the challenges with running a free trial is that you still need to convince users to sign up for the full version afterward. However, you can increase the chances by setting up the trial program right. The first thing to do is to make the signup process easy. Here, you can request only the bare minimum of information like an email address for customers to get started.
Avoid asking for credit information at this point. That can put off users, as they might think that you will charge them automatically after the initial trial period. Instead, opt for a less restrictive payment option should you require it.
Lastly, develop with a way to further entice free trial users to sign up for the full version. Here, a signup discount is always a good option. But you should consider how long the discount should be. You can base this on how often they will likely use your products.
SaaS Marketing Strategy no. 2: Get Your Users Writing For You
Your user base is probably one of the biggest marketing assets you have. And they can give you a lot of mileage when you tap them the right way. So one of the strategies to explore is getting them to write for you.
Of course, you might already be doing this, with users writing reviews of your products. But you can go further than that. Instead of just having them promote your service, you can turn them into full-on information providers.
How Your Startup Business Can Pull It Off
The first place that you can start with this is in your blog. Ask users to write guest articles for you. For instance, you can request them to share some tricks they come up with when using your products. They may also share some of their stories using your service.
Beyond your blog, you can encourage users to create content on different platforms. They can share the same guest post content on their social media pages. This user-generated content can become part of your library for the general public.
Image from Embed Social.
You would also want to encourage them to discuss your service with others. And here, it would be a good idea to give them a helping hand. Give them access to insider info they can share. You can also give them a sneak peek of new features. That exclusive look will encourage them to write for you more often.
SaaS Marketing Idea no. 3: Co-Marketing Campaigns
One thing you should understand when running a SaaS startup business is that you are not alone in the hearts of your users. Chances are, they will be using your product with other services. These can either fill in some features that your software does not have or simply for other tasks they are doing alongside the work that uses your software.
So, instead of competing with these other products, why not co-market with them? The idea is that you create a marketing environment that benefits you and the other companies. Of course, you need to be selective in which other companies to market with.
Here, go with the ones that complement your service nicely. For that, you need to get into the shoes of your customer base and ask what other types of software they might want to use. We can help you do market research to better gauge which other brands you can connect with.
Doing Your Co-Marketing Efforts Right
Of course, getting the right co-marketing partner is just part of the work. You also need to develop something that will convince your audience to try your products. Some of the strategies that you can explore include the following:
- Co-author an ebook: You can demonstrate how to use both your products in a project effectively.
- Exchange in-app discounts: Your partner’s customers can claim discounts for your service through both your and your com-marketing partner’s apps.
- Co-branded ads: You can have both brands appearing in a single ad and highlighting their combined benefits. The two parties can then split the cost between themselves.
- Event sponsorships: These are a great way to expose your brands to more people outside the digital realm.
While these co-marketing efforts start as a one-off, you can gradually build them into a more long-term partnership. Here, you and your partner need to be open about the developments in your respective products. That will help you better orient your marketing efforts.
Helping Your SaaS Startup Business Succeed In These Marketing Ideas
These ideas are great for pushing your SaaS startup towards a larger audience. But you might need some extra help implementing them. Virtua Solutions is ready to offer you all the marketing support you will need.
From the initial conceptualization stage to the final engagement with your audience, we will be there to do important tasks for you. And our agents are experts in running various marketing campaigns. Sign up with us today and get ready to boost the popularity of your SaaS startup business.