SaaS Startup using growth hacking

13 replies
Hi Guys,

It's a simple tool like Buzzsumo, Hootsuite, Tweepi, sort of thing.

Starting at 0 (zero), what would be the best solution to getting the first 10,000 PAID users?

I read that the owners of Buffer got a massive increase in turnover and number of users when they deleted their free to use option of their tool, opting for paid service only. Interesting.
#growth #hacking #saas #startup
  • Profile picture of the author amcg
    Originally Posted by Silver007A View Post

    Hi Guys,

    It's a simple tool like Buzzsumo, Hootsuite, Tweepi, sort of thing.

    Starting at 0 (zero), what would be the best solution to getting the first 10,000 PAID users?

    I read that the owners of Buffer got a massive increase in turnover and number of users when they deleted their free to use option of their tool, opting for paid service only. Interesting.
    I think they key with SAAS surprisingly enough is customers - obvious right but think about it. If you're not hiring a direct sales force and don't have the funds for PPC/display advertising, word of mouth is your best friend.

    The best thing you can do is to get a small group of passionate customers using the product, learn from them and make sure they're happy. This small group - upon you asking them off course - will help grow your service among their peers and strangers alike.
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  • Profile picture of the author sudo rank
    Originally Posted by Silver007A View Post

    Hi Guys,

    It's a simple tool like Buzzsumo, Hootsuite, Tweepi, sort of thing.

    Starting at 0 (zero), what would be the best solution to getting the first 10,000 PAID users?

    I read that the owners of Buffer got a massive increase in turnover and number of users when they deleted their free to use option of their tool, opting for paid service only. Interesting.
    I work part time for a Sass type business start-up too.

    My boss is getting some good feed back just using Twitter to get the word out.

    They are also members of Techhub and that seems to get their name about too.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alaister
    Originally Posted by Silver007A View Post

    Hi Guys,

    It's a simple tool like Buzzsumo, Hootsuite, Tweepi, sort of thing.

    Starting at 0 (zero), what would be the best solution to getting the first 10,000 PAID users?

    I read that the owners of Buffer got a massive increase in turnover and number of users when they deleted their free to use option of their tool, opting for paid service only. Interesting.
    Hi there,

    Here are a couple of great articles about growth hacking strategies specifically for SaaS.

    SaaS Growth Hacking: Email Address Pre-Targeting

    This one talks about leverage email addresses that you have and targeting them on different platforms.

    https://medium.com/great-reading-for...e-798b983b90b7

    Here are 10 SaaS growth hacking strategies.

    I think a great way to boost conversions from people on your homepage is to offer a quick and easy way for them to see your product in use and the value they can gain from it. This would be presenting a appealing "demo" of your product. Optimizely do this very well. You give them your URL and they instantly show you how their product could work for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author EfficientLeader
    I'm using a daily reports to see my funnel and what pages / links are working.
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  • Profile picture of the author rodrigofuentes
    Techniques for getting to your first 10,000 paid users (e.g., customers) largely depends on your buyer persona. For instance, are you dealing with Fortune 5000 buyers or SMBs? The sales cycles, and where your target customer hangs out, are completely different. For the remainder of this post, I'll assume you are referring to SMBs.

    First, I recommend you start thinking about this problem using logarithmic steps. No need to worry about getting 10,000 paid users if your'e starting at 0. Think about it this way:
    How do I get to 10 customers?
    How do I get to 100 customers?
    How do I get to 1,000 customers?
    How do I get to 10,000 customers?

    Your tactics will change for each log step, and you will benefit from the prior momentum behind your efforts.

    Here are my quick thoughts on each log step:
    How do I get to 10 customers?
    ––*Start with your personal network through LinkedIn. Request intros to potential customers for "customer development interviews". Check out this post from Justin Wilcox on this topic.

    How do I get to 100 customers?
    ––*For each paid customer you obtained in Step 1, ask them for a referral to 2-3 colleagues in a similar industry.
    ––*Use SalesLoft to identify target influencer-prospects in your SMB space. Because this is an SMB play (and your pricing will likely be < $500/mo), your customer acquisition cost probably won't support a direct sales effort.
    ––*If you have product-market fit, then start your inbound marketing efforts. Write quality content on a blog that attracts your buyer persona.

    As for 1,000 and 10,000 customers, I'll let elaborate further as I experiment with more techniques

    You may also want to see this post from Sachin Agarwal @BlueLeaf: How We Signed Up 10,000 Users Before We Even Launched - Business Insider
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  • Profile picture of the author SEOLIX
    Let's cut to the chase:

    -- Start out with free users. When you reach a certain threshold, remove the free plans. It'll leave them wanting to purchase the rest will go. This is the same model with free web hosting - usually promoted on forums.
    -- Promote on forums - make a thread and market it.
    -- Get featured (paid post) on major IM blog
    -- Start an affiliate referral program

    Don't invest in twitter ads. Not worth to be honest.
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  • Profile picture of the author ColT83
    If you take a look at sites like linkedin, twitter and facebook as well as dating sites like twoo and baddo, you will see they almost force there sites virally soon as they get one user.

    Take a look at the sign up process, straight away they ask you to connect with friends, colleagues and family via new users allowing access to there email address book. Each platform is configured to work like this:

    1 customer = at least 10 messages sent out to broadcast there site. Naturally the process grows as one user signed up and allowing access for that site to email there friends about them signing up is free advertising.

    Its basis forced viral marketing of a site for free. If you look at the traffic figures for some social sites when they started then you will see that 20%+ was from email marketing done this way.

    Once the word is out if the product/service is actually useful and filling a demand then your on your way.

    Small budget ad campaigns can grow sites fast this way.
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  • Profile picture of the author johndentonNY
    Get the first few customers (10) from personal connections. Build testimonials.
    Get the next 90 leveraging those testimonials.

    Look at what Dropbox did to grow their list quickly... they incentivized people with data storage for sharing and got 70,000 signups in 1 day. Here's their "groundbreaking" video which albeit isn't too complex:
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  • Profile picture of the author clearspark
    The video half way down this page from Constant Contact's CEO will give you a lot of insight on this. Business of Software Conference USA 2014
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  • Profile picture of the author r0dvan
    This thread is really interested specially because Im starting coding SaaS applications.
    I plan to sell one soon. But Im just kinda planning the banner strategy, the brand.
    I think I will hire an Envato logo designer or something because its not convincing me.
    Anyone interested on doing a groups that deploys several apps and market them to have a special monthly income just let me know. I am mastering laravel and multi-tenant apps.
    Also AngularJS and JQuery for special realtime stuff.
    Signature
    LeadGen.tools - Lead Generation Search Engine from any Network and many useful tools. FREE trial.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rhoefnagel
    Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model wherein a
    third-party hosts various applications that are available to customers over
    the Internet. With SaaS, operational and capital expenses are lowered.

    Organizations are offered a pay-as-you-go payment option. SaaS offers
    high scalability that allows customers to access less or more services and
    features of the applications depending on their needs.

    If you're working on a SaaS, it's probably more helpful to think more
    broadly in terms of systems, structures and frameworks that you can use to
    do your marketing better instead of hacks.

    Scaling Enterprise SaaS Growth Strategy:

    Enterprise SaaS involves corporate clients and have expensive products.
    The sales cycles are typically long and it takes an average of 6 to 18 months
    to close a deal.

    Marketing Strategy for Enterprise SaaS

    1. Outbound Sales and More Outbound Sales

    2. Free Products
    Slack offers the perfect example for this marketing strategy.

    Check: www.saastr.com for more information about Scaling Enterprise
    SaaS

    Scaling Mid-Size SaaS Growth Strategy

    Mid-Size SaaS involves small business. The products are less expensive
    compared to Enterprise SaaS. Examples of Mid-Size SaaS are various
    accounting tools and MailChimp. It is tailored for a maximum of 50
    persons.

    Marketing Strategy for Mid-Size Saas

    5 Channels:

    1. Outbound Channels
    2. Affiliate Marketing
    3. Content Marketing (example: Buffer, Intercom)
    4. SEO
    5. Engineering as Marketing (example: Quicksprout and Neil Patel)
    Signature
    Entrepreneur and Growth Hacker at Growthcasts.co
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  • Profile picture of the author FalconOut
    I recently launched a Saas company. Plans started at $199 a month so it was difficult to get my first users, but I did it with a few growth hacking tatics.

    Here are some things I would suggest doing.

    1) I found out what blogs mentioned my competitors and then wrote them and asked if I could write a guest post. (free)

    2) Buy sponsored posts on larger blogs. This costs money but is totally worth it. Having someone talk about my brand gave it credibility.

    3) Go on Quora and answer questions. Don't always mentioned your company, instead write about what you know and build up credibility. People will check out your profile and when you do mention your company be way more apt to check it out.

    Best of luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author courier
      Backing up Falcon here Quora is a terrific way as long as it is helpful and not just rubbish. Falcon I wanted to ask you a follow up question on "Buy sponsored posts on larger blogs" could you perhaps let us know some of the larger ones you focused on and the some estimated costings?
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      ihunt is a treasure hunt game

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