Inexpensive SaaS Growth Strategies for 2023
Marketers are in a bind.
They’re forced to match the same excellent results from years past with less channel and budget.
That’s why we’ve put together a list of quick and simple tips from top SaaS experts — all under $500 per month.
1. Use Shield to analyze LinkedIn analytics
First up, a tip from Brendan Hufford, founder of Growth Sprints.
He suggests using Shield LinkedIn analytics to determine what kinds of content is driving traffic and lead behavior:
“Hook up all of your subject matter experts and execs on Shield (LinkedIn analytics) and start to track what gets the most traction from them. When you have all their LinkedIn social data in one spot, it’s SO easy to see how we can make it better.”
Within Shield, you can break down who is consuming your content, where they work, and how your content impacts profile views, new followers, and connections. The best part is you can follow along in real-time — Shield’s dashboards dynamically update to give you the most accurate, relevant information.
Shield has a 20-day free trial, and its Starter plan starts at just $6 per account per month.
2. Publish a monthly update to investors and friends of the company
How can you better leverage your existing network for connections?
Carter Perez, CEO and Co-founder of Revenue Chemists, points out that a helpful monthly roundup of what you accomplished last month not only gives investors, customers, and friends of the company greater visibility, it also serves as a platform for specific requests:
“During that update, ask them for introductions to specific accounts or people in those accounts. Clearly list out all of the accounts and the specific team or person you are looking for an intro to.”
People invested in your company’s success want you to grow, and these touchpoints give them an opportunity to step in and help.
3. Require only business emails for demo requests
You want to remove as much friction as possible from lead gen forms — to a point.
Mark Huber, Head of Brand and Product Marketing at Metadata, found that adjusting his demo forms to require a business email (rather than a personal one) yielded much higher quality leads:
“For a while, we accepted personal emails on our demo request forms/LinkedIn conversation ads then enriched them on the back-end. We found demo requests with personal emails converted to opportunities at a MUCH lower rate than demo requests with business emails.”
So we actually updated all of our demo request forms to only accept business emails moving forward. So far we’ve seen an 11% increase in lead quality. We’re keeping an eye on this moving forward too.”
This simple change is free. And if you’re hesitant to change all your forms at once, you can start out by modifying one or two and measuring your conversion rates.
4. Add interactive demos to your G2 or TrustRadius profiles
Wouldn’t it be great if prospects could try out your tool while they were reading reviews about it?
Well, they can — today, you can embed interactive demos into your G2 and TrustRadius profiles.
Tim Handorf, co-founder of G2, shares that doing so can boost G2 and TrustRadius engagement significantly,
“Early data shows interactive demos are getting 2x the engagement of videos or screenshots.”
The best part is that it takes very little time to create an interactive demo and upload it to your review platform. No-code interactive demo software like Navattic makes it easy for anyone to create a demo in a few hours.
Companies like Demandbase, Qualio, and Athennian are already taking advantage of this feature to bring prospects’ attention to the best aspects of their product.
Including an interactive demo is entirely free on TrustRadius, and is included in the Essential G2 pricing plan.
5. Empower existing customers
Your best customers are often your biggest fans. Why not give them a way to monetize and gamify that support?
Peyton Walbeck, Head of Marketing at Nectar, is planning on implementing a customer referral program next year:
“We’re going all-in on this in 2023. Especially in the event of a serious economic downturn, we see this as a way to continue bringing in highly qualified opportunities to our sales team that close at a high rate.
We’re building out a “Nectar Champions” program that will help us get referrals, get G2 reviews, product feedback, become a reference, etc.”
Customer referral programs don’t have to cost much. It’s totally up to you how you design it. For example, maybe you implement a points program or perhaps give referring customers a discount on their existing plan.
Inviting customers to participate in your referral program signifies that you trust and appreciate them, plus it gives them a chance to give back. And as Walbeck points out, customer referrals are much warmer leads.
6. Post on open-source forums like Reddit and Quora
Instead of paying for Google ads for a first-rank spot, post on existing Reddit and Quora threads.
This tactic is especially useful for industries that rely heavily on these platforms for their everyday jobs, like developers.
Anna Furmanov Founder of Furmanov Marketing Consulting is planning to “grow TOF (top of funnel) from Reddit for my developers-focused client.”
Plus you can use free tools like Keyworddit to help with keyword research for Reddit. It identifies keyword volume and the context of how that keyword is used in a specific subreddit.
7. Leverage your team for content distribution
Cut down on your paid LinkedIn ad spend by creating a consistent distribution channel through your team.
Abdul Rastagar Head of Marketing at Lexitas Pharma Services says his team is planning on posting multiple times per week.
“The return in terms of LinkedIn followers has been phenomenal, which is helping us increase our brand exposure. The key is consistency and quality content, especially if we amplify the voice of the customer.”
Parthi Loganathan, CEO at Letterdrop has seen countless customers have success with organic LinkedIn by creating a framework for how to engage your sales and CS team
“Your sales team is already connected to your prospects on LinkedIn. Ask them to like, comment, and share sales enablement content and case studies. That places your content right in your customer’s LinkedIn feed.
We know that’s extra work for sales and they realistically won’t do it. Letterdrop automates it so they don’t have to lift a finger.”
Letterdrop has everything a solo marketer would need to automate and distribute content across their entire team - starting at only $400 a month.
These innovative, cost-effective ways to increase conversion rates can really move the needle — even if you’re on a small budget. If you’re looking for other inexpensive ways to improve your conversion rates, check out: