Top Experts Share Growth Hacks for Small SaaS Startups
September 25, 2024
For this blog post, we turned to top growth and B2B experts for specific advice on growth hacks for small startups. We wanted to showcase strategies and tactics on how to grow fast, but also smart. Read on to learn from the expansive experience and know-how of industry insiders.
If you are a small SaaS startup, you want rapid growth, right? But you also want it to be sustainable – so your business can be healthy and expand in the right direction. The structures you put in place in the first years of your company, are crucial. With limited resources and a crowded SaaS market, you need to adopt innovative strategies that not only attract users, but also retain them.
Be Market-Driven, Not Marketing-Driven for Sustainable Growth
The key to sustainable growth lies in understanding your customer and delivering exceptional value. Our CEO Yuri Yurchuk suggests taking not a marketing-driven, but a market-driven approach (as he sees the best founders often do). It means your primary focus should be on your customers and their stories, not tools and tactics:
To truly connect with their audience, market-driven founders do not overly focus on data, but listen to people. They talk to their customers. They want to know: What are their aspirations? Their struggles? What do they hope for?
As our featured expert Laura Bolanos states, “growth hacking is a myth” – you need long-term strategies and consistency. Here are some foundational strategies for sustainable growth that experts advise for small startups:
1. Know Your Niche and Customer Inside and Out
In the words of the owner of Gold Front agency for startups and tech companies Josh Lowman, “own your category”. Focus on a specific problem within your target audience and how your product solves that problem. Josh advises answering the central question: “How do we make something people want, for which there’s no replacement?” This allows you to tailor your product and marketing efforts to meet the precise needs of your customers, and to sell it well.
Pete Steege, Author & Speaker, B2B Clarity Marketing Consultancy for B2B Tech CEOs, advises focusing on your “bullseye prospects”:
“The most common impediment to growth for SaaS startups I meet is a lack of focus. They often think they have zeroed in on a target audience, but the reality is their lack of specificity and uniqueness makes them blend in. Here are three ways to overcome this.
1. Focus only on your “bullseye” prospects — those that not only will value your offer, they can't live without it. This allows you to be incredibly specific with your solution, and creates advocates that will attract those outside of your bullseye.
2. Give away value before they buy. Yes, a free trial does this. Those that go beyond this baseline and find a way to be even more generous and valuable win eyeballs and signups.
3. Turn your Buyer's Journey into a Tryer's Journey. Apply the precepts of Product-Led Growth to your customer acquisition process to remove friction and lengthen account retention and increase expansions.”
2. Focus on Retention & Referrals
Utilize your product as the primary driver of customer acquisition. This approach encourages users to experience the value of your product firsthand, often leading to higher conversion rates.
Moreover, allow your happy customers become your best advocates. It goes beyond collecting testimonials and writing case studies – though these are great, as a social proof works wonderfully for your sales and marketing comms. It means creating a system when you regularly ask your existing customers for referrals. B2B growth expert and Senior Partner at Scaled Consulting Richard Marriott has a great framework exactly for that:
- Make it a habit: Create a task to remember to ask after every win.
- Time it right: Strike when the iron's hot (post-success glow).
- Be specific: Don't ask for “anyone” — target those ideal prospects.
Marl Ian Dionaldo, Co-Founder & Growth Strategist at Xceed Growth stresses that referrals are a great way to grow as a startup:
“There are only five ways to get more customers.
1) reach out to people privately.
2) create compelling content.
3) run targeted paid ads.
4) leverage affiliates and partners.
5) let customers bring you customers.
This last method counters rising ad costs. It turns every customer into a referral source.
Imagine: each customer brings another. No ads needed, your business could explode. You can double your growth (efficiently).
This is similar to SaaS's negative churn. More customers upgrade than leave. Example: Close 10 monthly, 1 leaves, 3 upgrade. That’s product-led growth — no marketing needed.”
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Get Started3. Build Efficient Marketing
When it comes to small startup growth, we recommend agile marketing approach. Here’s why: for startups, flexibility is everything – and agile marketing lets you test, learn, and iterate rapidly. You are not locked into long-term campaigns, but can break your marketing efforts into small micro-tests. Moreover, you can measure the results in real-time, and see what works, and do more of that. This approach accelerates growth and keeps you ahead of competition, since your strategies are constantly evolving. When working with our clients at Aimers, we’ve seen agile marketing drive sustainable growth by allowing startups to quickly adapt to market changes and customer feedback.
Laura Bolanos, Founder eComJungle and Startup Advisor, encourages startups to focus on delivering exceptional value to customers, while building a strong market presence via efficient marketing strategies.
“Growth hacking is a myth, what you need is consistency, which you can build by creating systems and long-term strategies.
Real, sustainable growth for small SaaS startups is driven by delivering exceptional value to customers and effective marketing strategies. While product quality remains crucial, savvy startups also recognize the power of building a strong personal brand and market presence. Founders who establish themselves as thought leaders in their niche can attract attention, build credibility, and open doors to partnerships and customer acquisition opportunities. This personal branding effort, combined with targeted marketing campaigns, helps create buzz and interest even before a product is fully developed.
The “sell first, build later” approach can be a powerful strategy for SaaS startups. By pre-selling concepts or minimum viable products (MVPs), entrepreneurs can validate market demand and secure early customers or investors. This approach allows startups to allocate resources more efficiently, focusing development efforts on features customers have already expressed interest in purchasing. However, it's crucial to balance this strategy with the ability to deliver on promises and maintain customer trust.
While attracting new users through marketing and pre-selling is important, successful SaaS startups also focus on retaining and expanding existing customers' revenue. They continue to iterate on their product based on user feedback, provide excellent customer support, and identify opportunities to upsell or cross-sell. By maintaining a low churn rate and increasing revenue per customer, startups can achieve sustainable growth. This customer-centric approach, combined with strong branding and marketing efforts, creates a powerful engine for long-term success in the competitive SaaS landscape.”
In conclusion: if you are a small SaaS startup that has to navigate through a challenging SaaS landscape, you need to balance growth and sustainability. The expert insights that we have showcased underscore the importance of a customer-first mindset and building meaningful relationships with your audience that go beyond mere transactions.
Actionable strategies that we’ve shared — whether employing product-led growth, or embracing agile marketing — provide a rich framework for startups to set up their growth models right in the early years of the company. What our experts make clear is that the so-called “growth hacks” are simply the starting point. Long-term success comes from consistent effort, strategic planning, and a relentless focus on delivering value.
Ultimately, the journey toward growth should not just aim for quick wins, but rather cultivate enduring relationships with customers, foster product loyalty, and adapt continuously to meet market demands. As you implement these strategies, remember that the true measure of success lies not just in how fast you grow, but in how sustainable your growth is.
Takeaways
- Adopt a market-driven approach. Focus on understanding your customers and their needs rather than solely relying on marketing tactics. Engaging with customers to learn about their aspirations and struggles is crucial for building lasting relationships.
- Know your niche. Identify and own your category by addressing specific problems within your target audience. Tailor your product and marketing strategies to meet the precise needs of your customers, ensuring you stand out in a crowded market.
- Embrace product-led growth. Concentrate on your “bullseye” prospects (in the words of Pete Steege) — those who will find your product indispensable. Offer value upfront through free trials or generous resources to attract potential customers and convert them into advocates.
- Focus on referrals. Create a system for obtaining referrals from satisfied customers. Timing and specificity are key; ask for referrals after successful interactions and target ideal prospects to maximize effectiveness.
- Leverage agile marketing. This allows for rapid testing and iteration. This flexibility enables startups to adapt quickly to market changes and customer feedback, driving sustainable growth.
- Build a strong personal brand. Establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche to attract attention and credibility. A strong personal brand can facilitate partnerships and customer acquisition opportunities even before a product launch.
- Pre-sell concepts or MVPs. Validate market demand by pre-selling ideas or minimum viable products. This strategy helps secure early customers and allows for efficient resource allocation based on customer interest.
- Prioritize customer retention. Focus on maintaining low churn rates by iterating on your product based on user feedback, providing excellent support, and exploring upselling opportunities. Sustainable growth hinges on expanding revenue from existing customers.
- Long-term success over quick wins. Recognize that true growth is not just about speed, but sustainability. Consistent effort, strategic planning, and a dedication to delivering exceptional value will foster enduring relationships with customers and contribute to long-term success in the SaaS landscape.
Would you like our team to help your startup with a sustainable growth marketing strategy, that involves PPC and CRO? Drop us a line here, and we'll get back to you shortly!
Ekaterina crafts engaging and strategic content to drive brand awareness and audience engagement. Her expertise in digital marketing helps the agency deliver impactful campaigns and achieve client goals.