SaaS marketing shares the same challenge as every other industry sector - generating and retaining a happy customer base. We all know it’s more efficient to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one, but all too often, start-ups don’t invest in customer success until churn becomes a poignant issue. In this blog, we'll discuss how companies can build their entire empire on it.
Product Led Growth can supercharge your SaaS marketing
We believe that Product Led Growth (PLG) is the future of SaaS. Not just another buzzword, PLG refers to instances when product usage serves as the primary driver of user acquisition, retention, and expansion. In simple terms, make something great for the user and the product will sell itself.
So how do companies actually leverage PLG? The best companies flip the script on every aspect of their business. They put their customers first and are obsessive about measuring (and optimizing) every aspect of their funnel for the customer. Product usage – rather than marketing qualification – becomes the most important trigger for conversion and expansion. A PLG sales team has a product-first mindset, looking and acting more like customer success.
Companies that adopt PLG find that their biggest sales channel is word of mouth. We all know everybody likes a freebie, so encouraging others to use the software for free and removing the traditional paywalls that most software have helps to position your product in a positive light.
The end goal, of course, is turning your free users into paid users. Many software companies offering free versions have limitations on their free usage (such as Slack’s maximum 10k messages), and others limit the more advanced tools to their paid versions.
If your paid version offers something that can help users solve a core problem, shout about it in the free version and encourage them to sign up. Make sure you develop good relationships with your free users and establish a sales team who can be advisors to your potential paying customers. Customers are ( or should be) key to the success of your organisation, so ensure that you are properly adopting PLG to drive real value.
Successful SaaS marketing relies on successful customers
If you are a startup, early adopters are the lifeblood of your organisation, your biggest advocates and your ticket to future growth. Successful early-stage companies therefore recognise that customer success is the backbone of their business, and invest in building out their customer success teams proactively.
This is especially imperative in the product-led era. More and more companies are adopting PLG strategies such as empowering self-service sign-up and de-labouring their sales process. However, customer success should always play a crucial role in support customer adoption and accelerate their growth.
If you want to hear more from us on all things SaaS marketing, get in touch to speak to an expert.
