How to Launch a B2B SaaS with Zero Experience
Often founders (mostly technical founders) ask the question that they have a working product in hand but they don't know what to do next.
This is a very interesting phase where you have a product in hand and you are excited to launch it. But this phase can turn out to be a nightmare. The core idea here is to start small and scale. At Denovers, I work with a lot of Product founders, there are a few basic guidelines I would like to share.
Build a basic sales landing page
The first important step is building a sales landing page. But, you don’t have to stress on fancy design for now. Give yourself a deadline of a day to come up with a basic but finished landing page with all the essentials.
- Have a clear value proposition as a title on the Hero section with a clear CTA. (Ideally capture emails on top)
- Define your features and the problem you are solving in a decent and summarized way.
- Feature some customer testimonials. You can share your product with friends and family for free to get some early feedback as well as testimonials to feature.
- Have a Pricing Table with a clear CTA.
- FAQs section
- Closure CTA of “Get a Demo”
- Integrate Google Analytics. Don’t worry about all the KPIs, just focus on the number of users per day, demographics, and acquisition and you are good to go.
- Create an account on Calendly and embed its link over all the “Get a Demo” CTAs.
- Bonus: Install Inspectlet or Hotjar. This will help you in visualizing the user journey and to know what’s working and what’s not.
Identify your User & Buyer Persona
Often founders make mistakes by considering user and buyer personas as one. At this stage, it’s super important to know who exactly will write a cheque for your product and who will use it. In most cases, it’s one but in some cases, these are two different personas.
Gear up for Sales AKA Cold Outreach
This is important. Now you have a product, a sales landing page, and buyer personas in hand. Gear up for sales now. The first and important step is to directly reach your ideal prospects. Go to http://angel.co, 500 startups, etc, and find your ideal companies. Track all of them on google sheets. Use any of the email finding apps (clear bit, hunter, etc) to find email addresses. Craft a short and to the point pitch addressing how you will be solving the problem with a clear CTA. Just do a basic google search and you will get tons of articles on how to write cold emails. Remember one thing, always prefer customization and quality over the quantity. Research your ideal prospect and customize your pitch accordingly.
Start Hanging out on Communities
I am sure you have subject matter expertise on any one topic, ideally, the one you have build a product around. Start hanging out on communities like Reddit, hacker news, indie hackers, etc. Remember these communities operate on a two-way model. You have to give to take back. Again, a basic google search about each of them would help you a lot.
Launch on Product Hunt
Now you are fully prepared for a Product Hunt launch. Prepare for it in advance but don’t take forever to launch. If not sales, you will get pretty good feedback with your PH lunch as the community over there is very supportive.
Start Thinking Long Term AKA Content Marketing
It’s the right time to think big and for the long term. Build a basic WordPress blog on your website or a publication on Medium and start writing content around your niche. Things you have done before (hanging out on communities, cold outreach, Launching on PH) have given you a pretty decent idea of what you should write about. Create a basic content calendar and start producing content. You can hire good freelance writers as well. Remember, invest the same amount of time in distributing the content the amount of time you are investing in writing it. That’s super important.
Invest in Good Design
There is a reason companies invest a fortune in design. Good user experience will enhance the chances of conversion by 10X. Try to improvise your product user experience. At Denovers, we believe design is just not about how your product looks like, but it’s about how it behaves in your user’s hands.
Identify & Scale
Until now you have tried different approaches. Now take a step back and analyze the results. Measure different KPIs and see what’s working and what’s not. And when you find your sweet spot, just scale it 10X.
Conclusion
Running a startup is difficult and fun at the same time. Instead of the result, you have to fall in love with the process of getting success. Trust me, once you are in it, you will like to repeat it again and again. There is a reason serial entrepreneurs start multiple companies again and again in their careers. You will do the same, just fall in love with the process.
Denovers — Unlimited UI/UX Design for SaaS and App Companies
