Ultimate 2020 Guide to Growth Hacking For SaaS

If you build it, they’ll come.

This business rule may have been relevant twenty or thirty years ago, but it’s never been further from truth than it is today.

The rise of technology and digital channels has opened new avenues to entrepreneurial success. And yet, it’s never been harder to establish a newly-founded SaaS company in the market.

The competition is sharp, the stakes are high.

And in order to succeed, you’re going to need to think outside the box.

In this guide, we’re going to take a look at the best practices for SaaS growth hacking in 2020; from acquiring customers on the fly, to making sure your company achieves profitability within the first few months.

Let’s hack your growth!

SaaS Growth Hacking in 2020

We’re going to say something that may sound strange:

We’ve come a long way since 2019.

Even the January of 2020 seemed like an entire year. The change rate in technological fields has risen exponentially. Consequently, what we’ve previously thought of as sure-fire growth hacking strategies is pretty outdated at this point.

At the very least, the growth-hacking strategies from 2019 may give you the competitive advantage you need to boost your numbers. They’re still reliable, and they’re still good foundations.

But you’ll need extra spice.

In 2020, we have gained access to cool new tech such as artificial intelligence, intelligent bots allowing us to communicate with our customers, and the rise of social media’s influence has done a number on consumer habits — even in the B2B space.

The growth benchmarks have changed, as well.

Contemporary SaaS companies that want to hack their growth can’t settle for a 40% growth rate. Instead, they should aim for the stars, achieving growth in the 80–85% range.

SaaS competition in 2020 is fiercer than ever.

According to 99firms:

• There are over 10,000 private SaaS companies. It’s never been easier to start a SaaS company. Unfortunately, that means that the market is getting saturated, and differentiating your company from your competitors is top priority.
• The total size of the public SaaS market in 2020 is projected to reach $157 billion. This is more than double when compared to the size of the market in 2014.
• 80% of businesses already use at least one SaaS application. Consumers are ready to jump on the SaaS bandwagon, even in traditionally “slower” industries such as HR and health care. However, this also means more competition due to low barrier to entry.

Finally, SaaS companies that grow at an annual rate of 20% are more likely to stop operating within a few years.

Customer acquisition while managing churn is still a major problem.

Churn makes or breaks SaaS companies, but so do low customer acquisition rates.

So in order to hack your SaaS growth in 2020, you’ll need a double-pronged approach that simultaneously helps you attract new customers, and retain existing ones.

How?

Glad you asked!

How to Hack SaaS Growth in 2020

Starting from strategic and continuing with tactical, here’s a detailed breakdown of all the growth hacks your SaaS can use in 2020:

1.Intercept Common Customer Challenges

The idea of software as a service has become routine in almost every industry. So, instead of putting all your eggs in the customer education basket, focus on the challenges potential customers face when implementing your product.

According to Finances Online, companies regularly face the following challenges when implementing SaaS solutions:

• Security
• Governance and compliance
• Staff lacking cloud experience
• Privacy
• Vendor lock-ins
• Cost
• Lack of visibility
• Outages

Consider Salesforce’s example.

Their customers were wary of implementing a new sales solution because their workforce wasn’t ready for the change. They didn’t know how to operate these new tools.

Salesforce expanded and retained their user base with an onboarding program — Trailhead.

Trailhead is actually just a training program. However, it’s fun and easy to understand. Ultimately, it solves the challenge of user adoption at scale.

Just imagine what you could do if your customers told you: “We’re not sure about your tool. Our staff don’t know how to use it,” and you could show them your onboarding program’s success rates.

Even if your customers’ staff lacks cloud experience, it’ll be easy to get them on board with an engaging training program. In fact, more and more companies are looking for integrated training when implementing new SaaS solutions.

Additionally, having a great onboarding program is one of the smartest ways to differentiate your SaaS company from other competitors.

Data silos are another challenge for your customers.

As a SaaS provider, your should empower organizations to make data-driven decisions.

Visibility is the top priority.

Take note from project management tools like Vabotu.

They integrate features that actively reinforce transparency and visibility.

For example, they offer a Guest Access feature. This comes in handy when your customers are working with external teams, or their own customers.

It simplifies reporting, and it’s not complicated to integrate.

Takeaways

Hack your SaaS growth in 2020 by intercepting customers’ common challenges. Devise solutions for implementation problems to facilitate user adoption at scale.

2. Leverage Artificial Intelligence to Attract and Retain Customers

AI can do what you’d usually need a whole team of marketers and sales reps to accomplish.

You should consider the following AI applications to hack your SaaS’ growth:

• Product and content recommendations for up-selling and cross-selling to existing customers, and nurturing leads
• Chat bots that engage website visitors, and personalize the website experience according to data such as referral URLs and usage history
• Dynamic email content that personalizes your email content for different audiences
• AI-powered churn predictions which allow you to customize re-engagement strategies for different types of customers
• AI-powered customer personas can automatically leverage millions of data points to create insightful customer profiles

AI-powered chat bots are one of the best methods for converting and retaining your SaaS customers.

For example, you could leverage lead magnet information for chat bot prompts.

If a customer clicked through on a lead magnet about “email marketing for small businesses,” your chat bot could ask them about particular areas they need help with, and so on.

You can also use chat bots on social media.

Ultimately, if you use chat bots, you could even win over competitors’ customers. 44% of consumers are willing to switch to brands that personalize their marketing communications.

Take personalization one step further by personalizing chat bots’ product or pricing plan offers.

Takeaways

Artificial intelligence is an excellent way to hack your SaaS company’s growth! From engaging your customers to attracting new prospects with social media chat bots, and nurturing leads, not even the sky is the limit.

3. Competing with Big Wigs? Improve Your Branding

When you’re competing with high-profile vendors, it’s important to establish your brand as soon as possible. Customers don’t want to take a leap of faith; they want to buy from brands they know and trust.

Brand awareness and customer acquisition go hand in hand, when you do it right.

For example, numerous SaaS companies use PR outreach to establish their brands. Unfortunately, that often leads to features in magazines that target their competitors, instead of their customers.

Platforms like Contento offer excellent article placement with relevant publishers and platforms like Adroll helps you to target advertising on authority medias.

This allows you to improve your branding while simultaneously targeting your audience, ensuring that you’re not just getting vanity results, but actual customers.

Make sure your brand details are consistent across all touch points.

Focus on omnichannel experiences. Not only should you be using social media, but you should also make sure that it’s integrated with your CRM software. This way, you can provide personalized interactions.

Consider Zendesk’s example.

They have a great brand guide. All of their employees can easily reference it when creating marketing materials, features, and communicating with customers.

You don’t have to be as detailed as they are, but you should pay attention to:

• Your audience’s preferred modes of and approaches to communication
• Your approach: will you be formal, informal, humorous?
• Your distance: should your reps address customers by name and sign with their own names? Provide emotional responses before addressing the problem like Zappos does?

Your answers to questions like these can address more than your way of communicating with customers. They can inform your content strategy, marketing campaigns, and, ultimately, your future.

Make sure your actions follow your words.

If you pride yourself on easy-to-use products, make sure your marketing materials emphasize it.

Referral programs can help you hack your growth and increase your brand awareness.

At the very least, you have two options:

• Offer tangible rewards
• Integrate your logo in widgets

Some of the biggest companies have used referral programs to hack their way to a huge user base (e.g. Dropbox, AirBnB).

When establishing your referral program, keep your audience in mind.

Some companies use financial incentives, while others offer performance and feature upgrades. The definitive answer depends on your customers.

Takeaways

Customers want to work with brands they know. Place your content in relevant outlets, make sure your branding is consistent, and don’t forget about referral programs.

4. Leverage Social Selling with LinkedIn

If your target audience are B2B customers, LinkedIn is one of the most important user acquisition channels.

When used correctly, it can bring you a lot of attention, and even more happy customers. However, if you’re not using it strategically, LinkedIn can be a waste of time.

Enter: LinkedIn growth-hacking tools.

Lempod is a relatively new tool that allows you to join engagement pods with your target audience.

When they engage with your post, it will automatically be shown to other members of the same audience, expanding your reach.

Similarly, Expandi can help you expand your outreach to potential customers.

It’s structured, and helps you understand who engages with your connection requests and messages.

Keep in mind that as social media platforms in general, LinkedIn doesn’t like automation. Don’t go overboard by sending thousands of messages and connection requests in a few minutes.

Your LinkedIn content matters, too.

When it comes to LinkedIn, businesses usually use a formula when creating their content. From the so-called LinkedIn broetry, to sharing white papers and reports, the atmosphere can get stuffy.

Our first piece of advice is leveraging new features.

Every social platform heavily promotes their new features to increase user adoption. Just remember how aggressively Instagram pushed Stories until everyone started using them.

Consequently, using a platform’s new features is a great way to get free traffic.

For example, LinkedIn recently rolled out their Live Stream option.

Not a lot of brands will hop on the bandwagon immediately, giving you a great competitive edge. From hosting FAQ sessions, to commenting on recent news related to your industry, leveraging new features is a great way to reach more customers than you usually would.

Our second advice is newsjacking.

Big SaaS companies have to double-check everything with their higher-ups before they can hit “Publish.”

But if you’re just starting out, you can respond to news immediately, and provide answers faster than your competitors.

LinkedIn may be a B2B platform, but their users still want to engage with interesting content. Don’t go the white paper route.

It may work for companies that are already established in the market (chances are, their content is for vanity purposes), and their LinkedIn strategies don’t have to apply to your situation.

Instead, be innovative and creative.

Takeaways

Consider using LinkedIn automation tools for social selling. However, don’t go overboard and risk getting caught in the spam filter. Publish interesting content, and leverage your SaaS company’s size to respond faster and smarter than your bigger competitors.

5. Facebook Groups Just Keep Growing

Speaking of using new features to boost your growth rate, Facebook Groups have made quite a boom.

Even the smallest groups are outperforming organic reach of Facebook Pages.

While you should have a Facebook page for your SaaS company (especially if you plan on using Facebook ads), you should set up a Facebook Group to drive free traffic.

Consider Facebook Groups to be a vital part of your content marketing strategy.

You can:

• Open a group for your product
• Open a group relevant to the needs your product satisfies

For example, if you were offering an email marketing tool, you’d open a group related to email marketing.

The more specific you are, the better.

When creating your content strategy, make sure you focus on posts that boost engagement and help you learn more about your target audience:

• Share relevant blog posts
• Inquire about opinions
• Hold Q&A sessions

Once your target audience gets to know you, you can share lead magnets in exchange for email addresses.

Facebook Groups help you increase your brand awareness and your authority.

This is connected to the fact that consumers want to buy from brands they trust. And by offering valuable content, you’ll help them develop trust in your SaaS.

You can grow your Facebook group by:

• Promoting it on your website, your blog, or in your emails
• Crowd-sourcing opinions and questions, and then creating a relevant blog post you’ll share through other channels
• Asking influencers to appear in your group for AMAs, similarly to Reddit
• Engaging group members consistently, and encouraging them to post
• Analyzing your performance and doubling down on the content that works best
• Holding contests

Takeaways

Focus on Facebook Groups to stimulate user engagement, reach more target audience members, and nurture them towards conversion.

6. Appear on Relevant Channels

We all know the big ones: Facebook, email, Forbes… but what happens to the smaller channels your audience turns to for information?

Growth hacking is popular because it’s all about creativity.

You have to ask yourself: what aren’t my competitors doing?

SaaS companies typically focus on the big platforms first. Now, this is a sound strategy if you’ve got a six-figure marketing budget. But if you’re smaller, you have to play smarter.

Message boards are still all the rage.

Reddit, Quora, Stackoverflow, and other message boards populated by your target audience members are still great options for attracting more customers.

Some channels may not be intuitive for your sector, but they are intuitive for your customers.

We’ve long given up on the the idea that LinkedIn is the only place to reach B2B buyers. The truth is — your potential customers are using all the regular channels because at the end of the day, they’re regular people.

And that’s something you should use to hack growth.

If you’ve never though about running YouTube ads, you might want to start considering them. As the world’s second largest search engine, YouTube is still perfect for growth hacking.

“If a channel is so effective, why aren’t my competitors using it?”

Valid point, but consider this: businesses often think that they have to pigeon-hole their marketing in accordance with their industry.

They shy away from “inserting” themselves into a conversation.

For example, there are great Slack groups discussing a variety of topics. Why not join one of them?

Be careful with self-promotion!

While the goal is to promote your SaaS, you shouldn’t focus on self-promotion.

Instead, you should focus on adding value.

Just as experts advise founders to approach Reddit from a human standpoint and tell their story with all the ups and the downs, you should put your founder persona front and center.

Finally, directories are a good way to reach people who need a product like yours.

Just make sure they’re relevant, and as specific to your niche as possible.

While some directories like ProductHunt attract different audiences interested in technology, they may not be the best choice for a focused attempt to grow your company.

Instead, focus on the directories that appear for keywords relevant to your tool.

Takeaways

Consider every possible channel that your target audience is using. If it’s informal and meant for discussion, and not promotion, approach it as a founder — not as a company.

7. Try Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is always a good idea if you’ve got a limited budget and need to grow fast.

ClickFunnels, a company that offers website and funnel builders, have one of the most successful affiliate programs.

Thanks to their affiliate program with generous commissions, their software is virtually everywhere. And it doesn’t cost them a thing, unless they’re earning money, too!

Best affiliates are usually:

• Evangelists who believe in your product
• Review websites relevant to your niche
• Influencers trusted by their audiences (and they’ve tested your software)

It’s important to be smart when starting an affiliate program.

Make sure you understand every affiliate’s position. Set up the program structure so it benefits your company.

You should also discuss acceptable promotional tactics with your affiliates.

Like we said, ClickFunnels has recruited (too) many affiliates with no guidelines. It resulted in search queries such as: “ClickFunnels scam?” and “Is ClickFunnels legit?”

It’s easy for affiliates to get carried away. So make sure you understand who you’re working with, and prepare an established brand guide they have to follow when discussing your product.

Takeaways

Run affiliate marketing programs to streamline your growth, but make sure you create guidelines.

8. Leverage New Content Formats

A lot has changed in the past year. Fortunately, there are plenty of changes you can use to boost your SaaS’ growth.

TikTok became a powerhouse.

This is still an unpopular opinion, but TikTok is perfect if your target audience are Gen Z and Millennials. You can absolutely use this platform for content marketing, and with its high organic reach, you won’t be losing any money.

There’s no doubt TikTok will become pay-to-play, but it’s still in the growth stage that guarantees decent organic reach.

Your TikTok content should be no longer than 60 seconds, engaging, and if you’re doing a selfie-camera video with voice, make sure you add text additions.

You can also use TikTok to show the raw, unfiltered behind-the-scenes videos of your team. Or simply shoot a video featuring someone who is using your product with an unexpected twist.

Think of TikTok as Vine, only better.

You can also collaborate with influencers who have access to your target audience.

This is a bit harder in the SaaS space, but it’s only a matter of time before influencers start flocking to TikTok.

And by that time, you’ll be readier than your bigger competitors.

Instagram Stories are incredibly engaging and immersive.

Nowadays, consumers want to know what your brand is like and what it stands for. 89% of them are loyal to brands that share their values.

So when you pair thought leadership content with a format like Instagram Stories, you get a recipe for growth success.

In fact, Intercom has recently used Instagram Stories to host a Q&A session.

If you want to grow your SaaS through Instagram, leverage:

• Interactive elements like polls and quizzes
• Engaging videos and questions
• Social proof

The Stories format has become so popular that companies like Tappable are building tools that allow you to create Stories for more platforms than Instagram.

It’s a completely different way to promote your SaaS brand’s narrative, and audiences always appreciate shiny new stuff.

Dynamic content like Stories allows you to engage your prospects immediately. And not to mention that your brand will soon get a reputation for being innovative.

Just like we said for LinkedIn: it pays to test some features first.

Takeaways

Experiment with new content formats and platforms, especially if they offer decent organic reach.

9. Run Smart Marketing Campaigns

Find strategic partners for every marketing campaign you intend on running.

This idea ties into the other people’s networks approach that has worked so well for brands in the past. Essentially, you’re leveraging influencers’ and platforms’ audiences to attract them to your own product.

Influencer marketing is pretty basic at this point. What you want to do to hack growth is run a dynamic, interactive campaign.

For example, an influencer could use your tool to launch their own contest. If you had an email marketing tool, they could send out a series of newsletters through your tool, showcasing all the features it offers.

If you want to boost your conversions, use gamification.

Gamification turns the process of using your tool into a game, complete with points, badges, and awards. It leads to much higher retention rates.

It’s also easy to integrate a referral scheme.

After making their first steps, users can be prompted to invite their friends and colleagues in exchange for points.

LinkedIn is the prime example of simple gamification.

Users are prompted to fill out their profiles with a visible completion bar.

They get points for every new step they finish, and it ultimately ends with inviting their friends to join them on the platform.

Finally, don’t be afraid to get your hands a little dirty.

Bidding on your competitors’ branded keywords is a great way to get more customers.

If your competitors are more established in the market, it pays to run a PPC campaign bidding on their brand terms.

Make sure you emphasize the differences between your tool and your competitors’ tools. For example, if you offer a free trial and they don’t, emphasize it.

To complement this strategy, you can also bid on your own terms.

When a potential customer sees your ad, they’ll look you up on Google. You want to seem trustworthy and direct them to the landing page they’re looking for.

Takeaways

Put a spin on your marketing campaigns, and make the most of other people’s networks. Don’t be afraid to bid on competitors’ keywords if you have a better offer.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of SaaS Growth Hacking in 2020

Some of the most renowned growth hacking examples come from what originally seemed as shady tactics. It may feel unfair to hijack your competitors’ audiences, or even to be upfront about what it’s like to found a brand new company.

But for every qualm, there is an example that shows how much customers love it.

Groove rapidly grew because they decided to be honest and upfront about their experience.

In a climate where all the SaaS companies were focusing on content marketing with how-to’s and tutorials, Groove decided to say: “Let’s cut the s#!&. This is what it’s really like.”

Consumers, it turns out, love honesty.

So while your initial response may be to start acting like your company has been in business for ages, there’s nothing wrong with showing your journey to your customers. There’s nothing wrong with showing your growth and improvement.

Ultimately, growth hacking is all about finding methods that haven’t been used before. Social media and paid advertising offer good results, but the true recipe for growth is virality.

And if you want to go viral, you have to get creative.

So let’s hack your growth!