The Founder and CEO at Artoh.com, Chris Choi, joined up with SaaS Mag to detail how SaaS businesses can take advantage of growth hacking.
Growth hacking is increasingly employed by SaaS businesses to gain rapid growth for minimal costs. Rather than following regular marketing routes to attract customers, growth hacking sees creative and radical marketing techniques employed to boost sign-ups and sales.
Although the growth hacking strategy will differ between companies, the intention remains the same. Increase traffic and gain more visitors, turn those visitors into customers, and then turn those customers into loyal returnees and brand advocates.
Growth hacking requires a considerable level of planning and a well-executed strategy and using a good eCommerce site can be invaluable. For example, using Artoh’s toolset you can gain valuable insight and intelligence on the success of your marketing strategies, including viewing click-through and sales conversion rates.
Here are some of the most effective ways SaaS businesses can use growth hacking to optimize business growth.
Influencer Reviews
One of the most effective ways of building your customer base is by partnering with influencers. Finding out which influencers have the most tremendous reach in a given industry niche is a good start.
Many influencers will be inundated with business requests to promote their products, so winning them over may be difficult. However, there are some ways in which you can make yourself stand out.
Follow them on all possible platforms. Influencers are all about the follows, and by checking out their content, you’ll begin to recognize whether or not they will work for your service. Then engage with their content. The only thing that matters more to an influencer than a follower is content engagement. Comment on their content, engage with live streams and get yourself seen.
Doing this hard work in advance will increase your chances of getting the influencer to engage with your service, promote it and open you up to an enormous new customer base.
Get Listed in Directories
Consumers enjoy the feeling of being ahead of the curve and sampling a start-up’s services or products before they become commonplace. However, they’re also notoriously savvy.
Rather than plunging in at the deep end, they will do their research before trying out a new company’s offering. Good reviews and ratings are essential for your business to grow and getting yourself listed on reputable online directories is a perfect way to build trust in your brand.
Good SaaS directories include Capterra, Trustpilot, DiscoverCloud, Ready SaaS Go, and SaaS Directory. Make your ratings and reviews public so potential customers know they’re getting a high-quality and verified service.
Use FAQs on your Website
Not long ago, FAQs were seen as an unnecessary add-on to websites. However, having good quality FAQs on your website is essential.
They should be created with your customers to provide them with helpful information and insight about your services. They’re an opportunity to turn visitors into customers by showing that you have their best interest at heart and understand their needs.
In addition, they help your website rank higher on search engines and act as a conduit for customers to delve deeper into your website. This helps persuade them unsuspectingly into your sales funnel.
Go with Long-Form and Short-Form Content
There was a school of thought in the recent past that anything between 500 and 800 words was the sweet spot for a blog post that would rank well on search engines.
However, that thinking has changed. SaaS companies have identified that anything over 800 words can be considered long form and that the longer a post is, the better it ranks.
Many SaaS brands find that content over 1800 words ranks exceptionally high, even up to 2500 words in some cases. The longer form content receives more natural traffic and shares and is more regularly backlinked in other posts.
Meanwhile, the old saying “less is more” also holds true, with micro-blogging on social media also ranking exceptionally well.
Make use of Live Chat Functionality
Believe it or not, live chat functions are highly desirable for customers visiting a website. As well as being an excellent conduit for qualifying sales leads and onboarding customers, it’s well-known that customers prefer live chat functions for interacting with SaaS businesses. It’s preferable to communicate by phone or email.
Response times are critical. The shorter the time a customer waits for a response, the more likely they will do business with you and provide positive feedback. In addition, the live chat function allows a rapport to be built between your business and your customer. You can react to their needs in real time while working on a solution that will bring in business.
Offer “Try Before you Buy” Trials
The best way for potential customers to gain confidence in your brand is to offer free trials or a freemium service. This is a scheme whereby they use your service for free but have to pay for specific add-ons.
This is an ideal approach where the customer can largely self-manage your service once they’ve been onboarded. Post-sales service costs are meager.
However, it’s important to remember that any customer that takes advantage of a freemium offer expects to be treated as well as paying clients. Impress them with your service’s functionality and make it a “must have” solution for their needs. They will be much more likely to pay for exclusive additional functionality, features, and add-ons.
In addition, this is an excellent way to get positive reviews and ratings on your services. Word of mouth is amongst the best advertising any business can hope to get, and good news travels fast.
AAARRR – Use Customer Analytics
AAARRR is the growth hacking funnel model. Traditional marketers focus on the first three letters in the acronym (Awareness, Acquisition, and Activation). The growth hacking funnel takes things further by turning the activated customer into repeat business.
The three Rs stand for Retention, Revenue, and Referral. Still, your business has managed to have the initial customer return, monetize them and then use them as an advocate for your service by referring other people to you.
Use KPIs and metrics to monitor the number of initial customers you have returned and reach out to them regularly. The more customers that remain with you, the greater your customer base and chances of onboarding more through referrals.
In Summary
Growth hacking has been proven to help businesses grow. Following these simple steps will help you increase your customer base, turn existing customers into returning customers, and most importantly, increase revenue.
