7 Tried-and-True Strategies SaaS Businesses Are Using to Grow

The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry is booming. Gartner predicts SaaS revenue will reach $151 billion by 2022, a 19% compound annual growth rate over the period 2019-2022. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated cloud adoption, with 59% of enterprises expecting cloud usage to exceed prior plans due to COVID-19.

For SaaS startups and scale-ups, this presents a massive opportunity. But it also brings intensifying competition. Succeeding in SaaS today requires not just a great product, but also smart and sustainable growth strategies.

Having worked with dozens of SaaS businesses, I‘ve seen firsthand what separates the companies that break out from those that stall out. The fastest growing SaaS businesses are ruthlessly focused on experimenting and optimizing their growth levers.

In this post, I‘ll share seven proven growth strategies that leading SaaS companies are using to rise above the pack. For each one, we‘ll dive into specific tactics and examples you can steal for your own business. Let‘s jump in.

1. Develop a Content Marketing Engine

If there‘s one growth channel that nearly every successful SaaS company invests in, it‘s content marketing. And for good reason: content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing but generates three times as many leads.

Effective SaaS content marketing spans multiple formats, including:

• Blog posts and articles
• Ebooks, guides and white papers
• Webinars and videos
• Case studies and customer stories
• Infographics and original research

The key is to create content that resonates with your target buyers and helps them solve real business problems. The best SaaS content educates, inspires and persuades.

For example, Moz built its reputation largely on the strength of its content. Its Whiteboard Friday video series features SEO experts sharing actionable tips, and has earned a devoted following of marketers. The Moz Blog is also widely regarded as a go-to resource, with in-depth guides on everything from keyword research to link building.

Another great example is Intercom‘s Inside Intercom blog and podcast. By sharing behind-the-scenes stories and lessons learned, it‘s fostered a community of SaaS product and marketing enthusiasts. Over 50% of Intercom‘s customer base visits the blog every month.

To build your own SaaS content engine:

• Invest in a strong in-house content team. Hire experienced writers and editors who can produce high-quality, on-brand content at scale.

• Leverage subject matter experts. Tap your executives, product leaders, and customers for content ideas and contributions.

• Establish a regular publishing cadence. Consistency is key with content marketing. Aim to publish at least one new piece of content per week.

• Amplify your content‘s reach. Share your content across all your distribution channels, including email, social media, communities and paid promotion. And don‘t neglect SEO (more on that below).

2. Make Product Trials Irresistible

For most SaaS products, the free trial is the most powerful tool for acquiring new customers. Trials give prospects a taste of your product‘s value without requiring a big up-front commitment.

According to Totango, 70% of SaaS companies offer a free trial. And for good reason: the average conversion rate from free trial to paid is 15-20%.

To maximize free trial conversions, you need to make signup as frictionless as possible. Stripe increased trial conversions by 10% simply by reducing the number of form fields on their signup flow from six to two.

But getting users to start a trial is only half the battle. To convert them into paying customers, you need to deliver value as quickly as possible. That means investing heavily in user onboarding and customer success.

Grammarly is a good example. Its AI-powered writing assistant helps free users improve their writing within minutes. It then nudges engaged users to upgrade to unlock advanced features. This product-led growth approach has fueled Grammarly‘s rise to over 20 million daily active users.

Some argue that asking for a credit card up front will boost trial-to-paid conversions. But this creates extra friction and can deter signups. A better approach is to prompt for payment info only after a user has experienced meaningful value in their trial.

There‘s also a debate around the ideal trial length. Shorter trial windows create urgency, while longer trials give users more time to build a habit around your product. The right length depends on your product‘s complexity and time-to-value. As a general rule, 14-30 days works well for most SaaS products.

3. Optimize for Organic Search

With 68% of online experiences starting with a search engine, ranking well on Google is a high-leverage growth opportunity for SaaS companies. Organic search is especially valuable because the traffic is both high-intent and "earned" (as opposed to paid).

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex and ever-evolving discipline. But at a high level, it involves three key pillars:

1. Keyword research – Identifying the search queries your target customers are using to find solutions like yours. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can help with this.

2. On-page optimization – Incorporating target keywords naturally into your page titles, headings, URL structure, and body copy. And ensuring your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to crawl.

3. Link building – Earning high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites, which act as "votes" that boost your domain authority and rankings. Natural link acquisition is ideal, but you can also proactively build links via PR, guest posting and other outreach.

For a great example of SaaS SEO, look no further than HubSpot. Its Blog is a masterclass in matching content to search intent and optimizing for snippets. HubSpot has also built a robust library of free tools that naturally attract links.

Another stellar example is Zapier. Its blog ranks for over 2,000 featured snippets on topics related to productivity and automation. And its app directory of over 2,000 integrations is a link-building goldmine.

Some key SaaS SEO tips:

• Focus on bottom-funnel keywords. Don‘t just chase high-volume keywords. Prioritize those that indicate commercial intent, like "best" lists, pricing pages, and comparison keywords.

• Optimize your free trial landing page. Often your most linked-to page, it‘s crucial to optimize your trial page for converting both search traffic and direct referral traffic.

• Build free tools. Like HubSpot, you can attract top-of-funnel search traffic and links with useful free tools related to your product.

• Leverage content hubs. Create dedicated content hubs around your brand‘s core topics to build authority and rank for competitive keywords over time.

4. Incentivize Word-of-Mouth

Getting your happy customers to spread the word remains one of the most powerful growth levers in SaaS. According to a study by Ogilvy, 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision.

Systematizing word-of-mouth via a referral program is a key strategy that leading SaaS companies use to lower acquisition costs and boost growth.

The most effective referral programs are easy for customers to understand and share. They offer compelling incentives for both the referrer and the referred friend. And they leverage referral tools to embed the program across key sharing channels.

Dropbox is the classic example of viral SaaS referral growth. Its famous referral program offered extra storage space to both referrers and referees. At its peak, referrals increased Dropbox signups by 60% permanently.

Evernote grew to 100 million users largely on the strength of its cross-device referral program. Referring a friend from desktop unlocked a free month of Evernote Premium, while a mobile referral earned up to six months free.

Some key tactics for a high-performing referral program:

• Make it a win-win. Two-sided referral incentives tend to convert at 3-5x the rate of one-sided incentives. Consider offering a discount or upgrade to both parties.

• Embed sharing everywhere. Include referral CTAs across your key marketing channels. Don‘t just bury it in a menu.

• Test your incentives and messaging. Experiment to find the optimal referral reward. It needs to be valuable enough to drive action, without being so generous that it erodes your margins.

• Make it easy to share. Provide pre-written copy and images referrers can use. And streamline the referral flow to minimize steps. Ideally, referees can sign up directly from the referral link without a separate invite.

5. Experiment with Paid Acquisition

While inbound channels like content and organic search are powerful, layering on paid acquisition can help you scale more aggressively. The key is to nail your unit economics. You need to ensure your customer acquisition costs (CAC) are significantly lower than your customer lifetime value (LTV).

Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the default starting points for most SaaS businesses. Both offer granular targeting options and the ability to start small. With Google Ads, you can reach high-intent searchers. With Facebook, you can target very specific personas.

For B2B SaaS products, LinkedIn Ads are also worth testing. You can target buyers by job title, seniority, company size, industry and more. Sponsored InMail tends to get the best response rates.

To get the most from your paid acquisition budget:

• Focus on bottom-funnel search keywords. Bids for competitive terms like "best project management software" can quickly get expensive. Consider more targeted long-tail keywords that reflect high purchase intent.

• Optimize your Quality Score. On Google Ads, the higher your Quality Score, the lower your cost per click. Tightly match your ad copy and landing page to the searcher‘s intent.

• A/B test your creative and targeting. Constantly test new ad variations and audience segments. Even small improvements in clickthrough and conversion rates can have a big impact at scale.

• Have tracking in place. Ensure you‘re tracking the full user journey across signup, activation, and revenue. Most SaaS businesses aim for a 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio to be able to scale spend.

• Retarget engaged users. Laser in on past website visitors and product users to boost conversions. You can tailor your retargeting ads based on the specific actions they took.

6. Find the Right Co-Marketing Partners

In the hyper-competitive world of SaaS, partnering with adjacent companies can be a massive growth lever. Co-marketing allows you to tap into a partner‘s audience and lend credibility to your brand.

The key is to identify partners who share your target customer profile but aren‘t competitive to your core product. Typically, these are companies whose products integrate well with yours and can provide mutual value to each other‘s users.

HubSpot has executed co-marketing partnerships masterfully. Its integration with Shopify allows the two platforms to cross-promote and help their shared e-commerce customers. Similarly, HubSpot has joint content and events with partners like Atlassian, Slack and SurveyMonkey.

To get co-marketing right:

• Define clear co-marketing goals and KPIs. Align with your partner on what you‘re trying to achieve and how you‘ll measure success. Typical goals include leads generated, cross-signups, or revenue share.

• Create co-branded assets. Work with your partner to develop truly valuable content and resources your shared audience will appreciate. Interactive tools, templates, and original research tend to perform best.

• Co-host an event or webinar. Partnering on a joint event or webinar series is a great way to attract a qualified audience and showcase combined expertise. Repurpose the content into an ongoing demand generation asset.

• Explore joint solutions. If there‘s a strong fit, consider developing an integration or joint solution you can package and sell together.

The best co-marketing partnerships are true win-wins. Both partners should be equally bought in and see tangible business results.

7. Win Back Visitors with Retargeting

With the average website conversion rate hovering around 2%, it‘s crucial to have a strategy for re-engaging the 98% of visitors who don‘t convert on their first visit. That‘s where retargeting comes in.

Retargeting is a form of paid advertising that allows you to show ads to users who‘ve previously interacted with your website or mobile app. You can retarget users across search, social media, and display networks.

For SaaS businesses, some key retargeting use cases include:

• Targeting free trial users and nudging them to convert
• Upselling freemium users on a paid subscription
• Promoting gated content like an ebook to blog visitors
• Driving registrations to a webinar or product demo

The key to effective retargeting is segmentation. Align your retargeting creative and calls-to-action with each user‘s stage in your funnel. A user who abandoned your pricing page should see different messaging than a user who only read a top-of-funnel blog post.

Ensure your ad frequency is high enough to keep your brand top-of-mind, but not so high that you overwhelm or annoy your audience. A good rule of thumb is to cap your impressions at 15-20 per user per month.

It‘s also important to exclude converted users from your retargeting campaigns. Nothing erodes trust faster than serving ads to existing customers promoting a product they‘re already paying for. Burn pixels help prevent this.

Finally, don‘t neglect mobile-web and in-app retargeting. The majority of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. Platforms like AdRoll and Liftoff allow you to convert mobile bounces just like you would on desktop.

The Compounding Effect of SaaS Growth Strategies

In isolation, each of these seven growth strategies can deliver meaningful results for a SaaS business. But the real magic happens when you layer them together as a holistic system.

Content fuels SEO, which fuels retargeting, which fuels free trials. Referrals shorten your sales cycles, while co-marketing partnerships open up new distribution channels. Paid acquisition can be reinvested as you earn back your unit economics.

The SaaS businesses that reach escape velocity don‘t just rely on one or two growth levers. They‘re continually experimenting and optimizing across all of them. They stay laser focused on moving the needle on key inputs that compound over time.

Growing a SaaS business is never a straight line, and what worked in the past may not work forever. But if you invest in these seven proven growth strategies—and commit to ongoing iteration—you‘ll put yourself in the best position to succeed over the long haul.

What other growth strategies are you seeing leading SaaS companies use? Any key tactics I missed? Let me know on Twitter [@yourname].