Marketing
How To Market A New Product For SaaS Startups
One of the most common mistakes startups make is not prioritizing marketing. Hear me out… I’m not asking you to set 90% of your budget to marketing because PLEASE. Your products must be irresistible to make your marketing strategies work.
I’m also not saying you need to spend a huge sum because there are ways to market your products without spending a lot.
1. Collaborate with thought-leaders
I collaborated with a few SaaS startups so I know how important this is. I’m not a “thought leader” but I built an audience of almost 7,000 marketers, business owners, and freelancers on Instagram.
So, I know how efficient this strategy is. Since SaaS startups are usually targeting people in a certain industry, it’s easy to find the relevant people who can help you.
Let’s say you have an app for paid ads. The most basic thing to do is to collaborate with influencers or thought leaders in that niche. An educator, I would say. Don’t collaborate with lifestyle influencers if you’re expecting sign-ups. You’ll probably have more reach, which can be relevant depending on your goal.
But again, you should collaborate with those who have the same audiences as your target ones. If you’re confused, circle back to your product. Who are your target users?
Before you launch your product, give access to those key leaders so they can vouch for your company. Also, it ensures that by the time you launch your product, there are already people who know about it.
2. Talk about your product. Everywhere.
Okay, this is not easy because you need to build a personal brand or your company must have a strong online presence. But it’s important to build an online presence AND audience even before you launch your product.
For example, you can include your audience and give them a sneak peek of what’s about to come. This also allows you to get some insights so you can apply them while building the product. If you have a personal brand, you might also get help from others. This is what I personally do as someone who builds her portfolio. When a founder is building something, I offer some help as a network. You might find someone who’s willing to give or share resources, too.
The point is to hype your product BEFORE launch. This includes posting behind the scenes, involving your audience, reaching out to your network, joining a podcast, email blasting, and more.
This will help you start seeing results before or on the day of the product launch. Because if you start building an online presence or marketing when it’s launched, you have to give it a long time before seeing the results you want.
3. Utilize communities
Communities are the key to steering the algorithm (and I stand by this). You can skip the technical side of social media and hop on to building a genuine, value-based relationship with online communities.
Here’s what you’re going to do:
Go to platforms that allow users to create and join groups. Some examples are LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, and Slack. If you choose to join a community or niche (but not a literal social media group), that also works. But again, you must have an online presence to get more attention within the startup or business realm.
You have two choices: Create your own group or join an existing one.
Joining an existing one means the group is already established. There are rules you need to follow but you can definitely start posting right away. Creating your own includes setting up, encouraging others to join, and managing the page. A lot of work, yes. But will benefit your brand.
Whatever your choice is, you need to focus on the content you’ll post within those groups. Here is a framework that I made (and follow) to make it easier for you to communicate in groups.
This framework got me this result within days of posting.
These are the results of 2 LinkedIn group posts. One is a carousel post sharing some resources, and the next is a project of mine asking for feedback. But in between, I make sure to leave comments and insights on other people’s posts.
That’s how you can utilize a community when building a product. They will be your first users, supporters, and customers. It’s like looking at people within your turf.
Disclaimer: There are different factors that make you and your business successful. Take this article as an opinion and I don’t take any liability in case you act on these tips.
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