Every SaaS business is on the lookout for more clients, and the first goal on their minds is getting those 100 leads. But acquiring your first leads century is more of an art than science.
You do not have customer databases to rely on, you don’t know what about your product most appeals to the customer, and in some cases, you may still be learning who your target audience is. Most of your strategies are based on trial and error, and you are looking to double down on things that customers respond to regularly.
Ideally, the tactics you should employ to get the First 100 Leads for Your SaaS Business should mix customer development and marketing. Each addition should help you dive deeper into identifying patterns of why they are interested in your product. Only with information from your first customers will you be able to accelerate your ROI.
Many startups pick paid advertising by default while trying to get their first customers. However, there are a variety of ways in which you can garner traction without having to spend vast amounts of money on online advertising.
Here’s our list of things you can do to get your first 100 leads fast:
Let your network know what you offer.
One way to get a head start on customer development is to get in touch with your network and ask them what it is they like about your product or why they think it might do well/ not do well in the market.
Most entrepreneurs make products based on a niche market where they already have a penetrative network. You could also DM or email people on your LinkedIn if they belong to the industry your product serves.
Often, it is surprising as to how many people are willing to help. Also, it’s easy to imagine that your product is the best and you have the best ideas ever. Still, customer and industry interviews play a pivotal role in validating or negating that perception and showing you the right direction towards improvement.
Market research on Twitter
You can find out about the pain points of your target audience if you only looked through a few industry-related Twitter handles or tags. You can search for your immediate competitors’ complaints and improve your product to solve those issues and give yourself the edge.
Directly approaching users who have complained about using the platform will give you insight into what did not work for them while using your competitor’s product. This way, you understand what your audience is looking for and realize how your audience is responding to their product.
Get on Quora
SaaS businesses often underestimate Quora as a lead generation tool. Because of Quora’s model, you can use it as a survey to find out what your target audience thinks about your product features, or you could answer their pain points by pitching your product.
Most of the people using Quora are college-educated people, with a majority coming from a tech background. Topics like business, computer programming, software engineering, and mobile are most followed on the website.
Not only do you find in-depth answers to your questions, but you can also figure out which answers resonate with other people by simply tallying the upvotes. Nexuses offers SaaS lead generation solutions that understand these little details, thanks to our years of experience in delivering clients with their first 100 leads.
Start a blog
Every product needs a story, and good stories are written down. Starting a blog will help you discuss the various features of your products and how they are the leading solutions to the industry’s current problems.
It will also magnify your online presence by driving more traffic to your website and increasing product awareness. When you create high-quality content on your website, you make a long-term investment that will slowly snowball into more credibility, trust, and authority in your industry.
A solid content marketing strategy is a great lead generation solution, especially if it is designed with the right calls-to-action and ranks with the relevant keywords.
Qualify your leads using customer development tools
Courtesy- Survey Monkey
Many marketers use tools like SurveyMonkey to find out more about their customers. However, you can use these same tools to boost your number of leads as well.
If you are already sure about your customer persona, you can ask a qualifying question right at the blog’s beginning. Suppose your product offers the best solutions to real estate developers, then the qualifying question could be, “Are you a real estate developer looking to increase your sales?”
When they click yes, you can ask them for their email address to help them with a free demo. This way, you have already generated the lead even before they have stepped inside your website!
Also Read: How Data-Driven Marketing Strategy Help Maximize ROI
Generate social proof
FOMO is one of the most effective marketing techniques you can ever use. If you already have your first few customers, send out customer acquisition press releases and follow them up with testimonials from them.
If they are happy with their product and its results, ask them to press release on it. Also, start building rapport with media people that focus specifically on your industry and get paid features you have the budget for it.
These tactics will help you generate word-of-mouth faster, and once people in the industry started hearing about the new product that is taking over, they will want a piece of the pie.
Offer a free trial.
Statistically, over 40% of SaaS companies offer free trials to their customers. This allows them to compete with established brands, reel in customers, and gain crucial feedback on what they think about the product.
You can offer a product tester in its beta stages to your initial users to generate more word-of-mouth attention from your target audience. Many startups have found their success via recommendations made by their beta testers.
Just ensure that you offer your free product testing to companies with a particular influence over the industry you are targeting.
Launch your product through an email-list
Email lists provide a virtual sales guarantee when done right by SaaS customers. If you do not already have an email list, you can build it from scratch. One way to do so would be to approach industry insiders on social media and then add them to your list.
Once you have a sizable list ready, you can use the below strategy to gain sales momentum.
- Use the first email to educate and relate to your audience. Discuss the industry’s pain points and give them a teaser about how you think you can solve them.
- In the subsequent email, describe your product in greater detail. Talk about its features and how it is perfect for the industry you are targeting.
- Launch your product to your email list. You can add hooks like free trials or a live demo to get your audience’s attention.
- Educate them once more about how your product is now solving the industry problems for your other clients who are their competitors.
- Finally, hard sell with the last email. Create urgency, offer limited period discounts, and persuade them to buy now or lose out on a great deal.
A structured but straightforward email launching strategy like this can get your business the jumpstart it needs to Get the First 100 Leads for Your SaaS Business faster.
Host a webinar
Webinars are an effective tool for gaining more clients. The only thing you must keep in mind is to add more value to those who are attending it. You can pick a live webinar or pre-record it according to your convenience.
Here are some of the things that make an excellent webinar:
- Go for a specific, industry-related topic that highlights a real pain point that people face.
- If possible, bring in experienced and credible speakers, people who have been in the industry for a long time.
- Keep the best bits for the last so that people stick through the entire webinar.
- Try not to exceed an hour unless you already know that it is what the audience wants.
- Leave time in the end for a Q&A session. If it is a pre-recorded webinar, have a form link at the end to address any queries that viewers might have.
- Follow-up with your viewers. Ask them for feedback on whether it was helpful or what else they would like to see in the webinar.
- Pitch your product and present it well. Do not host a webinar without a script, even if you are a TED speaker. The idea is to eliminate any fluff at all.
Give yourself time. Your initial webinars might not be an instant hit. But with feedback and effort, it will improve and give you a distinct voice in the market worth the wait.
Offer non-competing products with a similar audience to collaborate.
If you want to build upon your customer base fast, the best way to do it is to collaborate with other non-competing products that target a similar audience. Ask them if you could guest post on their website or if they want to do so on yours.
This will create more backlinks and get you noticed by a broader base in very little time. Also, if it is already a brand people trust, you will borrow some of it and add more credibility to your name.
Using our definitive list of tips will help you get the First 100 Leads for Your SaaS Business and customers. However, if you do not have the marketing bandwidth and have just started, we at Nexuses can help you achieve your targets faster. Our SaaS lead generation solutions will build your brand using more such techniques and bring you more qualified leads in lesser time.
Also Read: 9 Ideas for Engaging Reels Videos
Want to find out all the ten ways you can use to get your first 100 leads? Read the full blog in the link below.
In Conclusion
Apart from these essential things every business owner must know that It doesn’t have to cost you a fortune to create Get the First 100 Leads for Your SaaS Business, You can make more of an impact for less money with our on-demand Lead Generation services.
Our on-demand Lead Generation solution is crafted to increase conversion rates, boosting the value of your business.
