SaaS Strategists,

I was on a call with one of our clients in the previous week.

He was stuck at a pretty decent level but wanted to unlock that further growth potential.

We talked a bit about what would be the main thing to focus on in order to improve his product at this stage.

He understands that nothing can happen overnight and in order for a SaaS to start reaping rewards, we need to be patient.

We also need to rely on a set of strategies that work in synergy in order to achieve the growth and the numbers we’re all aiming towards.

So today I wanted to share 5 SaaS secrets nobody talks about but can be one of the core drivers of new customers to your product.

Let’s dive in 👇️ 

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5 SaaS Secrets Nobody Talks About

Reading time: 3 minutes

As mentioned in the intro - these “secrets” are just well-known base layers that got left in the dust with all of the fancy marketing stunts happening left and right.

So I want to make the true nature of SaaS scaling make its comeback.

Hope you learn something new!

1) UI & UX Simplicity is key

Given these UI screens, which one would you approve for further development?

I know, it’s a stupid question.

But not as stupid as you think.

You see,

SaaS founders who are long past the startup phase forget this.

And start to cram their software with so much new tooling that it becomes just a cluttered mess.

I understand everything, new users, new requests, growth, etc.

But let’s try and divert back to the beginnings and why you started in the first place.

Those founders who can continue building their product like they are in the startup phase, even though they are long past it, will win in the long run.

Having a startup or a lean-building mentality helps you understand that growth isn’t just slapping a new fancy feature on the dashboard.

It means that you’re still thinking about not making a mess out of your product.

UI & UX on its own can be a core driver of new customers to your product.

I’ve seen countless examples of people just switching over to a competitor just because “they have a cleaner UI”.

Please please please don’t skip this part.

2) Ecosystemizing your audience

Let’s face it, we all want our customers locked in our ecosystem.

Apple is the best example of this.

Not only does every device work in perfect harmony but you also create customer trust and integrate with other apps as well.

Now with SaaS I’m not talking about device compatibility.

I’m talking about APIs and Marketplaces.

By building an external-facing API and an integration marketplace, you leverage other products to work in your favor.

Other developers can submit integrations to your marketplace, or just create them with Zapier in the first place.

You can read all about ecosystems and when it’s time to implement them here:

3) Community-led marketing

You may not have heard this exact phrase, but here’s what I mean:

1) You create a great product that your initial users love to use.

2) You create a community on Reddit, Quora, or Skool and allow users to create their own discussions.

3) You implement a system in your product that gives the customers a reason to discuss and share (Think Notion templates, Zapier zaps, Slack integrations).

4) You let your users become your ambassadors - share discussions, and resources and even create Youtube videos to educate potential new customers.

5) You listen to the conversations closely and implement the biggest pain points you notice in the discussion.

By giving your users what they need and motivating them to talk about your product you gain a competitive advantage over other competitors that aren’t forming communities and bonding their users.

This obviously takes time, so be patient and try to build a loyal user base from day 1.

04) Viral loops

Similar to community-led marketing, viral loops are product features that help you gain new customers through existing ones.

I’ll give one example in this issue but you can find many more online.

Referrals.

I always talk about them.

Here are the numbers of how referrals helped some SaaS companies make it big:

Dropbox grew by 3900% in 15 months just by implementing referrals.

Airtable grew by 233% by implementing referrals.

Notion relied on word-of-mouth and organic growth to acquire its first 1000 users. It did not spend any money on marketing or advertising.

So simple, yet so effective.

5) Product Led Growth

In product-led companies, it’s all about describing why you need specific features and how they will solve your problems.

Product Led Growth approach is simply letting your product speak for itself.

The product should be so good your customers start to talk about it on its own and thus the user base grows.

Of course this is easier said than done, so here are some examples from which you can draw inspiration from:

Zapier

Zapiers product led growth approach revolves around a tight feedback loop.

They figured out how to make surveys into their platform to adapt it to their users’ needs. 

They do this by conducting surveys on new features they’re releasing. The data is then “zapped” into an Airtable spreadsheet.

When the data meets specific criteria, it’s then zapped into another Airtable spreadsheet that forms a list for personal interviews. 

This helped Zapier collect feedback fast, and release the features they customers NEEDED, not the ones they thought would be “cool to have”.

Typeform

Typeform is another great example of the PLG approach.

Their onboarding process isn’t about signing up to use the product but about creating the product while you onboard.

The whole onboarding process takes about 2-3 minutes, and you arrive at the home screen with your survey almost completed.

I would advise that you check out ProductLed if you’re serious about your Product Led Growth here:

I hope you enjoyed today's issue of SaaS Strats.

Feel free to send me an email with your thoughts and if you think I should include some interesting examples in the next edition.

Until then, keep on SaaS’n.

I’ll see you in the next one!

Ognjen Gatalo

Chief SaaS Strategist ☁️