Ask HN: How to sell SaaS? Hi there, Me and my co-founder built an analytics SaaS. We now need to sell it. Next to doing press releases and advertising, we want to use affiliate marketing and are busy with a white label program. Do you have other suggestions on sales/marketing? I also wonder how Campaignmonitor and Mailchimp boosted their sales. Anyone knows? Thanks! |
- create web visitors badges for your users to embed in their website. WOW work best!
- difficult pricing models for different groups of users, less than 200k visitors(free), paid versions for more than 200k visitors. targeted is easier to sell.
- do more videos on these themes; how to use it step by step guide? how this service bring in actual sales for your customers or you? need to see just by paying a few bucks, user is able to bing in hundreds or thousands for their businesses.
- paid version for another who does a review of your services on their blog, this won't hurt you now, there is no need to scale anything now.
- if you have no list, it's not likely that Campaignmonitor/Mailchimp will be any useful to you. even if you have a list, if it is not targeted, it's not useful too. current CTR is only at 0.3%, just imagine how many emails you need to convert emails to leads and then to sales.
-become an expert in real life. Contact conferences related to your speciality and offer to give a presentation on a relevant topic. Contact publications and offer to write a "business forum"-type feature.
-become an expert online. Make an online presence (blog, twitter, etc.) and make sure to refer
-If your product has reasonably wide appeal, business reporters are always looking for easy profile stories. Call your local paper and any locally based business magazines or tabloids.
-If you can find a PR agent who fits your price range and has good connections, he/she can do the work of getting you speaking engagements, profiles, articles, etc. A lot of PR agents simply send out form letters and press releases so make sure they give you a clear plan of attack before you sign up.
- Do some case studies including before and after scenarios on existing clients
- Referral programs can work great. reach out to your existing clients (if any) and ask them for their help
Best of luck!
This will: 1) allow you to set a price for new customer signups. 2) likely get free advertising on blogs of some of your users.
Shameless plug: ping me for an invite code for our custom, white labeled affiliate software.
PR / Advertising: A great free resource is HARO (helpareporter.com). Signup and receive mailings on reporters looking for stories, you can get great, free PR from them.
Also, signup your company in directories and comment on blogs. There are a bunch of directories (crunchbase, big startups, etc..) these are potentially valuable backlinks and will bring users to your site and increase your SEO.
Good Luck!
Thanks for all suggestions
Any ideas on relevant advertising? Reddit maybe?