A fated irony that all early-stage startups go through is that they have a lot of interesting insights and information to share, but they often lack the budget to do so.
That seems fair, considering you’re only just getting started, and you haven’t been named a unicorn startup for investors to come flocking to you.
So, what can you do instead? You rely on marketing as the obvious answer.
Marketing, even with a smaller budget, if done correctly, can create a huge impact. Just take a page out from Zoho’s referral marketing and Userlist’s “Help Founders” ad campaigns.
Although these marketing campaigns were created on a limited budget, they were able to raise awareness (and ultimately sales) for SaaS brands.
So, here are a few tactics you can apply to get wonderful results with marketing in an early-stage SaaS startup.
Let’s dive in.
1. Study the market
Before you even begin strategizing a marketing campaign, research everything about:
Your target audiences (their triggers, buying behaviors, pain points, etc.)
Your competitors (their tone, preferred social channels, and how they connect with their audiences)
The market (trends, industry best practices, buyer personas, etc.)
To ensure you don’t waste marketing dollars when creating campaigns, treat the mistakes of your competitors as a learning experience.
However, don’t completely rely on what your competitor does. Try to find out how your audience perceives your brand and how they position you against your competitors and then create marketing campaigns accordingly.
For example, MailChimp, after listening to a popular podcast where a 13-year-old girl had trouble pronouncing “MailChimp” and instead called the brand “MailKimp,” created a “Did you mean MailChimp” campaign.
Because the campaign was so hyper-relevant, it created waves among its customer base, went on to win several awards, and is still regarded as one of the best campaigns undertaken by a SaaS brand.
💡 Need help with marketing at an early stage? Book a mentor session with Andriy Zapisotskyi!
2. Find out the channels that work for you and lean on best practices
Next up is to identify which channels work best for you. For example, a majority of your customers may be active on LinkedIn, as opposed to Twitter.
Or, your strengths might lie with a particular channel. For example, using Instagram entails relying on beautiful imagery to get attention, so consider using an Instagram logo maker for an aesthetic design. So, find out which channels work best for you and then double down on your investment there.
One of the best ways to ensure you get the most bang for your buck is to optimize by using best practices. Consider factors like content length, posting time, variance, media to be added, topics, and content type (e.g., video, images, text posts).
You can keep up with brands like Search Engine Journal and Social Media Examiner, or follow influencers that operate in the social media management space to learn how to optimize your presence on social channels.
Here’s a pro tip for you: Always rely on the nativity of each channel. For example, email marketing is best for sending personalized email content and segregating subscriber lists to boost engagement.
Similarly, blogs are best for long-form, LinkedIn for medium-sized, and Twitter for short-form content. The structure and tones used on every marketing channel should ideally differ, too.
3. Make existing customers happy
Not all customers and niches are created equal. And in today’s day and age, there’s no proof that the 5x rule to acquire customers still holds true.
Even still, there’s one thing everyone can agree on: it’s easier to sell to existing customers than it is to get new customers, regardless of the kind of customers you have and the industry you belong to.
So, here are a few small and easy ways to keep existing customers happy:
Offer them incentives and perks (e.g., you can create Slack groups for loyal customers like Glossier, partner with a courier service company to provide same-day shipment, and send personalized marketing materials).
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Send them free goodies on special occasions to let them know you appreciate them or a heartfelt gift during a time of loss (e.g., Chewy sends customers a flower delivery for condolences when they lose their furry family members).
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Most important of all, ensure their data is secure. When you integrate with third-party systems, data security is one of the biggest concerns. To manage these risks, you can use popular security providers like SAML and OAuth (however, first compare SAML vs OAuth to know which solution fits best for your organization).
💡 Need help with marketing at an early stage? Book a mentor session with Andriy Zapisotskyi!
4. Keep the spotlight on your employees
Another quick and easy way to build awareness about your service is to keep the spotlight on your employees. This is a two-step procedure, and here’s what I mean by this:
Step 1: Focus on building their personal brand
Building a personal brand can offer many benefits for your company. Think of Elon Musk and the rise of Tesla. Safe to say that the product was popular because of Elon Musk, correct?
In a similar vein, if you build a personal brand for yourself, you can be trusted as an authority figure in your niche and hence bring quality leads for your SaaS brand.
Aside from just building authority, a personal brand also gets you noticed. For example, if Dharmesh Shah (co-founder of HubSpot) spoke about a product vs. if a stranger on the internet spoke about a product, who would you be more likely to listen to? The expert you know, right?
One quick way to build a personal brand is to share valuable insights and thought-leadership content on social channels.
You can also host webinars or events with other brands (e.g., if your product integrates with Slack, you and Slack can arrange a webinar together). Another thing to consider is getting other founders on board to ask for their perspective and insights (think of the Meaningful campaign by Typeform).
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Alternatively, you can also interact with your customers or prospects in these webinars and help them address their pain points. Doing so will also provide insights into the questions and pain points your customers have (which might help you create relevant marketing material).
Step 2: Ensure that you provide an excellent work atmosphere
Let’s be real: A happy office atmosphere speaks volumes. For example, if you provide excellent benefits, a good environment, and a terrific salary, your employees are bound to voluntarily praise your brand in front of other colleagues, family, friends, and acquaintances.
What would this result in? Free publicity of your product, of course.
However, many early-stage startups don’t have an HR department to guarantee the welfare of employees.
5. Keep conversations interesting
The conversations you’re a part of eventually decide how your brand is perceived. For example, McKinsey and Deloitte are known for always producing thought-leadership content and research studies.
To ensure that your product reaches the eyes of the masses, you’ll need to make your content engaging and easy to share. This also means that you’ll need to be a part of interesting conversations and will always have to take the baton of industry standards and trends ahead.
6. Provide value through your content
Yes, keeping the conversations interesting is imperative. However, you’ll also need to ensure that the content you share is as valuable as possible. You can do so by adding:
Examples and anecdotes
Subject-matter expertise
A new angle
Insights on future trends
Another important thing to consider is how you write and structure your content. For example, if you write in a conversational or humorous way, people are more likely to share your content.
Case in point: ZenDesk produced two videos two years ago, both a minute long. One was titled “Champions of many happy returns,” and the other was named “Champions of customer service featuring Lovepop.”
The former used humor and got 3.5 million views. Whereas the latter was more formal and only got 3.1k views.
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So, the lesson here is to keep conversations valuable and interesting so people can quote you and share your stuff (you’ll also end up building links organically, so it’s a win-win for you).
7. Affiliate marketing may be your best friend
Onto the last point — don’t forget the importance of affiliate marketing. As an early-age startup with a cash crunch, you may often want to shell out money on the marketing strategies that guarantee leads. So, you may use PPC ads.
However, another thing you can consider is affiliate marketing. Here are your two options:
Option #1: Make your existing customers into affiliates like Zoho did.
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Option #2: Partner with micro-influencers who have a steady presence in your niche and make them your brand’s affiliates (I suggest partnering with micro-influencers because they show the highest ROI).
How can I help?
To make your products stick with the audience, there are many variables to consider in product development, capital raising, branding, and marketing in early-stage startups.
Many startup founders worry that making one wrong move will create a domino effect and take their entire business down.
It’s easy to get stressed, overwhelmed, and feel like imposter syndrome is taking over.
I get it. I’ve been there too.
And if you’re interested in learning what I can do for you, book a session with me on MentorCruise now.
Till next time!