The 4 Best SaaS Growth Strategies We've Ever Seen

Why does it seem like your competitors are always one step ahead?

It's incredibly frustrating, isn't it?

The good news is that you're not alone. As an industry-leading growth team, we've worked alongside SaaS businesses and startups just like yours. And as a trusted growth partner, we're here to tell you that your brand has everything it needs to outpace the competition in no time at all. 

It almost sounds too good to be true, right?

To unlock rapid growth, you need to invest in the right SaaS growth strategies.

5 SaaS Growth Strategies to Scale Your Business

You've probably heard about a few of the SaaS growth strategies on our list.

But with so many strategies to choose from, how do you which one is right for your unique business or startup? To make matters even more complex, you need to know that there isn't a one-size-fits-all growth strategy.

Finding the right approach requires careful planning.

Here is a list of the most popular growth strategies for businesses and startups.

1. Referral Marketing

Nowadays, online shoppers are inundated with advertisements and pop-ups. Most buyers don't want to listen to businesses. Instead, they want to listen to the people that they know and trust. In fact, according to recent reports, 82% of buyers seek recommendations from people in their network before making a purchase.

For this reason, consumers have begun to prioritize referral marketing over many other marketing and communications strategies. This strategy encourages customers and advocates to refer prospects to your business.

Example: Dropbox has seen exponential growth through online referrals. The brand incentives referrals by granting customers extra storage space. Users can get 500 MB per referral and can earn up to 16 GB.

2. Outsourced Growth Team

Unfortunately, hiring an entire in-house team simply isn't the best move for every SaaS business or startup. Additionally, employee turnover makes it difficult to attract and retain top-tier talent. And it's not just lower-level employees who are changing jobs. In fact, CMOs last an average if 8.2 months.

So what's the solution?

Many businesses and startups choose to outsource growth.

However, you need to know that marketing agencies and outsourced growth teams are not the same. In fact, advertising agencies always recommend more advertisements; content agencies always recommend more content, and design agencies always recommend more redesigns.

Lean Labs is not a marketing agency. 

3. Paid Marketing

In recent years, paid marketing has become a go-to growth strategy for savvy SaaS organizations. In this scenario, brands make a considerable investment in paid online marketing through social media, display ads, retargeting, and more.

However, pouring money into a paid advertising campaign is destined to fail without a robust strategy. According to Rand Fishkin, Founder and CEO at SparkToro, "There's no trust, no recognition, and so the cost per click remains high and rising."

4. Crowdfunding

Finally, crowdfunding has given eager startups the ability to raise money fast. There are a number of crowdfunding platforms including, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe to help you kickstart your campaign.

However, the main risk of investment-based crowdfunding is that it's an incredibly slow funding process. Unfortunately, crowdfunding just isn't a fast or reliable source of financing. If your business needs quick cash, crowdfunding should not be your growth strategy of choice.

Forge Your Path to SaaS Growth Success

Unfortunately, your growth strategy of choice is only as strong as the team used to activate it. You need to know that the root cause of stagnant growth is a talent gap.

Hiring an in-house team of qualified professionals is a huge investment and it's difficult to scale. From recruiting and on-boarding to training and on-going support, hiring is a massive investment in time and capital.

For that reason, many businesses and startups choose to invest in an outsourced growth team. We take our clients through a three-phased approach to growth: plan, build, and grow. To get a sneak peek, download our free playbook: