Ask me about SaaS marketing

@bahar_ozkan I will share my perspective with details you have given. First comes PMF, then ICP has to be found in the market where product fits itself. So my take is, assumed/hypothetical PMF is what makes us build the product in the first place, hence we should validate the hypothesis and should make corrections and then narrow down to ICPs. So SLG with outbound emails and direct marketing to potential TG is the step to validate the fit of the product and I recommend getting first few customers from there. The results might be slow, for faster turn around search ads for high intent transactional keywords should help. These are channels of my preference if PMF is yet to be validated. Then comes pricing strategy for early adopters. Once PMF is seen, other channels could be started. Hope that answers your questions, would love discuss further if you have questions

@vivek_equp CRM is red ocean, unless you sub categorize that for SaaS effectively in communication and solve SaaS related problems to manage customers.

@vivek_equp snr at saasconsult.co is my email, Were you able to spot my message on linkedin message?

@vivek_equp Sure! sent a message on linkedin

@sathish_nagarajan didn't get your message 😕

@jos_bish Finalize on which department or designation you want to interact with in SaaS industry, mostly they are available in channels like communities, networks, or through email. Depending on the channel you finalize, content frequency has to change, for eg: if its thought leadership from your personal handle, you can publish as much as you want/could, because social networks love people who create more (only thing is it should be interesting), initial traction will be less, but consistent production for 30-45 days will increase your reach. If you choose community target you should engage on others's content and tailor every piece (like I do here :D) Additional note: I assume that you already know content marketing is ToFU (Top of the funnel), so not immediate turn out, however nurturing can happen 1. Know your ICP 2. If not know or assume your TG to find the ICP, based on the problem you solve 3. Find where they hangout, usually communities 4. Engage with them regularly on their content thats how the traction on your content can happen 5. or go with outbound email newsletter - cold, but works

@hacksman Quickly is subjective, if quickly means within as low as 1-15 days of launch below are applicable 1. product problem is well established - this is only possibly if you are solving a pain point that you have been facing and has been an issue with all peers, which could lead you to ICP 2. Approach - has to be PLG 3. Simple product to start - no big decision cycles and would start with throwaway money 4. Pricing model 5. Getting right channels - paid ads or community if you already are engaging well in one or you have a followership Above pointers work in different combinations, hence carefully planning it out could get you 100 customers quickly. Marketing efforts should be well planned and should have cascading effect one after another.

@sathish_nagarajan Thank you very much

@markk0217 Happy to connect Markk, feel free to engage and agree/disagree and debate in this thread with people who ask questions in the thread, curious to know your views as well.

@jj_ You need to narrow down the TG from business and startups to which business or startup category you want to focus and find who is customer (means who will make payment), and find where they are in group, how to reach them (channels identification), choose cost effective channels, and create a communication and offering they will hesitate to avoid and make them signup. this is generic but step by step explanation, perhaps may makes sense retrospectively, some steps could be skipped and changed according to situation.

@leolu Organic SEO - min 90 - 180 days of effort Relevant Community Involvement - min 90 - 180 days of effort Paid Ads - Expensive but faster turn around from high intent group update: thought leadership which is again a 6 months effort (if this was not covered in community)

@sathish_nagarajan Thanks a lot for the tips, Sathish!

@dzaitzow Pricing model is dependent on 1. approach ie., whether you want to do PLG or SLG, pricing models have to be different which should be inturn decided on 1. ICP 2. TG 3. Cost of Reach for TG 4. resource availability 5. initial assumption of price of the product To simply put PLG or SLG should be decided based on (technically/decision makers/department). So please let me know what are you looking for, would be happy to discuss

@sarvpriy_arya Gave my answer above

@sarvpriy_arya I can't comment on the product without knowing nuances, I assume you are trying to solve a problem that you are aware of, so I am skipping that part For marketing channels 1. Paid ads - quick turn around - could be expensive and might not be sustainable CAC 2. Email marketing - slow but sustainable and validator 3. Direct contact - through linkedin, PH and other communities and network - for validation and word of mouth / network effect - Slow turn around 4. Community - slow - as slow as 180 days but worth it - genuine effort in terms of engagement needed to utilize the channel well - "First give and then take while continuing to give" approach is good for community. Hope that answers, you could get 20 paying customers from first two channels comfortably - wrt the product you specified and I hope the price points will be easy to understand and try.

@jessica_ebden The journey of user is dependent on the flow of value the product can create, and flow depends on persona. So you need to create few flows inside the product based on the value and ICP's persona. Market the flow to the ICP through different channels and based on the channel, flow and icp the onboarding has to happen 1. ICP 2. Flow value for ICP 3. Channel of distribution 4. Messaging if the above are intact and form 2 or 3 combinations of the above, you could get seamless onboarding. If you ask me with specific example, I can share my thoughts on it.

@emre_bolcal Affiliate marketing can be very effective, if the audience of affiliate marketers and your TG. However cost of reaching affiliate marketers should be considered It could happen through different channels 1. Organic SEO - for affiliate marketers 2. Outbound marketing efforts 3. Advertising to affiliate marketing communities Affiliate marketing networks can also help, as it could add credibility initially and also reduce the load on your product.

@jofra_g Be a part of various communities that shares knowledge as you asked for marketing strategies you could do that with founder based communities and also reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/

@mahajan Are you selling to SaaS product organizations? Afaik, there is no such category as B2B SaaS influencers, influencers will be in your ICP or in TG. May I know who is your TG / ICP

@sathish_nagarajan So we're mainly going to target B2B organizations aiming at marketing & sales product aids. Wanted to understand whom should I interact with before launch in order to make it more successful :)

@ctcalhoun324 SaaS product folks are available on product communities, which are more focused on SaaS products you can also find them on reddit, quora and twitter. I assume as a graphic designer you want to connect for product design, so here are the go to places, there are more, listing a few with a lot of engagement Some of the product communities to follow https://productschool.com/slack-... https://www.theproductfolks.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/groups/... On twitter #buildinpublic, #indiehackers are mostly from solopreneurs/devs who develop SaaS products On reddit follow https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/ Once you start engaging, you can converse more with product design communities Hope that answers

@ctcalhoun324 as a developer I need UI/UX designer, we can connect

@sarvpriy_arya I can work on it.

@sathish_nagarajan Thanks! That's useful information.