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Countless major B2B SaaS providers started as small SaaS businesses.
They succeeded in the market using clever growth strategies.
The pressure is on small B2B SaaS business owners to do the same and help their companies grow and reach new users.
In this article, you’ll read about growth strategies that can help you achieve great success too.
Offer Freemiums
Offering a freemium version of your software is a staple strategy for small B2B SaaS business growth.
Free features are a powerful marketing tool. They immediately show the value of your SaaS to businesses and attract new users because there’s no financial risk involved.
You get potential customers, and businesses get a free tool they can use.
If you want to scale up the number of your users, you don’t have to spend on expensive campaigns or a specialized sales force. Your freemium users are already in your sales funnel.
Once freemium users sign up, your only worry is upselling them.
Slack pulled off this strategy excellently.
They released a freemium version that immediately became an essential business tool for communication.
Since it was free, thousands of businesses tried it out and eventually upgraded.
On average, Slack converts 30% of their freemium users, and according to their latest press release, they have 156 000 paying customers.
To create an excellent freemium experience, you must work out two things.
First, you need to decide which feature is the core functionality of your SaaS. This feature is the most significant value that businesses will get out of your SaaS.
It should be something that makes your SaaS indispensable. Slack didn’t invent chats or video calls, but they made them readily accessible to teams.
Then, work out which features you want your customers to pay for. Look at those features as an extension of your freemium that will enable businesses even further.
For example, Slack’s paying features include priority support, complete message history, and more file storage per member.
Let’s talk about another fantastic growth strategy; referrals.
Create Referral Programs
Creating referral programs is a fantastic way to grow your SaaS.
You’ll be able to reach and convert customers cheaper than by other marketing methods.
When you’re converting through referrals, you only pay when a prospect signs up for your service.
As a B2B SaaS provider, that payment often means offering a free month of service or a limited-time upgrade.
The most famous story of referral program success belongs to Dropbox.
They designed a referral program to give 250 Mb of storage space for free to the referrer and the referred prospect.
They grew by a stunning 3900% in just 15 months, without even hiring a full-time marketer.
Referrals excel at increasing SaaS awareness. They encourage your satisfied users to spread the word about your software and actively build interest in it.
They’ll tell their peers and partner companies about your new SaaS solution that can improve their business.
Here is how to build a SaaS referral program that works.
Decide on the goal of your referral program. Have a clear action you want your referees to complete to reward them and your referring users.
It could be to sign up for your SaaS or to download your SaaS app.
Second, choose the right incentives for your users.
Give them something valuable for them to go the extra mile and send recommendations. SaaS providers usually give out premium upgrades or discounts.
Finally, make the referring program easy. Enable your referrers to send custom codes or a referral link.
Create Educational Content
Educational content is the foundation for attracting new users and growing your SaaS.
When you write content that educates your potential users on a problem, they’re going to look up to you for a solution.
If your content covers specific industry topics, users that engage with it are likely from the same industry. Ideally, they will be business decision-makers.
Instead of spending money on advertising to reach them, you’ll be luring them in.
Once they’ve experienced the value of your content firsthand, they’ll trust you enough to try your software solution. The number of your users will grow.
Creating quality niche content will also do wonders for your SEO.
Whenever users google for related content or have problems your SaaS can solve, your website will come up in the search results.
If you have more educational content on your website, it will have a more significant SEO impact.
To execute this strategy, start with a blog.
According to a content marketing report, 85% of most successful SaaS companies have a blog. Blogs are ideal platforms for publishing insightful content.
They play a crucial role in educating your users and attracting new ones to your SaaS.
If your solution helped a business succeed, writing a case study will prove to other similar companies what your solution can do.
Once they see the numbers, you’ll convince them to try your SaaS and improve their business.
You can also write PDF guides for your users.
They will help inform them what’s the current state of the industry and suggest solutions.
Leverage Team Plans
Leveraging team plans is an excellent way to increase your number of users.
This strategy allows you to bundle your users in groups to close deals across entire businesses.
The size of the user groups depends on the size of your client’s team. Since that can vary from business to business, adjusting your pricing to team size is essential.
This approach validates the price differences between different service packs.
When your client businesses grow, they can upsell to larger service packs. More of their employees will use your SaaS, and your user number will increase.
The entire company will rely on your software as a standard business tool, much like Dropbox or Slack.
To implement this strategy, divide your pricing into 3 groups: small, medium, and large.
Adjust your pricing so that the smallest group of users pays the least for a monthly SaaS subscription and scale your prices according to team size.
Let’s say your solution has 3 pricing groups starting at:
- $40/month, up to 5 team members
- $80/month, up to 15 team members
- $150/month, up to 30 team members
As clients opt for larger groups, the pricing per member drops. Smaller companies can pay less for a solution that fits their team size.
Let’s discuss the last growth strategy for your SaaS.
Maintain Steady Revenue Growth
Ensuring your revenue growth is steady is critical in your long-term wellbeing.
As your small business develops, you need to have revenue you can count on to accommodate its growth.
Regardless of your user number, your company will have overhead costs and costs of developing additional SaaS features.
Without stable revenue growth, you won’t be able to fund any of it.
Think of it as an overarching business strategy for your small B2B company; it will help you map out the steps to improve your SaaS revenue.
With that in mind, here are some of the best tips to ensure your revenue grows.
You should first enable yearly billing for your SaaS subscription.
When clients sign up for the entire year, they’ll be more invested in using your software since they paid for a longer period.
They’re also less likely to give up a month or two into the subscription. By billing clients annually, you’ve secured a paying client for a year.
The second critical piece of advice for steady growth is to improve your onboarding process. When you onboard your users properly, they get the full benefit from using your software.
If you onboard them poorly, they can quickly become frustrated with your solution and abandon it.
Finally, always track the number of new users and make quarterly assessments of your revenue growth.
Conclusion
Scaling your small B2B SaaS business up is a complex task; the market is merciless, and the competition is fierce.
However, your solution has every chance of winning if you’re strategic about your growth.
Implement these strategies gradually, and you’ll see your small business succeed.
Author:
Ashley Wilson is a digital nomad and writer for hire, specialized in business and tech topics. In her self-care time, she practices yoga via Youtube. She has been known to reference movies in casual conversation and enjoys trying out new food. You can get in touch with Ashley via Twitter.
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