Useful Lead Generation Strategies for Your SaaS Startup

We will start with a big disclaimer before you dive into these strategies: you do not have to try them all in order to grow. And you should not try them all. That would be a bad idea. And the reason is simple. No two SaaS are the same. No two startups are the same. And what works for one could be the demise of another. Although these lead generation strategies have worked wonders for many of the SaaS companies we’ve worked with, that won’t necessarily be the case for yours. Thus, take this information you will find here and put it through your own experience and lens before you start implementing.

You might only be successful with one or two of these strategies. It’s fine. Each one should be evaluated in light of your revenue, resources, marketing goals, and competitive landscape. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for growth, no matter how much we believe in the efficacy of these lead generating methods.

1. Give people a LOT of opt-in opportunities and make them irresistible

You’ve probably heard that emails and informational materials are a sure way to get opt-ins. But there are more! You can also offer webinars, audits, free reports, training videos, or one-on-one sessions. Oh, and don’t limit yourself to just 1 or 2 opt-ins. You can turn each blog article into an opt-in page by offering things like recipes, PDFs of your articles, worksheets, resource guides, and so on. In fact, you can probably come up with something downloadable for almost any article. 

Make a pop-up for the opt-in box and remove it from the sidebar. Make them decide whether or not they want it. It’s easier to say “no” when the choice is sitting there in the sidebar and ignoring it is as simple as saying no.

While you cannot make people say “yes”, you can make it a bit more difficult for them to say “no” by making a pop-up for the opt-in box. It sounds sneaky, but it works. When you make people decide on the spot whether or not they want it, it becomes a bit harder for them to say “no”. It’s easier to say “no” when the choice is sitting there in the sidebar and ignoring it is as simple as saying no, right?

Sneaky, yes, but it works. We’ve actually seen a 20–30% increase in conversions just by changing this small thing.

2. Make sure you test a lot, but test properly

It’s wonderful to get sound advice. And it’s wonderful to have people around whom you can ask for said advice. But always remember that it’s potentially dangerous to assume that because it was a success for someone else, it’ll also work well for you. We’re not saying you should stop asking for guidance, just test things out until there is nothing left to test. This way, everything is bulletproof, and you have great arguments for investors or stakeholders.

Look, split testing is a drag sometimes. However, it is really important. It helps you understand why you’re getting certain outputs that could seem weird. For example, would you ever consider that using “my” instead of “your” in a call to action or button would be more effective? Probably not without the numbers that tell you which is better.

We did this test and this is what happened. We replaced “create account” with “create your account”. And conversions increased by 15%. We then replaced “create your account” with “create my account”. Can you guess what happened? We saw a 55% increase in conversions. 

The purpose here is not to tell you what to split test for your SaaS startup. But to make you understand the huge importance of testing itself, even when it comes to the little things. You should test images, headlines, button copy, and background images. You should also test for immediacy, clarity, need, and responsiveness. 

You might think you know the market well, but some of the findings might surprise you. And surely you’ll be making better, optimized decisions as a result.

3. Your landing pages should be simple, with clear buttons and CTAs

A simple and easy-to-understand landing page does not need the user to process a lot of information, as a 3-minute video or a full page of text would. Many people are overwhelmed by the amount of information available and don’t want to download anything even longer to read. So a good landing page outperforms a free report. This is especially true after post-pandemic periods, when people suffer from digital fatigue. 

Video lead magnets have been suffering lately, in part because of the growth in launches, people’s lack of time and shorter and shorter attention spans. A simple landing page is always an excellent performer for these reasons. Make it clear, make it simple, keep the sentences short, and use common words. Leave the dictionary on the shelf. You’re here to sell, not impress with your vocabulary.

4. Improve the copy of your ads 

We’ll just come out and say it. There are so many ads that are poorly written. Too many. They are boring. They read stiffly and it is hard to connect to the message. Making it impossible for people to want to buy from that ad.

By the way, you can check out what your competition is doing using Facebook’s Ad Library.

5. Improve your offers

Great conversion rates belong mostly to top advertisers, those with $$$ to spend and teams to tweak things. This gets them conversion rates 3x to 5x above the average. But it’s not all just coming down to who has the biggest budgets. Yes, those help. But what works for sure is giving better offers. 

If you did your research right, you’ve seen that other SaaS give out free trials. Software companies give out a freemium option and so on. What do you have to offer that is unique, compelling, and offers real value to the visitor?

What if instead of the usual 14-day trial, you offered one free hour call with someone from your team to help users with setup or onboarding? 

6. Don’t forget remarketing

Remarketing helps you tag your site visitors and get back in front of them at a later time, as a reminder. You’ve surely seen it while scrolling through Facebook or watching YouTube. That ad for the power drill you looked at 2 days ago is not in your feed by accident. That’s the magic of remarketing, and you can use it for your SaaS too. 

Remarketing helps turn abandoners into leads by positioning you in front of your audience again. This is huge considering that 97% of people will leave your landing page without converting. Remarketing can also help all of your other startup marketing efforts by positioning your campaigns right in the path of targeted users. 

7. Provide value and sales will come

We’ve touched on this at number one. But offering just some random PDFs or webinars focused on how cool your product is will not cut it. People need to see that you are genuinely helpful before you ask them for their money. Lead generation has been around for years. In fact, ever since anyone can remember, people have been trying to sell each other all kinds of very important products. Some can even work miracles. So, you can’t really blame anyone for not being 100% trusting in every ad or article they come across. 

Our most effective lead generation strategy isn’t entirely a strategy. It’s more about empathy. When we took the time and listened to what our target client really wanted, results started to show. Because everything we put out there—every piece of content, every ad, every article, every post was about our client’s needs, desires, frustrations, and aspirations. 

Show people that you truly understand them. Show people that you truly care about them. And they will buy from you. Do this well and you will have got yourself some very loyal long term customers.

Want to grow? Get serious about lead generation 

It may seem hard at first. It may seem scary and it may look like there is too much work for your small team to possibly do in normal human time. But lead generation is not that tragic. Especially if you have a good partner to help you out. 

While traditional campaigns can get you immediate results, lead generation can help you build a community around your product and, most importantly, can help you create a sales process you can scale and outsource in its entirety.