14 Essential Growth Hacking Tactics for Dramatically Increasing Your SaaS Product Sales

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In the thrilling landscape of the SaaS industry, standing out from the competition can often feel like attempting to be heard at a sold-out concert. That’s our way of saying it can be brutally hard, impossible, even if you don’t know what you’re doing.

But what if you had a powerful megaphone to amplify your voice and get noticed?

Growth hacking strategies are the megaphones you must harness when selling your SaaS product. They are the ingenious tactics and tools that help you get attention which translates to sales.

Like a maestro conducting an orchestra, orchestrating the right growth hacking strategies can result in a harmonious symphony that reaches out to your potential customers, engages them, and persuades them to try your software. 

These strategies are like the different instruments used in your grand opera, each playing a unique role, yet when used together, creating a masterpiece — which in business terms, is growth.

In this piece, we will reveal these 14 most crucial, powerful growth hacking strategies to supercharge your SaaS product’s growth. 

What is Growth Hacking?

Growth hacking is a term for strategies marketers employ to achieve massive growth for a particular product or brand. ‘Growth’ usually increases user acquisition or revenue but can also be increased brand awareness, increased integration into an ecosystem, more partners, and the like. 

Growth hacking is usually used in relation to early-stage startups that need massive growth in a short time on small budgets. They do this by deploying highly creative but low-budget marketing stunts, viral content or guerrilla marketing tactics, often riding multiple funnels.

Whether you’re a startup looking to make your mark or an established player aiming to retain your edge, these tactics will help ensure your SaaS product stands out in a crowded marketplace.

Now, we dive into the hacks.

1. Free Trials and Freemium Model

Offering free trials or a freemium model can help you attract users and convert them into paying customers. Freemium is quite popular in SaaS marketing. 

You give users access to your product for free for a limited time or create a watered-down version for free use with the option to access more features for a premium.

Here’s Mailchimp’s pricing pier that includes a freemium:

2. Create a Free Tool

There’s a reason why many SaaS brands have free tools on their websites or apps — people love free stuff. Plus, if these tools are really useful, leads return multiple times to your website or app. 

For example, Hubspot has over nine cool free tools that help business owners get started on their journey one way or another. These resources are valued by business owners, endearing them to HubSpot when deciding on marketing software to adopt for their business.

So the lesson isn’t just to create a tool; it is to create an insanely useful tool.

3. Email Marketing

Email marketing is not dead; it’s active and still converting.

Email campaigns, including newsletters, product updates, and personalised recommendations, are strategies to nurture leads and convert them into customers. You can create compelling email marketing copies that convert leads into customers quickly. 

To get started on email marketing, try one of these email marketing services.

4. Referral Programs

With referrals, you share your profit per sale with anyone who refers your product to others. Another name for this is affiliate marketing which, if done right, can rapidly increase sales or new users. 

You would want your users to become your affiliates as these are more passionate when sharing the product they already enjoy using with other people. 

5. SEO Optimisation

SEO still works; yes, it’s still an important strategy for growth hacking. While most attention has moved to social media platforms, many people still surf traditional search engines like Google and Bing and make buying decisions through the links.

By improving your website’s search engine ranking, you can boost the amount of organic traffic your brand receives.

6. Landing Page Optimisation

A catching landing page is a MUST-HAVE when deploying growth hacking strategies.

Optimising your landing page is critical to achieving maximum conversions. A successful website must have engaging content, easy-to-understand prompts, and a user-friendly layout. 

This Shopify Learn free class will teach you all you need to know about creating stunning landing pages that convert.

7. Viral Social Media Campaign

One viral Instagram or LinkedIn post (depending on your audience) can expand your brand reach and attract potential users. 

You can further capitalise on this by running targeted ads on social media platforms. Social ads are cheaper compared to other types of advertising. They cannot be left out of your growth hacking plans.

We found this ultimate guide that details ways you can create viral social media campaigns.

8. Value-Driven Content Marketing

Other than creating viral social campaigns, sharing informative content relevant to your product and industry.  

It’s a proven way to show you’re the real deal and get users through the door. Start by understanding your audience and wrapping a content calendar around the various bits of informative content you could churn out. Overall, stick to your content plan.

Over time, you can scale back on content that is not performing and double down on the content that engages your audience the most.

9. Use FOMO and Create Urgency 

Two psychological tricks that can enhance any growth hacking strategy: FOMO and urgency.

FOMO stands for the fear of missing out. It plays on people’s psychological desire not to be left out of something good. This is why an invite-only system for your company or new feature releases can be so effective. 

When you combine FOMO with a situation where the lead feels compelled to take action, you create urgency. For example, if you offer limited-time beta access to your new service, it becomes more appealing to potential customers. 

We found this resource on FOMO marketing that can help skyrocket your sales.

10. Gamify Your Onboarding Experience

A popular strategy used by many companies to snowball is to reward users for using the product and for bringing in new users. This can attract more people to use the product and spread the word about it. 

Another way to encourage this is by offering incentives for referring new users. 

To make this strategy work, consider what actions would make users feel more comfortable using your product and help spread the word about it. Then incorporate those actions into introducing new users to your product.

Growth hacking tools you can use to gamify your onboarding experience include  Masskom and  Userlane.

11. Get Influencers Reviews

Attention is social currency, and a lot of people make buying decisions on the recommendations of their favourite online personalities. Therefore, influencer marketing can make a huge sales difference.

Offering free accounts or samples in exchange for reviews from influential bloggers or vloggers can be a great way to get the word out about your product or service.

However, influencers must disclose their relationship with you and any perks they’re getting to comply with FTC guidelines.

Another way to do this is by inviting people to contribute to your blog or vlog in exchange for a free account. It’s an excellent way to get content AND free promotion.

12. Run a Contest

Contests are a great way to make more people aware of your product or service and let your users experience it while creating special moments.

By organising contests, you not only spread the word and expand your user base but also gain enthusiastic new users if the prize you give away is an account. After all, if someone participates in a contest to win an account, they already like what you offer.

Here’s a sample of a contest we like so much:

Here are some ideas for contests you can try immediately:

• Conduct a simple giveaway on Twitter, offering an account as the prize. Make sure to follow Twitter’s contest rules.

• Create a competition on Instagram by requesting users to post content related to a theme, include a specific hashtag, and tag your brand page. Here are more ideas for organising Instagram contests.

• Share a picture of your company on your Facebook page and ask people to like or comment on it to enter your contest. Again, be careful to follow Facebook’s contest rules.

To get started, you can use a tool like RafflePress to allow people to earn multiple entries by promoting your contest on other websites. This is a great way to snowball your contest effects!

13. Partnerships and Integrations

By collaborating with fellow SaaS providers and providing integrations, you can enhance the value that your users receive.

14. Customer Testimonials and Case Studies

Showcasing success stories and positive customer feedback can help build trust with potential customers.

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In all you do to hack your business growth, focus on customer or user satisfaction, and you can’t go wrong. Consistency with that is how you win. Good luck on your journey to growth and success!

For further reading, this piece reveals various growth hacking ‘tools’ you can start using right away. Keep an eye out on our business education platform, where experts will reveal more ways you can grow your business.